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Visa's Interview Process (2026)

Blog / Visa's Interview Process (2026)

The Visa software engineer interview process typically spans 4 to 5 stages and takes anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks end-to-end, though the exact format can vary by team and role level.

Online Assessment (OA): A proctored coding challenge hosted on CodeSignal or HackerRank, usually around 70 to 90 minutes, with 4 questions ranging from Easy/Medium to Medium/Hard difficulty. Most candidates report that solving at least 3 out of 4 fully is needed to advance.
Recruiter Screen: A short call, typically 15 to 30 minutes, covering your background, compensation expectations, and which teams you might be a fit for.
Technical Interview 1 - DSA and Fundamentals: A live 45 to 60 minute round focused on data structures, algorithms, and core CS concepts like OOP, operating systems, and networking.
Technical Interview 2 - System Design and Tech Stack: A 45 to 60 minute session covering high-level and low-level design, and often a deep dive into the specific technologies listed on your resume, such as Java, Spring Boot, or Kafka.
Hiring Manager / Behavioral Round: A conversational but rigorous 45 to 60 minute session focused on your most impactful projects, leadership scenarios, and team fit. You may be asked to draw a system architecture on a virtual whiteboard.

To prepare effectively for Visa's process, it helps to split your prep into a few distinct areas:

Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA): LeetCode-style coding challenges tested in both the OA and live technical rounds.
High-Level System Design: Designing scalable distributed systems with a focus on Visa-scale traffic and real-time payments.
Low-Level Design (OOP): Object-oriented design problems focused on class structure, patterns, and practical implementation.
CS Fundamentals: Core computer science concepts including OOP, operating systems, networking, and language internals.
Behavioral: Project deep dives and scenario-based questions aligned with Visa's leadership principles.

1. Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA)The OA and first technical round are both heavily DSA-focused. Expect problems on arrays, hash maps, heaps, trees, two pointers, and dynamic programming, typically at a Medium to Hard level.Frequently reported question types include finding the kth minimum or maximum element using a heap, implementing an Design LRU Cache, and rate-limiting problems where you identify IPs exceeding a request threshold in a sliding time window. Binary search on answers also comes up, similar to the classic Aggressive Cows pattern.For the OA specifically, practice under timed conditions. Solving 3 out of 4 questions correctly is generally the bar to clear, so accuracy matters more than speed on the first two questions. Work through our top 100 DSA questions to cover the most commonly tested patterns.For targeted topic practice, heaps and two-pointers are particularly worth drilling given how often they surface in Visa interviews. Other solid problems to practice include Trapping Rain Water, Coin Change, and K Closest Points to Origin.

2. High-Level System DesignVisa's system design round tends to focus on payment-adjacent and high-throughput scenarios, so scalability should be at the front of your mind in every answer. Candidates in 2025 reported prompts like designing a global payment notification system (with Kafka as a likely component) and designing a URL shortener or rate limiter.Always frame your design around Visa-scale traffic, where you might be handling thousands of transactions per second. Talk through trade-offs explicitly: why Kafka over a simpler message queue, how you'd handle failures, and where you'd add caching or replication.Some candidates were also asked to virtually draw a full CI/CD pipeline from GitHub Actions through to a Kubernetes deployment, including rollback strategies. Practice sketching architectures with our System Design practice tool to get comfortable with that format. Browse our High-Level Design case studies for worked examples of payment systems and rate limiters.

3. Low-Level Design (OOP)Low-level design questions at Visa typically center on practical OOP scenarios. Reported examples include designing an elevator system, a library management system, and an order delivery system.Interviewers are looking for clean class hierarchies, sensible use of design patterns, and the ability to iterate on your design when they push back. Practice problems like Design Hit Counter and Design a Min Stack are a good warm-up. Explore Low-Level Design practice for more structured OOP design scenarios.

4. CS FundamentalsVisa is known for pivoting mid-interview to test breadth. After a coding question, your interviewer might ask you to explain the four pillars of OOP, describe how an SSL handshake works, or walk through the difference between multithreading and multiprocessing.If you list Java on your resume, expect questions on JVM internals, the difference between String and StringBuilder, and how HashMap works under the hood. The same applies to any other technology you mention, so only list what you can actually defend.Brush up on networking fundamentals and operating systems concepts as both come up in the first technical round. These are the areas candidates most often underestimate, since they focus exclusively on LeetCode prep.

5. BehavioralThe hiring manager round is a genuine deep dive into your past work, not a surface-level chat. Expect to be asked about your most significant project in detail, including the architecture, your specific contributions, trade-offs you made, and what you would do differently.You may also be asked to draw that architecture on a virtual whiteboard, so think through your projects ahead of time and be ready to sketch them out. Practice structuring your answers using the STAR principle to keep your responses focused and clear.Behavioral questions often include scenarios like disagreeing with a technical lead or handling a production incident. For a structured way to prepare, the Behavioral Playbook covers the question types most commonly used in engineering interviews.

ConclusionVisa's interview rewards candidates who have genuine breadth across coding, design, and CS fundamentals, not just LeetCode grinders. Start with the areas where you have the most gaps, drill your resume tech stack until you can defend every line, and practice talking through your system designs out loud. For a step-by-step preparation plan that ties all of this together, follow the Visa Interview Roadmap.