I applied through an employee referral. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Zalando (Berlin) in Sept 2021
Interview
Very fair and nice people that interviewed me. One exception was in a technical deepdive interview, where the interviewer was asking off-topic questions for 40 minutes. Didn't get the offer in the end because of this interview that didn't go well.
Hey there!
Thank you for taking the time to provide valuable feedback on your candidate experience at Zalando. We appreciate any opportunity to improve!
Best,
- Talent Acquisition Team
Other Applied Scientist interview reviews for Zalando
The interview process was poorly organized and unprofessional. Across 5 rounds, multiple interviewers used the exact same question, showing a clear lack of coordination. As a candidate with a PhD in Machine Learning, I was given feedback that my machine learning knowledge was insufficient — yet one of the interviewers was unfamiliar with basic ML terminology and apologized at the end of the interview for his limited English proficiency, which made technical communication nearly impossible. The overall experience suggested a significant mismatch between the stated requirements and the actual evaluation criteria, and raised serious questions about the interview process design and interviewer preparation.
The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Zalando (Berlin) in Oct 2025
Interview
They had overall about 5 Interviews.
There is firstly a 30min introduction.
Then a first 1 hour technical interview. If passed you'll go to, final rounds of interviews consisting of 4 interviews: coding, knowledge depth, collaboration, scope and impact.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain a project and go into details.
Explain a situation where you had difficulty communicating.
I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Zalando (Berlin) in Oct 2025
Interview
The process involved a 30-minute HR screening, followed by the hiring manager round and then four final rounds: (1) Science Depth, (2) Science Breadth (coding), (3) Scope (product-focused), and (4) Collaboration. It felt extremely exhausting - especially having four ‘final’ rounds - only to receive an automated rejection email at the end. The interviewers were very pleasant and the HR team was prompt, but the overall process took nearly three months, which feels disproportionate given the offered salary.