theInterview🚀

📌 Interview Experience – Barclays

Around 200 students appeared for the Online Assessment.
The OA consisted of:
- 1 DSA problem
- SQL queries
- MCQs, mainly focused on Java fundamentals
After evaluation, ~25 students were shortlisted for the next round.

This round was conducted by a Vice President at Barclays.
The interview started with a discussion on:
- My internship experience
- My final year project
This year’s interview format was different from previous years.
- Instead of directly asking technical questions, the interviewer focused on real-world scenarios.
- I was asked questions like:
  - How I handled errors or issues during project development
  - Challenges faced during internships or academic projects
  - Decision-making in critical situations
- After I explained each scenario, the interviewer cross-questioned deeply to understand:
  - My thought process
  - Problem-solving approach
  - Whether my responses were genuine and experience-based
Overall, around 4–5 scenarios were discussed in depth.
The key takeaway from this round was that the interviewer evaluated:
- Practical understanding
- Honesty and clarity
- Ability to reason step-by-step instead of rote answers
At the end, I was asked a High-Level Design (HLD) question:
- “If a client connects to a particular server, how will you ensure that the client connects to the same server the next time?”
- This tested concepts like session management and system design thinking.
After this round, ~12 students were shortlisted.

This was a standard HR round focusing on behavioral and situational questions.
Some of the questions included:
- Why do you want to join Barclays?
- Describe a situation where your actions had a positive impact on your team
- How would you react if you discovered a mistake caused by a teammate?
- What if you yourself were responsible for the issue?
- Describe a situation where you took a risk
The interviewer mainly assessed:
- Communication skills
- Ethics and accountability
- Teamwork and leadership qualities