Telenor Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

A few years back, I interviewed for a software engineer position on the Canal Digital team at Telenor in Islamabad. I had a few years of experience then and passed the technical round easily. After that, HR called me in. Unexpectedly, I was told a manager from Norway, who was of Pakistani origin, wanted to talk to me. This turned into one of the most unprofessional experiences I've had. The person was rude, abrasive, and condescending. He asked a lot of questions that had nothing to do with the job and his tone was aggressive and like an interrogation. I was surprised by the unexpected conversation and the inappropriate questions, but I tried to stay calm. In the end, he told HR not to move forward with my application and asked me to leave. I later found out Telenor wasn't going to offer me the job. Since then, I've relocated to North America and advanced my career, working for several well-known companies. I'm now in charge of a big engineering department with over twenty-four engineers reporting to me. I've conducted and overseen many interviews, and I can honestly say my Telenor experience was unprofessional and discriminatory. It seemed to me afterward that I was referred by someone the manager didn't like personally, and the whole conversation felt staged to make me fail. It's surprising to me that I recently saw this person's LinkedIn profile and found out he's still a Director of Engineering at Telenor. The fact that someone with such bad professional behavior still represents the company says a lot about the culture Telenor allows. I'm sharing this to be open with potential candidates looking at Telenor as a place to work. I hope the company really thinks about the type of leaders it supports. Do better, Telenor.

The hiring process started with a review of my CV and motivational letter. Then, I had to complete a written test with different types of questions (closed, semi-open, and open) covering a broad range of topics like English, IT, and programming. After that, there was an interview with an HR person, followed by a final interview with the Team Lead and HR Lead.

It was a quick phone chat, then they set up an in-person interview at their office. I met with three people I'd be working with if hired. They asked a lot of technical and soft skills questions. It was a really positive and different experience from other interviews. No unrelated coding challenges or silly hypothetical questions. All the questions were relevant and practical for the job.