Glovo Software Engineer Interview Experience — Four Stages and a Red Flag for One Database

Intro

I have three years of experience as a software engineer. Before moving back to Spain I spent a whole year not working. What I wanted next was a job that really motivated me, among strong engineers. Glovo, the food delivery business owned by Delivery Hero, looked like a quick-moving, ambitious place, so that is where I aimed.

The loop

The stages were a phone screen, live coding, system design and a behavioural interview.

How I prepared

• Phone screen: I researched the company and what it builds. I had heard the bar is high there, so it is not the relaxed atmosphere Europeans are used to.
• Live coding: I practised medium-to-hard problems and rehearsed my interview routine: talking through my thinking, timing myself, and first sketching the problem and a candidate approach in a 2D drawing tool such as Excalidraw. Only once the interviewer gave the go-ahead would I start coding.
• System design: I did many system design problems from an online course and used its paid tier with the videos. I tried each problem there at least once, and the ones I knew other candidates had already been asked I went through a second time.
• Behavioural: Since the role was L2, I figured my past work did not need to have company-wide impact. I prepared a short self-introduction, a walkthrough of my last job, and answers to questions like why Glovo, my biggest strengths and weaknesses, whether I had managed people, and whether I had ever disagreed with a manager.

What the process was like, and any surprises

Everything ran from June 2025 to September 2025. It was fairly slow, which I put down to the summer, when European companies move even slower than usual.

The system design prompt caught me off guard: build a Spotify-like music streaming service. I began drawing services and, I think, used one PostgreSQL database holding users, playlists and track metadata. The lack of microservices, with several tables sharing one database, was flagged as a red flag, and that came back to hurt me when I negotiated salary. I was unemployed at the time, so I took what was offered and chose not to argue for my design, which was closer to what my system design prep had taught me.

Advice for other candidates

1. For coding, hand in code that works. Performance matters less, but the code has to run, pass and be tested.
2. For system design, go with microservices every time. Even when the problem does not call for them, say that your domains are decoupled. That keeps you out of trouble.
3. More broadly, Glovo suits you if long, demanding days feel good, you love building software, you enjoy challenges and you like staying busy. If what you want is an easy job with lots of free time and balance, look elsewhere.

Anything else

I am glad to help anyone interviewing at Glovo. I landed the software engineer role, and I suspect many strong engineers would enjoy relocating to Barcelona for good pay and capable teammates.