Barclays · Investment banking analyst · Summer Analyst / Analyst

First-round technical interview

Accounting-first technicals with a visible financial-institutions slant

What they actually ask

The question shapes this round uses. Larpy does not read these out. It builds each one from your own resume, because the generic version is the one you have already rehearsed.

“If you could get only one GAAP line to assess a company, which one would you choose and why?”
“What could cause an increase in goodwill on the balance sheet?”
“Can you explain what a "football field" valuation chart is and what it shows?”
“What types of companies fall within the Financial Institutions Group (FIG)?”
“Where do you see interest rates heading?”

What this round is judged on

Accounting · statement walks under a stated tax rate, goodwill and write-downs
Valuation · multiples derived from real statements, and reading a football field
FIG awareness · why banks and insurers are valued differently from operating companies
Markets · a defensible view on rates and a deal you are actually following

How Larpy grades this

We score these the way an analyst would. Per topic, what a strong answer lands and the confidently-wrong answers Larpy catches.

ACCThree-statement flow of a depreciation change
Strong
nets the tax effect correctly (net income down 7.5, not 10); adds the full non-cash charge back on the cash flow statement; closes the balance sheet and states that it balances.
We flag
claims extra depreciation raises net income or cash (it lowers net income; cash rises only by the tax shield); forgets the tax rate and moves the full 10 through pre-tax to net income; leaves the balance sheet unbalanced.
VALWalk me through a DCF
Strong
uses UNLEVERED free cash flow discounted at WACC (not levered FCF or cost of equity); includes a terminal value and discounts it back; sums to enterprise value, then bridges to equity.
We flag
discounts unlevered cash flow at the cost of equity; omits terminal value (it is usually the majority of the value); forgets to subtract the change in working capital or capex.

Larpy builds a fresh question per topic from your resume and grades the full answer live. Start the mock for the worked model answer.

Where this round sits

Barclays’s published process. Lime marks the stage this round runs.

01
Your application
02
Initial assessments (not simulated here)
03
Video interview
04
First-round interview (Americas)this round
05
Assessment centre
06
Offer

What happens in each stage›

Your application: Complete the application form on the Barclays careers site. Barclays asks for clear examples of good judgment, innovation, teamwork, commitment and leadership, tells candidates to pull keywords out of the job description, and warns against pasting text from its own site back at it.
Initial assessments (not simulated here): Two short interactive assessments that read how you might perform in the workplace and your typical or preferred ways of working, completable on a phone or tablet. Only the technical programmes, such as Explorer Developer, add an assessment of technical skills, so the banking track carries no coding test.
Video interview: Barclays does not list a separate recorded round among its three published steps, but its own interview guidance is written for video interviews and the later stages can be run virtually. Early careers candidates commonly complete a recorded or live video screen before the assessment centre: motivation, a resume walk, and why this programme.
First-round interview (Americas): A regional variation rather than a published step. In the United States the summer analyst process runs closer to the US model, with a first round of analysts and associates covering fit and analyst-level technicals ahead of the final day, where the UK process would go straight from the initial assessments into the assessment centre.
Assessment centre: Barclays publishes this as the deciding stage, held in person or virtually and involving two or three stages including a motivational interview with a member of the leadership team. In the Americas the equivalent final day is usually run as a superday of back-to-back banker interviews. Third-party AI tools are banned outright: a transcription bot or meeting assistant stops the interview and withdraws the application.
Offer: Performance across all the exercises is taken into account rather than any single one, so a weak exercise is not automatically fatal.

Sources

Built from what Barclays publishes about its own process and from real interview data. No leaked question lists. The questions you get are generated against your own resume, so they are not from anyone else's interview.

companyBarclays Careers, internship and graduate application processsearch.jobs.barclays
The three published steps (application, initial assessments, assessment centre); the initial assessments being two short interactive assessments completable on a phone or tablet, with a technical assessment added only for technical programmes such as Explorer Developer; the assessment centre running in person or virtually across two or three stages including a motivational interview with a member of the leadership team; and the outright ban on third-party AI tools in interviews and assessments.
companyBarclays Careers, hints and tipssearch.jobs.barclays
What Barclays asks candidates to evidence (clear examples of good judgment, innovation, teamwork, commitment and leadership), its guidance written for video interviews (camera, quiet private space, dress as for a face-to-face interview), and its statement that performance across all exercises is taken into account rather than any single one.
companyBarclays Careers, graduate programmessearch.jobs.barclays
The graduate programme families, including Investment Banking, and the Expert versus Explorer programme split.
datalevels.fyi, Barclayslevels.fyi
Analyst compensation and level context. No interview-process content.

Sources last checked August 12, 2026. Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.