Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Telangana

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Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad Placement Interview Questions

Updated 22 Sep 2024

228 interviews found

user image Vamsee Prateek G

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

  • Q1. A large bank in India wants to reduce its offices and go online. How you do go about it? (Case Type-Strategy & Growth)

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Recommended Approach
As said by many earlier, no real frameworks or Victor Cheng’s formula work here. First Principle – going by logic and common sense will get you what questions to ask and how to approach and end the case with a solution
Tips: One more mistake which should not have been done, is a bad summary. Take a minute to go through the case and then summarize crisply. No structure for synthesis but, to the point and covering the essence!

Skills: Passion, Confidence, Approaching A Problem
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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user image Usashi Banerjee

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Questions asked (as far as I remember): 1. Is there a specific weight (type of pouch or tube) he is looking for which makes the estimation of the usage easy.2. I demarcated the population as per gender then rural/urban and then income wise.3. Competitors to be considered.4. Use of fair & lovely cream for other purposes (other than fairness).
R1 -Tell me various ways to reduce the EPC cost in a power plant. (relevant to my past work experience)R2 –Ques asked –1) How does reduction in oil price affect India in short term and long term?2) Mention the initiatives taken by the new government

Skills: Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

  • Q1. How can you reduce cost of an ice-cream factory based in Russia?
  • Q2. How can you convince big bazar to increase your product’s shelf space?
  • Q3. Questions around supply chain –variation in distribution, discount etc. (Note: If you haven’t taken LSCM, do take the notes from your friend and understand the ...read more
  • Q4. How can you reduce thecost of production without changing the variable cost?

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I had a good time with Interviewers. They put you at ease while talking to you and help you at times (not always!). Like any other interview, just stay calm and think of all possible answers to questions asked.
Tips: Don’t fret about any particular answer but focus on your structure –the way you think and the way you present your answers to the interviewer.For ice cream factory one could think of VC, FC which include utilities, packaging, inventory, inbound/outbound etc. The interviewer at times provides more information in between answers to guide you(but don’t wait for it).Shelf space and LSCM concepts revolve around what causes variation in supply chain, incentive management and factory location/management [ If you know your LSCM well you’ll sail through such questions.

Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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user image Vamsee Prateek G

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

  • Q1. Estimate the number of autos in New Delhi (Case Type- Market Sizing)

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: He said I can list any number of approaches but dig one approach deeper to arrive at the number
Recommended Approach
I must have prompted how to recheck the answer I have got. That s one thing I must should have done well. Interview Day jitters!
Whenever you take a bottom up approach, make sure you all cross check it with a top down approach
Tips: Although one might say the final number doesn’t matter much in market sizing, I think that gives you fair indication about how accurate your approach would be. As soon as the interview is done, I googled and found the number of auto s in New Delhi are about 80,000. So it is a quite reasonable estimate. But many a time, you might be far off. So practice market sizing questions and cross check them with original figures to improvise your approach

Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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I applied via Referral

3 Interview Rounds

Interview Questions

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I started with the area of Hyderabad ~600km2. I made assumptions with respect to the area an average garbage truck could cover. Normally garbage trucks collect garbage from across the place and then go to the dumping ground and dump the garbage and then they may make another trip. Let’s say an average garbage truck works for about 8-9 hours and makes 2 trips in a day. And in one trip it can cover 2 km2, and then based on 2 trips a day, it should cover 4 km2. So approximately 150 trucks for households.The interviewer hinted to me that the number seems to be quite less and asked me to try again with some other approach. This time I started with the number of households. So Hyderabad has a population of 4mn and with 4 people per households, we have ~1mn households. Now these households are mostly spread in the form of apartments/ localities, comprising of ~100 Households per locality, giving me 10000 localities. It would take ~1 hour per locality, so an average truck considering it has to dump the garbage as well, should cover maximum 6/7 localities in a day. So there should be ~1500 garbage trucks serving Hyderabad households.The interviewer then questioned me about other factors which would determine the number of trucks. I listed down a few factors like: concentration of households in different areas, location of corporates especially hotels and restaurants, festive or marriage seasons, and distance or proximity to the dumping grounds. Distance was the factor he was mainly looking for.
Tips: The interviewer was concentrating more on the approach I was using, rather than the exact numbers. Also, he was looking at how I can think about other factors which could alter the result of guesstimate

Skills: Case Analysis, Dynamic Personality
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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user image Anop Yogesh Valimbe

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

3 Interview Rounds

Interview Questions

  • Q1. Which part of TS&A would you like to join? -(IT Strategy, Cloud Advisory etc)
  • Q2. Tell me about a new technology you are fascinated with and how will the new technology can be used by the Insurance Industry? (Insurance being my domain of expe...read more
  • Q3. You are an Accenture person, why do you think you will be a good fit into the Deloitte culture? (I had worked only with Accenture for 6 years)
  • Q4. Why do you think you will be a great consultant?
  • Q5. A big multinational computer($8 billion)hardware and software services company is planning to de-merge its business into two units -hardware business and softwa...read more

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Know everything about your work experience. In depth knowledge of the domain will be central to the discussion, as the questions would be framed for that particular industry and the interviewer will be an expert on the industry. Read and understand the business implications of a new upcoming technology to give you an edge over other applicants. For me it was Big Data Solution -Hadoop. In all my interviews I explained the interviewer about howHadoop can save costs for Insurance clients and bring in more business
Tips: clarity of thought and expressing it are very important Your ability to handle difficult questions was being tested

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Repeat and verify all the details given by the interviewer before asking any question.All the data was written on the white board and the interviewer asked me to focus only on the three questions mentioned above. It was a discussion about a problem rather than a typical case per se. The interviewer also asked me not write anything down and think about all the possible issues that had to be taken into account while coming up with a strategy
n my experience, focus on what role you really want and in which company, definitely pays off. Before joining ISB I was sure I wanted to work in Tech Consulting and Deloitte is the gold standard for Tech Consulting so I applied to very few companies and to roles which I really wanted to work in. Do not apply to all the companies who will posts jobs. Apply to few companies but prepare well for them. Few of my friends had 6-7 shortlists on Day1 and still could not get a single offer whereas I had only 1 shortlist of Deloitte on Day 1 and I got the offer. The point being, do not count how many shortlists you have, as in the end you'll only need one offer and one shortlist is enough to get you an offer.Do read all the past experiences of alums present in the previous year's case books -specially the one written by Sawan Kumar in Class of 2013 Consulting Case Book. It's very well written.At last, play to your strengths and apply to roles which genuinely interest you and not because everyone else is applying. Many folks from Deloitte take out time to visit ISB to take sessions and interact with students, do attend all the sessions and also the ppt and the party Deloitte throws after the ppt. These are the moments when you can interact freely with very senior people from Deloitte and it definitely helps during the interview as they are the ones who visit campus later on Day 1
Tips: Do not prepare too much for the case interview. Over preparation does not help instead confuses you. The case would be related to some kind of technology strategy for a firm. It is totally different than the management consulting cases which Deloitte S&O, McKinsey and BCG will ask students but yes practicing a few management consulting cases would definitely help.The preparation for TS&A tech case interview is very different. Deloitte's website is the best source of preparation as there are 4-5 sample cases there. In addition, Deloitte conducteda case interview workshop for TS&A shortlists, which was very good so do not miss the workshop. Structured approach to solving the case would help but do prepare a lot for the PI also. My 1st interview was heavy on PI and also very heavy on my work experience.

Skill Tips: Have an ace up your sleeve by knowing something about a new technology about which you can talk at length and actually end up having a great conversation with the interviewers. Focus on the people, process and technology framework for the case. Write down all the possible technology factors which affect companies and/or are expensive to the companies and then put them into one of the three buckets of people, process and technology.
Skills: Personality, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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user image Rameshwar Sreenivasan

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

  • Q1. An auto after sales company is not doing well. It has been found that their supply chain solution might not be very effective. They are considering 2 more optio...read more

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interviewer gave me the question and asked me to take a couple of minutes and asked me to write down the various factors that I should consider. I broadly asked about the existing supply chain details, various cost details, customer details.I made 3columns in the sheet of paper that was given to me . I wrote down the 3 categories and started listing down factors. After I asked him about the cost details and questions about the existing supply chain (How many distribution centers, distance to dealersfrom DC/facility etc. etc.), I was handed a sheet with all the information.
Tips: The ultimate game was to figure out which supply chain option led to the highest profits. The way to go was to figure out costs and revenues for each optionand recommend one. 1. Be very structured. I was informed that what you write on the paper, how you write are looked at by the recruiter.2. Don't ask all the questions at a stretch. Give the big picture of what you are trying to do and then list down howyou plan to do and then start asking questions.3. Be prepared for some number crunching. Nothing tough but basic quantitative analysis will be needed. You will be expected to be good with arithmetic

Skills: Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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user image Abhimanyu Shirwalkar

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

  • Q1. A healthcare company has multiple geographies to pick from to expand. Using data on market size, cost, revenue estimates etc. make a recommendation

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case brief was given and first question was what information is needed to get started. Important to justify why you need the information and how you plan to use itAvailable data was shared and question was what approach I would take (i.e. profitability can be based on % or absolute numbers)Post calculations, I had to make a recommendation
Do the profitability framework (found in all case books) but what will set you apart are the following-1.Mention both % and absolute ways of doing profitability (I started with absolute and on cue from interviewers also did %)2.Do calculations smartly and correctly; double check your values before making recommendation3.Leverage qualitative information (ex: if your numbers are similar for profit % for India and China..how do you choose one over the other)
Tips: Deloitte cases are easy to crack if you have practiced enough and keep your cool. Most Deloitte cases are similar in structure; hence form groups after shortlist and share mock cases with each other (some cases can even be found online on the Deloitte website)

Skills: Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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user image Nitima Malhotra

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

  • Q1. The Government of India has invited bids for purchasing 1 GW solar power inMultiples of 5MW. Our client is considering bidding for this project.Advice on how he...read more

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Q. What does our client do? Company was a manufacturing firm looking to build the plant and sell electricityQ. Does the client have a solar plant? No, the client has no current experience in Solar PowerQ. How much time will it take to build the plant?3-4 yearsQ. What is the life of my plant?30 years, govt will buy electricity for 30 yearsQ. How does government decide whom to allot?Project has to look technical feasible and financial terms Q. What kind of bidding takes place?First price Auction, lowest price wins
I started by indicating that the bid price would be dependent on the benefits and costs of the project as well as the competitive bid.The interviewer asked me to move ahead and discuss the benefits and costs. I first picked up the costing side of it and divided into fixed and variable. I was told that the capex was 17 crorers per MW. As soon as I had some numbers thrown on me I got a bit tensed, and thought that I would need to do some hard calculations. However, these numbers were thrown just to test if I could move ahead or be caught with numbers. As per the variable costs, I broke and listed all the expense such as direct material, direct labor, overheads, SG&A and depreciation etc. I then said that these costs would depend on the capacity of the plant. He asked me to elaborate on this topic and I said there would be effects of economies of scale and also the learning effect. He immediately asked me how learning curve would affect the costs. I told him thatthe learning curve would reduce the variable cost over time. I could see that he was happy with the answer and told me to proceed to the benefit side. On the benefits side, I said the amount I earn would be my cost X plus some margin y% over the cost. I also mentioned that competitive bids will impact how much I could expect on the bid price and mentioned that In such cases we usually look at old auctions or try to estimate the auction bid of other companies.
Tips: he case wasn’t hard but because the interviewer was working on his laptop during the interview and often not looking at me, I felt he wasn’t impressed. It was only after 15 mins into the interview, that I could get the interviewers complete attention. This usually happens in a stress interview, and one should not get stressed. Just keep calm and follow the most exhaustive approach. Also, in this case I was occasionally bombarded by numbers and got distracted as to how I should deal with them. One should remember that sometimes numbers are just to confuse and distract the interviewee

Skill Tips: Yash asked me why I did Bachelors of Finance and not Engineering. He also asked me about my choice of taking up commerce. I realized that was only to build stress and see how I perform later in the interview later. He also asked my GMAT score, Having a score of below of 700 I felt a little uncomfortable as I thought the interviewer would already make an impression about my performance. I guess it didn’t matter afterwards as I went to the final round.
Skills: Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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user image Ujjwal Mukherjee

posted on 11 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

1 Interview Round

Interview Questions

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Split revenue as price per engagement and number of engagementsSaid that we could increase price because of customized solutions but not enough for 20% and hence need to increase quantity of engagementsProposed customer retention through better service like engagement at lower corporate levels etc and more customer acquistion through industry expansion (verticals) ; Was asked to suggest a recruitment strategy for industry expansion and said that need laterals for PL position with industry knowledge and we could hire consultants and associates from b-schoolswith generic experience
Tips: What was good: Speed to cover issues, involving the interviewer in case, PIWhat could be better: More energy could be better because you need to energize the interviewer as well as it is a long day for them too

Skill Tips: RevenueTarget Get it to grow by about 20% y-o-yIs it limited to Indian customersYesWhat is the competitive scenarioAssume what you know about consulting currently
Skills: Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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