BCG Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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Q2. Why have you done CFA after CA and why MBA now?
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Q3. Tell me something about your articleship experience.
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Q4. Difference between a bank and NBFC?
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Banks are regulated by RBI and can accept demand deposits, while NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits and are not regulated by RBI.
• Banks can issue cheques and demand drafts, while NBFCs cannot.

• Banks can offer current and savings accounts, while NBFCs cannot.

• Banks can issue credit cards, while NBFCs cannot.

• Banks can accept deposits from the public, while NBFCs cannot accept demand deposits.

• Banks are regulated by the Rese...read more
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Q5. Who regulates banks, who regulates NBFCs?
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RBI regulates banks, while NBFCs are regulated by RBI and SEBI.
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the primary regulator of banks in India.

• Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) are regulated by both RBI and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

• RBI regulates NBFCs that are deposit-taking, while SEBI regulates those that are not.

• NBFCs that are engaged in insurance activities are regulated by the Insurance Regulator
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Q6. How do they source funds? Who has cheaper funds?
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Funds can be sourced from various channels. Cheaper funds can be obtained from institutional investors and government bodies.
• Funds can be sourced from banks, venture capitalists, angel investors, crowdfunding platforms, etc.

• Institutional investors like pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds offer cheaper funds due to their large pool of capital.

• Government bodies like Small Business Administration (SBA) o...read more
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Q7. How is the current scenario for NBFCs and banks?
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NBFCs and banks are facing challenges due to economic slowdown and COVID-19 pandemic.
• NBFCs are struggling with liquidity issues and high borrowing costs.

• Banks are facing rising NPAs and credit risk due to economic slowdown.

• COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened the situation with reduced demand and loan defaults.

• Government and RBI have announced various measures to support the sector such as loan moratorium, liquidity
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I am a UAE based bank. I want to enter the Indian market. Help me in taking this decision.

(This case was completed in <5-7 minutes)
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Surely, as your consultant you want me to assist you in deciding whether the Indian market is good for your business, right?

I: Yes.

C: I would first like to gain a deeper understanding of the business. Since how many years are, we in operation and which geographies do we cater to?

I: We are in business for more than 20 years and are the in the top 5 banks in UAE. We operate in the GCC countries.

C: Is GCC is an alliance of some countries in the Gulf Region?

I: Yes, GCC stands for Gulf cooperation council and has 6 members.

C: What kind of banking services do we offer? How is our portfolio, in terms of book size in retail, corporate, real estate and others? Also, since we are a global bank, we might be having many international transactions, am I right?

I: We provide all sorts of banking services, but we specialize in Transaction banking. Yes, we do have multiple international transactions.

C: What exactly do you mean by transaction banking?

I: We are into trading, exports, imports, and forex. Could you move on to how we will make the decision.

C: Absolutely, give me a few seconds to structure my thoughts.

I: Definitely.

C: I would begin by analyzing the qualitative country and industry level factors, then I would see whether the market size is lucrative…

I: Kushal, let me interrupt you. I do not want you to use this framework. Tell me how we enter the market.

C: Alright, so we could enter the market organically by taking a license from RBI, or maybe look at inorganic modes subject to regulations of RBI.

I: Let us cut to the chase, do you think we can compete with the likes of HDFC.

C: HDFC has a very diversified business all over the country with an exceptionally clean loan book with strict control on bad debts and this enables it to have cheap cost of funds. For a new entrant, competing with HDFC will be exceedingly difficult.

I: So, what do you suggest? Should we not enter.

C: We need to find a niche segment we can cater to.

I: Like?

C: India and UAE have good import export volumes. So, we can start by entering into a state where there are extremely high exports and imports like Gujarat. We can begin our operations there and slowly scale up.

I: Good approach, but why will people come to my bank and not HDFC.

C: We can try to create tech-based solutions to improve the banking experience.

I: Do you think HDFC will not be able to replicate that?

C: Yes, they will be able to replicate it.

I: What do you think our real advantage is?

C: We have a customer in UAE who are interacting with counterparties in India, we can explore to leverage these relations.

I: Correct, go on.

C: We can target the counterparties to our customers and give them a holistic banking experience with priority banking and services related to forex, futures, and forwards.

I: Right, this is the only advantage we have over Indian banks, we can leverage this to enter the Indian market. Thanks a lot, all the best!

We are a tyre manufacturer in Mid-west US. The market for automobiles is growing and we to expand our capacity. Two options are available with the client, either expand in the US or tie up with a Chinese manufacturer. Analyze the options and recommend the solution.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Surely, I would like to gain a deeper understanding of the company first, where does it sell tyres and how many different SKUs does it sell?

I: Our market is in US only and we have only one variant of our tyre.

C: Could you give me some details about the competitive landscape?

I: Yes, it is the leading player across US.

C: At what percentage of our capacity we operating at?

I: We are operating at 100% capacity.

C: Do we foresee that there is enough demand to have a good capacity utilization after increasing the capacity? Also, is there any constraint on the capacity with either of the options?

I: Yes, our calculations say that even after increasing the capacity, we will operate at 100% capacity because of the demand. No constraints on capacity, we can cater to the increased demand with either of them.

C: Do we have, or did we have any existing tie-up similar to the one we are evaluating?

I: Yes, in the past we had a tie up with the same Chinese manufacturer for 10 years.

C: What is the size and scale of this manufacturer? What was the reason for discontinuance of the same?

I: The Chinese manufacturer is a market leader in China. There were not enough growth opportunities.

C: Give me a few moments to structure my thoughts.

I: Sure.

C: We can do a qualitative and quantitative analysis to decide which option is better in the long run. Do you want me to proceed with this approach?

I: Yes

C: In qualitative analysis I would like to compare the two options based on certain company level metrics like quality of tyres, speed of the process, nature of contract, chances of shortages, degree of control and then we can evaluate industry and country level factors. I would evaluate the costs in the quantitative analysis. Do you think I am missing anything, or can I proceed?

I: Yes, you can proceed.

C: Will the quality of tyres be same?

I: Yes.

C: If we expect timing of orders to be uncertain then relying on 3rd party would be slightly difficult because time between ordering and receiving the tyres would be long and we might lose out on customers. In our own system we can change production levels as and when required. Also, we might have contracts with tyre manufacturers with terms and conditions w.r.t minimum quantity. These contracts could be detrimental if quantities are uncertain and speed required is high. There could be demand & supply mismatch which could lead to shortages. Another key thing that we should consider is whether this frees up the management bandwidth and management can channelize their energy and efforts to something else.

I: Very good, go ahead.

C: Now looking at the bigger picture, US- china relations are especially important, the tax regulations and tariff barriers should be considered. Considering the current situation where elections are happening there is a lot of political uncertainty. Also, US has imposed multiple tariffs and custom duties on Chinese products. I would also like to know if there are any subsidies, tax advantages for own production.

I: Yes, there is 50% subsidy for which we will be eligible if we do domestic production without China.

C: Hence, looking qualitatively it makes more sense to produce on our own. Just one thing we should consider is what if our competitors tie up with the Chinese manufacturer.

I: Wonderful, move on to the quantitative analysis.

C: We will have to incur fixed cost to either own or lease machinery to increase our capacity. Apart from that we will have to incur Raw material cost on items like rubber. We will consider other elements of the cost sheet like Direct labor, direct expenses, Factory over heads, admin overheads, Selling and Distribution overheads to reach cost of goods sold, to this we will add the duties we have to pay and deduct the benefits of the subsidies. Whichever option has a lower cost will be chosen.

I: Great analysis. Assume that cost of making it ourselves is cheaper and qualitatively also it is a bad decision to tie-up, but the CEO still chose to go ahead with the tie up. Why would he have done so?

C: Could it be because they wanted to outsource this task as far as possible and focus their efforts somewhere else.

I: That is a good reason but that was not the case here.

C: The Chinese manufacturer is the largest player in China, could it be possible that we could leverage this relation to enter into the Chinese market?

I: Yes, that is what the CEO planned. Thanks, Kushal, all the best

Q1. Basics of Python, Flask, ReactJs, RestApi Development
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Q2. Python - Difference between is and ==
Ans. 
The 'is' operator checks if two variables point to the same object in memory, while '==' checks if the values of the two variables are equal.
• Use 'is' to check if two variables reference the same object in memory

• Use '==' to check if the values of two variables are equal

• Example: a = [1, 2, 3]; b = a; a is b will return True, a == b will also return True
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Q3. React - useEffect vs useState
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useEffect is used for side effects in functional components, while useState is used for managing state.
• useEffect is used to perform side effects in functional components, like data fetching, subscriptions, or manually changing the DOM

• useState is used to manage state in functional components, allowing the component to re-render when the state changes

• Example: useEffect can be used to fetch data from an API when the compo...read more
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Q4. Authentication in RestApi
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Authentication in RestApi involves verifying the identity of users before granting access to resources.
• Use tokens (JWT) for authentication

• Implement OAuth for secure authentication

• Utilize session management for user authentication

• Implement two-factor authentication for added security
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Q5. React - Pure Component and Higher order components
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Asked coding questions on Python and SQL
Python - find longest non repeating substring
SQL - join and window function

Develop a production-grade application in Python that analyzes data and provides answers to questions based on the dataset.

Q1. System design and project based questions
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Q2. Scenario-based questions that can help assess how you handle various situations
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Q1. How does Django apply migrations to the database?
Ans. 
Django applies migrations to the database using the 'manage.py migrate' command.
• Django tracks changes to models and generates migration files accordingly.

• The 'manage.py makemigrations' command creates migration files based on model changes.

• The 'manage.py migrate' command applies the generated migration files to the database.

• Migrations help keep the database schema in sync with the changes in Django models.
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Q2. What is hoisting in javascript?
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Hoisting in JavaScript is the behavior where variable and function declarations are moved to the top of their containing scope during the compilation phase.
• Variable declarations are hoisted to the top of their scope, but not their assignments.

• Function declarations are fully hoisted, meaning they can be called before they are declared.

• Hoisting can lead to unexpected behavior if not understood properly.
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