Deutsche Bank Interview Questions, Process, and Tips for Freshers

Round: Round 1
Experience: My first interview started off with a quick chat with a VP on Ideatrics (which was indeed a confidence-booster, showing that they had done their homework). There were 2 other interviewers on the panel, one of which didn’t pose any questions throughout the interview. Thereafter, a couple of quick questions were asked on cities which I enjoyed travelling to while I was in Europe. This was followed with a composition of a 30-second ad campaign for Tourism Barcelona. Hence, I was all softened up for the rigors ahead. What followed was a barrage of puzzles from an IIT-K alumnus, who fired approximately 10-12 puzzles in a 7-8 minutes span. She made sure to test most of the areas. Though I was able to do them, the time given to come up with a complete solution was pretty short. Hence, it was imperative to give a gist of the solution and explain the approach in a concise manner. One thing which was visible was that the puzzles had some variations or provided incomplete information (though I am not very sure that was intentional or not). So, you are required to ask questions which fill up the gaps. This also acts as a check to see whether the candidate is reproducing mugged up solutions or not. I was well prepared for this, hence this round passed off on a positive note despite its pace. With things such as current affairs and finance still untested, I was pretty upbeat.

Round: Round 2
Experience: I waited a bit for my second round and interviewed with Opera in the meantime. The panel at DB this time comprised of 4 people, with another one who kept moving in and out. This round was on basic prob. and statistics, with questions on skewness and kurtosis, wherein I was asked to draw and compare their plots for securities with different characteristics. A couple of puzzles were asked as well, though there was nothing out of the blue regarding puzzles. A 4-person panel was indeed daunting, with constant challenges being raised on the solutions provided by me, probably to ruffle me up a bit. Again, working up from the basics helps in this case to illustrate the correctness of your solution.
After this round, I was slightly less confident. I was informed that I would not be having any more interviews
and I approached to interview with Diamond.
One thing which bothered me was the fact that no questions were asked on current affairs, neither on economics nor on finance. This was my strongest point as I had done enormous amount of research on everything ranging from DB to markets in general. Even the CFA L1 material was hardly touched upon. Before I was presented with the offer, I was asked some questions on my strengths and weaknesses and why I wanted to join DB. I was adequately able demonstrate my interest in DB and that was the end of it.

General Tips: Campus Placements can be an excruciating experience, but an in-depth analysis of your strengths and
weaknesses beforehand can help you focus on your goals. I had an inclination towards Finance since the
beginning of my program at IIT Kanpur, illustrated by the fact that I have done all my internships in related
fields. Time spent in Munich strengthened my belief and I decided to pursue opportunities in Finance, both in campus and off-campus. But as there are a significant number of consulting companies which visit our campus, I decided to undertake a 5-month internship at KPMG, which provided me with a flavor of both the worlds in an international setting.

General Prep.:
Being an economics student, the options have been neatly narrowed down for you. One can apply in companies which are only open for all the students; hence Finance, Consulting and Analytics (as they are known at IITK) were the fields where I had to concentrate upon. I started preparing solely for finance, with Deutsche Bank and Capital One topping the charts on my list. Preparations were focused on preparing for the aptitude tests taken by most of the companies. Reference materials comprised of the CAT preparatory material and a few websites for puzzles. Apart from that, constant feedback and review of the CV was an ongoing process. Appearing for some mock tests arranged for by the SPO was indeed helpful.
Skill Tips: I was interested in DB, having done some research on the company in general and the profile they offered at IIT Kanpur in particular. DB conducted a white-paper challenge by the name of ‘Ideatrics’ during August-September. This provided me with an opportunity to visit CIB Centre, Mumbai in person. I feel that this experience motivated me further towards preparing for placements in general and DB in particular. Being selected as the campus winner proved to be an icing on the cake. I would advise you to actively take part in such activities if time permits. Apart from the obvious brownie points which you earn on winning the
competition, it gives you an insight on the day-to-day work which you may be doing if recruited.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: It was DB. They first took PPT in main Audi. Audi was completely filled with students and I was sitting on the last seats still thinking about my GS test. When they told in PPT that they had taken only 8 students last year, it made me realize that out of about 600 students currently present in Audi (I thought 600 was good estimate for students present in Audi),my chances are 0.01 % approx.. It made me shivered and I stopped thinking about anything even the job and became casual. This casualness worked. So, I suggest you to be normal and don’t panic. Because, nervous is going to make your situation only worse. DB took two tests. First test was normal aptitude testing mainly your speed in which I had solved 22 questions out of 25 when people on an average had solved only 14-15 questions and even lesser. Second test was quant based test which had 6 questions-two from probability, two from linear algebra, one from class 12 ( I don't why they gave this question ) and one from algo. Thanks to MIT OCW and Pratik poddar, I did very well in it and solved all of them. Only question which I did wrongly was of class 12 because of overconfidence. After that test, I regained my confidence and did well in all other written tests. Most of these tests were simple aptitude tests but with lesser time. So, you need to have good speed to solve these questions. Finally on announcement of short listing results, I was shortlisted into both of my dream companies even after screwing In GS test. Moreover, I was one of the two guys in whole IITK , who was shortlisted for DB quant profile. It made my day. I talked to our seniors working at both these companies and started preparing for interview.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: First one was on the phone by a DB guy on HR interviews. He asked me why not higher studies, why DB, if asked by both GS and DB, which one would you prefer and some others. Believe me if you are having a high CPI, you have to prepare for the question “why not higher research” definitely.

Second was on the skype. He asked me puzzles related to algorithms, probabilities for one and half hour. Again,
thanks to Pratik poddar, Baswana sir and some hints from the interviewer, I did well in it. Whenever you have any problem, do ask for hints to interviewer.
On the D-day, I had been shortlisted into 4 companies in which two were DB and GS– my dream. First one was with DB and I had same interviewer from the skype. As, I had already met him, I became casual with him. He took my interviews for almost two and a half hour. Fortunately, it was my day. I solved all the problems with some hints from him. Then, came HR interview at DB. He asked about my family, parents, relatives, my childhood, my dream and some basic finance questions.Thanks to SPO volunteer Saurav at DB (something happened which you need not know), I was called. I went there leaving my 3rd round of GS. Again, DB guys asked me few questions on exchange rate which I answered perfectly. Finally, they offered me the job. To be frank, I wanted DB job more than GS, but seniors suggested me to go to 3rd round of GS too. When I went there for my 3rd round, I don't know why but they asked me to leave. Anyway I was happy as I had gotten job in one of my dream companies .

General Tips: Overall I can say that you must hope for the best and prepare for the worst. So make sure that you are prepared on all counts. You never know what might go wrong (I have taken it from Abhinav Jain) and do try to make every single event of placement favorable to you. Who knows which event is going to make your day. In case, you have any query related to DB or quant profile, you can ask Saurav Yashaswee, Y8 batch of Maths Dept.. He helped me a lot during preparation and undoubtedly, is one of the best persons to ask questions on quant profile and DB, who is going to be present in the campus during your placement session. In any case, you can contact me on facebook.
Skill Tips: Before starting, I want to clarify that this feedback is only an indicator of things which I believe about
placements and have tried to do during placement session. It has helped me but you should choose it only if you feel that it is going to help you too. You can include stuff like how did you narrow down to your career plans, the sectors which you were targeting and the rationale behind choosing them, difference between your expectations from the placement process and what you encountered finally, what you did to prepare, what you missed out on, what you think should be done, about the tests and GDs that the companies took, your thoughts before the final placements, about CAT, GRE, GMAT etc. and other fun stuff.
1. Making Resume:
Your resume is, if not the most then, definitely one of the most important things to decide your future career. It doesn't only help companies to shortlist you but also help you to decide your future path, inpreparation of HR interviews and knowing you better. If you have made your resume correctly, then itclears most of the doubts related to your carrier like whether you are made for job or research, if job thenfinance, consulting or core and if research, then which field. So, do devote a lot of time in making your resume. Proper way to make a good master resume is sit down alone for few hours, try to recall all the big,good or small (believe me even a small achievement can help you to get a good job or university as it hashappened in my case in getting into Deutsche Bank) achievements of yourself and make a list of all thosethings in good words. Show this resume to your friends, seniors and incorporate their feedbacks. Give thisiteration for at least 3-4 times. If your master resume is made perfectly, then making the resume for company specific is very easy. Oneimportant thing which you should note is if you feel that you resume is overqualified for a company; try tocut a few points from your resume. I have seen that few of my friends have put the same resumes for companies of the first day to last day and even when they were selected for the first day company, theyweren't even shortlisted for the 3rd or 4th day companies as companies felt that they were overqualified.
Please try to avoid this mistake.

2. Attending PPTs:
Attending PPTs and workshops of companies help you make a decision about selecting the companies inwhich you want to go. Do attend PPTs of companies about which you have no idea or the companies you are aiming. As, in my case, attending PPTs helped me to reject few companies which I was aiming. Try to be attentive during PPTs and do take notes of some special characteristics of a particular company (likestructure, compensation, work, seniors present in that company) as it will help you in some HR questionslike why this company, why not others, where do you see yourself in this company after five years and itwill also reflect your interest in the company to interviewer.

3. Selecting sectors or companies:
Your resume, work of a company and your interests help you decide the companies which you dream of and the companies which you feel that you are sure to get into. Try to make two list-first -of your dreamcompanies and second-of companies which you think you have a chance given your profile, your CPI, yourextra-currics, internships etc.. People generally try to prepare for their dream companies and not for otherlist of themselves. So, what happens is that if you are not getting into your dream company (Your dreamcompany in most of the cases is going to be dream of about 80% of batch of IITK), you have also reducedthe chance of getting into a company of your second list as you haven't prepared for that. Also, prepare for the worst. If you aren't getting into any company of both the list (which generally won’t happen ), thenwhat next (CAT, MS/PhD, IES, IAS or opening your band etc.).In my case, it was clear to me that my dream job was getting into DB quant or GS. On rejection, try for IBM,Adobe, Qualcomm, Intel ( as a wireless and signal processing engineer, you don't have much choice even in core), Erricson. On rejection even in these companies, try for MS or PhD in any university.

4. Talking to your seniors:
It is one of the sections in which IIT Kanpur lacks from other IITs. Try to contact seniors of the companies of your lists. Show them your resume, ask them how to prepare for the company, ask whether you are suitable for the job. They have experience of the company as you and also as an insider in the company and in some cases, they may recommend you for the job.

5. Written test:
Believe me even if you don't have good extra currics or a good CPI, even if you have done well in writtentests of companies, you will be in the race of your dream company. This is one of the areas in which IITKanpur always lacks. I have seen few of my batch mates having higher CPI, good internships, good extra currics but couldn't make into even shortlist because of written tests. Do prepare for it seriously. Even if you aren’t preparing for the CAT exams, try to practice time or CL’s study materials, most importantly of Probability, Permutations and DI section. Some companies put direct questions from previous CAT exams. Remember one thing that most of the times, it isn’t test of knowledge but of speed. Speed will come only on practice, not by only knowing things. Also, some consulting companies ask questions related to English Grammar, Vocabulary, so take a look at this section too from CAT study materials, if you feel that your English is weak.

6. Quant and Core Preparation:
If you are looking for quant companies, then you also need to revise your basic maths (like linear algebra,probability, some common distributions like uniform, normal, binomial), basic data structures and algorithms from DS and some puzzles from different websites and books (like of Pratik poddar, 40 puzzlesin probability, CMU toad). If you aren’t finding good study materials for maths or algorithms, use MIT OCW(it has helped me a lot). Make sure that you understand the basic concepts behind these things because they may ask any type of questions related to these topics and you will be answer only if you know theconcepts. For core companies, you need to revise some of basic core courses. For EE guys, if you are looking for VLSI, brush up EE 370 (most imp.) and EE 210. If you are looking for signal processing/communication profile, brush up basic DSP and communication concepts. Some questions were also asked from Kalman filter and wavelet transforms which I had no clue. So,be prepared for surprises. Also brush up C coding and basic data structures as it is generally asked in most of the EE core companies. Do note that you need to prepare seriously for your core companies too as after the interviews of first and second day’s companies and their rejection, you don’t have both time and mind to prepare for them. Finally note that these tests are not tough. These are the students who make it tough. So, never panic in the tests and try to give your 100%.

7. HR interview:
After being shortlisted into a company, Do not take HR questions lightly. You should prepare for somequestions like tell me about yourself, why this, three strengths and weaknesses. Practice these questionswith your wing mates and try to make proper eye contact while answering these questions.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Interview
Experience: DB was my dream job, with great seniors at that firm, its corporate culture, vast global exposure, and most importantly finance. I went to interview with three DB people, and when I came out of the room, I knew I had nailed it! There is no other way to put it. They grilled me on my career choices and knowledge of finance and economics and I seriously blew them away with my responses. I felt they had to make me an offer.
And, then I sat for the next round of interview. My second interview at DB went well. After the interview ended, within a minute, they made me an offer which I gladly accepted.
Tips: (a) HR questions: This is the most important part for any interview. In companies like DB, your communication skills coupled with your preparation of such questions account for more than 70% of a candidate’s selection. Answering questions about your career goals, interests, and your career thus far should become second nature by the end of November. You must also know the firms and job profiles inside out. I worked on this specific area, and by the end of the placement session, I had gained a reputation among my wingies for my expertise at answering HR questions.

(b) Puzzles: Since this is a non-core sector, puzzles are the only way to objectively test the ability of candidates with diverse backgrounds. Look up braingle.com and techinterview.org. These two should suffice. Also, whenever you come across a puzzle that you’ve already encountered, pretend as if you’re going through it for the first time. Don’t rush through. This is your opportunity to impress them. Do not squander it away!

(c) Finance and economic affairs: If you have a comprehensive knowledge of the financial markets, national economy, and international affairs, in addition to the above two, it is highly improbable that you won’t be selected. For brushing up these, read the Economist (print or online), and read through the opinion pages of Economic Times or the Business Standard for 2-3 months leading to the Placement season. You CANNOT afford to walk into the interview ignorant of terms like European debt crisis, global financial crisis, fiscal cliff, QE, and basic finance like options, hedging etc. Wikipedia, Investopedia and J.C.Hull (first few chapters) are great sources to pick up these.

General Tips: 1. If you are a B.Tech. student, do not be under the wrong impression that you can target all sectors- core as well as non-core. It is really difficult to prepare comprehensively for all companies, especially if you are in the B.Tech. program owing to time constraints.

2. The Dual degree students have an edge over you for precisely two reasons. Firstly, they get more time to prepare for the placements, and have learnt vicariously from their B.Tech. batch mates experiences. Secondly, they tend to have higher retention rates (good for the companies).

3. Work on your English communication skills which are crucial for performing well in interviews and GDs.

Let neither of these become an obstacle by leaving no stone unturned in the course of your preparations.
Skills: Knowledge of the financial markets, National economy and international affairs, Basic finance related terms, Problem solving ability
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: There was an online test of computer basics questions are quite easy but time was a factor as there were 25 MCQ question with no negative marking and time is 25 minutes.Total 35 students were shortlisted for the interviews. Soon after the interviews were conducted.
Tips: Read the question carefully and have a good practice on geeks quiz for MCQ.
Duration: 25 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: As I entered the interview room interviewee asked me to introduce myself. Then he asked me about the most challenging project I have done and why this project is so much challenging to you. I explained him the project from the scrap and but at the end he was not satisfied with my explanation then I again explained the project to him. After that he asked me to explain my website project then he got satisfied with my both projects. Then he asked me you have interest in Operating system, OOP