I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Barclays (Tokio) in Jun 2008
Interview
I went through a recruiting agent to apply for the Software Developer position. The first step was to take a 3 hour online skill test in certain programming language. That test was pretty tough (but now after I joined the firm I probably use 5% of those skill). After I passed that online test, I had 1:1 interview with the Line manager and Senior Manager. There were no technical questions from both of them.
When I passed, next step was a group interview with a senior member and manager of another location but working for same global team. One the senior member asked some technical questions, but those were not very tough. Manager of another location asked pretty much same types of questions that I faced with Line Manager and Senior manager. After passing this stage, I had HR interview, and the last 1:1 interview was with global head of the team. During the interview process I felt that they put importance to the right person with right attitude to works, team play, communication skills, etc. rather than on technical skills. This was different compared with my experience with other firms.
Advice: Be prepared with details of past job/project experience, what difficulties you faced, how you overcame, etc. rather than putting too much time on preparation of technical skills.
The interview felt less like an assessment of Java engineering ability and more like a pub quiz for obscure syntax trivia. Instead of exploring problem-solving, design decisions, debugging skills, or real-world development experience, the focus seemed to be on recalling exact language details that most professional developers would simply look up in seconds.
It's a curious hiring strategy: rejecting people who know how to build software because they can't instantly recite syntax that modern IDEs autocomplete for them anyway
Overall, the process felt outdated, disconnected from how software is actually written, and more reflective of academic memorisation than professional engineering competence.
Initial CGPA based screening.
Three rounds in total post that.
First eliminatory round consisted of DSA and sql round for screening.
Difficulty Leet Code Medium.Strings question.
Pen paper DSA in person. Leet Code Easy. A sorting variant.
HR or behavioural round.
Final verdict: Selected
I arrived at the Barclays Munich office on Leopoldstraße. A friendly recruiter named Katharina welcomed me. We discussed Java microservices, Kubernetes deployments, and team culture. The atmosphere felt professional yet relaxed. Overall, a positive experience.