Nielsen Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Other Interview
Experience: Q1.Tell me about yourself.
Then I was asked about my past internship, PoRs
Then I was asked why I wanted to do a non core internship.
After that, I was asked a puzzle (Similar to a puzzle in the book "Heard on the Street".
Then I was asked a guesstimate question. It was: Estimate the amount of Surf (washing powder) used in India everyday.
It lasted for around half an hour. It was a telephonic round
Tips: Be thorough with your resume. They mainly asked resume based questions in this round.

Regarding puzzles and guesstimates, walk your interviewer through your answer.

General Tips: Be thorough with your resume.
Practice puzzles and guesstimates.
Practice a few cases.
Skills: Presentation Of Facts In Resume, Project And Internship, Guesstimate Skills, Case Solving Ability, Quantitative Aptitude
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Prepare from Pariksha.
Tips: Be fast.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 45

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: They guide you through the process.
Tips: Prepare puzzles from various sources and practice with friends.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Keep calm and answer with confidence.
Tips: Prepare general guestimate.

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: Although it was mentioned that there will be a resume shortlist but it did not happen in our case. The cpi cutoff for writing the test was 6.0. It was an aptitude test - 40 ques 45 mins (20 Quant/DI, 10 LR, 10 Verbal). The questions were in the average range. One just needs to solve as many correct questions as possible. Around 55 students were selected for the interviews.

General Tips: Practice aptitude. If you do not clear the test then there is no use of all the knowledge you have. Practice puzzles, guesstimates and probability questions. You should know EVERYTHING that is in your CV. Just stay cool and you will surely excel in exl.
Skills: Probability And Statistics, Machine Learning, Puzzle Solving Capability
Duration: 1-4 weeks
College Name: IIT Guwahati

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

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