Capital One Interview Questions

Capital One Interview Process Overview

Capital One is a Fortune 100 bank that hires thousands of new employees every year across a wide variety of corporate teams which include business analytics, strategy consulting, data analytics, finance, software engineering, and more.

The large banking and financial services company also runs a variety of internship programs and graduate rotation programs targeted toward undergraduate and graduate university students.

General Interview Process:

Full-time positions will follow this general recruitment process which includes a phone screen and online assessments followed by a first-round interview and final-round interview. 

1. Recruiter Phone Screen
2. Online Aptitude Test & General Assessment (General Business Roles)
3. Technical Assessment (Tech & Data Roles)
4. First-Round Manager Pre-Screen (Mini Case Study Round)
5. Data Science Challenge (Data Science Roles)
6. Final Round “Power Day” (Job Fit, Behavioral, Case Interview Questions)

Student Internships & New Graduate Interview Process

1. Recruiter Phone Screen
2. General & Technical Assessments*
3. Final Round “Power Day” (Job Fit, Behavioral, Case Interview Questions)

Note: Analyst program applicants will be given a "Virtual Job Tryout" assessment designed to simulate real work tasks. Tech and Cyber program applicants will be given a CodeSignal coding assessment. Strategy program applicants will be given business case interview assessments.

Capital One Interview Questions List

Review this updated list of Capital One interview questions:

• Why do you want to work for Capital One?
• How does Capital One generate revenue?
• How does Capital One differentiate itself from other large banks?
• How do you handle missing values in a dataset?
• How does credit card fraud work?
• How would you redesign an alarm clock?
• What are 10 different ways to use a pencil?
• What interests you most about the team or program that you are applying for?
• What would you say would be your biggest value add once joining the team?
• Tell us about a time you encountered a difficult problem and how you ended up solving the problem.
• Tell us about a time you had to resolve a conflict in a team.
• Tell me about an accomplishment that you followed through from start to finish that you are proud of.
• What blogs or websites do you visit regularly?
• How would you price a new product?
• What are some metrics you would use to measure customer satisfaction?

The below sections contain an expanded overview of additional example interview questions that you might find in each stage of the interview process.

Capital One Recruiter Phone Screen

At the very start of the process, expect to have a recruiter phone screen interview. In this conversation, the recruiter will likely ask a mix of job fit and behavioral interview questions mainly focused on your interest in the company, interest in a specific position, and the previous experiences on your resume.

Example Interview Questions & Answers:

Q: Why do you want to work for capital one?

A: I believe Capital One would be a great place to work for 3 main reasons. First, I believe the company does an incredible job collecting consumer data, which allows the firm to perform really competitively with logical and thoughtful data-driven decisions. Second, the bank has taken a very interesting position in open-source software which I think will push the bank to lead the next wave of fintech adoption in the next five years. And finally, the bank does a great job of allowing entry-level employees to work in a number of different verticals and I think this kind of broad exposure, especially at the junior level, will create strong leaders with a solid understanding of the bank's fundamental business lines.

Q: What is the biggest accomplishment that you have on your resume?

A: I’d say that I am most proud of the Goldman Sachs stock pitch competition that I won with my team of student financial analysts. This project was quite difficult in that we had to learn (from scratch) how to make and apply a discounted cash flow analysis model on a young peanut allergy company with negative earnings. This experience was incredibly rewarding as we were able to connect finance concepts and theories to a real equity valuation analysis which allowed us to confidently pitch the stock as an undervalued investment.

Q: What do you like to do outside of school or work?

A: I really enjoy watching and playing recreational basketball at my local gym which hosts summer and winter tournaments every year. Although the health benefits and general entertainment is nice, I actually really enjoy the strategic aspect of the game. Last year, I really felt like we optimized our team plays around our key player strengths and weaknesses by running a high pick-and-roll offense and a 4-and-1 defensive zone.

Capital One Online Assessment

Business analysts, strategy consultants, and other general business and finance applicants will encounter an online assessment or “Virtual Job Tryout” designed to replicate real-world working tasks. Many of these tasks will be focused on quantitative business problems.

Example Interview Questions & Answers:

Q: During a season of volleyball, the men’s team won 75% of their first 112 games and 25% of the remaining games played that season. If the team had an overall win rate of 60% for the entire season, how many total games did the team play?

A: See the algebra breakdown below:

• Let x = the number of remaining games and t = the number of total games played
• So we know that 112 plus the remaining games should give us the total which can be represented by [112 + x = t] or [x = t - 112]
• We can also create a formula to match up the number of won games, which can be represented by .75(112) + .25x = .6t
• Then we can use the variable substitution method to solve for t: .75(112) + .25(t - 112) = .6t
• From here, if you solve for t, you should get 160 total games

Q: A coffee shop operates for a week and sells 1,200 cups of coffee. A customer survey indicates that 50% of customers were first-time purchasers, 30% of customers were ordering for the 2nd time this week, and 20% of the customers were ordering for the third time this week. Assuming each customer only orders 1 cup of coffee per order, how many unique customers did the coffee shop serve that week?

A: See breakdown below:

• 50% of customers were first-time buyers: 50% * 1200 = 600 unique customers
• 30% ordered twice: 30% * 1200 = 360 orders → 360 / 2 = 180 unique customers
• 20% ordered three times: 20% * 1200 = 240 orders → 240 / 3 = 80 unique customers
• 600 + 180 + 80 = 860 unique customers

Capital One Technical Assessment

Software engineers, data analysts, and other tech-oriented applicants will likely be asked to complete a CodeSignal coding assessment. 

Technical Assessment Notes:

• Software engineers: Technical assessment consisting of 4 algorithm questions to be completed in 70 minutes.
• Data Analyst: Technical assessment focused on SQL and data query questions.

Capital One Mini Case Study Round (Manager Pre-Screen)

Candidates who pass the assessments are usually invited to complete a first-round interview with a hiring manager. 

For (non-technical) business, finance, and strategy-oriented applicants, this mini case study will follow a consulting style framework. Here you’ll be presented a business scenario and issue and you will be expected to provide a solution backed by quantitative and data-oriented logic.

For (technical) software engineers and data scientists, the mini case study will be focused on your applied area (frontend development, backend development, data systems, etc.).

Example Case Study Question

Q: You are the head of new business development for a car manufacturing company. What factors would you consider when deciding the pricing of a product launch in a new geographic market?

A: See solution breakdown below:

First, always ask follow-up questions to further clarify and define the scenario. Example questions could be: Are there existing competitors in the market? Is the cost of manufacturing the car in the new market the same as in existing markets? Will we have to consider any tax or environmental regulations?

Present Quantitative Solutions:

• Cost plus pricing: First calculate the cost of manufacturing the car, then use a percentage markup to arrive at the final price for the customer. To derive a percentage markup figure, we can perhaps look at the median markup in our existing markets or consider using an industry average.
• Competitor pricing: Gather competitor pricing data in the target market or in similar markets. This should give us a baseline for the median price for a similar car. Then the company can take a stance to be either the cheapest provider or the premium provider, depending on the product quality and branding strength relative to competitors.
• Income analysis: Create a ratio between median family income and car prices in the target market or similar markets. This will allow the company to price the car relative to the economic purchasing power of the consumers in the new market.

If you’re looking to better prepare for your technical business and finance interview questions, consider checking out our Complete Finance & Valuation Course where we teach students financial statement analysis and how to make built-from-scratch company valuation models.

Capital One Data Science Challenge

Data analyst applicants are sometimes required to take on a data science challenge project. This take-home modeling assignment is designed to test your knowledge of data relationships, data classes, basic calculations, data visualization, and more.

Example Data Science Challenge Problem:

Many candidates have reported coming across Capital One’s Credit Card Fraud Detection Classification Problem in this stage of the interview process. In this problem, the candidate is in charge of building a predictive model to increase the accuracy and precision of determining fraudulent transactions.

Dataset Considerations:

• The dataset contains reversal transactions where a purchase is followed by a refund (charge reversal).
• The dataset contains multi-swipe charges where a vendor accidentally charges a customer’s card multiple times in a short period of time.
• There is a class imbalance and some missing data values.

Capital One Final Rounds (Power Day)

If you reach the Capital One Power Day, you’ve essentially made it to the final round of interviews where you’ll likely be set up with 3-5 back-to-back interviews with different members of the Capital One team.

Business Analysts: Expect 2 case interviews and 1 - 2 behavioral and job fit interviews.

Tech and Data Analysts: Expect 1 case interview, 1 coding or data challenge, and 1 - 2 behavioral and job fit Interviews.

Job Fit Interview Questions & Answers

Job fit interview questions are designed to test how well you would fit in your applied role in a designated team and the overall company culture.

Q: What excites you most about the Capital One Finance Rotation Program?

A: Capital One is a very tech-based, data-driven bank and financial services company. With that in mind, I believe that even in a finance-oriented program, I’ll be able to gain exposure to technical and data-oriented projects. I think this aspect of the rotation program, particularly at the junior level, will round out my development in an industry that is becoming a very fast-tech environment.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

A: It’s difficult to say where I’ll end up in 5 years given how early I am in my career. That said, I am hoping to spend my first 2 years in the analyst program to learn the important and fundamental details of the financial services business. From there, I hope to grow into more of a leadership role where I can hopefully use my expertise to make thoughtful and impactful business decisions.

Other Example Questions: 

• How does Capital One generate revenue?
• What interests you most about the team or program that you are applying for?
• How is Capital One different from other large American banks?
• What would you say would be your biggest value add once joining the team?
• What is your ideal work environment?
• If you were to start your own business, what would it be?

Behavioral Interview Questions & Answers

Behavioral interview questions cover the “tell me about a time …” questions that are designed to test how you handle hard scenarios, difficult problems, teamwork, etc.

Q: Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult person?

A: Last summer, I worked at a commercial real estate brokerage firm that worked with a client who was keen on leasing a floor in an office building for his company. Amongst several other requirements, the company president would only take the 8th floor of a building because that was his lucky number. Unfortunately, at the time, the 8th floor was already under contract with another tenant. The team didn’t want to lose this deal with a sizeable client but didn’t quite know how to satisfy the client to complete the leasing assignment. Eventually, our team came up with a creative proposal to ask building management to add 1 to every floor so that the unoccupied 7th floor would become the new 8th floor which would be available to the tenant. The building management agreed and all stakeholders came out satisfied with the deal.

Q: Tell me about a time you failed or made a mistake?

A: Several years ago, I was involved in a cheeseburger food truck project. The food truck sales were great in the first few weeks, but we later realized we miscalculated our ability to steal market share from strong fast-food competitors in the area. We carried what we learned in this project to our second food truck launch where we used a 3-mile radius competitor analysis model to secure a location with good customer foot traffic and relatively few competitors.

Other Example Questions:

• Tell us about a time you encountered a difficult problem and how you ended up solving the problem.
• Tell us about a time you had to resolve a conflict in a team.
• Tell me about an accomplishment that you followed through from start to finish that you are proud of.
• Tell me about a time you learned something new.
• Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a customer or teammate.

Case Interview Questions

The case study interviews in the final round will likely be more comprehensive than the mini case study covered in the first round interview with a hiring manager. Again, the case study will test your ability to digest a real-life problem and propose a solution with quantitative, data-backed logic. 

Example Case Study Question:

Q: Suppose you are working at a furniture company and you have been tasked with evaluating 3 partner delivery companies that have applied to take over our customer shipping and delivery contract. How would you pick out the delivery partner that would best help the company deliver furniture orders to its customers?

A: See breakdown below

• Ask clarifying questions based on presented data: Do all partners use the same fee structure (by type, by unit, by weight, etc.)? Are the delivery times the same for each partner?
• Calculate the estimated shipping costs for each partner: Fixed Fee + (Variable Fee * Units Sold)
• Calculate the number of units needed to be shipped in order to be better off with a partner that is 100% fixed fee.
• Present ideal partner selection: On paper, delivery partner C would provide us with the cheapest shipping solution assuming that we ship over 16,000 units each month. This makes partner C the ideal candidate given the information available.
• Present other considerations: That said, there are also considerations that could make the cheapest solution not necessarily the best solution. For example, if partner C uses really cheap, low-quality materials to package the furniture, there could be an increase in customer product returns where customers request a refund or a replacement for a product damaged in transit. These additional expenses could actually make the partnership more costly relative to other partners with higher-quality delivery. To investigate this potential risk, we would need to look into the damaged product return rates for each of the delivery partners and calculate our cost of a refund or replacement product.

Other Creative Questions

Sometimes interviewers will throw in creative problems like brainteasers and market sizing questions designed to test how you would solve unusual problems.

Example Questions:

• How many cups of coffee does Starbucks sell every day?
• How many golf balls can you fit in an airplane?
• How would you redesign an alarm clock?
• What are 10 different ways to use a pencil?
• How would you improve a pair of sunglasses?

Additional Resources

If you’re in the process of applying to competitive business and financial analyst roles, consider checking out our Complete Finance & Valuation Course. Use this course to join our students who have landed jobs at Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Bloomberg, and other great companies!

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