(Each step needs to be passed before the next stage is progressed)
1. Standard HR rep phone call. 15 mins.
2. Take home code test, which involved two questions. This took a whole day to complete, including obligatory unit tests. This is then emailed back to them.
3. Face-to-face with HR. 15 mins.
4. Immediately followed by a written SQL/PHP test. 15 mins time limit.
5. Immediately followed by a 1 hour technical grilling by two team leaders. This technical grilling covered (2), (4) and general/specific topics.
6. HR contacts you a day after to explain their decision and provide adequate feedback.
This is the hardest interview process that I've ever had to go through. For a 3 month contract role, the whole process was excessive and overkill. A lot of the questions asked were more definitions rather than applications of knowledge/scenarios. Some of these questions (the pivotal ones) were geared to very specific financial areas of concern, which is not common knowledge (nor mentioned as a core requirement within the job spec)
The HR aspects were nice. They were thoughtful, treated you with respect and kept you up-to-date on your application progress/result.
I was told the morning after the final stage that I didn't get the job. HR was nice enough to provide feedback that it was due to lack of knowledge on financial issues and lack of TDD/BDD experience.