Outlook Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be prepared and learning investment banking terms

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - More like a conversation so try to relax

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Good oppurtunity to move forward with your career

Round: Test
Experience: There was test which was purely data analysis and calculator was allowed. So the procedure that they follow is that first they shortlist 50 people and a small case interview is followed. The case I was asked was to calculate the change in the cost of a grocery store if it has changed its model from cash on delivery with a physical store to an online portal which has cash on delivery option. As I had practiced it already I took some time to give structure and then gave 3-4 reasons for change in cost and then he gave me some numbers based on which I had to calculate the break even time period or amount . But I think he expected a little bit different approach or was searching for a different solution as I wasn't selected for the final interview sessions. I think 22 people were selected for the final interview session out of which 2 people were finally selected in Cap One.

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute placement cell norms. Also my seniors advised me that for an analyst profile they would definitely look for consistent academic performance as well as academic achievements (at school/Olympiad level). So I had taken care to include the same in my resume (since the resume in our case is a standard one and does not change from a company to company basis).

Round: Test
Experience: Since I was aware of the profile they were recruiting for, I had anticipated the test. There was also guidance from my seniors as well as peers in other colleges. The written test had 30 questions and the total duration of the test was 35 minutes. The questions focused on data interpretation. Data about a company’s revenue, profit and sales in the form of graphs and pie charts was given and students were asked to analyse the same. Questions were simple and the use of calculators was allowed. The cut-off was around 23 questions (based on discussions/feedback from various students). People who have prepared for CAT would have a good idea about the kind of questions and are also aware of the relative difficulty level of various questions.
Tips: In these tests the focus should be on accuracy. Since a lot of people prepare for CAT there is high probability that a lot of candidates would be able to attempt all the questions in the written test. The focus then shifts to accuracy.
Duration: 35 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first round was a case study round held in the month September (three months prior to the actual placement process). This interview lasted for approximately 15 minutes. It dealt with the break even analysis of a credit card company’s marketing and promotion campaign. The company had the option of sending letters of promotion to prospective clients via simple postal mail or through courier. The data provided was – cost of each promotion strategy, the probability of reaching the correct client and the conversion rate of a prospective customer into a customer for the particular case. There was a constraint on the marketing budget and hence one needed an optimized solution to maximize the profits.
The first part involved giving pros and cons for both the strategies and thereafter giving a data based analysis for the given promotion strategies to come up with one which was more profitable.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The second round of the interview was held at the time of the main placement season – this time a one on one case study interview. This case focused on the break even analysis of a telecom company. The data given was the cost to company for a call (on a per minute basis), fixed price paid by the customer for the first 10 minutes and the price paid per minute of usage thereafter.
After analysis, I found that there were two break even points. Up to the first point the company was making a profit. Then there was an intermediate call duration period when the company made losses and beyond the second break even point, the call was again profitable.
As the head of the telecom company I had to decide whether to take the plan or not based on the probability distribution of the call duration and also analyse the probabilities of profit/loss.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE
Motivation: I learnt about the company and the profile from the seniors working at the company and the pre-placement talk. The placement talk was useful in getting to know about the job responsibilities and the expectations from the candidate.

Round: Test
Experience: There was a written test followed by 5 rounds of interview.The written test had 40 Data Interpretation questions and 10 Logical Reasoning questions.Duration for written test was 1 hour.

Round: MATHS ROUND
Experience: The 5 rounds of interview consisted of 4 Maths based rounds and 1 HR round.The first two interviews were held in the night .Mine particularly was at 2:30 am and 2:45 am .The next few rounds were in the morning(9 am).Questions were mainly case studies,logical reasoning and probability(Basically to check your comfort level in maths).

General Tips: Exhausting journey as there were nearly 5 interviews in a span of 10 hours (through the night) with hardly any sleep in between. It'll definitely be a good learning experience irrespective of how things turn out.
Keep in touch with aptitude. Decent speed in maths is necessary .Familiarization with Simple Interest and Profit Loss problems will come in handy during the interview stage.
Skill Tips: Books really won't help,just have to make sure your not too rusty at the time of the test and interview.The interview questions are all maths oriented,there's nothing to worry about.Don't have to solve everything just have to leave a good impression with the interviewee.
Skills:
College Name: NIT Surathkal