Barclays Investment Bank - Technology Interview Questions

Following the online application, the interview process for graduate positions in Technology at Barclays Investment Bank consist of the following:

• Telephone interview
• Assessment centre

Telephone Interview

Barclays Telephone interviews are competency based and last roughly 15 - 35 minutes. Your interviewer will ask a lot of questions about you, your application and CV.

You will be asked about your motivations for joining Barclays Investment Bank and why you want to work in the particular division you have applied to, for example:

• What moves have you made to secure a career in Investment Banking?
• What is your understanding of Investment Banking?
• What does Barclays Investment Bank do?
• Why do you want to work in Investment Banking and not IT?
• What will you be doing in your first year at BarClays if your application is successful?
• What do you think are the most difficult issues facing Barclays in the field you have applied to?
• Imagine this scenario: Some data you urgently require is three hours late, what do you do?
• Tell me about a major issue right now concerning Investment Banking that interests you.
  • How could this affect investment banks such as Barclays?

You will also be asked general competency questions, concerning issues like teamwork and communication, for example:

• Are you a risk taker?
• Tell me about a time when you were a member of a team.
  • What went wrong?
  • How did you overcome these challenges?

You will be emailed soon after your telephone interview with either a letter of rejection, or an invitation to an assessment centre.

Assessment Centre

The Assessment Centre is a full day of evaluation, held at the Barclays head office in Canary Wharf. There may be a large number of candidates at the assessment centre, but you will be divided into teams of about 10 people, and each team will also be given a team leader, a senior employee from Barclays Investment Bank. You will complete several activities with your team throughout the day, which is loosely structured as follows:

• 2 to 4 group tasks
• Competency interview
• Presentation
• Group activity

You will be given several opportunities for breaks and refreshments throughout the day, and the chance to speak with several current Barclays employees.

Group Tasks

The group tasks will vary between assessment centres, and generally will have nothing to do with Investment Banking or Technology directly, however they will challenge you to think both logically and creatively, and to problem solve. Examples of previous group tasks include:

• Creating a 40 cm tall structure using spaghetti and marshmallows that can withstand the weight of a certain object
• Find the most suitable place for tourists based on a given criteria and options
• Build a Rubik's cube as a team from the blocks you are each given, without speaking
• Balance a number of nails on top of a nail hammered into a piece of wood.

During these tasks there will be a number of HR people from Barclays who will be monitoring your activities and making notes.

Though they are looking for adept thinkers and creative problem-solvers, they are also looking to see that you can work cooperatively in a group, so make sure you are respectful of others and do not appear too dominating.

Interview

During the assessment day you will have a 30 minute interview with one or two senior members from the department, and this interview will be mostly competency based, featuring questions such as:

• Give me an example of a successful team effort that you have been a part of
• Give me an example of an unsuccessful team effort that you have been a part of
• Tell me about a time when you had to convince others to see your point of view
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Give me an example of a time when you needed to be updated about something

This interview is mainly about you, your application and your motivations for working at Barclays Investment Bank, much like the telephone interview.

In the unlikely event that your interview does feature some technical questions, the type of questions you may be asked include:

• How data is stored? How does the garbage collector work? When does it get used? Can I call it?
• What's the difference between an abstract class and a class.
• How do you use reflection, what are the advantages of reflection? What are the disadvantages of reflection?
• What does hashCode() do?
• If I implement cloneable, what methods should I override? Why would I want to implement cloneable?
• What's the difference between an Array and an ArrayList?
• Can I call Java from C++? Can I call C++ from Java?
• How do you use threads in Java?
• How can you implement a semaphore?
• How is inheritance different in C++ and Java?

Presentation

You will then be given 5 - 15 minutes to prepare a presentation on a very vague topic, which could even be as general as "prepare a presentation on anything you like", and this presentation should last 3-5 minutes. As you are only given an exceedingly short time in which prepare a presentation, be sure you do not dwell on the choice of topic, but choose something that you are comfortable speaking about candidly. There will be a brief question and answer period after you have given your presentation

Group Exercise

In the next activity your group will be split into two smaller groups and you are given your next task. Again, the exact task will vary, but an example of the type of task you may encounter would be that you are given the policies of Barclays and two products. You will need to choose to launch one of those products as a group, convince your fellow Barclays professionals that this product adheres with the company's policies, and develop a sales pitch to launch that product.

It is important to stand up for your decisions and explain why you decided on your choices, even if it turns out that they are the wrong choices. This is also their chance to observe how you interact with others on a smaller scale, so be mindful of how you treat your teammates, but be sure to have your voice heard.

After your documents have been photocopied and you have been given a brief presentation from Barclays thanking you for your attendance, you will be free to leave.