Barclays HireVue: Markets View, Questions and Prep (2026)

Barclays' HireVue is a short behavioral screen with one markets twist. Candidate reports describe about 30 seconds to prepare and 1 to 2 minutes to answer each of several questions, with two attempts allowed on some tracks. The most-reported decider is not behavioral polish. It is the markets-view question: your take on the finance industry's biggest challenges, delivered with a view. Everything below is built around that reality.

For the wider banking map, see the investment banking HireVue questions guide. For the rep method behind every prompt here, use how to practice HireVue.

Format at a glance

Your invite overrides the table. Barclays' process varies by program and region. Treat the shortest variant as your training baseline: if you can land an answer in 90 seconds, the 2-minute tracks feel generous.

The Barclays questions to expect

Reported prompts cluster into four lanes. Build one STAR skeleton per lane before you record anything:

• Motivation. Why investment banking, why Barclays. Aim both at the firm's actual business, not prestige. Name what Barclays does that you want to do.
• Teamwork and pressure. A time you delivered inside a difficult team, a time you handled pressure. One situation sentence, three action moves, a quantified result.
• Markets view. The biggest challenges facing finance in the next five years. Pick two real pressures (rates, regulation, AI, deal flow) and take a side with one concrete example each.
• Technology tracks only. A business scenario with provided sources, multiple-choice items, then video answers tied to the scenario, including a written email draft at one point.

Say each answer out loud against a timer on HireVue Practice before you record.

What comes before and after the HireVue

Before: the online assessment. Candidates describe numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning under strict time limits plus a personality questionnaire. This gate kills more candidates than the video, so run timed reasoning sets for a week rather than cramming the night before.

Technology candidates face an extra layer: a scenario section with provided sources, multiple-choice items tied to the scenario, and video answers that walk the project to completion, including a written email draft. Prep this separately from motivation stories. Read one business scenario per day, answer its questions against the sources only, and draft the email in under five minutes. Candidates who treat the scenario as a formality arrive at the video section already behind.

After: live interviews ending in Superday. Expect the same motivation probed deeper with follow-ups, plus a case-study presentation on some tracks. Reuse your HireVue stories but extend them, because partners will ask what happened next.

A prep plan that respects the order

1. Assessment first. Timed reasoning sets daily until easy items feel automatic. The video never happens if this gate fails.
2. Story bank second. Five STAR skeletons from the common questions bank: motivation, teamwork, pressure, failure, markets view.
3. Markets view third. Write your two-pressures take once, then say it five times from the skeleton until it fits in 60 seconds.
4. Full mock last. Record a full set in one sitting at 90 seconds per answer, single takes, then rerun only the failed prompts once.

What gets Barclays candidates cut

• A headline-summary markets answer. No view, no example, no pass.
• Prestige motivation. Fits every bank and therefore none.
• Running over on a short track. Practice the 90-second landing even if your invite promises two minutes.
• Skipping assessment prep. Summer tracks screen on reasoning first. Arriving ready only for video wastes the first gate.

Compare adjacent screens before you finalize prep: Citi's banking questions for the technical-twist contrast, Goldman Sachs for the bulge-bracket version of the same motivation screen, and JPMorgan for another short-format behavioral set.

Reported Barclays questions to rehearse

These prompts recur across candidate reports. Rehearse each from a skeleton, never a script:

• Why investment banking, and why Barclays specifically.
• A time you worked inside a difficult team and what you personally contributed.
• A time you performed under pressure and how you structured your response.
• What you think are the biggest challenges facing the finance industry in the next five years, with a view and one concrete example.
• Your own insights on the industry: where it is heading and why that interests you.
• Technology tracks: scenario questions drawn from provided sources, including multiple-choice items and a short written email draft.

Sources (checked September 11, 2026)

• Glassdoor, Barclays Summer Analyst interview reports (two-attempt format, two-minute answers, industry-insight questions)
• Glassdoor, Barclays Technology Summer Developer interview reports (scenario section with sources and email draft)
• Wall Street Oasis, Barclays Summer Analyst interview reports (30-second prep, 1 to 2 minute behavioral answers)
• Candidate-reported process guides (online assessment structure)