NatWest – Software Engineer (B7) Interview Experience

NatWest – Software Engineer (B7) Interview Experience 

Team-Based Role (Direct Application)

    NatWest Group is one of the UK's leading commercial and retail banking organizations, providing a broad range of banking, investment, and payment services. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview for the WOW Software Engineer (B7) role, where I was assessed for a Backend Engineer position.

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    The interview process was smooth and well-structured. It primarily focused on Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, and my project experience. Overall, the interview process consisted of  four rounds.

Round 1: Offline Assessment

The first round was an online/offline assessment that included:

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) on Java, Spring Boot, and Microservices.

Two coding questions of easy difficulty level. Although I don't remember the exact coding questions, they were straightforward and could be solved easily once the problem statement was understood correctly. The assessment mainly tested fundamental programming and backend development concepts.

Round 2: Technical Interview

Candidates who clear the assessment are invited to the office for the technical interview.

The discussion was primarily focused on:

• Core Java concepts
• Spring Boot
• Microservices Architecture
• REST APIs
• Database concepts
• Exception handling
• Design and implementation details of my projects

A significant portion of the interview revolved around my project experience. The interviewer was interested in understanding the challenges I had faced, the architectural decisions I had made, and how I approached problem-solving in real-world scenarios.

Spring Boot & Microservices

1. How do you access an external API in your service?

2. What is the difference between RestTemplate, Feign Client, and WebClient? When would you use each of them?

3. What annotations are commonly used in your project?

4. What is the difference between @RestController and @Controller?

5. How would you allow only a specific service to access your service?

6. What is a cache service, and what caching annotations have you used?

7. When should cache be used? Before making a service call? Before accessing the database?

Database & JPA

8. What is a composite key?

9. How do you create relationships between entities in JPA?

   One-to-One

   One-to-Many

   Many-to-One

   Many-to-Many

10. Have you worked with multiple database connections in a project?

Java Concepts

11. What is the difference between  Collection and Stream? When should each be used?

12. Given two lists, how would you find and remove the common elements using Java?

REST APIs

13. What are @GetMapping and @PostMapping? Are there any alternatives? What annotations are used with them?

14. If a client requests XML instead of JSON, how would you return an XML response?

15. What is @PathVariable? What are its alternatives? When would you use it?

Round 3: Managerial Interview

The managerial round focused more on behavioral and project-related discussions.

Some of the topics covered included:

• My achievements in previous projects
• Challenges I faced during my professional journey
• Team collaboration and communication
• Handling difficult situations at work
• What I would do if I wasn't receiving responses from team members or stakeholders

The interviewer was mainly evaluating my communication skills, ownership mindset, and ability to work effectively within a team.

Round 4: HR Discussion

The final round was with the HR team.

The discussion covered:

• Current compensation
• Expected salary
• Notice period
• Offer-related discussions
• General questions about my interest in the role and NatWest Group

It was a straightforward conversation and served as the final step in the hiring process.

Overall Experience

Overall, I found the interview process to be easy to moderate in difficulty. Most of the questions were based on my project experience and core backend technologies such as Java, Spring Boot, and Microservices.

The interviewers were professional and friendly throughout the process. Rather than focusing on tricky algorithmic problems, they were more interested in understanding my practical experience and how I applied technical concepts in real-world projects.

Preparation Tips

If you are preparing for a similar role at NatWest, I would recommend focusing on:

• Core Java fundamentals
• Spring Boot concepts
• Microservices Architecture
• REST APIs
• Database fundamentals
• Your project implementation details
• Behavioral and situational questions

Being able to explain your projects confidently and clearly can make a significant difference during the interview.

Final Verdict: A positive interview experience with a strong emphasis on practical knowledge, project discussions, and backend development fundamentals.

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Linkedin: Rukmini K

Rukmini K