As a Software Engineer at Manpower Belgium, you will play a pivotal role in driving digital transformation and delivering high-performance software solutions. Manpower Belgium sits at the intersection of workforce solutions and technological innovation, requiring robust internal applications, intelligent matching algorithms, and seamless client-facing integrations. In this position, your work directly impacts how thousands of candidates connect with career opportunities and how businesses manage their talent pipelines at scale.

The engineering team at Manpower Belgium tackles complex challenges involving high-availability systems, data integration, and cloud-native architectures. Whether you are building scalable APIs, optimizing database performance, or developing intuitive user interfaces, your contributions will directly support the company's strategic mission. You will work in an environment that values technical excellence, collaborative problem-solving, and a strong focus on user experience.

This role offers a unique opportunity to work on diverse projects that combine enterprise-level stability with modern, agile development practices. You will collaborate closely with product managers, system architects, and business stakeholders to design and implement systems that are both reliable and highly scalable.

The questions you will encounter during the selection process are designed to evaluate your technical competence, problem-solving methodology, and cultural alignment. While the exact questions may vary depending on the specific team and project requirements, they consistently follow several core patterns.

Coding & Algorithmic Problem Solving

These questions assess your ability to write clean, efficient code and apply appropriate data structures to solve complex computational problems.

• Given a string, split it into the minimum number of substrings such that no letter occurs more than once in any single substring.
• Explain your approach to solving a medium-difficulty array manipulation problem and walk through your solution's time and space complexity.

To succeed in the Manpower Belgium interview process, you must demonstrate a balanced mix of technical mastery, analytical thinking, and strong communication skills. Your preparation should focus on showing not just what you can build, but how you think about engineering challenges.

Technical Proficiency – You must show a deep, practical understanding of your core tech stack, whether it is Java, .NET, Python, or Salesforce. Interviewers will evaluate your knowledge of language fundamentals, framework best practices, and database design.

Problem-Solving & Clarity – During coding assessments and live technical rounds, your ability to explain your thought process clearly is just as important as writing working code. Break down complex problems systematically and discuss trade-offs openly.

System Architecture & Cloud – Be prepared to discuss how individual components fit into a larger ecosystem. You should be comfortable discussing cloud infrastructure (specifically AWS), API design principles, and production monitoring.

Collaboration & Impact – Manpower Belgium highly values engineers who can work effectively in cross-functional teams. Be ready to articulate the business impact of your past projects and how you collaborate with stakeholders to deliver value.

The recruitment process for a Software Engineer at Manpower Belgium is structured to thoroughly evaluate both your technical capabilities and your professional alignment. The process typically spans three to five weeks and is designed to be transparent, communicative, and professional.

You will start with an initial HR screening, followed by online technical and cognitive assessments to establish a baseline of your problem-solving skills. Successful candidates then progress to deep-dive technical interviews and a final round focused on system design, project architecture, and behavioral fit.

The timeline above outlines the standard progression from your initial application to the final decision. Candidates should use this visual guide to pace their preparation, ensuring they dedicate sufficient time to practicing coding fundamentals before the online assessments, and system design concepts before the technical rounds. Note that depending on the specific team or seniority of the role, some stages may be combined or adapted.

Algorithmic Problem Solving & DSA

This area evaluates your ability to translate logical thinking into clean, optimized code. You will face live coding challenges that test your understanding of fundamental data structures and algorithms.

Be ready to go over:

• String and Array Manipulation – Efficiently searching, sorting, and transforming linear data structures.
• Set and Map Operations – Utilizing hash-based structures to achieve optimal time complexity for lookups and duplicate detection.
• Time and Space Complexity – Articulating the Big O complexity of your solutions and proposing optimizations.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Dynamic programming, graph traversal, and complex recursion patterns.

Example scenarios:

• Implementing an algorithm to find the longest substring without repeating characters.
• Optimizing an array-search algorithm to run in linear time with minimal memory overhead.

Core Software Engineering & Frameworks

You are expected to demonstrate a strong command of the programming languages and frameworks listed on your resume. This round focuses on your practical implementation skills and understanding of software design patterns.

Be ready to go over:

• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) – Practical application of inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism.
• Framework Architecture – Deep knowledge of backend environments like Spring Boot, .NET Core, or Django.
• API Design – Building robust, RESTful APIs with proper error handling, routing, and serialization.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Custom event-driven architectures, asynchronous programming, and multi-threading.

Example scenarios:

• Designing a set of extensible classes for a complex business workflow using OOP design patterns.
• Explaining how to manage state and lifecycle hooks in a modern frontend framework.

Cloud Architecture & System Design

For mid-to-senior roles, your ability to design scalable, reliable cloud systems is critical. Interviewers will assess your understanding of system boundaries, data flow, and infrastructure management.

Be ready to go over:

• Cloud Infrastructure – Designing systems utilizing AWS compute, storage, and networking services.
• Database Design – Choosing between SQL and NoSQL databases and designing schemas for high-performance queries.
• System Integration – Designing message queues, caching layers, and microservices communication.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Serverless architectures, infrastructure as code (IaC), and disaster recovery planning.

Example scenarios:

• Designing a scalable system architecture to ingest and process high volumes of candidate application data.
• Explaining how to optimize database performance for a read-heavy application.

Behavioral & Project Deep Dive

Your technical skills must be matched by strong communication and teamwork. This area explores your past experiences, your ability to handle project challenges, and your professional drive.

Be ready to go over:

• Project Ownership – Explaining your specific contributions, technical decisions, and the business impact of your past work.
• Conflict & Ambiguity – Describing how you navigate changing requirements or resolve technical disagreements within a team.
• Continuous Learning – Demonstrating how you keep up with industry trends and adopt new technologies.

Example scenarios:

• Walking through a past project where you had to refactor a legacy system to improve performance.
• Describing a time you had to collaborate with non-technical stakeholders to deliver a critical feature.

As a Software Engineer at Manpower Belgium, your daily work will extend beyond writing code. You will be an active participant in the entire software development lifecycle, driving projects from initial conception to production deployment.

You will design, develop, and maintain high-quality software applications that support both internal operations and client-facing platforms. This involves writing clean, well-tested code, participating in thorough peer code reviews, and ensuring your solutions align with established architectural standards.

Collaboration is a core component of this role. You will work closely with product managers to clarify requirements, partner with system architects to design resilient infrastructures, and support quality assurance teams to ensure seamless deployments. Additionally, you will help monitor and optimize production systems, ensuring high availability and performance for all users.

To be competitive for the Software Engineer position, candidates must present a strong combination of technical capability and professional experience.

• Must-have technical skills – Strong proficiency in at least one major programming language (Java, .NET, Python, or Salesforce Apex), solid database design skills (SQL), and experience working with cloud platforms (AWS).
• Must-have foundational knowledge – Deep understanding of software design patterns, OOP principles, RESTful API design, and data structures.
• Experience level – Typically requires a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, alongside professional software development experience.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience with modern frontend frameworks, containerization tools (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines, or Salesforce development (LWC, Flows).
• Soft skills – Strong analytical problem-solving skills, excellent communication, and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, agile environment.