I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Capital One (New York, NY) in Apr 2023
Interview
It was pretty simple. You start of with a assessment through code signal. It's 70 mins and protocored. The questions start off easy and then progress to med/hard level. You can pick any language. The recruiters are typically helpful, they give you a lot of interview prep for the "power day" which is 4 interviews. You have a standard DSA problem thats typically medium level. Practice leetcode but its doable. Then its a design problem where you create a backend system of a credit card application. I guess the design problem might vary if you are applying for a front end of data engineer role. Then there is a behavioral round with 3 questions. And finally there is a case study. It starts off with some conceptual questions. I had one around some chat bot usage. Then you analyze some code and based on a table of data give an output. And finally you get to make some code improvements and recommendations. I declined the offer because I applied for a role in one location then magically it closed like 2 weeks after. it was in New York and they wanted me to relocate to McLean. The recruiter mentioned a range of salary for New York which was like 20k higher than what they wanted to offer me for McLean. No thank you.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Codesignal - dont remember the problems but I assume its from some question bank. Practice leetcode easy/medium problems around arrays, string manipulation, collections, and using pointer/sliding window approach.
Power Day Rounds (4 interviews, 1 hour each)
1. Coding - Given a string, find the total count of some character. They expect a O(1) solution as the optimal solution.
2. Design - create a backend design for a bank application. Watch youtube videos by Exponent, this is really helpful. You should list out requirements, pick out all the components to address each point, some sample database table schemas, and some sample REST API's. Theres follow up questions based on your design but overall each on of these videos has similar components, its just how you explain things. You should also recommend technology for each component you'd use to make your decision stronger.
3. Behavioral - forgot the questions but its usually things like: tell me about a time you had to learn something new, tell me about a time when you have multiple priorities, etc. Typical STAR format interview questions they can be found everywhere on google.
4. Case Study - I had one around some chatbot. They ask conceptual questions like what are the pros/cons of a chatbot at a bank, how can it help customers, know things like data & privacy concerns with chatbots. Then code analysis is simple, just know basics of Java and understand OOPS.
First had to pass an OA on codesignal.
Recruiter then scheduled a Power Day interview virtually:
1 Case interview -
1 Behavioral interview -
1 System design -
1 Technical
Questions are pretty standard and not too diffucult. Interviewers were friendly.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1 Case interview - This one's unique. Have some product perspective to evaluate benefits/cons. Be prepared to evaluate logic based questions.
1 Behavioral interview - Pretty generic "Tell me about a time when.."
1 System design - Generic Design XYZ
1 Technical - Leetcode Mediums
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Capital One in Jun 2026
Interview
I applied in February. Took an online technical assessment that comprised of four leetcode like problems. I wasn't able to finish them all, but somehow managed to pass. Some Capital One recruiter reached out to me, but for a different position. She told me that I passed the test. Okay that's nice, but what's next? Four months later and now in June, suddenly I have a Capitol One recruiter reach out to me about the position I applied to. She wants to schedule a Power Day interview with me.
The Power Day interview consists of a technical coding challenge, system design, behavioral, and a case study, four hours in total. Recruiter arranged a call with me to discuss what I should do to prepare; it's like you're basically studying for a final exam except you haven't spent a semester learning the material and need to spend a or two trying to study or learn system design especially if you have never done it like me.
On the actual Power Day, two of the interviewers seem nice and were more conversational. The other two technical interviewers feel like they were making jabs at my technical ability so I knew then that I wouldn't be getting the job.
Nevertheless, a few days after the interview. My recruiter reached out and asked me when was a good time to talk about the results. She called me and told me I did not pass and if I wanted to, I could try again in six months for other Capital One jobs.
Okay? Why didn't you just email this rejection notice instead of needing to tell about this through a call? Capital One thinks they're a FAANG company with the way they're conducting their interviews, but the salary you can potentially earn is nowhere near the FAANG companies.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a banking system that has several criteria like reporting back to a banking bureau.
Estoy apenas recibiendo la propuesta de agenda para la entrevista, todo de una manera muy respetuosa y con mucha comunicación entre ambas partes, atendiendo cualquier incidencia que pueda darse, ajustes y entendimientos entre los participantes en la entrevista.