Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Your seniors at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai were your true well-wishers, they shared their placement interview questions for you. 🙏

filter iconFilter interviews by

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai Placement Interview Questions

Updated 4 Dec 2024

1.2k interviews found

4 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: There was a written test (Technical + Aptitude) .
Duration: 90 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: Skills tested :: Mainly related to your Project work

General Tips: I started after end sem exams. Starting earlier always helps.
Skill Tips: I think I got selected because of my CGPA(9.09) + project field.
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview
user image Anonymous

posted on 13 Jan 2015

3 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: It wasn't a group discussion as such, more like a group activity.

The participants are the members of the quality team of a company. A group of second-year chemical engineering students are coming for a field visit. As the quality team of the company prepare a presentation for the students from one of the following topics:

1. Root cause analysis
2. Implementation of a quality assurance program
3. Employee involvement in quality improvement

Any two members from the group should present it in 5 mins (as if to the students) at the end of the
activity.
Tips: Obviously communication skills and clear thinking ability are the must; and you have to be articulate.I don't think they weren't really looking for people who were dominating the GD, but who can give sensible inputs into the discussion. (I don't think I spoke for 5 mins in all out of the 45 mins). Good presentation skills, involving other people in the discussion etc are good. (But never force someone who is quiet to speak, and put them in the spotlight)
Pointing out flaws in others arguments, if needed, has to be done very diplomatically. Avoid speaking about things that you have no or very little idea about. Keeping track of time was considered a plus.

Round: Interview
Experience: The interview wasn't completely technical. It was a bit of technical, HR and behavioral.
Tips: They were more interested in finding out what we learned in our five years, and how we think it was important, and the practical applications of it. I think a knowledge of Operations Research and Operations management is considered a plus, but not sure.

Round: Interview
Experience: There was no separate HR round. The HR questions in the interview included the typical questions like what do you look for in a job, why IIT, what would have happened if you hadn't cleared JEE, situations where you have gone against the general notion to convince a group to implement your ideas, etc It was more like a stress interview. They would make you uncomfortable with questions that are not easy to answer. For example, I was told that they don't think I am fit for the job because I am very soft spoken. Another important question was that why have you applied for the job when you have no idea of what the profile is ( as they had not told us what the role would be until we got selected).
Tips: The idea is to keep your cool and find a sensible answer to all questions like this. Keep smiling (and act) as if its not affecting you. :)

General Tips: I started very very late, and so I was never really confident during the course of placements. You must start early, of course. Figure out all popular HR questions as early as possible, and try to know yourselves better. CAT preparation can help in aptitude tests. Practice GDs if possible. As far as core courses are concerned, be thorough with the basics. And read about your company before going for the interview.
Skill Tips: Read about the company. Find answers to typical HR questions. Be clear about whatever you say; take a few moments to think if you need to. Admit if you don't know something, never pretend. Finally, be yourself, keep your cool and always wear a smile. Get the interviewers to like you, in the end its all about that. (But don't over-do it).


I think being from a manufacturing background and the OR and OM courses on my resume would have suited for a supply chain management role that they were looking for. Communication skills, thinking aloud, admitting mistakes etc helped. Apart from that, I was very calm during the interview, inspite of a few very uncomfortable questions, and they liked it.
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview
user image Anonymous

posted on 13 Jan 2015

6 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Initial shortlisting was done based on CGPA + Extracurricular activities (We guess).

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: It was same as any other GDs, they checked for confidence, leadership,etc. Most importantly, I felt
they liked people who were cool, calm and were able to keep jargon out of the discussion.

Round: Group Activity
Experience: There was a Group Activity at the end where 2 people from the group should be nominated to give a presentation about the conclusions. So, the group dynamics were very important. If you are presenting, you are expected to be brilliant for choosing yourself. However, presenting was not a compulsory criterion to get selected to the next round nor will it of much help unless you are sort of a showman.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The Tech part of the interview was to find out if you've good awareness about the course work.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The HR part was testing your IQ and your EQ. You had to be consistent and be true to yourself, otherwise, your replies wouldn't be consistent. Unlike companies which tell in detail the type of profile they offer before the interviews, we were asked what job would we like to do and why. That was a good start, as otherwise, people would manipulate their resume convenient to the profile.

General Tips: Starting early would ob. help. I started mine around September.
Skill Tips: I was cool, calm and confident. I had prepared for Core and Non-Core interviews and had decent fundaes on most topics, which I felt really made a difference. I was able to justify a 7 point CGPA and whenever I made any mistakes or didn't know stuff, I frankly told them that I don't know and told them I could guess the answers (which turned out to be right), I felt they liked this. 

Also, You should have a good clarity in your DDP and Interns though. Solve a lot Quant tests and Puzzles.
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview
user image Anonymous

posted on 13 Jan 2015

6 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a CGPA of 9.18/10 and the cutoff was 8/10.

Round: Test
Experience: The test had two Sections:
1. Aptitude - (Very Tough. Most questions were puzzles, probability)
2. Tech - (Very Easy. Deciding factor). Includes basic digital circuits
Tips: I prepared Digital Circuits Basics for Technical round.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interview was of 1h 30 min. All common digital circuit questions were asked

General Tips: Start 1 month ahead. For aptitude and tech prepare Verilog FAQs and ASIC design flow(mainly for core companies.)
Skill Tips: I think I got selected because of my project and Interview performance.
Skills: Digital Verification, CAD for VLSI, Digital IC design
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview

4 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: No need of any preparation. Just speed maths.
Tips: 2 tests around 30 candidates were shortlisted
Duration: 50 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: They wanted to see how i reacted when put under stress.
Tips: Duration : 20 min

Round: Interview
Experience: This interview was about finance, trading , the job and alike. 
The interviewer explained what the job entails, i was sure i would get the job
Tips: Duration : 30 min
Try taking part in Trade Moghul if you are really interested in trading. A lot of banks don't offer trading positions, so if you are interested in trading profile, it's a good place.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: In fact there are different skill sets each company expects so try to emphasize the right skill set in your resume. 
Get this done by at least September end.

General Tips: I started preparing somewhere in Nov. Yup. Starting by Aug itself is good. 

At least prepare for CAT, so it keeps you in good stead for quant based tests.
Try FRM/CFA if you are enthu about fin companies. That's what I did.
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview
user image Anonymous

posted on 18 Jan 2015

6 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: 8 ppl per group

Round: Interview
Experience: OR based questions mainly will be based on what they find in CV.

Main topics covered

1 Operations Management

2 Probability

General Tips: Things to concentrate in order

1. CGPA

2. Academic Achievements

3. Technical skills - example coding

4. Internships

5. Projects

6. Positions of Responsibility in college

7. Extra and Co-curricular activities.
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview
user image Anonymous

posted on 30 Aug 2015

5 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: English basic 7th 8th grade and Quant (normal difficulty level) easier than cat

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: 30 secs to think and 8 minutes of GD. Everybody got a chance to speak. Those whodidn’t speak the panelists pin pointed them and asked them to speak. 30 sec to conclude. Just 5-6 got eliminated in the whole process.
Tips: Basic GD skills were tested
Duration: 8 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: Initially only 1 round of interview was happening but then they started taking two interviews. Both were HR resume based interview. As my highlighted point was Operations Research, more questions were asked from that area. Certain puzzles were asked. Basically it was not a stress interview.

No case studies were asked. Seeing my interest in OR I was asked to create a model and then asked to solve it. I created the vehicle routing model. Some puzzles were asked.
Tips: I knew about the company and when they asked me how I could contribute I answered it well. Apart from that my projects in OR and my answers were helped me get selected.

General Tips: 2nd year students - Concentrate on your CGPA
Pre Final years: Make a story out of your life. Don't mug it but have the bullet points Be genuine, do not make up stuff.
I started preparing from October 2nd week.
Starting earlier definitely helps
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview
user image Anonymous

posted on 13 Jan 2015

6 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a CGPA of 10/10. There was a cut-off of 8 CGPA to apply for the job.

Round: Test
Experience: It was a written test. They mainly asked Quant/general ability puzzles and Tech questions.
Tips: I mainly concentrated on the following topics :

Combinatorics and probability.
Discrete mathematics.
Markov chains.
Pigeon hole principle.
Signal processing.
Sampling theorem.
Estimation theory.
Duration: 90 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: There were two rounds of interview . Each of 2hrs 20 min.

My subject knowledge was mainly tested on ::Wireless communication - fading, multipath, OFDM,Signal processing - DFT
Detection and Estimation - MMSE, linear MMSE, detection of symbols
Probability - Bertrand's Paradox
Tips: I mostly prepared for the interview by studying the class notes well.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The interview was mainly based on the courses that I had credited in the previous semesters. I got selected because of my performance in written test and also in the technical interview. I topped the written test. I impressed them during the interview by answering 95% of the questions.

Skill Tips: I prepared for placements by video lectures, solving puzzles etc. I started my preparation in August
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview
user image Anonymous

posted on 18 Jan 2015

5 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: The test was for around an hour it consisted of Quant and verbal sections.
Tips: Simple questions just basic math and verbal understanding would suffice.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 60

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: All the students shortlisted from the exam were divided into 3 sets and 3 GDs were conducted. Each GD had 8 students. It lasted for 30 min.
Tips: One thing that will help in a GD especially when you are not sure about the topic like my case is to listen patiently to others so that you get an idea as to what the topic is exactly about. A strict no to cutting on someone when he/she is making a point and shouting in a loud tone. Both these indicate that you are not fit to be in a team and you are slightly dominating types respectively
Duration: 30 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: I was asked this because my resume had some decent points about my work and interest in transportation engineering.
Tips: You need to have some decent knowledge on basic figures like the population of Chennai or India etc., to be able to do these guesstimates well. obviously speed in basic calculations will help.

Round: Interview
Experience: Factors affecting inventory modeling
Tips: They were not really looking for any specific electives or courses but having knowledge of Operations Research would help. 

Most importantly, you must be in a position to explain everything that you put in your resume perfectly especially your final year project.

General Tips: Good resume, decent quant and verbal skills, and analytical skills, ability to communicate things properly, reasonable knowledge on current affairs and happenings in the world.
year wise plan for juniors.
1. Explore everything but never ignore acads
2. Decide on what you want to do after graduating
3. Start preparing for CAT, GRE, TOFEL.
CGPA matters so never ignore acads.
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview

4 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume shortlist (around 20 people)
Tips: Resume shortlist- peaks in the resume: An all-round and dynamic personality, ability to multi-task and handle pressure, proactive nature and initiatives taken in PORs, achievements in the field of sports, literature and arts contribute in resume short listing.They look for people who have used their time in insti wisely and are passionate
about things they do. A crisp and well written resume forms a good first impression. Invest enough time to prepare the resume and get it reviewed by seniors.

Round: Interview
Experience: 3 rounds of interviews. Interviews were focused on case studies. No separate HR round. Inter-personal skills were tested during the case study and conversation with the interviewer.
Tips: Case interview- Break the problem down, approach systematically, think on your feet, take cues from the interviewer and direct the solution accordingly. The problem solving approach and line of thought is tested. There is no single
solution for the cases. The approach is important, not the final answer. Striking a good rapport with the interviewer, projecting confidence, being yourself and enjoying the interview process is very important.

A few questions asked about the Case Study:
1) Identifying the reasons for loss incurred by a motel (relevant data was provided)
2) Evaluating different aspects of setting up a business
3) Guesstimate: Estimate the number of windows in a skyscraper
4) Estimate the scope of 4G in India. Is introducing 4G a good idea?reas
5) A foreign elevator company operating in India is incurring losses.
6)What are the likely issues and how can they be fixed

General Tips: These four/ five years in IIT are the most crucial years to mould the personality of an individual. Seize every opportunity you and make the most of it. Manage time well and prioritize various activities. Try to get industrial exposure through internships. Good communication skills and a confident personality are very important. I started preparation seriously after getting shortlisted . The company allotted
buddies from the firm who helped us with placement preparation. I started reading economic times from the beginning of 7th sem. One month was sufficient to prepare. However, one can start preparing puzzles and reading up Economic Times a little earlier.
Skill Tips: The standard HR questions can be found online. Also be prepared to answer questions like 'why do you want to join our company?', 'why do you prefer a career in investment banking over consulting' or vice versa. Know you resume inside out as some HR questions will be directly based on you resume. Highlight you role, achievement and learning outcome while answering such questions.

Case study videos by Victor Cheng are helpful in building a foundation. Case in point is a good book to start with. Interactive cases available on all consult websites are very helpful and give an interview like
experience. Case study books by Kellogg, Wharton, Harvard can be found on LAN. Solving a few cases in a structured and systematic manner will help in developing the required skills. The Economic Times and business magazines also help in developing a general business acumen which helps solve cases. Solve cases in groups of 3-4.

HR- know yourself and your resume thoroughly.
College Name: IIT Madras
share interview