ICE Data Services Financial Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be confident and remember what you have mentioned in your resume and how would you use those skills in real life

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Have a sound knowledge in Financial and Economics oriented topics.

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be confident and don't speak lie.

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Prepare your CV thoroughly. Why this approach, why this algorithm type of questions. Advantage, disadvantages of algorithms. What you learnt from this project, how this project helped business type questions

Round: Test
Experience: 30 questions, 30

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Q: Give me five steps to estimate the number of traffic lights in Bombay.
Me: I will divide the city into equidistant lines, both vertical and horizontal; sort of a mesh. Then I would take vertical and horizontal rectangles i.e. the rectangles which fall on length and breadth of the city. Starting with the horizontal ones I would try to estimate the number of roads going from east to west in each rectangle(depending on the type of area: residential, commercial or a highway) Similarly I would try to estimate the number of roads going from north to south in each vertical rectangle. Now I have the average number of roads per unit length and per unit breadth. Now, I can calculate the average number of roads intersecting per rectangle. Now if I have the data, I can also use the traffic density data to further improve my estimate, i.e. whether the traffic light is required in that rectangle or not.(depending upon the traffic density)
Q: Lets say that golden quadrilateral gets completed tomorrow. What would be its impact on the sales of Ashok Leyland?
Me: Sir, they would increase, as more and more traffic will shift from railways to roadways as the average time taken by road will decrease.
Q: If I say that the sales will decreases by road, the truk will make the same number of trips in less amount of time, thereby rendering overcapacity in the road transport market therefore the sales will decrease.
Me: (I actually didn't let him complete, I interrupted him in between and said that I got the logic)
Tips: Don't try to overstate the facts.

Skills:
Duration: 3
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Test
Experience: The quantitative part is relatively easy, it is for testing the speed and accuracy, there are two math cases given the exam but they were also comparatively easy based on probability and statistics
Tips: In the math cases it is very important to analyse the result after solving it. that is what makes the difference because almost every one solves it
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 22

Round: Interview
Experience: The guy was one of the vice presidents in the firm. He seemed pretty cool.
They will make you more comfortable and they want you answer the questions.
Tips: Do not try to babble about all the courses that you have taken just brief him your specialization, projects and internships.

Try to explain an intern or project related to the position and be sure about what you are explaining these guys are technically very sound.

Try not to ask the bland questions like what are the opportunities at Citi , what is the vertical hierarchy in the firm. This is not an hr question and this is a trap. Ask him about the plunging profits or gains or what is citi's strategy to hold its position in certain countries. This will give him the impression that you did prepare for the interview.

Round: Interview
Experience: This was a mix of stress +guesstimate+ technical interview.
This round went so much longer than the first round. Some times they may ask an irrelevant question just to see how you react to it. In this round they have asked me everything about the projects and internships. As I told you they were technically sound they will track you up to every minute detail of the project. They have also asked many situation type questions. They have asked me about my high CGPA and why not a Ph.D.
Tips: Try to be as much cool as possible in this interview do not show a blank face to the interviewers when they have asked something from your CV. In the situation type questions try to relate those situations to something on your CV and then tell them how you have solved it. And you must be a master of your CV you must be able to answer about a particular graph or result from your project even during sleep. they shoot a lot of questions at you and answer them as appropriately as you can. Be sure to know what your strengths and weakness are. do not try to disguise your weakness as a strength, they will find out that you are trying to fake, they have seen thousand of candidates like you.

Round: Interview
Experience: I had a friendly chat with the HR to begin with as he was asking about my surname and stuff. the interview went on for 15-20 mins of the phone. here you need to really explain about why you are interested in citi and why you are into analytics
Tips: Follow the same tips mentioned in the third round.

General Tips: Be thorough with your projects and internships and do not try to fake the technical details
Skill Tips: Good technical knowledge is required and taking statistics courses would really help
Skills: Speed, Accuracy, Analytical ability, Stress handling, statistical methods basics, reasoning
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
Motivation: Nice work life balance and growth in the firm and the firms stability

Round: Test
Experience: Test conducted covered 12th class mathematics like probability, permutations and combinations, etc. 

Good knowledge of this subject was needed for clearing this round.Around 40 students were short-listed after this round.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Questions asked were based on probability and optimization.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This round judged the candidate's knowledge on Data Analysis, General Awareness and other questions asked were resume-based.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: In this, a candidate were asked some random questions and questions regarding himself.

General Tips: Have a good practice on all the questions sent by BC.For every point mentioned in the resume, one should have a backup for that point.Read Newspapers (at least Economic Times) at least before 2 months.
Skill Tips: CAT preparation would definitely help (almost same topics as CAT).
Skills: Knowledge in Probability and Statistics., Basics in Operation Research (Optimization).
College Name: IIT MADRAS
Motivation: The company encourages entrepreneurial skills,enabling and empowering employees to take appropriate decisions. Those wanting to grow better as an entrepreneur should definitely apply here.