Type · System Design
Design a distributed cache for frequently accessed customer account data to reduce database load. What are the trade-offs between consistency models (e.g., strong vs. eventual)?
How to Pass the ING Software Engineer Interview in 2026
The ING DNA (TL;DR)
ING values a strong sense of ownership and a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to problem-solving. They look for candidates who can demonstrate a clear understanding of business impact and can articulate how their technical contributions drive value for the company and its customers.
The ING Interview Loop
Your onsite loop will typically consist of 5 rounds.
- 1
Round 1
Recruiter ScreenMotivation, role fit, logistics. - 2
Round 2
Coding ScreenLeetCode-medium algorithmic problems under time pressure. - 3
Round 3
System DesignDistributed systems, trade-offs at scale, architecture under constraints. - 4
Round 4
Onsite CodingLeetCode-hard, debugging, code clarity, edge cases. - 5
Round 5
Behavioral / LeadershipPast evidence of ownership, influence, resolving conflict.
The Danger Zone: Top Reasons Candidates Fail
Based on our database of ING interview outcomes, avoid these common traps:
- Not proposing alternative solutions or compromises.
- Not demonstrating concrete steps taken to prevent recurrence.
- Focusing only on the disagreement without explaining their influence strategy.
- Describing a situation where they simply 'won' the argument without collaboration.
Test Yourself: Real ING Questions
Three real prompts pulled from our database.
Type · Algorithmic
Given a list of financial transactions, each with a timestamp, amount, and currency, write a function to calculate the total balance for a given currency over a specified time range. Assume timestamps are Unix epoch seconds.
Type · Behavioral
Tell me about a time you made a mistake or a significant error in your work. How did you handle it, and what did you do to prevent it from happening again?
+ many more questions, signals, and worked examples
Sign up to unlock the full ING grading rubric
ING Interview Question Bank
A sample from our database, grouped by round. Sign up to see the full set.
9 of 17 questions shown
1
Recruiter Screen
1- 1
Type · Motivation
Why are you interested in joining ING as a Software Engineer, and what aspects of our work in financial technology particularly appeal to you?
2
Coding Screen
3- 2
Type · Algorithmic
Given a list of financial transactions, each with a timestamp, amount, and currency, write a function to calculate the total balance for a given currency over a specified time range. Assume timestamps are Unix epoch seconds. - 3
Type · Algorithmic
Implement a function that takes a list of stock prices for a single stock over several days and returns the maximum profit that could have been made by buying and selling the stock once. If no profit can be made, return 0. - + 1 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
3
System Design
4- 4
Type · System Design
Design a system to process and store real-time stock market data feeds from multiple exchanges. The system should be able to handle high throughput, provide low-latency access to recent data, and support historical data analysis. - 5
Type · System Design
Design an API rate limiter for a banking application's public API. Consider different strategies (e.g., token bucket, leaky bucket) and how to handle distributed systems. - + 2 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
4
Onsite Coding
3- 6
Type · Algorithmic
Given a binary tree where each node represents a financial account balance, write a function to find the maximum sum of balances along any path from the root to a leaf. Handle cases with negative balances. - 7
Type · Debugging
Here is a code snippet that attempts to calculate compound interest. It's producing incorrect results for certain inputs. Find the bug(s) and explain how to fix them. - + 1 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
5
Behavioral / Leadership
6- 8
Type · Ownership
Tell me about a time you took ownership of a project or problem that was not explicitly assigned to you. What was the situation, what did you do, and what was the outcome? - 9
Type · Influence
Describe a time you had to influence a stakeholder or team who disagreed with your proposed product direction. How did you approach it, and what was the result? - + 4 more questions in this round (sign up to unlock)
Unlock all 17 ING questions, free
No credit card. Every question with its framework, the grading signals interviewers score against, and a worked answer for each.
Interview tracks at ING
How ING's DNA translates across functions. Pick your role.
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Practice ING interviews end-to-end
ING Mock Interview
Run a live mock interview with our AI interviewer using ING-style prompts. Get scored on structure, signal, and answer length - exactly how the real loop grades you.
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STAR Stories for ING Behavioral Rounds
Build a Story Bank of your past wins, mapped to the leadership signals ING interviewers grade on. Reuse them across every behavioral round.
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ING Interview Prep Hub
The frameworks behind every ING round: CIRCLES for product sense, hypothesis-driven debugging for analytical, STAR for behavioral. Learn each one in 10 minutes.
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Interview Frameworks
CIRCLES, STAR, AARRR, RICE, MECE. The exact frameworks that make ING interviewers nod instead of frown. Step-by-step playbooks with the moves and the pitfalls.
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Sample answers
What a strong answer to these ING interview questions shows.
Design a distributed cache for frequently accessed customer account data to reduce database load. What are the trade-offs between consistency models (e.g., strong vs. eventual)?
A strong answer shows: Understanding of different caching patterns.; Knowledge of cache invalidation techniques.; Clear articulation of consistency trade-offs in a financial context..
Given a list of financial transactions, each with a timestamp, amount, and currency, write a function to calculate the total balance for a given currency over a specified time range. Assume timestamps are Unix epoch seconds.
A strong answer shows: Correctness of logic for filtering and summation.; Efficiency of the solution (time and space complexity).; Handling of edge cases like empty lists or invalid ranges..
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