Computing & IT Interview Questions & Answers

The process started with filling in an online application which had standard personal, academic and previous emoployment questions. It took about 25 minutes to fill in the form as at the time I only had my education and personal information to fill in.

Once I got through to the face to face interview, I was given a call to see what day and time the interview was for. The interview was at the Hammersmith office just next to the location. The person that came to interview me was the person that became my manager. He began with asking me what I know about the company and then gave me a brief overview. He asked my compentency questions around my team working skills, group project at university and why did I apply for that particular role.
He then asked me about my technical skills and my interest in learning new skills. The interview lasted for 45 minutes and at the end he left it open for me to ask any questions.

We then started talking about cricket as we both seemed to have an interest and it became a somewhat informal chat.

Have you had an ocassion where you were leading a team but people won't listen to you? How did you manage that situation?

Make sure you ask a lot of questions, even if you sound dumb like what are the office timiings, where will I sit etc. Just ask as many questions as you can, it makes you look thirsty and eager for the role and leaves a good impression. Also make sure you conduct a research on the company like Disney, we always see Disney as cartoons and teddy bears but there is a lot more to it, don't go by the perceptions.

I got the offer straight away, the process was online application, then first round interview, then job offer.

This was a telephone interview, and it lasted about 45 minutes. I was given a call on my phone to let me know that they will call me on Skype. Then the person went through my personal details and started the interview process. It began with competency questions followed by questions on the knowledge required for the job role.

Competency questions such as, "Tell me a recent technology that can be beneficial to our company, "seemed as if these were the key questions they assessed me on. I was also asked some pure software engineering questions which i think were asked because they wanted to see whether i will be a nice fit for the role. I wasn't expecting these sort of questions as the email said there will be core competency questions to see if I am eligible for the final assessment centre.

How did you use latest technology recently and how could that technology help BT in improving their business?

Ensure that you know about what is required from the role you are applying for. E.g. Being a software engineer what are the core responsibilities and what is the knowledge you would need to have.

I didn't get through to the assessment stage, but I was told if I did get through the telephone interview I would have been given a call to attend the assessment centre at the London office

To apply to the HR Assistant role I had to submit my CV and Covering letter to the HR department. After this I was contacted to attend an assessment center. The assessment center started at 9am and finished at 4pm however candidates were sent home at lunch time if there were not successful. The day started with an ice breaker which consisted of a shield exercise where you had to answer the following questions about yourself. Your biggest achievement, your role model, your career ambition and a quote you live your life by. After the ice breaker we took part in a group exercise for 45 minutes surrounding health initiatives for the company. The final activity of the day was a "About Me" presentation which we had to prepare for the day. This was presented to four of the HR department. After lunch three successful candidates were asked to go through to the interview stage. There were two interviews, one focusing on competency questions and one on your personality.

After the "About Me" presentation the panel asked questions about the company and why you wanted to work for Computacenter so it is key to research the company before the assessment day.

The interviews were relaxed and the interviewers were friendly. The question were focused on previous work experience but they understood if you did not have any previous experience within HR. I would advise others to be yourself and enjoy the day.

There were 8 people attending the assessment day and three candidates stayed after lunch through to the next stage. I enjoyed the whole day as it was well organised and the atmosphere was relaxed.

The interview was held with two senior executives who asked me many competency questions and tried to get a gist of my technical skills and techncial experience. It was a 15 minutes interview and was focused on extracting the problem solving skills, communication skills, confidence, leadership, team working skills which will be required for any role at GE on a regular basis due to the nature of the teams.

Tell me about a project that failed and how did you go about making it a successful project in the end?

Don't worry if you don't do well on one part of the assessment center, concentrate on what is left and give your best. I believe its based on the marking system, so it will all add up and you will still have a good chance if you do well on the rest.

The assessment centre that I went to was from 8:30 to 2:30 (including lunch) and I think we started at 9. It consisted of 8 potential ITLP's and we were split in 2 groups of 4 each. We then went through the following (The order may vary):
1: Presentation about GE and life as an ITLP. (30 minutes approx.)
2: Interview (15 minutes)- As explained above.
3: Group Exercise (30 minutes)- This is where four of the people were sent to solve a problem and come up with a solution (there is no right or wrong answer). The team then had present the proposed solution in 5 minutes to the senior executive team who will negotiate on why you chose this to be the solution and not the others. So they were looking for skills such as persuasion, negotiation and decision making and ability to cope with pressure.
4: Presentation (10 minutes each) - My greatest achievement.

There are two interviews, the first one is more of a discussion about your skills on the CV along with some competency questions and a case study and lasts for 45 minutes. The second round interview is however, includes an in-depth interview of your skills, a presentation on a technical problem.

My first round interview was at Detica's headquarters in Guildford. The team lead himself came to interview me (as the other person wasn't feeling well) and went through the skills that were relevant to his team. Within a week I found that I was coming along for second round interview which was going to be in the coming week.
In the second round interview, there were two people one was a senior consultant and the other one being an ex-graduate. This time they were delving deeper into technical questions to see if I was the best fit for the role. This was then followed by a 20 minutes presentation including 5 minutes for Q&A. I was also given a vague idea on what the team does and how I would fit in it if I were to get this role. Towards the end, they left it open for me to ask any questions that I had.

Tell me about a time that you worked conveying technical information to a nontechnical audience. How did you manage it?

Make sure you know what you have on your CV and sell it as much as you can. There will be questions about the skills you put on your CV and in the second round interview, the interviewers do go into a lot of details. So don't put something on your CV that you are not entirely sure about. At Detica, people look for certain skills to see if you will fit their team.

You are given a training which depends on what team you join, so don't worry if you are not a master. They don't expect you to know everything as a graduate, but you should show that you are passionate enough and eager to learn.

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Firstly, I had a simple phone interview with a recruiter, then I had to take an aptitude. After that, I was invited to the assessment day.

The assessment was held at a hotel in Cardiff. The assessment day began with a brief presentation, roughly 15-20 minutes and in it, they talked about the company, the work that we'll be doing, the training schedule etc. After that, we had a group task which took up most of the day. We had to come up with a product, a business plan and create a website for that product, along with other mini-tasks. In between they held short 1 to 1 technical and personal interview. At the end of the day, we had presented the product to the assessors.

the 1 to 1 interview was quite simple just to test problem-solving.

The questions were:
given this array can you show me how to reverse it?
sort the given classes using an inheritance hierarchy?

actively participate in the group task and give constant input because that's what you are assessed mostly on. Also, practice presenting if you are not confident at giving presentations to a group of people. finally be yourself, the assessors were very friendly and relaxed.

The setting was professional and clean.

I was given a numerical test to prove that I was capable of doing basic maths, it wasn't too hard, but with a time limit there was some pressure. Followed was a test on technical knowledge, this proved to a little difficult as some of the questions where quite random such as the death a known inventor of some language, it may have been just me, but I thought it was difficult enough.

I understand that the role was for a Software Testing role, and we were given a test on programming languages, such as C#, Java, Visual Basic, Pearl etc, to prove what we knew. I had no experience with software development as my expertise was in Web Development, but I would say it was quite easy for those that know have done a Software Engineering or Computer Science course.

Next on the agenda was having to perform team work exercise. This involved 4 people to a team. We were divided up into 3 work types, 1 Architect, 1 Manager and 2 Workers. I had received the worker role. We were placed in 2 different rooms where the architect was in one the workers were in another and the manager was to go from one room to the next. The architect would describe to the manager was a figure looked like to the manager and the manager would then communicate to us what it looked like and we would then try to recreate it out of Haribo sweets. It was a communication exercise, wasn't too difficult and was quite fun.

Next was a role playing exercise where we would have to act out a certain situation. I and two others were given a scenario where a client needed a bit of work finished by the end of the weekend, but the 2 people who had been assigned to this project were quite busy, 1 going to a rugby match, and the other had to go to their sister's wedding. The 2 had to sort with themselves what they needed to do to make sure that all parties were happy.

After this was just a short 10-15 minute interview with quite easy questions.

I was not sure about this job before I went, but after I really wanted it! I didn't get the job in the end because of my lack of technical knowledge, but the interviewers were very kind to ring up when you didn't get the job and provided answers as to what they thought of you during each section and how you could improve in the future interviews. I found this part extremely helpful and really glad I had attended this assessment day, even though I was not successful.

Why would you choose this type of consultant role over others?

Don't ramble through your answers to the interview, be precise about the answer. You do not need to keep talking to impress the interviewer.

Make sure you come in confident, don't be quiet at the start and just get talking to people and forming a good team spirit.

It was set in a different building from the company, but it was comfortable with refreshments, plenty of breaks and free mints! I quite enjoyed the free mints. :)

Fantastic day, really enjoyed every moment of it.
Kirsty is a great recruiter, and Amy was amazing, she gave me back some excellent feedback. The best parts were creating the project and then presenting it. Elliot did put me to the test with the interview, how ever i did give it my best try. Can't wait to hear from QA consulting.

The question where I had to answer to to wether 9 is a prime number.

Make sure the programming knowledge is to a high level, find a good car parking spot before hand (if you are driving) I recommend you be yourself, have fun but remember you are being assessed so try your best throughout the day.

Clean and organised.

PRE ASSESSMENT CENTRE
Initial telephone interview was very relaxed, basic questions such as 'why IT'.
One way video interview consisted of around 4 questions such as 'why FDM?', ''Tell us about yourself'. Given 60 seconds to answer each question with prep time before each question.

ASSESSMENT CENTRE
3 interviews lasting 5 minutes each, see below for more info.

Would you sacrifice the quality of work to meet a deadline.

Technical and business pathways are assessed together so do not stress if you lack knowledge of coding. Be confident and friendly, show an interest in technology and a willingness to learn. Don't be afraid to engage in conversation with interviewers. Professional dress code.

Introductory presentation. Short exercise where candidates introduce themselves to the group.
Venn diagrams/set notation test. Information booklet provided for test and revision material given prior to assessment day was very useful.
Maths test. GCSE level maths.
Aptitude test. General knowledge, logic, basic coding and IT questions.

3 interviews (5 minutes each): Very friendly interviewers. Each interview has an un-assessed practice question.
Interview topics: -Interest in IT/FDM
-Degree/education
-Personal qualities

There was no telephone interview for the role, instead the interview was a group assessment day which included group exercises, a presentation and a one on one interview. The group consisted of approx 10 applicants and around the same number of staff.

After introductions, the group was split and while one toured the facilities, the other conducted a group exercise. The groups then swapped over after an hour or so. There was then a further individual exercise before a one on one interview.

At the one on one interview, which lasted around 20 minutes, the assessor discussed your individual exercise and then asked a series of questions to show your competency for the role. For these they asked you to apply scenarios where you could prove your knowledge. Any questions about the role were answered here.

Following the one on one interview, applicants had the opportunity to speak to employees who had completed the scheme and ask any questions they wanted.

Describe how you would improve the communication within the company using IT equipment?

Tell me about a time you had an innovative idea?

Don't just research standard interview questions, be prepared to think outside the box and provide real-life examples.

The assessment day for around 10-15 people included a tour of the offices, a presentation about the company, a one on one interview including a presentation made by the applicant, a question and answer session with employees and management and group exercises.