Computing & IT Interview Questions & Answers

There were three interviews, one primary phone interview with a recruiter, a technical phone interview then a 3D CV and personality interview at the assessment day.

None of these were particularly hard, the phone interview was with an engineer so you cant blag your way through this one! The 3D CV was with one of many assessors inside tesco who work in IT.

The technical question provided was the most difficult which asked about why, how and the considerations required for Tesco moving their IT services to the cloud.

If going for a techncial role make sure to find out definites such as languages you may be required to know and accurate details. Also make sure to prepare more for the technical question than the 3D CV.

I recently applied to Tesco's graduate software engineer scheme and was unsuccessful but this is not the focus of my complaint. My complaint is with regard to the recruitment process, how it was handled and the feedback provided.

First, I was scheduled for a phone interview, I rescheduled my work and day around the interview but never received a phone call or email. I left a message for the recruiter and attempted to call her multiple times over the following days to no avail and only received contact back via email the next week (4-5 days after the scheduled date).

Second, after being sucessful in the telephone interviews I was given less than 48 hours notice that I was to attend an assessment day, leaving me no time to prepare anything as I was out for the whole day when I recieved the email and working the day before the assessment day. When I got to the assessment day I found everyone else had at least a week to prepare.

Third, I was told during the phone interviews that I could carry out the programming task in a language of my choosing (C#), when I got to the assessment day I was told to use a different language (Java) that I had never used before and a different editor, so I was immediately at a huge disadvantage to the other participants who had used the language before or were told the language they would be using. This fact was also not reflected in the feedback which stated that I required a lot of help with syntax and the editor, which is to be expected when I am using a different language in a different editor.

Fourth, when I replied to the recruiter, telling her my thoughts on the feedback she provided more verbal feedback which said: "completed the task in java which he had a knowledge of". This is untrue, I have never used Java before the assessment day and having to complete a task in another language and editor no matter the similarities is unfair. Which also makes it seem like some of the feedback provided is false or blanket statements as her verbal feedback stated I had a knowledge when I made it clear to the assessor that I had no knowledge or experience with it at all.

It is fair to say the entire process has been nothing but hassle, wasting my time and providing no helpful feedback to improve myself.

The phone interview took 15 minutes asking questions such as why you want to work in the IT industry; what attracts you to FDM group; and general questions to gain a quick insight into basic competencies to assess your suitability for FDM.

If you were successful you would be invited to an assessment centre which included 3 separate tests and 2 interviews. The interviews revolved around 3 specific themes: FDM and the IT industry; your degree and career history; professional and personal motivations

The 1st interview was with the account manager of Hong Kong (Held over Skype), which was used to assess my knowledge in general topics within project management as well as my competencies.

Whilst the 2nd interview was with face-to face with a UK manager. This was a very relaxed conversational approach towards the interview that felt like they genuinely wanted to get to know me on a more personal level with regards to the themes describled above

What are the most important issues the IT industry is currently facing?
What is the reason for the current oil prices for hitting its current all time low (This question was a real curveball)

To prepare for the tests, you can use google to help to find suitable resources to ensure you are well prepared.
As for the interviews, I would recommend researching their company as best as possible using a SWOT analysis to gain a general background of the company as well as opportunities and threats that can affect the IT industry.
Read up on top news stories within current affairs as a few curveballs could be thrown into the mix.
And most importantly BE POSITIVE!!

Within the assessment centre we were asked to perform 3 tests:
Numerical (30 minutes) - which included basic arithmetic maths
Basic IT aptitude test (60 minutes) - this included situational questions, logical and verbal reasoning, as well as some basic programming questions
Venn diagram test (60 minutes)
For the most part these tests aren't too difficult as long as you spend a minimum of 2-3 days preparing for them to familiarise yourself with the terminology as well as how the questions are asked, though its important to note they are a tad tricky.

The interview consisted of a short discussion with three members of the company. The graduate scheme was mainly operated by the tutor and a small number of other staff members who also carried out work / taught some of the modules you had to study alongside the job during the scheme.

It began with an overview of my CV and a discussion about my experiences at uni, commercial work and the kind of work that I wished to pursue. The panel asked generic questions like why they should employ me, what I would do with unhappy clients, how well I work with other people and examples of when I have worked with other people that have gone well and bad (and what I had learnt from them - this came up in several of my interviews).

The technical task process was very poorly organised, the interviewer was an elderly man and clearly disliked me so treated me in a bad manner. The work I was presenting on the board was correct but he spoke down to me regularly and at one point called mey ideas stupid (to which at that point I had had enough and called him stupid and asked not to be spoken to like that...).

The interview was rounded up with a small discussion about myself, to which they didn't pay much interest!

The technical task wasn't too difficult, just be sure to be prepared for things you may overlook in your preparation due to thinking you have it down perfectly! The hardest question I encountered was "Give us an example of a piece of work which went well and a piece that went bad, with the approaches you'd take to make them better and how you could incorporate teamwork into the process"

Seemed like a big question at the time and took me a bit to think about and process my answer in my head!

Be prepared for anything, some companies I had interviews for were genuinely lovely people - even if I wasn't appropriate enough for the job.

The interview in my opinion was very bad. I was spoken to in a rude manner before I had a chance to even show my abilities, it wasn't like I hadn't made an effort either as I had dressed well and was well spoken.

I am glad I had this interview as it made me realise how some companies employ graduates and push them around at such low rates of pay (this was £14,000!). If you don't like a companies ways, go elsewhere - I'm now with a lovely company, there's plenty of better people out there!

I attended an interview at The Hut Group headquarters on 19/06/2013 with the Service Delivery Manager (Andrea) and the IT Manager (Neil) which lasted around 35 minutes. The room that was booked for the interview was still occupied when we arrived so I got a chance to have an informal chat with Andrea which was nice as it gave me a chance to calm down. When we sat down, we discussed my CV, previous employment, my education, achievements and skills. I was asked a series of questions including what I could bring to the company, why I applied for the role and what I thought the company could offer me.

The interview was a lot more relaxed than others that I have had and I felt very welcome.

If two high ranking employees submitted an urgent helpdesk ticket at the same time that needed to be addressed immediately, which one would you do first and why?

Prepare! I was asked to give my impressions and to give some information about the company that I wouldn't have been able to answer if I hadn't done any research beforehand. I looked at the company's website, my interviewer's LinkedIn pages and recent press releases/financial information which turned out to be very useful. Also, look into the common interview questions that are asked and practice giving your answers to another person so it doesn't sound like your reading from a script. Bring along a copy of your CV as well, as the interviewer may not have it with them. Arrive early, as it may be difficult to find a parking space (I had this problem at my interview).

N/A

The interviews were conducted between three members of staff, each of which asked four scripted questions. The interviewers were thus not expanding on their questions that is up to you to do. Each of the three has a specific topic, your university degree, why you want to work for FDM and in the I.T sector, and personal questions about you as an applicant.

Typically, the questions were easy to answer and designed to show your personality. The hardest of which was the question "would you miss a a deadline if sticking to it meant compromising on quality" obviously there is no perfect answer to such questions.

Each interview lasted between 5-6 minutes depending on how long you as an applicant talked for and expanded on your answers (some people had as little as 2-3 minutes).

Would you be willing to miss a deadline if meeting the deadline meant compromising on the quality of the finished project?

And:

What would you do if we locked you out of the office for 2 hours and were not allowed to work?

Ensure you revise your maths skills a lot before hand. While the maths is not hard if you have not done any mental arithmetic for some time you will not score well. The venn diagram and set notation test can be learned in an afternoon and once you know it it is very easy. The interviews are difficult to prepare for so go in with some preparation but be willing to think on your feet.

There were three exams, maths (30 mins), aptitude test (1hr) and set notation and venn diagram (1hr). The hardest of which is personal to you, I found the maths test the hardest having never particularly been very good at it but the second two relatively easy.

First of all was the phone interview. It lasted roughly half an hour including my questions on the end. They were the typical competency based questions along the lines of 'Why do you want to work for Accenture' etc...

I was told that i would find out the results of my intervew within 5-10 days but i was actually called the morning after which was fantastic.

The face-to-face interview was scheduled for the following week in the London offices. It was a 2 hour interview which consisted of 1 hour with an HR representative and one hour with a Technical representative.

The HR interview was a development of the phone interview with more questions on my knowledge of Accenture such as: What Accenture does, What does the role entail and who are their main competitors.

The Technical interview comprised of questions that asked me to describe situations that demonstrate i have the technical skills to fit in with Accenture.

Both interviewers were very calm and made me feel so comfortable. Overall from the point of me applying online to hearing my final result was less 3 weeks!

The most difficult questions were definitely for the technical interview such as: 'Describe a recent experience in which i had to use problem solving skills to solve a problem within a team task'

Make sure you are well equipped to answer questions about your past experince as that is key.

But also make sure you dont get caught out on small questions such as: 'Who are Accenture's main competitors?'

No Assesment centre for technical role

There were different stages before the final offer gets made. Initial online application, included several 250 word answers to questions about me, my skills, cover letter and their relation to the healthcare industry. Then I had to complete two aptitude tests online. Once that was through, I had to attend a telephone interview, but I was abroad at the time so it was conducted via Skype. It was really nice of them to accommodate this need. I was invited to an assessment day.
It was a two day assessment centre. This by far the most grueling assessment centre I have been to and was completely knackered by the end of it. Every one was really nice and helpful and they really go the extra mile to woo you.

The most difficult questions in the interview revolved around thinking about previous situations in which I thought I had been successful and I was asked to consider what I would have done differently to have been even more successful. For instance if I had been asked to think of an example where you led a team to complete a task, the follow up question would be what could you have done differently to complete the task more efficiently?

Use STAR technique to answer the questions. It's a big deal. So research it online and make sure you've got some solid examples from your own experiences to refer to.

This will help with the trickier competency based questions that they throw at you.

So the assessment centre had following stages:

A Group exercise - Given a scenario, we had to come up with a solution while assessors observed,. After abut 20 minutes, we had to present and this is when they asked really stupid, smart, difficult questions. Those who didn't answer any questions were specifically spotted, probably not a good thing.

Role Play - I was given a situation and I was told that I was going to lead the team and there was a problem which I had to solve as the leader of the team. I got given 15 minutes to prepare and another 15 to ask what I needed to solve that problem.

Presentation - In formation as given beforehand and had to present my information relating to the brief that was given on the day to two assessors. This was followed by a 10 minutes Q&A session where I had to answer questions about my chosen subject and why I made the decisions you did.

Interview - Same as telephone interview, competency based questions and the motivation to work for the company.

I applied in January and my application was deferred to March. First of all, I had my phone interview which was based on my knowledge of FDM and the IT industry, my academic history and some personal competency-based questions. Having done a bit of research on the company, it was fairly easy to pass that stage of the interview. It lasted about 15 minutes.
I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the assessment centre in the Manchester academy on 31st March. There was a group of about 8 people attending, I was the only girl, although in the IT industry a minority of girls is common! The day started off with presentation of the company and the graduate scheme, each candidate had to give a short introduction about themselves, and the route they were interested in applying to, i.e. Technical or Business. I recommend researching your preferred route in advance to the interview! The unpaid training process of 2-3 months was also explained. We then had three separate 5 minute 1:1 interviews based on the same general areas as the phone interview. In preparation, I had a look at YouTube on how to answer interview questions, which might sound a bit daft but it really benefited me as someone who has not experience in professional interviews. I also developed a SWOT analysis of FDM for an insightful overview ot the company.
We then had three tests: 1) IT and Aptitude (1 hour), 2) Maths - Mental arithmetic to GCSE standard (1/2 hour), and 3) Venn Diagrams (1 hour). My advice on these is to put a good amount of revision in using the information they send by email. As someone who doesn't come from a strong IT background, I definitely recommend doing a bit of additional research on the basics, such as common IT abbreviations, e.g. http. The Maths tests was pretty straight forward, know your basic long division and multiplication, fractions, ratios, Pythagoras, etc. I've never come across Venn diagrams until this interview either, and yet again, they're not complex providing you do a bit of a brush-up on them, although they do provide a booklet on them to support you through the test. Whilst these tests do sound daunting, I was advised that only a 50% pass mark is required.
The assessment centre started at 9am and finished early at 2:30pm. We were told that we would hear if we were successful or not by email within 48 hours. I heard back the next morning on 1st April with good news. I'm now awaiting a phone call to arrange a start date.

What do you think of organisational change? What is the best way to learn?

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but prepare!!! Know the company, and know what you want from the company. In your responses to the interviews use your experiences and give suitable personal examples!

Introduce yourself in morning presentation.
IT and Aptitude test
Mental Maths test
Venn Diagram test

My telephone interview lasted for approximately 25-30 mins. Initially, BT went through some HR material regarding my application for security reasons. They then went on to ask whether I could meet the rigorous of IT consultancy, as there is a need for a huge amount of flexibility. After, I was quizzed about my CV and academical background. What followed next was standard competency based questions in relation to the organisations values, which can be found on the website. My questions were based around team-working and problem solving.

The tasks in the assessment centres were quite challenging. I was not sure about some of the questions which were completely based on technical knowledge.

Go through the companies values on their website and this should give you a good indication of the competency based questions that are likely to come up. Make sure you give a professional presentation of the case study.

BT gave a brief interview of themselves and the program upon the arrival of all the candidates. What followed next for me was a face to face interview with a senior member of BT. Again, this was similar to telephone interview, however, before attending the assessment centre you are given a case study in which you are to present to your interviewer. Next i completed a numerical test (SHL). Finally, a group exercise was last on the agenda. I got a group size of 4 people, although the other team had a size of 5. You are given a case study, in which you have to decipher the relevant information and make a decision with your team about an outcome.

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. :)