FinMechanics Associate Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: CGPA based shortlisting. I think there was a cut-off of 7.5.
Tips: CGPA is very important. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Try and maintain above 8.5 to get shortlisted for most companies.

Round: Test
Experience: Math section involved a few puzzles and a few quantitative aptitude based questions. Programming section tested only the basics. It was language agnostic for the most part but a few questions were based on C. Finance section was probably designed to test your ability to learn new topics quickly. You could answer almost all the questions even without knowing finance as the underlying concept of the problem was explained in a paragraph above the question.
Tips: Practice Quant. Review syntax, data structures and algorithms for the programming section. Read 'DayOne' book's finance section for the finance part.
Duration: 2 hours
Total Questions: 30

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: The interview panel had two people. They were warm and welcoming. Started off with my introduction and some resume based questions. Was asked about my internship at Indian School of Business and my Dual Degree Project. Then a few coding questions and the interview ended with questions on finance.
Tips: Make sure that you project your capabilities well in Math, Programming or Finance.

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: All the employees (around 10 people) who came for the interviews were present in the room. It was slightly intimidating in the beginning to face so many interviewer. But they were really friendly and the interview went pretty well.
Tips: Refer 64 HR Questions book for HR preparation. Don't read the answers but use the questions to prepare your answers.



College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Duration: 2 hours
Total Questions: 22

College Name: IIT Bombay

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I think they put a CG cut off of >7.5 (not sure about the number)
Tips: Nothing specific

Round: Test
Experience: HR
They will try to check your character. What kind of person you are. What will you do in certain situations. Which values you hold important, and certain questions about your past - achievements etc. Note that there were hardly any standard HR interview questions - they prepare questions specific to their requirements as they are going to revolve a major part of your interview (if selected around you).

Quant
This is the most important section of the test.
Its not the normal MCQ aptitude questions. Its subjective questions and you are expected to solve them with every step. They involve puzzles, probability, general quant and all. Fundaes need to be clear, of course you can't guess them.

Coding
Few theoretical questions like definition types. Also, output types - certain codes will be given and you are to compute the outputs. And algorithms for simple codes like factorial, fibonacci, searching or sorting. Few questions will also involve data structures, and they may as well go to linked list and Inheritance (Object Oriented Programming)

Finance
Basic questions. Must be aware of basic financial terms - like what is bond, what is equity, mutual funds etc. And, the questions are like supported with guidelines for you to understand the context and then solve. Nothing high funda
Tips: HR
Be what you are. They are going to look at it from every angle - put you in different situations, if you try to project something else - chances are they will catch you. I don't think (not sure) this is evaluated for interview selection process.

Quant
You need to be really strong here and score well to be shortlisted for the interview.

Coding
They should see you are interested in coding and know coding decently well. As they are checking for aptitude and quant mostly, they are okay with a decently good performance in coding.

Finance
Same as coding. They just want to see you are enthusiastic about finance and are ready to learn more, after having knowing basics.

As long as you crack quant, and do just fine in coding and finance you'll get through. I think (not sure), they do have an individual cut off for last 3 sections - coding and finance cut offs are lower than quant though. Quant is the most important section!

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Interview will be easier - they know you have good aptitude and quant for having cracked the test. Its more like a conversation to check where your skills and interests lie. A couple of questions from probability and puzzles are put through
Tips: They should see your enthusiasm and interests in finance and how well you fit into their firm - depending on your answers to the HR part of the test and questions like - Why finance? Why FinMechanics? Why not core? Why not higher studies?

Round: HR Interview
Experience: In the previous round, there were multiple panels of 2 people each, now all 8-10 people are in a single panel interviewing you. Questions from your HR part of the test - Why this? Why not that? What will you do in this situation? Given two companies, which do you prefer? Given two types of work, which will you prefer?
Tips: Nothing specific - Be yourself. Recall your test answers. Be prepared and confident

Skills: Basic aptitude and probability, communication skills, confidence, HR
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Math+Fin(basic: no pre-requisite knowledge)
Tips: Subjective questions. So there is weightage for the approach being followed as well.
Duration: 2 hours

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Be thorough with everything on your resume, if any course/projects in finance, definitely expect questions on them. Other questions can be puzzles/quant questions.
Tips: Convey thoughts/ideas clearly.

College Name: IIT Madras