Ipsos Senior Director Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Based on whether you have experience in analytics, maths or programming.
Tips: If you're serious about EXL, work on a data science project, intern or take up a few courses in data science. Probability and Statistics is a 'must do course'.

Round: Test
Experience: Had 4 questions. One was based on probabilty, another was a puzzle, a data interpretation question and finally a case study question, involving a bit of guesstimate analysis.
Tips: Be strong in probability and puzzles. Do one or two cases with a friend while preparing for any kind of internship.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: No group discussion

Round: HR Interview
Experience: I was asked about myself, my interest areas, the reason for applying for EXL. That was pretty much it
Tips: Be thorough and genuine with all kinds of HR questions

Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: The test was easy.General aptitude test preparation should be sufficient.Prepare via Pariksha and Indiabix websites.Keep the time constraint in mind
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 60

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: The interview was concentrated on case studies and puzzles and general hr questions like Why EXL and Why analytics.EXL do not expect analytics background at all.You just have to do your interviews well.Communicate your ideas in case studies very clearly and precisely.
Tips: Case studies-Basic preparation that students do for consult companies.Follow Caseinterviewcracked book to get the basic flavour and then practice with friends

Puzzles-www.techinterview.com was very helpful followed by heard on the street book

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: Very similar to previous round

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: The interview started with a 'tell me about your resume' question and the interviewers built it up as a stress interview in the initial 5 min burst. After that, the interviewers opened up and tried to make me comfortable, asking me about my passions and interests. After a 5-7 minute discussion on this, they moved to puzzles. They asked me a mathematical puzzle of magic square and a logical puzzle. Further, they gave me a case to devise a strategy to market a Nokia phone(not a smartphone) in your city, viz and viz the target population, urban rural divide etc.
Tips: Be confident and think out loud while solving your puzzles. Even if you're not able to get to the correct answer, if your thought process is going in the right direction, they will guide you.

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: In this round, the interviewer (a Senior Manager in the firm) wanted to ascertain that I had the requisite skillset in terms of my interaction capabilities to handle the role of a Consultant. He focussed on interacting with me whilst he had given me a puzzles or two, to see how I would deal with interacting with the client while problem solving.

Skills: Conversation Skills, Problem Solving Abilties, Basic Aptitude And Probability
College Name: IIT Kanpur

Round: Test
Experience: There were mainly quant,verbal,aptitude and logic questions. It was held on CoCubes
Duration: 45 minutes

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: CGPA plus Resume

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Same as above
Tips: Placement Prep was enough.

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Questions were similar to that in CAT. Question based on logic, reasoning and English were asked with every section having 20 questions. Shortlisted students were selected for interviews.
Duration: 60 minutes

Round: HR Interview
Experience: A case was given which had to be analysed and I was to suggest different solutions and justify them.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Consisted of HR questions and guess estimate questions.Also a few analytics question were asked.

Skill Tips: My projects related to analytics,basic knowledge on engineering, spontaneity was tested. The PDF's uploaded by the BC,solving puzzles from the Internet helped.Also I talked to my seniors which gave me a good idea as to what to expect of the interview. Basic preparation on all the core courses. Reading from the materials provided by the BC. Reading TIME material,brushing up on coding concepts (from NPTEL lectures), learning R(analytics software) from coursera helped.
Skills: Analytics
College Name: IIT MADRAS

General Tips: Do’s :
• PREPARE FOR APTITUDE TESTS. Many of us believe that our profile will lead us getting
shortlisted on resume basis. That may be true, but I have not seen a process as random as
placements. It might happen that you are getting closely rejected in 3-4 firms for which you have
prepared. In such a case, having a good aptitude will give you more no. of shortlists, which will give
you a psychological security to fall back. APTITUDE PREPARATION IS BORING, so you may start it
and then leave it. Don’t do it. It is the only thing that is going to be with you in case something
unexpected happens.
• Be prepared for random and unexpected events like unexpected shortlisting results, irregularities in interview procedures etc.
• Prepare in a group, and help each other. The entire placement preparation phase is very taxing,
and support from people around you helps.

Dont’s :
• Don’t leave things for the end.
• Don’t underestimate yourself. Don’t overestimate yourself too.
• Don’t have pre-conceived notions about anything: no. of people a company is going to hire, who is
better than you, who is worse than you etc. Let the company decide what they want.

Final Tips :
• Prioritize the sectors and analyse your chances.
• Don’t keep too high or too low expectations from yourself.
• PREPARE APTITUDE. If you don’t get placed in big firms, aptitude is your only fall back.
• Be prepared for unexpected outcomes.
• Trust yourself for what you know, because there are a lot of things and you cant know everything.
The interview is driven by what you write on your resume. Know what you write. 
• In all preparation aspects, one never gets a feeling of satisfaction. Due to paucity of time and so
much pressure around, we are unable to do things as per our expectations. So don’t worry too
much. Give ample time to things, but don’t overdo them.
• Go to the interview empty-headed. Thinking too much about things makes you feel nervous. An empty mind works most efficiently.
College Name: IIT Kanpur

Round: Test
Experience: It was held couple of days before their interview process. Test consisted of Quant, Logical reasoning and Verbal Ability, similar to CAT pattern but was comparatively easy. They shortlisted approximately 80 students for interview process.


Round: Other Interview
Experience: It was a mix of mostly HR + few probability questions. It was a 40min interview. It was a good interview as I was able to answer all his question and could easily solve the probability questions.


Round: Technical Interview
Experience: It was all technical wherein the interviewer asked me 4-5 puzzles and some probability questions. I was able to answer most of the puzzles correctly but got stuck in one of the probability questions.


Round: HR Interview
Experience: Final HR round. Here the interviewer was continuously grilling me by stating that my profile is not coherent with their job description. I maintained my composure and was able to handle the situation with ease.


General Tips: Do’s :
Apart from all preparation :
• Take proper sleep whenever given a chance to. Do not skip meals.
• Prepare about the company in advance, last minute preparation might lead to a panic situation. Ask your friends (not sitting in placements) to help you prepare.
• Take someone to the interviews. He/She will manage your interviews accordingly. It’s also a motivating factor.
• Always carry a smile when going to an interview. You should not appear stressed.

Don’ts :
• Don’t try to delay things. Prepare a timeline for preparation. Don’t accumulate things post end sem, because you will have to appear for a lot of tests after that. Hence you get limited time for preparation.
• Don’t be in a false assumption that if you possess a strong profile (PORs, Extra currics etc.) you will make it through the interviews. It can only help you fetch an interview. You have to work hard to clear that interview.

College Name: IIT Kanpur

Round: stress interview
Experience: During EXL, the first interview was a totally stressful one. The interviewer was interrupting me all the time and countering me when I was answering him. Then he gave me a puzzle, which seemed fairly easy to me. But as I started on the puzzle, he started asking me about my hobbies to interrupt me again. I patiently answered the question and then solved the puzzle. He gave me 2 more puzzles, which again I was able to solve. Then, he asked me to give an approach for a guess estimate, which I was able to do easily. My preparation on Cases, Puzzles and Guesstimates was fairly low as compared to others. But I was able to solve them because I was very relaxed in the interview.
Tips: Keeping calm is imperative.


Round: HR interview
Experience: The second round was a complete HR interview. All the questions were either from my resume or about my interest in EXL. Once, he was through with them, he asked me a puzzle which I’d never heard before. But I was able to solve it with a small hint from the interviewer.
Tips: It is important to think loud and let the interviewer know what is going through your mind.

General Tips: Do’s –
Manage Time well, try to attend all classes so that you don’t have to study too much before the exams (or simply choose such courses).
Try to keep your personal database of which companies you’ve applied for, which day are they coming and what your status of preparation for them is etc.
If you have more than 1 interview in a slot, try to take a friend along with you who can attend your calls when you’re in an interview. Even if you have 1 interview, still I’d recommend taking a friend along with you. Talking with a friend always eases pressure.
Stay Relaxed. You might have to wait for 2-3 hours for your interview slot.

Don'ts-
Don’t waste time in the semester. Prepare.
Don’t get nervous in the interview. You might not be able to solve a puzzle or a case if you are nervous. Try to be as normal as you can be.
Don’t rely heavily on one company. A company might reject you on the basis of a small mistake. Prepare for more than one.

College Name: IIT Kanpur