ZS Business Operations Associate Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Test
Experience: Easy questions
Tips: Basic level questions.
Practice grammar.
Total Questions: 30 min

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: GD turned into a fish market. It requires enormous amount of effort to remain calm and composed.
Tips: Jot down your points and channel the gd in the right direction. Be polite and clear. Jot down other people's points in order to summarise at the end.

Round: Behavioural interview
Experience: Good
Tips: Practice guesstimates.

Round: Case study
Experience: Lot of questions and data in a booklet.
8 questions in 30 minutes
Tips: Practice case studies 
Make logical assumptions so that you can explain your answers in the interview.

Round: Case interview
Experience: Stressful
Tips: Be confident and explain your answers.

Round: HR Interview
Tips: Be confident. Brainteasers can be dropped.

Skills: confidence, logical presence , case solving abilities, aptitude
College Name: NIT BHOPAL
Funny Moments: I lost my cool when asked 600*15 by the HR. 
I told him that the entire process of 6 rounds has been very hectic. And does he think I do not know how to calculate?
He just smiled and asked me to answer the same.

Round: Test
Experience: All the sections are extremely simple and no special skill is needed to sail through all of them. The skills looked for in this round are leadership, communication, team contribution and rational thinking.
Tips: It is extremely important not to get stuck on a particular question. The system is such that the next question can only be seen if you answer this. So, keep moving through the questions at a uniform pace and in the unusual case of encountering a question taking more time than expected, move on to the next one by filling in some random answer.
Duration: 60 minutes

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: We had a group of 10-12 people and were given some non-abstract topics.
Tips: Try to be voluble, but don’t make senseless arguments. Be prepared to listen, but interject if you feel that the discussion is going off track. Try to be polite. And remember that it is a group discussion and not a group argument, so blindly opposing every point being put forth is not going to help as you will be asked to summarize the discussion at the end. It is not necessary to start the discussion but try not to put off speaking till the very end because it will be very difficult and awkward trying to get a chance to speak halfway through the stipulated time and the only way to get through is to make some contribution. Towards the end when summarizing, don’t just mention your points or your views. Mention all the points discussed briefly and present the consensus of the group even though it might not be your view.

Round: Interview
Experience: An HR interview by one of the ZS executives. Will usually be a one on one round consisting of questions on the resume and the usual HR questions, a guesstimate/puzzle.
Tips: Maintain a level head. Be conversant about everything in one’s CV. Prepare for the usual HR questions. Be consistent in your answers. The worst thing that can happen to you during a PR is to let the interviewer find you contradicting or rather not corroborating something which you said a couple of minutes ago. When the interviewer tries to contradict something you said or convince you otherwise, like in my case, don’t interject him. Listen to what he has to say and at the end politely present your point. Be sure not to change your stand about that, or you’ll be marked as easily persuadable. Apart from all this, try not to be nervous and do maintain a calm composure as the interviewers will usually be very friendly.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: ou will be given a booklet containing information about a case and some questions and given 30 minutes to solve it. At the end of the 30 minutes, you will have a one on one case interview with one of the executives where you’ll present the results of your analysis and the reasons for those. In our case, we had a shoe company which supplies to warehouses, which in turn supplies to retailers. The company has some fixed sales force and the sales representatives visit both the warehouses and the retailers. Now the owner is considering splitting the sales force as reps who visit warehouses and reps visiting retailers. So, you are given the task of deciding the optimum sales force distribution based on some given data. The second problem was that the owner decided to give awards to managers having outstanding sales figures. Some data is given and you are to decide what is the best parameter for the prize and to how many people the prize is to be given and why. The third problem consisted of some more data which had an inconsistency and we were supposed to single it out analytically. Basic data interpretation and logical thinking. Although the case might sound complicated when presented without the data, rest assured that it is a fairly simple one with the kind of data provided and no special practice or training is required to solve it.
Tips: Don’t get psyched on reading the case, there are a lot of trappings and other outward decorations designed to keep you entangled. Browse through them and get to the actual data. You will find that the case is a fairly simple one. Don’t start doubting yourself and go looking for a hidden nuance or some invisible clue. To crack this round remember, as they so often say, that the simplest explanation is usually the right one.You don’t actually need to write lengthy explanations at how you arrived at the answer because the interviewer is not going read them anyway. At the end of the 30 minutes, the answer sheets will be taken from you, but they will be given back to you during the one-on-one session, where you will have to explain to the interviewer how you arrived at those conclusions. So, write only important numbers and calculations. Avoid writing anything which you can’t explain later. Also, if you can’t finish one of the three questions in time, dont fret. Try and remember what was asked and think of an approach to solve it. You’ll have some time before you are called for the one on one, so if you have an approach ready you can take another look at the data and answer that question.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Only the candidates who have cleared both Personal Interview and Case Interview will be called for this round. It will be a one-on-one HR interview with one of the partners at ZS. The principal (that is what they call the interviewer) will try and intimidate you with his attitude. It will almost be a repeat of the personal interview, but only this time the person at the other end of the table will not be so friendly. He received a couple of phone calls during the interview, on his blackberry (both of which were wrong numbers! :P) and on both those occasions there was an impatient attitude which can easily give an impression that this impatience is pretty much a direct result of the interview :P
Tips: The ability of the candidate to interact with people of higher status than himself is evaluated in this round and also how he responds under pressure. Don’t lose your cool, keep a level head and don’t get intimidated. At the same time, try not to give an arrogant impression. It will be a rapid fire session, so it will be of great help if you practice a few HR questions beforehand. Don’t get psyched by this impatient attitude routine. It is just another intimidation routine, so brace yourself and appear confident.

General Tips: The best preparation would be to talk to the seniors or friends working at the company. That is the best source of funda. Apart from that, no special skills are required to clear all the rounds.
Skill Tips: A decent CGPA - 7.5 to 8.0. Although it is not necessary to have an in-depth knowledge of all the core subjects since it will consist of HR interviews only. A fundamental idea of the concepts will always give a good impression in the rare chance of the interviewer being from the same stream. Expect a question on one of your projects or internships, which will be asked mainly to test if you were committed to your task in that particular instant. So, one should be conversant about all the projects in his resume. Any extraordinary extra-curricular achievement is always an added bonus, but by Day 5, this might be seen as an over qualification. Involvement in different spheres of extra-academic activities will show the interviewer that you are an outgoing person. ZS does not look for any outstanding achievements like many Day 1 companies, but rather a good balance in the resume. So, the extra academic involvement need not just be an Inter IIT Gold or speaking in a global conference. It might as well be captain of a hall team, G.Sec of the Department society, as in my case. No such skills were required in BAA profile but good quantitative and analytic ability gives one an upper hand in the Case Interview round. As mentioned before, there is no need to have an extraordinary project or internship; it’s enough if you know what you did. A good resume is one regarding which you can converse freely with the examiner and keep him occupied for at least 10 minutes. This is extremely important as there will be two rounds of HR interviews usually.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR

Round: Test
Experience: Online test with basic quantitative and verbal ability sections.
Tips: CAT preparation is more than enough.

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Group size is 10 . Topic is mostly based on current affairs.
Tips: Knowledge of what is happening in the world is important. In my case, the topic was whether Kingfisher Airlines should be bailed out or not.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: 30 minutes of quantitative case study to be solved individually. After the time elapses, the interviewer will ask about the solution and the approach behind it.
Tips: Quick arithmetic and being logically sound is important. Prepare from any case book such as Kellogs etc.

Round: Behavorial Interview
Experience: Simple HR questions about extra-acads, BTP (see above), personal habits etc are asked.
Tips: Focus is on time management. May ask a specific situation where you faced a time crunch situation and managed it.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Almost all the candidates who go through this get selected. The senior partner asks some questions about the resume and basic HR questions.

General Tips: One can expect questions about the BTech Project. Apart from the technicalities, the overall usage and commercialization of the project is important, since ZS is more interested in those lines. They’ll also ask about how to commercialize the technology behind the BTech project. Good internships are of course handy to make an impression.
Skill Tips: The company does look into CGPA much once you clear the cut-off. This year they recruited students with CGPA ranging from 7.5 to 9.2. Some amount of extra academic involvement is advisable. Inter-halls are fine. They ask in detail about the participation, time management, team work and leadership skills. Good participation in few events is also good and can be defended well in the above mentioned areas. No programming skills required. Ability to do mental calculations is important. They ask for a quantitative case study ( 3o minutes time), which involves some calculations. Quick arithmetic is fine.
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR

Round: Test
Experience: I could'nt recall the exact number of questions and the duration but, they were pretty easy and basic. Anyone with little practice would be able to ace them easily. There was adequate time and overall it was a childsplay.
Tips: Prepare yourself thoroughly with the basic elementary maths. Having a habit of reading would help in answering reading comprehension quickly. Grammar was very easy.

Don't panic while solving logical ability questions. It's ok to leave some, if they don't "strike" at that point of time. Make sure you go through all questions once, whether or not you've answered them.

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: There were just 30 min to solve 3 questions which had sub-parts in them (9 in all). I was able to complete them just on time. it was a race with time and I enjoyed it.
Tips: Since time is a severe constraint, the key is to get a grasp of what data is given in the question quickly. There were many tables of data and the only deciding factor would be one's ability to understand the question quickly. Once you understand the question, getting the solution is EASY. So read the question quickly and carefully. Understand it and you would be able to do it. It was just a simple problem of arithmetic. HOLD YOUR NERVE. DON'T PANIC.

Round: Interview
Experience: I was asked to explain the solution to the problem that I solved in 30 minutes. It was cool. The interviewer was interested in my approach. I just explained what I did from the solution sheet.
Tips: Don't try to explain anything that you did'nt solve there during the stipulated time. especially if it invlves soem calculations. Be honest. Don't give answers that you picked up from people outside the room. They'll easily spot it. Some of my friends who did'nt answer all questions of the case were also got selected. BE HONEST. It's good to have a smile on your face. Be honest and keep smiling. "People like those who like themselves" :)

Round: Interview
Experience: It started with the standard question "tell me about yourself", later a guestimate was asked/a puzzle to some others. Again, I can't disclose it because of the non-disclosure agreement. there were follow up questions based on introduction and questions related to resume. the interviewer was very friendly and it was really cool. went on for about 20-25 minutes.
Tips: I repeat the quote "People like those who like themselves". You should feel good about yourself and that confidence should radiate from your face. keep smiling (a genuine smile, not a made up one. It's very easy to differentiate between one that comes from heart and lips :P ) . Prepare for this question well in advance. USE THE RIGHT WORDS ("I get tensed on having to manage several thing at once" and "I feel a bit uneasy when I have too many things on my plate, I'm trying to overcome this by maintaining a to-do list", both the statements mean the same but the latter can make a lot of difference . Have a clear idea of your strengths and weaknesses. Back them with examples. write your life story like an inspiring movie script. It does'nt matter even if there were no big spikes. You should be able to communicate to the interviewer that "I know myself. I believe in myself. I mean business". Be honest. liars are easily spotted. Just be yourself. DON'T FAKE anything.

Round: Interview
Experience: The interviewer was poker faced with absolutely no emotion on his face. To my astonishment, he later asked me questions from my engineering (metallurgy), which I did'nt expect in the wildest of my dreams (I was interviewing for a consultancy :P). it went on for about 20 minutes.
Tips: Don't panic. Stick to an answer, once you have given one. Don't change it, even if asked to. CONFIDENCE is the key. have a smile on your face and tell yourself that the interviewer is having a tough time trying to hide his emotions (he bursted out into laughter after my interview), which will give you some comfort. They want to see how you react under pressure. Just have a smile on your face and answer the questions, not his emotions. REMEMBER, Integrity has no substitute.

General Tips: "People like those who like themselves", have a review of your life, write your story the way it inspires you. Confidence radiates only if you feel good about yourself. prepare well and that will add to your confidence. Be honest. Be yourself. Keep smiling.
Skill Tips: Prepare for the question "tell me about yourself" well in advance. your strengths and weaknesses backed with examples of real life instances and how you are trying to overcome your weaknesses. KEEP SMILING.

Be well prepared for the aptitude test. It was very basic, so i'm not mentioning any books here.
Skills: Working under pressure, Your awareness about yourself, Confidence
College Name: IIT KHARAGPUR
Motivation: The profile was Business Operations Associate. I wanted to get into a job that would give insights into the way business is carried out, the problems and functioning. ZS being a reputed firm and given the profile, i applied for it.
Funny Moments: I was waiting for the result after giving the stress interview. The company people were coming out once every 10 minutes, calling some name and informing them whether or not they were selected. One of my friend who had 3 lengthy HR interviews (I had 2 very short ones :P) was informed of his selection, even before I gave my case interview. I had a feeling that the interviews went well, but just then a guy who was with me for quite some time was informed of his rejection. I was confused, when a guy came out and called my name, pulse was on the rise. He came towards me with a poker face, stood in front of me for a while and said "Congratulations, we are making the offer. Thank you for bearing with us through out the day" :D (earlier in the interview, i had mentioned that i had'nt eaten anything since morning, the later part was a reply to that). Those words gave a lot of satisfaction, a parker and a tray of ferro rocher chocolates :P :D