EXL Service Consultant 1 Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Test
Experience: The test was conducted online by Cocubes. 20 questions were from Quant+DI, 10 from LR, and 10 from Verbal+RC. Out of some 600 students who took the test, around 80 students were selected for the next round.
Tips: A sincere effort for CAT would definitely help you get through the test.
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Questions: 40

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Each round of interview covered case interview, guesstimates, puzzles and CV based questions. There was no separate HR round as such. Each round went for some 30-40 minutes.
Tips: Walk the interviewer through your thought process while you are solving puzzles or guesstimates. It is always beneficial to practice a lot of puzzles from different sources and hence get a common puzzle in the interview than to solve a completely new puzzle on the day of the interview. Because practically, an average student can't solve any of the 4 above-mentioned puzzles in 2-3 minutes, if (s)he hasn't faced it earlier.

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: This round of interview was taken by a senior official. It was more of a stress interview, where I was being asked to come up with a number of different approaches to solving a given guesstimate question.
Tips: Keep calm. They are concerned about your approach. Make sure you are communicating properly.

College Name: IIT Kharagpur

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I think most of the people who applied were shortlisted for the test.
Tips: It would be of great help during interview to keep the ball in your court if you have good projects in Machine Learning and Data Analytics (though they are not very keen about your prior knowledge in the field).

Round: Test
Experience: It was pretty simple if you have practised for CAT (TIME books or Arun Sharma books) or given AIMCATs or MOCK CATs. Logical Reasoning was little tricky. They have shortlisted 50 out of 400 odd applicants.
Tips: Concentrated mind, accuracy and speed in solving. Little practise of Aptitude will do.
Duration: 50 minutes
Total Questions: 40

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Interviewer grilled me on my PORs and Internship projects. She wanted to know impact of my work in both. She went into intricate details of project.
Tips: Be well prepared with whatever things you put on resume. Try to have conversation with interviewer, that will give pleasant feeling to both the parties during interview. One really important thing to keep in mind is that it is our responsibility to explain things very clearly so that they understand what you are trying to tell. Make conversation as interesting as possible. Ask sensible questions at the end of interview as it shows your interest towards company. Never ask a question for sake of asking or the ones you already have answers for as it may backfire sometimes.

Round: Stress Interview
Experience: Interviewer tried to grill me very intensively on my projects and was trying to see how I will react under stress.
Tips: Stay cool. Be yourself. Don't try to remember answers in a specific way as it will be reflected in the way you deliver.(have a list of points you really want to tell). Don't get get confused with Why should hire you? and What are your strengths?

Skills: Communication skills, Interpersonal Skills, How well you can handle stress, Technical Knowledge(ML, Text Mining,...), How well you are able to communicate what you wanted to tell, Thinking on feet, Clear Thinking
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Total Questions: 40

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Aptitude test 45questions
Tips: Prepare well for aptitude. I used CAT material
Duration: 1 hour

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: The interviewer happened to be from the same place as me and we had a chat
Tips: Be confident and sure about your answers

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: They did not have much time and so it was hardly a 5 mins round

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: 45 questions and 60 mins. There is a Section wise cutoff. Manage time properly.
Tips: Prepare well from Pariksha.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 45

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Guesstimates and puzzles were asked in other panels. The guy in my panel asked about analytics project I did and the algorithm used. Afterwards he asked which topics I am proficient in. I did an Applied Time Series Analysis course and have experience in R. So he asked questions on ARIMA modelling and some functions in R. (dplyr package). Before going to the interview I only prepared for puzzles and guesstimates but not case studies. But he asked me a case study about the detection of fraud credit card transactions in a bank. I remained calm and cool without going into depression and suggested him some measures. Since the interviewer was also not looking for complex answers he got convinced with my answer. Then he asked me whether I have any questions.
Tips: Be thorough with your resume. Prepare puzzles and guesstimates. Case studies are simple. Just reading Case in point is more than sufficient. Practice guesstimates with your friends in free time everyday. Do the puzzles in 'Heard on the street'

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Since there was no time at the end my second round happened only for 10 min. Do complete research on EXL. This helps you in answering 'Why EXL?' question. Then he asked me how many zeros in 100!.
Tips: Be calm and composed. The interviewer gives you hints if you get stuck up anywhere. Get a early slot if possible. The people before me had 40 min second round interview whereas I only had a 10 min interview.

Skills: R, Analytical Skills, Case Studies, Math Puzzles
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Quickly sped through the test since I had enough aptitude practice. Left only one question unanswered
Tips: Practice aptitude (absolutely crucial, no other way around this)
The website pariksha.co would be a good place to start.
Also very important to have attempted enough mock aptitude tests to see how much of a chance you stand amongst your peers
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 30

Round: Puzzle Interview
Experience: Started off with the standard 'tell me about yourself' question and 'Why analytics?'.
Then we moved on to a simple case. I had to put myself in the shoes of a supermarket owner having only one billing counter. I had to list down all possible factors that could possibly influence me into setting up more billing counters (say 3 or 4 more counters). I listed a powerful factor right off the bat. I then had to take a little guidance from the interviewer (who was very friendly btw) who helped me arrive at 3 more factors.
Then we moved on to the puzzle. I had solved it long ago and had found its solution to be one of the least intuitive ones I had come across, I couldn't remember the solution though. So i started by explaining my logic. Then with a little bit of guidance, was able to arrive at the final answer.
Then he looked at my resume and found that I had mentioned some analytics project in it. He started grilling me on that. Since I wasn't conversant with the math behind one of the algorithms I had used, I wasn't able to answer questions on those. He then asked me questions on another algorithm which I was able to answer pretty well.
Then before finishing up, he invited questions. I asked some good questions which he was impressed by.
Tips: Interviewers are pretty friendly and that helps vent out any pressure. Consider the interviews as friendly interactions rather than grilling sessions.
Have mock interviews with one of your friends on basic HR questions. It'll help build confidence as the day of the interview approaches

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Started off with the interviewer asking why I wanted to get into EXL.
Then we moved on to the more technical part. He asked me which algorithms I was comfortable with. I mentioned neural networks as I was working on it as part of my Dual Degree Project. He then asked me some basic questions on neural networks (that also required some knowledge of the famous bias-variance concept) which I was able to answer pretty well.
He then moved on to questions from a course I had mentioned. We had some discussion on that question but I wasn't able to get to what he wanted to hear. But he left it at that and moved on to the next part.
Then I was asked which one I preferred more: working on projects that were hardcore technical data analysis, or rather qualitative business problems where you derive insights qualitatively. I preferred the first one and said that. I was then asked what I would do if I was assigned projects of the second type, my reply to which the interviewer found convincing enough.
He then invited questions to wrap up the interview. My questions here were again very impressive I guess. This part actually constituted one-fourth of my interview time. We had discussions at length
Tips: Again, do not let any pressure get to you. Interviewers from EXL might probably be one of the friendliest bunches you will ever come across.
Having those mock interviewers is crucial in building confidence
One thing I forgot to mention - they will test if you're someone who is planning to go for higher studies or MBA or something else of the sort. So, if you are planning to do that, make sure you have a good answer to convince them you're not going to ditch them

Skills: Data Analysis, Multivariate Data Analysis- MVA, Neural Networks, Interest In The Job
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume shortlist is mostly based on CG. A decent CGPA of more 7 and some good interns should be enough to make it to the test shortlist.
Tips: I am not even sure if they look into any of the interns. Most of the times, it is just CG based shortlist. I think in my time, around 150 people were shortlisted for the test.

Round: Test
Experience: The test was very simple. There was only one quant section. All the questions were really easy.
Tips: Preparation for this test can be done by referring to CAT material or even the aptitude your placement team sends you would be more than enough.
Duration: 45 minutes

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: The interview was pretty chill. First mostly all the questions were asked from my resume. I was asked to explain the work I did in my internship and then, later on, asked to explain the projects that I had done. I did not have many PoRs on my resume. So nothing much was asked from that section. When I mentioned about my hobbies, I mentioned that I like watching football. It turned out that the interviewer was a football fan herself. She also asked which club I support. Luckily, her favourite was same as mine (I would prefer not to mention which club it was :P) . But because of this, she asked me a case (not a complete case as such). I was asked to list what all factors and issues that I should be considering if I were to organize a football league in Chennai. I explained to her how organizing such a league with less popular teams would be a difficult task. I also kind of came up with a number which would probably be the number of people who would be attending this league. I also spoke about the costs that would be incurred. She had asked me to assume everything on my own. (At this point in time, I was actually getting worried as I was not able to breakdown this case like one would do a with a typical case). However, at this point, she asked me to stop and that was it was for the first round of interview.
Tips: For the resume part of it, make sure you are pretty thorough with every point in your resume. They may ask about any project they feel interested in.
You can always expect a question from the hobbies you mention. So make sure that you always know a lot about the same. Otherwise, you can avoid mentioning that hobby just to be on the safe side.
Though my case didn't go that well as I would have wanted it to go, I still got shortlisted for the next round.
Just don't panic when something doesn't go as planned. It can be better than you thought. Just speak out your thoughts clearly and confidently.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: As it can be seen, the puzzles were not really difficult. They were very simple ones.
The case question: I told him that I will conduct a survey to find our which cuisine I will be opting for in my restaurant. But before doing that, I will have fixed the location of the restaurant. I can just do the survey only in that area. We would be inclined to set it up in a busy commercial area but the fixed cost associated with the same can be pretty high. I would also want to look at the competitors in my area who serve the same cuisine. Finally, the cuisine can be selected using both fondness and the uniqueness of the cuisine in that area.
HR question: This is one question which is generally asked in most of the interviews.
After that, he asked if I had any questions. This is the part where you really show your interest in the company. Make sure that you have a question or two ready to ask the interviewer about the company and the work/work-culture. I asked two questions and the interviewer responded with keen interest.
Tips: You might have come across the puzzles. It may happen that you are given a puzzle that already know the answer to. In those cases make sure you pretend that you are hearing them for the first time. Think out loud while solving a puzzle which is one of the most important things. It's okay if you are not able to come up with the final answer. The approach matters to them a lot.
The case again was not really that specific. Just think intuitively. Make sure that you are confident of what you are speaking of.
HR question is a typical final question at the end of each interview. Make sure you have an answer ready for this before hand. This is where you really convince the interviewer that you have the skill set and the calibre for the job.

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Basic Aptitude test. A bit difficult provided the time constraint. Questions are not that difficult but time is very less.
Tips: Don't get stuck on a question.

General Tips: Keep smiling, have a firm voice, state your assumptions well in guesstimates, draw your MECE structure clearly.
Some people were also asked probability puzzles. so practice puzzles also.
Skills: Puzzle Solving Capability, Guesstimation Cases, Basic Aptitude Topics Like Combinatorics, 1)communication
College Name: IIT Kharagpur