CapitalOne Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Test
Experience: There was a written test. I think it was Apti.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In this round they asked questions like give two products their prices, losses and profits, duration of useand many other things and asked which product you would use.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: 3rd round also, was again a case interview.

Round: Behavioural Interview
Experience: In the final round- behavioral interview they asked for situations in your life and asked questions on it. And for every situation these were the common questions: Why is it so?, Was the situation resolved?, How did the event end?, What did you accomplish?, What did you learn from the experience?

General Tips: Also during behavioral interview try to think for some logical explanation for all the situations you provide. Try to keep the situations related to academics as much as possible, and sound confident. It was a nice experience and people were friendly. I think being quick in calculations and remembering a bit of economics is good enough.
Skill Tips: Other than that just go through all the economics they teach in 3rd year, that’s more than enough. Try to be quick at calculations. If required practise some tricks to make yourself fast enough. For the case studies try to avoid silly mistakes. It's very common that in such pressure some small mistakes will happen in calculations.
Skills: Apti
College Name: NIT SURATHKAL

Round: Guesstimate Interview
Experience: Company 2:Capital One   Was asked a very simple guess-estimate about the earnings of a credit-card company with the launching of a new scheme. Did well ,but the next question about how a change in one of the variables would affect profit, was ill- explained. Realised I had become over-confident about solving the guess-estimate easily and hence messed up the second part. Most importantly, at one point during a casual conversation with the friendly interviewer, I let slip that my first interview was with BCG.I think that was uncalled for and raised the bar of his expectations and might have even seemed slightly boastful. Something any sensible candidate should avoid. I was never very keen on Capital one, and so they weren't keen on me either :) .Good Chemistry, but no job offer!

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Test
Experience: The process of selection included a written aptitude test (DI based), followed by an online psychometric test.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: There were 2 case interviews and a HR interview Interview 1: Case Study on home loans. I was asked to consider all the sources of revenue and expenses of a firm involved in home loans. The second part involved calculating the default rate the firm can afford. The interviewer was quite helpful and gave me hints by saying ‘are u sure?’, ‘u can look at the calculations again, the numbers seem too out of the way.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Interview 2: HR. The interviewer had a collection of the answers of the online psychometric test of every candidate. Situational cases based on the replies were constructed and grilled upon. A few general questions “Why CapOne?” etc were also asked

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Interview 3: Case Interview, The first 2 interviews were absolute crack so I was immediately called for the third and final interview. It was a case on Pizza (the second favorite topic of CapOne). I was asked to analyze a scheme in which Pizza Hut is considering the option of giving 30% discount to customers to which it is unable to deliver in time (30 minutes) instead of the free pizza (100% discount) option. The revenues and market size in both cases was calculated. The profits for both cases and break even point was calculated (on the basis of the no of customers that the firm can afford to lose to have the same overall profit in the second case.) The interviewer was looking for the term ‘profitability’ to explain the results obtained through calculations. That was a take away. After the interview, the interviewer (who was an IIMA alumni) discussed (for 15 mins) the scheduling process of the placement cell and suggested the dream job funda as is followed in IIMs.

General Tips: The first 2 interviews went amazing. The key idea being good practice and following case study tips (think
aloud, organize your thoughts properly etc.). I messed up the last part of the second case interview and that made the difference, I kept revolving round the point and confused the interviewer. Prepare well, don’t get over confident. The process of resume short listing might sound weird to a few, but one should never compare himself to others. Don’t stress yourself too hard, don’t get disheartened. Reach the venue at least 15-20 mins before the interview. Ensure that your formals, shoes, copies of CV etc. are in place a day before the interview. And most importantly stay cool headed!
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: First step involved writing down everything that I had accomplished in my tenure at IITB. Then, grading each point on the basis of accomplishment and innovation involved along with details in about 4-5 lines. Carefully went through 10 resumes from the previous year to get an idea of the prevailing format. Prepared a resume and got the feedback from 4- 5 people and then on the basis of the feedback finalized the resume. I attended the Pre-Placement talks of companies, I was interested in. It was a good exposure for understanding the skill sets and the values that companies were looking for in a candidate and the possible future paths in the organisation. The talks also helped in  increasing the overall awareness about the different companies  
.

Round: Test
Experience: a) Written DI based test with emphasis on interpreting graphs, calculating percentages etc. 100 people shortlisted. Candidates go through psychometric test
Tips: Interview preparation was best done in groups of 2-3 at a time: One interviewer, one interviewee and one observer. Tests were best prepared for by referring to the CAT study material

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: c) ~40 people selected after this stage d) 3-4 interviews –first case study , second HR , third and fourth case study. 3 people made final offers. a) First case study involved understanding the details of two marketing strategies. Then, comparing the effectiveness of the two in terms of revenue generated incase of limited budget and in case of specific no. of customers to be contacted. The final task involved calculating the point at which transition occurred in effectiveness for the two strategies for the two cases.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: b) Second interview consisted of HR questions like a. Why capital one? b. Why not research? c. An instance of working under time and resource constraints? d. An instance of leadership. e. An instance of innovation and thought leadership.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: c) Third interview was again a case study involving credit card strategies. The task involved calculating the effect of reduction in the credit limit or an increase in the rate of lending for high risk customers. In both the cases, it was required to calculate the % reduction in customers for the profit to remain same. Then a question was asked regarding which strategy I thought was better and how would I decide it? Note: Capital one case studies are simple mathematical case studies with a focus on understanding and calculations. These are different from the ones asked by consultancy companies like Mckinsey BCG etc. where the candidate is expected to ask the right questions before supplying any data. All the data for case studies in Capital one is provided at the start itself. If someone wants to appear for this company, what all should he/she ideally prepare? Someone preparing for Capital One should practice numerical case studies like the ones gives in Tucks Case study book 2002. They should also try the case studies available on the capital one website. Its important to prepare the HR based questions well because they might ultimately decide whether you are in or out. Another important advice is that you should think aloud while solving the case studies. It helps a lot in avoiding silly mistakes as well as in keeping the interviewer interested.

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I actually made one mistake in my calculations, but was able to identify it on my own and eventually correct it.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This interview went really well for me – mainly because I had prepared really pretty well for questions to ask the company after going through their site and discussing it with my friends – so I had 4 good questions to ask them. What also helped me was that I could take 2 very big things off my resume to talk about when asked about my experience in a specific HR situation. After I mentioned the outline of my experience in both situations I was asked 5-6 more probing questions to find out more about the incident and I answered them pretty well.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It involved a lot of calculations. There were 3 different credit card offers with different costs and profits and we had to choose the best offer for the company. I was told later that my formulation of the problem was good since I set it up and then just put the numbers in the same setup to get the answers.

Skill Tips: a) DONOT lie in your resume
b) Know your resume through and through – you should be able to take 5 minutes on even the most insignificant point of your resume
c) Make it as balanced as possible (in terms of academic, extra curricular, etc)
d) Put specific thought into the words used for all your points – don’t be generic anywhere.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Test
Experience: Capital One conducts a DI/DS type quiz which contains questions ranging from compound interest to inflation, before announcing a final shortlist of 200

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: After that there is an online psychometric analysis plus resume based short listing which leaves around 50 candidates for the interview.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: ROUND1:
CASE STUDY: The first study lasted for as long as 20 min. My case was that of dominos evaluating a new scheme wherein they would offer a discount of 30% instead of 100%, in case wherein pizza could not be delivered within 30 min. I was asked how this would change the revenue and the profit. They stressed on the reasoning that I gave in the first half of the study and the calculations in the second half.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: ROUND 2:
CASE STUDY: The second was harder and very extensive. It was a customer acquisition scenario in which a credit card company has to choose from amongst three strategies. They gave me a set of data such as cost of sending out fliers, lending rate, default rate, average spending per customer, annual percentage return etc. and I had to evaluate all the three strategies in term of long term and short term profit and then choose one of them.
Tips: The thing to be kept in mind with the cap one studies is that there is no end point for any study and they will keep asking questions after questions as long as there is time. Hence those who answer correctly and quickly will get to solve more of the case. This is were knowing the jargon really matters, because otherwise a lot of time will be lost trying to understand what each term actually means.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The first question for me was to describe an experience wherein I proposed a creative idea in front of a team and then how I went about convincing people about that idea. Next I was asked to describe a crisis situation which I faced and also my response to it.
The reason for success in this round for me was choosing the right incidents and then reporting them exactly.
Tips: 1.Rehearse with friends for all expected questions such as Tell us about yourself? Why this job? Why this company?
2.Do not cook the script and mug the answers.

General Tips: 1.PPTs:
The best way to start is by getting to know all the jobs that are out such as consulting, analytics, tech, banking and financial services etc. and then deciding about the nature of job that suits you the most.

2.RESUME:
Going through the resume of your seniors is a good way to start. Try to convey variety, team work and leadership and try not to overdo it!

3.CASE STUDIES:
Apart from the routine case studies which the consultancies ask, you might also need to prepare the ones that some of the financial firms love.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had my resume which I used for the internship purpose, I used the same resume. While applying in different companies I used the same resume but only ameliorated my areas to make them compatible with the requirements of the profile.

Round: Test
Experience: I had prepared for CAT earlier which helped a lot. All the tests were easier than CAT examination. In the written test for Capital One, we were allowed to use the calculators. The questions asked were pretty simple and were based on graph interpretation. To solve those questions required speed and precision. Nearly 400 people appeared for the written test out of which 80 got selected for the case study round.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first phase was a preliminary case study round. The topic of the case study was based on comparison between diesel cars and petrol cars, which is more preferable to be purchased. Then we had to perform a break even analysis regarding which car is a better purchase in a particular year. Then they added a clause that if the car was to be purchased with a loan at a given rate of interest, then which is more preferable. They also asked me to guess the constraints that should be put on mileage, servicing and maintenance. The data given was the Distance traveled per year, the cost of servicing, the rate of interest on the loan taken and the rate of depreciation.
25 candidates got selected for the next phase of interviews.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In the second phase of case study, the case study was held in front of a panel. There were two sets of panels. My case study was about the credit card users, I was told about two types of user the transactors and the revolvers and I had to find out which type of user is preferable among the two considering the given constraints. The constraints given were the amount of money they were allowed to withdraw, the time allocated to pay the dues after each month and so on. We had to do a break even analysis of the case. Due to the lack of time I was asked to do the quantitative analysis only.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: For the next case study the topic was on the spectrum allocation. I was told about the call rates as a function of time and I was asked to comment whether the implementation of the plan would be successful or not. The person taking supervising my case study helped me by dropping hints. He asked to state the number of minutes an ideal user should use so that the plan would be successful. I came up with a figure. He immediately asked me the procedure I would undertake to implement this plan without giving me any data whatsoever, I was terribly confused and could not reply. He then told me that I could ask for any data that I think would prove to be fruitful in getting to the answer. I asked him to give me the distribution of the customers based on the call rates of each customer. This data proved to be helpful and I managed to arrive at the answer.
Tips: In the case study just do your mathematics properly, do not commit mistakes in doing that.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: We had an H.R. interview in which only 2 questions were asked. Both the questions were situation based
questions.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute placement cell norms. Also my seniors advised me that for an analyst profile they would definitely look for consistent academic performance as well as academic achievements (at school/Olympiad level). So I had taken care to include the same in my resume (since the resume in our case is a standard one and does not change from a company to company basis).

Round: Test
Experience: Since I was aware of the profile they were recruiting for, I had anticipated the test. There was also guidance from my seniors as well as peers in other colleges. The written test had 30 questions and the total duration of the test was 35 minutes. The questions focused on data interpretation. Data about a company’s revenue, profit and sales in the form of graphs and pie charts was given and students were asked to analyse the same. Questions were simple and the use of calculators was allowed. The cut-off was around 23 questions (based on discussions/feedback from various students). People who have prepared for CAT would have a good idea about the kind of questions and are also aware of the relative difficulty level of various questions.
Tips: In these tests the focus should be on accuracy. Since a lot of people prepare for CAT there is high probability that a lot of candidates would be able to attempt all the questions in the written test. The focus then shifts to accuracy.
Duration: 35 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first round was a case study round held in the month September (three months prior to the actual placement process). This interview lasted for approximately 15 minutes. It dealt with the break even analysis of a credit card company’s marketing and promotion campaign. The company had the option of sending letters of promotion to prospective clients via simple postal mail or through courier. The data provided was – cost of each promotion strategy, the probability of reaching the correct client and the conversion rate of a prospective customer into a customer for the particular case. There was a constraint on the marketing budget and hence one needed an optimized solution to maximize the profits.
The first part involved giving pros and cons for both the strategies and thereafter giving a data based analysis for the given promotion strategies to come up with one which was more profitable.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The second round of the interview was held at the time of the main placement season – this time a one on one case study interview. This case focused on the break even analysis of a telecom company. The data given was the cost to company for a call (on a per minute basis), fixed price paid by the customer for the first 10 minutes and the price paid per minute of usage thereafter.
After analysis, I found that there were two break even points. Up to the first point the company was making a profit. Then there was an intermediate call duration period when the company made losses and beyond the second break even point, the call was again profitable.
As the head of the telecom company I had to decide whether to take the plan or not based on the probability distribution of the call duration and also analyse the probabilities of profit/loss.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: I learnt about the company and the profile from the seniors working at the company and the pre-placement talk. The placement talk was useful in getting to know about the job responsibilities and the expectations from the candidate.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute placement cell norms. For an analyst profile at Capital One, they do look for a consistent academic performance, scholarships, Olympiads etc. So I did make sure to include all my academic achievements in my resume.

Round: Test
Experience: This was the first round and was conducted in September itself, well before the final placement process held in December. The test was based only on Data Interpretation (DI), quite similar to DI questions asked in CAT. It was a 35 minute test comprising of 30 questions. The questions were divided into sets of 4-6 questions, each set based on different data. Typically a set used to have 2 bar graphs/pie charts/line graphs and questions were based on them. Most of the questions were easy but were calculation intensive. Use of calculators was permitted. The cut off was about 22-23 questions. About 80 students were shortlisted for the first case study interview.
Tips: Be accurate. Often it might not be possible to attempt all the questions. So do not spend much time on a particular question.
Duration: 35 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first interview was relatively short – a one to one case study interview was held on the next day of the written test. The case study was mainly quantitative in nature and was based on calculation of break-even point (concept from Profit and Loss). In the case study given to me, a kiosk owner providing delivery of products to dial-in customers wished to expand his operations by setting up an e-commerce platform on the kiosk’s website. Data about the existing number of customers, new distribution of customers, profit per customer, and cost for setting up the e-commerce platform and scaling up the operations was given. I was asked to carry out break even analysis for different cases.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: 24 students got shortlisted for the next interview round which was again a one to one interview. Like the previous interview, this too was mainly focused on the analysis of the quantitative data in the case.
In the case given to me, a bank had two types of credit card customers – ones who paid off their due balance completely within the due date and those who paid only the minimum amount required before the due date and carried forward the remaining amount to the next month. There was a short discussion with the interviewer to identify the sources of revenue and costs for the two types of customers. After all the sources had been identified, I was given the data for all the costs and was asked to calculate the profit/loss the bank makes on each customer. The interview concluded with a short discussion on the possible ways of marketing the credit card. The interview lasted for about 40 minutes and because of a couple of calculation mistakes during the quantitative analysis, I couldn't make it to the next interview round.
Tips: Go through some sample case studies. Get a basic idea of how to prepare for a case study interview. Prepare well for the written test. If you are preparing for CAT, that should be more than enough in almost all the cases.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

Round: Test
Experience: The test was purely based on Data Interpretation. Every page had 3 charts and 5 objective questions based on those charts. There was severe time constraint in the paper and my selectivity among the questions proved beneficial in clearing the cut-off.
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Interview
Experience: Preliminary Case Interview: Duration -10 minutes (Just after the Written Test) - One on One Case Interview.

"Tell me about yourself" was the first question asked to me. I just told him a few things about myself mainly focusing on the financial projects I did. Then he gave me a trivial case study as follows, "There are two economical classes, Prime and Sub-Prime, and I had to give a Motorcycle loan to one of them. Whom should I give?" I was supposed to ask him any information that I would require to solve this case study. Whenever I used to get stuck he gave me hints to work upon. And finally, based on the value he gave me I could compare the profit from both the classes. The main thing about the case study was the way of solving it and how interactive was I with the interviewer.
After this, the next round was held during the placement time. They had given us the link for few practice case-studies. The Case Study given at their website is the most important one. It helps you understand the standard approach they look for in a candidate.

Round: Interview
Experience: 1st Case Interview: Duration – 50 minutes

My interview was of the longest duration compared to others, so if your interview is a lengthy one then be happy :). The case was based on Credit insurance involving simple mathematics to reach a logical conclusion. 
The Case Study: - "Capital One reached its customers for new offers through postal mail. They had 2 kinds of postal services, A class and C class. In A Class, if the customer had changed his address then the postal service would update the address on the letter and it would reach the customer at the new address. In C Class, if the address is changed then the customer would not get the mail. I was supposed to tell which one of the postal service was better in two conditions, 1st when no. of mail to be made is fixed and 2nd when amount to be spend in mailing is fixed."
I found this case simpler than the earlier one. I managed to complete the case in just 20 minutes. The interviewer was very impressed with the speed with which I was able to solve the case. It was enough to make me realize that I had made it.
Tips: The main thing that you need to remember in Case Study of this sort is that you need to speak your mind. It helps the interviewer understand the way you are thinking. So if you have made some calculation mistake he wouldn’t mind that because he knows that you are going in the right direction. This was something the interviewer told me that he liked about
me.

General Tips: The Biggest question that all of us face in final year is "WHAT NEXT". With the options like CAT/GRE/CORE/FINANCE/CONSULTING it becomes extremely difficult to select just one. Initially I had no idea what it was going to be, but after my internship I knew that I wouldn't be going for either core or higher studies. After talking to seniors, I realized that doing MBA after one or two years of work experience would be better - you know what you have to focus on and would also give you a smoother platform to change your field of job if
you are not comfortable in it. So my choices just narrowed down to jobs in either finance or consulting. Looking at the job scenario in our placement season, I knew I had to prepare for all of them. That is one of the reasons I appeared for CAT because it is always good to have an option and also preparing for CAT helps a lot in placement preparation. One needs to be thoroughly prepared for each of the placement processes.

Resume:
A resume is one of the most important things which mark the first impression upon the interviewer. You should devote ample time to work upon it. Every company looks for a different kind of candidate to suit their purpose; make sure your resume fits that profile. Prepare resumes separately for each sector with some minor changes for companies of same sector. Get your resume checked and rechecked by some alumnus in the company you are
applying for.

PPTs:
The best way to know about the company is through its PPT. It gives you the details of the work profile and also tells you what kind of candidate the company is looking for. It is an opportunity to get all your queries, regarding the company and the work profile clarified.

Written Test:
Usually the CAT preparation is more than enough to crack the data interpretation and aptitude tests (excluding the technical tests). Practice plays an important role here to be able to solve the lengthy tests speedily and accurately. People aiming the finance companies must read Economic Times (specially the editorials) regularly to form a broader perspective of the financial situation all over the world.
Group Discussions:
I used to think that GD is just another formal bulla session that we have. But it turned out to be a complete disaster when I had a GD round during an Internship process. It is just not what you speak that matters, but also how well you convey your points, how well you work in a group, do you understand the group dynamics, your body language, and other group etiquette that matter. The most disappointing thing was that when SPO had started this session for GD practice very few people turned up. It is through these sessions that you learn
the Do's and Don’ts of a GD. With every GD session that we used to have, I used to learn some new thing or the other.
Case Studies:
At first case studies seem to be highly intimidating. The workshops on Case Study by SPO helped me clear all my apprehensions, and then the process became a lot easier. Initially we used to solve a case in a group of 2-3 people and afterwards we did it individually discussing the methodology that we adopted and the different solutions that we approached. The discussions were the most important part as we learned what mistake we committed. It helped us frame our mindset in the right direction.
HR Interviews:
To be able to do well in an HR interview one needs to do a lot of introspection about one’s own self. This helps you in answering some very basic questions like your strengths, weakness, your future objective etc. You should be able to modify your answers according to the company profile. I prepared for HR interview in a group of 3. Initially, we gathered all the questions that the interviewer is likely to ask. We divided our answers based on the
company profile and also prepared examples to support our qualities. Finally we conducted 3-4 rounds of mock interviews.
College Name: IIT KANPUR