JPMorgan Chase & Co. Junior Analyst Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I had done a couple of finance projects, one internship in a VC firm and published a paper at IIM Calcutta. All this excited the interviewer and he started grilling me about various questions related to the course projects, generally about basic terms in finance and about my internship. These answers I had well prepared and hence were smooth to answer. But what was unexpected is where it would lead to once you answer the initial set of questions. I was asked to explain Eurozone debt crisis in simple language. I had also given CFA and FRM level 1 exams and there were a few questions related to risk management and portfolio investment.

PS: Please note that since I had done so many things related to the core work at JP Morgan I was asked a lot of questions in core finance. IT IS NOT AT ALL NECESSARY that you will be asked the same questions.
Tips: Know the basics really well. It goes a long way if you know the concepts crystal clear. You can watch a few videos that explain the various crises and why they happened on Youtube. ( I have put up the links in the preparation material section). Be confident and if you don't know the answer, be straightforward to tell that you are not aware of that or maybe even have forgotten at the moment. Honesty helps! The interviewer can always guide you if you are stuck somewhere so ensure you attempt to answer or atleast get closer to the answer. Many a times they want to look into or analyze your thought process rather than getting the correct exact answer itself!

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: It should be easy if your fundamentals are really clear. The case as such does not matter much since the positives and negatives of different valuation models are pretty much well known. I showed on how i arrived at the number using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Valuation model and Comparative Comparison Valuation model. They also wanted to check on how well you write and are able to put out on paper as this was a Junior Analyst interview for a Equity Research Analyst role.
Tips: Revise the various types of valuation models well and know the assumptions correctly. Models could get really complex sometimes but you should be clear with how you get at the final number and be able to explain it easily. Conceptually this is very interesting. This pretty much forms the basics of a lot of concepts in finance.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was a simple round. Usually you know the HR round questions already and hence you know how you could answer and even manipulate and steer the interview in your favour. Ensure you are clear with basic questions about how you got interested in this field and why you would like to pursue finance as a career option and not your core field (in my case it was civil engineering). A clear and simple story with facts shows that you have prepared well for the interview and have something concrete to say. So do prepare for these kind of questions and don't take them lightly.
Tips: Practice out loud alone and with your friends and take feedback. Most of the times you would yourself realize that you have not answered in the best way possible. But at the same time do not push yourself so much that you get confused at the end moment. Keep a good balance. Try writing down points on a piece of paper and then frame them accordingly on the spot. It always better to know the important points instead of "mugging up an answer". A good interviewer can always tell the difference.
Preparation for this round actually helps you connect with your inner self and you start to ask yourself why you think you deserve this job and why this is a very good bet as a career option. Hence do go through this exercise atleast a few times! :)

General Tips: In my case I had prepared a lot from various resources. I have put it out in detail in the previous section section.
CFA and FRM exams helped a lot for building a strong foundation but more importantly you actually need to be passionate about financial markets, how investment banks function, know the work details about your job profile and be excited about finance in general.
Do not try and put things in resume that you think will "look" very good but you wouldn't be able to explain it thoroughly. The job is very demanding and requires long working hours, so be prepared for it. Know some basic numbers like GDP of top economies, population, interest rates, valuations, etc so that even if you guess things it should sound reasonable.
Skill Tips: The best way to prepare would be actually building financial models, doing an internship in a financial services firm and getting a first hand experience of all the above. Theory part can be understood through CFA or FRM Level 1 books which pretty much cover the basics of finance.
Skills: Financial Modeling, Valuations, Mergers & Acquisitions, Basics of stock market, Portfolio Management, Risk Management
College Name: IIT MADRAS
Motivation: I was very keen to work at an Investment Bank. I had given CFA and FRM Level 1 and it had got me very excited about financial markets in general. I was trading part time and thoroughly enjoyed it. JP Morgan being one of the largest and most reputed Investment Banks I thought would give me exposure to various facets of equity research and thus improve my knowledge and understanding about markets. Also I was referred by my senior Kartheek Konanki who was an alum of IIT-Madras and the idea of having working with a lot of colleagues from various IITs excited me.
Funny Moments: I was asked a lot of questions about the movies I had seen like Wall Street, Boiler room and was asked to explain what happened to which character and why ? and that was not expected :P But they did make me comfortable and referred me other movies and books that would make learning all the more interesting. Net-net I think the interview had its fair share of ups and downs :D

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume shortlist around 120 from entire batch.



Mainly CG and overall performance. Any minor fin point in resume is sufficient to get shortlisted

Round: Test
Experience: Essay test: It tests your general awareness about different events and your motivation towards fin apart from the obvious grammar.
Tips: Your true motivation towards fin. Grammatical skills, English writing skills and knowledge of various sectors / general knowledge will help you write better argumentative precise answers

Round: HR Interview
Experience: : Consisted mainly of  HR and resume and minor fin basic questions. This was an elimination round.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Questions related to various sectors, investment in stocks, trends of companies, markets, 2 puzzles & a guesstimate. Questions on my internship which they found impressive

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case & Guesstimate: case part was deciding for selection

General Tips: Pursue all your

interests with full passion. Do not compromise on

Acads and Cg at any cost. PLEASE do not pursue

things for resume points.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Resume shortlist based on exposure to finance field.
Tips: Exposure to finance will be beneficial.

Round: Test
Experience: Essay test. Timing 1 hr. 2 essays on general topics. Q1. Why Finance? (Compulsory to answer)Q2. What India needs to do to become a superpower by 2020? (optional 1 out of 2 questions).
Tips: English skills, grammar and essay writing skills will be beneficial.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 2 rounds.Starts with general HR questions like: Tell me about yourself.
Then a thorough review of my resume and detailed question on finance courses and internship. Questions on the basis of my answers to this question were asked. So make sure you know what you are talking about.
Current events questions. Take on market as in where to invest and where not to with proper reasoning.Some simple puzzles and behavioral questions.
Then they let us ask if we have any questions.
Tips: Be confident and have logics to your answer and a certain finance inclination.
HR is very important in Non-core. People sort of leave it at last minute and then they sound like scripted in interview. SO give yourself some time at least 10-15 days for getting your HR answers look right and real. Speak in front of friends or mirror.

General Tips: 1st and 2nd year: 
Just explore different options to figure out your interests. Don’t restrict yourself and try every opportunity you get in any field.

3rd year: 
Polish you selected area of interest. Talk to seniors and figure out best way forward for you.

4th year: 
keep learning and make sure you have direction in your interest and not do anything and everything that comes your way in an interest field. Your resume should tell a “ I figured my interest out” like story.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Test
Experience: This had 4 sections of 20 mcqs each. We were allotted 20 mins for each section after which theinvigilator would take away the respective section’s question paper.The 1st section was Verbal Ability.The questions were based on passages,complete the sentences with appropriate option and other general English qns such as find out error in the sentence. No question on synonym antonym except maybe 1 passage based question of that sort .English section was doable. Logic was the next section, it had questions based on blood relations, coding and decoding letters, direction sense , a passage on cubes and other logical questions which were easy overall Quants was next section which was a bit lengthy and had questions on pipes, speed distance and other prominent quants topics.Next was the programming section which had language independent questions of predict for the output of code, identify correct code, output of flowcharts and algorithms, multiple loops. Adifficult section overall.About 80 students appeared and around 37 were shortlisted
Duration: 80 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: There was no GD round unlike previous years and we had the technical round directly. I was asked to give a briefing about the projects I had done so for this ,one should know the purpose of the project ,the technology used ,the role you played ,the challenges you faced etc. Seeing my resume he asked me what I had learnt in a networking workshop I had mentioned it along with 3-4 other technical workshops. I barely remembered anything about itand said to him that I had attended it in my second year and I didn’t remember much.I alsouttered a few concepts on networking I could recollect. So make sure you don’t appear dumb about anything throughout the interview and keep the conversation going or don’t write things which you don’t remember just for enhancing your resume as it could back-fire on you.Asked me what is relational database Which editor is used in linux, what is shell scripting,commands in linux? Why JPMC?

Round: HR Interview
Experience: They don’t grill you much on technical. They just want to make sure that you will fit into their environment and work culture. Have the basic knowledge of every subject so that you can show that you have some idea and can drift the conversation in that direction if you are stuck

College Name: IIT MADRAS