Kotak Investment Banking Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Candidates with CGPA greater than 7 were shortlisted.

Round: Interview
Experience: The interview was conducted in two rounds. Questions based on my resume and some finance questions were asked.

General Tips: In ascending order of importance, for getting shortlisted:

1) PoRs
2) Extra, co-curricular activities
3) Projects
4) Technical Skills example coding etc.
5) Academic Achievements
6) Internships
7) CGPA
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: They look for a CGPA of 7+

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: be confident with answers, be thorough with all the concepts
Tips: focus on valuation, practical application of the concepts

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Again be confident, communication skills

General Tips: Know about the valuation concepts in and out.
Skills: financial analysis, financial terms, ratios
College Name: IIT MADRAS

General Tips: Apply to Verity ONLY if you are interested in pursuing a career in finance, more precisely in Investment Banking!Work hours would be long, so be prepared.
Skill Tips: "CFA level-1 preparation would help; clearing of level-1 exam would be even better!"
Skills: Finance Knowledge
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Two rounds of personal interviewAlso includes a test but supposedly got cancelled last year.CGPA Criteria: 7.0 and above

Round: Interview
Experience: 1st round consisted of finance questions like accounting etc. and questions on stuff mentioned in resume e.g., projectsBe sure to be quizzed on financial skills mentioned in your resume
Tips: Investopedia can be very useful here.Accounting fundaes are needed and courses like Infrastructure finance will help.NCFM and CFA will surely help.

Round: Interview
Experience: 2nd round will be totally HR with questions related to your strengths, weaknesses and likings.
Tips: NCFM and CFA will surely help.

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: They considered those with CGPA over 7 and looked for students who cleared CFA-I.

Round: Interview
Experience: They asked finance related questions (mostly Accounting questions, and any other expertise in finance you might have mentioned). Also, questions based on the resume too (projects, etc).
Tips: Preparing accounting fundae is beneficial, other courses like Infrastructure Finance (core course in my case) would help. Prepare for NCFM and CFA-I. These will surely help.

Round: Interview
Experience: Typical HR questions like your interests, strengths, weakness, etc were asked.
Tips: Don’t prepare for typical HR questions, that’s a blunder. My advice would be to start thinking and writing answers for HR questions, and just mug up those.

General Tips: Good CGPA always helps. Find out your interests very early, and put extra effort into those. Practice math like CAT questions, etc (even if you are not preparing for MBA), many companies have those tests.
Skill Tips: Started my preparations in August. Starting earlier might have helped, especially in HR round. (Don't prepare for typical HR questions, that’s a blunder).
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: A CGPA above 8 would be useful to get shortlisted for an interview, but may notbe necessary. A well-written and edited customized resume helps a lot. It must necessarily reflect an interest and basic knowledge of finance.Interview: HR, finance, tech and math questions are all usually rolled into one round of interview.
Tips: A good understanding of probability and/or statistics and knowledge about currents affairs and trends in the financial world would be to your benefit.A tight grasp of math (quant, especially probability) is required for finance profile. Math Puzzles with variations on the standard ones can be asked.

General Tips: Preparing for CAT would suffice for general practice of quant questions. Do not focus too much on one thing. Selection is usually random. Put fight for math/puzzles and you can score in banks/finance jobs. Finance questions are to test the thought process and not knowledge in finance as such. Probability parts would be covered in finance questions itself. Solve as many brain teasers and probability puzzles you can, you can find enough on the FTP server. Try to balance what you know and be alert.
Skill Tips: ""
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Behavioural Interview
Experience: I am shedding some light on the Nomura Recruitment Process and what you should do to avail such an opportunity (apart from Posting here:D). Please bear with me as i am using the same format as i posted in some other site smile emoticon smile emoticon .1: What was the reaction when you first got selected and how did your parents react?Trisha : Well, considering that I already had a job, I was happy and satisfied, but not ecstatic altogether. My parents however, were very glad. My basic emotion at the moment was contentment.2. Can you describe the hiring process in brief?Trisha : The hiring process consisted of a written aptitude test, followed by three interviews, two technical and one HR. The written test consisted of a quantitative section, a verbal ability section, and a section on Logical Reasoning. The first technical interview comprised of puzzles, basic questions on finance, some problems on programming and some questions about internships. The HR round was fairly simple and predictable. The second technical interview primarily revolved around a slightly complex programming problem.3. Which was the toughest question and how did you answer it?Trisha : I was asked to write a code/algorithm for a chess game in the last interview, and not being a Computer Science or Information Technology student, I was initially a little reluctant in going ahead with the problem. However, I started simplifying the problem to a code for a single King and a single Pawn, concentrating on protecting the king from all directions. The interviewer too helped me along the way by giving certain hints and directions, and eventually, over the pleasant interaction which lasted about twenty minutes, we had before us a well written algorithm for the question.4. What according to you was the company looking for in candidates?Trisha : I think the primary thing they were looking for was smartness and strong analytical skills. They wanted people who, when faced with tricky and perplexing situations, can do better than giving up right away. They wanted street smart and confident people, who had the inherent ability to quickly and efficiently develop decent programming logic.5. What tips you can give which might help other freshers applying similar jobs?Trisha : I will suggest that future aspirants practice solving some mathematical puzzles before appearing for the interview. They should appear very confident and composed throughout the entire process.6. What was that one thing which you think might have helped you over others?Trisha : I believe my confidence might have worked in my favor the most. Moreover, I am usually very good with puzzles and analytical questions, which I think was apparent, and might have played a vital role in my selection.7.Working at Nomura is going to be very challenging. What are your expectations?Trisha : As far as I am concerned, I would get bored without challenges. Hence, I look forward to a very competitive yet healthy work culture at Nomura, that enables me to acquire sufficient domain knowledge in the field of analytics, business and finance.8.Given that you have two offers now (Nomura and Indian Oil) which company are you planning to join and why?Trisha : Though I am still consulting some seniors on the matter and have not made my final choice yet, still I think I will probably join Nomura. That is so because considering my future aim of doing an MBA in finance, I believe my work-experience in Nomura will give me an edge over IOCL during the time of admissions.
Tips: Nomura and Indian Oil Corporation are two completely different companies with completely different profiles and still I being a chemical engineering graduate from BIT Mesra managed to land job offers from both of them. Nomura hires recent graduates from some of the top colleges like BIT Mesra, IITs, NITs etc. Nomura has a strong presence in India and offers a wide range of financial products and services. Nomura normally looks for analyst profiles in investment banking but from engineering colleges it’s usually for a technical profile either to create software to help other analyst make smarter trading decisions or testing profiles to improve upon already existing software. The starting salary for an analyst profile is around INR 8 LPA but within an year or two it quickly jumps to INR 13-15 LPA depending on the performance.

College Name: BIT MESRA

College Name: IIT MADRAS