Computing & IT Interview Questions & Answers

Telephone interview is a competency based interview which lasts about 40 min and STARR format answers are expected. The interview is with the HR and it has a feeling of a speaking to a secretary. No emotions just writing down what you are saying so if you are excited to work for the company you have to say it as it will not be deducted from your tone.

First part of the interview is about your excitement towards Atos "Why Atos"
In this question you are expected to show that yo have prepared for the interview and that you know a lot about the company, and also very important how does Atos is different from other companies.


Second question is "Why you?" So what makes you the good candidate for Atos, how you gonna fit within this company. Again show your research reflect the overall values / culture of the organisation and how you have them too.

Third question is "What do you like about the graduate scheme you have chosen?" Here show that you know how the scheme looks like what does it offer and that you know a lot about the position you are going for.

Next part is about the team working. The question is "Tell me about the time when you worked in a team and one of the members was not cooperating as much as team would like him to". STARR format here is very important specially at the end to show WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED? and reflection on WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE NEXT TIME IF YOU HAD THE SAME SITUATION? Show your team working skills here.

Fourth part is about diversity. "Tell me about the time when you changed the way you work" STARR format showing your ability to adapt easily to changing environment or situation. What you have learned and what would you change are very important. If you will not say it yourself, interviewer will ask you these questions anyway. But wouldn't it be good to impress?

Other parts of the interview are about you, if you have been away for longer than 6months in last 5years, do you need visa to work, is any location ok for you to work and things like that.

"Tell me about the time when you changed the way you work"

Prepare good for the interview. You are expected to be prepared for the telephone interview just like it would be a one to one. Remember your STARR format especially Results, Reflection part!

Atos interviews are designed to allow candidates
the opportunity to show evidence of certain key
competencies, some of which are detailed below:-

Team Work ??? assesses candidates??? ability to work
co-operatively with others to achieve a common goal.

Business Motivation and Expectations ??? assesses
candidates??? commitment to a career in their chosen
business area.

Adaptability ??? assesses candidates??? ability to respond
positively to changing environments.

Design a plan for moving a company from building to building. Including builders work needed to be done and machines, servers move.

It was a verbal interview consisting of all the common questions they ask in an interview, like:
-Tell us about your background, studies and experience.
-Why are you interested in joining us?
-What skills do you have to offer?
-Why do you consider yourself able of such a role?
-Would you be able to work in an industrial environment?
-What do you think of our company?
-Would you be able to work if called overnight?
-Are you able to communicate, understand and be patient with people who work here and have no or limited education?
-What do you imagine would you be doing here?
-How good are your programming skills?

Tell us in one sentence why should we choose you. I was just not ready for a short answer.

Be yourself, the company has a friendly environment and that makes you not to be so stressed up.
No special preparation is needed in the first stage, but in the second(interview) stage you should go really prepared and be sure that you are able to answer in depth all the typical questions they ask in each interview and I described above.
Don't be afraid to ask any questions you might have. They are good people.

There were 2 group tasks, and one individual. In the first group task they split us into 3 teams consisting of 6-8 people each. We were given some wooden pieces which if place properly on the ground they would create a pattern of boxes. The task was after team discussion and practice to figure out to create the pattern as fast as possible. Our team was much better than the others and after completing the task they asked members of our team to show the other teams how we did it.

In the 2nd task we were 2 teams of 10 people and we sat on a table with 3 senior managers. We were given 3-4 cards each which contain a piece of information. We were only allowed to read the cards but not show them to the other candidates. The task was to discuss about what information each had and find a solution to a problem they gave to us. Mathematics had to be used.

At the end there was an individual task, to write a covering letter after all the information we got during the assessment day and why would we be interested to join the company.

I personally proceeded to the next and final stage of 10 people. We were invited for a tour in the company and they had us interviewed by a group of people, 2 senior managers and 3 employees. Out of 10 they hired 5 people and I was not one of them.

The video interview experience was very good. Vodafone provided video link to use on different platform so that students can use on their choices. There was a practice question that is directly related to later interview questions. You can practice as many as you can so that you can perfect your pitch. This practice will ensure you are doing everything correct. Things like fixing front camera to its best, smiling, sound level after replaying recorded video.
Before video interview, ensure you have researched the company from your application perspective. This brings huge knowledge before doing interview.

"What do you think about new innovation that has to be brought using technologies?" This is not accurate question. Anyway, you can talk about missing technologies around your surrounding. Let say if there is no secure Wifi public connection then what would you do to make sure your information are protected from unauthorised access? Thus is a task you do by yourself and there is possibilities of of doing innovative way.

Use STAR technique while answering video interview questions. This technique will cover Situation, Task, Action and Result. Always be loud and clear. Bring pragmatic approach. And know their culture and values.

I am still waiting for video interview resul.

Once I was successful in the application I was invited to book my interview date online, this was all very professional and convenient, I chose my slot.

The first round of interviews consisted of a Problem Solving based test, Goldman Sachs (GS) were more interested in how you attempted to solve the problem, rather than the right answer. We had 30 minutes to complete the test. The only negative is that we weren't given a clock in the room! There were three questions.

The second stage was to discuss our test results with a member of the technology team, we had thirty minutes to explain all our answers, and in my case, attempt to answer question three out loud - as I didn't have time in the test!

After that interview we had another 30 minute interview, this was basic competencies such as "Why Goldman Sachs", "Tell me a time when you've.."

I was told we would receive a response within 24 hours.

72 hours later, I had not received a response, I phoned head office and asked them to put me through to the Graduate Recruitment Officer (I quoted her name, but hidden on here for obvious reasons), and I asked her directly.

Whether it was this ballsy attitude that got me to the final round stages, I'll never know.

The final round interview consisted of one competency based interview, one technical interview, in my case it was about time complexity.

Technical interview on time-complexity and some programming based questions.

Do your homework on the company, this is one of the toughest selection processes for any graduate job due to the extreme competition. You are also being judged from the moment you walk into the building, be yourself and don't be nervous.

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I had a phone interview asked about real life examples of what I can do. Success in a phone interview led me to Panel interview which consists of the team I supposed to work with.
The Panel interview was divided into 4 sessions; the first one was introducing myself and PowerPoint presentation about how I got to the IT field. The second was technical questions of the kind ' What do you know about?'.
The third session was questioned about my CV and my Personal abilities, such as What did you study in that and this? Talk to me about your experience on that and this. Tell me about a situation when you took a lead, impress your boss, feeling uncomfortable in the work environment... etc..
The fourth session was a written test on the subject I suppose to work on.
All in all it took about an hour.

The personal ability and situation questions were really the trickiest part. You have no idea what the ideal answer to some of them.

- Prepare a good presentation.
- Study and review your technical subject.
- Dress smart.
- Give enough time to arrive early.
- Trust yourself and your abilities even if you don't know the answer.
- Do a research about the company you are going to interview for.
- Smile.
- Stay Positive.
- Read a lot of regular interview questions in your field.

- Prepare a presentation.
- A written test on the job related subject.

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.

It started with phone interview, where it asked basic questions about my knowledge, education and the role, after passing the phone interview I was invited to join assessment day in Worthing offices and was warned about Java basic test that will be held in assesment day. During the assessment day I was 20min early and had a good chat with the consultant manager. The assessment day started at 9am and finished at around 4pm. In the begining all of us took Java basic test (Even tho I never studied Java, I was learning C++ in university, I found the test very simple, it's only basic knowledge of programming), after the test we had to take on tasks. There was around 13 tasks to do, where we had to split the work to deliver all the tasks by the deadline. Also we had to arrange our lunch break, everyone was focused on work, so we just ordered Dominos pizza for delivery. Through all the day there was business (personality and character) and technical (programming and education) interviews keeping place, where we had to arrange the order who is going to the interview next, they took 15mins each. At the end of the day we had to present all the tasks we did to the current employees and explain what challenges we faced.

Explain the principles of Object Orientated programming.
What is the difference between Java and C++.

Before the assessment day, read about basic Java programming and its principles. Look smart, act smart, don't compete against other candidates, because they take people in intakes, so there is no set number how many people they are taking, if they will like you, they can take the whole group, it's all about showing yourself working inside a group, not competing against each other.

Tasks were very different from each other, from creativity tasks to technical tasks. We had to select our project manager and arrange tasks for each of us, so we would fit into time limit.

Assessment day involved 60 minute Competency based interview. And a group exercise. The interviews format is based on the competency based questions, to the best of my knowledge;

-Customer focus
-Resilience
-Team Work

These questions then lead onto why you chose to apply for the role. They expect you to make use of the allocated learning materials. Which will be attached with the email invitation to assessment day. And it won't hurt you to know what CGI is currently doing, in my case it was the 'appeal of working on the Galileo Satellite project.' Again the applicant is the driver of conversation in this part of this assessment. This process also involves questions based around your report.

As a tip make sure you show a degree of professionalism when answering questions. One of the questions I was asked was, What drives you? I answered - Perfection, being the best in whatever I pursue. This is drived by my personal moto 'Consistant Motivation.'....and so on. This left the interviewer pleasantly pleased with the level confidence I was showing. So expect to elaborate on answers in an articulate manner.

The most difficult question I was asked was;

Why choose to work for CGI?

They want to establish the reason why you chose CGI over their competitors IBM, Fujitsu, HP.
I answered by declaring my love for a consultancy role but also wanting to work for a global company with a turnover of x amount of £'s and wanting to work on special projects like Galileo Satellite, etc. Also elaborate on what you can bring to the company and how your personal development can be benefited by working for CGI.

Make sure you know what the competitors are doing and how you think CGI can grow and what technologies they should be pursuing.

They presume that you have made use of their learning material which they made available online (tips section for application process) in which they will test you on. which is a basis of another question;

How did you find the materials made available to you and the information on the website?

The other questions were fairly easy and followed the basic competency based questions format.

Make sure you make use of the learning materials provided by CGI and the information provided in the graduate scheme section of their website. This will give good preparation for the one-on-one interview and some help with the written part of the interview.

The written report will undoubtedly play a role in being offered a job so do not treat it as an afterthought. Alot of the roles offered by CGI involve project management and administration duties so formal report writing style is a must with (Harvard) references. And they make this clear in their 'guidance' section of their website on the interview process.

Be well versed on answers to competency based questions. The biggest advantage I gave myself was introducing myself to the group to help break down that 'barrier' before the whole assessment process started on assessment day.

If you are well prepared then you should be ok.

The group exercise, this exercise is based reading a problem statement and working as a team to draw up an answer. The particular problem was that you are evacuated from a sinking ship and you are only allowed to take X amount of items on a rubber a dingy. These items are used to survive on a nearby island until help arrives. This is a timed exercise and tests your teamwork, communication and listening skills.

Make sure you use the room, for example white board and make sure you actively participate and also listen to others.

The interview process consisted of a telephone technical interview followed by an assessment day. The telephone interview was to gauge how much knowledge I had in coding from my experience on projects, and also my response to a number of situational questions, where I had to give examples of skills I had learnt in areas of working and social life. This lasted roughly 1 hour.
The assessment day consisted of a one-on-one interview in which I had to answer similar questions as before, however was geared more towards my response to situations and problems I would encounter in the work place and how I would deal with them. I was then given 20 minutes to create a 5 minute presentation about something I was passionate about, to present to my interviewer.
The group exercise was a problem solving activity with a group of approximately 6 of us. We were given 50 minutes to complete a task where we had to work as a team to answer 2 questions that the solution to the problem would resolve. The problem was given to us each on an A4 piece of paper and was solved by hand, without the use of a computer.

In the face-to-face interview I was given the situation "A team working on a project has hit a problem that they have been unable to solve, and you are brought in to help resolve the situation. How would you go about this?" This was particularly difficult to answer as it is extremely general and puts a lot of pressure on you to present the correct skills you have to apply to this situation.

Be relaxed and open minded when going for interview and assessment centres. Remember they are looking for people that communicate well with others as well as highly technical people, so don't try and compete with others but work together! Research their key principals as this is what they will look out for in your answers to situational questions. Think hard about your own experiences: describe what you did, what skills you learnt and how you apply them to other aspects of your life. They will ask about a lot of these. Most importantly be yourself! They want to see creativity shine through, so don't be scared to describe a funny (but appropriate) story that had a positive impact, or talk through a unique hobby that you love. Go all out with the presentation (I made a stick man cartoon sketch).

The assessment centre was relaxed and the assessment staff very welcoming and friendly. The centre lasted 3 hours, in which we first had a presentation about the structure of the company from manager of the department. Hot drinks and biscuits were provided. We then had our one-on-one interviews which lasted 50 minutes, with a 20 minute presentation about a passion in our lives included in that. The group activity with approximately 6 of us lasted 50 minutes after a short explanation. This was a problem solving team exercise which was solved by hand, with three assessment staff overseeing.

The first interview was a telephone interview asking general questions, for example. What did you study? What skills do you have that will be suitable for the role? Why FDM? Why IT? It was a short interview no more than 10 minutes.

I was successful and then invited for an assessment day two weeks later. There were eight of us and we went into a room called a fish bowl, the offices were new and modern. We were first given a short introduction about the company from one of the recruitment team and then we had to stand and give a short introduction about ourselves on what we studied and where we heard about FDM. We.We then transported to another meeting room, where we stayed most of the day, and a member of HR gave a powerpoint presentation and a sample contract to look at. Followed by the numerical test (no calculator), it wasn't too bad but I did practise beforehand but during test situations it feels different as always, the test contained addition, factors, multiplication, percentages, fractions, simultaneous equations and Pythagorus. I was lucky to have a 15 minute break with another prospective, while the others started interviewing. We went to the kitchen and met someone who spoke well of FDM. He said the business pathway was 8 weeks and technical is 12 weeks (can also be paid whilst training).

I had three interviews back to back, they were short. My first one was about my degree and asked, what my degree was, my result, whether I was happy with it, my project, what would I change about my degree and what modules I liked in my degree. Second interview was a personality one and lastly one about why FDM and IT. The interviewers are friendly but do prepare to say as much as you can in a short time.

We then had another test straight afterwards the aptitude test, consisting of 50 questions. They were okay some questions were tricky they had some puzzles, personality questions, programming and basic IT questions, like what is SQL, what does a service manager do, why go from IP4 to IP6..

After a quick lunch of 45 minutes with the other applicants, we sat down for our final test on Venn diagrams and Set notation. There are four parts the last part was the hardest and the test was okay until the last part where you had produce a 3 set venn diagram and find quantities in each set. I did run out of time.

Do you like to work on many different projects? Is change a good thing? What would you change about your degree or modules in your degree? How do you balance your time and time with your friends?

Practise some interview questions with a friend. They email you information about your assessment day and supply helpful links to help you revise for the test. Dress smart. The environment is friendly and you wouldn't feel in competition with the other candidates when you are there, so try not to worry.

There were eight of us, we sat the numerical, aptitude and venn diagram tests together. Then split into groups of 2 when interviewing.