Fractal Analytics Quant Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: I had a pretty difficult group with all the stalwarts of the batch in a single group discussion as mine. However, the vagueness of the topic evened out everything. It was 5:30 in the morning and I could clearly see people making stupid mistakes in the group discussions. In the 15 min GD, I just gave 3-4 good points and pointed out a few errors and digressions in the GD and I went through easily. The strength of GD was 12 students.
Tips: First and foremost, you can't get bogged down in a GD. That is NOT an option. You have to speak and speak sense. In a high pressure situation like that of placements, there is high likelihood of the GD becoming a fish market but then that's the perfect opportunity to be  moderator and earn points. It might seem impossible but if you just un-follow the general herd the rest of it is going to be pretty clear. Watch a few good soap/movie characters before you get into a GD. The temporary effect of these would be enough for you to last in a GD.
Duration: 15-20 minutes

Round: Stress Interview
Experience: This is one of my Interviews with Credit Suisse at IITK in Dec'12. There were two interviewers and it was supposedly a stress interview. In my opinion the most interesting interview is a stress interview which in IIT's was I think made most popular by Future's First. At first they were not so common but these days they have become quite common. Here is my experience:

Gentleman Interviewer: I don't have much time for greetings take your seat and give me your resume and introduce yourself in not more than 30 secs. from now.

To this I gave my prepared answer which every aspirant prepares for placement.

Lady Interviewer: Your resume is full of research. Please give me a good reason why do you want to work for a finance firm and please tell me you have some knowledge of finance or are you just another engineer? You got 120 secs for this.

Me: I wont take 120 secs ma'm. I never got an opportunity to expand myself into finance either through courses or practical learning. I did my best in whatever opportunities I got. I am also telling you that I dont know anything about finance. I didn't bother to read up at the last minute so that I could impress you. Half-knowledge is anyways dangerous. I rely on your comprehensive training program to give me the required tools in finance. All I can tell you is that I do well in whatever is given to me be it making tea or trading millions. (All prepared answers based on resume which generally students prepare for commonly asked q's)

Gentleman Interviewer: How are you so sure you will get to our training programme?

Me: I am not sure about getting there but what I am confident of is the fact that once I go through it I will be an asset for Credit Suisse.

Lady Interviewer: What is the best thing you like about CS?

Me: The fact that we are asked to work almost 12-15 hrs. a day. I only wish to learn as of today and can't sit free. The life I have lived at IITK, this is a perfect continuation and in accordance to what I want for myself.

LI: There are 5 different bags of gold coins. All of them have 10gm gold coins except for 1 which has gold coins of 9gm. Using 1 measurement identify the bag.

Its a general puzzle which I had already seen so I explained it to her.

GI: You already knew this didn't you? Why did you waste our time?

Me: I wasn't trying to show you that I can solve this but I was trying to show you how I would talk to a client and give him information that he/she already knows which happens a lot in this profession.

GI: Okay 20 secs. How do you kill a giraffe?

Me: I cut his knees and leave him to bleed to death.

LI: So you are a liar and a murderer too. Just kidding am not really amused that you magaed to answer that one so quickly.

Me: I believe in having a killer instinct not really murder tricks.....

After this the lady started smiling a bit finally but the gentleman was still not in a mood to let me go. He took my resume and crumbled it and threw it on my face.

GI: That ws a piece of scrap for me so I threw it at you as I wasn't very happy with it. You have one last chance. Sell that piece of paper to me in the next 120 secs.

I panicked a bit but then started.

Me: Sir, this piece of paper is one of the best qualities you will find at the most reasonable rate. Its various uses even include writing on it with a ball point pen which you can get along with this by just paying a rupee extra. You can write a letter to your loved one on this, enclose some rose petals into it and throw it on your supposed girlfriend like old bollywood style and just win her over all for just 5 rupees!
(Both the interviewers seemed to be of the age group 25-30. Keeping that in mind I took a hunch and gave such an answer. It actually worked! Both of them couldn't resist their smiles)

LI: Can you do it a little more professionally and less dramatic?

Me: Ma'm I see you have a fountain pen. Can I borrow it? (She gave it to me)

I took the fountain pen and blotted the whole scrambled piece of paper with the ink. As a result of which a beautiful design came out on it luckily.

Me: Now if I put a frame to this will you buy it for a meagre amount of Rs. 30? (She nodded) As you see ma'm, I have used a paper worth 25 paise, Ink worth 2.50 rupees and I will put this paper in a frame of say 20 rupees which brings my CP to 22.75 and I will sell it to you for 30 rupees thereby earning a profit of 30% myself and make a buisness out of it if you throw more pieces at me. I added value to the scrap you gave me and explained my profit on it, I hope that makes it a little professional!

Finally both of them started smiling and told me that they were impressed. Then we had a general converstion where they explained to me that I need to contact them off-campus as they want to hire me for some other post which they haven't advertised in the on-campus recruitments. But I recieved an offer from Schlumberger in the evening and according to SPO rules I couldn't go for CS then. So I had to give up. But it was the most interesting interview I ever blasted. It even bettered the ones I had during the hospi interviews in my first year!
Tips: Within 2-5 minutes you will realize whether you are in a stress interview or not. Once you realize its a stress interview, you need to calm down and realize that its not necessary to give satisfactory answers to every question(in case you do that you know you are selected!), keep smiling and break the interviewer down because that is when you will win and truly crack it. Take deep breaths, slow down the time, take as much time as you want and not as much being given to you. Nothing is binding. In case you know its a stress interview impending get into a personality mode where you become super confident even when you don't know everything. That'll help.

General Tips: Its not the bookish knowledge that you are tested on. Sometimes its just about who you really are!
Skill Tips: Keep calm and respond sensibly like you always do.
Skills: Calmness, Patience, Responsiveness, Communication
College Name: IIT KANPUR
Motivation: Interest in working in the finance domain
Funny Moments: I went into the interview straight out of 36 hours of being awake. There was a different kind of hormonal flow insomnia has and I was high on Ironman movies. It all combined to give a lethal combination. I never expected to crack the interview but I still did somehow and the funniest part is I never joined.... :)