Futures First info Services Trainee Market Analyst Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

Round: Test
Experience: Section 1 - Quant, basic mathematics and return calculations(finance). Level lower than CAT.
Section 2 - Simple calculation based questions. 4*4 multiplication, divisions, squares, cubes, square roots etc. No options and less time, so one needs to be very fast and accurate.
115 students appeared for the test at our institute.
9 were shortlisted after the test.
Tips: If you are preparing for CAT, you won't have any problem clearing it. Also take a look at return calculations since it is not part of CAT syllabus.
For the people not preparing for CAT, brush up basic mathematics and take a look at questions from aptitude book for placement tests(Agarwal).
Practice vedic maths for section 2.
Duration: 36 mins minutes
Total Questions: 60

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Mostly resume based since I had multiple projects in finance and trading.
9 students appeared for the interview, 3 shortlisted.
Tips: Be through with your projects. Practice guesstimates and display your approach in a tabular form to the interviewer. Try to show enthusiasm towards enterpreneurship.

Round: Puzzle Interview
Experience: It was a mixture of puzzles and HR questions.

College Name: IIT Jodhpur

Round: Test
Experience: Process: Two tests completely based on mathematical and logical aptitude and Interviews.
Top 10 rankers of Trade Mogul competition(Trading competition conducted by Future First) are directly called for interview.1st round: 20 BODMAS questions to be done in 3 mins(testing your computational skills).If you are good in calculations you can clear the first round very easily.
2nd round ::40 questions to be done in 60 mins.It was more of a aptitude round. 2nd round also included some questions from 11th & 12th. 5 questions were from general awareness .

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Interview: 2 rounds(Technical & HR)
Question about finance sector and related to company profile and share trading were asked. Main emphasis was on observation skills and stress testing of students.
Tips: Suggestion: Try and get to know about trading and participate in Trade Mogul competition. If you are in top 10, you have fair chances of getting selected

College Name: BIT MESRA

Round: Other Interview
Experience: First round of interview will be some basic stuff like multiplication of 3 by 3 digits ,no big divisions. One should be confident enough to answer the question.
Tips: Brush up your basic calculation skills. Watch placement grid. (An initiative by NIT Jaipur students where they will upload videos about their experience)

Round: Stress Interview
Experience: Basically, they want to see your reaction in challenging time. I had no clue about trade mogul and I became a bit tensed in second round, which is why I think I didn't get placed.
Tips: Always read about companies few days before sitting in it. There is an event TRADE MOGUL which is conducted by future first. Do participate in it.

General Tips: This company had the lowest pointer cutoff among those that came in the first two months. It was 5 last time. So almost 400 sat for first round and in first round they gave 30 basic mathematics calculations which one has to do in only 5 minutes. 70 got shortlisted for next round which had cat LEVEL APTI questions. It had 30 questions. If you are seriously interested in stock markets then this is the place worth trying for.
College Name: NIT SURATHKAL

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I listed down my achievements and key projects undertaken and then prioritized them in order of importance. I read the Be prepared material of batch 2006 and also saw a few resumes of senior students to understand the structure of an ideal resume. I attended pre-placement talks. I got a brief idea of the various profiles the companies offered and the basic knowledge about the companies. I did not talk to anyone about choosing between jobs/companies but was clear of my priorities. I was most inclined towards joining a finance firm, then a core and the least towards a software

Round: Test
Experience: At first stage they conducted a 3 minute test. It checked your calculation speed. 85 people were selected for the 2nd
stage. In 2nd stage they conducted a one hour aptitude test. 33 people were selected for the 3rd stage.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: At 3rd stage a half an hour interview was taken of each candidate. 11 people were selected for the fourth stage. At fourth stage again a 25 minutes interview was taken. Finally 3 people were made final offers. In the first interview I was first asked about the academic projects that I had undertaken. Since I had written about a project Related to foreign exchange I was asked about every minute detail in it and some general economic basics like impact of inflation on interest rates etc. Then I was asked some HR questions such as: Why would you join a finance firm inspite of having a technical background? What do you know about our company? what are your strengths? Then I was given a case study to estimate the number of black cars in Calcutta. If someone wants to appear for this company, what all should he/she ideally prepare? He/she should build his aptitude and good calculation skills. He/she should also be clear about what the company is all about. He/she should be clear about every point written in his/her resume

General Tips: One must be in an impressive formal attire but also comfortable. In spite of the nervousness inside one must keep calm which ultimately will keep your performance at its peak as excessive zeal may lead one into wrong direction.
Skill Tips: -I was a regular reader of editorials of newspapers like The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Times of India.
I prepared for the CAT exam which was of great use to me in clearing the aptitude tests of various companies. I read the Beprepared material of batch 2006 which helped me to prepare and have the right mindset required for an interview. For test preparation I think practicing the CAT exam based questions individually is of great help to build one’s aptitude for the tests. For GD, preparation in groups with a variety of topics is of great help. For interviews too preparation in groups for different types of HR questions makes one keep a track of how clear his viewpoints are and the regular inputs or feedback from other members improves one’s ability to perform well in an interview.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: No CGPA criteria. One must be interested in finance, especially trading.

Round: Test
Experience: There are two stages of written tests.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The company gave a form to be filled by all the candidates just before the start of interviews. A few questions will be based on the answers one provides in the form. The form contained fields for all the academic information and around 20 short HR questions to be answered in 2-3 lines each. Again arithmetic ability is tested extensively in this round also. One should also be good with guesstimates. Examples include questions like 58*32, 5th root of .32768. Be confident of your answer.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was mostly an HR based interview. Questions based on CV (POR and intern especially) were also asked. Prepare for some basic HR questions. Show some enthusiasm while answering questions.

Skill Tips: These skills are tested extensively in the second written test and also in the interview. Math ability of the student plays a very important role in the selection process. CAT preparation would be good enough for the second written test. If you are serious about the company, start learning vedic maths or work on your arithmetic skills. Go through Investopedia for some finance related funda. Also, Futures First will start an online game called “Trade Moghul” sometime in August, so if you play that game and end up in the top 100 countrywide, you directly get an interview call.
Skills: Strong arithmetic skills, quantitative aptitude
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR

Round: Test
Experience: All the questions were based on simple math calculations.
Duration: 5 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Test
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Interview
Experience: How the student handles pressure is an important criteria in the selection process. Proofs could be asked for any claims/answers given by the student, so being absolutely sure about one's claims is essential.

General Tips: A good knowledge of the current affairs in the finance sector is important to crack the interviews. NCFM and CFA exams' preparation materials can also be used.
Skill Tips: CAT preparation will be helpful for cracking the written test
Skills: Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Accounting, Fundamentals of Operations Research, Principles of Economics
College Name: IIT-Madras