Candidates describe a CME Engineering software engineer process that mixes an online coding screen, resume-driven technical conversation, and system design, with trading or exchange design appearing in two reports.
$118K
Avg. Base Comp
$150K
Avg. Total Comp
Not reported
Typical Rounds
1 month
Process Length
Five candidates describe CME Engineering software engineering interviews, mostly for internship-level roles plus one SDE2 report. Four of the five reported offers. Most started with an online assessment, and the coding in those reports was easy: two candidates describe LeetCode-easy problems on Glider or Coderpad, and one phone screen was also easy-level.
The harder part appears later. Two internship candidates were asked to design a trading or exchange system, and the candidate who struggled with a trading system design question did not receive an offer. One offer recipient was asked to design Uber Eats and was expected to specify API endpoints, field types and primary keys, and to sketch a UI. Two candidates also describe a take-home or assigned problem that was discussed afterward, so be ready to explain your design choices and trade-offs, not just the code.
The SDE2 candidate reported a different emphasis: resume discussion on Java, OOP, C++, caching and databases, then React and JavaScript fundamentals, one easier DSA problem and a managerial round. A campus interviewee reported a roughly 30-minute conversation about a project and SQL joins, including how a left join works. Prepare to discuss your own projects in depth, and rehearse schema and API design in a shared whiteboard tool.
Synthesized from 5 candidate reports by our editorial team.
Had an interview recently?
Share your experience. Unlock the full guide.
Real interview reports from people who went through the Cme Engineering process.
Share your own interview experience to unlock all reports, or subscribe for full access.
Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Cme Engineering
Write a function to sum two numeric strings without converting them to integers and return the result as a string
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Real-Time Transaction Streaming | |
| Flatten JSON | |
| Slow SQL Query | |
| Cloud-Agnostic Deployments | |
| Application Table Usage | |
| Text Editor With OOP | |
| Your Strengths and Weaknesses | |
| Why Do You Want to Work With Us | |
| Kindergarten Feasibility | |
| LRU Cache 1 | |
| Singly Linked List | |
| Statistically Significant Test | |
| 2nd Highest Salary | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Employee Salaries | |
| Subscription Overlap | |
| Empty Neighborhoods | |
| Top Three Salaries | |
| Monthly Customer Report | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| String Shift | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Customer Orders | |
| Comments Histogram | |
| Top 5 Turnover Risk | |
| Like Tracker | |
| Random SQL Sample | |
| Weighted Keys | |
| Flight Records |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report an online coding assessment first, on Glider in two reports and Coderpad in another. Two reports describe two LeetCode-easy problems, and one candidate chose Java or Python. Expect basic array-style coding rather than anything advanced, though platform quirks may add friction.
Reports vary here. One candidate had a roughly fifteen-minute HR call on why CME, why the role and scenario questions. Others had a phone screen with an engineer that involved live easy-level coding, and the SDE2 candidate described a resume-focused conversation with behavioral questions.
Two candidates describe a coding problem to complete, one a Trie with add, search and remove over a few days, the other a medium LeetCode-style problem done in an hour beforehand. Both discussed their approach afterward, so candidates typically should be ready to justify design choices and trade-offs.
Three candidates describe system design. Two were asked about a trading or exchange system, with latency, scale and real-world constraints mentioned. Another was asked to design Uber Eats with detailed schemas, APIs and a UI sketch. Candidates report this as the hardest stage.
One candidate finished a full-day final round with an informal dev team chat, and the SDE2 candidate reported a managerial round. These conversations may focus on fit and day-to-day work rather than technical depth, though reports are limited.
