BNY Mellon software engineer candidates typically report a recruiter screen, a coding assessment, one or two technical interviews and an HR or managerial round. Expect DSA, OOP, SQL and detailed project questions.
$118K
Avg. Base Comp
$135K
Avg. Total Comp
3-4 rounds
Typical Rounds
Not reported
Process Length
BNY Mellon software engineer candidates describe a process that usually starts with a recruiter conversation, moves through a coding screen, and then leans on fundamentals plus detailed project discussion in the technical rounds. Several reports mention three rounds in total. One candidate described a four-round loop with a hiring manager conversation and a technical panel, and a senior candidate described a manager round after two technical interviews.
The coding screen varies by report. Candidates mention HackerRank or Karat sessions, including a Karat assessment mixing theory questions with a password-validation task, and an online assessment with four DSA questions. Linked list reversal, sliding window, BFS graph traversal and array problems are all named, so practice medium-level problems and say your time and space complexity out loud.
Live interviews often go beyond algorithms. Candidates report OOP concepts, SQL joins, DBMS, operating systems and Java internals such as HashMap behavior and garbage collection. A few describe infrastructure questions, including load balancing, server failures, AWS use cases and sizing RAM for an EC2 instance. One recent candidate designed a scheduling system that guaranteed no double bookings. Be ready to walk through your own projects and justify your technology choices.
The final HR or managerial round is described as conversational, with questions about motivation for BNY, conflict and teamwork. Tone reports are mixed: some candidates found interviewers friendly and others found the process rigid and exam-like. Outcomes were split between offers and rejections. Ask your recruiter for the format in advance, since one candidate prepared for DSA and got stack-specific Java questions instead.
Synthesized from 21 candidate reports by our editorial team.
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Real interview reports from people who went through the Bny Mellon process.
Honestly the whole thing was three rounds and I was way more nervous for the system design one than I expected. First round was a quick chat with the hiring manager, mostly vibes, felt fine. Second round was a live coding thing and I completely blanked on a basic edge case for like two minutes, just sat there staring at the screen while the interviewer waited. Recovered eventually but my heart was going. Third round was system design and that's where I actually felt good, probably because it overlapped with stuff I'd already built at work. The surprising part was how much they cared about how I talked through tradeoffs rather than landing on the "right" answer. I left convinced I'd bombed it because of the coding round, then got the offer two days later and just sat there confused for a bit before telling anyone.
Questions asked: Okay so round two, the coding one, the actual question was something like "given a list of time intervals representing booked appointment slots, write a function that merges overlapping ones and tells you the free gaps in a day." Sounds simple written out like that but I started overengineering it with a heap when a sorted list and a single pass would've done it, that's where I lost the two minutes just staring. Interviewer eventually nudged me with "do you need that structure for this input size" and I felt my face go red over a video call, which is a special kind of humiliating. Round three, system design, they asked me to design a multi tenant scheduling system that takes booking requests from multiple channels at once and guarantees no double bookings even if two requests hit at the exact same time. I basically just talked through the same overlap and locking logic I'd built for real, which is probably why it felt comfortable instead of stressful. There was also a take home before any of this, not technical exactly, just a written prompt asking me to describe a time I disagreed with a decision and what I did about it, no word limit given which threw me more than any code question did.
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Topics based on recent interview experiences.
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Synthesized from candidate reports. Individual experiences may vary.
Candidates report an initial call with a recruiter or HR contact that walks through their resume and background. One candidate was contacted through LinkedIn. Another described a late, unstructured call, so it may help to confirm the format of later rounds in writing.
Several candidates describe a coding screen before the interviews. Reports include four DSA questions of medium-to-hard difficulty and a Karat assessment mixing theory questions with a password-validation task. Formats differ by candidate, so prepare for both timed problems and short conceptual questions.
Candidates typically report one or two technical rounds. Topics named include linked lists, sliding window, BFS, arrays, OOP concepts, SQL joins, DBMS and operating systems. Some reports add Java internals or networking theory. Interviewers may ask you to explain your reasoning and complexity rather than just reach an answer.
Many candidates report detailed questions about their resume projects and technology choices. Some also mention infrastructure-style questions such as load balancing, handling server failures, AWS use cases or sizing an EC2 instance. One candidate described designing a multi-tenant scheduling system. This depth may vary by seniority and team.
Candidates describe a final conversation with HR or a manager. Reported questions cover why you want to join BNY, how you handle conflict or an unresponsive teammate, and your background and projects. Reports call this round conversational, though one candidate's final stage was a longer technical and behavioral mix.
