I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at First National Bank (Johannesburg) in Feb 2025
Interview
I'm going to try and give a very comprehensive view of this process, which I wish I knew about to help ease me through the different rounds.
There are typically 3 or 4 rounds of interview (depending on which team you're joining). Round 1 is either behavioural or technical assessment and round 2 is either technical or behavioural assessment. Round 3 is psychometric tests (very long so plan to seat down for a couple of hours). Round 4 is a coffee chat if you pass both 1, 2 and 3. Behavioural round is normally focused on typical questions like, "tell us about yourself". Technical round is normally problem solving aptitude and coding assessment (note sometime round 1 and 2 are combined into same interview day). Psychometric tests are focused on different abilities (they're like NBT tests universities normally require, but with personality related tests also included). Usually if you get to the psychometric tests stage, then it means you're likely to get an offer, unless you fail - which I've never heard anyone failing unless if you're a sociopath or faked your way through the rounds or there's something flagged during background checks. Coffee chat pretty much means you're going to get an offer unless the hiring manager doesn't connect with you or something goes wrong during coffee chat (which would be strange unless you haven't met during other rounds).
In summary:
* Make sure you give honest answers about yourself and experience. If you don't understand a question ask again. Playback the question to them also to make sure you're understanding it right.
* Know your SQL, SAS and Python coding
* Know your ML algorithms and other related technical concepts like data leakage, etc (also depends on the team you're joining)
* Make sure you understand the business technical concepts (e.g. if you're interviewing for pricing role know something about how banks price products, etc)
* Have some acceptable level of understanding about how banks work and make money
* IMPORTANT: Make sure you ask the panel to clarify if you don't understand the question they're asking. It would be unacceptable to attempt to answer a question you don't understand. Also remember no one knows everything, and you can always learn anything you need to know about a project. So be honest and be yourself.
All the best!!
I applied online. I interviewed at First National Bank (Sandton) in Aug 2025
Interview
First interview was the case study(they give you days to prepare for it then you present it). They’ll ask you questions based on what you wrote on your CV and the case study itself , then after that you get assessments then background checks. Don’t understand why I didn’t get the offer if I got this stage but yeah pretty much that. Process took 3 months
I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at First National Bank in Mar 2025
Interview
The interview process had two stages; one technical case study + HR interview that lasted 1hr30. After passing the interview you are asked to complete a psychometric assessment. Background checks are conducted once you pass the interview and psychometric assessments
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked about the projects I have worked on in my current role.