Ocado Technology Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, England (UK)) in June 2018.

Interview

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.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, England (UK)) in April 2015.

Interview

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.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Barcelona (Spain)) in September 2018.

Interview

- 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.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at Ocado Technology.

Interview

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.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Hatfield, West Midlands, England (UK)) in June 2016.

Interview

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.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a staffing agency. The process took a week. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (London, England (UK)) in March 2016.

Interview

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..

Interview Questions

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, England (UK)) in October 2015.

Interview

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.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, England (UK)) in March 2018.

Interview

The interview is indeed a pentathlon as described in other reviews. Some preparation is required for the logic test. Having experience with a bit of assembly I found this to be okayish, nonetheless, it took me a whole hour. Behaviour interview went on for another 1 hour, it was basically a long chat about past projects and the key points of Ocado Technology. The CFC Tour was interesting but nothing spectacular, I believe they also want to see whether interviewees are actually interested in the business operation. Lunch was literally 30min, as soon as I finished lunch I was taken to the pair programming interview, no time for coffee. Pair programming interview was also okay, I managed to get the code up and running, I believe this is very simple for someone with experience in java. Unit tests were failing, had to write code for unimplemented functions. The interviewer will ask questions on why certain design patterns were implemented. After we managed to get the code working we moved into optimisation and how the code can be optimised (I used the whiteboard). Technical interview was about Java, some CV questions on past projects and then code review, there was also a whiteboard question on finding the longest palindrome in a string but we did not have time. Final interview with head of team was a very nice chat and we went on for about 1 hour and a half. Overall I thought the interview went very well but I was informed I wasn't what they were looking for technically.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Wrocław (Poland)) in March 2018.

Interview

The whole process took a month, during which one of the recruiters went on holidays, the second one didn't know anything about my recruitment so I had to guide her myself. Test project review took 2 weeks, after a positive outcome it took another week and a half to get to the conclusion that they don't want an engineer specializing in mobile applications and instead they want a React app and they're looking for a frontend guy. Right from the start they didn't know what they wanted, the process was opaque and from my perspective it looked like a really badly managed company with employees that don't feel responsible for their work. Massive waste of time, appaling communication and incompetence at every level.

Interview Questions

Application

I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Ocado Technology (Hatfield, East of England, England (UK)) in February 2018.

Interview

I was invited for a one day assessment to the company's technological center.
In the morning there were a logical test and a behavior interview. After the morning session there was a warehouse visit.
Only the candidates can go to the afternoon session who passed the logical test and the behavioral interview. They sent home the other candidates.
I am very disappointed with the full process. I was not informed about the morning session is a pre-selection and got the information, the company provides lunch during this one day assessment, but in the end only candidates invited who passed the logical test. I spent 2 and a half hour to commute to the office. Filled the - I think - very easy logical test, and after the warehouse visit they told me I didn't pass the logical test, and go home and I can try to apply 6 month later. They didn't explain me what were my mistakes, nor took a look to my sheet. So, I commute 2 and a half hours back to home.
I am very disappointed. I took my time, commuted almost 5 hours in my own expenses to write a very dumb logical test, after they sent home without detailed explanation and discussion and with no compensation for my time. They could arrange this test online, and candidates fill it, and call only the people who pass it, or just let the candidates do the full process anyway.
Worst interview experience ever. I never consider to join Ocado again. Do you care your customers in the same way?

Interview Questions