Grey Orange Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Was resume shortlisted, nothing great about that.
Tips: Keep up the CPI, but I guess it's too late for that now.

Round: Test
Experience: Test wasn't too difficult. Can be cracked if you're in your game and have a chill mind.
Tips: General aptitude preparation should be started atleast before a month from placements. Solve GATE papers, institute placement tests, read CAT modules and their tips for faster problem solving. English needs time for those who haven't used it much in their childhood. But still the difficulty level of questions in these placement tests is easy.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Was  generally good. Interviewer was young and we could connect.
Tips: It is extremely important that you remain calm. You need to tame that nervousness down. Think of the interview as a general talk with a stranger. Be your natural self. That's when the ideas hit you for the questions you haven't prepared. Practice interviewing with friends and read about the most common questions on the Interwebz.

Round: Puzzle Interview
Experience: Problems were easy. Asked for a pen and paper and slowly solved them.
Tips: Practice puzzles. There are some good sites for this.

Skills: Managing people, Analytical thinking
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Test
Experience: It was a very general aptitude test, including probability reasoning etc.
Tips: practice some CAT papers

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Very basic and general HR questions starting with tell me something about yourself and why this job?
Tips: You should have tailor made answers for tell me about yourself for different sectors/firms, this will help a lot, start preparing on this a month in advance.

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Nicely organized GD, civilized and intellectual GD group, discussion rich topic
Tips: Allow others to speak when they have something to say. Do try to push your way in if someone is talking too long or talking gibberish. Do not push your point too much, however, present logical arguments in favor. Try to draw similarities from what others say. Try to include all.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Friendly HR interviewer. Non-direct questions but not too difficult.
Tips: Answer all questions honestly but be polite. Don't present too strong views, you are too young for that. Don't repeat content with different words, but be elaborate enough to let the interviewer know you.

Round: Guesstimate Interview
Tips: Read up some guesstimates and case studies before placements, discuss some with friends too. Open up your mind while guesstimating. Speak all that comes to your head, and vocally sift through them to get the logical and pursue-able approaches. The interviewer should get a complete idea of your analytical approach.

College Name: IIT Kharagpur
Motivation: First foray into corporate structure. Lots of opportunities. Diversified experiences.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Interviews were driven to know the candidate better and their capabilities. They also didn’t waste much time asking students who they were sure not to recruit and conducting reasonably long interviews.

General Tips: Do’s :
1. Start preparing with the start of the summers.
2. Concentrate on your own preparation and not on what others are doing.
3. Keep the preparation time of HR to maximum 20 hours because HR accounts for just 20% weightage in your selection procedure.
4. Have patience.
5. Prepare every point written in the resume such that you are able to speak for at least 3 min on the subject. You might gain bonus points if you are aware of some latest developments or strategic changes in the field.

Don’ts :
1. Never bog down when you are either not shortlisted in the company who have been aiming for or when even after practice you are not getting the correct way.
2. Do not form very large groups for the preparation. Try making the preparation time that you spend with the group as efficient as possible with the least of bulla sessions.

College Name: IIT Kanpur

Round: Test
Experience: It was a speed Test. Question including all the aptitude areas English, Calculations, Mental Ability etc.
Tips: Be a human calculator, you shouldn't do calculations manually. Everything should be done in your mind.
Duration: 20 minutes
Total Questions: 50

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: It was GD of 20 students at a time so you can guess there was no time for everybody to speak their mind. But still in the end everyone was a given chance so that they can speak. I was given the chance to speak in the end and I utilized every bit of it. I used snapdeal (the company in which I was appearing) in the illustrations and some good management keywords which make my impression very good in-front of the Invigilator.
Tips: You don't need to be mind blowing in English, all you need is the content. Don't speak in layman language, try you use some big words and always say all the good things for that company in illustrations. Try to avoid using competitor of the company.
Duration: 10min. minutes

General Tips: 1. Dont take written test lightly. Prepare as much as you can.
2. Join any CAT preparation websites or coaching.
3. Prepare for GDs with groups other than yours regularly.
Skills: Aptitude, Puzzle solving, SQL, R language
College Name: Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
Motivation: Big Package
Good profile, the one I was looking to enter into.
Had a great internship their, so kind of PPO
Funny Moments: How I was almost out of the process??  First they announced a cut off 41 out of 50 in their written test. About 259 students were shortlisted. Just before the GDs were to be held in the evening of Day 2, a notice appears that cut off has been revised and new cut off is 47. Only 58 students were there in the new shortlist. Imagine other 200 students, all suited with preparations done, were asked to leave the scene !! I was very serious about working in an e-commerce company. Guess what, I had 42 marks in the test.We were walking back to the hostel, clicked some pics thinking at-least wore the suit for first time and abusing the company blah blah blah.But then came the news just half an hour after that and Luckily some guys convinced the Snapdeal's Placement coordinator and yes we were back in the race, actually won the race :D

Round: Test
Experience: 10 candidates shortlisted through aptitude test (50 ques in 12 min, cut off was 50).
Duration: 12 minutes minutes
Total Questions: 50

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 1st interview was technical with some general HR questions. I related the work done in internships to the work being done in the snapdeal company. I was asked if I had any other interview to which I replied flipkart. He then asked me why snapdeal and not flipkart. I had studied everything about the 2 companies and was thus able to defend my choice. Next he gave me some puzzles, I did all with little inputs from him. I was asked to wait for 2nd interview and not go to Flipkart GD but I went anyway.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This interview round was again technical. This time there were 2 panellists and they again gave me 4-5 puzzles, which I did successfully. I was asked to wait for a HR interview.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The HR interview was just a formality, he explained me my responsibilities in the organization and made me a spot offer.

General Tips: 1. Pre placement preparation is very important. Begin early and try to distribute time to all the areas especially your shortcomings.
2. Try to remain calm and confident in the interview.
3. Do not cram up the answers to hr questions or puzzles.
4. There are plenty of companies with handsome compensation. Just give your best in preparations and interviews.

College Name: IIT Kanpur

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: It was a bit disappointing to not get shortlisted in a couple of companies I was looking forward to, but I really didn't expect much with my CPI (6 pointer during placements). But my internship helped me loads and gave my resume one 'spike' which became crucial.
Tips: Maintain a good CPI, as you've heard from every senior, but is necessary. Also keep a couple of profiles in your mind, which you want to work in, and then create a resume as such, and take up internships and POR's, all good spikes for which a recruiter, mostly including an IIT alumnus look for.

Round: Test
Experience: A make or break situation for me due to my poor CPI. Fortunately I got shortlisted in almost all companies for which I gave the test, for GD and so on, so it's a very very crucial part of the placement process.
Tips: Be smart during giving your tests. The recruiter judges your decision making skills and speed skills through this. Specially with students with an average CPI, this is the most important step as companies that come for mass recruitment make their decision on this basis.
Duration: 12 minutes
Total Questions: 50

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: For SnapDeal, they had what they called a Group Activity but it was per se a GD. They gave us a problem, a general aptitude question and they gave us hints in order to solve it. I tried to take charge and maintain decorum among 20 people there and it helped.
I was way more silent during my GD for Flipkart and that is the worst thing I could have done.
Tips: Always speak up. Content matters less, being smart and practical matters more. You can twist the points of another person, but keep your stand, whatever side you take. Just keep calm and speak your heart out. Also, give everyone a chance. If someone in the room hasn't spoken a word for some while, take the initiative to stop the discussion then and there and ask that person his/her views. A moderator is not always looking at a person who starts or ends well, he might be looking for a person who is a team player.
Duration: 20 minutes

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: Unfortunately never had the chance to tackle this part of the process.
Tips: Do what you feel is right, even if it's going wrong. An attempt matters, don't leave the space blank.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: There were different approaches to tackle this problem, and I mostly took the most complicated and inaccurate one. But I was confident in what I was doing. I estimated the amount of pizzas delivered and purchased on the spot, estimated the number of people served by the outlet area-wise, where I could have used an age distribution method. I guesstimated the cost of one pizza, also dividing into sizes and also included other side orders. The interviewer was happy and got selected in to the next round. This is for a company by Indus Insights, a consulting firm.
Tips: Practice makes perfect. Cover all case interviews and practice hard, specially for a consulting firm obviously. Be confident with the method you use, and constantly interact with the interviewer. Do not underestimate the importance of keeping the interviewer in the loop. Tell him/her what you are thinking, even though it's rubbish, and ask them for clarifications wherever you're stuck. It's not just your problem solving skills, it's a test to how you present the solution to a potential client.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: I started off with my basic introduction i.e. Name, Branch, hometown etc. Then I shifted to my intern as it had been the most recent activity I had done. So on, I continued covering all my internships and POR and then told some of my hobbies. Regarding the why e-commerce question, I mentioned the fact that it's the fastest growing market in the world, and the company is among the top firms in this market.
Tips: Its important to prepare these questions before hand. These are make or break questions as these relate to whether you'll fit the dynamics of the firm. Its important to be energetic and lively. What you show in the interview is exactly what they perceive to be your general status and personality. Always saw the firm excites you and you should be aware of the functioning of the market and the firm. Studying up earlier is a must, regarding recent developments in general as well.
Don't be afraid to cross question regarding the company and other affairs related to the company.
I wasn't asked a behavioural question as such, but try not to get cocky. Keep it simple, and don't get frustrated.

Round: Guesstimate Interview
Experience: I started off by asking the time frame. Nothing was cleared by the interviewer so I started asking the basic questions, regarding city, etc. I broke down the costs i.e. Personal and related to maintenance. Asked a ton of questions in order to keep the interviewer involved.
Tips: A guesstimate is quite similar to a case interview, but this tests more general knowledge wherein a case questions your intellect on the case itself. Similar tips as to tackling a case, but you make loads of assumptions yourself. Read some population and area data of major Indian cities before hand, and keep asking whether the assumptions you're making sound reasonable or not. Don't worry if the answer is too random, it's more about the process rather than the figure.
Also, if you have read up before on how to solve guesstimates, you'll face something called as Sanity check. In the interview, you aren't asked to do one, try and avoid unless you are really confident.

General Tips: Don't lose hope. Placements are a tiring process. People with brilliant resumes don't get placed and haven't gotten placed yet. So keep on fighting, you will get placed in a good company with a good package soon. Also don't reject a company if the package is okay, it's your first job. You are being awarded money based on one interview, they don't know your work yet. So choose a job where you like the profile instead of the money.
Skill Tips: Speed is crucial in the tests. Half of the people usually complain on missing out on questions.
Skills: Speed, Aptitude
College Name: IIT BOMBAY
Motivation: It is a fast growing company in the fastest growing market. A company where growth is fast and leaning experience is endless. They have also taken up social projects towards which I have some inclinations so that helped.
Funny Moments: One of my friend got placed a day before me in Olacabs, and had a higher CPI than me. The day I got placed he was with me, and I could not help laughing the fact that I had a higher package.

Round: Test
Experience: English was unpredictable.. Maths was easy but it will be good if you have practice, logical reasoning requires practice but are interesting
Tips: Leave english comprehensions for the end.. Do not waste too much time on one question even if it appears easy.. attempt the paper in the order of your comfort and mark every questions in case of NO negative marking
Duration: 60 minutes

Round: HR Interview
Tips: Smile!! And think before speaking anything, else you may contradict your own point.. Prepare "Tell me about yourself" well and guide your interview by focusing on your strongest point, you may face more questions on that point.. refer to 64 HR questions book

Round: Stress Interview
Tips: If they are giving you stress, that means they like you.. Relax!! Do not get nervous, thats what they want to check.. Think for the solution to the problem normally, you know you can crack it (Stress interview may be a part of HR, technical, case or any other interview.. you may have to make it out yourself)

Skill Tips: ""
Skills: Puzzles, Speaking skills, Aptitude, guesstimates, Case solving, presentation skills
College Name: IIT Bombay