I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Barclays (London, England) in Feb 2011
Interview
Online application - standard competency and knowledge based questions. Online tests - verbal and numerical reasoning. Phone interview was mostly competency based and pretty formulaic but the interviewer was very polite and kept the conversation going smoothly.
The assessment day consisted of a trading game which was quite fun, and a series of 1 on 1 interview depending on which desks liked the look of your CV. Each interview was different and ranged from very technical through to a chat about my hobbies. Similarly each interviewer was very different, some were off puttingly rude and made a concerted effort to be awkward and others were very nice. The HR team organising the day were very helpful. Also the put you up in a hotel if you require accommodation which is a big bonus.
All in all it was very well organised, contact was very regular and the process moved along at a reasonable pace.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Develop a method to draw a straight line through the centre of two rectangles, one of which is small and placed inside the larger rectangle and a random location and angle.