Sample Interview

Questions
 Past year Questions/Cases

Corporate Finance
1. You're a finance person in a marketing team. Your competitor offers 5% discount -> your
marketing team also wants to (our company has never given discounts in history). What are
the different aspects you would look at? (HUL Summers 29)
2. Is top-line or bottom-line growth beneficial for a company achieving growth? (HSBC Finals
29)
3. You're running the most inefficient plant in the world - how would you go about improving
cost efficiency? (HUL Summers 29)
4. You are running a salon. You want to launch a new product (determine what product). Build
a strategy for this product. Estimate future cash flows and Balance Sheet. What problems
might you incur? (HUL Summers 29)
5. What factors would you consider to evaluate while putting money into a promotional
campaign. How to go about doing resource allocation for product launch? (HUL Corp Fin,
Summers 2013)
6. A brand manager wants to reduce prices by ten percent for 2 months if u r the finance
manager, from financial perspective what would you do? What would be your approach to
take a decision? (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
7. How do you evaluate the credit period to be given to a company? Which ratios would you
use for this evaluation? (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
8. One of the business segments is making losses, what factors would you consider before
closing it down? (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
9. How would you reduce the working capital for the bank? (Standard Chartered Finals 29)
10. How will you calculate NPV? (ICICI Finals 29)
11. In what situations will be the cost of equity will be less than cost of debt (Finals 28)
12. How should a bank optimize its working capital? (Accenture Finals 28)
13. What is capital budgeting? What are the different techniques used to evaluate investment
proposals? What is DCF, WACC, IRR? (JP Morgan, Summers 2014)
14. What is a perpetuity; Outflow of project is 5 cr and returns of 80 lakhs per year how will you
value it, if returns are perpetual then will you invest? (JP Morgan, Summers 2014)
15. What is NPV? How do you calculate NPV? What are the elements required to calculate NPV
of a project. (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
16. Difference between NPV and IRR. What are the assumptions behind them? Which one is
better? (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
17. What is return on equity, how would you improve a firm's equity (Operating and fin
leverage)? (Synergy, HEPP 30)

Valuation
1. If stock price plummets can the company go bankrupt? (Avendus Finals 29)
2. How will u evaluate stock is lucrative? (Avendus Finals 29)
3. There are two companies one with high growth, low EBITDA and another with low growth
high EBITDA. How will you decide which one to invest in?

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 4. Company A gives return of 10% but is growing, whereas company B gives return of 15% but
does not have growth which one would you invest in? Why? What if the growth company
needs additional capital every year? (Avendus, Summers 2014)
5. Assume a 2 crore investment in the coffee industry which is giving a return of 10 lakhs per
annum. How will u evaluate this proposition?? (Avendus, Summers 2014)
6. If there’s a hotel chain, how will you analyse the industry from a strategic investor’s point of
view?
7. If you have to invest in a bank, what all will you look at? (DB, Summers 2014)
8. If you have to invest in a company, what all will you look at? (DB, Summers 2014)
9. What will you look at while investing in a light asset business?
10. What is enterprise value? (Avendus Summers 31)
11. 10 things you'd look for while investing as a PE. What all will you tell the client?
12. Compare two companies where to invest, what questions would you ask?
13. If I give you 10 crore to invest which sector would you invest in and why?
14. You will be given the financials of two companies. So compare and in which you will invest?
15. Say you have a financial target and how will you approach it? What parameters will you look
at?
16. When can you use DCF, when to use direct valuation, how to value new business, what
ratios would you use to evaluate it?
17. 2 Companies. One pays cash dividend, other retains cash. Which one’s better? Effect on ROE
& ROIC. Which one’s better?
18. Valuation of companies: Why P/E and not P/E minus cash?
19. How would you value a pharma company that is coming out with a new drug? (With no
other info available)
20. A company owns a house as its only asset with a market value of Rs.1 crores. How would
you value that company? Would you invest in that company (if the PV of cash flows is only
75% of market value)? How would you decide?

FRA
1. Profit is constant but tax is increasing. What could be the reasons? (Airtel Summers 30)
2. Sales going up. Cost was same. Ebitda going down. What could be the possible reasons?
(Feedback Infra Finals 30)
3. How is Balance Sheet Depreciation different from Depreciation in the P&L? Is Depreciation
part of the Cash Flow Statement? (Blackrock Finals 30)
4. How will you evaluate a borrower from a lender’s perspective? (Bank of America-Merill
Lynch Finals 30)
5. How does a bank generate revenue? (Axis Bank Finals 29)
6. What is Contingent Liability? (Axis Bank Finals 29)
7. Broadly, what is measured by the P/L and Balance Sheet? (Axis Bank Finals 29)
8. When does a bank go bankrupt? (Axis Bank Finals 29)
9. How would a loss affect a balance sheet? (Axis Bank Finals 29)
10. How should a Bank provide for a loss? (Axis Bank Finals 29)
11. What is the impact of goodwill on balance sheet? (Reckitt Benckiser Finals 29)
12. What is the relation between balance sheet and p/l? (Reckitt Benckiser Finals 29)
13. Relation between cash flow and P&L. (Avendus Finals 29)
14. How to value inventory in Indian GAAP? (Avendus Finals 29)

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15. What is operating leverage? What will be operating leverage for a high growth economy?
(Avendus Finals 28)
16. How should you evaluate a company before giving it a loan? (IndusInd Bank Finals 28)
17. What is the difference between financial lease and operating lease? (Samara Summers 31)
18. How do you a construct a P&L account? Why is a P&L constructed in this way? (Samara
Summers 31)
19. What are 3 points on basis of which u will do comparative analysis of 2 companies?
(Avendus Summers 31)
20. How will loan, depreciation, asset purchase affect the financial statements? (Summers 31)
21. What are solvency ratios. How can a bank use solvency ratios to decide whether to grant
loan to a borrower? (Stan C)
22. An online medical company wants a loan - discuss whether you would give them a loan or
not (ICICI Summers 2014)
23. What are the factors you would look at when analysing a bank’s financial statement?
(Avendus, Summers 2014)
24. Which is the most important financial statement and why? (Avendus, Summers 2014)
25. How do you analyse cash flow statement of a company? (Avendus, Summers 2014)
26. Which ratios are used to analyse which industries? If 2 companies are given, one is levered
and other is unlevered then which will have high ROE? (Samara, Summers 2014)
27. What are leases? What is the difference between Operating and Financial lease? (HUL Corp
Fin, Summers 2013)
28. How do you decide creditworthiness of a company you are considering for loan proposal?
Which ratios will you use? (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
29. Explain working capital in layman’s terms. (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
30. What is depreciation? Why do you depreciate assets? Why do we depreciate fixed assets
and not current assets? Where does depreciation appear in financial statements? (HUL Corp
Fin, Summers 2013)
31. What is working capital management? What is cash conversion cycle of a company?
(Mondelez, Summers 2013)
32. What is the difference between degree of financial leverage and degree of operating
leverage? (Mondelez, Summers 2013)
33. What is a DuPont Analysis? How can it be used to analyse financial performance of a
company (GS, Summers 2013)
34. ROA is same for two companies, what could be the reasons behind difference ROE? (GS,
Summers 2013)
35. Effect of depreciation in all the three financial statements. (GS, Summers 2013)
36. One important number from balance sheet, profit and loss and CFS each. (Indus Valley
Partners, HEPP 30)
37. ROA ROE ROI; Which one is better? (Wipro, HEPP 30)
38. Net profit of a company is given. What steps will you take to reach the amount of cash
generated by the company for the year? (HUL Corp Fin, Summers 2013)
39. One company expenses, other company capitalises. What will be the effect on CFO and
FCFF?
40. 2 Companies in garments business. One has better gross margin, other has better net profit.
What could be the reasons?
41. If you have to lend money to a company, what all factors would u look at?
42. If I give you only the top few lines of the P&L statement, up to the operating profit, what can
you infer about how the company is doing? (with no other info available)
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Finance Cases:

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 2021 Summer Interview Experiences:

L Catterton, Private Equity:

Process:
No PPT/Workshop, 1 online technical test, 2 rounds of interviews
Technical Questions:
Online Test had questions on valuation and FRA - moderate to high difficulty level. Round 1
of Interviews had a mini market entry case with some basic break-even level/market size-
market share calculation. Round 2 of interviews had work-ex related questions and some
questions on macro environment and impact on consumer sector.
HR Questions:
Introduction, Why PE, Why L Catterton, What do I hope to gain from this internship

Goldman Sachs - Credit Risk Specialist

Process:
No buddy Calls/Workshops. 3 Rounds of Technical Interviews with 3 different panels on the
Interview Day. Questions from CV, Previous WorkEx/Intern/Project know what you worked
extensively and its impact.
Technical Questions:

• What is WACC
• Explain DCF model. What parameters do you need and how they affect final value?
• Questions on Work Ex – went on for about 10 min. Asked about every project in
detail and cross questioning.
• What is VaR. How do you calculate. How is useful in assessing Risk.
• You hold Corporate bonds of Apple. What sort of risks are you exposed to? and
how?
• CAPM and Multi Factor models.
• Where are Nifty and Sensex currently. One recent interesting thing you observed in
Markets.
General Questions:
Tell me about yourself. Why finance after Engg/Tech. What motivated you towards MBA ?

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HSBC - Global Banking and Markets
Process:
1 PPT, 1 online assessment (situational), 1 interview round
Technical Questions:
How will the outcome of the US election affect the global financial markets? Synergies
between global banking and technology
HR Questions:
Primarily work experience related - I had briefly worked at Razorpay Why HSBC? Why
GB&M? What do you like about the role?

Mondelez - Corporate Finance

Process:
1st round - Case based GD 2nd round - PI based on resume and some technicals 3rd round -
HR based
Technical Questions:

• Which ratios do you think are the most important in FMCG setup?
• What do you know about valuations? (and some follow up questions based on my
response)
• Tell us a recent trend that you observed in markets? (I had told in my introduction,
that I follow markets)
HR Questions:
• Introduce Yourself
• Why Finance
• Why Corporate Finance
• Few questions around my CV
• Tell us something about you, not mentioned in your CV
• What do you know about Mondelez?
• Any recent initiative by us that you are aware of?
• Why FMCG ?
• Mondelez products?
• Common HR based questions(Strengths, Weaknesses)

Hindustan Unilever Limited - Corporate Finance

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Process:
1. HR Questionaire via Google Form
2. HireVue Interview
3. Personal Interview
Technical Questions:

• What do you like or What is that interest you in Corporate Finance (Told M&A)
• Any recent deal of HUL you are aware about (Horlicks deal with GSK)
• What were the valuation multiples used (Told PE multiples)
• Why not Revenue Multiples. Where can they be used
• Why not use PE multiples for start-ups
• What PE multiple is a good PE multiple to acquire a company
• What other Relative Valuation methods you can use
• What do you look in a company while investing or acquiring a company
HR Questions:

• Tell us about moments in your academic history that give you a sense of
accomplishment.
• Let us know about any niche skills or advanced knowledge in a subject that would be
relevant to this internship
• Share highlights about your professional achievements and in your assessment, what
differentiated you amongst your peers
• What have you been deeply passionate about, how much time do you spend on it
and what has been the outcome
• What is the only value that trumps over honesty for you and why
• Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback that you have received.
What was it and how did you act on it
• How have you grown as a person in the last 2 or 3 years
Deutsche:
Process: 1 telephonic interview, Zoom interview with director, Interaction on Day -1 and
Short Interviews with 3-4 panels on Day 0
Technical Questions:

• What is DCF? How do you calculate it?

• How is cost of capital calculated?
• What is beta and how is it calculated?
• What happens to cost of capital as debt increases?
• What do you know about relative valuation?
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 • How do you decide which multiple is to be used for relative valuation?
• When do you use EBIT vs EBITDA as a multiple in valuation?
• What is P/E ratio? When it is used?
• One thing to be kept in mind while using P/E ratio
• How will you analyze a company?
• What is return on equity? What happens to return on equity as the debt increases?
• Will the ROE go on increasing forever as you take more debt? Or will it follow any
other pattern?
HR Questions:

• Why IB? Why not consulting?

• Why MBA after CA?
• Why IB and Why Deutsche Bank?\
• Discussion around work ex: 1 thing you excelled at and 1 thing that you were not
good at
• Why do you think you are fit for this role?
• 1 reason why we may not take you?
• Any instance of failure or anything that you would like to change
• What will you do if you do not get into IB? Will you change your career goal?
• What is your support system? How do you overcome failures?
• Any questions?
• Hobbies, learnings from hobbies, guesstimate on no. of pizzas made in my area of
residence
• What would you focus on during internship?
• What are your expectations from IB role? Will the skillsets for IB role be different
from your earlier role?
• What matters more: soft skills or technical skills?
• Why MBA?
• How would convince a client for a deal?
• What will you do if a deal on which you had advised the client turned out to be bad
for client. How will you convince client to continue the relationship?

D.E. SHAW - Role: FINANCIAL OPERATIONS INTERN

Process:

There were no buddy calls. There were 2 rounds of tests. Test 1: asked about basic aptitude and
accounting related questions. On clearing Test 1, proceed to test 2: Video interview round, asked
some HR questions and instantaneously recorded responses. Followed by shortlisting directly for
interview rounds. 2 rounds of Interview: Round 1(around 45 mins) - Core finance related questions:
technical round. Round 2 (More related to CV and HR based - 40 mins).

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Technical Questions:

(Main panel member yet to join, meanwhile 2 other panel members started the interview)

I - (After asking how I am doing) Have you researched about D.E. Shaw and what are the
roles it is offering?
C - Yes (Talked about it in brief, just took the names of the roles, total 5 were there)
I - Which role you are interested in and why?
C - Pre-prepared and answered.
I - Suppose you don't get to work for that role, would you be still interested in working in
other roles?
C - Yes, told why I liked other roles as well and how I could contribute to it and how it would
help me grow as well. It's just if given a preference, I had slightly higher preference for
previously mentioned role.
I - Where did you researched about all these?
C - Job description, researched about it further through google and consulted seniors.

(Main Panel Member arrive)

I - So you have cleared CFA 1 and FRM 1, why did you decide to enter into the core finance
side being from an engineering background?
C - Answered. (Already prepared and expecting since CAT admissions :P)
I - What is VaR? (Straightaway entered into core finance)
C - Value at Risk, explained in brief.
I - Limitations of VaR? and how could we overcome it?
C - Answered using conditional VaR
I - Do you know about working capital? What is it and its significance?
C - Answered.
I - In what scenarios working capital can be negative? Is it good/bad?

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C - Answered (Somewhere included terms like debt and equity while mentioning ratios)
I - What is WACC? and how to calculate it?
C - Answered using debt, preference shares and equity.
I - What is CAPM and what it calculates/ what is its significance?
C - Answered (To measure cost of equity)
I - What is beta? What are the range of values beta can take?
C - Told the definition and formula. Slightly fumbled on range: told any value, no limits. (As
beta of market is 1 and it can go much more than that and less than zero as well, so
answered accordingly)
I - When can beta be negative and why it happens?
C - Answered. (For physical assets like Gold, Silver, etc.)
I - Do you know about profitability ratios? Tell some
C - Answered.
I - How do you decide a particular stock is over/under-valued?
C - Intrinsic value (Explained)
I - How do we measure it?
C- Through several models. Explained DDM model.
I - Are you familiar with fixed income securities? What are they and how do we calculate
their YTM?
C - Answered.
I - How do we measure risk of fixed income securities?
C - Using various duration measures (Explained)
I - What kind of risk does the investor exposed to while trading in fixed income securities?
C - Market interest risk and Reinvestment risk (Explained)
I - Is there any point of time when investor decide to sell and exposed to no risk?
C - Yes, at its Macaulay duration point (Explained)
I - Okay, that would be all from my side. If anyone else wants to ask something, can go
ahead.

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I - You still didn't properly explained how you did you research about company and roles (in
a teasing way)
C - Sir, I went through the job description provided to get a basic Idea, then went through
website and consulted seniors about their experience.
I - Do you have any questions for us?
C- Yes. Asked related to investment in renewable technologies.
I - Cannot reveal due to confidentiality issues, sorry. Anything else?
C - No sir.
I - That would be all. Good luck.

HR Questions Asked:
I - We know you just had a long 45 minutes interview with the other panel. They just
informed us. Are you tired?
C - No ma'am. I am good.
I - Tell me about yourself.
C - Already prepared and answered.
I - We see you switched your company after just working 1 year. That too from a well known
firm to a start-up. Can you explain?
C - Sir, I worked for 16 months in Tata Motors (corrected him, he crosschecked and
apologized). Explained the reasons. (Already prepared since IIM Admissions)
I - Could you go us through your projects at Tata Motors one by one as mentioned in your
CV?
C - I started explaining sequentially. As I mentioned about model I developed...
*Interrupted in between*
I - What kind of model it was? What tools you used?
C - A basic one. Explained.
I - How you ensured you get a good prediction accuracy?
C - Considered various factors: Theoretical models as well as real vehicle test data, did
iterations and kept updating, etc.

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I - What you did towards the knowledge development in your previous company?
(mentioned in the CV)
C - Answered.
I - How did you make sure people are aware of latest technologies?
C - Through daily short meetings and discussing about latest developments. Told them I
watch F1 and explained how F1 was closely related to my job and how I kept researching
about developments there and discussed with team, etc.
I - What better you could have done?
C - Explained - example: I could have researched more software to increase our robustness
and teach others how to use. (I already did that but just 1-2)
I - What are things in your life you are not good at? What are you doing to improve it?
(Asked weakness I think)
C - Explained.
I - Tell us some more. (In a teasing way)
C - Told some very weird stuff: Although I can type decently fast on keyboard, I am pretty
messy and uses very few fingers. I could definitely improve it as it is the need of an hour
(Submitting assignments and projects, exams on online mode, etc.)
I - (Laughed). Any questions for us?
C - I asked one before and I totally understand the confidentiality issues as I worked at R&D
too.
I - Yes, we came to know what you asked. That's all then. Good luck.

RPG Group CEAT- Finance

Process:

Based on resume shortlisting, we had a group discussion first with about 7-8 participants. Topic for
GD: Is secularism in India under threat? After GD, I only had 1 personal interview with 2 panelists.

Technical Questions:

The interview was mostly about my work-ex and internships. I was asked later about some basic
accounting ratios, like inventory turnover, quick ratio. I was also asked how I would determine the
amount of raw materials I would need to procure for manufacturing tires, so this discussion was
related to economic order quantity.

HR Questions:

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I was asked why I was interested in finance, whether I knew the full form of CEAT, its values (do visit
the company website before the interview and read through its values).

Goldman Sachs
3 rounds of interview - 2 technical, last was a discussion around job profile.

Technical Questions:

How would you assess risk of a loan offered to a business?

Sectors affected by Covid

Tell us some measures to mitigate risk associated with lending

Questions around financial ratios - liquidity, insolvency etc.

Workex related questions - consumer credit risk assessment and risk modeling"

HR Questions:

None

Avendus Capital, IB
Process:

2 buddy calls and 2 director rounds

Technical Questions:

• Overview of the retail and healthtech industries:

• Recent deals in these industries - detailed discussion on the Reliance-FRL deal - Role and
relevance of CCI Impact of Covid
• Recent trends in these industries
• Valuation and metrics used

HR Questions:

• Why Investment Banking?

• Questions around my previous roles

Mondelez Fin
Process:

GD and 2 PI

Technical Questions:

p/l analysis as part of gd. PI was mostly around CV work experience

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HR Questions:

CV based

Amazon Finance
Process:

No buddy assigned, 2 PPT workshops, 2 Interview rounds

Technical Questions:

1. Related to the Assignment on Forensics (mentioned in CV)

2. Related to Tax litigation assignments (mentioned in CV)

HR Questions:

1. Many questions relating to CV which were linked to 14 leadership principles

HSBC - Global Liquidity and Cash Management

Process:

One interactive quantitative and behavioral assessment (simulation) before shortlisting

One informal interview before the placement process.
No PPT
Two interview rounds on placement day

Technical Questions:

none. Some questions on past workex

HR Questions:

Introduction
Questions about work experience role and responsibilities
Three weaknesses
Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
Where are you from?
Who is in your family?
What do you do in your pastime?
Mentioned reading so talked about that
Why banking?
Why not marketing?
Why not investment banking?
Why HSBC and what do you know about this role?

Fullerton, Data Analytics Role in Finance

Process:

Only Personal Interview

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Technical Questions:

What coding language do you use for data Analytics?

Tell me about your projects in data analytics?
(Few technical questions delving deeper into Project work)
Questions on basic tools for data analytics (Excel etc.)

HR Questions:

Why do you want to join us?

What are your long term goals considering your project work & research paper?
You have done couple of stat based projects on Environment & Global Warming. What is your source
of motivation?

Deloitte India – CDD

Process:

Pre Interview - 1 Buddy call (35-40 mins)

1 Video interview with the Director (30-35 mins, Mix of Guesstimates + HR Questions)
No workshops as such
Interview - 3 back to back rounds, 2 with Directors and 1 with a partner
1st Round - Director - 55 mins
2nd round - Partner - 35-40 mins
3rd round - Director - 75-80 mins

Technical Questions:

1. Tell me more about your past work experience? (I have a Technical consulting and Pre-Sales
background and they were interested to know more)
2. 1. Estimate the number of Denims sold in a year in India
3. You want to enter the ice cream market in in Jammu. Let’s say a Baskin Robbins store. What all
would you do ? What would be your GTM strategy ?
4. Which of the two companies (A and B) would you invest your money, here is some data from their
financial statements and one financial ratio. You can ask for more financial ratios/ data which you
might need in your decision-making process.
5. Tell me about the methods of depreciation and also the industries where these methods are
relevant.
6. Estimate the number of students doing coursework online on a Wednesday afternoon in
Bangalore?
7. Our client manufactures a screen protector. Should he enter into the market or not. He gave me
data as well about the market growth (Data intensive)
8. Our client is an established pharma company and wants to see if entering the sanitizer market is
commercially viable for them. Help us (data intensive).

HR Questions:

1. Tell me something about yourself

2. He tested my knowledge of singers and music directors, to check if I was genuinely interested in
music (the hobby I stated) or not

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3. If you have to advise our finance minister about strengthening any two industries right after COVID-
19 pandemic, which one would you choose and why ?

Avendus, IB
Process:

1 PPT
2 Buddy Calls
3 Interviews

Technical Questions:

I was asked to pick up a sector of my choice and my entire interview for 45 minutes was on that. I
picked up FMCG sector and the following points were covered in detail:
1) Provide in depth overview of the sector
2) Market Size and Segmentation
3) Value Chain & Distribution Network
4) Policy Measures undertaken by the Government
5) Impact of COVID-19 on FMCG Sector
6) Key Growth Drivers
7) Key M&A Deals in the sector (Deal Size, Deal Value, Enterprise Value, Valuation Multiples)
8) HUL Vs ITC (Market Cap., Share Price, Revenue, Margins, Valuation Multiples like EV/EBITDA,
EV/Revenue, Price/Earnings)
9) In detail analysis of HUL and its DCF Valuation (Projections, WACC Calculations etc.)

HR Questions:

1) Tell me About yourself?

2) Questions about my workex in the Investment Banking Team at KPMG India (Roles &
Responsibility, Accountability, takeaway from transactions etc.)
3) In detail discussion about my favourite project during the 3 year tenure at KPMG
4) Why do I want to Join Investment Banking Again?
5) Major deals done by Avendus in last 1 year and Rationale behind them

Spark Capital, IB
Process:

1 PPT
3 Assistant Director, AVP, VP Interviews

Technical Questions:

First two interviews were 80% technical 20% HR. Final round was based on technical related to my
qualifications (CPA) and work experience:
1) Cost of capital – in depth
2) Beta – calculation, nuances, and industry linkages
3) Valuation concepts – DCF (FCFF, FCFE), Relative
4) Accounting concepts – Consolidation of FS, treatment of minority interests, linkages of various
ratios and concepts in financial statements
5) Goodwill valuation
6) Impairment concepts
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7) M&A Deal cycle

HR Questions:

1) Tell me About yourself?

2) Questions about my workex in the Audit team at Deloitte (type of projects, my contributions)
3) Why finance? Why not consulting?
4) Why Investment Banking?
5) Why Spark?

State Street Corporation, Fin and GenMan role

Process:

There was an online assessment followed by a single interview round.

Technical Questions:

Why are you interested in Finance?

Do you have any prior knowledge of finance? (answered with "had FRA in the the first term in MBA")
What all did you study in FRA?
What did you understand of the role offered?
How is your previous work ex related to the finance domain?

HR Questions:

Tell us about your educational background and workex

How comfortable are you in a team environment?
What are your expectations from this internship?
Are you comfortable with being relocated to place like Bangalore?
Any questions for us?

Standard Chartered: Corporate Finance- Front end IB role

Process:

One buddy call a week before. Told me about role etc. and asked my interest. Post that, brief
interaction on Day -1 (5-7 min, 4 people). We were told about the company and the role (corporate
finance). No questions taken. It was immediately followed by personal interactions.

Technical Questions:

None. Apart from "Any recent piece of news you read which affected StanC or finance in general"
which I feel I could not answer satisfactorily.

HR Questions:

Personal Interaction Round 1&2 were more or less the same: (2 interviewers each and lasted for 10-
15min each) No finance related questions were asked maybe because I am a fresher. They wanted to
know how passionate I was about IB and whether I would be able to put in the efforts required for the
same. Given below is a combined list of questions in both rounds as most of them were repetitive.

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Q1. Tell me more about yourself, things which are not in the CV. (ANS: family, hobbies, awards,
research experience, why chose MBA)
Q2. Why do you want finance, particularly IB? (ANS: good with numbers, love research and have a
good deal of undergrad research experience, college incident-startup idea but no knowledge of
managing finances, realised how important it is for any business, wanted to learn more etc)
Q3. Which of these 4 words would you use to describe yourself: good natured, punctual, etc (Can't
recall)
Q4. You do realise how hectic IB is right? Are you taking an informed decision? Do you think you will
be able to cope? (ANS: I do realise how hectic it is...in fact, I personally prefer a demanding job and I
perform better under high work load....challenging work is a huge motivator for me... )
Q5. If I as a recruiter want to be convinced that you will be able to do a demanding job like IB, do you
have any incident to support it? (ANS: incident- TY Btech, responsible for organising 2 major events
very close to each other, work load immense, managed acads side by side. In that month i worked x
hours a day, told about the worked- event, judges/HODs coordination, etc; managed studies, have
priorities sorted, managed time well etc etc)
Q6. The work you will do in IB would be an everyday thing for you but it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for
your client. Would you be able to handle something this demanding on a regular basis? (ANS: I agree
that it is a demanding work but it's worth putting in the efforts because at the end it is going to be
equally rewarding. And the fact that my work would create a huge impact on the client is not a
deterrent. In fact, it's something that would motivate me to give my best and keep going even if it gets
difficult. In my opinion, when it comes to a job as demanding as IB, your motivation behind doing it is
what makes all the difference. And I believe I will be able to do justice to this job because I have all
the right reasons to do it in the first place.
Q7. Why would you choose this role above consulting? (ANS: Both provide a huge learning
potential...consulting gives business overview....but finance is equally important if not more....and IB
provides a mix of both etc)
Q8. Biggest failure. (ANS: I have seen plenty of failures. And if i am given a chnace to go back and
make things right, I would not. Because each failure has taught me something valuable and has made
me what i am. Incident: while managing an event, realised of a huge mess up right before the event,
somehow made arrangements, kept my cold and handled it well. Learning- no matter how prepared
you are, any last moment problem might spring up, hence it's important to be prepared to face such
uncertainties, have your presence of mind, think on the spot, keep calm and take care that it does not
happen again)
Q9. Biggest achievement. (ANS: Round 1 incident: IAS research fellowship and went to Trivandrum
for 2 months for internship. New place, new people, was a little apprehensive. But accommodated
well, made lifetime friends, blended in , learnt a little Malayalam. Achievement because i overcame
my fears and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. Round 2 incident: Served in scouts and guides
for 7 yrs, received rashtrapati puraskar, the experience shaped my ethics and values, social service
taught me the importance of giving back to society, living in camps made me realise the value of
luxuries we live in, etc etc)
Q10. At your workplace, how would you deal with a situation if someone finds an error in your work?
(ANS: If it's a misunderstanding, then I would clarify so that we are on the same page. If the person is
right and I have committed an error, then by all means I would rectify it and thank the person for their
inputs)
Q11. What would you do if your boss starts shouting at you angrily? (ANS: The best approach in such
a situation is to remain calm. When a person is angry, they are not in a state to listen to you and
understand your pov....hence its better to remain silent so as to not promote counterproductive
argument. Once my boss has calmed down, I would have a conversation to sort things out.)
Q12. Any questions? (Q asked: In the frontend IB role that you are offering, what percent of my work
would involve interacting with client, doing research, and doing regular fin work?)

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Citi Markets
Process:

1 buddy call - discussed the role, general news and interests

1 workshop with group presentations
3 interviews - 1 HR, 2 technical

Technical Questions:

Which of the following will have a higher volatility : forex options or equity options?
What happens if the yield of a callable bond rises?
What happens if the yield of a puttable bond rises? What is the lower bound / upper bound?
Where is theta highest in terms of maturity and strike price? Where is vega highest, where is gamma
highest?
What is the PE ratio of NIFTY right now?
From an economist's PoV would you prefer Urijit Patel or Shaktikantha Das?
Can you name all 6 members of the monetary policy committee of the RBI?
3 macro themes you would trade in 2021?
What will be the impact of US elections on various asset classes in case of a Trump win and a Biden
win?
Some other questions mostly around debt markets(workex) and derivatives

HR Questions:

Mostly revolving around career interests and previous role, interests within markets etc.

Edelweiss Tokio, Summer Equity Analyst

Process:

Easy, to the point, 2 interviews

Technical Questions:

CAPM model, statistics for a portfolio

HR Questions:

Past experience with Python, Level of knowledge of stats and finances, work ex roles and
responsibilities

JP Morgan Chase, Markets

Process:

1 Workshop, A couple of buddy calls, 2 Interviews with senior management

Technical Questions:

1) Detailed discussion on the US Elections and its outcome?

2) Impact of the elections on India?
3) Why are ForEx reserves rising?
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4) What sort of strategies would you undertake in the current bond market?
5) Considering the current yield curve, would you purchase a 10 year bond or 30 year bond?
6) Analysis of the Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policies of the country during covid and their efficacy
7) Brief discussion on concepts of Spot, Forward and Convenience Yield and commodity pricing
Note: The level of technicality was slightly higher owing to my being a CFA

HR Questions:

1) Tell me something about yourself?

2) Why Markets? Understanding of the role
3) Detailed discussion on work experience

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