Desapex Engineering Consultants Project Associate Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Test
Experience: The test was conducted through Cocubes. It was moderately difficult. Some of the questions are time taking. We need to be decisive in attempting such questions.
Tips: Need to manage time properly. Should assess and choose which questions to attempt and which ones to leave.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 30

Round: Test
Experience: The three questions are of three different levels.

1. You will be given two numbers. The first one is the starting point and the second one is the ending point of a range of integers. You have to count the number of integers in that range which are divisible by the first number.

Ex : INPUT : 3 18
OUTPUT : 6

2. You will be given a number. You have to find the sum of the digits. If the sum exceeds 9, you have to add the digits of the sum recursively until you a get a single digit sum.

EX : INPUT : 9999
OUTPUT : 9

Explanation: 9999 => 9 +9+9+9=36 => 3+6 =9

3. You will be given an array of characters which include ( L, R , or a number in the range '0' to '9'). A ball is kept on a line of integers initially kept at zero. The ball has to execute the instructions sequentially as follows:
(i) If an 'L' character is encountered, the ;position of the ball has to be decremented.
(ii) If an 'R' character is encountered, the position of the ball has to be incremented.
(iii) If an integer (in the range '0' to '9) is encountered , we have to go to that index in the array and execute the instruction present in that index.

Finally, after all the instructions are executed, you have to print the final position of the ball.

EX : INPUT :
Number of instruction : 5
Instructions: LR1R2

OUTPUT : 3

Explanation :
(i) Initially, the ball is at 0. Since the 0th index in the array is 'L' , the ball moves to 0-1= -1 position.
(ii) The 1st index is 'R' hence, the position of the ball is -1 +1 = 0 position.
(iii) The 2nd index is '1', hence we have to go to index 1 in the array which is 'R', hence the new position is 0+1 =1.
(iv) The 3rd index is 'R', hence the new position is 1 +1 =2.
(v) The 4th index is '2' , hence we have to go to 2nd index is '1' , hence we have to go again to 1st index , which is 'R' hence the final position is 2+1 =3.

Tips: We need to solve all the three the problems to have better chances of clearing this round.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 3

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interview was focussed majorly on coding. It went for about 45min with around 10 coding problems given to solve. Some basics of Computer networking are also tested in this round.
Tips: Be prepared with some basics of networking. As the company's main focus is on Telecom, good knowledge in telecom and networking would be a big advantage.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This round was focused on the aptitude and reasoning skills. Some puzzles were given in this round. These puzzles are of moderately complex and are more common ones in interviews. Like the (find the heavier ball among three balls using a balance in min no. of attempts).
Tips: Sometimes the interviewer tries to confuse. You need to be confident with your answers and explaination.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The interview was more of a traditional HR round. Majorly concentrated on the final year project, personal strengths and weaknesses.

Skills: Coding Skills, Computer Networking, C Language Basics
College Name: G Pulla Reddy College of Engineering & Technology

Round: Test
Experience: It was a simple aptitude test in which around 150 students cleared the test.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 40

Round: Test
Experience: Three programs were given and we had to write the code in either java ,c or c++ and get the required output.Around 90 students cleared this round.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Questions: 3

College Name: VIT Vellore

Round: Test
Experience: There were 40 aptitude questions of variable difficulty. More questions revolved around topics like time and work, distance, speed, time, profit loss, age etc.
Tips: A regular and prior preparation will go a long way in determining a good test score.
Use tricks to solve the questions and calculations should be fast.
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 40

Round: Test
Experience: The questions weren't that tough when it came to programming. An example would be conversion of temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa. This was a question in my paper. So I'm hoping the difficulty would be more or less the same.
Tips: Do certified programming courses. They help you a lot in cracking good jobs.
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Questions: 3

Round: Puzzle Interview
Tips: This can be tough if you can't imagine scenarios and situations. So make sure you inculcate critical problem solving thinking in your everyday life. I feel that's the best way to do things in this round.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This was a short interview so not much happened.
Tips: Whatever you do just know your stuff properly.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was a simple interview. Basic questions and their basic answers helped me get through it.
Tips: The tip would be to stay positive in your approach while answering the questions

Skills: Technical Skill, Interpersonal Communication, Aptitude
College Name: VIT Vellore

Round: Test
Experience: There were 40 aptitude questions of variable difficulty. More questions revolved around topics like time and work, distance, speed, time, profit loss, age etc.
Tips: A regular and prior preparation will go a long way in determining a good test score.
Use tricks to solve the questions and calculations should be fast.
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 40

Round: Test
Experience: The questions weren't that tough when it came to programming. An example would be conversion of temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa. This was a question in my paper. So I'm hoping the difficulty would be more or less the same.
Tips: Do certified programming courses. They help you a lot in cracking good jobs.
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Questions: 3

Round: Puzzle Interview
Tips: This can be tough if you can't imagine scenarios and situations. So make sure you inculcate critical problem solving thinking in your everyday life. I feel that's the best way to do things in this round.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This was a short interview so not much happened.
Tips: Whatever you do just know your stuff properly.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was a simple interview. Basic questions and their basic answers helped me get through it.
Tips: The tip would be to stay positive in your approach while answering the questions

Skills: Technical Skill, Interpersonal Communication, Aptitude
College Name: VIT Vellore

Round: Test
Experience: It was Data Interpretation.Time constraint. It was important to look for easier questions than solve the ones which were time consuming. Just a notch tougher that DI of CAT.
Tips: Look for easier problems in the paper. Avoid silly mistakes.

Round: Other Interview
Experience: I had 3 interviews all of which were case studies. The difficulty level kept increasing as the interview process moved forward. Became very math intensive. Be sure you be very logical while answering and consider all the basic factors which affect the profitability of a particular change.
Tips: Keep talking to the interviewer. They help. Be confident

General Tips: Be very confident. Try avoiding silly mistakes. Apologize to them if you commit any.
Skills: Basic Econimics, Framing equations out of given data, Making sense of the given data, Basic knowledge of how the products in the case studies work
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Madras
Motivation: One of the best in its field.
Funny Moments: I had to have a quick break(Had to pee) in middle of a problem during the 3rd interview. The guy was chilled out and he understood and permitted me. But it was awkward to ask such a thing.

Round: Test
Experience: Adaptive DI test. Level of difficulty less than CAT.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This is a very simple case interview. The case was as follows: Client is a micro-lender, they loan funds from a big bank @ 6% SI and loan out the money to farmers at 10% and 20% SI. The segmentation is 60% and 40% respectively. Calculate profit/customer. What is the profit if 2% customers default (uniformly from both segments) on the loan? (Ans: loss incurred)
Tips: This is a very simple round, just stick to the essentials of keeping your structure + calculations neat & clean. Communicate well. You'll get through.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case: We are a telecom company, planning to launch a new subscription plan. Decide if we should go ahead or not. The plan is as follows: We charge the customers $0.99 for the first 20 minutes and $0.08/minute thereafter. The cost incurred by the company is $0.07/minute. Should we go ahead with the plan?
You will be asked to draw a graph between Profit and minutes spent on a call. To come to a decision you might ask the interviewer for some more data like the distribution or the average time spent by a customer on a call. But none of this is information can be used to decide if we should go ahead with the plan. Unless you have a distribution of percentage of customers vs time spent on an avg call, you can not decide the fate of the plan.
On our campus, almost everybody answered a yes(go ahead) or a no for the plan and still got rejected. I think the actual answer is "None of the above. With the present information nobody can predict if the plan will be profitable in the long run.
Please do not say we can use historical data to come to a conclusion, I did, the question he then posed to me is can we really use historical data to predict the usage pattern of this plan by our customers?? The answer is no, we can not use historical data, as the customers will have an incentive to speak for close to 20 minutes per call.
I also looked at the problem from a customers point of view to check if a customer has an incentive to pick this plan over the others. I asked for the cheapest plan/s out in the market currently, so the interviewer told me that the cheapest plan cost the customer $0.08/minute.
After getting this data, I looked at intersection of the time band at which it becomes cheaper for the customer to pick our plan over the 8 cents plan and the time band which is profitable for us.
I came to the conclusion that the band is very narrow to be profitable and that I do not think that it will generate net profits. So we should not go ahead with the plan.
I assumed that there wont be a large chunk of customers in the above mentioned time band. This is what I think my mistake was.
I believe there is no way of definitely saying whether we should go ahead or not. Hence the answer must be Cant be Determined.
FYI: I also suggested him to launch it in a small region/zone so as to figure out the distribution of customers. No good.

Skills:
College Name: IIT Kanpur
Motivation: Chill out workplace. No pressure of work. But no future either :P wont land you in a great B-school. This is just an office opened by a recently grown American company. They have an office in India just to show the Investors that they plan on expanding and are investing in India and Philippines. I don't think the real work happens here. This might sound like a rant, but you should go ahead and prepare for this company. Its one of the best options straight out of college. Or to settle down or if you like to chill a lot....

Round: Test
Experience: The test basically involved solving 15 Data interpretation questions. The test was pretty easy, and hence accuracy was very important to qualify for the next round.
Tips: Solving DI questions from any CAT practice book will be more than enough. The actual questions in the test are much easier. Just be read the question carefully and you will be able to solve it.
Total Questions: 15

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Initially the interviewer tests your basically conceptual knowledge regarding the cost and revenue streams for a loan and then expects you to calculate the average profit given the required data. This was a pretty small interview lasting only about 10-12 minutes or so.
Tips: Keep conversing with the interviewer and clarify any doubts. Do not mess up with the calculation.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Again, the interviewer tests your basic understanding regarding making a decision to select between two marketing schemes. Then, after being provided relevant information, you are expected to make an informed decision, do the break-even analysis and plot a graph.
Tips: You need to show the interviewer your grasp of business concepts. A good knowledge about economics and a business acumen helps. The math is easy, just be careful not to mess it up. Also, keep conversing with the interviewer and help him understand your line of thinking, this would enable him to assist you and get you on the right path.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: You are expected to do the math to assess the profitability of an ATM and qualitatively discuss the factors to be considered while setting up a new ATM.
Tips: Again, think aloud and use your common sense if ever you feel that you do not know an answer. But mainly be confident.

Round: Behavioural Interview
Experience: The interviewer is very friendly and it is more of a chat than an interview. Also, they will get into the specifics of the example you provide just to understand the situation better and to know how you handled the situation.
Tips: Be well prepared with all the general HR and behavioral questions and think about specific examples that you would like to bring up.

General Tips: To sum it up, more than anything, just be confident.
Skill Tips: If you are selected for the interview, chances are that you already have the necessary math skills to succeed. Remember, the only things which are going to get you through are confidence, alertness and business acumen.
Skills: Confidence, Communication, Basic Mathematics
College Name: IIT Bombay

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume Shortlist was strictly done on the basis of CGPA ! All candidates with CGPA 7.0 and above were shortlisted for the test.

Round: Test
Experience: A total of 30 questions were given to completed in a short span of 35 minutes. A set of 5-6 questions were based on a set of three graphs (generally line chart, pie chart, bar graph). Questions were based on simple calculations and test was aimed at keeping a check on accuracy and speed of the candidate
Tips: Practice a few Data Interpretation exercise to understand the graphs easily.
Duration: 35 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The case was about Market entry for a Money Lender in a village. The case included identification of potential customer segment, revenue streams. Then there was some data provided regarding the interest and various kind of loan models that would be used by the lender. I was then asked to work on the profitability. This case was more on the qualitative side.
Tips: - Keep communicating with the interviewer. Involve him in the case solving process.
- If at any point of time, you are unsure about the approach you are following, ask the interviewer.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The case was about a credit card company who uses various kind of marketing strategies (mail, calls etc) for customer acquisition. The interviewer started with the discussion on the marketing techniques. The data included costs, acquisition rate, and the average profits. I was asked to calculate the break even point.
The case was numerical and easy to crack once the data was provided.


Tips: - Calculate accurately. Never answer wrong because of the speed.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The case was about a bank who was observing a higher delinquency rate and fraud. The data provided was about loss per customer, average revenue etc. The case typically numerical after some discussion on strategy about reducing fraud.


Skills: Speed, Accuracy, Ability To Analyse
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Kharagpur
Motivation: Good Perks, Big Brand.