TEAM DISHA 2014

Airtel
HR Questions
1.

Tell me about yourself?

2.

Strengths?

3.

Any question for us

4.

Tell me about yourself

5.

Why not pursue foreign education

6.

Meaning of name and birth place

Technical Questions
1.

Two key areas where Airtel is lacking?

2.

Profit margins and strategy, not many technical questions

3.

Dont ask much on the sector, even in the Corporate finance role

Interview rounds
1 or 2

Alpen Capital
HR Questions
1. Tell me about yourself?
2. Why IB?
3. Why Alpen Capital?

Technical Questions
1. Make a Sales Pitch to a Private Equity player for a 20% stake in a vocational Education
company

Interview rounds
1

American Express
HR Questions
1. Why Amex?
2. Why finance?
3. Finance is hectic, will you be able to manage?

Technical Questions

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TEAM DISHA 2014

1. Written round: How do you decide on whether a credit card transaction is fraud or not.
Derive a methodology. How do you satisfy customers whose transactions were wrongly
blocked by your methodology?
2. Round 1: How do I know whether a credit card transaction is fraudulent or not? Generate
options.
3. You have to organize a music concert in Lucknow. How do you measure the potential no
of people who might attend?
4. Round 2: Puzzle. How do we decide on credit limit of a card?
5. If you are a music lover and wants to open a music concert. What are the different type
of sources where you can get the information regarding place, people, instruments,
investments etc.? Need to write 5-6 points about everything.
6. What does American Express do?
7. What new is going on in the company?
8. Past work experience related questions. - Prepare this part well.
9. "Puzzle- a deck of cards (52 cards) with 4 aces. How many cards do you need to flip on an
average to get the first ace?
10. Credit Risk Analysis: - How would you analyse credit worthiness of a customer? How
would you analyse his internet surfing history to plan what type of card should be given
to him? Suggest some promotions that can be offered to customer.
11. Assume that there are 1 lac prospective credit cards clients available in a city. Design a
strategy based on five parameters/basis to approach clients i.e. which clients should be
approached first, second etc...
12. Guess the number of 3 - wheelers in Mumbai. Asked to find out the error in estimation
approach taken.
13. In a deck of 52 cards, there are four aces. If you are picking one card after the other, at
what position the first Ace card will appear in the long run?

Interview rounds
2 interviews and 1 case study
Quant based puzzles. Credit card based questions

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Avendus
HR Questions
1.

Interest in I banking and Avendus?

Technical Questions
1. Valuation: valuing private company
2. Accounting: accounting for acquisitions and related questions around the above two
broad topics
3. Short discussion on how to value a Spices manufacturer - how to model, assumptions
etc. - interactive - ask questions to the interviewer all along

Interview rounds
3 rounds

Axis Bank
HR Questions
1. Tell me something about yourself
2. Why Finance profile?
3. Something about interests
4. Tell me about yourself?
5. Why Bank? What is bank according to you?
6. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Which organisation and which position?

Technical Questions
1. What is the difference between Balance sheet and P&L statement of banks and other
companies
2. what are the sources of income n expense for a bank
3. what does a bank do with the money they have
4. CRR, SLR, Repo rate, some ratios, Capital adequacy ratio
5. How different is service marketing from product?
6. How would you use social media for the banking sector? Give strategies to target a
particular segment of customers?
7. What sets Axis apart from other banks?
8. What is DuPont Analysis?
9. Explain the three major factors in ROE for DuPont Analysis!
10. What are the most important ratios?
11. Financial Ratios(Comment on Debt-Equity) and few others...What all Equity
comprises of..

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Interview rounds
1. Learn the banking system and their finances and recent news
2. Know your CV well, especially work ex/internships and projects
3. 1 interview round

BFC Capital
HR Questions
1. Why Finance?
2. Tell me about yourself?
3. Do you know what we do?

Technical Questions
1. What All work-ex based questions2. What was job profile there?
3. What projects you were involved in?
4. All details about your work-ex

Interview rounds
1 round. Need a dynamic, confident person with good communication skills for client
interaction

BMR Advisors
HR Questions
1. Tell me something about yourself?
2. What do you like to do in your free time?
3. What do you expect from the internship?
4. What unique skills do you have?
5. Why finance?
6. Why this company?
7. Tell me about yourself?
8. Tell me about your work-ex?

Technical Questions
1. What do you know about BMR?
2. Why BMR advisors?
3. About the role offered by the company
4. What do you know about Risk Management?
5. Which area of Risk Management do you see yourself fitting in?

Interview rounds

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Two rounds

BNP Paribas
HR Questions
1. About yourself
2. Why Finance?
3. Why BNP?

Technical Questions
1. What can big banks like BNP contribute for financial inclusion?
2. What do you know about BNP Paribas?
3. What is global transaction banking
4. How can u get credit card of BNP (u can't since it is not into retail banking in India)
5. Have u seen any of our company ads lately.....what was in there 6. What is financial
inclusion? What is the government doing towards that?
7. What is IRR?
8. How would the balance sheet of an IT company differ from that of a bank?
9. If you are a net exporter of your good, what would you prefer: rupee appreciation or
depreciation?
10. Formula of normal distribution.

Interview rounds
One rounds. Particularly for GTB profile, prepare HR well

Crisil
HR Questions
1. Tell me something about yourself which is not in the CV.
2. Why finance?

Technical Questions
1. Which Subject interest you in the curriculum?
2. Financial ratios
3. Comparison between ROE & ROCE. Which is better indicator?

Interview Rounds
One round

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TEAM DISHA 2014

DBS
HR Questions
1. About the work experience. Finance related work that you have executed.
2. Achievements
3. Which Banking domain I would like to work in?
4. How will DBS help you to accomplish what you are looking for?

Technical Questions
5. About company's growth and presence in India. Various sectors that the company is
present in
6. Project Finance and Risk Analysis
7. Mainly related to my Investment Banking Research experience for CTS
8. Why are you interested in finance?
9. What is banking? Different types?

Interview Rounds
1 round of interview and GD. Be thorough with your CV. Confidence needed more than
functional knowledge

Citi Bank
HR Questions
1. Strengths and Weakness
2. Run through your CV
3. Core values of Citibank?
4. Define leadership? What was your latest achievement as a leader?
5. Why banking?
6. Justify your aptness for the role? how will you contribute?
7. Why do you want to go for a career in banking?
8. Where do you see yourself 5 years down the line?
9. Why do you want to go for corporate banking?

Technical Questions

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1.

Stringent regulations will help the bank or not?

2.

Fin - Any Financial Crisis,

3.

Which financial policy should be used by US at this time?

4.

What is the cause of subprime crisis?

5.

What is the cause of any crisis - govt or environmental situation?

6.

European Crisis, what should Greece do now?

7.

Some economics/finance concepts

TEAM DISHA 2014

8.

How will the deregulation of interest rates on savings by RBI impact the banking
industry

9.

Guestimation- Assume 7 banks are hiring in top 10 b-schools. How many do you
think would be hired in all by the banks, across campuses.

10. What do you know about corporate banking?

11. What are the earnings of a bank?
12. What does a company need from a bank? Tell me some more points.
13. If I give you Rs.100, where will you invest it and why?
14. What is the relationship between the price of gold and equity price?
15. Why does a company need a bank? Tell some more points.
16. Guesstimation - Can you estimate what are the number of cars that enter IIM
Lucknow in a day
17. You have $1m and you want to invest it. Convince each other which asset classes
you would invest into". After 5 min, another topic was given "Why inflation is
persistent in India and whether steps taken by RBI are correct
18. Effect of appreciating Yen on (Japanese) companies who export and import. What
should be the companies plan of action be
19. Some basic FRA/Eco questions. Can ask about a particular sector that you follow

Interview Rounds
GD and interview. Know about the company undertaking and the recent press releases

Edelweiss
PGP28 Summers
1 interview round

HR Questions
1. Tell us something about yourself
2. Question based on interests and hobbies
3. What are the things you are most passionate about?
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
5. Why finance? If not finance- then what?

Company Questions
1. Why did you leave Edelweiss after working there for just 4 months? 2.
Do you have any questions for us? (I asked them 2-3 questions)
3. Which would be your area of preference?

Technical Questions
1. Are you tracking any sector? If yes, which one?
2. Questions like P/E ratio, Market Capitalisation of a company I mentioned I was tracking
3. Any other sector you follow?

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4. 1 guesstimation question- demand for split ACs in IIM L.

CV Questions
1. Describe your FRA project in detail- What insights did you gain from it?
2. What are your interests?
3. Which books do you read? and why?
4. 4. What are the key differences in the writing styles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sidney
Sheldon?

General feedback
1. I gave a lot of wrong answers. In fact, I didn't know the answers to most of the finance-based
questions that they asked. But in the end, I proactively asked them 2-3 questions about the
company. This helps as the recruiters feel that the candidate is genuinely interested and the
role being offered. Last but not the least, I stayed super calm throughout and was honest
during the interview process. That could be the reasons why I sailed through.
2. Answer confidently. I mentioned the wrong P/E value. But since I wasn't sure, I did tell them
in advance to correct me if I was wrong. So, in case there's an answer you are not too sure
about, give them a disclaimer. Answer, humbly, yet confidently in case of Finance-based
interviews. There's no reason why they won't take you in.
3. Selected because of confidence, quick response and good preparation.

PGP27Summers
2 interview round

HR Questions
1. Situational questions on leadership roles 2.
What all shortlists you have?
3. Obviously I said no, then he said so you are an ethical person, so rest of the discussion was
on ethics
4. What ethics mean to me, examples?
5. Is manipulation good?
6. What is capitalism? What is socialism? Which will you prefer?
7. Why shareholders and managers don't go along?
8. Love or Happiness?

Company Questions 1.
Why Edelweiss?

Technical Questions
1. Go through your first term project properly
2. My project was on telecom, so asked which stocksyou willprefer.
3. Telecom sector in detail-When it started? What were the policies 10 years ago? 5 years ago?
3 years ago? Current trend? Future trend? Focus shifting from penetration to QoS

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4. My interview was sector based knowledge because i forced him to listen, so questions will
revolve around your CV and fin project

General feedback
1. Be Confident. Prepare your HR answers well and be yourself in the interview.
2. It was more of HR, be impressive and show them that you are made for fin
3. Relevant work ex, good HR answers, stick to my ethics point (clincher!) Always have a smile
:)

Fidelity
PGP27Summers
1 interview round

HR Questions
1. Why fund management? Why buy side? Why Fidelity

Technical Questions
1. Which sector do you follow? Elaborate on that sector (industry overview, recommend a
stock from that sector)
2. What's your portfolio? Have you faced any failures in your investments?
3. Grilled about the research report they asked to write before the interview (recommending a
stock buy/sell/hold)
4. One of the interviewers, actually asked me the date and price at which I made my last
investment. So dont lie!!
5. Macro-economic developments, and all major news items from around the world. Start
reading Economic Times religiously!!
6. They also asked me what were my best and the worst investments decisions, and what were
my learnings.
7. Asked me about the company i had chosen for my report. My rationale for selection,
8. Know about the competitors, and what the competitive advantages of your company are.
Know basic ratios, will be helpful!!

HR Answers and Company write-up

1. I think this was among the most important steps in getting to the final shortlist. The
interview was also largely driven around this report, so make sure you do a good job of it.
2. HR Answers: Try to display your passion for equity research. I think a large part of the
shortlist for the interview depends on these answers. Give it some thought and be genuine.
If you haven't been tracking the market, then don't try to pretend like you have, because you
will get caught in the interview.
3. Report: We had to make a 500 word write-up on any company, justifying reasons for
buy/sell. Look at as many sell-side equity research reports as possible. Be abreast with

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current happenings and try to capture the impacts of various news items on the stock price.
Try to build a story around your recommendation. Put a price target based on some logical
valuation assumption. DCF may not be possible here given the word limit. Let it be simplistic,
around P/E ratios, EPS etc.
4. Post the report, if you are comfortable with valuation then do a DCF/some other valuation
model, and try to come up with a price target. This would be helpful in the interview
process. (I was not good at DCF, I made a model, and wasn't able to justify it well enough.
Created some problems during my interview.)

General feedback
5. I didn't have a portfolio and they specifically mentioned in the ppt that they were looking for
someone who is passionate about stock markets. I could not demonstrate that passion.
6. Please follow markets regularly, pick up a sector, and 2-3 companies in it. Do have a
portfolio, even if a virtual one
7. They basically tried to gauge my interest in the markets. Asked me if I have traded in the
markets, and had my own portfolio. They will ask you which stocks, why those stocks etc., so
be well prepared.

FPI
PGP27Summers
Technical Questions
2. How is ATF prices regulated around the globe? (My eco project)
3. How is regression done?
4. What is called call?
5. From where CRISIL gets data for various parameters?

General feedback
1. Be absolutely thorough with your economics project... lots of eco questions.

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Fullerton Securities
2 rounds of interviews

HR Questions
1. Tell me something about yourself?
2. Tell me something your any two strengths?
3. Do you like reading?
4. Which novels have you read till now and which was your favorite character in that novel?
5. Can you arrange your own accommodation?
6. Do you have any questions?
7. Do you know about the profile we are offering?
8. Do you have any issues if we would give you sales profile?
9. Why Finance

Technical Questions
10. What is Equity Research

General feedback
11. I think I was selected because i was very much confident during the interview and showed
lot of interest in the finance. I guess the key behind cracking finance interview is your
passion for the field and even if you don't have any knowledge but still how enthusiastic you
are to learn it, that's really important.
12. The interview was video conference, so for such interviews i would say the most important
thing is to smile as in they can easily see your facial expressions and be patient because any
technical error can occur during such process.

Goldman Sachs
PGP28 summers
2 rounds of interviews

HR Questions
1. Tell something about yourself?
2. What if we don't select you
3. How would I manage a team that has conflicting ideas and solutions to the same problem?
4. How would I manage a team that has conflicting ideas and solutions to the same problem?

Domain Questions
1. Work culture based questions
2. What is Market Risk Management?
3. What is Market Risk Management?
4. Why investment research?

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Technical Questions
1. Asked questions about the sector which I was following - growth drivers, relevant ratios,
how to compare three different companies in the sector etc.
2. FRA - inventory valuation, cash flow statements, ratios (EV/EBITDA, liquidity ratios,
profitability ratios)
3. If you were given Rs. 1 lakh, what would you invest it in?
4. How did u build an inclination towards finance?
5. Relative comparison of finance and marketing based on numbers?
6. How can u match your skills with this type of work????
7. What is Interest Rate Risk?
8. What is Interest Rate Risk?
9. Calculate expected value of a die
10. Which sector do you follow?
11. Which stock will u buy currently in FMCG?
12. What is the price of HUL stock?
13. market shares of diff players in FMCG 14. If i give you 1 lakh rs, where will you invest?
15. Difference between RD and FD?
16. Which better counters inflation?
17. What is rate of inflation?
18. Do finantial analysis of Kingfisher
19. where does capex come in cashflow statement?
20. If i borrow money, how will it be reflected in income statement
21. Questions specific to stocks and the domain of the stock that I said I knew about..
22. What kind of trading and investing strategies did you use to select a stock?
23. What is working capital?
24. Will it be positive or negative for a company in the FMCG space?
25. Which link in the supply chain will have positive working capital and which link will have
negative?
26. Questions related to your FRA project.
27. Since I had mentioned real estate sector, they asked me to name a stock that I had tracked.
28. Why was the stock rising or falling? Reasons?
29. What are the prospects of the company for the next 6 months? Reasons?
30. Questions related to ratios like ROA, ROE, working capital, capex, operating leverage etc.
31. Given a high operating leverage will you invest in a fast growth company or slow growth
company?
32. Is high capex good or bad for a company?
33. Which financial statement should you look out for for the details of the same?
34. What is the capex of different sectors?
35. How does power transmission company like powergrid work?
36. What are the prospects of the same?

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37. Which changes in the environment will trigger its price change?
38. What other companies will get affected by the changes in the policy changes?

C V Questions
1. U have done a course in some NSE....so what's it all about?
2. 90% of my interview was CV-based.Being in Deutsche Bank helped,so I leveraged that and
drove the interview to my advantage.
3. 90% of my interview was CV-based.Being in Deutsche Bank helped,so I leveraged that and
drove the interview to my advantage.
4. My role in TCS

General feed back

1. Sector prep helped and was also able to answer most of the FRA related questions. I just
missed out at the last moment when i asked a question which they couldnotunderstand..so
probably i was a bit too smart...
2. Selected for 2 reasons: - past work-ex and honesty (my interviewers complimented me
more than once for my honesty, and thats what actually sold in the interview.
3. I think logical approach and confidence while answering the questions is checked.
4. Understanding the financial statements thoroughly, interest in capital markets, investing,
trading and most importantly catching the hints provided by the interviewer to answer the
question correctly. Even though I did not sufficient details of a particular sector from a
financial perspective, I could relate to the same with the current affairs and happenings.
5. Catch the hints. Smile a lot. Speak out your thoughts.

PGP27 summers
2 rounds of interview

HR Questions
1. Why finance?
2. Tell me about yourself?
3. Questions related to my undergrad college as the interviewer was from same city.....like
4. Did you apply for GS when you were in undergrad?
5. What happened at that time?
6. Tell me something not in ur CV?
7. Which football team do you follow?

Technical Questions
1. One head line related to finance in recent news.
2. Euro crisis and credibility of euro
3. Sector specific questions - i chose IT

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4. stocks that you follow in the sector
5. which stock would be better to invest in if iam a 60 year old guy
6. Impact of Euro crisis on IT sector
7. How many types of valuations are there?
8. When do you use EV/EBITDA, P/E, P/BV ? (They asked me this when I was answering my first
question)?
9. Do you follow any sector? Which sector?
10. Then they asked me questions on the companies which I followed in the sector? It went on
for quite some time.
11. Finally they asked me if I had any question for them.

General feedback
1. Knowledge about sector and stocks of the sector
2. And general knowledge about macro economics
3. These i guess helped me to get selected
4. I had a good understanding of valuations and was following the auto sector. I think I got
selected because of my decent understanding of the sector.

HCL Capital Markets

PGP28 Summers
2 rounds of interviews

HR Questions
1. Tell me about yourself 2.
Why HCL?
3. Any Location Constraints?

Technical Questions
1. FRA question on Ratio. Around 6-7 questions on Economics, both Micro and Macro.
2. How many golf balls are produced each year in India?

CV Questions
1. Exhaustively on work experience, including the technical sides. Not much on any other CV
point

General feedback
1. Extremely chilled out. Interviewer was an alumni and was considerate of the stress we were
undergoing. Lots of basic questions on the subject that you claim to have interest in

PGP27Summers
2 rounds of interviews

HR Questions
1. Why IB,

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2. How can you relate your previous work ex to IB

Technical Questions
1. What sector shows maximum investment potential, Justify

CV Questions
1. What kind of work did you do as a credit analyst
2. What work did you do as a lawyer

General feedback
1. I believe its because i picked a sector they were looking at and i justified it and i was also able
to explain in detail about the sector and its potential. Also i was able to link my work ex to
the profile offered.

Headstrong
PGP28 Summers
2 GDs and 1 inteview

GDs
1. Two GDs (one contemporary topic and other a case)
2. Strategies to remove corruption from India
3. You are a new consultant at Headstrong and you have to prepare strategy for succession of
new CEO, with focus on Internal Selection or External Hiring. Please specify the attributes
you'll measure the candidates on.

HR Questions
1. Run me through your CV
2. What do you want to do? (Exact words, interpret as what profile you'll like more)
3. At the end again, what do you really want to do in your life (this time be frank no need to
sell yourself, in two simple statements give your short term and long term goals)?
4. What kind of company you're looking for?

CaseQuestions
1. Case: You're a consultant and you have been asked to analyze a P&L. Start analysing

General feedback
1. In the GD, be brief and to the point. Don't interrupt others 2.
Always listen to what others are saying and try to build on it.
3. It's better to speak less, but with original ideas rather than speaking a lot and not adding any
value to the discussion
4. In interview, when you go in shake hands and ask their names.
5. Be in a conversation mode, and be brief.
6. While solving cases articulate your ideas and though process. Focus on structure. Ask
questions (again be very brief will asking questions)

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7. When leaving again shake hands and keep smiling during the process
8. Please do attend the Disha sessions on case solving and also go through the Disha material
on Case solving frameworks

PGP27Summers
GD
1. Clubs and Committees in a Bschool
2. Corporate Ethics are overrated

HR Questions
1. Tell me about yourself,
2. how do u see urself in 5 yrs

Technical Questions
1. There were questions on FRA but very basic like P&L statement

HSBC
PGP28Summers
1 round of interview only

HR Questions
1. Tell me about yourself and why finance and then why banking 2.
Something about your family and value.
3. Why Corporate banking and not investment banking
4. About Marwaris
5. why not your own business
6. Introduce Yourself
7. Strengths and weakness
8. Short term and long term goal
9. Tell us an instance where you demonstrated leadership qualities
10. Why Banking?
11. Why Finance?
12. Why dont you complete your CA?
13. Why MBA after CA?
14. Tell me about yourself. Why finance? Why corporate banking?

Company Questions
1. Why HSBC and not city or standard chartered
2. Give me one pro and con of city, Stanc, HSBC and why do u would choose them. DID not
accept globe answers of environment friendliness.
3. Why HSBC
4. Why not citi or stan c

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5. profittability of citi and hsbc
6. Why HSBC
7. Why retail banking?
8. Why HSBC?
9. Why HSBC?

Technical Questions
1. Ratios of various firms
2. Why would you invest in Tata or reliance, the values attached in it. Is Tata better than
Reliance in growth and values of business.
3. Difference between Accounting & Finance?
4. Impact of CRR rate cut on banks

CV Questions
1. FRA project very specific with the value of ratios.
2. Questions on loyalty cards
3. Science Olympiad
4. Odissi dance
5. Some questions on why did you not complete CA and why did you join MBA
6. None

General feedback
1. Due to inadequate preparation of my FRA project.
2. simple hr interview, almost the same kind of questions were asked to everyone, .basically
because of finance background
3. My profile matched with what they were offering (as i worked in a retail project in TCS)
4. I had a cool and calm attitude throughout the interview. I was very positive about
everything. I was asked how many interviews have you appeared for before the HSBC
interview and how was I feeling.. So, I had replied that HSBV was my 5th interview for the
day. I also said that I had a great time and I was enjoying the placement process and going
forward and learning new things from the process as it was once in a lifetime opportunity to
be part of such a wonderful process. I also said that its no use to sulk after an interview as it
would make me nervous for the next interview and spoil my chances of getting selected. So,
its better to be positive and to face the situations in a calm and composed manner as and
when they come.
5. Stress HR interview. Screwed it up. Could not convince them.
6. Never mention the other banks , they specifically en quire about it ... they need to know
your perception. A little information of type of profile of commercial banking offered will
add up to your discussion.
7. Be confident in all your answers and have a smile on your face throughout the interview.
Also, use a lot of gestures to convey your enthusiasm about joining the company.

PGP27Summers

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HR Questions
1. Tell me about what you did in Varchasva? - Some more questions about the work that I had
done
2. Tell me about your undergraduate POR?
3. Why IIM?
4. Give me an incident when you have been part of a team and there has been discord/an
irritant in the group. How did you handle it? What was the result?
5. Since I play cricket, my idol in cricket and the justification to idolize him was asked.
6. Why do I want to get into finance?
7. The interview was basically HR questions and CV based.
8. Your strengths

Company Questions
1.

What are your expectations from a summer internship at HSBC?

Where would you rank HSBC in your preference list. I said 2nd. you need to be honest.
2. Why banking ?would you go for retail banking ? I refused. Then they asked Private banking ?
I said Private I could still consider. In the end they offered private banking only. So be
careful what you say in the interview.
3.

Why MBA directly after college?

4.

1. Why do you want to join HSBC?

5.

"why HSBC?"

6.

"why banking?"

7.

"As an intern you would not be exposed to actually dealing with clients,then why do yo
want to join?"

Technical Questions
1. FRA - What are the different ratios? What ratios to apply in different sectors?
2. FRA Project - What did I do and how did I do it?
3. What all marketing projects related to advertising/branding have you been a part of since
coming to IIM Lucknow?
4. 1. I was grilled for around 15 minutes on my FRA project.
5. 2. They asked me my favorite project at IIM L. I mentioned a marketing project and we
comfortably discussed it for about 15 more minutes.
6. no fin ques

General feedback
1. Be yourself. Be truthful. I said I would prefer Standard Chartered over HSBC and they could
understand that as StanC's wholesale banking segment in india is much bigger than HSBC's.
2. Be thorough with your CV. At least all the relevant points.
3. * Prior preparation of FRA project and your CV is must. One must be able to give sound
explanations to whatever has been asked from anywhere.
4. * Always keep up a smiling face. It helps

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HSBC Commercial Banking

1 interview round only

HR Questions
1. What is going on in campus and how have you been feeling
2. How do you find this process, how many companies, whats the trend these days
3. Which is the sought after bank on campus and what are they offering
4. Family values, how many in family and profession of each
5. Your take on the current frauds that have been exposed despite the various control
mechanisms imposed by a bank
6. Where do you see yourself in future
7. What kind of perspective people would have about you towards the end of your career (was
speaking a lot about goodwill so this question stemmed from that conversation)

Company Questions
1. Why banking, which are the top 3 foreign banks, why HSBC, what is transaction banking all
about, why not the more sexy Investment banking profile given that you are into markets
and all (Credence Capital)

Technical Questions
1. What is the source of income of a bank\
2. How does a bank's balance sheet look like
3. CASA ratio
4. NPA percentage
5. NIMs &NIIs
6. What would you bring to the table as a corporate banker

General feedback
1. Original, candid, honest, genuine answers peppered with personal anecdotes. Confidence
and in depth preparation on all fronts - about the banking industry, about HSBC, and most
importantly, about myself
2. Be relaxed and be yourself. Confidence can do wonders and a little bit of wit and humour
lightens the mood, earns brownie points and breaks the ice if you can start with it.
Coincidentally my interview started like that and in the first few seconds I got it that I am
through unless I really screw up myself later. That itself took the pressure away and gave a
huge confidence boost

ICICI
1 interview; 1 GD; 1 psychometric

GD process
1. Investment decision in a start-up company.
2. Business: Medical consultancy through internet services

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3. Financial projections and few other details provided.
4. Total GD members: 7; Time: 10 minutes to prepare, 12-15 minutes for GD
5. Case Topic-1: An emerging firm -> Offers healthcare consulting over the internet(globally) ->
has tie ups with N diagnostic centers and M doctors(consultants). Has ePharmacy too. Its
growth (revenue and gross profit margins) are given for the 3 years it has been up and
running., the projected gross profits for next 7 years is given. The firm has a requirement of
$3.5 million ->As a bank would you invest in this. what are the various things to look at.
weigh the risks and benefits.
6. Case based GD / case is to decide weather to give a loan for new venture(1 yr old company).
lot of details and some little data were provided in the case.
7. Case Topic-2: A situation in which a company wants to set up an e-organization. its provides
services to patients via online. like collecting blood and urine samples, providing
consultation through top class doctors online. everything is online here. They projected
some revenue for 4 years and as a Bank will u provide them a loan or not

HR Questions
1. Why MBA after engineering?
2. Most challenging task in work ex 3.
What kind of role you're looking for?
4. Details about work ex role
5. What previous interviews did u have(I said P&G)
6. Did you make it(No)
7. What quality of yours do you think is the reason why you dint make it?
8. A discussion on the skill I told was not matching with P&G
9. Tell me at what point u notice that possessed this quality did
10. What measures did you take towards shedding it
11. All questions based on CV
12. Why banking?Why finance? Why ICICI?
13. Few questions on the GD topic
14. Strengths and Weaknesses

Company Questions
1. At what point do you think you can make a real and tangible contribution to ICICI
2. Why must an IIT Grad like you who was working in a good firm, good position and a good
package too, join a bank like ICICI, why must he do MBA in the first place
3. About profile

Technical Questions
1. Going back to the case, I as a banker did not approve this investment. Why did you think so?
(I started speaking qualitative things like nature of the present stakeholders etc)
2. She then asked: What are the key financial ratios that I must have looked at while making
my decision, explain. (I made a slight mess in this, but all they were trying to judge here is
basic basic knowledge)

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CV Questions
1. nothing specific, but half of the time I tried to refer all the HR answers to the points I made in
my CV.

General feedback
1. I was friendly and honest in the interview.
2. I feel GD. Brought good direction to GD. I was not the guy who started the GD, I wasnt the
guy who concluded. Two things I did good:
1) Person who started claimed a good point and 1 or 2 people who took over from there
built up on that. I then brought about a structure (a basic one, nothing great)
2) I pulled out numbers and trends from the case at the right moments 3-4 times in GD.
Most people were focusing on theory.
3. I did well in the GD. and in the interview try to bring your achievements and strengths.
4. If you're able to have a fun and intelligent discussion with the panel, that more or less seals
the deal.
5. I feel creating a good impression during GD was when they selected me (because I
personally feel my interview went bad)
6. Show your passion for the profile. That is the most important part

ICICI Prudential
1 interview; 1 task round

Group task
1. They asked us to choose a topic of our own and deliver a monologue of 3 minutes. I choose
"Future of Newsprint: Paper vs. paperless" which was a GD topic for one of my previous
interviews.

CV Questions
1. Some questions on F1 and football from other interests.
2. Questions on my FRA project, what i did in it.
3. What is IRR?
4. Difference between 'which' and 'that' (The interviewer seemed to have been having fun at
my expense)

Other Questions
1. They asked me 3 Guess-estimate questions. All 3 were general questions (one was estimate
revenue/yr of Manchester United). The whole interview took place for over 30 minutes.
2. What is a MOSFET/JFET? difference between them

General feedback
1. GD: Structured my points in a good manner.
2. Interview: Did well in guess-estimates. Throughout the process, I thought aloud. Told the
panellists about my assumptions, other facts etc. before giving them the final number.

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3. It was a stress interview. However, I kept my cool and answered confidently.
4. Know your CV well

KARVY FINANCIAL SERVICES

GD TOPICS
1. Jan Lokpal Bill- Is it an effective solution?
2. Is austerity a solution to Euro crisis.

KRAFT CADBURY
GD TOPICS
1. How to increase sales of Cadbury in IIM Lucknow campus?
2. Facebook time versus Face time.
3. What should be done to increase the sales of Bournville / Whether it is priced rightly
4. Who is real youth icon of India?
5. Corporate Corruption- is it a necessary evil in India
6. Is the macroeconomic environment in India favourable for FMCGs
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are the factors to be considered to achieve profitable growth in the consumer
space?
2. What is the implication for FMCG companies in the current macroeconomic situation
in India?
3. The company wants to double the sale of Bournville chocolate by the next year.
What should they do?
4. Why Cadbury's corporate financerole? Why not something else in finance?
5. Ratio analysis ofTata Motors(FRA project). Why do they have negative working
capital? Is it good or bad?
6. 3 main insights you got from your (mark) project on ICICI Bank
7. Tell us about this paper you wrote on Indian Economy.
8. Tell us about credence capital.
9. Why Corporate Finance? Why not Investment Banking?
10. Any example where you displayed your Analytic Skills (Full Description of the process
would be better)
11. Why Cadbury?
12. Talk about some other product apart from chocolates

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13. What are challenges with chocolate supply chain?

14. How storage and placement of chocolates in shops are critical?
15. How important is supply chain in FMCG?
16. Ratios. How do you evaluate a project? 17. PE Ratio of a stock is 35. Comment
18. How is a company valued?
19. Any sector you follow and why? Numbers not needed but give broad idea of the
industry.

L&T GROUP
1.
2.
3.
4.

Do you follow energy sector? Oil sector?

What was the oil price yesterday? Recent announcements in Indian oil industry?
What do you know about project finance?
Do you follow the L&T stock?What is the current level, lowest mark it went last
time?
5. Asked me in detail about Inflation, market fluctuations, debt-equity ratio and its
effects.
6. Explain your FRA project on Suzlon. Questions on company's debt equity ratio,
competitors, profit/loss and its future outlook.

MACQUARIE INFRASTRUCTURE FUND

1.
2.
3.
4.

Most part of the interview was based on Valuation

Run through your industrial project on valuation for M&A advisory
Details about the project and the procedure I had used.
FCFF vs FCFE, thorough discussion on this, effect of leverage, beta calculation,
multiples.

MULTIPLES ALTERNATE ASSET MANAGEMENT

(a) I had worked for an Indian smartphone client, so all my interview questions were
around Indian smartphone market.
1. Current smartphone market?
2. Key features of smartphone market?
3. What are the profitable smartphone companies in India?
4. Explain the strategy of any one smartphone player in India.
5. Few other questions related to smartphone industry only.
(b) I had worked in Travelocity so questions on that workex.
1. Talk about online travel (OTA)

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2. What are the growth opportunities and challenges faced by OTA market in India?
3. Are the OTAs making money?
4. How MakeMyTrip's model is different from that of Travelocity?
(c) Talked about auto sector after I mentioned that I follow auto sector. Monologue on
industry overview.
(d) What is infinity*zero?
(e) Some specific questions about a due diligence project undertaken by me.
1. The nature of research done by me in the past: primary/ secondary etc.
2. Which sectors would you consider attractive for investment in the infrastructure
domain and why?

NOKIA
GD TOPICS
1. Should India have a twp party system or a multi party system?
2. America's foreign policy - Democratic or Tyrannical
3. Discuss the pluses and minuses of the Indian Education System
4. Social Networking - Boon or Bane?
5. Capital punishment in India - good or bad?
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. If you are Nokia India's CEO, what strategy will you follow in the next 2-3 years and
why
2. Discuss Nokia's similarity with Maruti?
3. I was asked about ROE.
4. Derive the balance sheet and income statement of a retailer?
5. If you are advising Nokia India's MD, suggest 5 ways to recover lost market share

NOMURA
GD TOPICS
1. Inflaion in India and how should it be controlled.
2. 13th interest rate hike is not curbing inflation
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Why Finance?
2. Why equity research?
3. Why Nomura

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4. Difference between equity research and investment banking

5. Two boxes one with 50 red balls and one with 50 white balls. What is the maximum
probability of picking a red ball with whatever rearrangement
6. If I sell inventory how will my current ratio change?
7. How do you write a journal entry for a stock bonus?
8. How would your predict the revenues of a telecom company for the next five years?
9. How would you find the growth rate of number of subscribers?
10. Finance: - Small case-lets like"The cement industry is in demand in India, but the
analyst at Nomura has published the report saying NOT to invest in it"What could be
the reasons
Hint: Give as many possible reasons you can

O3 CAPITAL
1. Why finance? Why investment banking?Why O3 Capital?
2. Will you suck up to clients?
3. Why you are a fit in our company?
4. What change will you make to the company?
5. Name any recent deals of O3 Capital
6. Questions about the sectors that O3 specializes in
7. Which sector would you like to work in?
8. FRA related questions on B/L sheet, P&L, cash flows, financial ratios.
9. Name one listed company from your hometown
10. Significant accounting policies and key financial ratios - FRA project
11. Can operating income be positive and net income be negative? When? Which all
sectors can have this?
12. How will you value a bank?
13. Depreciation for a bank?
14. How will you value a FMCG?
15. Explain the various parts and constituents of a balance sheet 16. A problem on
standalone and consolidated balance sheet
17. What is ROCE?
18. If days inventory increases then what happens to operating cash flow?
19. What is capital employed?
20. What is Debt to EBITDA ratio?
21. If a PE firm wants to invest 100cr in a hospital, what will you advice them?
22. How to value a hospital?
23. Balance sheet analysis. Asked me to make a balance sheet. Then, interviewer gave
me a balance sheets of 2 companies. Company A is acquiring Company B. He asked
me to prepare consolidated balance sheets and standalone balance sheets.

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24. Which part of the job do you like more - investing in the markets or providing
advisory services to the clients
25. Have u invested in the markets? Which sector do u track? Why? Which ratios do u
look at and why? suggest 5 sectors which have I growth potential in India and a stock
in each. (cross questions on each answer)
26. Where was Sensex and NIFTY yesterday? Suggest a stock in which I should invest in
and why? At what price did that stock close yesterday? What is the P/E of the stock,
what are the revenues of that company, what is the general industry P/E of that
sector? Why should I not invest in the other stock? (cross questions on each answer)
27. Do a valuation of yourself

QUALCOMM VENTURES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

What is the riskiest thing that you have done in your work life?
In which of our portfolio companies would you invest and why?
Have you gone through our profile?
What do you think has been our best investment so far and why?
What are the 4 things you would ask an entrepreneur when he asks for capital?

RABO BANK
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Why finance?
What is your view on banking industry?
What do you about commodity trading?
Tell me about the nature of your work at ICICI Bank?
Why agribusiness? Why finance?
Have you worked on any cash management system?
Why RaboBank? Why ABM , work ex related question , CGPA?

SAMARA CAPITAL
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

What is ROC?
How a Company is Valued
Why PE? Why not consulting
Macroeconomics related
Relation of exchange rate and interest rate
Gave two situations of investment and asked which one is better
India's inflation scenario (Causes)
Tell me about the various valuation methods that you used while working at Credit
Suisse
9. Pros and cons of using these valuation methods

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10. Tell me what do you know about Private Equity as such and the current state in India
11. What is the biggest problem faced by Private Equity in India according to you 12.
When did u realise that you liked finance?
13. 10 year and 5 year goals
14. Your views on the GDP/ GodhraKand/ effectiveness of the current PM?
15. Discussion about the portfolio and investment criteria of the company
16. Asked to value an unlisted IT company, given hypothetical sales & margin.Asked
various approaches to do the same.
17. Options Payoffs
18. Hedge with option Eg. you are having long position of Zinc at Rs 31, You want to
buy call at strike 32, sell call at strike 28, sell put at strike 28. make a payoff chart and
effective purchase price.
19. It was entirely about valuation. Since I have worked on the banking and insurance
sectors, I was asked primarily about these two fields.
20. Effect of government policies on the market.( Recent crr cut by 25 basis points)
21. What is CRR? Why is it kept? step by step impact of the policy change.
22. You are an investor. you are an option to invest in an idea of AIR PAN which can fry
food using air.
23. I was also given an investment case, whether to buy a company or not, given
different business environments
24. Since I am from BSNL, he asked: What do you think is the reason why BSNL GSM is
not so popular compared to the other GSM services?
25. Asked about valuation (effect of changing depreciation and tax policy on the value of
the firm), call-puts, why leverage is good, optimal leverage.
26. What is operating leverage?

SBI CAPS
1. What do you know about SBI capital
2. Tell me about any engagement in which SBI capital was involved in recent past
3. Do you have any idea about the profile offered? (I was interviewed for project
advisory and structured finance)
4. Few questions about debt syndication, tranching and securitization of debt

STANDARD CHARTERED BANK

GD TOPICS
1. Giving voting rights to illiterates is illogical because they can be misused
2. How do you tackle inflation?
3. Developing countries need Trade and not Aid

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4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Role of banks in financial inclusion

Corporate Governance is a social fad
Where will the Sensex be in December 2012?
Are we heading towards a double dip recession?
How can banks help in Financial Inclusion.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Why consumer banking? What specifically interests you in CB? Why from IT to CB?
2. What specialization do you intend to do?
3. Why did you do NCFM certification?
4. Why StanC? Why this profile?
5. Can you give me the Black-Scholes Model Equation?
6. What is CAPM? What is Beta?
7. What does the balance sheet of a bank look like?
8. What is the biggest component in a bank's balance sheet?
9. If you had to invest in a stock which one would you invest in?
10. What is P/E ratio, Current Price and the Highest Price for the stock that you would
invest in?
11. Why Financial markets?
12. India's GDP? India's population? Per Capita Income?
13. Any topic that you are comfortable with? (I spoke about the basic valuation of
equities based on the dividend growth model and pricing of bonds)
14. How to price a bond and a sample question on valuing it?
15. EUR/USD all time high/low?
16. Which important data came out yesterday?
17. Why Banking? Why Investment Banking?
18. What do you know about Standard Chartered's financial markets division?
19. Where do you see yourself fit in StanChart?
20. What do you know about the role we are offering?
21. What do I understand about the subprime crisis?
22. Questions on Eurozone crisis. What do you think is the way ahead?
23. How can you manage risk?
24. US subprime crisis.
25. Different valuation techniques.
26. What specializations are you planning to take next year
27. Would you prefer marketing in FMCG to Consumer Banking
28. Interested a lot in my social work that I had mentioned in my CV and asked me in
detail about it, as StanC was also very serious about social work.
29. What is transaction banking? (transaction banking is the profile i applied for)
30. Did you apply for banking profile to earn more money?

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31. Will you shift to any other vertical after joining transaction banking?
32. What do you know about standard chartered?
33. How will you do balance sheet analysis?
34. Difference b/w options and futures, call and put options ?
35. Where do you see the derivatives market in India few years from now?
36. How would you comment on the financial status of any pharma company looking at
its balance sheet & CFS ?
37. What would you recommend on the Pharma Sector shares? - buy/hold/sell & why? (
cross-questions based on my answers, went on for around 5 mins)
38. Cement industry - what do you think are the future prospects of the industry in
India?
Market leaders in the cement industry - overall and sectoral in India

VODAFONE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

One thing you liked in Vodafone and not present in other competitors
Latest info about Vodafone
One problem which telecommunication sector marketing is facing these days
Why not FMCG? Why telecommunication sector?
Tell us about Telangana movement which is going on in Andhra Pradesh and if you
were given a chance what will you do as a CM of AP?
6. Small states Vs Big States.

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