Barclays Internship Interview Experience | On-Campus 2020

Barclays, Pune visited our campus on 3rd Nov’20 to hire interns for the 2021 Summer internship for the role of Business Analyst – BA3. Eligibility criteria were CGPA > 6.75 and no active backlogs. 3rd-year students of CE and IT branch were allowed to sit for the test. They don’t allow Diploma students for the process. The complete process comprised of two rounds; round 1 for coding and round 2 for the interview.

Round 1 (Online Test): The first round was the coding round conducted on the Hacker-Earth platform. It comprised of 30 MCQs and 2 coding questions; with a duration of 90 mins. There were different questions allotted to different people. The MCQs were from topics like:

1. Java
2. JavaScript
3. C++
4. DBMS
5. Data Structure
6. Python
7. Servlets
8. OS

Coding questions were:

1. Largest Number Of Vaccines
2. Cardinality and Arrays for Sets using Dynamic Programming.

MCQS had 16 marks weightage for half questions and 14 marks for another half; while Coding questions had a weightage of 50 and 30 marks. So make sure you do the MCQs section really well, and you will be through.

23 students were shortlisted for the interview round.

Round 2 (Technical + HR Round): Interviews of the first 13 people were scheduled on 6th Nov whereas others had it on 9th Nov.  

There was only one combined interview (Technical + HR). I was prepared for all types of questions. It was conducted on Cisco WebEx. I was the first candidate for the interview round. The interviewer was quite friendly just like most others. Also, on a side note, In Barclays, the interviews are taken by VPs only.

Technical:The interviewer was sharp on time and had my resume. He asked me the typical “tell me something about yourself” question like every other interviewer.  

Started with:

1. Project – Proper explanation right from the stack used to the working of the system.
2. DBMS
   • Indexing  
   • Joins
   • SQL Queries
3. OOPS
   • Inheritance
   • Difference between multiple and multilevel inheritance
   • Polymorphism

Note: Make sure you explain the project to him completely, so that he doesn’t have doubts. Also, this round entirely depends on the panelist, some students were asked core questions on the programming language, whereas others were asked detailed descriptions along with a lot of cross-questioning on their projects. So be thorough and honest with whatever you put up on your resume.

HR: First basic question asked was Why Barclays? Then about my family background, my strengths, weaknesses, and dealing with challenges. He laid huge stress on this question the way I answered him which determined their VALUES. You HAVE TO know the famous Barclays values – RISES. They are asked in every Barclays interview. Please make sure you go through Barclays RISES and know what each of its values really means.  

I had mentioned that I am Chief Marketing Officer of my college technical fest Technovanza. So, questions like what events are conducted, my role, my experiences, my contribution towards the marketing initiatives for the ongoing fest were being asked.

A lot of cross-questions were asked on that were:

1. My work done these years in the marketing sector.
2. Qualities of being a Leader and handling a big team of people.
3. Handling pressure when you are responsible for the “Making or Breaking” of the fest.

He then asked me if I had any questions for him. Please DO ask questions. It shows your curiosity and attentive nature.

The interview lasted for 25-30 mins.

Results: 

• The First list of 4 students came a week later with my name NOT in it and obviously not a good feeling, knowing the fact you had aced the interview. Had a rough idea that one more list may come up (seeing the number of selected candidates every year which was 12-14 and at the moment it was 4).
• Then in mid-Dec, a list with 4 names came, and it was great having my name, also a great feeling that out of 13 people who interviewed on 6th Nov, I was the only one selected.

Points that can highlight a candidate for the company: 

• My advice for Barclays would be: Have a good tech background along with a good personality. They want a smart geek having good knowledge as well as who can lead in their company. 
• Make sure you’re well versed with everything you’ve mentioned in your resume; your projects, your skills. 
• Also, it’s advisable to go Connect and Follow the HR recruiters of Barclays who come to your college on LinkedIn. 
• DSA, Java is a couple of things that usually are asked in the coding round. One thing you HAVE to do is check out GeeksforGeeks articles for every company you sit for, it’s a lifesaver!

IMPORTANT TIPS:

1. Resources for preparation for any company: https://github.com/yash0530/InterviewPrepResources
2. Read company Achieves in GeeksforGeeks: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/company-interview-corner/
3. Be thorough with your resume.
   • DON’T LIE in your Resume, that’s your true identity, and by lying, I mean;
   • Skills that you’re not very confident about  
   • Position of Responsibilities or Activities you haven’t done  
   • Projects in which you barely did anything.
   • Basically, Don’t Write Anything You Cannot Take the Conversation Further.
4. Try contacting a senior who works there/ has worked there. Their experiences, preparation, suggestions will help you a lot.
5. STOP Procrastinating and START preparing:
   • Start preparing 2-3 months prior to the internship drive, I had prepared from GeeksforGeeks initially and switched to Interview Bit after a few months.  
   • GeeksforGeeks has topic-wise questions so don’t keep waiting for motivation to start, get going. Interview Bit isn’t a thing to start DSA from basics, it’s a level up. This helps when you just need to revise.
6. Do good research about the company and recruiters.Research the company you are interviewing for thoroughly. Also, if you know your interviewer beforehand then go follow on LinkedIn to know more about their work.
7. Making an Extract of the Project and some HR/situational questions before the interview is very important.
8. Be a good listener and understand what the interviewer is asking rather than taking an interview in your own space where he can’t connect with you and it becomes a turn-off for him. Being Calm is what is advisable for every interview.
9. Having a friend who is there in your downs is very important. Especially getting rejected by many companies and doubting your self-worth, you better have a friend who will appreciate your efforts and motivate you to not lose hope.
10. 4 Letter word ‘LUCK’ plays a vital role in this internship drive.

People whom you don’t expect can get a branded company and you’re still trying for small startups, this is what happened and will happen BUT remember “God helps those who help themselves”, which is why HARDWORK + LUCK is the key. Period.

Some Points I would like to share:

• Don’t expect too much from a particular company, because it had happened and is likely to happen in the future that you may not get shortlisted for that company thereby bringing your morale down. Also, I know this won’t sound like much, but trust me, I’ve been there. I was rejected many times before bagging the Barclays internship. So as hard as it may seem, just believe that the right thing is still out there for you. Everything will fit in place soon. Learn everything you can from your experience and utilize that knowledge to crack your dream.  
• Just be patient, confident, and honest. Keep practicing, learning, and have faith in God.  

All the best!