PwC Associate Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Asked questions from all areas so please prepare well.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: This part is frustrating; especially while getting reviews after you've made a draft. However, after heavy editing based on advice from seniors, it gave me a good head-start and confidence to move on to future preparation towards placements.
Tips: Management consulting shortlist is very strongly resume based. Hence the resume is the most crucial asset for getting a shortlist in the first place. When you know the success rate for getting shortlisted is less than 10%, you better make sure your resume makes the cut.

Detailed instructions and tips on how to make a good consulting resume can be found in many books(I referred to 'Killer Consulting Resumes' by Wetfeet which is good to get your basics); It is too extensive for me to elaborate here hence I will avoid the commonly available knowledge about peaks, focus, etc. 

Summarizing the most important aspect which according to me is - Make sure every bullet-ed point has three things - 'WHAT you did, WHY/HOW you did, and the RESULTS'. All 3 should be included in one single line of text in the most robust use of words making sure you convey these. Another extremely important step in making a resume is getting reviews from seniors and alumni in firms where you are applying. This part is irritating and frustrating at times because you will need multiple iterations till the resume is refined. The key is not to get affected while getting reviews from different people and stay as objective as possible - trust me, this is not that easy as it sounds, it gets demotivating when people are critiquing on what you did in your life and how should it be portrayed on paper. This process of getting comments will never stop even after multiple iterations because of difference in opinions among the reviewers; you need to stop when you have knowingly turned down several comments keeping your own perspective in mind till you are content with your resume.

Finally make sure you complete your resume well before deadlines to avoid blunders and dissatisfaction and make sure a printed copy looks aesthetically appealing.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: General format for all the case study rounds was: (1) Tell me about yourself : I had prepared a list of what I wanted to speak about and memorized the key points to present a 2 minute monologue. However, I very keenly made sure to strike a conversation on any part where the interviewer interrupted me out of interest to ensure it sounded more like a conversation between two colleagues rather than a speech by a candidate to an interviewer. (2) Case: Coming back to the case mentioned in the question above:I considered 3 factors:(1) Market size for each geography and their growth rates(2) Market capture from competition(3) Profit per unitInterviewer: Using 1 graph each and nothing else, represent all of the 3 factors mentionedI drew the 3 most relevant graphs that came to my mind for each of the 3 factors mentioned. (3) Questions for the interviewer: I used to generally ask the guys outside the interview room to give me a brief introduction of the interviewer before the interview started. I used to use that information to ask a question to the interviewer in this part of the interview hoping to strike a chord with him before leaving.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Ask objective of driver? – Higher returns

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Calc returns (profits) for each case as your driver and as a Meru cabs driverSalary 15000 per month + bonus of 1 month salary annually.

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Meru cabs: Aggregator (no cabs of their own)
Driver need to get his own car and register on Meru cabs.

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Cost on EMI: new car – 30000 p.m. Old car –
15000 p.m.

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Cost of maintainence of old car: Rs 1.5/km

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Meru promises 15 pickups of 20 km each day at Rs
30/km. There is an additional 50% driving distance which is not paid by client

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Cost of fuel = Rs 72/L. Mileage 12 kmpl

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I typically had never expected a case of this sort as it was too broad and undefined to give in an interview. However, it clearly looked like a case of organisational reconstruction and portfolio management. In the little time I had, I decided to give an idea of how I would proceed to solve such a case rather than really solve the case by using the BCG matrix. I clearly explained the matrix making sure I had conveyed that I knew what is actually was rather than just throwing jargon around.

I don't really know how the interviewer took my approach(as it was too text-bookish);he could neither object since it was an established case solving technique nor appreciate it as there was nothing creative in it.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Use costs and discuss – final problem was increased R&D costs for customization of various gears while adding new clients

Skills: Problem Solving, Pressure Handling, Communication , Logical Thinking, Hardwork, Presentation skills
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Interview 1: This was a good case study and it did take me some time and help to get to the answer. The client was in the air conditioning business. It was barely break even while the competitors were making profits. Why and what could be done about the situation? Initial discussions revealed that the client had 2 products ; room air conditioners & central air conditioning systems. The central air conditioning systems were profitable but the room air conditioners were making losses. We went into a lot of details but whatever cost cutting we did, could also be achieved by the competitors in course of time. So there was no core differentiation that would give our client the edge. The competitors were multinationals like LG, Samsung etc. but the reason they were making profits were not because of economies of scale but because these companies have much lower marketing costs as they normally market a brand (eg LG) and not a product alone. This edge could never be achieved by our client as he was only in the air conditioning business. So it was a good idea to exit the room air conditioning market and focus on our strength in the central air conditioning market. Interview 2: The second interview had a case on valves. But we never got to the end because of shortage of time. Interview 3: This was a very interesting case study. The client is a cement manufacturing company which has to choose the best sales person of the year. There were four candidates A, B, C & D. Now what criteria should we use to choose the best sales person? The interviewer explained me how the sales business works in the cement industry. You have dealers who do the selling. The sales people negotiate deals with the dealers who have a commission on every sale. This gave us multiple criteria for judging a sales person ; total sales, best deals, maximum % of sales in the city, incremental sales since last year, presence at best dealers, good margins etc. The interviewer made sure that every criterion gave a different answer. So in the end there was no clear answer to the question. So we decided it would be a better idea to state the criterion in the beginning of the year and choose the best sales person accordingly.

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: My resume was shortlisted only twice but thankfully that was all I needed. First for Deutsche Bank (Corporate Finance summer internship, August 2013) and second for Boston Consulting Group (October 2014). I was confident about my academic interns, projects and position of responsibility. However, I was little bit unsure about my CPI which doesn't stand well among my peers. Overall, my experience for resume shortlisting has been plain and uneventful.
Tips: In order to overcome this section, one can find the following advice useful:Your resume should convey a story about you. At least, you should be able to narrate a story about yourself during HR interviews. When I say 'story', it means that your resume points shouldn't contradict each other. For example, if you are/(show in your CV) a research oriented student, then every POR you took should be justified and shouldn't reflect that you were simultaneously interested in pursuing corporate career. There should be at least one pillar in the resume which can catch the interest of the interviewer (obviously during the short listing because I believe resume isn't of much use during the personal interview).Stringent Editing ( CV 101) - Minimize the blank spaces and resume should look ordered; Things important to you (Foreign internship/positions of responsibility/summer internship/publications) should be mentioned in the 1st half of the page. You can change the order of the heading (Scholastic Achievements/Position of responsibility/Summer Internships/Publications).If you have more than 2 points under a sections then it's better to use tabular presentation format i.e. use tables Usually, I have noticed in many shortlisted CVs that it would be beneficial to show your interest in particular subject either via 'Courses undertaken/Area of interest/Academic projects'.
Get your resume reviewed by at least 3-5 distinguished seniors excluding Placement cell guides etc. It is of utmost importance.

Skill Tips: Case in point is best for Case study. Guesstimate problems can be easily found on internet. However, I learnt guesstimates from my wing mates and it was the shortest way to gain the knowledge
Skills: Case study Solving, Leadership, HR skills, Finance Current affairs, Guesstimation, Macroeconomics
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The trick here was to recognize that even though the firm had several hundred clients in each city, it was a few big clients that contributed to most of it's revenue and a distribution network targeting these few clients was the expected recommendation.
Some standard HR questions were asked, about what I would consider my most significant achievement, why consultancy etc.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The task was to explore possibility of synergy in this acquisition. The case was based entirely on common sense and elementary mathematics. The interviewer wanted me to write an equation showing how costs would reduce if two companies merge.
HR questions were about my strengths, weaknesses etc.

General Tips: 1.Work on your communication skills.
2.Consultancies look for "spikes" in your career. spikes are the areas in your resume where you have shown outstanding performance.
3.Practice the case studies in groups. Avoid technical jargon and frameworks.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The first interviewer asked me some standard stuff about Mood Indigo and my internship at ITC. He also later asked me about a course project I had mentioned in my resume and what impact it had. The case he asked me was one where there were different markets for a certain product, each with its own prices and size. I was asked to explain which market should the firm invest in and why. The second interviewer had a case about a tractor company in Maharashtra whose profitability was going down. He gave some data as I asked and one had to work his way to the fact that of lately the tractors being produced were not up to the mark. He had modified the case data differently for different candidates, so for someone else the case involved figuring out that the soil in Maharashtra was of a certain kind where a better tractor was required which a competitor was able to launch, etc.
Tips: I think at times I wasn't being myself, I normally solve cases aggressively and quickly come to a certain conclusion. But I was trying to be over careful and hesitating to state the obvious without thrashing out the case in full detail. I felt maybe the interviewer would have preferred me to stick to the former method. However, in the other company I felt exactly the opposite. Hence I think it really depends on the interviewer and the case in consideration, but my advice would be to try and be more & yourself than adopt some method suggested by seniors which you are not really comfortable with

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The first round of selection process for a consulting firm is generally resume shortlisting. So, it is a very important step in the process as the chances of getting shortlisted are less than 10%. I had spent about 25 days in making the one pager resume. 


First 10 days : Studied resumes of people who got shortlisted for consulting firms in last 2-3 years. Tried to grasp the similarities and patterns and what actually constitutes the word "spike".  
Started to prepare the first draft of the resume using my previous resumes and some new points.


Next 7 days (the most productive time):After preparing the first draft comes the time of self critique and analysation. Tried to go through in each and every paragraph to make it more impressive and easily understandable. Showed it to some close friends and seniors to give honest advice. 

Last 7 days (external advice):Showed the resume to seniors in consulting firms and tried to make changes according to their views. It's very important not to loose patience in these days. It become frustrating in the last days because you just run out of ideas. Took print outs to see if it looks aesthetically sound.
Tips: 1. Each subheading in your resume should contain points in the following fashion : (a) what did you plan to do/an overall objective of the project/internship (1 line). (b) how did you do it (1-2 lines) : show figures in this. (c) what did you achieve (1 line) : show figures/awards/impact/output. Part (c) is very important. If you don't have it under any paragraph, you might want to consider to remove it.


2. You should be ready to talk about each and every point in your resume for about a minute in the interview so make sure you understand each and everything before penning it down.


3. Double check for grammatical errors and aesthetics.


4. Make sure a lot of qualities such as creativity, teamwork, leadership are brought up in your resume.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It started with the usual tell me about yourself. Tried to look enthusiastic in that part of the interview and maintained an eye contact with the interviewer. Moved to the case later on.It was a business situation which could fit in a structure. The interviewer tested my : 1. Understanding of the business ie if I am asking the right question at the right time. 2. Calculations and overall feel with numbers.  3. Confidence and communication skills.
Tips: 1. Make sure you look enthusiastic and happy (smile when you get inside the room).2. Be confident, its okay to make mistakes in a case but don't make a blunder.3. Ask questions in the end and seem interested.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was an unconventional case and you can expect that in Bain very often. Try to make the structure as MECE as possible. For example, how can you improve cleanliness :(a) you don't litter (b) you clean up the mess which already exists.This first level is very MECE. Then you dig deeper into both (a) and (b) and structure it further. 


When faced by such unconventional cases, think out of the box and take more time in the starting to understand the case and layout the structure.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was my final interview in Bain. If you have reached this stage of the process, its very likely that you will get selected. You just need to relax and have a conversation with the interviewer. It is more of a conversation on a flight rather than an interview. You have to appear professional, interesting and enthusiastic. The interviewer will give you enough chances to share your thoughts, beliefs, opinions and bring out your character.

General Tips: It has to be your day to get into the company of your choice. Things have to fall into place. Just believe in yourself!
College Name: IIT BOMBAY