Quantizer Research Analyst Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Wait time is very long to check your patience.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I had a standard resume for this company as per our institute placement cell norms. For an analyst profile at Capital One, they do look for a consistent academic performance, scholarships, Olympiads etc. So I did make sure to include all my academic achievements in my resume.

Round: Test
Experience: This was the first round and was conducted in September itself, well before the final placement process held in December. The test was based only on Data Interpretation (DI), quite similar to DI questions asked in CAT. It was a 35 minute test comprising of 30 questions. The questions were divided into sets of 4-6 questions, each set based on different data. Typically a set used to have 2 bar graphs/pie charts/line graphs and questions were based on them. Most of the questions were easy but were calculation intensive. Use of calculators was permitted. The cut off was about 22-23 questions. About 80 students were shortlisted for the first case study interview.
Tips: Be accurate. Often it might not be possible to attempt all the questions. So do not spend much time on a particular question.
Duration: 35 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first interview was relatively short – a one to one case study interview was held on the next day of the written test. The case study was mainly quantitative in nature and was based on calculation of break-even point (concept from Profit and Loss). In the case study given to me, a kiosk owner providing delivery of products to dial-in customers wished to expand his operations by setting up an e-commerce platform on the kiosk’s website. Data about the existing number of customers, new distribution of customers, profit per customer, and cost for setting up the e-commerce platform and scaling up the operations was given. I was asked to carry out break even analysis for different cases.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: 24 students got shortlisted for the next interview round which was again a one to one interview. Like the previous interview, this too was mainly focused on the analysis of the quantitative data in the case.
In the case given to me, a bank had two types of credit card customers – ones who paid off their due balance completely within the due date and those who paid only the minimum amount required before the due date and carried forward the remaining amount to the next month. There was a short discussion with the interviewer to identify the sources of revenue and costs for the two types of customers. After all the sources had been identified, I was given the data for all the costs and was asked to calculate the profit/loss the bank makes on each customer. The interview concluded with a short discussion on the possible ways of marketing the credit card. The interview lasted for about 40 minutes and because of a couple of calculation mistakes during the quantitative analysis, I couldn't make it to the next interview round.
Tips: Go through some sample case studies. Get a basic idea of how to prepare for a case study interview. Prepare well for the written test. If you are preparing for CAT, that should be more than enough in almost all the cases.

College Name: IIT ROORKEE

Round: Test
Experience: This was a test based on Data Interpretation. There were 6 passages with various questions, Each passage had 2-3 charts which had to be analysed and then questions had to be answered on the basis of that. Because each passage had so many charts, anyone could easily be confused by the amount of data thrown at them, it is key to keep yourself calm and go through the questions without missing anything important. The devil is in the details.
Tips: Practice Data Interpretation Problems. I solved the CAT Data Interpretation book by Arun Sharma, The ten minute papers were really nice as they give a feel of the time constraints that you have in solving such a paper. You could also solve Data Interpretation Manhattan GRE.
Duration: 35 minutes
Total Questions: 30

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I had 4 case Interviews, The first case interview was a small one - It went on for about 15 minutes, The second was about half an hour long, the third was also half an hour long, and the fourth case was 1 hour long. It was a really nice experience. Key to cracking a case interview is to interact a lot with the Interviewer. Ask meaningful questions, Give logical hypothesis and feasible solutions. You can be slow, but do not make any math mistakes. Ask clarifying questions, Understand the problem correctly and then give answers, Do not hurry
Tips: for case Interviews - You should read Case in Point, other than that, you should see the sample cases given on Capital One's website, and read cases from IIM A,B , Wharton Casebooks.

Skills: Data Interpretation
Duration: 2
College Name: IIT Kharagpur

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

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I started my placement journey by getting shortlisted in Capital One on Day 1. They shortlisted 125 candidates on the basis of resume.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Then, they took a case study interview and reduced the number to 30.

Round: Test
Experience: Then, they again took an aptitude test and selected none of them. But, on the day 2, I sat for the GDs and interviews of Coca Cola and got selected.

College Name: IIT KANPUR