Abstract: The combination design of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) and recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) forms the precast UHPC-RAC composite columns. Seven precast UHPC-RAC composite short columns were designed and fabricated with the parameters of stirrup position, UHPC thickness and UHPC-RAC interface roughness. The failure form, material strain, load-displacement curve, bearing capacity, Poisson's ratio and damage were analyzed through the axial compression experiments. The results show that the precast UHPC-RAC composite short columns improve the failure pattern, which can be divided into strong confining shear collapse failure and weak confining of UHPC splitting due to the difference in the binding effect of the combination of external UHPC and stirrup on internal RAC. The increase thickness of hooped UHPC ensures the enhancement of external UHPC restraint. The restraint effect of the outer UHPC is enhanced with the increase of the hoop UHPC and its thickness. The axial compressive stiffness and compression capacity of the prefabricated UHPC-RAC short column are increased by 93.3% and 97.4% at the maximum, and the Poisson's ratio and damage index are decreased, with the Poisson's ratio varying from 0.26 to 0.18. The roughness of UHPC-RAC bonding surface has little difference on the favorable influence of axial compression performance parameters. The strong constraint effect can make full use of the mechanics of high performance materials. Based on the superposition principle, the calculation formula of the compression capacity of the strongly constrained precast UHPC-RAC composite column is established, and the design requirements of the precast UHPC-RAC composite short column are proposed to improve the utilization rate of the material.