Role: BA3 Analyst
Eligibility: CS & IT students ONLY from 3rd year, with ≥ 60% score across class X, XII and engineering semesters.
Round 1(Coding Round): The first round comprised 30 MCQ questions and 2 programming questions.
Time: 1hr 30min
Platform: HackerEarth
MCQs were from the following topics:
- Java
- Python
- Servlets
- MongoDB
- OOPs
MCQs were a mix of theoretical and output-based questions. Also there was no negative marking on MCQs (so do attempt every MCQ to maximise marks.)
Coding questions had a separate weightage of 20 marks and 50 marks respectively. The two questions I encountered were as follows:
- String subsequence related problem (I don’t remember the exact details related to the problem, but solved it greedily)
- Maximum height of factor tree (Solved recursively with basic optimization)
Round 2(TechnoHR Round): It was a single interview. Scheduled duration of the interview was 30 minutes.
Questions asked were as follows:
- Tell me about yourself.
- Asked me which programming languages have I worked with? (I answered that I had worked extensively with C++ for problem solving and JavaScript with Node.js for web development)
- Next he asked me if I had built any projects on C++? (I told him no but gave him an alternative that I had worked on full stack projects in Node.js and MongoDB).
- So he asked me to explain any of my resume projects. I explained one of them (just an overview initially).
- He seemed happy with the answer and asked me to elaborate on the technical implementation of the project.
- I took my time to answer this question till the last details (P.S: I was prepared for these questions, so it wasn’t too difficult to answer them)
- Next he asked me why I used Node.js as my backend framework of choice? (Elaborated on event loop architecture of Node.js and ease of scalability of Node.js applications). He seemed quite impressed with the answer.
- I had built a chat application using Socket.io. So he also asked me about my database preference and WHY? (The WHYs are very important for every project. I explained to him about the speed of CRUD access in MongoDB over a relational database and highlighted on the scalability aspect of MongoDB. He seemed content with my answer.)
- I felt he was satisfied with my technical knowledge and decided to move on to a basic HR question. He asked me that although I had worked with C++ and JS, what if the company uses a different tech stack and how open are you to learning about new technologies? (I explained on the lines that I always welcome a learning curve as it comes as part of every internship/ learning experience. Also that I was very willing to learn about new technologies to aid in building products that represent the vision of this company.)
- Finally, he asked me if I had any questions for him. I asked him about him work and projects he’s been associated with at Barclays and he took his time to explain me all about it.
And that’s it. Believe it or not the entire interview lasted for about 20 minutes. I left feeling quite happy with the conversation.
VERDICT: Selected
Final Tips:
- Be thorough with every single keyword on your resume. I can’t stress this enough.
- Try to look through as many past interview experiences as possible before the actual interview.
- Make sure to study about Barclays values and purpose closely. A lot of my friends were asked questions from this segment.
- Golden tip: Prepare at least one good question to ask at the end of the interview. It shows your interest and curiosity towards the company.
BEST OF LUCK. We’ll all make it in the end!!!