Barclays

1. 1

   Online test

   Online assessment: seven independently timed sections
   HackerEarth90 min38 questionsmixedeliminatory

   Section	Qs	Min	Topics
   OOP (Python) MCQ	-	-	inheritance, OOP definitions, output prediction
   Python MCQ	-	-	Python output questions, loops
   Aptitude	10	10	percentages, profit and loss, speed
   Finance and current affairs	15	-	bonds, options, central bank rates, markets news
   Coding	3	-	greedy, two pointers, DP, graphs, Fenwick tree variant, debugging

   Python OOP · aptitude · finance basics · current affairs · greedy · dynamic programming

   Sections cannot be revisited. Calculator allowed for aptitude. Question sets differ per candidate, with coding difficulty varying widely. MCQ total about 35. Some MCQs repeated from the mentorship test. Coding performance decides interview shortlisting for CS roles.

2. 2

   Technical interview

   Interview round 1 (first panel)
   25 minoffline

   resume projects · OOP pillars · Python basics · estimation · puzzles · VWAP · weighted average · linked lists vs arrays · Linux commands

   Length 15-35 min across accounts. Mostly one interviewer. A second panel from another team sometimes followed, depending on role shortlist. Scheduled in the night slot of day zero.

3. 3

   Technical interview

   Interview round 2 (second panel)
   20 minoffline

   finance knowledge link to projects · probability and statistics · bond duration · yield curves · credit default modelling · CAPM · volatility smile · database indexing · market impact of large buys

   Length 5-25 min across accounts. Role-specific and the most technical or grilling round for some; one account's round was formal and one panellist joined online.

4. 4

   HR interview

   HR / senior leader round
   12 minoffline

   why this firm · why finance · why IIT and branch · JEE rank · role preference ET vs other · AI replacing jobs · mentorship

   Length 8-15 min. One account had no separate HR round and was told of selection after round 2.

Advice from candidates

220 pieces of advice, in their own words. Names removed.

• Be mentally prepared with why you want to get into Barclays, and how it aligns with your career goals. Go through a few puzzles online and read a bit about finance markets. Keep up with the trends going on throughout the world and how each and everything happening in the world is affecting the financial markets.

  preparation · 2022-23

• The company is well aware that they are visiting an engineering institute and they don’t look for students who would know inside out about finance(though it is obviously an added advantage). They want you to possess deep interest, good analytical skills and basic programming skills. Moreover, if you are interested to build a career in the field of finance, Barclays is the best starting point in India.

  general · 2022-23

• The company emphasises a lot on how their employees dress and present themselves. So for the interviews, it is strongly advised that you present yourself fully suited up with tie, blazer, etc.

  interview · 2022-23

• Ask a good question when the interviewer asks whether you have any questions.

  interview · 2022-23

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Question patterns reported

The kind of problem, not the problem itself. Our practice questions are written to match these patterns.

• Technicalprobability puzzle with objects on polygon corners
• Technicalmake a biased coin fair
• Technicallongest common subsequence output
• Managerialset interest rate and collateral for hypothetical lending case
• Technicalpower function via binary search on answer
• Technicalquick mental estimate of digit count of a large power
• Onlinecount peaks in a sequence
• Onlineshortest path between primes via digit changes
• Onlineclass-based add/delete/edit query processing
• Onlinetwo operation types applied over queries
• Technicalmeasure time using burning ropes
• Technicalfind fastest horses with limited races
• Technicalegg drop with floors
• Technicalsplit balls to maximise probability
• Technicalpoison among many bottles using few animals
• Technicalexpected value of a dice roll
• Technicalmedian of a growing stream
• Managerialcompare two large exponential numbers
• Managerialfind the median after each insertion
• Managerialletter-sum cryptarithm puzzle
• Managerialvague question on share price impact of a purchase
• Othermeasure a target volume with fixed-size containers
• Othertwo simple coding tasks in a notebook environment
• Technicallongest run of consecutive values in an array