EY Software Engineer interview typically runs 2-5 rounds: HR screen, technical round, manager round, and sometimes an online assessment or client interview. The process usually takes about 1-3 weeks and is practical, resume-driven, and role-dependent.
$99K
Avg. Base Comp
$161K
Avg. Total Comp
3-5
Typical Rounds
2-4 weeks
Process Length
We've seen EY evaluate software engineers less like a pure coding shop and more like a team that wants to verify whether your claimed experience holds up under pressure. A recurring theme across candidate reports is that the interview stays tightly anchored to the resume: projects, tools, and the exact stack you say you’ve used. Multiple candidates mentioned being pushed to explain their most recent work in detail, whether that meant Java and Spring Boot, SQL-heavy project work, or Angular and cloud topics. The signal here is practical ownership, not polished theory.
Another pattern we keep seeing is that EY cares a lot about whether you can operate in real enterprise environments. Candidates were asked about incident/problem/change management, monitoring tools like Kibana and Dynatrace, ticketing systems, batch schedulers, AWS services, and troubleshooting scenarios such as memory fill-ups or SQL performance issues. That tells us the bar is often about production judgment: can you diagnose, explain tradeoffs, and connect the dots across systems? Even when coding appears, it tends to be short and grounded in fundamentals, like arrays, lists, or balanced parentheses, rather than elaborate algorithm puzzles.
The non-obvious make-or-break factor is how well you can stay specific without drifting into generic answers. Our candidates report that interviewers quickly probe past surface-level familiarity, especially when a project or tool appears on the resume. If you can clearly defend the choices you made, the stack you used, and the operational issues you handled, you tend to fit what EY is screening for. If not, the process exposes that gap fast.
Synthetized from 8 candidates reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Ey process.
What stood out to me most was how much EY leaned into backend fundamentals rather than anything overly flashy. The process I went through was pretty structured and felt like the usual 3–5 round setup: an HR screening first, then a technical round on core Python and backend concepts, followed by a longer technical round that mixed live coding with architecture and tooling, and then a managerial discussion. The HR call was straightforward and covered the usual resume walk-through, current and expected CTC, notice period, reason for switching, location preference, and a quick communication check.
The first technical round focused on Python and API development. I was asked about Python basics like OOP, decorators, generators, multithreading, GIL, and exception handling, along with FastAPI/Django basics, REST API design, JWT authentication, Pydantic models, SQL joins and indexing, and a few debugging-style scenario questions. The second technical round was more hands-on and felt like the toughest part. It included live coding around API implementation or problem solving, plus discussion of clean architecture, repository pattern, dependency injection, pytest unit testing, Docker/CI/CD, and basic AWS services like EC2, S3, Lambda, and RDS. The managerial round was more conversational and centered on my current project, challenges I handled, collaboration, conflict handling, delivery pressure, and ownership.
Overall, the difficulty was moderate to high if you’re not used to explaining backend design clearly while coding under time pressure. They seemed to care a lot about whether you could connect the dots between your project, your API design choices, and the supporting tooling. I didn’t get the offer, but the process was clear enough that I could see what they were screening for: practical backend depth, not just theory.
Prep tip from this candidate
Be ready to explain FastAPI project architecture, JWT/auth flow, and SQL optimization in detail, since those came up directly. Also practice a live coding round that may shift into clean architecture, repository pattern, dependency injection, and pytest rather than staying purely algorithmic.
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Sourced from candidate reports and verified by our team.
Topics based on recent interview experiences.
Featured question at Ey
Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department
| Question | |
|---|---|
| Sort Strings | |
| Hurdles In Data Projects | |
| Mouse Search | |
| Azure Kubernetes Infrastructure | |
| Stakeholder Communication | |
| Why Do You Want to Work With Us | |
| Your Strengths and Weaknesses | |
| Simple Explanations | |
| Closest SAT Scores | |
| Merge Sorted Lists | |
| Rolling Bank Transactions | |
| Raining in Seattle | |
| Bagging vs Boosting | |
| Size of Joins | |
| P-value to a Layman | |
| Cyclic Detection | |
| Longest Streak Users | |
| Find Duplicate Numbers in a List | |
| Slow SQL Query | |
| Portfolio Platform Architecture | |
| Duplicate Rows | |
| Modifying a Billion Rows | |
| Yelp-like System | |
| Data Pipelines and Aggregation | |
| Swap Variables | |
| Subway Machine Learning Model | |
| Algorithm Reliability | |
| String Palindromes | |
| Seller Type Modeling |
Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
The process often starts with an introductory call focused on your background, work experience, and motivation for joining EY. In some cases this is also used to gauge language ability and confirm basic fit for the role.
Some candidates first complete a short coding test with two medium-level LeetCode-style problems under time pressure. This stage is used as an initial filter before moving into deeper interviews.
The main technical round is usually centered on your resume, projects, and core stack knowledge rather than abstract theory. Depending on the team, this can include live coding, Java or Python fundamentals, SQL, Spring Boot, microservices, Angular, .NET, or practical troubleshooting questions.
A manager-led conversation typically follows, with a stronger emphasis on past experience, ownership, and how you handled previous work. Candidates reported questions about their last project, framework choices, and how they would approach real production or support scenarios.
The final stage is often an HR or behavioral discussion about communication, responsibilities, and fit. This round may also cover career goals, pressure handling, and general expectations before the final decision.