Stories · Season 3
Magpie
A money app grows up the careful way — and learns to account for its own past.
Magpie is the friendly money app with the little bird mascot — round-up savings, instant transfers, and a marketing page that says “your money, safe as houses.” Kemi leads engineering, and she knows the truth behind the marketing page: the rules that keep money safe live in the UI, the workflows live in if-statements, and the audit trail lives in hope.
Season 3 is the season of growing up: the account that went negative, the transfer that needed undoing, the fraud team who showed up late and needed all of history, the regulator who asked what a balance said last Tuesday. Ten stories about domain modeling, workflows, and accountability — where the happy ending isn’t shipping fast, it’s being able to prove what happened.
The episodes
Episode 01The Account That Went Negative
In which a savings account holds minus £37, the rules said that was impossible, and the rules were written in the wrong place.
Episode 02The Five Things That Should Happen When Money Moves
In which a deposit needs to do five things, the deposit code does all five, and adding a sixth means touching it again.
Episode 03The 500 That Leaked the Stack Trace
In which Magpie's shiny new partner API answers "what went wrong?" with a database password and a shrug.
Episode 04The Onboarding That Got Lost in If-Statements
In which signing up for a bank account turns out to have eleven steps, six of them optional, and one boolean too many.
Episode 05The Transfer That Needed Undoing
In which money leaves an account, never arrives anywhere, and someone has to put it back — correctly, once, and on the record.
Episode 06The Customer View That Was Always a Bit Wrong
In which a customer transfers money, immediately checks their dashboard, and the dashboard lies to their face.
Episode 07The Transaction Feed That Fell Behind
In which payday hits, half the country buys coffee at once, and Magpie's transaction feed gets ten minutes behind reality.
Episode 08The Fraud Team Who Showed Up Late
In which Magpie hires a fraud team a year too late, and asks them to analyze events that — until now — nobody was listening to.
Episode 09The Log That Ate the Storage Budget
In which keeping every event forever turns out to have a monthly invoice, and the invoice learns to fly.
Episode 10What Did My Balance Say Last Tuesday?
In which a customer, a regulator, and a lawyer all ask Magpie the same question about the past — and for once, Magpie just answers.