American Express Senior Financial Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Topics to prepare for HSBC Group Business Analyst interview:

• Technical

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Prepare well for technical round

Round: Test
Experience: Basic CAT level questions of Data Sufficiency
Tips: CAT preparation would help. Strong basics in High school mathematics needed, along with some smart thinking at times.
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 50

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: 15 minutes given for an almost impossible to get an answer problem. Later asked to explain your solution. The approach matters much much more than the final answer.
Tips: Be cool, think basics. Don't forget elementary things that units conversion, unitary methods, probability distributions etc. If while explaining, you realize you actually made a mistake while attempting the problem, acknowledge it and explain the correct approach from there on, rather than trying to disguise your mistake.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Things like, why Citi, prior experience with data analytics, examples from real life for mathematical concepts highlighted in Resume. Some general awareness related questions asked!
Tips: Be thorough through the resume. Act smart and reply what they want to hear. It's okay to ask them for a few minutes in case you want to think before answering something rather than mumbling what comes to your mind first!

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Again things like why Citi, why analytics. This round seemed more out of formality than for selection.

General Tips: Keep calm, and take the interview as a conversation - unless it's a stress interview. Always take your time and think before you answer anything rather than mumbling out the first thing that comes to your mind.
Skills: Probability, Statistics, Analytical skills
College Name: IIT MADRAS
Motivation: Needed a break into the Finance sector!

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Freshen up the domain learnings
Be confident of the behaviour questions as per the past and practical experience

Round: Test
Experience: 10 single correct questions, 10 CAT based questions, 5 data sufficiency questions, 2 subjective questions were asked.
Tips: All the objective questions were easy so everyone would have solved. Subjective questions were important for selecting candidates .Final solution for subjective questions are not important ,the way you approach is important.
Duration: 45 minutes

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Questioned on Resume points. A case study was given and the student has to analyse it.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case study question and brain teaser were asked. Brainteaser was an easy question.

Skill Tips: Mock interviews with friends and ready with all resume points of how to explain them each helps. Solved many case studies. Updated myself with latest news. I also read Wiki questions like how to get 3 wolnes, 2 men to other side of river?.
Skills: Soft skills, Case study solving ability
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Experience: It was basic 12th class maths such as probability, permutation andcombination and things,  and stuff such as data sufficiency where a question is provided with some data and you will be asked whether you will able to solve it or not with the help of given data.
Overall good experience, About 40 students were selected.
Tips: Prepare well the part of quantitative and analytical analysis in CAT's syllabus.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was a good round with questions mainly focused on probability and statistics, and optimization.
Tips: Basic knowledge of probability and statistics will do.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The round was a long one, with questions on data analysis and about current economic affairs in the world.
They also discussed about things mentioned in resume in detail.
Tips: 1. Be through with your resume with explanation for each point in mind.
2. Gather the knowledge about current affairs. Try to read newspapers such as The Economic Times for at least 2 months prior to interview.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Questions were asked on ourselves to judge the personality and a few random questions as per HR.
Tips: Be prepared with questions such as:
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Strengths and Weaknesses.
3. Why this company?
4. Why should you be hired?
 
And a few more of typical questions. Keep your mind open for anything.

General Tips: 1. Read newspapers such as The Economic Times for at least two months prior to interview.
2. Prepare well on basic maths especially topics covered in CAT.
3. Be through with points mentioned in resume with a ready explanation for each.
Skill Tips: Basic knowledge will do. Try to practice more.
And read more stuff.
Skills: Knowledge in Probability and Statistics, Basics in Operation Research (Optimization)., Quantitative aptitude.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Tips: Could use C/C++/Java to solve,
Duration: 120 minutes
Total Questions: 62

Round: Other Interview
Experience: Simple puzzles, Basic data structures and algorithms based question were asked.

Round: Other Interview
Experience: Asked about my Analytics intern – Explained some Text mining, machine learning techniques like Artificial Neural Networks. Also DDP and Projects – some Regression and Time Series Concepts.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Basic HR and background check, Also Check if you are genuinely interested and will not leave the company.

General Tips: Talk to people, read stuff, find out what interests you. Decide a few areas and prepare for those. Take part in insti clubs, get to know new stuff.There are a number of free online video courses available like coursera, edX, etc. Have a look at these, pick up one or two, learn whenever you have time. If possible, even submit the assignments and give the quizzes. A programming language cannot be learned just by reading a book or watching videos. You have to practice and do somehands-on exercises.While preparing for Puzzles and coding questions, do not directly go to the solution, always make an attempt, scribble your thoughts on a piece of paper.Participate in competitions (for both core and non-core), you ll learn a lot through such experiences than what you learn from textbooks.
Skill Tips: Speak confidently and explain your projects in simple terms. Ask if they want further explanation, and only then talk about it in depth.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Experience: The quantitative part is relatively easy, it is for testing the speed and accuracy, there are two math cases given the exam but they were also comparatively easy based on probability and statistics
Tips: In the math cases it is very important to analyse the result after solving it. that is what makes the difference because almost every one solves it
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 22

Round: Interview
Experience: The guy was one of the vice presidents in the firm. He seemed pretty cool.
They will make you more comfortable and they want you answer the questions.
Tips: Do not try to babble about all the courses that you have taken just brief him your specialization, projects and internships.

Try to explain an intern or project related to the position and be sure about what you are explaining these guys are technically very sound.

Try not to ask the bland questions like what are the opportunities at Citi , what is the vertical hierarchy in the firm. This is not an hr question and this is a trap. Ask him about the plunging profits or gains or what is citi's strategy to hold its position in certain countries. This will give him the impression that you did prepare for the interview.

Round: Interview
Experience: This was a mix of stress +guesstimate+ technical interview.
This round went so much longer than the first round. Some times they may ask an irrelevant question just to see how you react to it. In this round they have asked me everything about the projects and internships. As I told you they were technically sound they will track you up to every minute detail of the project. They have also asked many situation type questions. They have asked me about my high CGPA and why not a Ph.D.
Tips: Try to be as much cool as possible in this interview do not show a blank face to the interviewers when they have asked something from your CV. In the situation type questions try to relate those situations to something on your CV and then tell them how you have solved it. And you must be a master of your CV you must be able to answer about a particular graph or result from your project even during sleep. they shoot a lot of questions at you and answer them as appropriately as you can. Be sure to know what your strengths and weakness are. do not try to disguise your weakness as a strength, they will find out that you are trying to fake, they have seen thousand of candidates like you.

Round: Interview
Experience: I had a friendly chat with the HR to begin with as he was asking about my surname and stuff. the interview went on for 15-20 mins of the phone. here you need to really explain about why you are interested in citi and why you are into analytics
Tips: Follow the same tips mentioned in the third round.

General Tips: Be thorough with your projects and internships and do not try to fake the technical details
Skill Tips: Good technical knowledge is required and taking statistics courses would really help
Skills: Speed, Accuracy, Analytical ability, Stress handling, statistical methods basics, reasoning
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
Motivation: Nice work life balance and growth in the firm and the firms stability