What is a good salary for an SDE-2 in India?

Across 245 companies, most SDE-2 (2-5 years experience) total-compensation bands fall between roughly 29 and 70 LPA, with a median around 43 LPA. Product companies and FAANG cluster in the 40-60 LPA range, GCC and services firms lower, and HFT firms well above it. Total comp means base plus annualised stock plus target bonus.

Which companies pay the most to software engineers in India?

High-frequency trading firms pay the most by a wide margin - Jane Street, Citadel, Hudson River Trading, Two Sigma and Optiver top every level, with senior bands reaching 140-220 LPA. Among product companies, Netflix, Figma, Notion, Databricks, Snowflake and Stripe lead, typically 55-100 LPA at SDE-2.

How much does Google pay an L4 in India?

Google L4 (equivalent to SDE-2) sits at roughly 41-57 LPA total compensation in India, based on 98 parsed offer reports. Google L3 (SDE-1) is around 22-36 LPA and L5 (senior) around 60-107 LPA. These are middle-50% bands, so strong candidates with competing offers can land above the top.

Where does this salary data come from?

It is built from 875 offer reports parsed out of 3,000 posts on LeetCode's public compensation board, covering March 2024 to March 2025 - posts candidates write after signing an offer. Each company's band is the middle 50% (p25-p75) of its reports at that level, bucketed using that company's own job ladder. 53 companies have parsed reports; the rest are editorial estimates, marked as such. This is deliberately not sourced from salary-aggregator averages.

Is total compensation the same as take-home salary?

No. Total compensation is base plus annualised stock plus target bonus, before tax. Stock only materialises if you stay through the vesting schedule, and RSU value moves with the share price. Your monthly take-home will be substantially lower than the total-comp figure.

Do SDE levels mean the same thing at every company?

No, and this is the most common mistake when comparing offers. Google L4 is a mid-level role while Amazon L4 is entry-level; Microsoft uses 59-65; Walmart's IN-bands run one step ahead of the generic SDE ladder. Compare by years of experience and scope, not by ladder code. The levels on this page are normalised per company so they are comparable.

India · 2026

Software Engineer Salaries in India

Total-compensation bands across 245 companies, broken down by level. Built from 875 real offer reports parsed off LeetCode's compensation board — not scraped aggregator averages.

245Companies

875Offer reports

8Categories

₹6L–2.2CrRange

SDE-1~0–2 yrs

≈ 18–45 LPA

Entry level. New grads and early-career engineers.

Explore SDE-1 →

SDE-2~2–5 yrs

≈ 29–70 LPA

Mid level. The most common switch band.

Explore SDE-2 →

SDE-3~5–8+ yrs

≈ 43–105 LPA

Senior / Staff. Deep scope and impact.

Explore SDE-3 →

Best-evidenced companies

The companies with the most parsed offer reports behind their bands — these are the numbers to trust most. Open a level above for all 245.

Company	SDE-1	SDE-2	SDE-3	Reports

Filter by location, category (FAANG · Product · Fintech · HFT · GCC · Enterprise · Startup · Services) and minimum comp.

Sort any column — find the highest-paying companies for your level instantly.

Track your applications with a Status dropdown and Comment per company. Sign in to sync across devices.

How this data is built

Harvested 3,000 posts from LeetCode's public compensation board (newest first, spanning Mar 2024 – Mar 2025) — the same posts candidates write after signing an offer.
Parsed 1,027 India offers out of them: base, stock and bonus normalised to INR LPA, USD grants converted, multi-year equity annualised, and vesting schedules like 33-33-17-17 discarded so they aren't mistaken for money.
Bucketed by company ladder, not by number. Google L4 is not Amazon L4, and Walmart's IN-bands run one step ahead of the generic SDE ladder — each company maps its own titles onto SDE-1 / SDE-2 / SDE-3.
Banded as the middle 50% (p25–p75) of a company's offers at that level, so one outsized outlier can't move the number. Companies with fewer than 3 reports at a level get theirs derived from the observed step between levels (~1.5×).
Blended against the previous editorial estimate when a company has fewer than 6 reports, so thin data nudges a band rather than replacing it.

53 companies have parsed offer reports behind them. 41 clear six or more and carry a green reports chip; the other 12 are thin data and show few instead. The remaining rows are editorial estimates marked est, kept so the list stays useful for companies nobody has posted about yet.

Reading the numbers honestly

Self-reported data skews high. People post after a good offer, rarely after an average one. Treat the top of a band as achievable-with-competing-offers, not as standard.

Total comp ≠ take-home. Bands include base + annualised stock + target bonus, pre-tax. Stock only lands if you stay through the vest, and RSU value moves with the share price.

Level letters lie across companies. Compare by years of experience and scope, not by ladder code — the level names on this page are normalised, the ones in your offer letter are not.

Bengaluru dominates. 161 of 245 companies list a Bengaluru office, and most reports come from there. Other metros typically run a little lower for the same level.

Bands are total compensation (base + annualised stock + target bonus) in INR LPA for India. Derived from public LeetCode compensation posts (Mar 2024 – Mar 2025) plus editorial estimates where no reports exist — deliberately not from salary-aggregator averages. Estimates, not offers — always confirm with the recruiter. Data window compiled 2026.