Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur

Kharagpur, West Bengal

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

Updated 12 Jan 2025

310 interviews found

user image Anonymous

posted on 18 Feb 2015

3 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: CGPA of 8 is the minimum criteria.
10 aptitude questions: 15 minutes, no negative marking, level: medium/easy 
10 technical questions: 15 minutes, no negative marking, level: easy/medium (there were 2 sets: 1. structures; 2. aero/thermal; we had to choose one as per our interest) Basics should be clear, no formula was required to solve the technical paper.
Tips: Solve the technical paper related to your project field irrespective of the toughness of the paper.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Basic questions about:-
Project,
Subjects related to the project
Academic interests
50% of technical interview was based on projects.
Tips: The fundamentals should be strong.
You should have a clear idea of your project.

Skill Tips: Important subjects for structure are: FEM, Vibration, Mechanics etc.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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user image Anonymous

posted on 13 Feb 2015

5 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: Not mentioned before but later in the offer letter i found that CGPA must be more than 7.5. It was a technical test. Heat transfer, thermodynamics, stress, material strength, fluid mechanics were all asked. Time management and accuracy is essential.
Tips: Questions are not hard (average) but time is very less . So one must be quick and accurate. Don’t waste time on a single question if you are stuck.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Technical interview for short listed students based on their field (thermal or structures). I am from thermal background. All my questions were based on heat transfer and my project. Some of my friends were asked questions on fluid mechanics, turbo machinery. The questions which were asked to me were: 1. They gave me a plate and asked to discuss the heat transfer through it . Later they asked me about how to find the heat transfer coefficient (I answered: Nu=h*l/K). Then they asked me the significance of Nu. After this they asked me about Re, Pr numbers (some other numbers in fluid mechanics). They asked about Bi number, significance of Bi number , lumped body assumption and when this assumption can be taken. They also asked me to prove that. They asked me about CFD modelling, Finite Element Analysis as my projects were based on that. They are very particular about physical significance of terms and majority of my questions were on that.
Tips: Do not mug up concepts as they ask every question in detail. Your answer to the first question leads them to their next question. Even if you do not know the answer, try to work out from basic concepts. You might even get help from the interviewer if your approach is good. If you are completely unaware of the question, tell them frankly about that and they might ask you other question where you might be able to impress them rather than wasting time with something you don’t know the answer to.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: General HR questions for short listed candidates (Technical is a bit difficult, once you clear that be confident; HR is very simple)
Tips: Be confident and maintain eye contact. In the middle of the HR interview, he might ask you suddenly about your academic project. So, stay conscious.

Skill Tips: People with knowledge or experience in CFD modelling have an edge(especially for thermal and aerospace). People who are very good at stress analysis, strength and structures are preferred ( for Manufacturing specialization and aerospace)
Academic credentials (My CGPA 8.18) was not that great but i answered all the questions in the interview) are very important . All the questions are related to the basic concepts but student must be well aware of them.
Be thorough with the basics of Thermodynamics, heat transfer , fluid mechanics (for thermal and aerospace students) stress analysis, material strengths , design of machine elements (for manufacturing specialization). Don’t mug up the formulae , know about their physical significance. Most of the questions will be on basics, don’t waste ur time mugging big equations and derivations. The GATE book saved me a lot of my time. I went through it to get a basic idea of all the concepts and for each concept present there, I browsed the internet to get a further insight.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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Interview Questions

user image Anonymous

posted on 13 Feb 2015

7 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: The company does not look much into CGPA once you clear the test. The recruited students had CGPA’s ranging from 7.22 (mine) to 9.An online test which consists of quantitative, verbal, logical reasoning and attention to detail sections. It is a simple test for about an hour. CAT preparation is sufficient. As the test is easy, one should be able to solve almost all the questions correctly. The recruiters receive a detailed analysis of your test performance(like the time allocated to different questions etc. I got a glimpse of my performance sheet during one of the interview rounds) and it will be used until the last minute of their recruitment process.
Tips: Don’t waste much time on any single question. The questions are easy and you cannot move onto the next question until a question is answered. The time is also less and the individual sections are also timed. So act wisely

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Each group consisted of 10 members. The topic was same to all the groups. ‘Arvind Kejriwal’ was the topic of discussion.
Tips: Discuss sensibly. Don’t dominate others. Listening is as important as talking. Listen to what others have to say and make your point when you have something to say.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: During this phase a booklet consisting of a case is given to every one and you are expected to solve the questions in the case booklet in 30 minutes. We were given a case on market entry of a credit card company. There were questions on choosing a customer segment out of given set of segments, allocating different policies for different customer segments, advertising and marketing strategies etc.The case was pretty long and it took around 10 -15 mins just to understand the case. 8 -10 questions are present in the case booklet at certain intervals under different topics. It’s better to go through the entire case before solving any questions for some questions require knowledge from the topics in the earlier pages. Most of the questions require you to interpret various data and working with numbers to choose between different alternatives.The case usually looks complex but as you proceed with patience it will all start making sense. After the case solving is over and the booklets are collected, an interviewer takes the case interview on the same case after some time. She will, in all probability, ask you to explain everything that was done in the case booklet and also some more questions that are not present in the case booklet. I willingly left one-liners as answers for questions like advertising and marketing strategy because I wanted her to ask me the question again so that I could explain my answers in detail.
Tips: You have to be quick with numbers in the data interpretation questions. Questions might be a bit tougher than the usual CAT level. Apart from data interpretation and numbers, some questions on marketing and advertising strategies are also present. Don’t get psyched out by looking at the case. It is not so difficult but the ten page booklet with numbers and graphs might spin your head out of balance.

In case you could n’t solve any question in time, don’t worry, you will have ample amount of time to think and come up with an answer before the case interview. While solving the case don’t strain yourself by writing clear and detailed explanations, your won’t have enough time. Work the figures and present the answers. But while you are presenting the case to the interviewer explain everything in detail.

These non-numeric questions generally test your creativity and use this opportunity to impress the interviewer with some good answers. Trust me this will go a long way during the entire recruitment process. Practice cases from ‘case in point’ to get a hang of some good cases related to advertising and marketing strategies.

Round: Behavioural Interview
Experience: A 40 minute one on one HR round with some senior ZS official. In my case, it was an american working in the Indian office who pretty much asked every possible HR question followed by guesstimate.
Tips: Be thorough with your CV. You should able to discuss ,for 2 minutes at-least, anything that is mentioned in your CV. Have some answers ready for the general HR questions. When asked, don’t just spit them out. Speak as if you are having a conversation with the interviewer. Do not panic during the interview. If you’re unable to understand a question, feel free to ask the question again, interviewers appreciate this. Take a few seconds before answering an unexpected question, this will help you in framing your answer well. In the CV, make sure you mention your exact role during an event/ sport and the result of your work as well. Be prompt and expect the unexpected. While solving the guesstimate make sure you have the right approach to solve the problem. When i was solving the guesstimate, I got stuck after a few minutes. So I told him that I wanted to solve the guesstimate using a different approach. I did but ended up with the wrong answer as i assumed some wrong statistics. It didn’t matter as my approach was right. So don’t worry about the answer, focus on the approach.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This round of interview was with the partner of one of the ZS offices. 9 out of 10 people who made it to this round were hired. This round is to make sure that you’re a perfect fit for the organisation. Again a 20-30 minute HR interview ,mostly based on your CV and your interest in a particular job profile, was held.

I was asked to describe a situation when people looked down upon me and what I did to come out of it and how I got everyone to appreciate me after that. As to the answer for this question, I described my school journey from an average student to the state topper of RMO.
Tips: Have a solid answer for why you want this particular job. This round is a little bit intimidating but don’t give in. Feel free to ask questions. Asking questions is very important for several reasons during this round. One, you can change the tune of the interview by preventing the interviewer from cross questioning based on flawed answers. Two, it shows how much you have researched and thought about this job. The interviewer answered my questions for more than 10 mins and he actually seemed interested to answer my questions rather than rebuking me for asking too many. To ask some good questions, you must study the company in and out.
If there is anything special about you, this is your best chance to prove it and the impression you make on somebody like a partner will help a lot.

General Tips: Involvement in some kind of extracurricular activity is helpful in acing the behavioral rounds of the interview. This is particularly important because ZS generally employs rigorous behavioral rounds. Most of the recruits have had decent extra-academics. You can expect a good number of questions on various aspects of leadership qualities, team skills etc., from the extra academics mentioned. Involvement in hall activities, societies,sports - anything will do as long as you present them well.

Projects do matter. Recruiters are interested in knowing the practical applications of the projects like BTP. You must prepared to explain your projects in layman terms. Same With the internships, it doesn’t matter even if you have big names under your internship column.The work that was done during the period is all important.

Don’t worry too much about anything, be it CG or extra acads or whatever during the placements period. There isn’t much you can do now. Just prepare well. That’s all you can do. On top of everything, have that brash confidence that you are just as qualified as everyone else out there. After all we all have cleared same JEE. Good luck and happy hunting.
Skill Tips: CAT preparation helps a lot.
Skills: Quantitative skills, Case solving, logical reasoning skills
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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Interview Questions

user image Anonymous

posted on 6 Feb 2015

5 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: CAT like aptitude test. Easy questions, but a lot of them. Hence, speed would be of essence. Verbal, quantitative, DI and “attention to detail”-these are the skills that matter. Do not linger on any question. CAT-centric preparation may come in handy.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Shortlisting done on the basis of test cum profile. Not many people were eliminated during this round. Communication skills will help you. They give current topics usually. We were asked to discuss Kejriwal’s methods.
Tips: Speak clearly and make coherent points. Be polite and composed.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The interview lasted for 20-25 minutes. I was asked in detail about internships and projects. I had to solve a guesstimate as well.
Tips: Go through casebooks. Be thoroughly prepared with the details in your CV.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: One hour to solve a case booklet followed by a discussion. Question was about devising an incentive framework for the sales force of a company.
Tips: Basic logic and DI skills should suffice. Pace yourself to go through the entire booklet.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Basic logic and DI skills should suffice.
Tips: Pace yourself to go through the entire booklet.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This is the final round if you manage to get past the previous rounds. Fifteen minute interview with the principal with another guy looking on. I was also asked to solve a math problem/puzzle involving some calculation; it’s difficulty slightly enhanced by the principal’s efforts to unsettle me.
Tips: The good news is that, if you make it to this round, you’re “almost” selected. Mostly an HR interview with pointed follow-up questions and cross questioning. So, think before you speak and be prepared backup your answers.

General Tips: A high CG is preferrable, although I was a lower 7. Extraordinary achievements are not required. However, an involvement in something beyond academics should be demonstrated. Core industry, core academic and consulting internships/ projects help. Prior experience in consulting probably helped my case. They do look for a good technical background and a well rounded personality. Parting Advice: Case books. CAT preparation. CV revision. That’s the mantra, more or less.
Skill Tips: For my profile, Business Operations Associate, good aptitude would be required to clear the written test and communication skills, elementary case solving abilities to ace the interviews.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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Interview Questions

user image Anonymous

posted on 4 Feb 2015

3 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: Subject paper related to the branch undertaken in UG/PG.
Tips: Strong academic knowledge proficiency, confidence and having a clear idea about where you would like to see yourself after 5 years with the company would help. Try to be clean and specific about your answers.

Round: Interview
Experience: Face to Face interview with company officials.

General Tips: Keep a strong academic knowledge of your field and show your interest in the company during the interviews as it helps a lot. And try to improve your English proficiency.
Skill Tips: Surely CGPA matters to get shortlisted to Interviews. Extra-Academic involvement matters but to a small extent. Project and internship are most likely to have an impact during the interview phase. Probably companies are more interested in students who have done internships/projects in the similar areas of work matching with the company profile. Doing such a project, which is affecting the society for some good reasons like project for water purification of some locality, environment assessment would be appreciated.
Skills: Quantitative ability, English proficiency, SAP 2000, ETABS, Autocad, Revit, C, C++ language, Orion
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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3 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Interview
Experience: The interview is conducted by our own dept professors.

Skill Tips: Good CGPA in both B.Tech. and M.Tech. If you have published any paper that will add an advantage to you. Project matters a lot. We should be in a position to explain our work with confidence. Be thorough with the subjects.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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2 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Other Interview
Experience: Selection criteria based on CG-cut offs.
Tips: Ask yourselves if you really want this job or not. If you do, go get it else, forget it.

Skill Tips: CGPA-7.57 in M.Tech. at IIT Kgp. 77% at B.Tech. in OU campus, 93.8% in 12th and 79.3% in 10th are the requirements. Extra-Academic involvement which I included in resume but, I participated in the hall council elections and came third. I have good interpersonal relations with several persons from rickshaw pullers and security persons to professors in IIT KGP. I am interested in motivating students and I guided peers in their areas of interest. I am good at C programming, but I got a core chemical engineering job which I deeply longed for. I think that academic credentials and others matter only 40% whether we are indeed in requirement of a job or not and whether we are really serious into getting into a particular company or not matters 60% to get a job in that company.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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Interview Questions

user image Anonymous

posted on 4 Feb 2015

4 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: Online written test, consisting of quantitative and verbal ability.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: General topic group discussion.

Round: Interview
Experience: Two-on-one interview. I was asked about projects and internships. Nothing particularly challenging. (They were planning on mass recruitment. Selected 26 students out of the ~40 students shortlisted for GD).

Skill Tips: CGPA above 7 is required.
Skills: Quantitative skills, Verbal skills
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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user image Anonymous

posted on 4 Feb 2015

4 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Test
Experience: Two tests were there. One CAT type questions- maths, quant, verbal Another related to the department. Both were objective type.
Tips: Even without any CAT preparation, you can clear it quite easily. For the department related exam, a basic preparation of core subjects for placements is enough. Most of the questions were CV based. No negative marks, I think. So fill all the questions.

Round: Interview
Experience: It went on for about 20 mins. All were technical questions and most of them were from the things I’ve stated in my CV.
Tips: Write only what you’ve done in your CV, if not at least be prepared to defend everything. Otherwise if you are confident with your basics it should not be a big problem to clear this round.

Round: Interview
Experience: By the time I got till here, I already knew that I almost got placed. So it was very friendly and went on for about 10 minutes.

Skill Tips: Being a core design consultancy, more emphasis was on academic performance. I think a CGPA above 7.5 or 8 is very ideal. They looked deep into my internship and project. Various questions about what I had done there and how well I got practical exposure were tested.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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4 Interview Rounds

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Topics were based on current affairs. No specific preparation required. We were given a sheet of paper on which adjectives were written on both sides. On one side, we were asked to tick the adjectives which described us according to our friends. On the other side we had to tick the adjectives which we thought best described us. I have appeared in about 10 GDs so far (during UG and PG placements), and I was not rejected in any one of them. The thing which was common in all the GDs was that I initiated in most of them and during the GD, I wrote down the points spoken by each member on paper and during the conclusion I spoke about each and everyone’s point. This gave me an edge over all others.
Tips: Try to initiate the GD if possible. But if you are not able to do so, try to atleast conclude it. Based on my GD experience, the points you make are not very important. The only important thing is that you must “SPEAK”. These HR guys from core companies don’t know exactly how to conduct a GD. I have seen people clearing GD round only by shouting and making irrelevant points. A GD for an IIM is totally a different game but for core companies only speaking in a GD is enough.

Round: Psychometric Test
Experience: This was not an elimination round.
Tips: Mark as many adjectives as possible but be honest at the same time. Based on the adjectives I marked. I was asked to give some specific real life examples for proving the same in the interview. As I had been honest in marking the adjectives, this was a piece of cake for me.

Round: Interview
Experience: The R&D head, HR head and a representative of Law department took my interview. The Law Representative did not ask any questions. About half of the total questions were asked by the R&D head. He stressed only on the MTech project. The HR head asked questions based on the psychometric test. She asked to give me real life examples and explanations for the adjectives that I had marked. Based on my CV, questions were asked by both R&D and HR head. As I already knew about the requirements through my seniors in the company, I was able to shape my project according to their needs.
Tips: It is advisable to talk to any of the seniors in the firm beforehand to get an idea of the type of requirements in the company and prepare for the interview accordingly. You must be very well prepared with your MTech. project and you must know exactly what you are going to do. Speak about your project according to the requirement of the company even if it is very remotely related to the work of the company.

Skill Tips: Just 60% in class 10th, 12th and graduation is enough for getting shortlisted for the company. There is no requirement of any extraordinary profile. Based on my profile and interview experience, I believe at least one CAD software and knowledge of Finite Element Method is required for R&D job in Design Engineering in any automobile sector company. For aptitude test of any company, only basic R S Aggarwal book is enough. For technical test by core companies, a sound knowledge is required which cannot be achieved by overnight preparation. The technical questions are quite easy but the number of questions is very large compared to time given.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
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