Paddy Power Betfair Java Developer Interview Questions
& Process

I applied in November and the hiring process concluded around the end of December. It began with my application, and a few days later, I got an email to schedule a phone interview. This initial call was primarily behavioral questions and also included 10 Java-specific questions. If we passed, we were supposed to get a programming test, but a couple of days later, we were informed not to do it and that we had automatically passed. About a week after that, I was invited to an Assessment Centre. We were split into two groups. The first part involved a brief self-introduction. Following that, I had a one-on-one interview that was mostly behavioral. Then, we had a group presentation task about creating a scalable betfair exchange site. The final segment was a technical test covering Fibonacci, a method to find unique characters in a list using a hashmap, and another problem I can't recall. Overall, it was a positive experience.

After submitting an online application, I had a phone interview where I was asked about my motivations for applying (e.g., 'why betfair') and some basic Java concepts like JVM and stack. Then came a coding exercise, which I completed and sent back within the week. Surprisingly, two days after submission, I was notified that it was no longer required. They mentioned shortlisting would occur for an assessment centre, but this was delayed multiple times. Finally, I attended the assessment centre. Although the people were friendly, the overall experience was poor, with a seeming lack of interest from the organizers. The assessment included creating a personal poster, a 2:1 interview where one interviewer was disengaged (constantly on her phone), and a group exercise where participation seemed minimal. We then had to present our group work. Following this, I faced technical questions, specifically about Fibonacci, character frequency counting in a string, and a multi-threading locking problem. Despite promises of a response within a week, there was a two-week delay and postponements. Ultimately, I received an email stating I was unsuccessful. I followed up for feedback, which took another two weeks to obtain. The feedback provided was vague, stating that 'everyone did well' but the number of positions was reduced.

Had a quick phone chat about my past work, some basic coding questions, and a couple of behavioral ones. Then, I had to do a programming test on my own time. The last part was a face-to-face interview at their Hammersmith office, which had three sections: lots of behavioral questions (like hypothetical situations or past problem-solving) and programming questions based on the test I took.