Preguntas de entrevista de Ocado Technology

Solicitud

Solicité el puesto a través de un captador. El proceso duró 2 días. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, Inglaterra (Reino Unido)) en junio de 2018.

Entrevista

Because a spot had just opened up, I was allowed to skip the online coding test and was invited to the full-day assessment immediately. None of the tests were in them self too difficult, I gave the difficulty rating because it was 8 hours of tests and that is taxing when you're nervous.
Others have described that day before, so I won't repeat it all. I was asked to submit a logic test in a made-up language, had an interview with someone trying to gauge how well I'd fit in with the company culture (that felt more like a personality test than anything else), then got to see the warehouse (amazing), had a pair programming exercise where I had to implement some interfaces and make the tests pass, all while being monitored. After that, they proposed a complicated problem that you were to solve in exactly the way they had come up with before, so if you don't think like them, that's going to be frustrating. They help you though. After that, I had another technical interview, the same questions about Java you get asked everywhere. You have a Java certificate and already proved you know all this? Not worth the digital ink its printed in, nobody will believe you know your stuff until they've asked you similar questions. After that, I had another interview with the head of the department. By that time, it was 5:30 and I was really tired after a day of being on your best behaviour. They told me they'd get back to me within a day or two, but it's been 4 weeks and they never have. At this point in time it's obvious no offer will be forth-coming. I just wished they would have had the courtesy to call and say I didn't make it after I took a day off work and spent 8 hours trying to pass their many tests. A very disappointing experience.

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Solicité el puesto a través de un captador. El proceso duró 2 semanas. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Londres, Inglaterra (Reino Unido)) en octubre de 2018.

Entrevista

Codility test with 3 exercises , not too difficult. After this step they call me back for a skype interview, during the interview I have done another codility test. they never let me know anything

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Solicité el puesto a través de un captador. El proceso duró 3 semanas. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Londres, Inglaterra (Reino Unido)) en mayo de 2019.

Entrevista

I applied through a recruiter(understandingrecruitment).

Step 1 - Phone interview with the external recruiter
Step 2 - Online assessment Java test. Three problems in 180 minutes via codility.com testing platform. Easy to medium difficulty. You have to try to solve these problem in the more efficient way, not just "brute foce" way.
Step 3 - Remote coding exercise with one of ocado developer via codility, very easy one. The purpose of this more than evaluating your solution is your collaboration with your partner, etc.

I am Italian and he politely told me that in order to make me advance in the selection process in the worst case scenario, we could be part of the remote interview.
The external recruiter told me that ocado do not pay travel expenses for those who already have a job currently and put pressure on me to go to them.

Okay, it seemed like a good chance for me so I took a vacation, booked a plane the day before and went to them.

The day of the interview was like this:
1) CFC Tour – approx. 45 minutes – a guided tour of their automated warehouse to see what Ocado Technology is about
2) Pair Programming Interview - this will be up to a 2 hour session where the candidate is required to solve a problem using laptop/IDE and they work collaboratively with a Senior Software Engineer /Team Leader. They will provide a laptop for the candidate. -> Yeah, true. I think the second developer who had to participate in the interview had a last minute commitment and so the hr girl recovered another developer at the last minute.
3) They offered me lunch, giving me some vouchers for their table but they left me alone during the lunch break
4) Technical Interview - Approximately 1 hour - whiteboard exercise with two developer
5) IT Head Interview – approx. 30 mins to an hour - cultural fit

They didn't know I was Italian, I don't think they use such innovative technologies as described in the announcement but it depends a lot on the department where you go to work from what I understand.

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Solicité el puesto a través de un captador. El proceso duró Más de 4 semanas. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, Inglaterra (Reino Unido)) en abril de 2015.

Entrevista

Step 1 - Phone interview with an external recruiter
Step 2 - Online assessment Java test. Three problems in 100 minutes via codility.com testing platform. Easy to medium difficulty.
Step 3 - On site assessment day. Two test, 45 minutes each, one aptitude test and one standard Java test (Linked list). If you pass the morning session you will have one (or more) face-to-face interview(s) with some dev leader.
Step 4 - Final fate-to-face blackboard technical interview with at least two dev leader and a manager.

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Envié una solicitud electrónica. El proceso duró 2 días. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Barcelona) en septiembre de 2018.

Entrevista

- HR Call to comment the CV to a non-tech person.
- 40 min technical test + 20 min question test: Ignoring all the technical CV, solve a "happy-idea problem" and a set of pre-made questions from the interviewing platform (I got the same questions at former interviews for other companies) like "what is polymorphism". Do not expect them taking a real technical review of your CV.

I felt treated as an idiot for not having a happy-idea.

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Solicité el puesto a través de una agencia de empleo. El proceso duró Más de 4 semanas. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Barcelona) en enero de 2019.

Entrevista

I applied through an outsourced recruiter.
# First step: call with the recuirter about my experience and background.

# Second step: technical interview with a team leader consisted of:
- 20 min of Java technical questions (not too hard).
- 40 min of Codility exercise (not too complex).

# Third step: onsite interview divided in 4 stages:
- aptitude test: 13 logical exercises to be solved in Assembly-like language (1 hour).
- behavioral interview: questions about several situations you had to deal with and how you managed them along your professional career. (1 hour)
- pair programming: 1. Finding a solution for a problem and coding it: a project was left incompleted and your task is to complete the missing parts. Your pair (a senior developer who is seated beside you) guides you to the solution they want to you to go (if you are able to figure it out). After that is asked you to improve the code which implies deep knowledge of Java data structures implementations, sorting and searching algorithms. All of this while you were being observed by a 2 team leaders who were evaluating you.
The problem was: given a set of million data points (coordinates) represented by two values (x and y) you must determine which of those data points are inside the area described by a rectangle (x1, x2, y1, y2). My first idea was to iterate over all data points and pick up data points contained in the rectangle area then I was asked for a more efficient solution. I proposed a solution that I thought it could work but we went with a "quad tree" solution, which I had never heard before.
2. Java Questions about data structures, threading and other topics.
It took 2 hours and was very stressful because I felt very under pressure and observed.
- soft skill: general questions about your past working experience and future goals. (1 hour)

I did not get an offer because I didn't pass pair programming. Apparently my tech skills were below their expectations.

The recruiter and the interviewers at Ocado were very friendly. They treated me in very kindle and professional way.
I would recommand Ocado as place to work.

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Envié una solicitud electrónica. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology.

Entrevista

First part involved 3 Codility questions.

Then was invited to their assessment center for a two part exam. The first part was using their own assembly style language, you were given a couple of basic functions and you had to build new functions using only what you have been given, just remember you can also use functions you have previously created yourself and it should be fine.
The next part of the exam was a paper based java exam, where you had to write an implementation for a linked list.
If you pass the exams you get a tour of their warehouse, followed by a short HR interview (~30minutes).

If you did acceptable on all of this then you receive an invite back for another interview session, which involves both a technical interview, and another with a manager.

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Solicité el puesto a través de una agencia de empleo. El proceso duró 2 semanas. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Hatfield, West Midlands, Inglaterra (Reino Unido)) en junio de 2016.

Entrevista

Contacted by external recruiter, given the opportunity to take Codility test.
Test was quite easy, 3 algorithm to be solved in Java in 120 minutes.
Recruiter said I did great job so I was invited for onsite interview the week after.
There a 13 questions logical test to be answered in 45 minutes (like the other reports, a sort of assembly language and you have to create functions to subtract, multiply, divide, find greatest of two numbers find greatest or equal of two number and so on...)
Then they took me for a tour of the warehouse and explained all sw involved in handling the queues of crates and such.
Got back to main building where unfortunately I was told that I failed the logical test, it was not too difficult but 45 minutes were not enough for me.

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Solicité el puesto a través de una agencia de empleo. El proceso duró una semana. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Londres, Inglaterra (Reino Unido)) en marzo de 2016.

Entrevista

I was forwarded by a recruitment agency.
First step was a skype call with an it manager. It was general, talked about what they do at Ocado and also asked me about my past experience.

After that, i was invited to their head office in hatfield.
There were 3 stages:
-a paper logic programming test, 13-15 questions in 1 hour. Given basic functions ZERO X, ASSIGN X,Y , LOOP X, INCR X - fill gaps to complete more advanced functions like DECR X, MULT XY, ADD XY, SUBT XY, MAX XY, MIN XY, GREATER XY, LESS XY, EQ XY .. I passed this but missed 1 question

- a pair programming test, there were 2 team lead and some guy observing/learning the interview process. The problem was: given million datapoint/coordinates x,y and a rectangle, determine which datapoints are in the rectangle. First iteration was brute force ie iterate over all data points. Then they asked for a more optimised version ie, index all datapoint upon insertion to make search more efficient. There were many options, but we went with a quad tree :/
Needless to say, i was in over my head and progressing with difficulty. And although its called pair programming, it didn't really feel like it. It was meant to last 2 hours.

-a 45-1h interview with the it head. Very technically competent but cool. Showed me an android game he developed. General chat to see what kind of dev i was.

After a week they came back saying i wasnt a great fit..

Preguntas de entrevista

Solicitud

Envié una solicitud electrónica. Acudí a una entrevista en Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, Inglaterra (Reino Unido)) en octubre de 2015.

Entrevista

online codility test, then on site interview with 2 exams. If you get more than 70% in both exams, you see factory and have a face to face interview with manager.

Preguntas de entrevista