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.NMIMS interview
The pi lasted 9-10 mins, same for the previous candidates as well, average 10 mins.
Very chill panel, usually 1m 1f in almost all panels.Asked me why not start your business since there are so many up and coming entrepreneurs from Gujarat (my state)
Then asked me what did I do after my bba. ( I completed my BBA in June 2023 and had no Workex)Asked about subjects I studied in last year BBA.
Asked if I follow news, any company in particular or any sector. [ Told I read newspapers and follow fmcg companies, but no particular company] Asked me what is included in fmcg, (I answered).
Asked me about the growth rate (told, don’t know in exact decimals, but around 13-15%)Asked me about internship, about the firm, nothing related to what I did.
Asked me again my favorite subject from bba, and then discussed about 2 minutes on that.Asked me what is primary and secondary market ( I answered primary and secondary sector, and while answering, I realised thag I am going wrong, so I apologised and told that this is primary and secondary sector) they smiled and before I could answer, they told me the answer themselves.
The End.
2.IIM Shillong Interview
4th Feb, Morning Slot, Mumbai
BSc Hons Food Tech graduate
CAT:96.79%ile
Workex:15 months(FMCG) you
Was first to be interviewed in panel 1
2 Male middle aged 1 was professor, other was external panel mp(alumni)
1.Extempore on: Keeping something on bay
2. TMAY….picked things from SOP and took about 90s
3.Tell me more about your current role and Profile
3.What are your views on no regulations in place for cloud kitchens and increasing consumer complaints?
4. What do you think can goverment bodies do to increase food safety and quality
5. Is quality not an expenditure,how will small businesses sustain if they spend on quality.
6. What is IoT,how can it be introduced to Food technology (told about block chain,was asked to be as technical as possible).
7.Do you follow current affairs? What do you understand by global south.
8. Throw some light on current differences and conflict between Syria and USA
9.What’s the solution if things are not stored as per recommended conditions,will it no hamper quality,who will do that investment?
10.Since you have been a debater,do you still engage in it? What do you like to do in free time?
The End
3.NMIMS INTERVIEW: Morning slot (8 Am to 1 Pm)
Profile: 9/8/8 ,3 years work ex WIPRO
NMAT Score: 252
WAT TOPIC: Is social activism necessary for a democratic society (250 to 300 words)
Watson glaser test: 30 min
Personal Interview: 1M 1F
1. Introduce yourself
2.why MBA
3.Describe your work
4.One unique experience you had in your work place and what did you gained from that experience
5.What is your take on AI. will AI take away jobs
6.what will happen if AI became super intelligent.what is your opinion This
7. Asked a little about bengalis(like commerce and culture)- was not not aware of commerce but had a talk about cultures how bengal is rich in culture.
8. Asked about hobbies.
9. Tell us one major development in technical world- talked about AI and sustainable energy
Interview was around 10 to 12 min . Interviewers were pretty chilled.
There were 20 panels per slot(morning/evening) around 250 people are interviewed each half
2024
IIMA AHMEDABAD Interview Morning slot:8:15am
Profile:9/9/7 #MBBS Graduated in August 2023 with 0 workex
(1st interview in My panel)
AWT:Violence portrayal in movies good or bad (20 mins)
Panelists:M1 -50ish age and M2-30ish age
Started with M2
1.Why MBA
2.Covid and issues that I saw during duty in 2021
M1 took over
1.You did neet prep and govt banned coaching for 16 years under. So do you think Kota should exist at a Philosophical level?
Ans. Said about both arguments and concluded NO because it means a failure of institutions of school that kota exists. Plus mental pressure, suicides and destruction of childhood for 6-7 years is not valid and also online resources are available which are great.
Then started a defend stand stress for 10 mins , continuously asked me to whats my stand , want to change or not.Didnt change my stand
2.Hobby? :Chess
Dont you think its just memory and boring? How would you form strategy in chess? Again cross question on everything like why waste time? Why not just allow computers to play? Etc etc
(10mins)
3. You saw economy, forget the numbers , pick one thing you would eliminate from india right now
Ans. Though for 10 secs, answered HUNGER
Cross question on whether it means you dont care for capex and stuff? Told and defended my stance , talked about my rural hospital experience in internship and what i saw.
(5 mins)
Total: 35 mins(9:40 to 10:15)
Thank you . You can leave
4.IIMA AHMEDABAD
Profile –
GEM Candidate with 2.5 years of Work Experience in the Investment Banking industry in the Quantitative Modelling space.
Profile: BITS, Hyd ….JPMORGAN Chase
Day 1 of IIM-A interviews @IIM Campus Vastrapur, morning slot.
AWT Topic –
Critically analyse ethical and moral delimma around the release of films and series that depict extreme violence. How does it impact the crime rate in our societies. Give points on both favour and against the topic.
Disclaimer –
The interview lasted for 50 minutes and was highly grilling in nature. My advice is to practice medication/deep breathing/nerve calming techniques, it’ll help you a lot more than last minute revision before the interview. The professors may cut you mid sentence and argue aggressively, do not get scared. On the subjective questions, the professors played Devil’s Advocate and negated everything that I said just to see how I defend my stance and how I hold up under pressure. Try to smile and maintain a positive body posture throughout the interview.
The first half of my interview was highly targeted towards my work experience and I believe that an average candidate is not expected to know most of these things. I had a Finance professor in my panel whose work aligns with my current job, hence the depth of his questions. The other professor was from Policy Making background.
Although I present a list of questions below, the interview format was not Question-Answer, each topic was discussed in detail to gauge my depth and not just the memorised concepts. Each answer lead to a detailed discussion which in-turn lead to the next set of questions. Your concepts should be sound and you should have a certain clarity of thought.
Interview Questions –
Tell us about your school. (My school happens to be right across the road from IIM Ahmedabad).
Tell us about yourself.
What exactly do you do in an Investment Bank?
You already work in Finance, why MBA then?
What are client facing roles in the world of Finance?
What aspects of financial modelling do you cover?
What is risk in Finance?
What is counterparty credit risk? What are the various methods to calculate CCR?
What is market risk? Name a few methods to calculate market risk.
What are financial regulators and what do they do? Name a few financial regulators. What is Basel?
What is Internal Model Method and how does it differ from standardised approach to calculate counterparty credit risk? Why do banks prefer IMM?
What is option pricing and what models do you use to price them?
Write the Black Scholes equation.
Explain the concepts behind arriving at this equation.
What is a Weiner process?
Write the equation for a Brownian Motion.
Explain Brownian Motion as an engineer, use concepts of fluid mechanics.
What is VaR? Explain it to me as if I am a layman.
What are the various methods to calculate VaR?
What is expected shortfall and how do you calculate it?
IIMA AHMEDABAD.
(Previous continued)
What is a normal distribution? Draw the curve.
What do x and y axises represent in a normal curve.
Why do you assume stock returns series to be normally distributed?
Explain stock path movements using a graph.
What is the Law of Large Numbers? What is the Central Limit Theorem? How do you define “large” for such theorems?
What is a confidence interval?
What are type-1 and type-2 errors? Which type of error is more risky?
What does your bank do to minimise these errors?
Give a real life example of a normal distribution.
What is probability and what is uncertainty? Explain the difference between them with examples.
What is a binomial distribution?
Write the equation for a binomial distribution.
How would you explain probability to a 5 year old?
What if he tosses a coin 20 times and gets heads all 20 times? How would you explain it to him then?
What are regression models?
Use all these discussed concepts to explain how any Investment Bank uses financial modelling to calculate risk.
Why did you do engineering if you wanted to make a career in finance?
How does being an Engineer help you in your current job?
Why does the country waste resources on people like you to make you engineers when you provide no engineering assets to the country?
What needs to change so that people start taking up diverse fields at the undergraduate level? What would you change in your school?
What were key highlight points of the NEP 2020?
You run a page related to Cinema on Instagram, sell it to us like a pitch.
How much time do you invest on it and what do you gain out of it?
What steps would you take to build your page into a business?
If you’re presented with a situation where you can no longer sustain working on the page, what would you do?
What is the opportunity cost for which you’d give up on your page? Clearly quantify it.
Thoughts on the Statue of Unity. Should it have been constructed?
What are the costs and benefits of such a construction? Do the costs of Statue of Unity outweigh the benefits?
What are the intangible benefits of such a construction?
What is capital expenditure? What are the other types of expenditures?
How could the Government have worked for upliftment of the villages around the statue without constructing the statue? State methods to do this without any capital investments.
Do you think that the villagers not know business and they need the government to construct extravagant statues to give them employment?
How does a villager hedge his risk? How do they insure themselves against losses?
What are the intangible benefits of such a construction? How would you quantify the intangible benefits?
Please have a toffee.
5.Iim A . (Location Campus)
10/8/8 Electrical engineer.
21 months workex.
interview – ( 30+ mins.)
2 male (both in early 40s)
One in electrical background not sure about other.
Why suit in this hot weather of ahmedabad?
Ceo does not wear suit?
What you do at your Work?
More questions from work ex.
Why gap in resume ?
Subjects studied during engineering ?
Final year project?
More questions on that.
Grilled in those subjects.
(Finally when i was not able to answer, then they stopped.)
Laws of thermodynamics.
How AC (air conditioner) works. How will you explain entropy in working of ac.
Latest news on ev
Toyota stance on ev.
Is ev the future ?
Electricity generation and how will you tackle increase in demand dur to ev.
What is the charging condition ?
More questions on that
Finally some Questions on recent news.
Like cognizant shut dows his offices.
Work from home ?Beneficial or not.
As an HR how will you decide.
How will you measure the productivity of employee and company?
Question on basic stats.
Have you done any courses on stats ?
What is Supply and demand?
Example?
Budget?
US in debt
Is debt good or bad.
What is inflation? Good or bad.
Supply and demand? With example.
More questions on this.
Have you done any courses on commerce?
How are you then answering these questions? (I said basic understanding and i have read about few topics. Then they stopped)
Then latest news. (Rbi & paytm)
Why what is the issue? What do you think.
End.
(There will be a return question from interviewer whatever you say, so be ready)
AWT – It was a long para but the gist was with increase in use of whatsapp and telegram we are not using SMS for communication and it is getting tougher to get a response on sms. Also , whatsapp and telegram are nuisance in personal life as now companies are using them to intervene in personal life.
We had to answer if we are against or support this assumption.
Click here to explore more interview experiences #5
