Financial Conduct Authority Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process

Applied with my CV, then had one final round with 2 team leads. They sent the interview questions beforehand. The task wasn't given in advance though. About 30 minutes in, I had to prep a presentation on how I'd approach a specific data science task they gave me. Then they asked some follow-up questions on my presentation. The rest of the interview was questions they sent me beforehand. After each question, they asked one follow-up based on my answer.

After applying, the process consisted of a psychometric test and 4 short essays on my motivation; a telephone interview; and an assessment centre. The telephone interview asked competency questions, knowledge of FCA (current affairs), and motivation for applying to the programme. The assessment centre required that I complete a data science task beforehand, which I then presented on the AC day followed by technical questions. The second segment of the AC was a competency&motivation interview by a very robotic interviewer. In the final segment, they gave me a case study to review and to make a presentation to another robotic interviewer, who frustrated me by asking questions I had already addressed in my presentation. The waiting time between the telephone interview and AC was short but I had to wait a month after AC before being contacted with the outcome. Be sure you know what the business of the FCA is - otherwise, what's the point in wanting to work there? They do expect you to thoroughly understand the financial and regulatory framework within which they operate, the organisation's resulting successes and challenges, current affairs, and the core values and skills (e.g. JEDS) by which they're guided.

The process started with 2 online forms where I had to answer competency-based questions. Then, there was a phone interview with a Recruiter, also focused on competency-based questions. After that, I received a take-home Data Science task that involved the entire pipeline from EDA, Cleaning, and Pre-Processing to ML modelling, which was super relevant to my FCA work. The final stage was an Assessment Day with 3 interviews: one to present my Take-home task analysis, another competency-based interview, and a 'Financial Conduct exercise' where I had to read several documents, summarize them, and propose recommendations like a regulator (this one was more law/advisory focused and I didn't nail it). The whole thing took about 1-2 months, but I eventually got the call offering me the internship.