okay so i'm a 2025 grad who just finished the stripe loop and got an offer. sharing numbers because i could not find recent ones when i was researching and had to piece together threads from 2022 which felt ancient.
my offer, L3 SWE, remote (they said new grads can be remote now, at least for my team, SF-based team though): base: $175k equity: $450k over 4 years signing: $30k no annual bonus
annualized in year 1 with signing that's about $317k. which is... a lot. i had to read it twice.
compared to other new grad offers i got in the same window: a FAANG came in at $185k base + $200k RSUs (public, liquid immediately after vest) + $15k signing. so the FAANG TC was lower but the equity is real money now vs. stripe's which is private. a fintech series D gave me $165k base + $250k in options (which, lol, options are complicated, didn't want to deal with that).
i went with stripe. reasons: the engineering reputation is real, i interviewed with engineers who were genuinely impressive and gave me real feedback during the loop product velocity feels high, they're shipping constantly i wanted the resume line, honestly i think they'll IPO
the loop itself for new grad: online assessment (hackerrank, 2 coding problems, 90 min), then recruiter screen, then 2 technical rounds (one pure algo/DS, one more systems-ish but lighter than staff-level SD), then a behavioral with your potential manager. no take-home for new grad track as far as i could tell.
total from first recruiter email to offer: 5 weeks flat.