What is a Software Engineer at Axos Clearing?

As a Software Engineer at Axos Clearing, you are building the critical infrastructure that powers modern financial services, clearing, and custody solutions. Your work directly impacts how broker-dealers, registered investment advisors (RIAs), and introducing brokerages manage their operations, execute trades, and safeguard client assets. This role is essential to maintaining the high performance, security, and reliability expected in the heavily regulated banking and financial technology sectors.

You will contribute to a variety of complex problem spaces, from modernizing legacy financial systems to developing new features for banking portals. Whether you are working on backend transaction processing, database optimization, or integrating third-party financial tools, your code will operate at scale. Axos Clearing values engineers who can navigate the intricacies of financial data while delivering robust, scalable applications.

Expect a fast-paced environment where self-sufficiency is highly valued. Even at the entry level, the engineering organization expects candidates to hit the ground running with minimal hand-holding. You will be dealing with real-world financial complexities, making this an exciting opportunity to deepen your domain expertise while directly influencing the technological backbone of a major financial institution.

Common Interview Questions

The questions you face at Axos Clearing will heavily depend on the specific hiring manager, but they generally fall into predictable patterns. The goal of these questions is to test your communication depth, your core foundational knowledge, and your cultural fit.

Behavioral & Experience

Interviewers want to see that you can communicate effectively and have a genuine interest in the company. They will look for detailed, structured answers.

• Why do you want to work at Axos Clearing specifically?
• Walk me through your resume and highlight your most complex technical project.
• Tell me about a time you had to figure out a solution without any mentorship or training.
• How do you handle situations where business requirements are vague or changing?
• Describe your process for troubleshooting a critical bug in production.

Technical & Architecture

Technical questions are often foundational rather than complex algorithmic puzzles. You may be asked to explain concepts rather than whiteboarding them.

• How does indexing work in SQL, and how does it improve performance?
• Explain the principles of Object-Oriented Programming.
• How would you design a basic application to handle user transactions securely?
• What is your approach to writing unit tests for a financial application?
• Can you explain the difference between a clustered and non-clustered index?

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for an interview at Axos Clearing requires a balanced focus on your core technical fundamentals, your ability to articulate your past experiences in detail, and your overall cognitive agility.

Technical Proficiency – You must demonstrate a solid grasp of software engineering fundamentals, database management, and application architecture. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to write clean code, understand relational databases, and occasionally complete practical take-home assignments.

Behavioral Alignment and Communication – Axos Clearing places a heavy emphasis on how you communicate your past work. Interviewers expect detailed, articulate explanations of your resume. You can demonstrate strength here by providing comprehensive answers that proactively address the "why" and "how" of your previous projects.

Self-Sufficiency and Execution – The company prefers engineers who are independent problem solvers. Interviewers will look for evidence that you can take ownership of tasks without requiring extensive training or micromanagement. Showcasing side projects, self-directed learning, or examples of overcoming technical blockers independently will serve you well.

Cognitive Agility – Uniquely, Axos Clearing utilizes standardized cognitive and aptitude testing as part of their hiring funnel. You will be evaluated on your ability to process information quickly, solve logic puzzles, and demonstrate general problem-solving speed under time constraints.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process at Axos Clearing is generally straightforward, known for being fast-moving, and leans heavily on behavioral and foundational assessments. Your journey typically begins with an initial phone screen with a recruiter. This call is highly focused on your background, behavioral questions, and a detailed discussion regarding the company's benefits package. The recruiter will gauge your interest in the role and ensure your baseline expectations align with the company's offerings.

Following the initial screen, you will meet with the hiring manager and often a few team members. This round can vary significantly depending on the specific team and seniority level. Some candidates experience a purely behavioral and experience-based conversation, while others face foundational technical questions or detail-oriented probes into their resume. For certain teams, you may be given a weekend take-home assignment to build a basic application, followed by a live technical review.

A distinctive final step in the Axos Clearing process is the cognitive aptitude assessment. Regardless of your technical performance, you will likely be asked to complete a standardized IQ or logic test, such as the Wonderlic assessment. This is a mandatory hurdle for many roles across the organization.

This visual timeline outlines the typical stages you will navigate, from the recruiter screen to the final cognitive assessment. Use this to structure your preparation, knowing that your early rounds will be heavily behavioral while your final stages will test your raw problem-solving speed and technical execution. Note that the inclusion of a take-home assignment may vary based on the specific engineering team you are interviewing with.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

Behavioral and Resume Deep-Dive

Axos Clearing heavily weighs your past experience and your ability to communicate it effectively. Interviewers are known to ask detail-oriented questions about your resume. If your answers are too brief or high-level, they will aggressively prompt you to elaborate. Strong performance in this area means proactively structuring your answers to include the context, your specific action, the technologies used, and the business impact.

Be ready to go over:

• Project Ownership – Explaining a system you built from scratch or a major feature you delivered.
• Conflict Resolution – Discussing how you handle disagreements on technical approaches within a team.
• Motivation – Clearly articulating why you specifically want to work in the banking and clearing sector for Axos.
• Self-Directed Work – Providing examples of times you had to learn a new technology or solve a problem with zero documentation or mentorship.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through a time you had to design a solution with very little initial guidance."
• "Why do you want to work at Axos, and what interests you about the financial sector?"
• "Describe a specific challenge you faced in your last project—what was the root cause, and exactly how did you fix it?"

Technical Fundamentals and Application Design

While the technical interviews are often described as manageable or even "easy" compared to big tech companies, you must be rock-solid on the fundamentals. Depending on the team, you might be asked live trivia-style questions or given a practical take-home assignment (such as building a basic web application using PHP/Symfony, Java, or C#). Strong candidates write clean, well-documented code and can easily explain the underlying mechanics of their technological choices.

Be ready to go over:

• Database Fundamentals – Relational database concepts, specifically how indexing works, querying, and basic optimization.
• Object-Oriented Programming – Core OOP concepts, design patterns, and how to structure a basic application.
• Web Frameworks – Familiarity with MVC frameworks, RESTful API design, and basic frontend/backend integration.
• Specialized Platforms – For specific roles, knowledge of low-code platforms like Outsystems may be evaluated.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Explain how indexing works in SQL and when you would choose not to use an index."
• "Take this weekend to build a basic CRUD application using Symfony and PHP."
• "How do you ensure data integrity when processing concurrent transactions?"

Cognitive Aptitude and Logic

A unique evaluation area at Axos Clearing is the use of standardized cognitive tests, most notably the Wonderlic IQ assessment. This area evaluates your raw processing speed, spatial reasoning, mathematical logic, and reading comprehension. Strong performance here simply means managing your time effectively and answering as many questions correctly as possible within the strict time limit.

Be ready to go over:

• Pattern Recognition – Identifying the next number or shape in a sequence.
• Word Logic – Analogies, vocabulary, and deductive reasoning.
• Quick Math – Mental arithmetic, fractions, and basic algebra without a calculator.

Key Responsibilities

As a Software Engineer, your day-to-day work revolves around building, maintaining, and optimizing the software that facilitates financial clearing and banking services. You will spend a significant portion of your time writing backend code, designing relational database schemas, and ensuring that transactional data flows securely and accurately across various internal and external systems.

You will collaborate closely with product managers, financial operations teams, and other engineers to translate complex regulatory and business requirements into technical deliverables. Because the financial sector demands high reliability, you will also be responsible for writing comprehensive tests, participating in code reviews, and debugging production issues that impact clearing operations.

Depending on your specific team, you may drive initiatives such as migrating legacy systems to modern frameworks, building new customer-facing portals for broker-dealers, or developing internal tools that automate manual banking processes. You are expected to take ownership of your code from development through deployment, ensuring it meets the strict compliance standards of the banking industry.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be a competitive candidate for the Software Engineer role at Axos Clearing, you must blend technical competence with a high degree of professional independence. The company values engineers who are self-starters and comfortable operating in a traditional corporate environment.

• Must-have skills – Strong proficiency in at least one major object-oriented language (Java, C#, or PHP), deep understanding of SQL and relational databases, and experience building web applications or APIs.
• Must-have attributes – Excellent verbal communication skills, the ability to explain technical concepts in great detail, and a self-sufficient working style.
• Nice-to-have skills – Prior experience in banking, fintech, or clearing systems. Familiarity with low-code enterprise platforms like Outsystems.
• Experience level – The role spans from entry-level to senior management. However, even for entry-level positions, candidates are expected to possess strong foundational skills as the team does not emphasize extensive on-the-job technical training.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is the role remote, hybrid, or in-office? While some roles may offer flexibility, many candidates report that Axos Clearing heavily favors an in-office culture. In locations like Overland Park and San Diego, it is common for the entire team—not just essential staff—to work on-site. Clarify the location expectations with your recruiter early in the process.

Q: What is the Wonderlic test, and how should I prepare? The Wonderlic is a 12-minute, 50-question cognitive ability test that measures your processing speed, math skills, and logic. You cannot study for specific questions, but you can prepare by taking free online practice tests to get comfortable with the pacing and question formats.

Q: How difficult are the technical interviews? Most candidates describe the technical difficulty as "easy" to "average." You are unlikely to face grueling LeetCode Hard dynamic programming questions. Instead, expect practical take-home assignments (like building a basic web app) or foundational trivia questions (like SQL indexing and OOP concepts).

Q: How does compensation work at Axos Clearing? Recruiters will heavily pitch the overall benefits package, emphasizing a high 401k match. However, be aware that this match often comes with a long vesting period. Base salaries may sometimes be lower than standard tech-industry averages, with leadership arguing that the benefits package offsets the difference.

Q: Will I receive training if applying for an entry-level role? Candidates have reported that even for entry-level positions, hiring managers explicitly state they are not looking to train anyone. You must demonstrate that you can independently solve problems and contribute to the codebase immediately.

Other General Tips

• Elaborate on your answers: Interviewers at Axos are highly detail-oriented. If you give a brief, high-level answer, they will push you for more information. Pre-plan your answers using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and include specific technical details.

• Prepare for the benefits pitch: Recruiters and engineering leaders will actively sell you on the company's benefits. Listen carefully, take notes, and make sure you understand the vesting schedules and total compensation structure before making any salary concessions.

• Brush up on database fundamentals: Regardless of your primary programming language, financial and clearing software relies heavily on robust databases. Ensure your SQL knowledge, particularly around performance and indexing, is sharp.

• Showcase independence: Because the company expects engineers to hit the ground running, emphasize any self-taught skills, solo projects, or instances where you drove a feature from conception to deployment with minimal oversight.

Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Software Engineer role at Axos Clearing is an excellent opportunity to build highly impactful software within the financial sector. The work you do will directly support the clearing and banking infrastructure that powers major financial operations, offering you a chance to work on systems where reliability, security, and scale are paramount.

To succeed in this interview process, focus your preparation on communicating your past experiences with exceptional detail, brushing up on practical software and database fundamentals, and mentally preparing for a fast-paced cognitive assessment. Remember that the company values independent, self-sufficient engineers who can confidently navigate complex domains without requiring extensive hand-holding.

This salary data provides a baseline expectation for engineering compensation at the company, ranging from mid-level to management. Use this information to anchor your negotiations, keeping in mind that the company often emphasizes their benefits package and 401k match as a core component of total compensation.

Approach your interviews with confidence and clarity. You have the skills necessary to excel; it is simply a matter of structuring your knowledge and presenting yourself as a reliable, independent problem solver. For more insights, practice questions, and peer experiences, continue exploring resources on Dataford to refine your preparation strategy. Good luck!