IT and Software Developer Interview Guide (UK): Stages, Technical Rounds and Behavioural Questions
Technical interviews in the UK have a reputation for being stressful, but they follow a pattern. Once you know the stages and what each is testing, preparation becomes a checklist rather than a guessing game.
The typical stages
A recruiter or HR screen, usually 15 to 30 minutes, covering your experience, location, salary expectations and notice period.
A technical screen with an engineer, often by video. This might be questions about your experience, a short coding task or a discussion of a past project.
A take-home task or live coding session. Practices vary: some employers prefer a task you complete in your own time, others a pairing session.
A final round with a team lead or manager, mixing technical discussion with behavioural questions. For senior roles this often includes system design.
What they are actually looking for
Companies hire people they would want to work with. Strong candidates explain their thinking, ask good questions before diving into code, and are honest about what they do not know. A neat solution reached silently scores lower than a slightly imperfect one reached while talking through the trade-offs.
Technical topics to revise
The detail depends on the role, but most interviews touch the same areas. Know your main language well enough to explain how it handles things such as memory, types and error handling. Be comfortable with data structures (arrays, maps, stacks, queues), basic algorithm complexity, SQL queries and joins, how the web works (HTTP, REST, status codes), version control with Git, and testing. For modern roles, expect questions about cloud services, containers, CI/CD and security basics such as authentication and common web vulnerabilities.
Coding rounds: how to handle them
Read the problem twice and restate it in your own words.
Ask about edge cases and constraints before you start.
Talk through a simple approach first, then improve it.
Test your code with a quick example, and say what you would test next if you had more time.
If you get stuck, say so and describe what you are thinking. Interviewers often give hints, and how you respond to them is part of what they assess.
System design for senior roles
The question might be as broad as "design a URL shortener" or "how would you build a notification system?". Start with requirements, sketch the main components, talk about data storage, scaling, failure and trade-offs. There is rarely one right answer, so clear reasoning matters more than a perfect diagram.
Behavioural questions
UK employers care about teamwork and communication as much as technical skill. Prepare stories about disagreeing with a colleague over a technical choice, handling a production incident, working with non-technical stakeholders, mentoring someone, and learning a new technology quickly. Use the Situation, Action, Result structure and keep each story to about two minutes.
Contract and permanent roles
If you are applying for contract work, you will probably be asked about your day rate, availability and, in some cases, how you handle IR35 status. Be upfront and make sure you understand your own position before the conversation.
Quick answers
Do I need a computer science degree? Not necessarily. Many UK developers come from bootcamps, apprenticeships, self-teaching or other careers, though some graduate schemes do ask for a degree.
Should I learn data structures and algorithms? Yes, to a reasonable level. You do not need to memorise obscure puzzles, but you should be comfortable with the common ones.
How should I prepare in a week? Revise fundamentals, solve a handful of practice problems out loud, prepare three project stories and research the company's product and tech stack.
For a deeper dive, our question bank covers dozens of IT and software roles with model answers and the reasoning behind them. Every role has five questions free.
Practise for specific roles
Pick your role: Software Developer, Software Engineer, Web Developer, Data Analyst, Systems Administrator.
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