Vivek Agarwal scored 93.4 percentile in CAT 2023 and is creating this page as a reference for future applicants who will clear the CAT exam or any other major exam in the future and want to prepare for GD PI or WAT but do not have many resources or a network that can help them prepare like Vivek does.
Vivek says, “I didn’t have many resources, but I prepared with whatever information I could find online. Later, I realized that applicants like me share their interview experiences in groups, and edtech giants use them to discern the trends of questions asked in interviews. Hence, I decided to share those experiences on this website, which could help you understand the pattern of questions asked in interviews and design your preparation plan accordingly. One request: if you find this helpful, please consider sharing the website and refrain from copying and sharing it elsewhere.
Keep these five things in your hand, as what experience says:
- Current affairs (Refer it through business and economics)
- Knowledge about your state and city. (videos on internet)
- Civics (politics) and position holders name
- Academics
- General HR
Click here to explore those interviews
The MBA interview, a pivotal moment in the application process, serves as a platform for candidates to showcase their potential beyond their written credentials. It’s a dynamic exchange where intellect, ambition, and personality intertwine. Candidates must articulate their career aspirations, demonstrate a deep understanding of their chosen field, and convey how an MBA aligns with their goals. Beyond the academic and professional journey, interviewers often seek glimpses of leadership, adaptability, and problem-solving skills. The interview is not just about answering questions but also about forging a connection, presenting oneself authentically, and leaving a lasting impression that distinguishes the candidate from the rest.
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The interview experience is listed down:
1. Question asked in SP Jain
GI-1Explain Blockchain technology (Asked to a student with specialization in Information Management)
Question asked in SP Jain GI-2
What would you do if your boss takes credit for the work done by you and that hampers your promotion?
Question asked in SP Jain GI-1Why marketing? Which advertisement did you like? Which one you did not like, why? (Asked to a student with specialization in Marketing)
Question asked in SP Jain GI-2
How many of you eat non-veg? Do you know SPJIMR is a veg-only campus? Do you think it’s right on the management’s part to intervene in such matters?
Question asked in SP Jain GI-1Why MBA in finance? What roles are you looking for? Have you tried anything to learn basics in finance? Why MBA and why not Coursera’s well-structured courses? What you encountered in finance that made no sense for you? (Asked to a student with specialization in Finance)
Question asked in SP Jain GI-2′
Suppose you are a professor at SP Jain and you find that one group has copied the PPT made by another group in the senior batch for a group presentation. How will you handle the situation? (Follow-up question): Since there are multiple group assignments students have to work on, students usually divide the assignment work among themselves- one student works on an assignment of subject A, somebody else works on an assignment of subject B and so on. Now you find out that the student who worked on the assignment of your subject copied the PPT from the senior batch. Other students of the group are not even aware. Then what will you do?
Question asked in SP Jain Group Interview Imagine you want to sell sports shoes in undeveloped parts of Africa where people don’t wear shoes. How would you go about doing that? (Asked to a student with specialization in Marketing)
2. IIML -Noida campus
29th Jan, 8:30 am slot
CAT: 99.62
9/9/9 – Mech engg
Work ex – 18 months
WAT topic: Industrialization 4.0, a boon or a a bane
PI – 20 mins, Two female panelists
F1: Introduce yourself
F1: You seem to be doing well in life, why MBA?
Me: Told personal story (was cross questioned)
F1: what is your job role?
F1: What do you think about UPI, good or bad for economy (based on work-ex)
F1: Challenges in UPI
F1: Since you’re from mech, differentiate between operations mgmt and supply chain mgmt
F2: Why didn’t you take a job in mech? (answered honestly)
F2: annual turnover of ICICI Bank (based on work-ex)
F2: growth prospects for ICICI Bank
F2: ICICI Bank CEO’s name and background
F1: how many gharanas in hindustani classical music (based on hobbies and interest)
3.Scmhrd BA – 28th Jan 2024
93.8/82.46/7.9
GEM with 24 months of workex in #Software Development
Background: Computer Science CSE
P1: Female in 40s
P2: Male in 40s
P1 (Started with a cosy smile): So you are from Samsung, tell me about the achievement at your workspace you are proud of ?
Tell me about one failure at your workspace.
You play chess, tell me how you make strategies in a game?
What do you think how Samsung manages to stay in the market for such a long time, specifically in smart phones?
What Samsung does better then other competitors?
P2: You said you are already working on AI and Machine learning, and in well established company like Samsung you have lot of scope to work on different projects then why do you want to come for 2 years and do MBA? Why not some online course or excutive MBA?
Why Samsung do not reproduce phones in India? If it does then how many?
Why people do not know about other products or fields in which Samsung is working like construction?
After your MBA if you would be offer a job at Samsung would you go?
If you join Samsung again, what will be the thing you would like to change first?
Have you been part of any decision making process of any project at Samsung?
P1 (again): Gave me a scenario: Tell me the annual revenue of a coffee shop selling coffee, beverages and snacks at business street. What assumptions have you made? What can be done to generate more revenue?
Have you participated at national or international level? Or have any certification like CA, CFA?
I gave answer “I prepared for 2-3 months for CFA two years ago but couldn’t pursue it due to lots of new learning opportunities at Samsung”.
After listening to my answer P1 told “Don’t worry, you would be having lots of opportunities here at our campus in finance and other domains as well 🙂 ” – I took it as a positive response!
Panel was chill, friendly and conversational. Did not grill. Just trying to know myself.
FORE – 30th January 2024
95/87.2/68.2
GEM with 42 months of workex in IT
Background: AerospaceEngineering
Panel: 3 M
M1: Hello Good Afternoon
*Immediately started with questions*
1) TMAY (1 minute)
2) Can you tell me how Aerospace Engineering has helped you in your current role in IT?
3) Do you know what is CAA? Can you tell me more about it?
4) Any other news you have followed? – Told about the funding winter for Indian startups and how it relates to Indian IT recession as well.
M2:
1) Any incident in your professional experience which you’re proud of and which you want to share?
2) How much did you score in your annual appraisals?
M3:
1) You can become a manager while staying at your role. Why do you want a MBA? – I told about my aspirations.
2) Do all managers in your office have an MBA? – I said no.
M3 then followed through with –
Then you can follow in their footsteps and reach their positions. Why an MBA then?
3) Asked me something about Sony and Microsoft in the #gaming world since I had mentioned I like playing games. I told him I hadn’t followed the gaming industry.
Asked me what I thought about Call of Duty – I told him I don’t play shooter games.
Finally asked me if there is anything I had covered about the gaming industry? I said no (😭)
Followed by Extempore with the topic: Is the Indian Economy ready to go cashless?
M1: What were your CAT scores? I told him.
Okay thanks. You may log off now.
Panel was interrogative and had a neutral expression throughout. But they didn’t grill me or pressurize me.
4.Date – 31/1/2024 IIM Lucknow
Wat – CSR role in helping modern business techniques .
Background- zoology hon ,upsc
Tell me about yourself
Uh opted fir both ABM n MBA
Why MBA
What core subjects uh studied in upsc
Do uh read news regularly
Recent IR news of piracy
What uh know about Socrates
Socrates view on education
Who was aristotle .
Will uh give attempt in upsc again?
Have uh prepared for CAT earlier also ?
Any question uh have .
5.SCMHRD interview
X: 93.17
XII: 88.67
B.Com: 81
7m workex (Risk Analytics @ IBM)
FRM completed, CFA L2 done.
Gap of 1.5yrs
GE topic: Cosmetic company wants to introduce environmental friendly and cruelty free products. So list 5 factors that needs to be considered. After discussing for about 12 mins, a new development: key supplier is accused of malpractice. What will the management of the costemic company will do?
PI: 2 males (one middle aged, one old)
Q1: Tell me something that’s not there on your application.
Q2: What are the reasons behind India’s stock market reaching new heights?
Q3: What were your responsibilities at IBM? How will those skills help you to pursue MBA?
Q4: (Since I worked at portfolio risk management) How will you decide the risk for a new security?
Q5: Did you win awards at national level?
Guesstimate Q: Estimate the data consumed for a video that has 1 million active users. State your assumptions. Then we discussed on case the population was college students.
GE time: 25-30mins
PI time: 20mins
6.31st January, 2024
IIML Noida Campus
10th 93.67, 12th 93.4 , Graduation 88% CAT Score 99.71 percentile #NIFT alum
Work ex 1.5 years as a furniture #designer
WAT : Role of #CSR in modern business practices
2 panellists: M (40s) F (50s)
Q1 : Give us a short introduction of yourself
Q2: With your profile you could have studied further at NID or even gone abroad
Why an MBA in INDIA?
Q3:#NIFT and #NID are eminent institutions of this country, inspite of this why do you think salaries are low?
Q4: Your CAT score is quite good while you were working. What do u attribute this to?
Q5: Who all are in your family currently?
Q6: What other calls do you have?
At this point they made a comment about how I will likely choose IIM A or IIM B because of my diverse profile. I explained that I would be honoured to study at IIM L. Gave an example of an alumni of IIM L who worked at IKEA india and now has founded her own furniture company as that is kind of trajectory I see for myself
Q7:What do u think are the long term prospects of IKEA in India?
Thank you
31st January, 2024
#IIML Noida Campus,
Two panelists, one male and one female
WAT: Role of #CSR in modern business practices
Interview duration: 10 minutes
Firstly questions asked by Female panelist
1. Introduction
2. Question Related to work experience
3. Question related to Gap months
4. What is regression analysis and how do you interpret the results?
Questions asked by the male panelist (He read all my college and school certificates in detail)
1. Specific details about the hobby
2. How impact investors judge an investment opportunity?
3. What other calls do I have?
7. Interview transcript:-
#SCMHRD
Background (#FashionTech student) #NIFT
The panel had two members, both male and on the older side.
P1- We have your Details,Tell us something which is not mentioned here?(did mention a few aspects of myself)
P1- You have a varied background, fashion, why Scmhrd?
P2- Do you have any academic/national level achievements in college?(mentioned I do not, but went on to tell about my other achievement)
P2- Do you read newspapers?
P2- Asked me about supply chain disruptions happening, how will it affect me as a brand?
(Mentioned the red sea attacks, so they asked about alternate routes, I didn’t know)
P1- Asked me to calculate yearly expenses of a sales team including travel, food, etc.
P2- gave me another case to calculate flight charges for another sales time travelling pan India.
At the end, asked me about whether I had any questions, I said no it was a good interaction.
I won’t say it was a very grilling interview, but asking a fresher about team expenses etc certainly pushed me a bit.
Group exercise:- Gave an instance of a fruits and vegetables supplier facing issues in transport and storage etc.
Asked us to find 5 factors on which we will develop an action plan.
Everyone was given time to speak about their factors, and then a common ground with 5 factors was achieved.
2) Gave an extension of the problem(intervention) with another competitor who is doing sustainable marketing and packaging etc.
Asked us to discuss and change our points if need be.
8. IIMC transcript morning 31st Jan, 2024
Mumbai. Panel 2
3 male interviewer. Grilling in maths
Work ex part
1.What does you father do?
Answered
2.What do you do In reliance?
Answered
3.What are the other companies in India and World?
Answered
4.Who are your coustomers?
Answered
5.What are the sustainability guidelines for solar?
Did not know for solar but gave answer for battery.
6.What are the reason for Delhi pollution?
Because of waste burning in Punjab and Haryana
7.How will you mitigate it chemically ?
Had a problem understanding the question so after some to and fro.
Answered finally( changing the carbon content into hard carbon)
8.What chemicals will you use and what is the process?
Part of my work ex so answered properly
9.What subjects did you study in maths ?
Matrix, integration, differentiation
10.What is a linear function in a vector space?
IDK
11.How will you integrate a function without using analytical method?
Had a discussion regarding graphical method with assumpting strips but he seemed dissatisfied.
12.Give a real example of a function
Again was not satisfied with my answer
13. Define a function mathematicaly
Tried to explain but was not satisfied, so IDK
14. Give me a function which is not differentiable at exactly 2 points and show it mathematically
Answered and he was satisfied with it.
15. Do you want to continue in the same field after MBA
Yes, told the prepared ans
16. Do you read newspapers?
Not a active reader.( Mistake on my behalf)
17. So you have knowledge about your field and not much about the rest?
Had to answer yes.
Interview over.
Time roughly 10-15 min
9. IIM LUCKNOW 31/01/24
Profile – 10th – 8.0 Cgpa
12th – 81.6 %
Graduation (BTECH #CSE) – 79.4%
WORK EX – #IT/ #Manufacturing 48 months
Panelist- p1(Female, around 40), p2(Male, around 40)
P1: tell me about your work ex and your role?
P2 was checking my documents
P1 : what does your company sell?
P1: How do you contribute to your company? What’s the turnover of your company?
P1: Why didn’t you go for campus placement? Was it a good decision?
P1 : How’s your father recovering? Do you still run your family business?
Switch to P2
P2: How do you solve your clients relation
P2: Why aren’t you interested in ABM, why only PGP and SM?
P2: why didn’t you think of switching, given that your salary is quite low?
P2: What project are you currently working on??
P2: What all calls do you have?
Switch to p1 again
P1: what is linear algebra?
P1: what is algebra?
P1: How do you find the roots of the quadratic equation?
P1: what is conditional probability? Write down the expression
P1: Are you sure? How will you read it?
P2 confirmed its correct
P1: What is the bayes theorem?
P1: We are done, thank you!
At last, I asked for toffee because i was feeling hungry 🙂
They seemed happy about it.
10.WAT Topic of the day 20240201
The Centre announced the privatization of 2 banks in last year budget. Is it the right approach? What about the future implications Discuss. (Asked by IIM Bangalore in 2023)
Question asked in SP Jain GI-1
Name 4 current trends in the IT industry. (Asked to a student with specialization in IM)
Question asked in SP Jain GI-2
What is your opinion on politicians attending birthdays and weddings and other celebrations of celebrities and businessmen? Is it right or wrong? What could be the implications of that?
Click here to explore more interview experiences #3
