A Software Engineer at Macquarie Group builds, modernizes, and maintains critical financial technology that powers global markets, banking platforms, and investment services. Operating at the intersection of finance and modern engineering, technology teams at Macquarie deliver enterprise systems supporting Banking and Financial Services (BFS), Commodities and Global Markets (CGM), Macquarie Asset Management (MAM), and central technology platforms. In this role, your code directly influences transaction speed, platform resilience, and real-time risk calculations. Engineers design fault-tolerant backend architectures, build scalable cloud-native microservices, optimize trading data pipelines, and craft secure customer-facing digital applications. Whether engineering high-throughput trade validation engines, developing modern APIs, or implementing AI-enabled developer tools, software engineers ensure high availability while managing strict regulatory compliance. Joining offers the chance to work with modern distributed architectures, real-time messaging systems, and multi-cloud environments. The engineering culture values technical rigor, continuous learning, risk awareness, and collaborative problem-solving. Candidates who thrive here combine deep technical competence with clear communication and a keen awareness of business impacts. Macquarie Group
HR Phone Screening
reportedInitial call to review experience and alignment with role requirements.
What to demonstrate
- Initial call to review experience and alignment with role requirements
- Depth in System Design
How to prepare
- Be able to walk your CV end to end in two minutes, and say why this company specifically.
- Have your salary expectations, notice period and location constraints ready, and ask for the rest of the loop in writing.
Psychometric Assessment
reportedOnline assessment measuring numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning.
What to demonstrate
- Online assessment measuring numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning
- Depth in System Design
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Explain polymorphism, encapsulation, and how SOLID principles guide your daily code architecture.
- Answer aloud and timed: What is constructor chaining in Java, and can you provide a practical code example?
Technical Evaluations
reportedOne or two evaluations covering live coding, data structures, and system design.
What to demonstrate
- One or two evaluations covering live coding, data structures, and system design
- Depth in System Design
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: How does the Java Garbage Collector work, and what are the key differences between various collection algorithms?
- Answer aloud and timed: Write a function to reverse a singly linked list both iteratively and recursively.
Assessment Centre
reportedGroup case studies, scenario discussions, and panel interviews for entry-to-mid-level roles.
What to demonstrate
- Group case studies, scenario discussions, and panel interviews for entry-to-mid-level roles
- Depth in System Design
How to prepare
- Answer aloud and timed: Solve a string minimization problem by counting character occurrences and optimizing space efficiency.
- Answer aloud and timed: Given a file system directory structure, represent it using an appropriate data structure and write a parser to display directory levels.
Behavioral Discussions
reportedFinal discussions with senior managers to evaluate cultural alignment and team fit.
What to demonstrate
- Final discussions with senior managers to evaluate cultural alignment and team fit
- Depth in System Design
How to prepare
- Prepare three examples from your own work, each with a decision you made and an outcome you can quantify.
- Re-read the description of the behavioral discussions above and write down what you would ask to confirm before it.
1 candidate reports. Individual accounts describe a particular role and hiring cycle.
Macquarie Group Software Engineer interview with a rushed whiteboard discussion
The process opened with a screening step and then a technical interview. The recruiter and interviewers were professional and friendly, but the logistics got muddled. My discussion started late, then felt rushed once it began, which threw off the timing. The technical part relied heavily on whiteboarding. It was not only about writing code. I was asked to reason about engineering and architecture…
Read full experiencePracHub editorial advice for the preparation topics above.
Prepare thoroughly for psychometric tests
Do not underestimate the online cognitive assessment. Practice timed numerical logic and pattern recognition puzzles beforehand, as this test acts as a strict gateway round.
Structure behavioral answers using STAR
When answering situational questions, clearly outline the Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Emphasize personal ownership and clear business outcomes.
Focus on operational resilience and testing
In technical discussions, always discuss how you test your code (unit, integration, regression) and how you monitor services in production. Demonstrating risk awareness aligns strongly with Macquarie's business culture.
Choose a category, try a prompt, then open its approach, worked solution or follow-up when you need it.
Explain the difference between `ArrayList` and `LinkedList` in terms of memory layout and time complexity for
Explain the difference between ArrayList and LinkedList in terms of memory layout and time complexity for insertion and deletion.
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
How does the Java Garbage Collector work, and what are the key differences between various collection algorith
How does the Java Garbage Collector work, and what are the key differences between various collection algorithms?
Approach
- Say what the runtime actually does before reasoning about the code.
- Name what is shared across threads and what owns each piece of state.
- Identify the window where an invariant is briefly untrue.
- Distinguish a value from a reference to it, and say which one you handed out.
Follow-up
- What happens if two callers reach this at the same time?
- Where could this allocate more than you expect?
Write a function to reverse a singly linked list both iteratively and recursively.
Write a function to reverse a singly linked list both iteratively and recursively.
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Solve a string minimization problem by counting character occurrences and optimizing space efficiency.
Solve a string minimization problem by counting character occurrences and optimizing space efficiency.
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Given a file system directory structure, represent it using an appropriate data structure and write a parser t
Given a file system directory structure, represent it using an appropriate data structure and write a parser to display directory levels.
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
How do you determine whether a given string is an anagram of another?
How do you determine whether a given string is an anagram of another?
Approach
- Restate the input: its shape, its size, and what is guaranteed about it.
- Name the brute-force solution and its complexity before improving on it.
- Choose the data structure from the access pattern, not from familiarity.
- State the target complexity and say which constraint rules the naive version out.
Follow-up
- How does this change if the input no longer fits in memory?
- What is the worst case, and how likely is it on real data?
Hold a per-tenant active cap against concurrent creates
A tenant on the standard plan may hold at most 50 resources with status='active'. The create handler runs SELECT count(*) FROM resource WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND status = 'active', compares to 50, then inserts. Two creates arrive 3 ms apart on different instances and the tenant lands at 51. Name the anomaly, say whether PostgreSQL 16 READ COMMITTED or REPEATABLE READ prevents it and why, then give an implementation that holds the cap at READ COMMITTED with the exact statements. Finally, say what changes when the cap is 'at most one running export per tenant' on job_run.
Approach
- Name it: write skew. The two transactions read an overlapping set and write disjoint rows, so there is no row-level conflict for the engine to detect and each commit is individually legal.
- Rule out the levels precisely. READ COMMITTED takes a fresh snapshot per statement and takes no lock on the counted rows, so both see 49. PostgreSQL's REPEATABLE READ is snapshot isolation: it removes non-repeatable reads and phantoms within the snapshot but still admits write skew, because the anomaly is not a re-read of a changed row, it is a read of a set that a concurrent transaction invalidates. Only SERIALIZABLE closes it, by tracking the read dependency and aborting one transaction with SQLSTATE 40001 — a guarantee that exists only if the application re-runs the whole transaction from the read.
- Convert the set predicate into a single-row conflict: keep tenant.active_resource_count and run UPDATE tenant SET active_resource_count = active_resource_count + 1 WHERE tenant_id = $1 AND active_resource_count < 50 in the same transaction as the INSERT. Zero affected rows is the cap, returned as 409. The row lock serialises the decision at any isolation level, and contention is bounded to one tenant's row — which is also the fair-scheduling unit, unlike a global counter that would convoy every tenant behind one row.
- State the cost you just took on: a counter is a second source of truth that can drift, so every path that changes status must adjust it inside the same transaction, and a periodic reconciliation has to exist, with resource_revision as the authority for what the count should have been.
Follow-up
- A resource moves from archived back to active. Which statements change, and what breaks if the counter update and the status change land in different transactions?
- The cap becomes plan-dependent and a plan can change mid-month. Where does the number 50 live, and who reads it?
Stop tag and share joins from fanning out a page
resource_tag is (resource_id, tag_id) with PK (resource_id, tag_id); resource_share is (resource_id, shared_with_user_id, permission). The tagged-and-shared listing inner-joins resource to both, filters tenant_id, tag_id = ANY($2) and shared_with_user_id = $3, orders by updated_at DESC and takes 50. Pages come back with fewer than 50 distinct resources and the total in the header is far too high. Explain the row multiplication, rewrite both the page query and the count query so each is correct, and name the index each one needs. PostgreSQL 16.
Approach
- Do the arithmetic against the predicates that are actually there. An inner join emits one row per matching child row, and both joins are filtered: tag_id = ANY($2) admits only the requested tags, shared_with_user_id = $3 admits one user's share rows. So a resource holding three of the requested tags and shared with $3 once yields three rows, not one — the multiplier is its count of matching tags times its share rows for that single user, and that second factor is 1 unless the table admits duplicate (resource_id, shared_with_user_id) pairs. LIMIT 50 then limits rows rather than resources, and COUNT(*) counts pairs — the header is the product, not the population.
- Reject DISTINCT as the fix. It deduplicates after the product has been built, so the planner must materialise and sort the fanned-out set before the LIMIT can apply, and it leaves any SUM or AVG in the same select list wrong.
- Rewrite both filters as semi-joins, keeping resource as the only row source: AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM resource_tag rt WHERE rt.resource_id = r.resource_id AND rt.tag_id = ANY($2)) and the same shape against resource_share. A semi-join stops at the first match per resource and preserves the driving index order, so ORDER BY updated_at DESC, resource_id DESC LIMIT 50 still stops after 50 rows.
- Count with the same predicates and no join at all: SELECT count(*) FROM resource r WHERE r.tenant_id = $1 AND r.status = 'active' AND EXISTS (...) AND EXISTS (...). Nothing multiplies a resource, so the number is the population.
Follow-up
- The filter changes from 'any of these tags' to 'all of these tags'. Rewrite it and state what it costs relative to the ANY form.
- A resource can be shared with the same user twice under different permissions. Does your count change, and should it?
What are Java 8 Streams, and how do functions like `flatMap` operate under the hood?
What are Java 8 Streams, and how do functions like flatMap operate under the hood?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Explain polymorphism, encapsulation, and how SOLID principles guide your daily code architecture.
Explain polymorphism, encapsulation, and how SOLID principles guide your daily code architecture.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
What is constructor chaining in Java, and can you provide a practical code example?
What is constructor chaining in Java, and can you provide a practical code example?
Approach
- Clarify what is being asked and what a complete answer contains.
- State your assumptions explicitly before working the problem.
- Say what you would check first and why it is the highest-information step.
- Work from the requirement backwards to the design.
Follow-up
- What assumption would you test first?
- How would you know your answer was wrong?
Implement a basic rate-limiter logic inside a REST endpoint.
Implement a basic rate-limiter logic inside a REST endpoint.
Approach
- Say who the caller is and what they do when the call fails halfway.
- Define the identity of a request so a retry cannot double-apply it.
- Separate accepted, pending, failed and confirmed; they are different facts.
- Design the error taxonomy before the success shape; callers branch on it.
Follow-up
- What happens if the caller retries after a timeout?
- How does a client discover it is on an old version of this contract?
Walk us through the most complex system architecture you have built, explaining your key design decisions and
Walk us through the most complex system architecture you have built, explaining your key design decisions and trade-offs.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How would you design a high-throughput payment microservice that ensures strong consistency and auditability?
How would you design a high-throughput payment microservice that ensures strong consistency and auditability?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Explain how you would implement event sourcing or event-driven architecture for a real-time trade validation s
Explain how you would implement event sourcing or event-driven architecture for a real-time trade validation system.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
How do you approach system design when balancing scalability, maintainability, and team delivery velocity?
How do you approach system design when balancing scalability, maintainability, and team delivery velocity?
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Explain cloud orchestration fundamentals and how cross-plane or container managers operate in enterprise produ
Explain cloud orchestration fundamentals and how cross-plane or container managers operate in enterprise production environments.
Approach
- Fix the scope first: who calls this, how often, and what they do when it fails.
- Name the read and write paths separately; they rarely have the same bottleneck.
- Choose a partition key and say what query it makes expensive.
- State the consistency you need, and where you are willing to be stale.
Follow-up
- What breaks first when traffic grows ten times?
- How does this behave when that dependency is down for an hour?
Explain how you handled a recent major production incident from initial alert to root cause resolution.
Explain how you handled a recent major production incident from initial alert to root cause resolution.
Approach
- Establish what changed and when, before forming any theory.
- Pick a bisection that eliminates candidates whichever way it turns out.
- Check the instrumentation before believing the symptom.
- Separate the trigger from the cause; the deploy is rarely the bug.
Follow-up
- What would you look at first, and what would it rule out?
- How would you tell a cause from a coincidence here?
Built from the rounds and topics Macquarie Group candidates report.
Prepare, practise & reflect
One practical outcome each day. Spend longer where you need it.
0 / 7 done01Map the Macquarie Group loop
- Write out the reported sequence: HR Phone Screening, Psychometric Assessment, Technical Evaluations, Assessment Centre, Behavioral Discussions.
- For each round, write one sentence on what it is judging, from the description above, and mark the one you are least ready for.
Deliverable: A one-page map of the 5 reported rounds, with the weakest marked.
02Work System Design
- Spend the session on System Design, which Macquarie Group candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in System Design and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in System Design.
03Work Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)
- Spend the session on Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA), which Macquarie Group candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA).
04Work REST APIs / REST Endpoints
- Spend the session on REST APIs / REST Endpoints, which Macquarie Group candidates report being tested on.
- Write one worked example in REST APIs / REST Endpoints and time yourself on it.
Deliverable: One timed worked example in REST APIs / REST Endpoints.
05Answer out loud: Core Java & Object-Oriented Programming
- Answer aloud, timed: Explain the difference between `ArrayList` and `LinkedList` in terms of memory layout and time complexity for insertion and deletion.
- Answer aloud, timed: What are Java 8 Streams, and how do functions like `flatMap` operate under the hood?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Core Java & Object-Oriented Programming question(s), under time.
06Answer out loud: Data Structures, Algorithms & Live Coding
- Answer aloud, timed: Write a function to reverse a singly linked list both iteratively and recursively.
- Answer aloud, timed: Solve a string minimization problem by counting character occurrences and optimizing space efficiency.
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported Data Structures, Algorithms & Live Coding question(s), under time.
07Answer out loud: System Design & Cloud Architecture
- Answer aloud, timed: Walk us through the most complex system architecture you have built, explaining your key design decisions and trade-offs.
- Answer aloud, timed: How would you design a high-throughput payment microservice that ensures strong consistency and auditability?
Deliverable: Spoken answers to 2 reported System Design & Cloud Architecture question(s), under time.
Expand any day for tasks and deliverables. Your progress is saved on this device.
Behavioural rounds judge the decision you made and what it cost.
Describe a situation where you had a disagreement with a team member or stakeholder and how you resolved it.
Describe a situation where you had a disagreement with a team member or stakeholder and how you resolved it.
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Why do you want to work at Macquarie Group, and how does your experience align with our technology strategy?
Why do you want to work at Macquarie Group, and how does your experience align with our technology strategy?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
Describe one of your professional failures, what you learned, and how it changed your engineering practices.
Describe one of your professional failures, what you learned, and how it changed your engineering practices.
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
How do you use AI tools in your daily workflow to increase code quality and developer efficiency?
How do you use AI tools in your daily workflow to increase code quality and developer efficiency?
Approach
- Pick a story where you made the decision, not one where you watched it.
- State the situation in two sentences and spend the rest on the reasoning.
- Give the blast radius: what could have broken, and what you measured.
- Name the disagreement and how you resolved it with evidence.
Follow-up
- What would you do differently if you ran that again?
- How did you know your change caused the improvement?
- 01
Describe a situation where you had a disagreement with a team member or stakeholder and how you resolved it.
- 02
Why do you want to work at Macquarie Group, and how does your experience align with our technology strategy?
- 03
Describe one of your professional failures, what you learned, and how it changed your engineering practices.
- 04
How do you use AI tools in your daily workflow to increase code quality and developer efficiency?
How difficult are the technical interviews at Macquarie Group?
The difficulty is moderate to high, focusing heavily on solid computer science fundamentals, clear code structure, and deep framework knowledge. While algorithmic questions are generally LeetCode easy-to-medium level, interviewers place significant emphasis on how cleanly you write code and explain your trade-offs.
Macquarie Group Software Engineer candidate reports ↗How important is the psychometric assessment stage?
The psychometric test is a mandatory hurdle in the hiring process for many candidates. It tests numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning under strict time limits. You should practice timed logic and numerical aptitude tests online before taking the official assessment.
Macquarie Group Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Do I need prior financial domain experience to apply?
No, prior financial domain knowledge is not strictly required for most software engineering roles, although it can be additive for specialized front-office or trading teams. Strong software engineering fundamentals, architectural understanding, and an eagerness to learn business contexts are valued most.
Macquarie Group Software Engineer candidate reports ↗How long does the hiring process take from start to finish?
The process typically spans 3 to 6 weeks. However, candidate experiences report that wait times between stages can occasionally vary depending on team bandwidth and location. Staying in proactive communication with your internal recruiter helps keep the pipeline moving smoothly.
Macquarie Group Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What is the hybrid working model at Macquarie Group?
Macquarie Group generally supports a hybrid working environment, balancing days in the office for team collaboration with remote work flexibility. Specific attendance expectations vary depending on the business division and team location.
Macquarie Group Software Engineer candidate reports ↗What topics does Macquarie Group test in interviews?
Macquarie Group interviews most often cover Behavioral Interviewing, Data Modeling, Psychometric testing, Stakeholder Communication, and Stochastic Calculus. The exact emphasis depends on the specific role you apply for.
Macquarie Group Software Engineer candidate reports ↗Sources & methodology 3 sources ↗
Official role evidence, timestamped platform data and clearly labeled preparation advice.
- 01Macquarie Group Software Engineer candidate reports ↗
Company-reported rounds, questions and FAQ.
candidate · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 02PracHub Software Engineer practice ↗
PracHub practice material, not company-reported.
platform · Accessed 2026-09-22 - 03PracHub preparation framework ↗
PracHub preparation guidance.
platform · Accessed 2026-09-22
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