Coding in the Interview Round

The technical round at Barclays mixes CS fundamentals with a small coding question, and there often isn't an editor. Candidates have written these on paper, typed them into Notepad, or talked them through with no code at all. Java developer candidates have coded a sort in Notepad after a few OOP questions, and one London round paired two small questions without ever asking for code.

The problems themselves are classics. The hard part is writing them cleanly without a run button and then handling the questions that follow. Panels ask for time and space complexity, why the recursive version uses stack space, and how BFS compares with DFS. These are the same fundamentals questions as the rest of the round, pointed at your own code.

The Barclays angle

Say every pointer move as you write it. Nobody runs your code in this round, so the interviewer follows your trace instead. Name the loop bounds and the empty case before you write the loop, and give the cost without being asked. Then add a line on the structure you picked and why, since "which data structure fits" is a Barclays favourite in the same round.

BarclaysPremium lesson · Coding round

The 6 Barclays problems are below.

1. 1A Premium questionCoding · Easy
2. 2A Premium questionCoding · Easy
3. 3A Premium questionCoding · Medium

+ 3 more in this lesson

Each with hints, the follow-up and a tested solution.

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From 108 Barclays reports, forum threads behind logins and write-ups in Chinese.

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