I was put for a role through HR. First stage of interview is CV walkthrough, second is why Ocado Technology, and then an SQL test. SQL test has 2 questions only. You type it in a text editor like notepad so no way of checking against database. First question not hard, second quite difficult, if you have not done it before you will hardly figure it out in 3 minutes in a text editor without google. Anyways, a terrible way of evaluating candidates. Their Team Lead is behaving like a know it all, yeah of course you ll know what would throw an error since you ve been there for 6 years and have done this interview multiple times. I am sure if I gave her a random tough question in text editor with no google she would have struggled. Happy I did not get their offer.

The interview process with Ocado was the most humiliating and degrading experience I have come across. My interview time was moved twice in priority of other candidates (personally, I think it was extremely unprofessional to have been told this). The second time it was moved I was not even notified. I had sat in the online meeting for 15 minutes frantically calling the Ocado recruitment team 3 times and it wasn't until I emailed them when no one picked up that I received a call back explaining they had forgotten to tell me of the time change as another candidate had been scheduled in at my time. When I was in the interview, a technical assessment was sprung on me unexpectedly - at this point I had been unemployed for 3-4 months and I had made clear my skills were basic. In the end I decided to end the interview as my skills were not up to scratch and I didn't want to waste anyone's time. Had I been informed, I would have had time to brush up on my skills. The interviewer was extremely polite and understanding despite the embarrassing situation. The following day, I sent an email outlining my feedback and improvements that could be made to prevent others from going through this same experience, something I thought was very important considering the current situation where so many people are unemployed and just trying their best to get their life back to normality. I strongly suggested to give others the opportunity to showcase their best skills and experience by giving all candidates the necessary information in a timely manner. Unsurprisingly given my experience with the Ocado recruitment team, my email was never acknowledged nor responded to and an official apology was never provided.