HSBC Group Data Analyst Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: My resume had a couple of projects and a paper publication added to it, which was a part of my second year intern at TCS Innovation Labs.

Tips: I believe that the resume shortlist to appear for the test is just a formality and not a big deal to get through. Most of the students are allowed to appear for the test which is where, the main shortlisting occurs.
Although, the company does cut off people from certain departments. For example, none of the Agriculture and food engineering students were shortlisted for appearing for the test.
Also, from what I have heard, the company runs resumes through a program to take out the shortlist. Hence, certain key words such as "Scholar" or "Conference" may get you a good chance to get through the shortlisting.

Round: Test
Experience: The test is mainly quant based and how fast you can think and rationalize. They expect excellent speed; they ask you 20 questions to be answered in 30 minutes.
Tips: Normally, if a student is asked to appear for this right after his JEE examination, he would be able to get through it easily. But since our analytical thinking goes way down once we actually get in, it has to be worked upon again. I'd suggest you to solve all the quant questions of any CAT preparatory book for the American Express test. The test questions are quite similar to those that the CAT students prepare for.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: In general, the American Express interviews are considered to be pretty peaceful compared to the interviews of other companies. I was just asked about my work at TCS Innovation Labs and the paper I would be publishing based on that work and the courses I have done in Data Analytics and what all do I know in it. They do not test the knowledge you say you possess.
Tips: While I was preparing for my interview, I was told to read about Amex and its products. Secondly, and most importantly, I was aksed to read a lot about credit card frauds and suggest ways of preventing that. Even during my time, a lot of people were asked about this and judged severely on that. This is a must must if you would be appearing for its interview.

Also, you would do well if you are able to connect with the interviewer. For instance, if both of you have been a part of the same inter IIT or have the same tastes, etc.

Also, the interviews are that peaceful that you are able to direct the interview in your favour. There are certain parts of your CV that you can easily talk about and certain parts that you would want to avoid. If you are able to think on your feet, it is easy to re direct the interview in your favour and the things that you would like to talk about; in my case, it was my work at TCS.

Round: Puzzle Interview
Experience: The main decision whether you have to be taken in or not is decided in your first round of interview after which, the puzzle interview is just a formality and to find out whether you are able to think on your feet or not. Not a big deal, pretty easy.
Tips: Nothing to be worried about, the puzzles asked are pretty easy and most probably, you would have already heard them if you have a nag of solving puzzles.

General Tips: Do not worry or stress yourself much. The interview is pretty easy if you have an edge in the skills that the company wants. I had started studying Data Analytics in my second year summer vacations, just 1 hour a day for hardly about a month. Which gave me enough of an edge. The main hurdle lies in getting through the test round where about 300 people are simply cut off.
Skill Tips: You should be able to code efficiently. Knowledge in Python and SQL is a big plus.
Also, I had done a course on Coursera called "Machine Learning" of Stanford University. Today, the company does not expect a lot of knowledge in Data Analytics from students which is why this course gave me the edge I needed to get through the interview. It's a pretty easy course and not very demanding. I would recommend this if you want to find out even whether you'd be interested in Data Analytics or not.
I was asked about the things I know and whether I have ever implemented them.
Skills: Analytics And Coding
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Kharagpur
Motivation: American Express is known to have a good working culture and is currently the third best company to work for in India. The internship stipend is largest compared to any other company in India along with accommodation and travel. The company has a well structured internship program and also has good challenging work to offer.
Funny Moments: After the test, I was not shortlisted for the interview round.. Which broke my heart.
Just after the presentation, I walked up to the person presenting and handed him a hard copy of my resume asking him to at least give me a shot at the interview if they think my profile is good enough.
I believe that this was a turning point of this entire experience. I believe, at that moment itself, I gained their favour to take me in. Which is probably why my interview was peaceful, which is probably why I could get through even though my interview was the last among a bunch of 25 students..

Round: Test
Experience: There were 15 questions from quant’s, 10 questions from data interpretation with 1 mark each and -.5 for wrong answer also there were 2 case studies with 10 marks each with no –ve marks. Total 45 marks question, I did only 9 from quant and 7 from DI total 16 out of 25 questions and didn’t touch case studies. Quanta and DI were very basics level.

In those 16, 1 question was wrong so basically I did 14.5 out of 45, but with a accuracy of 90%. Didn’t expect to get shortlisted but was very tensed and angry upon myself coz it was my level paper. But around 12 mid night shortlist came and I was at 11th position out of 31 students in the list.

There were total around 90 students who appeared for written test. They allowed Mtech and Mca guys not Btech.
Total Questions: 25

Round: TECHNICAL INTERVIEW
Experience: I went there and greeted him. Firstly he told me to introduce myself, later he asked what I like the most. I told analytical thinking and logical reasoning and yeah I relate it with data base.(since I knew they came for Data analyst profile).

He asked me about join, gave me a table and told me to perform all joins. I did that and he asked me about Order by clause and, having clause then asked me normal forms up to bcnf.

Later asked about pl/sql difference b/w sql and pl/sql, what is trigger explain in detail. Some basics questions of DBMS theory asked me about my 2 projects and at the end he gave me a situation where I have a grocery shop outside nit Surathkal, and from last few days/months I realized a downfall in sales, what possible reasons could I find? I gave him 8 reasons within 2/3 mins. He was impressed…

After 1st round out of 31 only 13 were selected and I was there in d list.

Round: TECHNICAL INTERVIEW
Experience: As soon as I entered the room, mam told me “Ooo tum aao aao ”. I smiled because I was the 1st guy during presentation who asked the first question (she made every1 clap for me there) and she remembered my face. And eventually she did study from IIT Kanpur so yes she was able to speak fluent Hindi (plus point for guys like me :p). with her there was a guy he asked me to write code for taking a no and converting it into binary and 1 question from array- very simple later she gave me a table with employee id, order date and order amount. A customer can place max 1 order in 1 day. I had to find the latest transaction of every customer with amount as well. i did it using max function over date and group by with sub query, she asked me about my resume at the end she gave me 7,9,21,63,100 and told me to find the no of numbers between 1 to 50000 which are exactly divisible by all, i did it in 1 min.

but she was smiling, I thought I made some mistake in hurry, then I asked mam m I doing right or wrong (in curiosity as I find very comfortable there) she smiled and said “Chalo bhago ynha se ye interview h ”.I said sorry but yeah she was impressed with my interview so told ki “you will learn all these things very quickly”.

Round: TECHNICAL INTERVIEW
Experience: After 2nd round 9 were selected and I was one of them. It was basically a Managerial round and it scheduled over Skype. I had to introduce myself as well as my family background. Here comes the harder part when he asked me why you have such a poor academic back ground? I was speechless for a moment but I started telling the truth.

I told despite getting 68% marks in my 10th I was the third topper of my class. I got 60.66 % in 12th but yeah there also out of 700 students only 14 got first division. So basically I concluded that in my state board marking is not that much good. He said ok but what happened in graduation(64%) when you studied in Delhi?(what to say now :p) I said sir I did it from IGNOU and you can Google the fact that even less than 5% of student are able to clear the degree in 3 years. Later I explicitly mentioned that I m not blaming my boards but this is the fact which can’t be change.

Now He asked what happened in PG here also you scored only 7.50 CGPA which is less than even standard score of 8(Meri to jaan hi nikal gayi :p). Then I told him that sir u can see my pointer in first semester is very less close to 6.5 but after that I constantly improved myself. He was smiling …..

He asked me about my family background and then I told him how I struggled, I was giving tuition in my grads to continue my education and after grads took a gap of 1 year and cleared all MCA entrance examination and now sitting in front of him.

Later asked about my best qualities….i told him that I can lead group of people very well. I gave example of me being captain of my department cricket team and I was class monitor through 3rd to 12th std and also some stuff regarding my college events. He noted down something .I don’t know what.

I was not sure that I could clear that interview. When the result came they called all 9 students and said that they find is difficult to eliminate 4 names .i was sure that I m out of picture now but fortunately my name was at 2nd position. Wowwwww

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was telephonic round and just my hobbies and all, he asked me about my poetry writing hobby as well as Hindi Shayaris. I was told to recite 1 …when he listened, he was very impressed…

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: We were first taught the basics of operations involved in working with an investment bank. Based on the workshop we were given a case study with a list of companies to select the one's which are potencial candidates for investments. We were all divided into groups of 5 students.

Round: Test
Experience: The test was basic. Economical aptitude requires prior knowledge of economics concepts. The review topicwas GST bill.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 41

Round: Stress Interview
Tips: It is important to be aware about the current events and economies.

Skills: Economic Affairs, Financial Economics, Knowledge On Current Affairs
College Name: Thapar University, Patiala