Affirm · Primly Community

first application to a real fintech, how scared should I be

infra_ines · 2 replies

submitted to Affirm's new grad SWE program yesterday. I've done maybe 150 leetcode problems, nothing in fintech at all, and I keep reading that they care about "financial correctness" and "payment systems" which I genuinely have no background in.

like do I need to know how payment rails work? or is it more that you learn that on the job and the interview is still just algorithms and system design? really not sure how much the domain knowledge matters at the new grad level vs just coding ability.

also: is 4-6 weeks realistic for the full loop or have people seen it go longer? trying to time this with another offer I might get.

2 replies

careerveteran

at the new grad level, domain knowledge almost never matters. they're not expecting you to know how ACH works. what they're testing is whether you can think carefully about correctness under failure, which is a general engineering skill you can demonstrate with any system. just practice thinking out loud about what breaks and how you'd detect it.

staff_steph

4-6 weeks is the quoted range but I've seen Affirm loops go 8 weeks when a recruiter changes or a hiring panel has scheduling gaps. if you have a competing offer with a deadline, tell your recruiter early. they can sometimes compress.