Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Your seniors at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur were your true well-wishers, they shared their placement interview questions for you. 🙏
Filter interviews byIndian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur Placement Interview Questions
Updated
27 Dec 2024
411 interviews found
4 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Core subject related questions
- Q2. Question on pipe length of a pump?
- Q3. Questions on rankine cycle and other thermodynamic cycles?
- Q4. Questions on your area of interest?
- Q5. Why do you want to join the company?
- Q6. Why are you suitable for the job?
- Q7. What is your most significant achievement?
- Q8. Give an instance of your leadership skills/ an instance where you put Mind over Matter?
- Q9. Have you ever addressed social/environmental concerns?
- Q10. What are the sectors in ITC? Where do you want to work? Do you have any problem working in a cigarette factory? What are your preferred locations?
- Q11. How have you, as a Gen-sec, brought about any radical change, compared to past traditions?
- Q12. Crack a Joke?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: There were around 8-10 of us.
Tips: 1. Be calm and confident, do not speak too much or speak forcefully just for the sake of speaking.
2. Best method would be to classify the items into groups and prioritizing the groups as a whole before jumping into the individual priorities inside these groups.
3. Come up with innovative usages of the items, justifying their importance. Conclude properly.
Duration: 15-20 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Panel was of 2-3 interviewers, usually seniors having 2-4 years of experience and lasted for 15-20 minutes.
Tips: The no. of such questions will depend on how many you answer correctly.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Panel was of Senior executives from the Company (usually region-heads) and interview lasted for 15-20 minutes.
General Tips: 1. Be confident in both GD and PI, learn/revise the core courses thoroughly, Be yourself, demonstrate your real-life practicality skills if asked (situation-based questions).
2. Try to divert the interviewer to your area of interest. Else he may ask from any topic.
3. Don't think too much over a question or give wrong answers. Accept that you don't know- It doesn't leave a bad impression.
4. Don't forget to shake hands firmly and wish the panel before sitting down.
5. Don't speak too much. Be brief and concise.
6. Be ready to crack a joke if asked to! (They asked me)
Skill Tips: Questions from your area of expertise/projects(For eg: they asked me from Robotics and about PID Controllers)
Skills: Thermodynamics (Laws and Cycles), Turbomachinery , Fluid Mechanics , Viscosity, Solid Mechanics, Engineering basics, Pumps and Compressors
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: There were around 8-10 of us.
Tips: 1. Be calm and confident, do not speak too much or speak forcefully just for the sake of speaking.
2. Best method would be to classify the items into groups and prioritizing the groups as a whole before jumping into the individual priorities inside these groups.
3. Come up with innovative usages of the items, justifying their importance. Conclude properly.
Duration: 15-20 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Panel was of 2-3 interviewers, usually seniors having 2-4 years of experience and lasted for 15-20 minutes.
Tips: The no. of such questions will depend on how many you answer correctly.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Panel was of Senior executives from the Company (usually region-heads) and interview lasted for 15-20 minutes.
General Tips: 1. Be confident in both GD and PI, learn/revise the core courses thoroughly, Be yourself, demonstrate your real-life practicality skills if asked (situation-based questions).
2. Try to divert the interviewer to your area of interest. Else he may ask from any topic.
3. Don't think too much over a question or give wrong answers. Accept that you don't know- It doesn't leave a bad impression.
4. Don't forget to shake hands firmly and wish the panel before sitting down.
5. Don't speak too much. Be brief and concise.
6. Be ready to crack a joke if asked to! (They asked me)
Skill Tips: Questions from your area of expertise/projects(For eg: they asked me from Robotics and about PID Controllers)
Skills: Thermodynamics (Laws and Cycles), Turbomachinery , Fluid Mechanics , Viscosity, Solid Mechanics, Engineering basics, Pumps and Compressors
College Name: IIT KANPUR
4 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Questions on Digital circuits and Organic electronics
- Q2. Questions focused on my tenure as GenSec Cultural Council
- Q3. What I prefer acting or directing?
- Q4. What are the qualities of a good director?
- Q5. What I prefer to do comedy, tragedy or drama?
- Q6. Few questions regarding the issues on which I wrote street plays?
- Q7. 3 strengths of your best friend in IIT Kanpur?
- Q8. Questions regarding my performance in GD, focused on my contribution and the way GD might have gone if I would have been dominating
- Q9. Would I be comfortable working in a cigarette factory?
- Q10. Would I be comfortable working in places like Saharanpur, Munger etc.?
- Q11. Can you mimic us?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: There were 8 people. Some people try to read the case beforehand. I don’t think one should do so as your views regarding the topic get biased and usually people don’t follow the natural course of discussion.
Duration: 20 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Panel was of Two senior persons (One has been with ITC for more than 6 years and the other one around 3 years) and the interview lasted for 1 hour. They also discussed about my family, my hometown Ayodhya, Dramatics, my long term plans and how does joining ITC helping in that.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Panel was of One senior person from Tobacco division and One from PSPD.
General Tips: 1. Take the form seriously and don’t fill anything without proper thinking.
2. Try to be as honest as possible and don’t try to cover up your mistakes. Tell them what went wrong and what you learnt from it.
Skills: Power Electronics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: There were 8 people. Some people try to read the case beforehand. I don’t think one should do so as your views regarding the topic get biased and usually people don’t follow the natural course of discussion.
Duration: 20 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Panel was of Two senior persons (One has been with ITC for more than 6 years and the other one around 3 years) and the interview lasted for 1 hour. They also discussed about my family, my hometown Ayodhya, Dramatics, my long term plans and how does joining ITC helping in that.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Panel was of One senior person from Tobacco division and One from PSPD.
General Tips: 1. Take the form seriously and don’t fill anything without proper thinking.
2. Try to be as honest as possible and don’t try to cover up your mistakes. Tell them what went wrong and what you learnt from it.
Skills: Power Electronics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
6 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Choose between 2 credit cards with different data
- Q2. Introduce yourself?
- Q3. Why ZS?
- Q4. Strengths and weakness?
- Q5. Give a situation in which you faced lot of adversities but eventually you came up with flying colors
- Q6. He asked me about my hobby? And then, asked me to guess estimate on the same
- Q7. How do you manage your extra-curricular's and your time?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Test
Experience: No negative marking, just go for simple aptitude preparation. If anyone wants to do good aptitude preparation then just go for CAT preparation. Once you have cleared the aptitude test, then everyone is at the same platform.
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: There was 1 partner and 1 senior.
Tips: Panel changes with every round so never expect that if you have a good impression on one of the panelist then it can get you along with the whole process.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Duration was 1 hour.
Which one to choose?
Given: The type of people who’d be attracted to different type of credit cards (business class, middle class)
1. How to advertise these 2 credit cards?
Given: There are bonus options for employee. Bonus increases exponentially after 80 hours.
2. Which card will an employee promote more?
For each of these questions, you have to come up with an answer at the end. Half an hr was given to think about the case and then they call you in to explain for another half an hour.
Tips: Case study was nothing but simply data interpretation.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1. It was a bit stressed interview. They keep on asking you why you want to go for consulting or analytics or say why ZS. Long term goals, short term goals. I said Photography and he said: "We want to open a photography school in India, now estimate the no. of students who’d enroll in it."
2. In the whole process, he just wanted to know whether I fit in the group or not. He brought me in my comfort zone. 3. He asked me questions about my internship. One of my intern projects appealed to him because he had worked in that area as well. I was able to connect to him.
4. In the end he asked me if I had any questions for him. Now this last part is very crucial. It shows your interest in their company. Do take time and read everything about the company beforehand and show your interest. This is a very important for them to know you.
Tips: My suggestion is that be cool and don’t be nervous throughout the process.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: No negative marking, just go for simple aptitude preparation. If anyone wants to do good aptitude preparation then just go for CAT preparation. Once you have cleared the aptitude test, then everyone is at the same platform.
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: There was 1 partner and 1 senior.
Tips: Panel changes with every round so never expect that if you have a good impression on one of the panelist then it can get you along with the whole process.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Duration was 1 hour.
Which one to choose?
Given: The type of people who’d be attracted to different type of credit cards (business class, middle class)
1. How to advertise these 2 credit cards?
Given: There are bonus options for employee. Bonus increases exponentially after 80 hours.
2. Which card will an employee promote more?
For each of these questions, you have to come up with an answer at the end. Half an hr was given to think about the case and then they call you in to explain for another half an hour.
Tips: Case study was nothing but simply data interpretation.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1. It was a bit stressed interview. They keep on asking you why you want to go for consulting or analytics or say why ZS. Long term goals, short term goals. I said Photography and he said: "We want to open a photography school in India, now estimate the no. of students who’d enroll in it."
2. In the whole process, he just wanted to know whether I fit in the group or not. He brought me in my comfort zone. 3. He asked me questions about my internship. One of my intern projects appealed to him because he had worked in that area as well. I was able to connect to him.
4. In the end he asked me if I had any questions for him. Now this last part is very crucial. It shows your interest in their company. Do take time and read everything about the company beforehand and show your interest. This is a very important for them to know you.
Tips: My suggestion is that be cool and don’t be nervous throughout the process.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
6 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Talk about yourself?
- Q2. What gets you frustrated/bored?
- Q3. What competitions did you participate in?
- Q4. Resume and Intern based questions
- Q5. If your friends wants to open up a barber shop in the area you live, what are the prospects?
- Q6. A general puzzle question
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Test
Experience: 1. Quantitative questions (10), Verbal Ability (10) and Data Interpretation (10).
2. It was long as the DI questions were time consuming.
Tips: Attempt each section because there are sectional cut offs as well. Many people didn't consider this and attempted some sections completely and left out some completely.
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Questions: 30
Round: HR Interview
Experience: It lasted for 15-20 minutes.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The panel was of one person. It lasted for 20 minutes. He asked the place I belonged too. I answered Delhi and then he went straight on to the case that if my friends wants to open up a barber shop in the area I live, what are the prospects. It was pretty open ended and could be taken anywhere. Was trying to see if I can bring in all factors or not. Then regarding one of the competitions I participated in, he asked me to list three and just 3 factors which can summarize my solutions. This king of bullet-ed answering is generally expected from consultants and maybe that’s why he asked such a question.
Round: Stress Interview
Experience: The panel was of one person. He asked me a puzzle and said if I know it already I should tell him. I didn’t know it so he proceeded. Then he went out of the room saying he doesn’t want an answer, he just wants to discuss the puzzle with me and will be back in 5 mins. He came 5 mins later and started circling around me in the interview room and asked what I had to say regarding the question. I told him what I could figure out and then he started helping me in where I was stuck. He constantly kept circling around me. Probably was trying to build up stress. Finally together we arrived at the answer and he was happy after that and let me go.
General Tips: 1. Keep yourself calm in the interview even if you don’t know something. Smile and say that you don’t know is the best way.
2. Stress interviews might be there, you panic and you are out. That’s something not expected from you under pressure.
3. Participating in competitions held at the time of placements is a good idea to know about the company as well about your preference regarding the company. The problem statements are a good insight into the actual problems companies deal with.
4. Be focused on the kind of companies you want to go for. Even at the stage of application, it's good to remove some companies from your wishlist based on your interest and capability to avoid confusion and disappointment in the end.
Skill Tips: If you have done some data processing project before, that gives something to talk about in your interview.
Skills: Probability and Statistics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: 1. Quantitative questions (10), Verbal Ability (10) and Data Interpretation (10).
2. It was long as the DI questions were time consuming.
Tips: Attempt each section because there are sectional cut offs as well. Many people didn't consider this and attempted some sections completely and left out some completely.
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Questions: 30
Round: HR Interview
Experience: It lasted for 15-20 minutes.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The panel was of one person. It lasted for 20 minutes. He asked the place I belonged too. I answered Delhi and then he went straight on to the case that if my friends wants to open up a barber shop in the area I live, what are the prospects. It was pretty open ended and could be taken anywhere. Was trying to see if I can bring in all factors or not. Then regarding one of the competitions I participated in, he asked me to list three and just 3 factors which can summarize my solutions. This king of bullet-ed answering is generally expected from consultants and maybe that’s why he asked such a question.
Round: Stress Interview
Experience: The panel was of one person. He asked me a puzzle and said if I know it already I should tell him. I didn’t know it so he proceeded. Then he went out of the room saying he doesn’t want an answer, he just wants to discuss the puzzle with me and will be back in 5 mins. He came 5 mins later and started circling around me in the interview room and asked what I had to say regarding the question. I told him what I could figure out and then he started helping me in where I was stuck. He constantly kept circling around me. Probably was trying to build up stress. Finally together we arrived at the answer and he was happy after that and let me go.
General Tips: 1. Keep yourself calm in the interview even if you don’t know something. Smile and say that you don’t know is the best way.
2. Stress interviews might be there, you panic and you are out. That’s something not expected from you under pressure.
3. Participating in competitions held at the time of placements is a good idea to know about the company as well about your preference regarding the company. The problem statements are a good insight into the actual problems companies deal with.
4. Be focused on the kind of companies you want to go for. Even at the stage of application, it's good to remove some companies from your wishlist based on your interest and capability to avoid confusion and disappointment in the end.
Skill Tips: If you have done some data processing project before, that gives something to talk about in your interview.
Skills: Probability and Statistics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
6 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Introduce yourself?
- Q2. Intern-based questions
- Q3. Draw the payoff curves of a Call Option and Put Option
- Q4. Simple questions on arbitrage opportunities in Futures and Options
- Q5. If there was a hole of dimension x on a beach, how much sand does it contain?
- Q6. If there were 5 people sitting in a room and each thinks of some number, how could they find the average without telling each other the explicit numbers?
- Q7. Find the expected number of coin tosses to get 3 consecutive heads?
- Q8. Estimate the number of street lamps in Kanpur?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The company followed a resume based shortlisting and as far as I remember, the criteria they followed was to shortlist everybody with a CPI of > 8.5 . Also, they had shortlisted some candidates based on any background in finance (intern/projects). Many Maths and Economics students were shortlisted for this reason. (This was their first time in IIT Kanpur. So, I won’t be surprised if they vary their shortlisting methods).
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: 1. There were 14 people in total and 5 were selected from my group.
2. Evident from the number 14, the size of the discussion was too huge. It was going too haywire and some really good ELS people were a part of the discussion.
3. The only reason I got selected was maybe because I was the only person who was stating points in favor of Capital Punishment whereas everyone else was against it or maybe because of my resume.
(A thing to point out is that there were only 2 GDs and many people were stuck in some other companies. So, later many shortlisted people (who missed the GD) approached the Credit Suisse HR with the resumes, and were allowed to appear for the interviews.)
Duration: 10 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 1. Panel was of 2 Senior managers from Prime Services, Mumbai and lasted for 25 minutes.
2. It was my first proper finance interview of the day, and was a bit nervous. Entered the room, was greeted by 2 young people who introduced themselves and started with ‘Is Kanpur always so cold ? ’. They made me comfortable by asking about the campus and stuff, and then asked me to introduce myself.
3. At the end of the description, I was asked about Antaragni, how big it is and where it stands next to Moodi (they were IITB alums you see).
4. Then they asked me to describe my work at Morgan Stanley in detail. The good thing was that one of them was from Credits (deals with credit instruments – CDS, Bonds), which was exactly my group in MS. So, I could easily get into the technicalities of my paper, and they really seemed impressed and asked more and more.
5. This went on for around 15 minutes. After this one saw one of them whispering in the other person’s ear (and I understood that they are strongly in for me ).
6. I was asked which companies I was interviewing with and what my preference was, and I seemed to convince them about my interest in Credit Suisse citing it was the second company I was interviewing with in the day :P.
7. Finally they asked me if I have any knowledge in finance, which was an obvious yes, they asked me to draw the payoff curves of a Call Option and Put Option (which was cakewalk for anybody who has read the first few chapters of Hull).
8. I was then asked a few simple questions on arbitrage opportunities in Futures and Options, which I successfully answered.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1. The panel was of 1 Manager from London office, 1 equities lady and 1 Head from Mumbai and lasted for 45 minutes.
2. Before entering, the HR seemed pissed off with me because I told them earlier that I would be back around 9.30 A.M. Citing several lame excuses like the companies did not let me go and pleading guilty, I entered the room.
3. Was greeted by three people who sat far apart, and they asked me to introduce myself. I started, was confused whom to look at (remember they were far apart :p), and started about myself.
4. They asked me about my internship at Morgan Stanley, was asked about my paper, but they didn’t want me to get into technical details.
5. After a brief description, suddenly the person from London started firing puzzles at me.
6. Then the lady asked me to estimate the number of street lamps in Kanpur. I started with the road length and some other statistics of Kanpur and classifies the roads based on : highways/main roads/lane roads and dusty roads, and assumed street lamps at different intervals for all of them, and then satisfactorily came to a result.
7. They guided me all through, whenever I asked them if this assumption was right or not. Then when I thought the interview had ended, the London guy through a peace of folded paper at me and told that I was a marketing person, and was supposed to sell this to them. (I thought where had I landed into :P ) .
8. I started off telling that the paper was special and had no creases on them, in-spite of how much you fold them. I was asked to think of something more innovative, and then I told them that the paper could be recycled over and over again and it was something that a pulp manufacturing company in U.S. had patented, and I had brought it specially for them.
9. After a bit more persuasions, this seemed conclusive and they moved on.
10. I was then asked to make a choice between Credit Suisse and DB then and there. (They somehow had come to know that I already had an offer from DB ).
11. I tried convincing them on why I wanted to join Credit Suisse, making an emphasis on their campus ppt, which was easily the best after the Goldman Sachs one. The discussion went on into different aspects from why I chose IITK over IITB and then if I had an offer from the top 5 Wall Street Banks, which one would I choose.
General Tips: I have watched this year’s placement process very closely and would like to point out a few things to the readers, which are very important.
1. Be Realistic : This is perhaps one of the most important factors in the placements. I have seen so many people expect so much from them and when they don’t get shortlisted somewhere, it’s the end of the world for them. You must understand that there are certain limitations on you because of your CV till date (however intellectual or Bakait you might me). The key to this is be realistic, like Being a person from MME or BSBE, its actually difficult for you to crack a quant firm like Goldman/Morgan because of your curriculum here (however good you might be at Algos or Maths), the good thing is to accept it. Not having tremendous peaks in your resume will in not place you among the 20 shortlisted in BCG for instance. So, on a very serious note, everyone knows inside out what he/she is capable of, so please be realistic in your ambitions and try to excel in the options you have. Believe me, the goals may not be sky-high, but definitely are achievable.
2. Resume : Over the years, all the firms tell us that IITB/D resumes are well made than IITK ones. Get some of the resumes from your friends over there, ask some of your IITK seniors for their resume, SPO is always there to help you out. But Please denote at least 2 weeks in preparing your master resume and sub-resumes for every company.
3. PPTs : Try and attend the PPTs of the companies. You can actually get to know a lot about the work culture there and what is expected of you in your initial years. It will help you decide if this is actually the thing for you or not.
4. Don’t Speculate : During October-Nov. , most of the students actually waste a lot of efforts in just speculating ‘Yaar yeh company toh ise le hi legi’. Believe me , it happens a lot, confuses you and wastes a lot of your time (especially if you are a 4 Year student.)
5. DPC : Please form a good DPC at least for your own sake. Yes maybe the post might not be of value, but a hard working student can make a lot of difference to his department placements. You cannot expect the OPCs to call in every company of your department.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: The company followed a resume based shortlisting and as far as I remember, the criteria they followed was to shortlist everybody with a CPI of > 8.5 . Also, they had shortlisted some candidates based on any background in finance (intern/projects). Many Maths and Economics students were shortlisted for this reason. (This was their first time in IIT Kanpur. So, I won’t be surprised if they vary their shortlisting methods).
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: 1. There were 14 people in total and 5 were selected from my group.
2. Evident from the number 14, the size of the discussion was too huge. It was going too haywire and some really good ELS people were a part of the discussion.
3. The only reason I got selected was maybe because I was the only person who was stating points in favor of Capital Punishment whereas everyone else was against it or maybe because of my resume.
(A thing to point out is that there were only 2 GDs and many people were stuck in some other companies. So, later many shortlisted people (who missed the GD) approached the Credit Suisse HR with the resumes, and were allowed to appear for the interviews.)
Duration: 10 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 1. Panel was of 2 Senior managers from Prime Services, Mumbai and lasted for 25 minutes.
2. It was my first proper finance interview of the day, and was a bit nervous. Entered the room, was greeted by 2 young people who introduced themselves and started with ‘Is Kanpur always so cold ? ’. They made me comfortable by asking about the campus and stuff, and then asked me to introduce myself.
3. At the end of the description, I was asked about Antaragni, how big it is and where it stands next to Moodi (they were IITB alums you see).
4. Then they asked me to describe my work at Morgan Stanley in detail. The good thing was that one of them was from Credits (deals with credit instruments – CDS, Bonds), which was exactly my group in MS. So, I could easily get into the technicalities of my paper, and they really seemed impressed and asked more and more.
5. This went on for around 15 minutes. After this one saw one of them whispering in the other person’s ear (and I understood that they are strongly in for me ).
6. I was asked which companies I was interviewing with and what my preference was, and I seemed to convince them about my interest in Credit Suisse citing it was the second company I was interviewing with in the day :P.
7. Finally they asked me if I have any knowledge in finance, which was an obvious yes, they asked me to draw the payoff curves of a Call Option and Put Option (which was cakewalk for anybody who has read the first few chapters of Hull).
8. I was then asked a few simple questions on arbitrage opportunities in Futures and Options, which I successfully answered.
Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1. The panel was of 1 Manager from London office, 1 equities lady and 1 Head from Mumbai and lasted for 45 minutes.
2. Before entering, the HR seemed pissed off with me because I told them earlier that I would be back around 9.30 A.M. Citing several lame excuses like the companies did not let me go and pleading guilty, I entered the room.
3. Was greeted by three people who sat far apart, and they asked me to introduce myself. I started, was confused whom to look at (remember they were far apart :p), and started about myself.
4. They asked me about my internship at Morgan Stanley, was asked about my paper, but they didn’t want me to get into technical details.
5. After a brief description, suddenly the person from London started firing puzzles at me.
6. Then the lady asked me to estimate the number of street lamps in Kanpur. I started with the road length and some other statistics of Kanpur and classifies the roads based on : highways/main roads/lane roads and dusty roads, and assumed street lamps at different intervals for all of them, and then satisfactorily came to a result.
7. They guided me all through, whenever I asked them if this assumption was right or not. Then when I thought the interview had ended, the London guy through a peace of folded paper at me and told that I was a marketing person, and was supposed to sell this to them. (I thought where had I landed into :P ) .
8. I started off telling that the paper was special and had no creases on them, in-spite of how much you fold them. I was asked to think of something more innovative, and then I told them that the paper could be recycled over and over again and it was something that a pulp manufacturing company in U.S. had patented, and I had brought it specially for them.
9. After a bit more persuasions, this seemed conclusive and they moved on.
10. I was then asked to make a choice between Credit Suisse and DB then and there. (They somehow had come to know that I already had an offer from DB ).
11. I tried convincing them on why I wanted to join Credit Suisse, making an emphasis on their campus ppt, which was easily the best after the Goldman Sachs one. The discussion went on into different aspects from why I chose IITK over IITB and then if I had an offer from the top 5 Wall Street Banks, which one would I choose.
General Tips: I have watched this year’s placement process very closely and would like to point out a few things to the readers, which are very important.
1. Be Realistic : This is perhaps one of the most important factors in the placements. I have seen so many people expect so much from them and when they don’t get shortlisted somewhere, it’s the end of the world for them. You must understand that there are certain limitations on you because of your CV till date (however intellectual or Bakait you might me). The key to this is be realistic, like Being a person from MME or BSBE, its actually difficult for you to crack a quant firm like Goldman/Morgan because of your curriculum here (however good you might be at Algos or Maths), the good thing is to accept it. Not having tremendous peaks in your resume will in not place you among the 20 shortlisted in BCG for instance. So, on a very serious note, everyone knows inside out what he/she is capable of, so please be realistic in your ambitions and try to excel in the options you have. Believe me, the goals may not be sky-high, but definitely are achievable.
2. Resume : Over the years, all the firms tell us that IITB/D resumes are well made than IITK ones. Get some of the resumes from your friends over there, ask some of your IITK seniors for their resume, SPO is always there to help you out. But Please denote at least 2 weeks in preparing your master resume and sub-resumes for every company.
3. PPTs : Try and attend the PPTs of the companies. You can actually get to know a lot about the work culture there and what is expected of you in your initial years. It will help you decide if this is actually the thing for you or not.
4. Don’t Speculate : During October-Nov. , most of the students actually waste a lot of efforts in just speculating ‘Yaar yeh company toh ise le hi legi’. Believe me , it happens a lot, confuses you and wastes a lot of your time (especially if you are a 4 Year student.)
5. DPC : Please form a good DPC at least for your own sake. Yes maybe the post might not be of value, but a hard working student can make a lot of difference to his department placements. You cannot expect the OPCs to call in every company of your department.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
5 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Put in +,-,*,/ between the digits 3,3,8,8 (in any order ) such that the result was 24
- Q2. If an ant had to travel along the walls, what is the minimum distance between the opposite ends of a cuboid?
- Q3. Why do you wish to work in the finance sector?
- Q4. Why Deutsche Bank?
- Q5. Why should we hire you?
- Q6. What is your biggest repent and failure in IIT Kanpur?
- Q7. What has been the best moment of yours in IITK?
- Q8. Explain about your intern paper?
- Q9. Rank the Bonds, CDS and Loans in order of the interest rates they offered?
- Q10. Tell about three important things that were currently happening in the world of Business
- Q11. Explain Fiscal Cliff, Euro-Debt Crisis and the Palestine war
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: This year we had a resume based shortlisting across all IITs. There were around 35 students who were shortlisted form IITK. But, most probably DB would be continuing with its aptitude test based shortlisting, like the previous years (they ask around 25 aptitude questions, and 1 essay on some current topic).
Tips: DB resorts to resume based shortlisting again, they give a tremendous weight age to your CPI , any background in finance (intern in financial firms or on some related topic, so you see a lot of ECO and Maths Students being shortlisted.) Also, they look at the overall profile as well, but the above 2 factors were the most important this year. A comprehensive study of any of the CAT Maths material of CL or Time will suffice your preparations : focus more on how fast you can solve a problem.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 1.This was a mixed interview of both HR and Technical.
2. It lasted for 30 minutes. I entered the room and was greeted by 3 people, shook my hands with all of them.
3. They asked me if I was hungry or not, I told them that I was thirsty rather and they offered me a Tropicana. (The reason I am citing this is, after my selection, in the night Mr. Nishant told me that this had set up the tone in the room, because the earlier 4 candidates whom they interviewed were too shy and refused to have anything, they judged it as my confidence rather, though it was never an intended one).
4. I was asked about how many companies I was interviewing in slot 1, and they seemed to be impressed on hearing the number 7.
5. They asked me what my preference order was, and I told them the truth that I would definitely interview with DB, Credit Suisse and Worldquant, and if time permits maybe with BCG or Opera.
6. Then they asked me to give a brief introduction, and asked me to stop when I was talking about my intern at Morgan Stanley and the paper I published over there. Mr. Nishant asked me if I was offered a PPO by them, and I told them the truth about my mentor not finding any position for me. He gave a sarcastic remark at MS, that going by the markets, its evident that they are not in a good shape now, and all I did was smile.
7. I was asked that if I got an offer from Morgan in my 8th sem, would I go. I told them, that if I got into DB/WQ/Credit Suisse/BCG , then definitely no, o/w yes. The reason I cited was that, inspite of all the money, I had to go through the entire placement procedure which in itself was a big pain, then an offer after that doesn’t help, they could have given it earlier. All three of them laughed and I seemed to have convinced them. I was asked to explain my work there, which I did pretty well.
8. I was also asked if I sat for DB during the intern procedure and I again told them the truth, as I have written earlier.
Tips: They weren’t judging me on finance or quant, because of my CPI and previous background as an intern. A lot of people were grilled on these though, if they said they were interested in these and all. They were trying to have a conversation with me, and testing my confidence, and when I came out of the room, I knew I had done well.
Round: Other Interview
Experience: 1. It was the second technical interview and the panel was of Mr. Vikram Khanderia (Business Head) and a senior person from algo- trading. It lasted for 20 minutes.
2. I entered the room, greeted them and was asked to describe myself in one minute.
3. I did that pretty well as I thought. Mr. Vikram asked me to explain my paper in Morgan Stanley to the two of them, I took a pen and paper and tried explaining them the whole of it. I actually did pretty bad (I had explained this to others quite well earlier, maybe I became a bit nervous.) They didn’t get the full essence of the work, though understood that it was very valuable to the firm.
4. Then I was asked a very trivial question as to rank the Bonds, CDS and Loans in order of the interest rates they offered, and give an explanation on the same. (I had worked on these instruments during my intern, so was asked this). I knew the order and told them that, but struggled for around 5 minutes with the answer. Then they told me the reason for it, and I was just repenting the way my interview was proceeding.
5. Then Mr. Vikram asked me to tell three important things that were currently happening in the world of Business. (I never used to read ET, but read it the previous day). Told them, that Cinemax had just acquired PVR , and as soon as I told it, he just stood up and lashed at me that how could a small Indian company acquisition affect Wall Street. I then understand what a mockery I had made (and was mentally prepared for the Credit Suisse interview after this, because I was sure to be kicked out from here.)
6. Continuing, he wrote three things on paper : Fiscal Cliff, Euro-Debt Crisis and the Palestine war and asked to me explain all of them. I knew the 1st two very well, and started. Though I wasn’t very convincing because I had become a bit tensed, but still I told all that I knew about them in any order though not very confidently. I was asked some counter questions, which I answered and a small discussion followed as to how could the war affect the oil prices in India and gave some logical explanation.
7. Then, the other person took a piece of paper and told that If he folded it 100 times , what would be its total width, if the width of one side is 1 unit.
8. I found it out and told the answer was 2100 . He asked me to calculate it, and I still can’t believe I told them it was 1024 (210 ) * 1024, and then he asked me re calculate it. I immediately realized what a fool I was making of myself, and told it was 1024* multiplied 10 times ~ 1030. (which was right :P). I was asked to leave.
9. I came out and told the volunteers that I had messed it up and there was no chance I would get selected. So I was going for the CS interview. I was asked to wait for a minute and then the volunteers entered the room and after a minute asked me to go and meet Mr. Vikram.
10. He asked me what my concern was, I told him that I was sorry to have messed his round after such an awesome round 1 and that I won’t get selected. He gave me a smile and said that they had really liked me. I asked them if I would get an offer, because it would be my dream come true so early in the morning, He told me that there were SPO clauses that he couldn’t tell me, but ‘You are intelligent enough to understand. If I were you, I would put my suit off and go out for a drink :P’ ). I was overwhelmed, had a firm handshake with the both of them , and there it was at 9.50 AM. in the morning.
General Tips: I have watched this year’s placement process very closely and would like to point out a few things to the readers, which are very important.
1. Be Realistic : This is perhaps one of the most important factors in the placements. I have seen so many people expect so much from them and when they don’t get shortlisted somewhere, it’s the end of the world for them. You must understand that there are certain limitations on you because of your CV till date (however intellectual or Bakait you might me). The key to this is be realistic, like Being a person from MME or BSBE, its actually difficult for you to crack a quant firm like Goldman/Morgan because of your curriculum here (however good you might be at Algos or Maths), the good thing is to accept it. Not having tremendous peaks in your resume will in not place you among the 20 shortlisted in BCG for instance. So, on a very serious note, everyone knows inside out what he/she is capable of, so please be realistic in your ambitions and try to excel in the options you have. Believe me, the goals may not be sky-high, but definitely are achievable.
2. Resume : Over the years, all the firms tell us that IITB/D resumes are well made than IITK ones. Get some of the resumes from your friends over there, ask some of your IITK seniors for their resume, SPO is always there to help you out. But Please denote at least 2 weeks in preparing your master resume and sub-resumes for every company.
3. PPTs : Try and attend the PPTs of the companies. You can actually get to know a lot about the work culture there and what is expected of you in your initial years. It will help you decide if this is actually the thing for you or not.
4. Don’t Speculate : During October-Nov. , most of the students actually waste a lot of efforts in just speculating ‘Yaar yeh company toh ise le hi legi’. Believe me , it happens a lot, confuses you and wastes a lot of your time (especially if you are a 4 Year student.)
5. DPC : Please form a good DPC at least for your own sake. Yes maybe the post might not be of value, but a hard working student can make a lot of difference to his department placements. You cannot expect the OPCs to call in every company of your department.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: This year we had a resume based shortlisting across all IITs. There were around 35 students who were shortlisted form IITK. But, most probably DB would be continuing with its aptitude test based shortlisting, like the previous years (they ask around 25 aptitude questions, and 1 essay on some current topic).
Tips: DB resorts to resume based shortlisting again, they give a tremendous weight age to your CPI , any background in finance (intern in financial firms or on some related topic, so you see a lot of ECO and Maths Students being shortlisted.) Also, they look at the overall profile as well, but the above 2 factors were the most important this year. A comprehensive study of any of the CAT Maths material of CL or Time will suffice your preparations : focus more on how fast you can solve a problem.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 1.This was a mixed interview of both HR and Technical.
2. It lasted for 30 minutes. I entered the room and was greeted by 3 people, shook my hands with all of them.
3. They asked me if I was hungry or not, I told them that I was thirsty rather and they offered me a Tropicana. (The reason I am citing this is, after my selection, in the night Mr. Nishant told me that this had set up the tone in the room, because the earlier 4 candidates whom they interviewed were too shy and refused to have anything, they judged it as my confidence rather, though it was never an intended one).
4. I was asked about how many companies I was interviewing in slot 1, and they seemed to be impressed on hearing the number 7.
5. They asked me what my preference order was, and I told them the truth that I would definitely interview with DB, Credit Suisse and Worldquant, and if time permits maybe with BCG or Opera.
6. Then they asked me to give a brief introduction, and asked me to stop when I was talking about my intern at Morgan Stanley and the paper I published over there. Mr. Nishant asked me if I was offered a PPO by them, and I told them the truth about my mentor not finding any position for me. He gave a sarcastic remark at MS, that going by the markets, its evident that they are not in a good shape now, and all I did was smile.
7. I was asked that if I got an offer from Morgan in my 8th sem, would I go. I told them, that if I got into DB/WQ/Credit Suisse/BCG , then definitely no, o/w yes. The reason I cited was that, inspite of all the money, I had to go through the entire placement procedure which in itself was a big pain, then an offer after that doesn’t help, they could have given it earlier. All three of them laughed and I seemed to have convinced them. I was asked to explain my work there, which I did pretty well.
8. I was also asked if I sat for DB during the intern procedure and I again told them the truth, as I have written earlier.
Tips: They weren’t judging me on finance or quant, because of my CPI and previous background as an intern. A lot of people were grilled on these though, if they said they were interested in these and all. They were trying to have a conversation with me, and testing my confidence, and when I came out of the room, I knew I had done well.
Round: Other Interview
Experience: 1. It was the second technical interview and the panel was of Mr. Vikram Khanderia (Business Head) and a senior person from algo- trading. It lasted for 20 minutes.
2. I entered the room, greeted them and was asked to describe myself in one minute.
3. I did that pretty well as I thought. Mr. Vikram asked me to explain my paper in Morgan Stanley to the two of them, I took a pen and paper and tried explaining them the whole of it. I actually did pretty bad (I had explained this to others quite well earlier, maybe I became a bit nervous.) They didn’t get the full essence of the work, though understood that it was very valuable to the firm.
4. Then I was asked a very trivial question as to rank the Bonds, CDS and Loans in order of the interest rates they offered, and give an explanation on the same. (I had worked on these instruments during my intern, so was asked this). I knew the order and told them that, but struggled for around 5 minutes with the answer. Then they told me the reason for it, and I was just repenting the way my interview was proceeding.
5. Then Mr. Vikram asked me to tell three important things that were currently happening in the world of Business. (I never used to read ET, but read it the previous day). Told them, that Cinemax had just acquired PVR , and as soon as I told it, he just stood up and lashed at me that how could a small Indian company acquisition affect Wall Street. I then understand what a mockery I had made (and was mentally prepared for the Credit Suisse interview after this, because I was sure to be kicked out from here.)
6. Continuing, he wrote three things on paper : Fiscal Cliff, Euro-Debt Crisis and the Palestine war and asked to me explain all of them. I knew the 1st two very well, and started. Though I wasn’t very convincing because I had become a bit tensed, but still I told all that I knew about them in any order though not very confidently. I was asked some counter questions, which I answered and a small discussion followed as to how could the war affect the oil prices in India and gave some logical explanation.
7. Then, the other person took a piece of paper and told that If he folded it 100 times , what would be its total width, if the width of one side is 1 unit.
8. I found it out and told the answer was 2100 . He asked me to calculate it, and I still can’t believe I told them it was 1024 (210 ) * 1024, and then he asked me re calculate it. I immediately realized what a fool I was making of myself, and told it was 1024* multiplied 10 times ~ 1030. (which was right :P). I was asked to leave.
9. I came out and told the volunteers that I had messed it up and there was no chance I would get selected. So I was going for the CS interview. I was asked to wait for a minute and then the volunteers entered the room and after a minute asked me to go and meet Mr. Vikram.
10. He asked me what my concern was, I told him that I was sorry to have messed his round after such an awesome round 1 and that I won’t get selected. He gave me a smile and said that they had really liked me. I asked them if I would get an offer, because it would be my dream come true so early in the morning, He told me that there were SPO clauses that he couldn’t tell me, but ‘You are intelligent enough to understand. If I were you, I would put my suit off and go out for a drink :P’ ). I was overwhelmed, had a firm handshake with the both of them , and there it was at 9.50 AM. in the morning.
General Tips: I have watched this year’s placement process very closely and would like to point out a few things to the readers, which are very important.
1. Be Realistic : This is perhaps one of the most important factors in the placements. I have seen so many people expect so much from them and when they don’t get shortlisted somewhere, it’s the end of the world for them. You must understand that there are certain limitations on you because of your CV till date (however intellectual or Bakait you might me). The key to this is be realistic, like Being a person from MME or BSBE, its actually difficult for you to crack a quant firm like Goldman/Morgan because of your curriculum here (however good you might be at Algos or Maths), the good thing is to accept it. Not having tremendous peaks in your resume will in not place you among the 20 shortlisted in BCG for instance. So, on a very serious note, everyone knows inside out what he/she is capable of, so please be realistic in your ambitions and try to excel in the options you have. Believe me, the goals may not be sky-high, but definitely are achievable.
2. Resume : Over the years, all the firms tell us that IITB/D resumes are well made than IITK ones. Get some of the resumes from your friends over there, ask some of your IITK seniors for their resume, SPO is always there to help you out. But Please denote at least 2 weeks in preparing your master resume and sub-resumes for every company.
3. PPTs : Try and attend the PPTs of the companies. You can actually get to know a lot about the work culture there and what is expected of you in your initial years. It will help you decide if this is actually the thing for you or not.
4. Don’t Speculate : During October-Nov. , most of the students actually waste a lot of efforts in just speculating ‘Yaar yeh company toh ise le hi legi’. Believe me , it happens a lot, confuses you and wastes a lot of your time (especially if you are a 4 Year student.)
5. DPC : Please form a good DPC at least for your own sake. Yes maybe the post might not be of value, but a hard working student can make a lot of difference to his department placements. You cannot expect the OPCs to call in every company of your department.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
6 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Tell me about yourself?
- Q2. Your usual introduction, education?
- Q3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
- Q4. Strengths and weaknesses?
- Q5. How are you a good fit for the company?
- Q6. If you were to launch a new product (clothes in my case), what are the factors you’ll consider and what strategy you’ll follow?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Test
Experience: Type of questions and details: Normal aptitude questions. Usually cutoff goes around 50, so you can estimate that it is about speed and not your intelligence.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 60
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: For group discussion they’ll ask recent topics, so a general knowledge of what’s happening and your ability to speak will take you through. There were 8 of us.
Tips: 1. Use moments of pause to deliver your ideas
2. It’s good to start the discussion and frame it, but it is not essential
3. Always put points, Flipkart doesn’t asks random topics so speaking absurd ideas will not be beneficial for you.
4. Always take note of what others are telling, they’ll ask you to conclude
5. If you’ll enter in an arguments, you are out of the discussion
6. Keep your nerves under control and deliver what you got
Duration: 30-60 minutes
Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was a Skype interview.
Tips: What went well for me was that I made some really good suggestions regarding the company like:
1. They should have live chat support
2. Option to try 2 items before buying 1 of them (in clothes and footwear)
3. No. of warehouses should be increased to assure faster delivery
General Tips: Read newspapers regularly (it really helps)
1. Don’t get into an argument in GD
2. Always speak points (casts good impression)
3. Speed is essential to qualify the test
4. Don’t panic and keep you nerves under control
5. In Case studies don’t jump to a conclusion immediately (ask them for
more and more information until you see you have considered all the
factors, then conclude)
6. Solve as many puzzles as possible so that the one you get in interview, you’ve solved already.
Skill Tips: Some MBA courses which have case studies might help. Doing probability and statistics is strongly recommended.
Skills:
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: Type of questions and details: Normal aptitude questions. Usually cutoff goes around 50, so you can estimate that it is about speed and not your intelligence.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 60
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: For group discussion they’ll ask recent topics, so a general knowledge of what’s happening and your ability to speak will take you through. There were 8 of us.
Tips: 1. Use moments of pause to deliver your ideas
2. It’s good to start the discussion and frame it, but it is not essential
3. Always put points, Flipkart doesn’t asks random topics so speaking absurd ideas will not be beneficial for you.
4. Always take note of what others are telling, they’ll ask you to conclude
5. If you’ll enter in an arguments, you are out of the discussion
6. Keep your nerves under control and deliver what you got
Duration: 30-60 minutes
Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was a Skype interview.
Tips: What went well for me was that I made some really good suggestions regarding the company like:
1. They should have live chat support
2. Option to try 2 items before buying 1 of them (in clothes and footwear)
3. No. of warehouses should be increased to assure faster delivery
General Tips: Read newspapers regularly (it really helps)
1. Don’t get into an argument in GD
2. Always speak points (casts good impression)
3. Speed is essential to qualify the test
4. Don’t panic and keep you nerves under control
5. In Case studies don’t jump to a conclusion immediately (ask them for
more and more information until you see you have considered all the
factors, then conclude)
6. Solve as many puzzles as possible so that the one you get in interview, you’ve solved already.
Skill Tips: Some MBA courses which have case studies might help. Doing probability and statistics is strongly recommended.
Skills:
College Name: IIT KANPUR
4 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. In a city represented as a 2-D plane there are buildings at different positions. The position of the buildings(x,y co-ordinates) and their heights are given. Wr...read more
- Q2. A group of n people is such that a symmetric relation of knowing another exists in the group. i.e. the relation is A knows B. and being symmetric if A knows B t...read more
- Q3. In a 2 D plane, every point is assigned a color either blue or red. Prove that there exists a rectangle with all corners of the same color
- Q4. Prove that F_nk is divisible by F_n where F_i is the ith Fibonacci number. with f_0 = 0
- Q5. A tournament has to be conducted. The tournament has each team playing a single match and match is played by 2 teams. Every team has two ratings. X : batting ra...read more
- Q6. Given a string, find the largest substring which can be formed from repetition (>=2) of the smaller string
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Test
Experience: Unfortunately, I reached pretty late to this test and got only around half an hour to solve the questions. I picked up only algorithm questions to solve. I did not go through the entire paper. So can't comment much.
Duration: 120 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: They asked me to write the entire code in C/C++/language of choice. I had three interviews (two of 40 min and the final of about 100 minutes). That is all I remember . There were many other questions though.
Skills: Data Structures, Algorithms Intermediate, Discrete Mathematics, Probability and Statistics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: Unfortunately, I reached pretty late to this test and got only around half an hour to solve the questions. I picked up only algorithm questions to solve. I did not go through the entire paper. So can't comment much.
Duration: 120 minutes
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: They asked me to write the entire code in C/C++/language of choice. I had three interviews (two of 40 min and the final of about 100 minutes). That is all I remember . There were many other questions though.
Skills: Data Structures, Algorithms Intermediate, Discrete Mathematics, Probability and Statistics
College Name: IIT KANPUR
5 Interview Rounds
Interview Questions
- Q1. Resume-based questions
- Q2. Are you aware of other technologies used in barcode readers?
- Q3. Make a number <4 and >3 using 3, 4 and a symbol/operator present on your calculator
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: They generally have resume based short listing. And I was shortlisted.
Round: Test
Experience: Aptitude test was easy, in fact 2 or 3 puzzles were directly from -----/.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Since iRunway is a technology consulting firm and One of my projects was IR based barcode reader so he asked questions about that. There were total 2 technical interviews.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: They generally have resume based short listing. And I was shortlisted.
Round: Test
Experience: Aptitude test was easy, in fact 2 or 3 puzzles were directly from -----/.
Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Since iRunway is a technology consulting firm and One of my projects was IR based barcode reader so he asked questions about that. There were total 2 technical interviews.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
1 Interview Round
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I didn't prepare for this company and was not sure of getting shortlisted but luckily or unluckily, I was. Group discussion topics are generally arbitrary. They primarily check your creativity.As my whole group was good so most of us were selected for the next round. It was a group activity. Group performance was okay. Then the next was one to one interview which I didn't get through it.
Tips: They generally check the team skills, creativity and leadership.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Experience: I didn't prepare for this company and was not sure of getting shortlisted but luckily or unluckily, I was. Group discussion topics are generally arbitrary. They primarily check your creativity.As my whole group was good so most of us were selected for the next round. It was a group activity. Group performance was okay. Then the next was one to one interview which I didn't get through it.
Tips: They generally check the team skills, creativity and leadership.
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Interview Questions of Popular Companies
Campus Placement Interview Questions at Top Colleges
- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai Placement Interview Questions
- Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi Placement Interview Questions
- National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal Placement Interview Questions
- Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow Placement Interview Questions
- Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Placement Interview Questions
- Show more
- Home >
- colleges >
- indian institute of technology iit kanpur placement interview questions