Foreword

As companies worldwide get more and more concerned about hiring the right talent
for their key positions, candidate evaluation during interviews has become all the
more sophisticated. The case interview is unique in the sense that it presents the
candidate with a problem to be solved in the context of real-world business
situations and seeks solutions that tests both logical reasoning and creativity. It
allows the interviewer to evaluate the candidate’s skills in deconstructing a problem
and communicating their thought process, the ability to think on their feet, handle
ambiguity and assess their comfort with numbers. Although, traditionally used by
consulting firms in their recruiting processes, the case method is now increasingly
used for jobs across functions whether general management or investment banking.

The casebook by The Consulting & Strategy Club of IIM Lucknow documents the
various frameworks and techniques that can be used in a case interview and also
candidates’ interview experiences by different firms that have been hiring from the
IIM Lucknow campus over the years. These frameworks can be used as a starting
reference, but over time the candidate will have to develop his/her own approach
to problem solving. The ideal way to use this book would be for the candidate to
first arrive at a case solution employing his own approach and then enhance his
learning through comparison with the approaches documented in the casebook.

The Consulting & Strategy Club

Anurag | Aviral | Ayush | Megha | Sourav | Shubhankar | Supratik | Vatsal

Dhruv | Kashyap | Jasmeen | Jatin | Mudit| Sakshi | Shobhit | Srividya
 01 Accenture Management Consulting
20182018 02 Mckinsey & Company
03 The Boston Consulting Group
 Case Frameworks
Case Category Framework
Profitability Revenue-Cost Breakdown
Market Entry PESTLE, Five Forces
Pricing Pricing Tripod
Positioning Three C’s, 4P’s
Abstract -

4 P’s Framework
 Five Forces Framework

Profitability Case Approach

Market Entry Case Approach
Pricing Case Approach
 Finals Interview Experiences – 2018

Interview Transcripts
Accenture Management Consulting
Name Rahul R Kamath
Graduation College BMS College of Engineering Branch Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience Schneider Electric (22m), Domain Manufacturing, Supply Chain
PGP Internship – Amazon (Operations-SC)
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 Not Sure - Senior Consultant (Not Partner)
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself.
Why Consulting?
Why Accenture?
Few CV based questions
Guesstimate of Electric Cars in India if a foreign manufacturer is to enter;
Interview Number - 1 Case
Implement Lean in a company that services elevators
Interview 1 case Transcript Approach followed as per MECE
Interviewer 2 Senior Consultant
Interview 2 HR Questions Lot of questions regarding Amazon and about cost optimization
Interview Number – 2 Case NA
Interview 2 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 3 Partner Round + Senior Consultant
Interview 3 HR Questions Why Accenture?
How Amazon can do well in future?
Why should Accenture hire you?
Interview Number – 3 Case None
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Remarks Prep for Why Accenture? and why you ?
Approach is more important in Accenture Case or guesstimates and not numbers

Name Shashwat Goel

Graduation College IIIT Delhi Branch -
Work Experience S&P Global Market Intelligence, Futures Domain IB, Consulting
First (18m); PGP Internship – Alvarez &
Marshal
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 Name: Bimag (Designation NA)
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself.
The client is a tech major. They have 3 verticals in which they are operational - Core solutions, Basic
essentials and Cloud. He is performing well in basics and cloud but has fallen behind in Core Solutions
which was also his cash-cow at one point of time. His F/B/I (Finance/Banking/Investing) arms are the key
Interview Number - 1 Case
to revive the Core Solns. business.

Come up with a comprehensive structure and help the client in over-coming this problem.
Interview 1 case Transcript -
Interviewer 2 Name: Shantanu (Senior Manager)
Interview 2 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself
2. Tell me in detail about your internship project - team's contribution and your contribution
3. How did you approach the problem and what was the solution you ultimately pitched to the client?
4. Are you comfortable with in-depth questions about the insurance industry now? (Asked because my
internship project was based on designing investment strategy for the client for investing in the
insurance sector of India)
My client is LIC which has 1200 branches in India. The CEO comes to you and says - 1000 branches are
Interview Number – 2 Case
performing well whereas 200 are not. Help me out.
Interview 2 case Transcript Lots of cross questioning with the evaluator on case facts and performance parameters.
Interviewer 3 Name: Krishnamurthy (Designation NA) and one more guy (can't recall the name)
Interview 3 HR Questions 1. Tell us something not on your CV
2. Now tell us something about yourself
3. You mentioned that you have won so many case competitions and quizzes but how will it help
Accenture?
4. Why consulting and not investment banking when you are tailor made for it?
5. How will you justify joining a management consulting firm when your entire work ex is entirely in
finance?
6. Work ex in finance. Specialisation in marketing. Internship and all these case comps speak of
consulting/strategy. You have been all over the place. What's your ultimate aim?
Interview Number – 3 Case None
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Remarks Do's - Read well about the firm, the role, the responsibilities involved and how will you prove to be an
asset to the company. You should be fully convinced yourself that the company requires you more than
you require them. Then all other conversational and spontaneous HR Q&A will be relatively easier and
will sound convincing.

Don'ts -
1. Don't be overconfident - These people have taken hundreds of interviews across various campuses
and can sense arrogance easily
2. Don't take them for a ride - These guys are domain experts in their respective industries/function
groups. Do not try to bluff with them. Your poker skills should be limited to your respective hostel rooms
only
3. Don't be blank about your CV - Know your CV in and out. Even the name of that teacher with whom
you designed that random erupting volcano experiment in Grade 5 Science class should be at your
fingertips (provided it's written in your CV)

Remember: At the end of the day they are spending so much time and resources (monetary and
otherwise) to select/hire you. So don't go with a mindset that they have a preconceived bias and are hell
bent on rejecting you. Be prepared and make their job easier to extend an offer to you.

McKinsey & Co.

Name Sujit Emmanuel
Graduation College BITS Pilani Branch Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience Bain Capability Center (22m); PGP Domain Consulting
Internship – Accenture Strategy
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.
Interviewer 1 Malcolm (AP)
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself, Tell me about your work at BCC (talked a while about this), Are you tensed? What
activities have you been a part of on campus
I am a Biotech company planning to setup an R&D center in India. I am planning to recruit a new batch.
Interview Number - 1 Case
What is the size of fresh talent produced by India every year which is available for me to hire?
Interview 1 case Transcript I- Please do ask any clarifying questions if you have any
C- Repeated the question, took little more context (understood he needed inexperienced people),
identified which streams to hire (Undergrad and Masters, without PhD). Also decided which are the
relevant streams: Bachelors in Biotech/ BPharma/ MPharma
*I took a minute to think and identify a strucutre
C- Started with a supply side approach, defining three types of colleges that one could hire from
(Engineering, BSc./MSc. colleges and Specific colleges for biotech). Asked the interviewer if this makes
sense
I- Yes, that seems allright (Starts working on the laptop in the meanwhile)
C- Started working on the numbers, of number of colleges.
I- I dont want you to take this approach. What are all the possible ways of doing this quick, I want
innovative answers
C- You could try Demand side, Supply side, Check on Linkedin, Look at the hiring numbers of similar firms
across India
I- try the demand side
C- Divided india population into rural, urban; removed bpl, put a split for people who go for graduation,
the split by age group, took 18-25 age group, divided their interest in to 3 (engineering 50%, Bsc 20%,
biotech specific-1%) then looked at percentage within each of these which have the relevant degrees.
For engineering took 1/10 as there are 10 courses generally offered, for bsc (took 5 basic sciences (bio
one of it) and assumed it has psycho, bio proper and biotech) hence took total 1/15, and total for pure
biotech specific. Then divided these numbers by number of years of these courses. Got a total number
I- had gone through each numbers. he adds, this number seems too high ? Are you sure
C- lets backcalculate. I assumed 30 states. Lets say we have 100 engineering colleges per state
I- It seems too high, rethink, say 50
C- Lets assume50 engg, 20 bsc, 1 pure biotech. Took approx batch sizes for each and came with the total.
Came with total of 1 lakh
 I- Earlier you got 5 lakhs now you got 1 lakh. Which one do you agree with.
C- We could take an average or retest the assumptions in the first approach
I- That will be enough. We can end here
Interviewer 2 Ankur (Over VC, Partner)
Interview 2 HR Questions Introduced himself, asked how the earlier interview went, asked couple of questions about my work
experience (ended very quickly)
Multiple caselets. Asked me to be precise and said that he would move to the next question if he was
Interview Number – 2 Case
satisfied with the answer
Interview 2 case Transcript I- I have to improve the gross margin of a company and I cannot change the price or reduce the costs.
How can you do this?
C- Change the product mix
I - I have to improve the service level from 80% to 90%, Inventory days from 100 to 50, and
Transportation cost. Tell me two ideas which can improve all the metrics
C- Said technology and workforce training, he said its too generic and fits everywhere. Tried giving
multiple ideas, seemed to agree with one and the rest he left hanging
I- I have a truck fully packed with soaps and seated with a driver. He is currently in France and plans to
follow a straight line path to Zurich. I am a consultant who just noticed the situation and figured I can
provide 20% cost reduction, whats my idea?
C- Broke down all the variables into respective cost component that could come on the path and also the
packing fraction of the truck. Went through a lot of possible issues. A lot of different structures I tried to
find the issue, he kept asking for more ideas.
I- I am Haldirams Sales manager for North India and I have been asked to reduce the margin from 20% to
15% to Big Bazaar, how will I do this?
C- Again multiple ideas given (AMS classes helped here as Kumra Sir had talked a lot about Sales and
Distribution recently in class), he agreed with some, said 2% is still left. I will give you 1 more minute, its
make or break. *VC connection breaks, in the meanwhile desperately thinking of ideas. After 3 minutes
connection regains
C- Since I took more than the allotted time, let me give you 3 ideas.
I- Started laughing
C- Gave the three ideas and completed the interview.
I- Do you have any questions
C- Asked a question about his experience in CPG (he was ex-HUL, he later mentioned)
Interviewer 3 Vikas (Partner)
Interview 3 HR Questions You have a lot of consulting background, so why do you want to keep doing it ? Tell me more about your
work in Bain, If you are in charge of McKC, what are the three changes you will implement, Tell me an
instant where you worked in a team and created impact, Where do you think the Telecom sector (CV
based) is headed, If you are the CEO of Airtel then what will you do? Do you have any questions for me?
Interview Number – 3 Case NA (10-15 minutes of HR)
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Remarks Be confident through the day, cases are simpler than what you practice for. Try to improvise through the
interview and keep your cool. This is what worked for me.

Name Aasrith Kandula

Graduation College NIT Warangal Branch Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience ITC, Omni RK - Operations (10m); PGP Domain Operations, Finance
Internship – HUL (Finance)
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.
Interviewer 1 Ankur Modi, Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions Initial introductions and chit chat
I was walking in an Ice cream factory, I looked around and found out that I could cut costs by 20%, What
Interview Number - 1 Case
did I find? ; I had to setup a laundry powder factory, what would I look at? Fund arrangement?
Interview 1 case Transcript For the first question, have him a normal factory costs break-up; second question was a normal
brainstorming one.
Interviewer 2 Suvojoy Sengupta, Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions Introductions & HUL internship (Basic project description)
Interview Number – 2 Case How to motivate people to buy electric cars?
Interview 2 case Transcript Did a preliminary life cycle cost comparison. (Had to use Power = Voltage * Current !!), proposed what
the government can do (increase taxes on petrol etc.)
Interviewer 3 Malcom Gomes, Associate Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions Why McKinsey? (Was impressed !), What did you do at HUL? Some more chit chat
Interview Number – 3 Case NA
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Remarks Making it conversational is the most important thing. You actually have some leeway in making a few
mistakes. You don't have to be perfect. The interviewers were very helpful.
Name Kumari Ankita
Graduation College BIT Mesra Branch Engineering-ECE
Work Experience TATA Steel (Operations-GenMan) (24m); Domain Operations, Supply Chain
PGP Internship – ITC (Supply Chain)

Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.

Interviewer 1 Suvajoy- Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions About Internship project in detail, impact of GST on logistics industry(detailed)
Interview Number - 1 Case Total logistics cost for India is about 12%, the government wants to bring it down
Interview 1 case Transcript Structuring+ Discussion about 1.) Causes of the issue 2.) Benchmarking 3.) Resolution Mechanism;
Number+ logic driven case
Interviewer 2 Vikas: Pharma, Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions Sectors I follow, why consulting
Estimate size of the field force required to sell a new premium diabetic drug, mostly conversational,
Interview Number – 2 Case more about idea generation than numbers, was trying to gauge how you handle an industry you are not
comfortable with
Interview 2 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 3 Malcom Gomes, Associate Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions About previous interviews
A bank(selling insurance products) is facing operational issues with due diligence as most of it arises
Interview Number – 3 Case
towards the end of the month. How do you rationalize it
Interview 3 case Transcript 1.) Structuring about the causes of the problem 2.) How to resolve: both supply side and demand side.
Wanted 3 big recommendations
Any Remarks Dos: Just be confident, none of the case interviews were in my comfort area, but confidence in each of
the rounds helped me. Structuring and idea generation are equally important. Both are tested in one or
the other interview. Doing a handful of cases just helps you tackle any case on that day.
Don'ts: Don't succumb to peer pressure in any regards, chalk out your own prep plan and follow it

The Boston Consulting Group

Name Apurva Jha
Graduation College IIT Kharagpur Branch Economics
Work Experience Barclays (18m); PGP Internship – Citibank Domain Finance
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Prateek, don't remember the designation
Interview 1 HR Questions NA
Client has a tractor assembly plant in India. They get all the parts from other parts of India but
manufacture Gear Boxes in the assembly plant. Now want to have one more manufacturing unit.
Interview Number - 1 Case
Option1: Have the additional unit in the existing plant in India. Option2: Establish a new unit in China.
Which one would you suggest?
Interview 1 case Transcript Asked a little basic questions and then moved ahead. Said that I would look into cost comparison for the
two. Divided into Fixed and Variable. He asked me to mention the components of both. After he was
satisfied that all the components were mentioned, he asked me to move ahead.
He gave me numbers for whichever component I asked. Then it became simple calculation problem.
Answer was China.
At the end, he also asked if there were some strategic factors to look upon. I structured that into 'people'
and 'processes' and mentioned the costs under each and then also talked about the operational cost
reduction in the long run.
Interviewer 2 Vikas, Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions Why consult? What are some of the pitfalls of consult? One thing that you have done that you are very
proud of?
An 70 yr old guy who is the owner of an FMCG company want to open a new company in FMCG
Interview Number – 2 Case
Ecommerce space. Should he go for it or not?
Interview 2 case Transcript It was more about a conversation rather than pen-paper-solving and structuring. I did a basic level of
structuring to show the macro and micro factors to look at. He mentioned that all the Ecommerce
businesses are into losses. And as the size grows, they will make further losses.
I still went ahead into mentioning the products that could be offered. Here an interesting point came
about selling services. We discussed Alibaba and some other Ecommerce businesses like BigBasket. It
was more about a conversation.
Towards the end, he said he wanted an answer- yes or no.
I said yes and explained how the current networks of the company can be leveraged upon. "
Interviewer 3 NA
Interview 3 HR Questions NA
Interview Number – 3 Case None
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Remarks Keep smiling and keep calm. The interviewer is there to guide you through so don't worry about the
outcome of the case. Just keep an open mind and take a step back whenever you feel you are stuck.

Name Devesh Chincholikar

Graduation College IIT Roorkee Branch Eletrical Engg
Work Experience iRunway (10m); PGP Internship – HUL Domain Consulting, Marketing
Marketing
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Project leader
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself, and some counter questions on why did I not chose to pursue an MS instead of
an MBA even after working extensively on tech projects
Interview Number - 1 Case An underground mining company wants to increase their productivity by 20%
Interview 1 case Transcript C: I would like to reiterate my understanding of the business. The client is in an underground mining
business, and wants to increase productivity by 20%.
I: Yes
C: Can I know what is the process of extracting, the output and what do we mean by productivity?
I: So, the client digs out underground mines, extracts ores, and by productivity, we mean the tonnage of
ores extracted per unit area
C: Can I know the customers of the client and the geography it operates in?
I: Irrelevant. I think you are not able to grasp this problem correctly. Is that right?
C: Yes, I am sorry but I am not able to understand how to narrow down this problem. Can you help me to
understand it more clearly?
I: Okay. I’ll walk you through the steps of this extraction problem. So the process takes place in 5 steps:
Step 1,2,3,4,5
I: What do you think is the most crucial question for this problem?
C: I would like to know the time and labor required for each of these steps.
I: Good question. //Gave the information//
C: What time of day does the process operates, as in, do we operate in shifts?
I: So there are 3 shits of 8 hours each in a particular day.
C: Okay. So from the time you told me for each step, we can see there can be 3 iterations of the process
in one shift, and still x amount of time would be left. Is that correct?
I: Yes, but they also take around 60 min back and forth to travel till the mine location.
C: Alright. So, that makes it 2 shifts, and y amount of time still left. Can I know what do labors do during
this free period.
I: They just chill out. How would you approach this case?
C: So, productivity can be increased when we either reduce the time required to extract a fixed tonnage
of ore, or we decrease the cost associated with the extraction, i.e. either by reducing the labor or using
technology.
I: Okay. I would like you to focus on the time aspect only.
C: Can I just take a minute to jot down my thoughts.
I: Sure.
C: So, I will like to divide the time of process in two parts: One when the process, i.e. the 5 steps take
place, and one when the process doesn’t take place. Then, I would try to reduce the amount of time for
both the categories. If I try to improve process time, it may lead to a reduction in the left over time after
2 iterations, and we can try to fit in another iteration. While, we can try to reduce the free time by doing
a few process in the leftover time, so that the next shift workers could just take it up from there.
I: Okay. Reducing the time of actual process doesn’t seem feasible, since it would involve changing the
cycle time of each process. Why don’t you suggest me some measures to use the non-process time more
productively? Also, by how much do you think the productivity rise, if we make them work in the free
time.
C: Okay. //Did some calculations, made a mistake, but the interviewer guided me, and helped me
understand that just by using that time effectively, the productivity can rise by 16%//. I would like to
understand why the labors are not using that time productively right now?
I: What do you think?
C: Since, the labors are already skilled in doing that process, it may be because, they are lacking
motivation in terms of incentives. Can I know ho does the client pay them?
I: Let’s say they are paid per unit coal extracted.
C: Ah! They are not doing it because since doing partial steps won’t extract any further coal, and they
wouldn’t be paid anything for the work they would perform in the free time.
I: Exactly! What do you suggest the client do?
C: Would you like me to suggest some specific HR policies for incentivizing the labors to start performing
step no. 1,2 in the free time, so that the next shift takes on there.
I: Yes.
C: Just give me a minute.
C: So, we can divide the HR policies into two categories: Hard and Soft.
 I: The client is interested in knowing the hard policies.
C: I can see two things: 1. Linking the salary/incentives to the time spent in doing operations instead of
digging out the ore. 2. Linking not doing work with their job security. Also, I would also like to know how
we monitor the work performed by our labors currently. Do we have CCTV cameras, or it is only
monitored by the next batch of workers?
I: The latter one. We would only know if they worked in the free time, if the next batch of workers tell us
so.
C: The first suggestion may result in an overall loss of productivity, so we’ll have to think a middle
ground. Can I know how would tweaking their salary structure a bit would entail any reaction from the
workers.
I: Why would that be?
C: They may be a part of the union, and making some changes might cause problems.
I: Okay.
C: Would you like me to list a few more options to implement this?
I: No, I think that’ll be it. Don’t worry, it was a tough problem. Any questions?
C: It looks like a real life problem. How did you approach this case?
I: Haha! Sorry we are short of time. Why don’t you brainstorm till the evening and we will discuss it if we
meet?
C: Okay! Thank you.
Interviewer 2 Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions Started with the case immediately. After the case ended, asked about the work as VM in MV. Also, asked
about interest in music and performances in 3.4
Interview Number – 2 Case The client needs to set-up a new gear manufacturing plant. Needs to compare China vs. India
Interview 2 case Transcript I: Our client is a COO of an automotive factory based in Karnataka. They have a manufacturing plant with
different set-ups for producing gear, wheels etc. They want to ramp up their production of gears. There
are two ways to do it – first is to just set-up another unit in the existing factory, and second is to set-up
one factory unit separately in China owing to the low costs there. The COO wants to meet us for
discussing this matter. What would be the key points you’d like to bring in the discussion. Also
remember, the client would like the analysis to be backed up by numbers.
C: Alright! May I know why does the client needs to ramp up the gear production?
I: It is primarily because of an increase in Demand.
C: The way I would like to proceed for this case is by first understanding the costs involved in producing a
gear, comparing them for both India and China, and ultimately discuss some risks of setting up a unit in
China. Does that sound fine?
I: Okay. Where do you want to start?
C: Can you please walk me through the value chain of producing a gear?
I: What do you think?
C: Based on my understanding, I can divide the costs in these brackets: Raw materials, Storage and
Transportation, Processing, Storage and Transportation, and finally delivery to the assembling unit. Do
you think I am missing something?
I: No, that is correct.
C: I will now enumerate the costs inside specific buckets.
// Just kept on asking cost points on various aspects, like raw material mix, cost of setting up a unit in
India vs. in China, transportation cost from China, custom duties, storage costs etc.
C: Now, I would like to create a table and calculate the total costs for producing gear in both the
countries.
I: Go Ahead.
C: So, it looks like China has a significant cost advantage with respect to India in production of gears. This
advantage is mainly driven by 3 factors: x,y, and z.
I: What do you recommend?
C: Based on the cost assessment, China would me the preferred location. However, I would also like to
analyze if there can be any risks associated with the entry.
I: Sure. Go ahead.
C: There can be mainly 3 kinds of risks: Political/legal risks pertaining to the FDI regulations of the
country, Technological risks since China is pretty infamous for IP infringement and we may have a
proprietary gear production set-up, and social risk because the labor setting may be different for both
the nations.
I: Do you think there may be positive aspect associated with the entry?
C: Yes, I think the labor aspect would be positive, as in India we have unionized labor, and in China we
may get a more preferable contractual labor setting.
I: Alright. I think we can stop here.

Interviewer 3 Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions Started the interview with Why Consulting, and Why BCG?
1) Asked a guesstimate on the total number of sunglasses sold in India 2) A salesman who sells Kinley
Interview Number – 3 Case
bottles is not able to increases sales, what would you recommend?
Interview 3 case Transcript Basic framework used. Not much discussion on numbers, simply saw my approach, and asked how would
I collect usage data?
 For the salesman case:
I: Our client is a salesman who sells Kinley bottles to retail stores. He hasn’t been able to increase the
number of bottles sold and has come to us for a recommendation. What would you tell him?
C: May I know since when have the sales been constant, and how long has he been in the business?
I: He is 35 years in the business, and the sales have been constant for more than a year.
C: May I know how many bottles is he currently able to sell? And how much has the competitor salesman
been selling?
I: He’s able to sell 3 cartons every week. While, he has been stagnant at that number for some time now,
his competitors have been increasing their sales.
C: I would like to proceed in this case by first, analyzing if the sales can be increased through the current
number of retailers, or if not, can we increase the number of retailers in the given territory?
I: Sure. How would you do that?
C: May I know how is Kinley, as a brand performing w.r.t. to its competitors in terms of promotional
aspects?
I: The brand has high mindshare and is the industry’s top brand.
C: Has there been a change in pricing with Kinley, not reflected by the competitor brands?
I: No, there hasn’t been any.
C: Has our retailers been able to sell all the bottles they buy from the salesman in a given week?
I: Yes
C: Have they increased their intake from other competitor salesman?
I: No, they have kept it the same.
C: It looks to me that we have already exhausted the maximum amount of bottle we can sell to existing
retailers – given that there’s no increase in demand expected from the customer side on the stores we
cater to. So, I would like to explore if we could start targeting more retailers.
I: Currently, the salesman spends all of his time in visiting the existing stores. How will you do that?
C: We can think of measures to reduce the time/store, or increase the total time he spends working?
I: How can he reduce the time/store?
C: As you tell that the salesman has been in the service for so many years, I think we can assume 1) he
already has a fair idea of the requirement of existing retailers 2) the relationship is strong
I: Yes
C: A few ideas that I can think of: 1) Reducing the frequency of visit to the existing stores 2) using mobile
phones to take the orders rather than physical visit 3) Directly sending the fixed requirement rather than
taking orders each time
I: Okay. I think I have understood your approach to the problem. We can end the discussion here.
Any Remarks -

Name Cebin P Sebastian

Graduation College IIT Madras Branch B Tech Engineering Physics
Work Experience HCL Healthcare (16m); PGP Internship - Domain Finance
Standard Chartered Bank
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 -
Interview 1 HR Questions Comments on weather and gen chit chat.
Take me through your CV quickly?
Why a gap of 2 years?
Why civil services?
Client is a oral care FMCG who want to increase its sales force productivity. How will you help ?
Interview Number - 1 Case
Interview 1 case Transcript C - May I know more about the company - what are its products and geography of operation?
I - It produces typical oral care products like toothpastes and brushes it has presence across India.
C - What sort of price range are we currently in? Can I know more about the size and market share?
I - Clients have products across price range. The market share is not relevant for this.
C - How does the sales force operate now? What is the composition of sales force?
I - Sales force is organized geographically. Typical sales guy would be a 10th or 12th pass out earning
~20k per month.
C - How is productivity defined?
I - It is total sales upon number of sales persons
C- Can I take some time in organizing my thought
I - Sure
C- I would look at in 3 segments (draws) - Ability, Motivation & Opportunity
I - I dont think this is the right approach. Can you come up with a mathematical formula?
C - (after some thought) How does the sales guy operate typically?
I - He would visiting shops in allocated areas and make sales like you see in a typical FMCG model.
C- (after some time) Productivity = avg. number of shops visited * conversion into sales * avg. sales per
converted customers
I - Okay. Can you suggest 3 measures in each of the three categories?
C - In the first bucket - we can provide better transport facility
 I - You are planning to reduce time between visits?
C - Yes. Also we can increase the working hours or increase coverage area of a sales person.
I - Okay. Increasing the work hours would help
C- We can reduce the time spent in shops. This can be through support through collateral or neat
packaging to optimize time spent in a shop....We can also help sales persons to locate stores better by
route optimization via a mobile application
I - Okay.. lets move to next bucket..
C- To increase the conversion % we can provide marketing support with attractive offers and as
campaigns. This includes volume discounts as well as ATL and BTL campaigns. Also, we can provide
training to the sales force.
I - Okay, Lets move to the last bucket without wasting time.
C- To increase the sales, sales skills may be developed through training programs.
I - What can sales guy do to increase volume? Think in terms of demand side...
C - (time) He can push for better shelf space to increase visibility; this can be complimented by marketing
support given to them.
I - I think we have covered most of the points...
Interviewer 2 -
Interview 2 HR Questions Your CV looks like a fin CV. Do you want to go into consulting?
What other shortlists do you have?
What was your work in HCL Healthcare?
What was my internship project?
Client is a Tractor manufacturer who has a assembly facility in India. Gear boxes are currently
manufactured in a plant inside the facility. This plant is experiencing capacity constraints. CFO wants you
Interview Number – 2 Case
to evaluate two proposals - 1 to build second plant inside the facility; 2. build a plant in China were raw
material costs are less.
Interview 2 case Transcript I - How will you start the analysis?
C- We can use the NPV analysis along with certain qualitative parameters...
I - Okay lets proceed with NPV
C - What would be the expected production from the plant?
I - 5000 units per year
C - What is the plant life?
I - 5 years
C - What are the raw material used along with costs?
I - three raw materials - with Indian price given with chinese prices as x% lower than indian prices ( per
unit of gear box)
C - Details of capital investment costs - Plant building & land etc. in China?
I - numbers given
C - What about the human resource, other operational and overhead costs?
I - Gives the numbers for China and gives Indian values as x% lower than China's
C - WHat would be the cost of capital for the company?
I - Assume it to be zero for the analysis.
C - I think I have enough information to analyse.
I - Are you sure. Arent you missing something?
C- (time) Shipment costs of transporting costs to India.
I - Yes. What all costs would it include?
C - packing; transport to port; duties/charges at port; shipment cost; duties at landing; transport to
facility; final processing or assembly if any
I - gives the combined value per gear box
C - calculates the NPV and makes a minor error; pointed out by interviewer
C- from NPV it is clear that Chinese option is better
I - Okay. Looks good. What other factors will you consider?
C - Exchange rate risk is a major factor - so there will be a hedging cost; Political and regulatory
restrictions in both campanies along with tax implications. Perhanps more importantly the raw material
costs might rise in China
I - Okay. What else?
C - Management capacity to operate the plant in China; Time to set up operations etc.
I - All of these are negatives. What are the advantages of the strategy?
C - We are testing waters with the project in China. If things are good we can shift complete
manufacturing to China.
Interviewer 3 -
Interview 3 HR Questions We look for a thread in a CV. In your case, you seem to jump a lot.
Why choose this path?
Why didnt you continue preparing for civil services?
You will be 28 when you join. Many in your age will be at a higher level. How ill you deal with it?

Our client is a energy company who went into connected home segment in US. They want to enter India;
Interview Number – 3 Case can you help them with market sizing

Interview 3 case Transcript C - questions on connected device & motives of entering India.
I - it is similar to a wifi hub with devices connected to it. Plug and play style.
They want to increase the sales as well as profit
 C - Price range in US?
I - $xx
C - Do they have a price range in mind?
I - You have to help them with pricing
C - We can start by finding the target segment size in India.
I - GO ahead
C - Divides population (no. of families) on basis of income and geography.
I - These individuals can pay for the product. But what will be target group?
C - (time) If we look at the product value - it is suited for people living busy lives. Where time and
comfort would be valued more. Certain level of comfort with technology and education can be assumed
in this segment.
I - Okay. How will you identify them?
C - We can go by occupation category and this would be concentrated in urban areas to start with
I - Okay. How will you determine the initial demand?
C - It will depend on the pricing. DO we have any price range in mind?
I - No. How will you help the client?
C - There are three pricing strategies - value based, cost plus and competition based. We might have to
go for first one as this is a new product.
I - But how will you find the price elasticity of demand?
C - initial assessment can be done through similar product adaption rate. We may look at smart watch for
example and see how many in the target segment purchased in the first year.
I - Okay
C - We may also do a survey to find the price range and then do a price skimming strategy.
I - Okay

Any Remarks Take time in answering questions and be clear in communication.

Draw neat diagrams and structures
Just be confident and be yourself

Name Preetham Krishna

Graduation College IIT Bhubaneswar Branch Strategy, Marketing at IIM L
Work Experience GrabTheSport (startup), Cognizant Domain Consulting
Analytics (21m); PGP Internship – AT
Kearney
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions Quick Introduction
Case 1: Client is a private player in the tourism industry. They handle end to end operations of any
renowned monument/ heritage places. They are top players in the US and Europe market. They want to
enter India. Recently, they saw an advertisement by the Government in the newspaper inviting bids for
the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. The client wants to know if should they enter India and if yes, should
Interview Number - 1 Case
they bid for this place/ not.

Case 2: How do you determine the number of business travelers entering in Delhi on a typical day. Give
me a number
Interview 1 case Transcript Case 1: Understood basic objectives of the case and about the client through initial questions. Divided
solution into 3 parts. 1) Objective and target of the client 2) Should they enter India/ not 3) If Yes, should
they go for this specific bid.
I calculated how much can they bid and what is the revenues they get and the B.E time among other
operational and functional abilities.
Finally concluded that the client can bid for this project for xx /- provided they have yy, zz capabilities.

Case 2: This is a fairly simple guesstimate

Interviewer 2 Varun Boppana and Project Leader

Interview 2 HR Questions NA
Case 3: My client is a hedge fund owner. Recently American express claimed that they would increase
the market share in India by more than 50%. Client wants to know if that's possible. If yes, how are they
doing it and can that be replicated?
Interview Number – 2 Case
Case 4: My client is into steel manufacturing business. They manufacture a specialty steel. A new
competitor entered into this space who provides good quality of steel with lower price. What should the
client do?

Interview 2 case Transcript Case 3: Interview started by interviewer asking my specialization. Having understood that I don’t have a
Finance specialization, the interviewer started the case with a Hedge fund player.
Another number intense case. Calculated the revenues and estimated if that claim is possible/ not.
 Found reasons for the advantages and suggested what the client can do.

Case 4: I jolted down various things that the client can do and basis the discussion suggested the most
possible one. One of the scenarios under 4th level of tree came the possibility of collaborating with the
competitor and manufacturing their parts in our production facilities (we have ability to manufacture
more) and take a cut on that. Interviewer was satisfied for this answer.

Interviewer 3 Sumit Sarawgi and Partner

Interview 3 HR Questions Interview started with ~15 min HR. The partner who interviewed worked at A.T. Kearney prior (I didn’t
know this during the interview). So, he asked many questions about my intern experience, projects I
worked and the people of the firm. He asked many internal things of the firm and bombarded with
multiple questions. I maintained my calm and answered all the questions. He seemed satisfied and so I
expected an easy case.
Client is in the telecom space. They came up with a new product using which the customers can consume
unlimited data per day. How should they price it. The current offering is priced at 200/- per month for 60
Interview Number – 3 Case
GB (limit of 2 GB per day) and much more data was given

Interview 3 case Transcript This was one of the most difficult case of the day. In the start, I was given so much data and was asked to
finish the case in 10 mins. Post the initial questions, I started with Cost + premium pricing method upon
confirming with the interviewer. I jolted down many ways of finding the cost, but the interviewer
rejected every one of them. During our way back to the hall, something clicked and I explained the
solution and the cost that the client can charge. We were standing and discussing the solution outside
the interview room and somehow this time the interviewer liked the solution and appreciated the same.

Any Remarks Dos: Being confident is the key. Maintain your calm all throughout the interview and be ready to expect
any new thing. I had 3 number intense cases (this may be due to my prior experience in analytics).
Haven't expected this based on previous interview experiences of people. All the best :)

Name Avinav Singla

Graduation College Branch Computer Science
BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus
Work Experience DE Shaw & Co (23m); PGP Internship – Domain IT, Wealth Management
Avendus Capital
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Varun Bopanna, Project Leader
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself?
Interview Number - 1 Case Our Client is a coal mining company. They are facing some operational issues, help them out.
Interview 1 case Transcript C - Clarifying questions about company background, scale of operations etc.
I - All of that information is irrelevant. Focus on the operations.
C - Can you a brief idea about the operational details of mining?
I - Sure, there are two types of mining normally used: open cast and excavation based. Our client follows
excavation method. Under this method, a hole is dug vertically and at each level there are horizontal
rows from which excavation is done (was explained with the help of a diagram). There are three major
processes, cleaning and planting dynamite sticks, blasting and loading the coal in elevators and sending it
up towards the surface.
C - How is the labor organized?
I - Good question, labor works in shift of 8 hours and within their shift they do all the activities
mentioned above.
C - How are their incentives (or variable pay) decided?
I - The variable pay is linked to the amount of coal excavated in a day. And, it is given to the shift that
does excavation, not all shifts.
Here, after some unstructured discussion, it was identified that some shifts were wasting time, because
they were not getting paid for the intermediary work. Therefore, the solution was to change the existing
variable pay structure and link it to all shifts, not only the shifts which does excavation.
Interviewer 2 Principal
Interview 2 HR Questions NA
Interview Number – 2 Case Estimate the entry ticket prize for Imambara?
Interview 2 case Transcript C - Details about Imambara? Why do people visit?
I - Oh, you haven't been to Imambara?
C - No, sir.
I - Which city do you come from? Take any tourist place from that city?
C - Yes sir, I come from Chandigarh. Can I do it for Rock Gardens?
I - Yes, sure.
C - There could be three approaches to pricing the ticket. Competitive, Cost and Value Pricing. Since Rock
Garden has hardly any competition in Chandigarh, therefore it is not valid here. Coming to Value pricing,
 visiting Rock Garden is not really an aspirational experience, so Value Pricing is also not valid. In my
opinion, Cost based pricing is the most appropriate method here. Sir, should I go ahead with Cost based
pricing?
I - I think you are right here. Go ahead with the cost based pricing.
C - Listed down various sources of cost and revenue.
I - I am only interested in maintenance costs, and revenue from tickets.
C - Sure sir. Listed down various sources of cost in maintenance (repair, security, gardening etc.) and
calculated the annual cost by taking and verifying estimates.
I - Good. Go ahead with the revenue calculations.
C - Tried to estimate number of tourists by estimating number of tourists visiting Chandigarh and then
taking percentages.
I - Is there an easier way to estimate number of tourists? Probably by number of window tickets?
C - Definitely sir, assuming no online tickets. Estimated number of tourists using number of window
tickets and average time to issue a ticket.
I - Good, so how much does the ticket price come about?
C - It comes around to be Rs. 6. The original ticket is around Rs. 10. By adjusting a few numbers, we can
get there.
I - No need. It was a good effort, well done. Any questions for me?
C - In this changing world of consulting, what keeps do we need to possess to have a successful
consulting career?
I - Definitely the world of consulting is changing with the coming up of digital. Bu at the core of it,
consulting is mainly about problem solving and that's one skill you definitely need to possess.
C - Thank you sir, that will be all.

Interviewer 3 Sumit, Partner

Interview 3 HR Questions Why consulting? Tell me about yourself?
Our client is a US based Home Automation company. They want to launch their Home Automation
Interview Number – 3 Case
Solutions in India. How do you estimate the market size of a product that doesn't even exist?
Interview 3 case Transcript Again, this was a more discussion based rather than an actual structured problem solving scenario.

C - Clarifying questions about product, company etc.

I - Gave a few answers. In general, the info was irrelevant and he wanted me to focus on the approach of
estimating the market size.
C - Gave general ideas about we could look at other such high tech novel products to decide on the
probable market size. Also, we could look at market size in two ways: short-term and long-term. In the
short-term, only 'innovators' segment of the population would be interested while in the long term 'early
adopters' or 'early majority' of the population would also be interested. (from technology adoption
graph)
I - Sure, and how would you decide on the price of such a product?
C - Sir, there are three methods of pricing: Competitive, Cost and Value. In this case, I think value pricing
is most appropriate. And, we could estimate the price in terms of value it provides to customers by
estimating the opportunity cost.
I - I think that approach is fine enough.

The last two conversation happened while walking, and the interview got over as soon as the interviewer
reached their room.
Any Remarks -

Summer Interview Experiences - 2017

HR Questions asked by Companies during Summer Interviews 2017

Accenture Management Consulting

 Tell me about yourself.
 Why MBA?
 Why IIM Lucknow?
 What are your learnings from IIM Lucknow?
 Why Consulting?
 Why Accenture?
 What do you know about Accenture Management Consulting?
 Tell me something that is not on your CV.
 Tell me an instance where you have failed in your life.
 How will you react when a consulting assignment that you were a part of doesn't achieve the desired
outcome?
 Strengths, Weaknesses
 What are your hobbies?
 Sell yourself to me? Why should I hire you?
 Which subjects do you want to study here in your second year?
 What do you prefer, doing everything, with not much depth or doing only a few things, with clarity?
What drives you in life?
 Detailed discussion about points mentioned in CV and your learnings from it
 Detailed discussion about previous work experience and your learnings from it

Alvarez & Marsal

 Tell me about yourself.
 Why MBA?
 Why IIM Lucknow?
 What are your learnings from IIM Lucknow?
 Why Consulting?
 What do you bring to the table?
 About work experience
 Why consulting after business tax (to a CA)
 What are you expecting from here (A&M)
 Why A&M?

Deloitte

 Tell me something that’s not on your CV.

 Where are you from?
 Questions on Work Experience
 Questions based on unconventional points on the CV
 What have been some of your failures?
 Does the candidate regret any decision?

MasterCard Advisors

 Introduce yourself
 Why consulting?
 What do you know about MasterCard and MasterCard advisors?
 Why MasterCard Advisors?
 Why did you leave your job in less than 1 year time and not wait for MBA?
 Discussion on interest in extra-curricular activities

McKinsey & Company

 Tell me about yourself.

 Why consulting?
 Why McKinsey?
 Walk me through your CV.
 What career path do you see for yourself?
  Your CV tells me what you have done. Tell me who you are.
 What is most interesting part of your CV?
 Tell me a situation in which you solved a major challenge & how did you go about it.
 Tell me a situation in which you handled a conflict & convinced someone.
 Who was your previous interviewer and how was your interview experience?
 Do you have any questions for me?
 Discussions on your hobbies
 Discussions about your leadership roles
 Detailed discussion about points mentioned in CV and your learnings from it
 Detailed discussion about previous work experience and your learnings from it

The Boston Consulting Group

 Tell me about yourself.

 Why MBA?
 Why IIM Lucknow?
 Why not finance?
 What does your current company do?
 What did you do at your current company?
 Some questions around family background
 What do you think about the engineering services industry in general (work-ex related)?
 Who will be more valuable in the near future - techies or MBAs? Why?
 Do you have any questions for me?
 Why was my college CGPA low?
 He had worked at EY before, so he asked me a lot of questions about EY - my partner, how did I find the
work, where did I work out of and other stuff.
 What did I do in the placement team (at an IIT)?
 Tell me about the work you do at Enactus.
 What is your passion?
 Why switch from research in Quantum Computing and AI to consulting?
 Experience working with BCG?
 Discussion about high school

Interview Transcripts

Accenture Management Consulting

Name Vivek Gala

Graduation College R.A. Podar College (Mumbai University) Branch Commerce
Work Experience Tata Teleservices Ltd. (21m) , Godrej Domain Finance
Consumer Products Ltd. (6m)
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 Panel 4 – CN
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself.
Why Consulting?
Why Accenture?
Few CV based questions
Interview Number - 1 Case Not given
Interview 1 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 2 Panel 3 – CN
Interview 2 HR Questions Few HR based
A CEO of a coffin manufacturing co. which is situated on an island city comes to you. He want to increase
Interview Number – 2 Case
his revenues.
Interview 2 case Transcript Me - Size, operations of the co. , market share?
Int - Gave data... (3 players... one is old and one is new apart from the client)
Me - Okay..so now we need to increase the revenues. We can do that majorly in two ways.. either
increase in qty of units sold or increase in Selling Price.
Int - Interesting.. Go on!
Me - Firstly, to increase the price - I understand prices can be increased if the demand is inelastic or if
there is any differentiation in the product offering.
Secondly, for increasing the quantity, you can toggle around the product, place of operations (check for
new markets) and promotion.
Int - Ok.
Me - Product offering can be enhanced. The market share needs to be increased. Int - how will u
enhance it?
Me - One can provide complimentary services (like providing a priest)
Int - Ok.. Think also in terms of enhancing the product. Material, Design etc?
Me - Yes, the product can be improved by using better quality of wood, having unique designs/shapes,
could have some spaces for floral decoration etc.
Int - Fair enough... Go on..
Me - Apart from Product, new markets can be captured. It's a island city so might be difficult to enter a
new market with competitive prices, but can compete on the different product offering
Int - Ok..
Me - Promotions... err!?
Int - Yes, Promotions...
Me - It would not be appropriate to promote the coffins but one could have a mention of the logo etc. in
the obituaries of the clients. Besides, one can tie-up with morgues, hospitals etc. to push our coffins.
Int - Ok. Good. how about E-commerce. Do you think it is a good idea?
Me - E-commerce could also work but it would be for people who want to pre-book the coffin for
themselves. E-commerce cannot fulfill the immediate requirements on a death ocurred.
Int - Okay Good.
Interviewer 3 Dr. Krishna, Director
Interview 3 HR Questions What do you think about outsourcing?
What are the factors you would keep in mind before consulting someone to outsource?
What parts of Finance functions can you outsource?
Interview Number – 3 Case None
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Remarks

Name Darshana Mukherjee

Graduation College BITS Pilani, Goa Campus Branch B.E EEE
Work Experience Tredence Analytics, [24]7.ai (Total-34M) Domain Analytics, Software Development
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 Manish
Interview 1 HR Questions TMAY, Technologies that I have worked on - how comfortable I am with those, detail discussion about
my previous work ex
Discuss about the current status of retail in India and future of Amazon in particular in next 2 years.
Interview Number - 1 Case Factors to be considered to open a grocery retailer like Big Bazaar in a city - where would you open such
a store
Interview 1 case Transcript There were a lot of questions on the retail sector in India as I had previous work ex in this industry of US.
Reading IBEF helped. They were strategic questions but I could state facts which worked for me. My
answer to the Amazon question was looking at the demographics and consumer behaviour of India - 2
years is a very short duration for it to capture the whole market (internet penetration, rural population,
trust issues etc.). Open a grocery retail in metro and Tier 1 cities before penetrating the rest of India. I
listed down attributes looked for while buying/selling groceries (freshness, supplies, price) and a typical
retail customer (working population, relatively lesser price sensitive). Quality and price are prime factors
as we intake these and use on a daily basis. Local vendors dominate the smaller towns/cities and form a
strong bond/trust with the households. Therefore, start with metro, make a name, build trust and then
venture into smaller cities.
Interviewer 2 NA
Interview 2 HR Questions TMAY, Mess committee strength and functions, questions on my TMAY, questions on my work in the
retail space, what do you know about AMC
What are the typical problems faced by a big retailer? Take Pantaloons as an example, assume it only
Interview Number – 2 Case sells clothes; what could be the reasons it approaches AMC for consultation? How can it expand -
challenges and a lot of cross-questioning here.
Interview 2 case Transcript This was a very long round with the interviewer questioning every word I wrote. I started off with citing
operational challenges/metrics because I had a background in that but he asked me to look at broader
problems. He helped by asking leading questions in some areas. I had to explain why cannot it open a
grocery store or why not under the same banner (house of brands vs branded house) - why retailers
keep the grocery section in a separate floor. Can sell accessories, shoes etc to improve market
share/increase sales/attract customers. Asked me to draw the profit structure and give all possible ways
to improve profit. Drew value chain in the cost branch (was asked how and where can we reduce costs in
each node). Gave options to increase revenue/customer (bulk discount, bundling, cash and carry model)
and # of customers(marketing, ancillary products) in the revenue branch. Was asked about ways to
market - ATL, BTL.
Interviewer 3 Krishna Murty – Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions TMAY, Speak on demonetisation (as I have been associated with Toastmasters), something not in my CV,
what other shortlists do I have
Interview Number – 3 Case None
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Remarks They put a lot of stress on TMAY. They had a multiple pages form where they would write the pros and
cons of the candidate. People with work-ex should know their CV and past work/industry thoroughly.
They gave a very detailed open-ended case in the second round and kept building on it by figuring out
your weaknesses. TMAY helped me as I was able to steer the interviews towards my work-ex. Friendly
panel.

Name Divyasree
Graduation College IITM Branch BTech Metallurgical Engineering
Work Experience Ola (16M) Domain Program Management (operations)
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 NA
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself; Why Ola?; Asked more questions about the exact work I did while at Ola (from
resume)
Interview Number - 1 Case Guesstimate - Milk consumed in Bangalore in a day
Interview 1 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 2 NA
Interview 2 HR Questions Tell me about yourself; Work ex based questions; Why Consulting?
Interview Number – 2 Case (Work ex based) What according to you should be the basis of cab allocation in Ola ?
Interview 2 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 3 Krishna
Interview 3 HR Questions Why consulting? Tell me an instance where you have failed in your life?
Not exactly a case. How will you react when a consulting assignment that you were a part of doesn't
Interview Number – 3 Case
achieve the desired outcome?
Interview 3 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 4
Interview 4 HR Questions Completely HR. Strengths, Weaknesses, Learnings from IIM Lucknow, etc
Interview Number –4 Case No case
Interview 4 case Transcript NA
Any Remarks Apart from the last round, all other rounds were heavily based on resume and work ex.
Name Kanika Vashisht
Graduation College Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Branch Business Studies (Finance Specialization)
Studies
Work Experience Axis Risk Consulting Services Pvt Ltd (26M) Domain Process Risk Consulting
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 NA
Interview 1 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself
2. From my CV, I was asked about my work experience in brief. The interviewer asked me to explain a
couple of my projects related to vendor management.
3. Questioned about my social initiatives- association with Teach for India and an acid attack survivor
rehabilitation organization
4. Questions about diploma in music (CV point)
Interview Number - 1 Case Guesstimate the number of passenger airplanes in India
Interview 1 case Transcript I approached the guesstimate from the demand side with Delhi airport as a point of reference.
Segmented the population based on age, income levels, flyers, flying frequency and so on. At the end,
the interviewer asked me if my approach was right since I had missed out on one age group- children. He
then asked me to discuss the problem from a supply side (oral discussion) and in the end asked which
was a better approach- demand side or supply side.
Interviewer 2 Manish Kumar Rai, Senior Principal
Interview 2 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself
2. Work experience related questions were asked in more detail
Interview Number – 2 Case In the procurement to pay (P2P) process of an automobile giant, how would you reduce costs
Interview 2 case Transcript I charted out the P2P process of a typical automobile giant- starting from purchase requisition to final
payment made to the vendor. As asked, I also incorporated the vendor selection and on-boarding steps.
The interviewer wanted me to give practical examples from my past work experience where costs could
be reduced. For instance, vendor screening costs and man hours could be reduced if the client would
skip the first two steps of the screening process for vendors that were present in the global database of
the company and were approved by other sister companies.
Interviewer 3 Dr Krishna Murthy, MD
Interview 3 HR Questions 1. Asked about an internship project which was mentioned on the CV
2. Questions about general hobbies and music
3. Important learning from Teach for India
I am a US telecom giant and am one of the market leaders. The market in US is saturated and I have
decided to acquire a telecom operator in Mexico. All the operational synergies are taken care of but now
Interview Number – 3 Case
I need to convince my board. Help me in designing a pitch for the upcoming board meeting and come up
with some out of the box ideas.
Interview 3 case Transcript This was not a case per se but he just wanted me to come up with points that I would like to include in
my pitch. I segregated my points into 3 broad buckets- workforce diversity, global presence/ footprint
and others where I included all the points mentioned by him in his problem statement. He asked me to
focus on the first two buckets and had a qualitative discussion on the same.
Any Remarks

Name ANWER CM
Graduation College NIT Calicut Branch Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience L&T Valves (3 Years); Hindware Kerala Domain Senior Engineer- International Sales &
distributor (1 Year) Marketing; Manager - Kerala Sales
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 Round 1
Interview 1 HR Questions 1. " Its written in your CV that you were leading a team of 7 sales people, tell me about your learnigs
during that period"
2. "Your CV doesn't contain any sports activity or any other extracurricular activity, why? what were you
doing during your UG days, you had a lot of free time no?"
3. "So you generated 40 Lac Rs for your UG project, tell me how did you do it?"
4. " Why consulting?"
 5. "How did you resolve the conflict between the Senior management and distributor, what you think
helped you do it successfully?"
1. Estimate the market market size of Hindware's faucets in a new state
Interview Number - 1 Case
2. Forecast the crude oil price for the next 1 year?
Interview 1 case Transcript 1.
A: Estimate the market market size of Hindware in a new state
Me: Ok, Which state are we considering?
A: Take any new state to which Hindware want to enter
Me: Ok, we are already into all the Indian states, Can I proceed with a hypothetical situation, taking the
population of the state to be X?
A: Ya that will be alright
Me: Alright, Please allow me to take 1 minute to put this together
A: Sure
Me: (Wrote the answer in the sheet and explained to him) - Population -> APL & BPL -> No of households
(Avg. 4 Memeber) -> Product replaced once in 10years -> Average billing per household 1 Lac Rs - >
Correcting factor for new houses, Assumed no two houses per family -> Extremely brand Loyal customers
of Jaguar/Other brands -> Market outside of housing (Hotels, Businesses and other facilities etc..) 25% of
house hold market

2. A: "Lets do another one - Forecast the oil price for the next one year"

Me: Looked at the interviewer and smiled at him, he smiled back. " Sir this one is indeed very interesting"
A: "Alright go ahead. I am happy that you liked it"
Me:
Now there are a lot of ifs and buts there, i would like to stick to the recent phenomenons alone
There are couple of important aspects which need to be kept in mind:

Regarding Saudi Aramco -

(a) Their cost of production is around $8 a barrel and their crude is sweat with minimal H2S content
(Further reduces the cost of refining and transportation).
If H2S content is low then it can be transported through WCB pipes which is basically cheap steel and if
H2S content is high then you would require alloys like Inconel which increases the cost by around 10
times. Whereas the shale gas production cost is around $40-45 and it is sour gas which makes the
processing costly. I have reviewed the present reserves of ARAMCO and they are not running out of oil
anytime soon.

So it is highly likely that they will have a big say in setting the oil price. Everyone (Competition/Other
countries) say that they are in a good position but the truth is everyone is scared an they should be.

Now lets look at what they did after dropping the bomb. These are the things that i observed:
1. ARAMCO Put hold on every project (Including JAZAN- Which is particularly interesting)
2. Announced two projects (Both of them Gas projects) - Hasbah and Fadhili
3. Started awarding projects to Chinese EPCs
4. Extreme cost cutting measures
5. Chief of ARAMCO was inducted into the ministry (Prior to rolling out the strategy)
6. Invited all of its vendors to set up factory in Saudi Arabia. We all got invitation to do so and they
offered to cover the additional cost by giving us premium

Now another interesting thing happened - King Salman appeared on the National television and told his
people that he is setting up a 1 trillion dollar wealth fund for ensuring sustained growth in the future and
to achieve independence from oil income. And at the same time its important to note that their foreign
reserves had depleted considerably and they are also stressed

So it would be safe to assume that it is highly likely that they will act rationally at least in the foreseeable
future (They are trying to list ARAMCO Subsidiaries) and hence my conclusion would be that it is highly
likely that the oil price will steadily go up unless the usually known other factors cause any fluctuations
Interviewer 2 Dr. Krishna
Interview 2 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself?
2. Sell yourself to me? Why should I hire you?
3. What are your strengths and don't give me the nice sweat answers that you have prepared for the
interview
1. Estimate the market size of filtered cigarettes in India
Interview Number – 2 Case 2. A telecom operator presently operating in US want to enter the Mexico market? what should he
consider?
Interview 2 case Transcript 1. A: Do you smoke?
Me: No sir
A: What is this man? why not?...... Alright, estimate the filtered cigarette market in India
Me: Sir, filtered cigarette is the normal cigarette stick which cost around 15 Rs right?
A: Its the cigarette with a filter at the end
Me: Alright , May I take 1 minute to analyse this?
A: Oh please please....., take 3 minutes...
 Me: I drew the diagram in the paper and then explained
population-> APL/BPL-> Male/Female-> Age-> Intensity (No of cigarettes per day)

2. A telecom operator presently operating in US want to enter the Mexico market? what should he
consider?
Me: Could you please explain the exact nateure of business they are into?
A: You can consider that they are into all the telecom related businesses
(When I started asking further questions he interrupted)
A: Tell me two reasons why he should enter the market which you will never see in any of the
frameworks that you have ever seen in your entire life
Me: Ok, that's interesting. It is a business reason or other reasons?
A: Of course business reasons
(I told him around 7 points)
Me: One of them you said is very close to what I want, Keep trying
(After a while i ran out of sensible points and then stopped). I looked at him and smiled and he smiled
back after a while
Interviewer 3 No 3rd round
Interview 3 HR Questions No 3rd Round
Interview Number – 3 Case No 3rd round
Interview 3 case Transcript NA
Any Remarks I believe that getting trained on "body language signal interpretations" will help

Name ANUBHA GUPTA

Graduation College Delhi Technological University Branch Mathematics & Computing Engineering
Work Experience Deloitte Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. (22M) Domain Technology Consulting
Interviewing Company Accenture Management Consulting
Interviewer 1 I1 (Manager)
Interview 1 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. What did you do at Deloitte? 3. There was a particular line in my work-ex
about IOT , he was really interested in knowing about that.
There is a manufacturing firm with two plants in a country. Both have the same capacity. One is doing
Interview Number - 1 Case really well, Other is not doing so well. Give me three ways to increase the overall sales by the two
manufacturing plants.
Interview 1 case Transcript I was not allowed to ask any questions. Only had to make three recommendations.
- try to understand what is it that our competitors are doing better than us. and see if we can incorporate
the same.
- cater to a new geography with existing product line
-diversify our product line to cater to new market segments
Interviewer 2 I2 (Partner)
Interview 2 HR Questions Tell me something about yourself which is not there in your CV. Why MBA? Why IIM Lucknow? Which
subjects do you want to study here in your second year?
I am planning to start a new hair salon business in Gurgaon. Suggest feasibility and how should i go about
Interview Number – 2 Case
doing it .
Interview 2 case Transcript N.A.
Interviewer 3 I3 (Partner) - Telephonic interview
Interview 3 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself. 2. Some detailed questions about Deloitte (As he also had a prior work-ex at
Deloitte). 3. What do I prefer, doing everything, with not much depth or doing only a few things, with
clarity? 4. Why MBA? 5. What drives you in life?
Interview Number – 3 Case Estimate the number of passengers arriving at Lucknow airport on any given day.
Interview 3 case Transcript N.A.

Alvarez & Marsal

Name Sahil Shah

Graduation College Jai Hind College, Mumbai Branch Commerce
Work Experience EY, Ashwin Shah & Associates (Total-25M) Domain Business Tax
Interviewing Company Jai Hind College, Mumbai
Interviewer 1 Commerce
Interview 1 HR Questions EY, Ashwin Shah & Associates
Interview Number - 1 Case Business Tax
Interview 1 case Transcript 25
Interviewer 2 Alvarez & Marsal
Interview 2 HR Questions Manager
About work ex
Interview Number – 2 Case why consulting after business tax
what are you expecting here
Interview 2 case Transcript Guesstimate the number of medium size cups being consumed in Lucknow on a yearly basis
Interviewer 3 Broke the kind of users into age groups, further broke each age group into uses on a daily basis. Covered
colleges like IIML on a separate basis. IMP: Do not forget to cover party use of medium size cups
Interview 3 HR Questions Suman, Director
Why AnM?
Interview Number – 3 Case
Why consulting
Interview 3 case Transcript Europe based auto player also exporting in China and South East Asia want to come to India. Open to any
entry. Analyse India..industry..demand potential..mode of entry and geographies to be targeted
Interviewer 4 Background check on the co.
where are they operating, how old, what type of car, price range, competitor scenes, popularity in India.
Used Pestel to analyse India as a conducive country, then covered the industry specifically using Ansoff
matrix. In term of mode of entry, broke it into immediate options like exporting, licensing technology,
franchises and longer term options like Mna, JVs, setting up facility.
Interview 4 HR Questions Rishav, Director
Tell me about yourself
Interview Number – 4 Case Why AnM
what do you bring to the table
Interview 4 case Transcript 1. Profit and sales given. Ask only one question and tell me how to decide to invest or not
Ans- ask capita employed for ROCE
2. how many tennis balls to fit in an airplane
3. How to decide whether to enter fragmented market or consolidated
I am a snacks manufacturer, local brand. Help me understand which market to enter.
4. I'm a mall provider. Help me decide whether to set up mall on highway
5. Pepsi type co. Wants to do dairy in India. Analyse and help to decide
I am a long standing co with stagnant profit margins at 15 % for 3 years. Other are either at 20 or
breakeven. Help me improve.
Any Remarks

Deloitte

Name Nitin Govind C

Graduation College Govt. Model Engineering College Branch Computer Science
Work Experience Mu Sigma (22M) Domain Analytics
Interviewing Company Deloitte
Interviewer 1 Sharmishta, Guesstimate round
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me something that's not on the CV. Where are you from?
Interview Number - 1 Case Find out the number of people awake in your hometown at 3 A.M.
Interview 1 case Transcript Segmented into four age groups. Divided the age groups into occupations: students, newspaper
publishers, policemen, security personnel, railway employees, metro construction workers, doctors,
nurses. Interviewer aided once or twice but only for course correction.
Gave a number using a top-down approach. Asked what percentage of total city percentage was the final
number. Knowing the population of my hometown helped.
Interview over. Estimated time: 15 minutes
Interviewer 2 Vamsi Case Round
Interview 2 HR Questions A few questions on work ex. Type of analysis I did at Mu Sigma.
Merger & Acquisition case. Two pharma companies, one based in the U.S. and the other based in
Interview Number – 2 Case
Sweden.
Interview 2 case Transcript Different core competencies and operate in different markets. Aim was to analyse the synergies between
the two companies.
Analysed various cost synergies and revenue synergies. Broke down different products and markets of
both companies. Looked to cut costs and improve revenues for new entity. Interviewers asked follow-up
questions based on candidate’s answers. There were 3 follow-up questions in total.
Was offered water in between the case. If offered, its suggested you accept it. It gave some extra time to
 think about the case.
Finally asked for an executive summary. Do practice giving executive summaries of cases you practice.
Comes in handy when they ask to summarise the work done in 2 minutes or less.
Asked if candidate had any questions. Questioned what are the implications of new Visa norms on
Deloitte, and how it affects our chances of travelling.
Estimated Time: 1 hour
Interviewer 3 Sudeep Krishna, Sr. Director
Interview 3 HR Questions Casual conversation. Started off from the CV, Naval Academy, Mu Sigma, Make A Difference. Picked out
a few incidents from CV, asked what were some failures. Specifically asked if candidate regretted any
decision. This round attempted to understand if the candidate was a good fit for the organisation.
Estimated time: 10 minutes
Interview Number – 3 Case NA
Interview 3 case Transcript NA
Any Remarks I felt that one pointer that worked for me was being a good listener at the interview. When they course-
corrected me, I listened to them completely and tried to understand their approach. I further questioned
them on the approach they suggested.

Mastercard Advisors

Name Sourav Kumar Agarwal

Graduation College Hans Raj College Branch Commerce
Work Experience Boston Consulting Group (11M) Domain Consulting
Interviewing Company MasterCard Advisors
Interviewer 1 Senior Consultant
Interview 1 HR Questions Introduce Yourself?
Why Consulting?
What do you know about Mastercard and Mastercard Advisors?
Interview Number - 1 Case Client is a POS manufacturer looking to enter into an African country. Help
Interview 1 case Transcript I:Interviewer; M:Me;
I: Case given
M: Basic Clarifying questions about the case, regarding competition, non-cash transactions currently, etc.
Took a minute to think after that.
I presented a basic market entry structure and started to list down the parameters to be used while
making the decision
I: Gave some quantifiable values to each of the parameters and asked me to calculate the total market
size.
M: I was fairly quick at this and did the calculations in about 15 seconds.
I: How much as a new entrant occupy of this total market share and give the break between the existing
demand and new demand that we would be capturing.
M: Again some heavy calculations, which was handled effectively.
I: Any questions you have for us?
M: Some random globe.
I: Thanks!
Interviewer 2 Senior HR Manager
Interview 2 HR Questions Introduce yourself.
Why consulting?
Why Mastercard Advisors?
Why did you leave your job in less than 1 year time and not wait for MBA?
Detailed discussion on work at BCG?
Given a couple of real work life situation and asked to tackle them by showing a structural approach.
Co-curricular interested in. Discussion about stand-up comedy industry(I had mentioned this as one of
my interests during discussion) and renowned comedians and why?
Interview Number – 2 Case NA
Interview 2 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 3 Manish, Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions NA
Interview Number – 3 Case Guesstimate the number of tea cups drunk in India in a year?
Interview 3 case Transcript NA
Any Remarks
McKinsey & Company

Name PVS Anurag

Graduation College IIT Gandhinagar Branch Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience ZS Associates (12M) Domain Analytics
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Company
Interviewer 1 Kunwar Singh – Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions 1. What was your JEE rank? 2. Tell me about yourself 3. Why McKinsey?
Interview Number - 1 Case A bank has approached you for resolution of a non-performing asset. How will you approach this?
Interview 1 case Transcript I - Tell me a few questions that you would like to ask the banker
C - I would begin by understanding the asset in greater detail. Then look at the degrading performance of the
asset over time (financial details included), the measures taken by the management to turn it around, the
measures taken by the bank to stop it from turning into an NPA, the other competitors in the asset's industry
are doing.
I - Okay, the asset is a steel plant. The way this works is after surveying the asset, they would invite bids and
then the process would follow. What all the options the bank has?
C - The bank has two options - 1. Get out of the business after taking a haircut (or whatever scrap value is after
the asset sale) 2. Convert the debt into equity (Retain minority stake and onboard a new investor)
I - What are the factors that you will look for in an investor?
C - 2 factors - 1. Nature of management - Whether it is already in the core business (steel) or it is a financial
institution. We would also assess the commitment of the management towards the turnaround
2. Turnaround Plan - Do a cost benefit analysis of the proposal at hand. Look at certain parameters to evaluate
the investment like
I - Good, Thank you. Since we are out of time, I would not be able to take questions. I think you would already
have asked any questions to your buddies
Interviewer 2 Suveer Sinha – Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself 2. How often do you get a chance to do planespotting in India (mentioned as non CV
hobby in introduction) 3. Tell me about your analysis after planespotting? 4. Who do you think among Boeing
and Airbus will emerge the winner in long run? 5. Do you know the market shares of Boeing and Airbus?
Interview Number – 2 Case We are working on the Pune smart city initiative. How will you improve mobility?
Interview 2 case Transcript C - Mobility can be looked under two broad heads - Public and Private. In public, we can look at bus (BRTS and
Regular) and rail (metro). In private, we can look at cars (self and cabs) and others like autos etc.
I - Lets focus on cars. Why do you think the travel time between 2 points A and B has doubled over last few
decades?
C - Congestion on roads would be leading to an increase in travel time. Congestion is possible through various
sources - 1. Increase in total cars 2. Deteriorating condition of roads (Both quality and quantity) 3. Improper
traffic management systems (Cops, Traffic signals)
I - Why do you think the number of cars would increase?
C - Two possible reasons - 1. Growth in self driven cars - Rising income levels and increasing population 2.
Growth in commercial cab services - Rise in demand for cab services and presence of taxi aggregators
I - What changes would you recommend to the mayor to improvise the situation?
C - Short Term - 1. Increase use of public transport by ensuring proper operations of the existing capacity 2.
Introduce temporary legal restrictions through schemes like the Odd-Even option to reduce traffic during some
peak seasons
Long Term - 1. Invest in increased public transport capacity 2. Promote car pooling as significant alternative 3.
Optimize urban planning so that residential areas are found near all business locations, thus reducing the need
for long distance travel
I - Good, Thank you!
Interviewer 3 Rajat Dhawan - Senior Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions 1. Tell me about yourself 2. Tell me something about your Caltech experience - How, Why, What learning you
had? 3. Tell me something about your work at ZS. What projects you worked on? How did it help you?
Interview Number – 3 Case NA. Only HR Round.
Interview 3 case Transcript NA

Name Megha Aggarwal

Graduation College Shri Ram College of Commerce Branch B.com Hons
Work Experience United Airlines (11M) Domain Finance, Internal Consulting
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.
Interviewer 1 Rajat Dhawan- Senior Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions Chitchatted about how I was doing and how the day was
Asked me to walk him through my cv
 Asked pointed questions whenever he found something interesting
(Eg My United Airlines work experience
Smart cities and smart transportation on which I'd written a paper
How I could score 100/100 in economics and from there what are the new current trends in the indian
economy and what I think about how the government is doing on the economy)
Then what career path do I see for myself?
Why consulting?
And if I had any questions for him and from there another conversation ensued.
Interview Number - 1 Case NA- only HR
Interview 1 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 2 Kunwar Singh- Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions Tell me about yourself
Where are you from?
Interview Number – 2 Case A bank has approached you for resolution of a non-performing asset. How will you approach this?
Interview 2 case Transcript Interviewer- So have you heard about the new policies coming around resolving NPAs?
Me- No.
I- That's okay, A bank has approached you for resolution of a non-performing asset. How will you
approach this?
Me- Okay, so to understand the problem better, what kind of NPA is this and what is the bank's
objective?
I- The bank wants to sell its loan on a steel NPA and has invited bids for the same. How would we go
about evaluating those bids?
Me- There are several approaches the bank can take. One, for instance, is evaluating WHO is bidding i.e.
is it an HNI, a VC/PE firm (that may have prior experience with turning around such assets), another steel
firm looking to acquire assets etc. and then look at their liquidity, profitability etc.
I- What else do you think you can look at?
Me- We can obviously look at the amount of each bid and in what form are they bidding- is it cash,
equity in their firm, equity in the asset, cash + equity or any other such form.
I- Do you think they will provide equity in their own firm to the bank?
Me- Okay, that may not be an option- they have better options to offer, with lower risk.
I- What would be the risks associated with offering equity?
Me- Dilution of stake, threat of control and takeover, interference in day to day working etc.
I- Okay, sounds good. Do you have any questions for me?
Me- *had a lot of things to talk about, this went on for quite a long time, with several knocks on the
door*
Interviewer 3 Misha Pratap- Associate Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions He said let's jump straight to cases, I've been asked to refrain from chitchatting.
1st- About payment banks and how do we make a profitability model for them.
Interview Number – 3 Case 2nd- About a painting he owned that he wanted to give to Christie's, London and what reserve price
should Christie's keep for it.
Interview 3 case Transcript I- Do you know what are payment banks?
Me- Yes, like PayTM...
I- Yes, good, so imagine PayTM. How will you make a profitability model for them?
Me- Okay, so for this I'll look at the revenues and costs for the bank.
I- What are revenues for a payments bank? Like regular banks, they cannot invest your money
elsewhere. And they can also not lend this money. So two major sources of revenues for banks are out of
the question.
Me- They can charge their partner merchants some amount for each transaction done through them,
they also generate huge amount of transaction data which can be sold to companies who may value such
data, say insurance companies...
I- Okay, leave this, let's do another case. I have a painting. I want to give it to Christie's, London. What
reserve price should Christie's keep for it?
Me- Who is your painting by and what is its subject?
I- A relatively unknown artist, depicts a house of a madman who did not allow people around his house.
Me- How much did you buy it for? What is it's make?
I- I found it in my attic. It's a simple oil painting, has a frame and a back sheet.
Me- What's special about this painting?
I- This green thing you see here (he was pointing to the bulletin board) on the painting, it is quite rare.
Not available now. Should I sell just the structure, or the entire painting? Should I cut the structure in 4
parts and sell it?
Me- But if your painting is of a subject that is unique, there might be value...
I- Oh that was just a madman's house. Just because he didn't allow people to paint it doesn't mean
anybody was actually interested in it.
Me- Okay, but cutting the structure into 4 parts, means your frame will be useless.
I- That's okay though. Okay good, do you have any questions for me?
Me- *had things to talk about as I knew his background, this went on for quite a while*
Any Remarks What worked well for me was communication, confidence, presence and the ability to engage the
interviewer in interesting conversations. The interviewers were all senior people from the industry and
had many experiences to share- just waiting for me to ask the right questions.
Name Harsh Gandhi
Graduation College Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Branch Commerce / Chartered Accountant
Economics / Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India
Work Experience Articleship at Lovelock & Lewes (PwC Domain Assurance
Network Firm) (36M Internship)
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.
Interviewer 1 Dr. Karan Narang – Principal
Interview 1 HR Questions 1) Your CV tells me what you have done. Tell me who you are. (At this point, I mentioned about my
interest in World War II)
2) Tell me the 2 crucial points where the Axis Powers lost the WW II (Stalingrad/Leningrad and Attack on
USA)
3) Do you think the air attack on Great Britain was not a turning point? Do you know what happened?
4) What are your sources of the WW II? What documentaries have you watched?
5) You said your hobby is reading. Tell me which are the top 3 non-fiction books you would recommend
to me. (Recommended a blend of 3 books - This Time is Different by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth
Rogoff (Finance), Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins (Psychology and Self-help) and Mein
Kampf - the autobiography of Adolf Hitler (Strategy and Leadership))
6) Tell me the 3 best attributes you could derive about Hitler and relate it to the BIO course you have
studied at IIM L. Tell me the 3 things that you want to pick up from Hitler's vision.
Interview Number - 1 Case Estimate the size of the marriage industry in India
Interview 1 case Transcript Assumed the marriage industry to derive its main business from 1st time weddings. I divided the
population of India by age and then decided the marriageable age as 21-30. Assumed the population in
this age group to be 30 crore people. Then I assumed that I would take a weighted average age wise with
highest weights to the age groups 21-24. The interviewer asked me to use a simpler measure. I thought
of dividing into 5 years of age groups and then giving weights based on that. The interviewer wanted a
simpler measure. Finally, he suggested that I divide it into 10 groups of 3 crores each. That was 1.5 crore
marriages every year. Then I divided this based on the income level of the families as given in the
Economic Survey 2017. Based on that, I assumed that a couple would spend 200% of quarterly incomes.
Finally I arrived at an amount.
Interviewer 2 Abhishek Agrawal – Principal
Interview 2 HR Questions 1) Tell me about yourself. (Talked about my interest in cricket)
2) Why cricket? How cricket? What kind of tools do you use?
3) Give me some insights which are very difficult to decipher without proper knowledge and tell me how
you arrived at them. Also tell me how you will use them.
4) What would you change about the current Indian cricket team?
A company X is thinking of acquiring a company Y. The feasibility study has been done and Y is a suitable
Interview Number – 2 Case
fit financially. What would you evaluate next?
Interview 2 case Transcript This was not a normal case per se. Hence I focused on 3 things - synergistic benefits (operational and
financial), valuation and stakeholder management. I also talked about some niche problems such as anti-
competition, capital and other commitments (off balance sheet items) and special liabilities (such as
regulatory liabilities in case of telecom industries and pension liabilities like that of Tata Corus UK). Post
this, I inquired in depth about the background of both the companies and the reason for X's decision to
acquire. Based on this, I figured out that X was looking to diversify its risk and Y was a good company to
start with. I then asked about what my specific focus should be on. The interviewer told me to talk about
synergy and how it will affect the exercise of acquisition. Hence I talked about some examples of
financial and operational synergies and then talked about valuation of synergistic benefits and the
division of synergistic benefits between the acquirer and the target. Based on this, I was able to identify
the main issue was the valuation of synergy in this transaction.
Interviewer 3 Nitesh
Interview 3 HR Questions None
Was given a case of a car rental company in the US in the Chicago City and New York City Area. 3 aspects
Interview Number – 3 Case
were to be looked at.
Interview 3 case Transcript The whole case was numbers heavy.
1) Find out the BEP for this company.
2) Find out the possible costs which have not been put in this analysis (Drivers' Expenses such as tolls etc
was the main issue)
3) What factors can you think about in this analysis? (It was using the PESTLE framework)
4) (At this point, I was given a segment details of the cars and their costs.) The company is thinking of
using only Category 1 cars. Evaluate their decision. (I performed a Relevant Costing analysis. Also
mentioned that this is only financial analysis. Other analysis must also be done.) What other factors
would you look at? (Used the Porter's 5 forces and 4P's)
Interviewer 4 Suwek - Senior Consultant
Interview 4 HR Questions None
 I am from Pune (a city in Maharashtra, my home state). The use of public transport has reduced. Can you
Interview Number – 4 Case
tell me what are ALL the possible factors for this?`
Interview 4 case Transcript Since I had to list down all factors, I asked about the time horizon and the benchmark based on which the
decrease was seen. I then divided it into customer-side and factor-side issues. Talked about all possible
external and internal factors.
Any Remarks Was a very long interview session - 10:30-13:00. However, all interviews ran for 20-30 minutes on an
average.

Name Abhishek Kumar

Graduation College Hans Raj College Branch Economics
Work Experience NA Domain NA
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.
Interviewer 1 Karan Narang
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself
Client is Sharad Pawar, BCCI President...2007 World Cup was a disaster. How to make 2011 world cup in
Interview Number - 1 Case
India a success
Interview 1 case Transcript What does success mean..identify various stakeholders and prioritize in terms of who to satisfy
After identifying various stakeholders, move on to how to plan, execute, promote event
Interviewer 2 VC Interview
Interview 2 HR Questions Leadership roles
Interview Number – 2 Case Client is an Indian car manufacturer...worried about electric cars becoming available in the future
Interview 2 case Transcript Identify various considerations which go into buying a car
Calculate the cost of ownership (purchase price plus further maintenance) for fuel and electric vehicles
Interviewer 3 Suvir
Interview 3 HR Questions Interest in sports and how do I pursue it in campus
Interview Number – 3 Case Pune witnessing extreme traffic problems.... give advice
Interview 3 case Transcript Qualifying questions like timelines, areas, time of day
Causes can be:
Quality of roads
Traffic management and planning
Number of vehicles
Other natural/social/economic events
In the past few years, a lot of commercial and corporate complexes had opened in outskirts
Problems identified:
Poor public transport and hence increase use of 2 wheelers
Increase use of Cab Aggregators
Poor planning of traffic and routes
Recommendations..
Structure it as
planning and execution
Short term and long term
Idea generation
Any Remarks

Name Shubham Jain

Graduation College Shri Ram College of Commerce Branch Commerce
Work Experience Deutsche CIB Center (23M) Domain Finance
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.
Interviewer 1 Malcolm Gomes – Associate Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions 1) Tell me about yourself?
2) What was your role at Deutsche Bank?
3) Why do you want to do Consulting?
4) Why Mckinsey?
Interview Number - 1 Case I am Telecom company operating in India and my profits are declining
Interview 1 case Transcript Are the other players also facing the profitability issue in the industry?
Malcolm: Yes, all players are facing the issue but it is more prominent for our company.
Me: How much is the decline in profitability and since when have we seen a decline?
Malcolm: The decline is around 20% and we have been seeing it since the last 1 year.
Me: Can I assume the current scenario of the Indian telecom industry? The entry of Jio and the
subsequent happenings?
 Malcolm: Yes, you can assume that.
Me: (After taking 15 seconds to think) The issue profitability can be either because of Cost rising or
revenue falling. Which one do you think is more prominent for our company and you would like me to
focus first one?
Malcolm: You can start with anyone?
Me: Okay, let me start with the cost. Have we seen a rise in the operating cost of the company in the last
1 year?
Malcolm: Yes, the cost has increased. But, it’s in line with inflation. We haven’t noticed any extra-
ordinary spike in our cost drivers.
Me: Okay, do you mean to say that the cost has more or less grown as per normal inflation in the country
and this has been the case for all the players?
Malcolm: Yes
(Perplex, as to why did he let me venture the cost vertical. Reluctant to pursue further, I decided to
switch)
Me: In that case, I am assuming that cost is not the factor leading to decline in our profitability and hence
I would like to look at the revenue. Is that okay?
Malcom: Yes
Me: For a telecom company, the revenue is dependent on the number of subscribers that the company
has and the average revenue generated per customer. Have we seen a decline in any of the two?
Malcolm: The number of subscribers has increased a bit. But, yes, the average revenue per customer has
declined in the recent times.
Me: Okay. The major revenue drivers for the company would – Calls, Data, Text Message, Broadband (if
applicable) and VAS. Is there any major revenue driver that I am missing?
Malcolm: Those are indeed the major revenue drivers for us. You can focus only on the data and calls
segment
Me: As we have seen in the industry recently, there has been a major decline in the revenue from calls as
customers are moving towards more data consumption and using internet for voice and video calls. Is it
possible that the revenue we generate from data is less as compared to revenue that we generate from
calls?
Malcolm: Yes, the trend you mentioned is true. But it is true for all the other players in the industry. Then
why is only our revenue going down despite the subscribers increasing.
Me: Taking a personal example, it is possible that even though people are buying our company’s sim
card, but they are not utilizing it. Everybody has a dual sim card phone nowadays. So, people might be
using other company’s data and call, causing a decline in our average revenue per customer as we are
not generating any revenue from existing or the new subscribers.
Malcolm: True, might be possible. Due to paucity of time, we will stop here.
Interviewer 2 Kunwar Singh - Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions 1) Tell me about yourself?
2) Detailed discussion on my role at Deutsche Bank? (Kunwar’s expert area is Banking and Finance)
Statement: One of Mckinsey’s banking client (say SBI) is facing an issue. One of SBI’s biggest borrower
has filed for bankruptcy and it owes SBI a large amount of money. The dissolution process is about to
start and SBI has approached Mckinsey to help with the entire proceeding.
The problem statement is 2 fold:
1) You are going to meet SBI for the first time
What are the initial set of questions that you will ask SBI regarding the borrower’s bankruptcy?
Interview Number – 2 Case 2) SBI is the only creditor and has most of the say in the bankruptcy proceeding. For the dissolution of
the company, the company has received the following 3 options:
a. Old management wants to buy the shares of the company and re-build it.
b. Private equity firms are willing to buy the company
c. Other competitors in the same industry wants to take over the company
Which are the various criteria on the basis of which SBI should evaluate the different options available to
the borrower.
Interview 2 case Transcript Me: (Since most of the information was already provided, I didn’t ask any qualifying questions) (After
taking 15 seconds to think) – If I am going to meet SBI for the first time to help them with the borrower’s
bankruptcy, I would like to know the following answers from SBI first:
• In detail, what is the criteria for evaluating a company’s credit capacity and rating that SBI follows
• Was the procedure duly followed in the case of said borrower? If no, what were the deviations
• If yes, then were the follow-up procedure followed when the company started defaulting on its
commitment? Why was SBI not able to identify that the company is not in good shape and the
probability of it defaulting on its loan commitment was increasing?
• Now, since the dissolution proceeding has already started, what is SBI’s expectation and objective?
• How many other creditors/banks have lent to the company and what are their expectation?
Kunwar: Okay, these questions seem reasonable. You might have missed couple of important questions
but that will get covered up in the 2nd part of the problem statement.

Me: (After understanding the problem statement more carefully and re-iterating the same for
confirmation) So, the first criteria that I would use to judge the various options would be the Objective of
all three parties interested in the proceeding. That will help me identify which option is best suited for
SBI’s needs.

Kunwar: Okay, that’s valid. What else?

 Me: (Taking some time to think)

Kunwar: (Feeling my unease, as I was unfamiliar with bankruptcy process) Okay, let me help with another
criterion. You would look at the management of the company and how competent they are. Makes
sense?

Me: Yes, that would be very much relevant. On the same lines, we would also need to look at the history
of all the 3 options and how they had fared in similar situations. Next criteria would be the credit ratings
of all the 3 options as well as the % return that SBI would get on their outstanding loan in each of the
three cases.

Kunwar: Right. Due to lack of time we will stop here.

Interviewer 3 Suvir Sinha - Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions 1) What is most interesting part of your CV? (A very good opportunity to drive the interview towards
your strength area) – 15 minutes’ discussion on the same
One of the state government (say Maharashtra) has approached you with a problem. The traffic
Interview Number – 3 Case condition in one of the city (say Pune) has been deteriorating and the roads are always congested. Come
up with a plan to improve the condition of roads and traffic in the city.
Interview 3 case Transcript Me: Since when has the city been facing congestion issue? Is it a one off thing or has it been increasing
steadily over the time?
Suvir: It has been increasing steadily and now the government wants to tackle the situation
Me: Okay, Is the problem because of increasing number of vehicles in the city or due to lack of
infrastructure?
Suvir: Both are related. The numbers of vehicles are increasing in the city and thus the infrastructure is
not adequate to handle the same.
Me: Then I would like to divide our solution into 2 parts. One to reduce the number of vehicles in the city
and two, increase the transport infrastructure.
Suvir: Okay, that sounds good. Go ahead.
Me: So, to decrease the number of vehicles in the city, the government needs to discourage people of
the city to use private vehicles by providing them with a good alternative public transportation. Can I
assume that Buses and Auto are the major public transport available?
Suvir: Yes, you can focus on these 2 modes of transportation. You can also consider Ola/Uber under the
public government and how those can be leveraged to improve the condition.
Me: Okay. Starting with Bus transportation, would you say that there are enough buses on the roads to
cater to the needs of the public? And are the routes of the buses efficiently utilized?
Suvir: Well, the buses are always utilized to the full capacity, so there is scope to increase the number of
buses further. To answer your second point, the buses apply to only certain parts of the city which have a
high demand for public transportation.
Me: Okay, in that case, the government look to not only increase the number of buses plying on the road
but also cater to not so popular areas. Also, what is the typical profile of the public that use public
transportation? If only the lower strata use the buses, then the government can come up with a
premium AC bus service with better facilities and services (govt can charge higher amount) which can be
positioned for the middle income group.
Suvir: Okay, those are valid points. What else?
Me: Apart from the points mentioned, I believe that timing of the buses is another important factor that
determines if the public will use the buses or not. For that, I suggest that road infrastructure i.e. traffic
lights as well road condition needs to be improved and a proper scheduling of the buses with fixed
timings is implemented.
Suvir – Okay, I would have liked you to focus on the Ola/Uber solution as well. However, due to limited
time we will have to stop the interview here.
Suvir: Do you have any questions for me?
Me: I believe, I have cleared all my doubts in the many interactions that we had. So, no questions as of
now. Thank you.
Any Remarks HR questions are extremely important. Even if your case does not go well, if you are able to create an
impression from your HR answers, you will clear the round.

Name Satyam Taneja

Graduation College Delhi Technological University Branch Mechanical Engineering
Work Experience McKinsey & Co. (23M) Domain Research Analyst- Procurement
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Company
Interviewer 1 Malcolm Golmes, Associate Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions 1) Tell me a situation in which you solved a major challenge & how did you go about it
2) Tell me a situation in which you handled a conflict & convinced someone
Interview Number - 1 Case You are a telecom company and your profits are falling. Identify the issue.
Interview 1 case Transcript This round was a 15-minute interview which began with the case first, and was then followed by 2-3 HR
questions. The interviewer was generally pushy & tried to throw me off at multiple occasions initially, but later
became helpful & conversational. The case was a bit twisted logically (probably because interviewer also
wanted to complicate it & throw me off), and it took me some time to get into the groove for solving & picking
the right details. However, it was fairly standard, given that it was based on the telecom industry.

Here's a shortened & simplified version of the discussion:

Interviewer: Hi Satyam, hope you are having a good day so far. We do not have much time, let’s start directly
by solving a case. Let’s aim to solve this within 7 minutes. You are a telecom company and your profits are
falling. Identify the issue.

Candidate: Started by asking details regarding the company, where is it based(India), since when are revenues
falling (6 months) and then proceeded to draw a structure. Started by Profits=Revenues-Costs....

Interviewer: Don't focus on creating a structure on the sheet. Let’s just problem solve. Both revenues and costs
are increasing.

Candidate: Ok, so let’s look at the cost side first. Can you tell me more about the rate at which they are
growing compared to the revenue growth?

Interviewer: So costs are growing at the rate of inflation.

Candidate: Ok so, costs are growing at rate of inflation and our revenues are also growing, but since our profits
are decreasing, it means our revenue is growing at a rate slower than inflation rate.

Interviewer: Correct.

Candidate: So let’s look at the revenue side. Its driven by two factors; the number of users we have & the
average revenue we get per user. What do we know about the growth in these two areas?

Interviewer: Number of users has been increasing faster than industry, while ARPU has been decreasing faster
than industry.

At this point I took the hint to ask compare growth rates qualitatively with industry, instead of with time. The
discussion flowed to segments that comprise ARPU; voice and data, usage across the segments, post which we
discussed pricing mechanism (bundling for both prepaid and post-paid). The interviewer wanted me to make a
guess on why the different growth rates were the way they were. I did a quick synthesis and realized that
existing customers were possibly switching over to our plans for new customers based on the discussion
(vaguely remember now). Post that, interviewer wanted me to share some recommendations on fixing the
situation, which I did.

The interviewer had in general been pushy throughout the interview, but seemed satisfied with the solution.
By this point, we had received a knock on the door, but he wanted to talk more. There were a couple of HR
questions:
1) Tell me a situation in which you solved a major challenge & how did you go about it
2) Tell me a situation in which you handled a conflict & convinced someone
Interviewer 2 Kunwar Singh, Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions The second round was a short round with some quick conversational questions and then a quick case.
Interviewer was fairly friendly, but wanted me to be quick with the case.

Here are few opening questions which I remember:

1) Who was your previous interviewer and how was your interview experience?
2) What was the case about and what did you arrive at?
3) You worked at McKinsey before. Could you tell me about a few engagements and people you worked with?

This was followed by a discussion of the Indian Tyre industry, since I had mentioned that I published a
document about the current supply situation while I was at McKinsey.

Interviewer: So you published a document on the Indian Tyre industry in McKinsey. What was this document
about & when did you publish it?

Candidate: The document was about the supply situation in the Indian industry from a sourcing perspective;
industry competitiveness, key segments & players, capacity situation, expansion plans, current trends affecting
the industry, cost structure etc. Published in Jan 2017.

Interviewer: You published it fairly recently(10 months ago). Could you share three insights from the
document?

Candidate: Shared three learnings from the document. Also mentioned about some changes that have
occurred in the industry since then (investing in Tyre stocks helped)
 Interviewer: Okay, so can you provide me the key segments you covered in your document and also provide
the breakdown across the segments?

Candidate: Mentioned the segments covered & ask whether volume or value wise industry split is required.

Interviewer: Both

Candidate: Didn't remember exact numbers for all. Gave rough range estimates.

Interviewer(seeming satisfied): Okay, so let’s do a quick case.

You are a bank which has lent 5000 crores to a manufacturing company in the steel sector & you are concerned
Interview Number – 2 Case about this company since they are making losses. How would you go about assessing the future of this loan
account & what action you should take?
Interview 2 case Transcript Interviewer: You are a bank which has lent 5000 crores to a manufacturing company in the steel sector & you
are concerned about this company since they are making losses. How would you go about assessing the future
of this loan account & what action you should take?

Candidate: Started by asking a few background questions about the company, its products, since when is it in
debt etc. Interrupted.

Interviewer: Just list down the broad parameters you would look at to assess the company.

Candidate: Took a minute and shared broad parameters; current profitability, future profitability- projected
revenues & costs. Also mentioned how we could arrive project future profitability by estimating future price
levels for steel based on current & future industry demand and supply situation.

Interviewer: Okay, so what quantitative factors would you specifically look at?

Candidate: Mentioned.

Interviewer: Okay so here are figures for current prices, quantity sold & costs, projected growth rates for the
three & applicable simple interest rate. Tell me what will happen?

Candidate: Calculated current revenue, which was less than costs so company was making losses. However,
quickly realized qualitatively that revenues would grow at a faster pace than costs, so company will eventually
become operationally profitable. Explained current and expected P&L situation while also mentioning that
details regarding taxes, depreciation etc. were not available.

Interviewer: Okay, anything else you will look at & anything else you will do?

Candidate: This represents the paying ability of the company. Even if they might get paying ability in future,
they may pay still not pay us back, so we need to actively monitor the account & ensure the bank gets a say in
company operations if we are to restructure the loan.

The discussion was really quick, with the case lasting ending within 4-5 minutes. Case did involve some financial
understanding, so having the basics right helped. Partner didn't want to spend much time on the case due to
shortage of time, so he was guiding me through it with the expectation to be quick in solving the problem.
Interviewer 3 Rajat Dhawan, Senior Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions 1) Tell me about yourself
2) Tell me about your work at McKinsey as a Research Analyst
3) You have mentioned about winning a Firm Competition for a digitization project. Can you explain to me
what was the project about and what was your role?
4) Could you explain more to me about the Stanford Funded Venture- Avanti and Credence Capital, mentioned
on your CV? What are these two about and what did you do?
5) Why do you want to do consulting & why do you want to join McKinsey?
Interview Number – 3 Case No case was asked.
Interview 3 case Transcript As soon as my second round ended, I was rushed into a room where a tablet was set up with Rajat waiting over
a video call. I was given also given a mobile with Rajat on line, as the tablet speaker was not working due to a
technical glitch.

This was a short interview where Rajat's focus was to get to know me as an individual. The interview was rather
one sided, with Rajat asking me straightforward HR questions about my background from my CV, and me
responding to them.

Probably the only tricky part about the interview was due to the technical glitch. 1 minute into the interview,
there was some issue due to which I could no longer see Rajat on screen. He asked me to ignore it and carry on
with what I was saying, which thankfully I did without being bothered. Due to this, throughout the round I
could not gauge Rajat's reaction to my answers, and understand when I had spoken enough since he was fairly
quiet. However, there was an interesting twist to it. Towards the end of the round, I asked Rajat if we should
connect the video call again, to which he replied that he could still observe me and had just turned off his
 camera. Surprise!

The interview ended with Rajat asking me if I had any questions for him, which I mentioned that I didn't since I
had been at the Firm and knew the expectations.

The entire conversation lasted for ten minutes, and ten more minutes later I was given the offer.
Any Remarks My interviews with all three Partners were really short. I was probably the first to be interviewed that day, so
they had a lot of candidates to interview and wanted to be quick. Throughout the rounds there was an
expectation to be really succinct, with focus more on pure problem solving, demonstrating my approach &
arriving at an answer quickly, rather than going through the lengthy paper based case structuring approach
which we typically tend to do. I had to mould my responses accordingly and carefully pick the hints interviewer
was giving to rush through the case.

I believe this responsiveness to interviewer, flexibility in approach, being quick & engaging in problem solving
worked best for me.

I would also suggest candidates to not analyse how an interview went until all interviews are done. Throughout
my three rounds, I had a feeling that I could do so much more or tell much more if we had the time. However,
keeping such thoughts aside & approaching every interview afresh was & is the right way to go.

Name Kabir Khattar

Graduation College Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Branch Business Management
Studies, University of Delhi
Work Experience Verity Knowledge Solutions (UBS) (12M) Domain Investment Banking
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Company
Interviewer 1 Suveer Sinha – Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions My general impressions after my interviews were that more than anything, McKinsey looks for a ‘good fit’
while recruiting. Of course, the case solving abilities of the candidate are of paramount importance, however, I
believe, McKinsey places equal importance on whether the candidate seems like he/she would fit well with the
company culture. Please bear in mind these are just my views.
Moreover, all my interviews were inadvertently (or not) split equally into a case and plenty of HR questions,
which corroborates the fact that McKinney is willing to utilise a major portion of a 20-minute interview to ‘get
to know you’.
The first round began with a ‘Tell me about yourself’, “You have pursued diverse activities for long periods, out
of these, which one is a true passion? Why?”. He had a few follow up questions and seemed satisfied with the
answers, post which we started the case.
Problem Statement – I am the head of a 5-star hotel, which has a small presence in India. I want to expand our
Interview Number - 1 Case
footprint and compete with the likes of Taj effectively. Suggest how should I go about it.
Interview 1 case Transcript Thoughts – It was a real case that the partner had worked on recently. It was more of a conversation where he
took active interest in the structure I drew and probed me further on various subheads with questions like,
why would my IRR be higher in India versus other countries, what are the key cost considerations, etc. At large,
the interviewer answered the qualifying questions generously and kept suggesting directions in which he want
me to think.
Interviewer 2 Malcolm Gomes – Associate Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions This round was roughly divided into two sections - a guesstimate of 10 minutes, and 10 minutes of HR
questions wherein the interviewer was a tough one.
HR - Asked me 'Why consulting'. After answering that, I ended my answer with how McKinsey was the most
suitable fit for me, which prompted the question 'Why McKinsey'. Of course I had reasoned both those
answers out to the T, they were well researched and genuine. Apart from this, the interviewer asked me what
all had I done after quitting my job in the previous year. Turned into a bit of a stress interview as he was not
satisfied with anything I said, repeatedly asked me “Okay, what else did you do?”. It was important to maintain
calm and answer as truthfully as possible.
Guesstimate: I am the CEO of a chemicals company starting off operations in India. I want to recruit a team of
Interview Number – 2 Case
engineers. To that end, estimate the number of chemical engineers in the talent pool.
Interview 2 case Transcript There is no prescribed way for solving a guesstimate, one can take any approach one wants, as long as one is
able to communicate it well. To begin with, I asked questions such as whether the company was looking for
undergraduates or postgraduates, whether there were preferences in terms of urban/rural, skilled/unskilled,
etc. I spent 2-3 minutes on asking questions to properly define the problem before beginning the case, after
which I asked whether I should be putting numbers alongside the structure, he said yes. Throughout the case,
he didn’t let me finish a thought, kept pushing to come up with numbers quickly (maybe because my PST
wasn’t the best, just maybe), and kept me on my toes. My rough approach involved a division into urban and
rural and then using, age group divide, literacy levels and proportion of people who move from primary to
secondary to higher secondary to graduate studies. Most importantly, I kept checking with him if my
assumptions (and consequent numbers) seemed fair.
Interviewer 3 Kunwar Singh – Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions -
 "Statement: One of McKinsey’s banking client is facing an issue. One of the biggest borrowers has filed for
bankruptcy and it owes the bank a large sum. The dissolution process is about to start and SBI has approached
Mckinsey to help with the proceedings.
The problem statement is 2 fold:
1) You are going to meet the bank officials for the first time
What are the initial set of questions that you will ask the bank regarding the borrower’s bankruptcy?
Interview Number – 3 Case 2) Our client is the only creditor and the loudest voice in the bankruptcy proceedings. For the dissolution of the
company, the company has received the following 3 options:
a. Old management wants to buy the shares of the company and re-build it.
b. Private equity firms are willing to buy the company
c. Other competitors in the same industry wants to take over the company
Suggest a few parameters based on which the bank should evaluate the different options available to the
borrower.
Interview 3 case Transcript The problem statement was repeated across many candidates, hence the solution should be described in detail
by others here.
Any Remarks -

Name Shivani Bansal

Graduation College NIT Durgapur Branch Computer Science
Work Experience Microsoft (35M) Domain Software Engineer
Interviewing Company McKinsey & Co.
Interviewer 1 Don't remember
Interview 1 HR Questions Introduce yourself. Describe a situation where you faced a conflicting situation while working in a team
and how did you resolve it. In the end was asked if I had any questions.
The client is a car rental company. It operates at different points in the city and airport. It rents car for
leisure and business purpose. The profits of the company have been declining. What are the different
Interview Number - 1 Case aspects you will look into while solving this case? This was followed by a problem where Revenue, Cost
breakup and profit figures were given. There were four categories of cars. Find the change in Profit if all
the four categories were replaced by a single category.
Interview 1 case Transcript Interviewer- Stated the case.
Me: Asked few clarifying questions. Then proceeded with the issue tree. The interviewer wanted to see
the entire approach and not a particular solution. Divided the problem into revenues and cost. First laid
the entire structure of the revenue streams and discussed what could lead to decrease in revenues. Then
proceeded to cost. Went through a supply chain approach, figuring out various cost drivers.
Interviewer: Was satisfied with the approach. Gave data for per day revenue, cost (fuel price,
maintenance cost, etc.) and profit margin. Also gave annual fuel prices figures for 4 category of cars.
Asked to find out the change in profit if all 4 categories were replaced by a single category.
Me: Needed some more data to find out the solution.
Interviewer: Provided the data.
Me: Found out the per day change in fuel price and finally the profit.
Interviewer: Correct answer. Any questions?
Interviewer 2 Interviewer: Kunwar. Designation: Principal
Interview 2 HR Questions Introduce yourself. What was your role and responsibilities at Microsoft? In the end was asked if I had
any questions.
Your client is a bank. The bank had given loan to a steel company. The steel company recently turned
Interview Number – 2 Case insolvent. Now the bank is looking for bidders for the steel company. What factors should the bank
consider while deciding whom to give the bid.
Interview 2 case Transcript Interviewer: Your client is a bank. The bank had given loan to a steel company. The steel company
recently turned insolvent. Now the bank is looking for bidders for the steel company. You are a
consultant at work. What will you ask the bank the very first day of your case.
Me: Stated the various aspects I would consider like current investments/mode of payment(if equity,
then financial strength of the bidder and expected market value in future) Previous records/ Relevance
of business, etc. After stating the factors, did a pros/cons analysis.
Interviewer 3
Interview 3 HR Questions
Interview Number – 3 Case
Interview 3 case Transcript
Any Remarks Structure, problem solving skills and presence matter the most during the interviews. Be calm and
confident during the interview and make it conversational.
The Boston Consulting Group

Name Vatsal Malavia

Graduation College BITS Pilani Branch Electronics & Instrumentation
Work Experience Zinnov Management consulting (23M) Domain Management Consulting
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Perseus Patrawala, Principal
Interview 1 HR Questions None
I am a telecom service provider. I have been losing market share. I went from being in top 4 telecom
Interview Number - 1 Case companies to top 6. Can you suggest new partnerships and distribution channels for me to explore? Currently I
only sell through local kirana stores. Also I want you to explore cost benefit analysis for setting up a store.
Interview 1 case Transcript Me: I would like to know more about the company first. What exactly does it offer? Where does it operate?
How long has it been in business?
Interviewer: All services same as Airtel/Vodafone. Operate pan India- urban & rural both. In business for 15-20
years
M: Target Customers?
I: Middle-aged to elderly major customers. Not so much penetration in youth.
M: What’s the competition?
I: Same as contemporary
M: Let me divide the customers into two segments. Existing customer segments and new customer segments.
Existing customer segment can be further divided into offline and online channels. Within offline channels,
divide between working class and retired. For working we can either contact through corporates or directly.
Corporates will include offering customised prepaid and post-paid plans through their companies. Direct
contact can be either in person or through cold calls. For the online part we can divide the customer segment
between educated and non-educated classes. For educated we can promote website and mobile applications.
For non-educated we can connect through SMS and USST.
For the new customer segment divide between students and early working class which are also those having
newly married. Further dividing each segment into offline and online. Within students for offline we can setup
stalls in colleges, canteens, malls and cafes, Direct contact through calls and salespersons. Online can be done
through website, digital marketing, and mobile applications. Similarly, we can do for the early working class-
have bundled corporate and family plans.
I: Okay let’s move on to the second part. I want to set up a store. Can you tell me how to go about it.
M: Can you tell me more about the store?
I: It is same as a regular Airtel store.
M: Where do you want to set it up?
I: It should be a pilot store to gauge the response. You can take a location of your choice.
M: Okay, I would like to open a store in Charni Road, Mumbai where I stay. It is a prime residential location in
South Mumbai.
I: Okay, go ahead. Can you list all the costs in setting up the store?
M: Dividing the expense into human and non-human expense. Human expense will include salaries of
executives, store staff and security guard. Under non-human we will have all other costs such as Storage,
inventory, all machines and equipment, rent, utilities.
I: Ignoring the 1 time set up cost, can you estimate the monthly expense of running the store?
M: Sure! There is a Vodafone store there with 10 desks. Ours being a smaller firm, let’s assume there are 5
desks, plus storage area plus seating- Rent will be arouond 1Lakh per month. Salaries of executives will be
around 25k for 8 executives, 15k for 3 staff members and 15k for security guard making it a total of 2.6
Lakhs/month. The utilities spend for electricity, fuel for generator, water, internet will be around 50-60K per
month. The total comes out to be around 4-4.5 Lakhs/month.
I: Fair Enough! Can you tell me the revenue streams of the store?
M: These stores are usually cost centres as they work more towards customer complain resolution. Some
revenue streams can be sale of new SIM connections, sale of better schemes and VAS, any merchandise in the
store. We can also track the complaint resolution success rate to monitor productivity of the store.
I: Sure. That will be it. It was a good case. Thank you.
Interviewer 2 Nitin Chandaliya, Principal
Interview 2 HR Questions Tell me Something about yourself?
Why not finance?
What does Zinnov do?
What did you do at Zinnov?
Some questions around family background
Interview Number – 2 Case None
Interview 2 case Transcript None
Interviewer 3 Vikas Jain, Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions Do you have any questions for me?
What was your work like at Zinnov?
Questions around specific projects at Zinnov.
What do you think about the engineering services industry in general (work-ex related)
Interview Number – 3 Case None
Interview 3 case Transcript None
Any Other Remarks I had 2 interviews which did not involve a case. What helped in these interviews was making casual
conversations and building a rapport with the interviewer. Creating a comfort level with the interviewer helped
me a log way. Talking with confidence is the key.

Name Abhay Agrawal

Graduation College IIT Roorkee Branch Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
Work Experience i3 Consulting (25M) Domain Management Consulting
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Akshat Gupta, Project Leader
Interview 1 HR Questions Had an informal "how have you been" conversation on the way down to the interview room from the waiting
room. He seemed friendly and kept referring to me as 'sir'. Introduced himself and then asked about me. Went
on to the case.
Interview Number - 1 Case The case was to increase the sales of a mutual fund.
Interview 1 case Transcript With minimal knowledge of the industry, I did not take any chances. I told him that I am not aware of how a
mutual fund is being sold and asked details about the company, operations, customers, competitors'
performance and other clarifications. Realized that he does not want me to go into the depths of banking and
that the problem can be considered as increasing sales of a standard product. Used a value chain approach to
suggest ideas to increase sales at each stage. He kept guiding me throughout the case with suggestive
questions.
Interviewer 2 Prateek Gupta, Principal
Interview 2 HR Questions He briefly introduced himself as we walked to the interview room. Started with the case as soon as we sat for
the interview. Post the case he asked me one major accomplishment from one of my PORs.
Interview Number – 2 Case The case was to increase the profitability of a new restaurant that is currently operating at break-even.
Interview 2 case Transcript The clarifying questions helped conclude that the restaurant was a 3-month old restaurant in a corporate
space, serving Indian food. There were other restaurants serving all varieties of food and most were doing well.
The issue was lack of customers, which could be solved by decreasing the prices. The key was to reach this
conclusion after which it was a simple mathematical case of deciding optimum price by asking increase in
footfall and costs due to reduced costs, and then calculating profits. He asked for some recommendations at
the end, and I gave some recommendations aside from the discussion we had, such as increasing operational
hours, phone delivery to offices and exploring other revenue streams.
Interviewer 3
Interview 3 HR Questions
Interview Number – 3 Case
Interview 3 case Transcript

Name Aviral Saxena

Graduation College IIT Bombay Branch Chemical Engineering (B.Tech.)
Work Experience Ernst & Young (EY) (11M) Domain Management Consulting
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Vikash Jain, Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself.
Who will be more valuable in the near future - techies or MBAs? Why?
Do you have any questions for me?
Interview Number - 1 Case Improvement of situation of telecom company with 3 products
Interview 1 case Transcript The interviewer walked with me from the waiting room to the interview room. On the way he asked me
about myself and introduced himself. We made some small talk.
The case was not about following frameworks and arriving at solution. It was just a logical conversation
about the business problem at hand. A table was drawn out which had the three products, landlines
(fixed lines), mobiles and corporates (used in that order from here onwards) with the following
information –
1. Individual revenue share for the company – 30%, 50%, 20%
2. EBITDA for each product – 20%, -10% and 15%
3. Market growth rate for each segment – -5%, 15% and 10%
4. Competitive positioning of the company in each segment – top 3 in landline, 6th in mobiles, and top 3
incorporates
 5. Total revenue for the company – INR 10,000 crores
6. Total long-term debt for the company – INR 30,000 crores
Interviewer (I): Firstly, tell me whether the company is making any kind of profits.
Candidate (C): Revenues = Net company revenue*Revenue share for that product. Revenue for Landline
= 10,000*0.3 = 3000 crores. Revenue for Mobile = 10,000*0.5 = 5,000 crores. Revenue for Corporates =
10,000*0.2 = 2,000 crores. Profits for a product = Revenue for that product*EBITDA for that product.
Profit for landline = 3,000*20% = 600 crores. Profit for Mobiles = 5,000*(-10%) = -500crores (Loss). Profit
for Corporates = 2,000*15% = 300 crores. Therefore, net profit = Sum of individual profits = 300 crores –
500 crores + 300 crores = INR 100 crores. Therefore, I would say that the company is making a gross
profit of INR 100 crores.
I: Okay, so what would you say about the health of the company?
C: I learnt in the course Financial Analysis and Reporting this year that the EBITDA should be able to
cover for the interest payments of its debts, using the EBITDA to Interest Coverage Ratio. So I would
assume 5% rate of interest on long term debt?
I: 5% is too low. Take a higher number.
C: Okay, I’ll take 10% then, if that is fine?
I: Sure, go ahead with that.
C: So, the interest payment for this year = 30,000 crore*0.1*1 = 3,000 crores. This is a lot of interest
payment, and our current profits are not high enough to cover for this. I would thus say that the
company is not in a very good financial health.
I: Okay. What do you think is the culprit?
C: The negative EBITDA margin of mobile phones, which has a huge chunk of our revenues, and a
negative EBITDA margin ensures a proportionately big impact on the P&L account. I believe that if this is
the case of an Indian company, this may have happened because of the telecom disruption by the entry
of Jio last year.
I: That is true. What do you think that the company should do?
C: What is the company’s objective?
I: To come in the top 3 of the mobile sector, as the top 3 companies usually make a lot of money. The
rest don’t.
C: Okay, so for that we would need to reach a certain market share if I’m not wrong. Do we have any kind
of data on the market shares of the companies in mobile sector?
I: Yes, we do. The top 3 players are at 35%, 25% and 20% market shares. Rest companies are somewhat
around 10%, we are at 8% and the rest in the remaining 2%.
C: Okay, I see. I think that organic growth in an already saturated market with an incumbent following
predatory pricing would be very difficult, and very slow if possible at all. I think we would need to go for
either a Joint Venture (JV), merger with another company or to acquire another company. Do you think
these are possibilities?
I: Yes, they are possible. Please go ahead with the analysis of this.
C: Okay, for an acquisition to happen, we would be able to acquire a smaller target company, but none of
those is at a position to be able to make us reach the target of 20% (third position market share). Then
we could look at the possibility of a merger, such as the one of Vodafone and Idea that happened to
compete with Jio.
I: Okay, interesting, go on.
C: In either a JV or a merger, we would be able to reduce our average fixed cost with every new product
produced and reduce our customer acquisition cost per consumer because of an existing consumer base
with both the firms. Hence, we would be able to leverage economies of scale.
I: But why would a well-to-do company want to do a JV or a merger with a lagging company like ours?
C: Hmm, I think if the company has cost reduction motives like us in a competitive scenario that Jio has
created, we may be able to convince them on a similar argument of economies of scale.
I: That is fine, but do you think there is something else that we can leverage?
C: *thinking and looking at the worksheet till now*
I: Think on the lines of whether we have something to offer to them?
C: *realization hits* Yes, we can leverage our stronghold in the corporate customers segment, which is
growing at 15% a year, and we are in the top 3 of them. Hence, through cross-segment benefits, we may
be able to convince a bigger company to do a JV or a merger with us.
I: Okay, that is fine. Let’s close the case now.
The interviewer then took me back to the waiting room, and on the way, we did some more small talk.
Interviewer 2 Nitin Chandalia, Principal
Interview 2 HR Questions Completely conversational round, no case interview
About myself
Why was my college CGPA low?
He had worked at EY before, so he asked me a lot of questions about EY - my partner, how did I find the
work, where did I work out of and other stuff.
What did I do in the placement team at IIT Bombay?
Do you have any questions for me?
Interview Number – 2 Case The Boston Consulting Group
Interview 2 case Transcript Vikash Jain, Partner
Interviewer 3
Interview 3 HR Questions
Interview Number – 3 Case
Interview 3 case Transcript
Any Remarks Just stay confident with what you are doing and be aware of the things you should be knowing from the
term 1 at IIM. The interviewers are also human. The give a lot of hints along the way, we just need to be
aware of those and catch hold of the hints.
Also, I think that being able to make and maintain conversation even in small moments like when walking
with the interviewer to the interview room/waiting room, counts. This shows that you are genuinely
interested in the person/company and can talk to strangers. This is an essential trait of a consultant.

Name Shubhankar Gupta

Graduation College Ramjas College Branch Commerce
Work Experience NA Domain NA
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Geetika Basra, Principal
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me something about yourself
You are a government school and you want to introduce pre-nursery classes also and through that you
Interview Number - 1 Case
want to increase your revenues. How will you generate revenues out of it ?
Interview 1 case Transcript The case was very different, in the sense that the interviewer was saying no to every option being told.
The benefits of pre-nursery were spoken of. After laying down various options, the interviewer expected
me to quantify each and every option. The only positive of this interview was that I kept on trying
something or the other for 30 minutes and kept the interviewer engaged.
Interviewer 2 Pratik Gupta, Senior Partner
Interview 2 HR Questions Tell me something about yourself.
Tell me about the work you do at Enactus.
Tell me more about the Transcreations project.
We are a new Restaurant and were expecting good amount of profits but it didn't really happen. Identify
Interview Number – 2 Case
and Rectify the reasons for same.
Interview 2 case Transcript The Clarifying questions provided me lot of clarity w.r.t the case problem. I understood that the
restaurant was placed in an office complex in Gurgaon and it had been one year since its inception. The
restaurant was serving various cuisines but main earnings were through The Indian cuisine. The seating
capacity was 100 seats and the occupancy was 25% at all meal timings. I asked questions on meal
timings, occupancy, seating arrangement, staff, training, entry and exit, delivery services, USP,
Competitor, Location, office complex and the number of offices and people in these offices. It was
identified that there were two major issues- 1) The relative pricing of the restaurant, 2) Similar Food and
similar services.
Then various price changes and situations were discussed, and I turned a simple case into a number
heavy case and I guess it turned out in my favour. The interviewer was very impressed and told me same
after my selection too.
Interviewer 3 Ashish. Senior Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions Tell me something about yourself.
Tell me more about your Enactus Work and then about Projects.
You are a bank and you want to set up an ATM. Tell me where, when and how will you set it up. Also,
Interview Number – 3 Case
how will you earn profits from it. You have a corpus of 10 crores to burn in 5 years.
Interview 3 case Transcript The case began with identifying that the service will be outsourced and not performed by the bank itself.
The interviewer was a tough person. He did not agree to any of the criteria of deciding on a location and
made me think and analyse 5-6 different parameters. Then finally agreed to one which was mentioned
earlier. Then we spoke of the very purpose of setting up an ATM and the various other reasons for
setting it up. The revenue model was discussed. It was a very tough interview and the interviewer asked
in the end, " What do you think you did well?". I said I tried very well and never stopped trying despite
resistance. Also I came up new ideas and parameters to set the location of the ATM. He nodded and said,
"Well done."
Any Remarks

Name Astha Didwania

Graduation College St. Xavier's College, Kolkata Branch B. Sc. Economics
Work Experience The Boston Consulting Group (11M) Domain Consulting
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Don't know
Interview 1 HR Questions Asked to introduce myself. Questions on dissertation done in college.
Interview Number - 1 Case I am a Cement manufacturer. My profits are declining. Please identify reasons for the same.
Interview 1 case Transcript It was just a 5-minute discussion around possible ideas to reduce cost of cement manufacturing. The
interviewer was primarily looking at the structure and thought process.
Interviewer 2 Don't know
Interview 2 HR Questions Asked about the previous projects done while working in BCG
Interview Number – 2 Case No case was asked
Interview 2 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 3 NA
Interview 3 HR Questions NA
Interview Number – 3 Case NA
Interview 3 case Transcript
Any Remarks

Name Anantdeep Singh

Graduation College Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Branch Finance
Studies
Work Experience McKinsey & Co (Knowledge Centre) , ICAP Domain Consulting
Shipping (Total-36M)
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 NA, Principal
Interview 1 HR Questions Had a very nice and detailed conversation with the Interviewer. He came to the common waiting area
and escorted me to the interview room. While walking back, we started chatting, and discussed our
backgrounds + general stuff about Lucknow. When we sat, he finally asked me- what is that one thing I
wanted to do in Life. I replied to this by mentioning that I wanted to have a maximum impact on the
society. We then had a short discussion on this topic where we discussed alternative ways of achieving
this objective including politics and consulting. Given the constraint of time, we then moved on to the
case statement.
Problem: An online restaurant listing company reaches out to you. They have been seeing an increase in
Interview Number - 1 Case their listings, however their advertising revenues are not increasing. The management has hired you to
figure out the reason behind this situation.
Interview 1 case Transcript Clarifying questions + case + solution
Interviewer 2 Na
Interview 2 HR Questions Na
Interview Number – 2 Case Na
Interview 2 case Transcript Na
Interviewer 3 Na
Interview 3 HR Questions Na
Interview Number – 3 Case Na
Interview 3 case Transcript Na
Any Remarks

Name Kanika Agarwal

Graduation College Hans Raj College Branch Economics
Work Experience NA Domain NA
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Garima Batra
Interview 1 HR Questions Tell me about yourself? Your biggest achievement?
You are working with the government. Government schools run classes from 1st grade to 12th. They're
Interview Number - 1 Case
thinking of introducing classes for lower grades. Help them with the decision.
Interview 1 case Transcript I: What timeline are we looking at to implement this?
Interviewer: As soon as possible. It's not a concern here.
I: Are there any budgetary constraints?
Interviewer: Would want to minimise them.
I: Seeing that we need to decide whether we should go for it or not in the first place, I'll look at the
benefits and costs of such a move.
 Interviewer: Okay, that works.
I: I can divide the benefits into educational, economic, social and others.
Interviewer: Okay, what all would come in those categories?
I: In Educational, we can look at dropout rates, number of enrolments and quality of education. The
number of enrolments should increase as an avenue that wasn't available to them earlier will be open
and even for people, earlier sending kids to private schools might get an incentive to shift them here.
Interviewer: Okay, how is the quality of education going to differ?
I: Well, might lead to better absorption compared to status quo, where compared to private schools, the
level of learning is very low in government schools. If they start on time, their basics can be cleared
earlier.
Interviewer: Right, and about dropout rates?
I: As the quality of education increases, might lower dropout rates.
interviewer: Do you think it can impact repetitions?
I: Yes, as quality improves, the repetitions required should lower.
Interviewer: Yes, and that is where a huge avenue of saving is cost can come in. What all factors come in
Economic and Social?
I: In economic benefits, employability of graduates will be the factor and for social, we can talk about
benefits related to health and sanitation (with access to mid-day meals etc.) and improvements related
to other social problems such as women empowerment etc.
Interviewer: Right, Move to Costs now, please.
I: So, I can divide costs between infrastructural, staffing and faculty, provision of services such as books,
uniforms, meals and also, the opportunity cost of making such a move.
Interviewer: Explain what you mean by each head, please.
I: Infrastructure would include building up of new classrooms and buildings if required and provision of
benches, boards etc. Staffing and Faculty would include hiring of new employees and their training. The
next one is pretty much self-explanatory. By opportunity costs I mean, that the impact of government
not redirecting such funds to other areas such as defence, health etc.
Interviewer: That’s good, Thank you!
Interviewer 2 N/A
Interview 2 HR Questions Conversation about the last interview. Gave me an offer at the end of the case.
Your client is a new bank in Delhi-NCR. Assume that on a transaction in an ATM by a customer of another
bank, the other bank pays the client Rs. 20. The loss that this bank is willing to sustain in a year is Rs.
Interview Number – 2 Case
1000 crores. Help the client decide how many ATM's should they open and in what locations. I want you
to explain this to me through numbers.
Interview 2 case Transcript I: Okay, since as the bank would want to maximise revenues present and future, minimising costs, I
would look at both these heads. Is that satisfactory?
Interviewer: Yes, seems sensible. Tell me the Revenues side of it.
I: So, revenues could be through the own customers and through the inter-bank fees from other banks’
customers.
Interviewer: Considering that the bank is at its infancy assume that the revenue from its own customer
base is minimal here.
I: Right, then revenues depend on number of transactions that will depend on the location and context
of the ATM.
Interviewer: That’s true, how can you categorise that as then?
Took a minute to think here.
I: We can categorise the locations as residential markets, office complexes and thirdly, shopping
complexes and public hubs such as airports and railway stations.
Interviewer: Yes, that will work. Why don’t we move to costs here and discuss that considering we have a
certain burnout constraint?
I: Okay, costs can be divided into rent, utilities, staff( security guard) and others. Other costs can include
any regulatory costs accrued here too. Am I missing something?
Interviewer: Yes, what would be a major cost associated with running of an ATM machine? And you can
ignore any regulatory costs.
Took a minute to think here.
I: A cost associated would be to transport cash and stock the machine with it.
Interviewer: Yes. That’s the one. Now, how shall you proceed?
I: Well, all the costs would be about the same for all location categories except rent as that’s dependent
on the location of the ATM.
Interviewer: Fair enough. Then, assume that per ATM, the utilities, security guard and transportation
cost INR 20000, INR 15000 and INR 50000 pm. And the rent in residential is INR 15000 pm, in offices it is
INR 20000 pm and in shopping complexes, it is INR 30000 pm.
I: So, costs pm for residential, offices and shopping complexes would be INR 100k, INR 105k and INR 115k
respectively. Annual costs would be Rs. 12 lakhs, Rs. 12.6 lakhs, Rs. 14 lakhs respectively. Assuming you
operate only on those centres, you can divide 1000 crores to get the number of ATM’s that can be
opened on an annual basis.
Interviewer: Okay, thank you for your help.
Interviewer 3
Interview 3 HR Questions
Interview Number – 3 Case
Interview 3 case Transcript
Any Remarks Just be confident and keep smiling. It's okay to make mistakes and to take time to get to answers. Just be
your normal self and have a nice conversation with the interviewer.

Name Himanshu Aggarwal

Graduation College IIT Kanpur Branch Chemical Engineering
Work Experience EXL Service LLC (35M) Domain Analytic Consulting
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Principal
Interview 1 HR Questions Himanshu, I am also from IIT Kanpur. I see you have done something related to blood donation in Kanpur
can you please explain that?
A restaurant is not satisfied with its profit for the last six months. Owner believes that they can do much
Interview Number - 1 Case
better. Evaluate owner's claim.
Interview 1 case Transcript I: So Himanshu, you must have had an interaction with your buddy and you know format of the
interview.
Me: Yes. I have had a healthy discussion with my buddy.
I: Okay so let's start. A restaurant is not satisfied with its profit for the last six months. Owner believes
that they can do much better. Evaluate owner's claim.
Me: Okay. Can I have some time to think about the problem.
I: Yes. Sure. Take your time.
Me: {After some time} Where is the restaurant located?
I: It is one of the restaurants in a corporate eating area.
Me: Is it an all cuisine restaurant or it has some specialty?
I: It is an Indian restaurant.
Me: Is it a self-serving restaurant like McDonalds or is it fine dining restaurant?
I: Fine dining restaurant.
Me: Do they have any other competitors as in other restaurants and do they have any other competitors
in terms of Indian restaurant?
I: Yes. They have other competitors. Client is more worried that there is one other Indian restaurant.
Me: Okay. Let me structure my thought. {I summarized my findings till now}
Me: Profits can be divided into two components. Revenue and cost. Revenue can be broken into primary
and other sources of revenue. Primary revenue can be broken into average price of a meal x no. of
customers. Other sources of revenue can be broken down into advertising revenue, rent revenue and
other sources. I would have to understand the business more deeply to know more about other sources.
I am parking it for the meanwhile and will come back later on it. Costs can be broken down into raw
materials, conversion cost and final service cost.
{I drew the framework on paper as well so that I don’t miss out on anything and communication between
me and interviewer is clear}
Is there anything specific you want me to explore?
I: Client is satisfied with costs. There are no secondary sources of revenue. Let’s focus more on primary
sources of revenue.
Me: Okay. Do we have numbers here? When I say average price of the meal what is it? I am asking
because I have to establish two things - i) if there has been any change? Ii) is the restaurant too
costly/cheap and people really don’t like coming here?
I: Price is Rs 500 and there is no change in the last six months.

Me: Okay. And number of customer, do we see a change in number of customers?

I: No. It is fairly constant.
Me: Okay. So you mention one another Indian restaurant. I really don’t know how to benchmark Rs 500
and I would really want to know what is the charge in another Indian restaurant so I know how big or
small the number is. Also what is the profit of the other restaurant?
I: Okay. Good question. Other restaurant is charging the same. Himanshu, client is not aware of the other
restaurant’s profit.
Me: I would now want to understand what drives number of customers to understand if there is
something which we are doing wrong or if there are some low hanging fruits which we can suggest to
our client while helping him build long term capability to gain more profits.
I: Okay.
Me: Number of customers can be divided into likeability, availability and accessibility. Likeability would
constitute my food perception and food quality, availability would constitute my opening hours and if
there is any space in my restaurant, it can be a case where in there is no space in the restaurant leaving
no room for new customers to come on board and accessibility would constitute where is my restaurant
located viz a viz other restaurants.
I: Okay.
Me: {Covered everything one by one. We were perfect in every sense}
{Asked for more time to understand what could be going wrong}
I want to benchmark my number of customers with that of my competition. How are my numbers
 compared to him? It can be a fact that we don’t have data, but generally there is a perception on a floor
and more number of customers are going where? If I have data or generic perception I would want to
establish my customer base viz a viz his so that I know my standings?
I: Other restaurant attracts more number of customers.
Me: Gathering insights. We are better in terms of food quality, service and ambiance. Average price per
meal is similar. Still the competition seems to be doing well in terms of number of customers. It seems a
bit counter intuitive to me {thinking out loud}. My hypothesis is it is driven more by what my competitor
is doing rather than in-house. Are we aware of anything new our competitor has done in terms of
offerings of food?
I: No changes. Competition has started providing discount coupons.
Me: {This was my aha moment} Okay. Do discount coupons mean more number of customers going in
there? Our customers do seem to be price sensitive.
I: Can be a case. How can you establish it?
Me: My hypothesis is that current or loyal customer base may not be price sensitive but my competition
is able to expand its base – reach out to new customers by offering them discount. This strategy seems
to work for them.
I: Okay.
{Interviewer gave a few numbers here to check my basic understanding of numbers and understand if I
know my objective. We created a case where in revenue increased but profit declined. He confidently
asked me I think this should be the scenario we should propose to our client which I negated by saying
that our current objective is profit and not revenue. He further created a scenario where in profitability
was increasing. Again I negated by saying that current objective is profit and not profitability.}
I: So what would you suggest to our client?
Me: Based on current data, there is scope of expanding my customer base by reducing prices via offering
discount. However, I would want to retain my current customers as well. I would study the trend of
restaurant occupancy as in where in my current customers are coming. Based on that I would divide my
occupancy rate into low, medium and high. For high occupancy rate time, I won’t do anything. No
discounts. For low occupancy rate time, I would offer discount coupon in order to attract more
customers.
One more thing which I left out was we can explore loyalty option in order to strengthen my current
customer base. Do you want me to drill down more into all the suggestions?
I: No, that would be it. Thanks Himanshu. Let me help you on your way out.
Me: Okay. Thank you for your time.
HR
I: Himanshu, I am also from IIT Kanpur. I see you have done something related to blood donation in
Kanpur can you please explain that?
Me: It was one of the initiative which me and my roommate started when one of our hall workers – ABC
chacha {used more IIT Kanpur lingos in this answer} was facing blood problem. We were faced with a
situation where is there was a small demand, huge supply but zero liquidity. All of our struggle is provide
a platform so that the transition happens. We have been fairly success in the initiative. For the last 4
years there has been no blood shortage in the city of Kanpur in nearly 8 months i.e. the time period
when IIT Kanpur is open.
I: So, what’s next?
Me: Well, we want to achieve 100% voluntary blood donation in the city. Currently the number is less
than 1%. People donate blood but under the pressure that their kin needs it and hence blood banks
follow an exchange policy. I aspire to build a platform which creates a huge supply so that blood can
operate without their exchange policy.
I: I see no problem with current system. On one hand you say there is no blood shortage and on another
you talk about an exchange policy?
Me: People do get blood whenever they need it. So there is no shortage. Exchange policy is a worry
because it increases the lead time, which can be fatal in many cases like pregnancy and accidents. Also
for diseases like Leukemia and Thalassemia, unfortunately blood transfusion is a part of their life and
hence it is important to create a situation where in blood banks can go away with their exchange policy.

Interviewer 2 Don't remember

Interview 2 HR Questions None
A new bank wants to establish ATMs in Delhi NCR region and have hired you to help you do that. Budget
Interview Number – 2 Case
is 1 crore.
Interview 2 case Transcript
Overall this interview of mine was a disaster. I was able to establish the cost of establishing a ATM but
was not able to establish parameters which would help me decide where in particular region we have to
open ATMs.
Interviewer 3 Partner
Interview 3 HR Questions What is your passion?
Zomato is losing on its advertising revenue. {interviewer did not mention Zomato’s name but gave
Interview Number – 3 Case enough description for me to know that the firm is Zomato} for the last one year and they want to know
why. You have 15 minutes to solve the problem.
Interview 3 case Transcript I: We will divide this interview in three parts, one I will like to know you, two we will do a small case and
three I have been in this business for the last 18 years and if you want to ask anything we can proceed to
that.
 Me: Okay
I: So, Himanshu, What is your passion?
Me: {I explained how trekking and healthcare is my passion and how I have identified it and how I plan to
pursue it in the future}
I: Wow! I have met a lot of candidates and people generally talk about fields in which they are good at.
Yours came straight from your heart. Let’s proceed to the next module of interview.
I: Zomato is losing on its advertising revenue. {interviewer did not mention Zomato’s name but gave
enough description for me to know that the firm is Zomato} for the last one year and they want to know
why. You have 15 minutes to solve the problem.
Me: {This was the first time I was doing an interview with a clock on my head, I skipped the drill of asking
few minutes and began asking my preliminary questions} What all are the sources of advertising for the
firm?
I: They have slots on websites and mobile applications.
Me: Do we have any kinds of competitors and are they also losing out on revenue?
I: I am not aware of competitors… So Himanshu, like I said earlier you have 15 minutes to solve. You have
already spend 2 minutes. Solution should come in next 13 minutes.
Me: {I had never been in this kind of situation, and this is where interaction with buddy helps. He had
taught me to construct a MECE structure using mathematics which in some sense is convergent. Keeping
that approach in mind I resolved to start again} Okay. I understand the time criticality here. I would re-
start my approach and consider from where advertising revenue comes from.
I: Okay. Fair enough. You have 12 minutes.
Me: Has the number of users of visiting mobile or website dropped?
I: No. In fact, they have increased.
Me: Has there been any drop in number of advertisers?
I: No. Again they have increased.
Me: Advertising Revenue = price charged per slot * No. of slots sold
I: Okay. Prices charged have not changed and there is no drop in number of slots that have been sold. All
the slots are still getting sold.

Me: Okay. Another feature which is important here is the occupancy rate of the slots. So the equation
changes to
Advertising revenue = price charged per slot * no. of slots sold * occupancy rate of the slot
I: Occupancy rates are the same on an average though there has been a drop in occupancy rates for
some time. Can you help me understand why is there a drop in occupancy rate?
Me: There can be two reasons:
1. Good – Restaurants are getting whatever they had estimated in terms of advertising benefits and they
really don’t want to advertise more.
2. Bad – Restaurants are seeing no value additions in terms of advertising on the platform and hence
they are not advertising.
I: Okay, Himanshu let’s move to the third part of the interview. You can ask me whatever you want to
ask?
Me: How did you chose your practice specializations? I would want to choose healthcare as my
specializations and unclear if BCG would assist me in achieving if I show the right results?
I: {Monologue of roughly 30 minutes followed}

Any Remarks You can use the two minutes you have from the time they come to pick you from the room to their
interview room effectively. Pro question - Ask about their selection process, how did they get into BCG?
It certainly is a good ice breaker question and they can very well relate that you can be nervous

Name Anubhav Vardhan

Graduation College IIT Kanpur Branch Chemical Engineering
Work Experience Axis Bank (11M) Domain AI and Robotic Process Automation
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 NA, Principal
Interview 1 HR Questions NA
Interview Number - 1 Case NA
Interview 1 case Transcript Your client is a restaurant owner serving Indian cuisine in an office space. He is currently operating on
the break-even point, and would like you to help increase his profits.
Interviewer 2 M: When we say increase in profits, should I look at only ways to increase profits, or does the client want
an increase in revenue as well?
I: The client is open to any idea you propose.
M: I would like to know more about the company first. Where exactly is the location in which it operates,
can I say that it is in an SEZ? Is it the only restaurant there? How are its competitors faring?
I: Yes, the restaurant is in an SEZ area with big office buildings all around. The central area is the food
court, where man restaurants are located. There are two other Indian cuisine restaurants, which can be
considered competitors, rest all offer different cuisines. The two competitors are also facing a similar
situation.
M: Office buildings will mean that there are different class of people using the food court every day, say
 the lower level, middle level and senior level employees. They will all have a different expected standard
of the restaurant they visit. Does our client serve all these people or a specific category?
I: The client usually has the senior-level executives as his customers. The average revenue per customer
is Rs. 500.
M: Okay. How many customers does the client server every day? How much is the seating capacity of his
restaurant?
I: The client serves 100 customers during lunch and the same for dinner. The seating capacity of the
restaurant is 100.
M: So assuming a standard lunch/dinner break of 1 hour, I can take the restaurant to be operating at full
capacity.
I: No, the breaks are spread across 3 hours.
M: That changes things. Assuming a regular distribution of customers, our client is currently operating at
only 33% of his capacity.
I: True, how do you plan to proceed?
M: I can look at both the revenue and costs side. On the revenue side, we can look at ways to increase
the number of customers or average revenue per customer. On the costs side, there will be the fixed
costs like rent and wages, variable costs like raw materials and overheads. I would like to begin with the
revenue side first.
I: Let’s look at the costs before we go to the revenues.
M: Okay, for the current setup, the rent and wages are not likely to change. This leaves us with the raw
materials and overheads. We can look for alternative raw material suppliers to reduce the procurement
cost without sacrificing quality. In the overheads dept., the electricity bill can be targeted. Switching to
led lights can significantly reduce the bill, so can power glass, which will help in temperature regulation,
both in the summers and the winters, thus reducing the air conditioning charges. We can also look at
switching the restaurant to a new and smaller spot to reduce rent and associated costs if increasing
capacity is not feasible.
I: Okay, but let us keep the idea of shifting shops to the side for the time being. Now let’s see some
numbers. Suppose the fixed costs are 60,000, and the variable costs per customer is 200. Can you verify
the current status?
M: Total revenue is 100000, so is total expenses. The client is indeed working at 0 profits.
I: Yeah. Assuming the client reduces the average bill per customer to Rs. 400, he will get 200 customers
for lunch and dinner instead of 100. What will his condition be then?
M: At this new level, he will be making a profit of Rs. 20,000 a day, and his capacity utilization will
increase to 67%. Not to the ideal level, but still a significantly better position.
I: So should he decrease prices further to increase his capacity utilization and profits?
M: No. As he keeps on decreasing his prices and increasing the capacity utilization, the overall effect on
profit will fall off. Say, if Rs. 300 per customers gets him 300 customers a day, he will be operating at full
capacity, but his revenue will be 1,80,000 a day, while his expenses will also be 1,80,000 a day. This will
bring his profits back to 0.
I: So what should he do?
M. There will be a maxima in the plot of number of customers and the revenue per customer, which will
give us the maximum profit level. We should aim to be as close to that level as possible.
I: Okay, so what will your recommendation to the client be?
M: I would advise the client to reduce his average revenue per customer to increase the footfall in his
restaurant. It can be done by decreasing the cost of the entire menu by some percentage, which will
induce more senior management people to come to the restaurant. Alternatively, he can also introduce a
new economy dish, say a veg thali, which will bring more middle level employees to the restaurant, as
the place where their bosses eat might have an aspirational value, and a menu item in their budget can
bring them to the restaurant.
I: Sure. That will be it. Thank you.
Interview 2 HR Questions .
Tell me about yourself?
Why switch from research in Quantum Computing and AI to consulting?
Interview Number – 2 Case
Experience working with BCG?
Discussion about high school.
Interview 2 case Transcript NA
Interviewer 3 NA
Interview 3 HR Questions NA
Interview Number – 3 Case NA
Interview 3 case Transcript NA
Any Remarks

Name Ashna Goenka

Graduation College Hans Raj College Branch Economics
Work Experience OneDirect (21M) Domain IT
Interviewing Company The Boston Consulting Group
Interviewer 1 Prateek Rai, Partner
Interview 1 HR Questions What was your biggest achievement at OneDirect? Are you doing anything in MV?
I am a restaurant owner in cyber hub Gurgaon. I serve lunch and dinner a la carte and have been able to
Interview Number - 1 Case break even. But I am not able to make profits. Help me. There are other vendors who serve the same
cuisine and they make profits but I don't.
Interview 1 case Transcript I started with the qualitative aspect because on clarifying the interviewer told me that "Help me" implies
that he wants my help in figuring out the reason for no profits. So I started with a framework similar to
the 4Ps. He went into details til the third brand but then said no all of this is okay. The peers were
charging slightly lower prices though so I suggested that we too should reduce prices (but I mentioned
the pros and cons of this and the factors to be kept In mind.) So then he made it a quantitative case and
gave me numbers for the restaurants total capacity, the current average guests per meal and per
customer cost of making the meal. So I had to recommend the magnitude of prices reduction possible to
keep making positive profits cost remaining constant. So I did it for three levels and ultimately made my
recommendation.
Interviewer 2 Na
Interview 2 HR Questions Na
Interview Number – 2 Case Na
Interview 2 case Transcript Na
Interviewer 3 Na
Interview 3 HR Questions Na
Interview Number – 3 Case Na
Interview 3 case Transcript Na

Summer Internship
Experiences 2016
 Accenture
Management
Consulting
Interview Experience 1
Name Aishwarya Vishwanathan
Background Undergrad : VJTI Mumbai
Work Ex : JP Morgan Chase
Round 1 My client is a steel manufacturing company off late expecting a decline in my sales. Find
the reason & provide recommendations for the same
Solution: It was mainly a supply side issue. The reason was decline in supply because of
high attrition rate. I basically had to walk the interviewer through the entire Value chain
& once cause was identified I had to come up with recommendations. Focus was highly
on structure & approach, clarity of thoughts. The more practical &innovative your
recommendations are the more convinced is the interviewer
Round 2 Client is a FMCG industry. Come up with a growth strategy for expansion

Solution: The conversation was lot around digital marketing

HR This was with Principal. Had an option to solve a case or talk about a subject or sector that I
Questions am interested in. I chose the latter. Talked about the consumer
sector, shared few insights about upcoming trends etc. in this sector as I follow it as part of
my portfolio management in Credence Capital

Interview Experience 2
Name Ankita Upamanyu
Background Undergrad : NIT Bhopal
Round 1 Asked questions based on CV, why consulting, why Accenture. Case was that a payment
service provider is facing the issue of decreasing profitability. What is the issue and how will
you solve it?
Firstly, I asked the basic questions about the company, when the issue of declining profits
started, were competitors facing the same or not. I found out that our company does not
deal with customers directly, but has some intermediaries to deal with the customers. And
also as it was established that only our company was facing the issue, the concept of
industry trend could be neglected. I then proceeded with the basic structure of dividing
profits into revenue and costs and further divided costs into various subheads like
infrastructure, logistics, etc. and asked if they have been changing, and found that the cost
increment was marginal and thus could be neglected. I then divided the revenue into
subheads like change in the price of each transactions, change in number of transactions per
user or change in the number of users. By analyzing and asking questions on all these
subheads, I could correctly conclude that there was a change in the price of each
transactions due to increase in the margins the company gave to the intermediaries.
After the case, it was again some questions based on recent trends of M&A in Indian
Pharma and Automotive Industry. (related to some points on my CV)
Round 2 Asked some questions regarding the CV. Then the case was in the form of a diagram,
where there was a conveyer belt drawn with 3 materials at the input side, their weights
were given and they were being dumped into the market at output. The question was to find
the speed of the conveyer belts for all three items separately and I was given
5minutes to think of all possible questions regarding the information I would need to
calculate the speed of the belt and prioritize them and ask 3 most important questions.The
top 3 questions I asked was the demand in market (to determine the revenue), input and the
differential costs (to determine the profitability) and status of our company and the existing
players, for each of the products. He wasn’t looking for the numeric values, but for the
factors one should consider while deciding the speed of the belt.

Interview Experience 3
Name Sujit Emmanuel
Background Undergrad: Bits Pilani
Work Ex : Bain Capability Center – 23 months
Round 1 1) If the market share of south region and north region are increasing yet the market share of
overall country is reducing. Is this possible? (Assume, country has only north and south
regions and there are no other external factors)
2) If yes, then what should the company do to boost the sales in overall country?

Round 2 1) Size the market of the number of Honda Activa’s sold in Lucknow in a given year.
2) You have to launch a new supermarket chain across India. How would you go about it,
which cities would you choose?

Round 3 1) Size the market of rock band enthusiasts who would become professionals in
your city?
2) What could be ways to check this number? (Cross-check points)

HR Why should we not select you?

Questions Tell me your strengths and weaknesses
Why Consulting?
Why Accenture over other consulting firms?
Work experience related deep-dive (not really HR, but just mentioning it here)
AT KEARNEY
Interview Experience 1
Name Mukul Jha
Background Undergrad :IIT Madras
Round 1 The interview started with basic introduction. The interviewer further asked me about my
hobbies. I mentioned “Theatre” as one of them. So, my case was “ Naseeruddin Shah and
Paresh Raval have decided to revamp bollywood movies. Help them out.”
Solution: I was able to structure the abstract case. When I had reached to the plan of action,
he also asked a guesstimate on the revenue that one movie theatre
will earn for them. There was an intimation to end the interview as soon as I was given this
guesstimate. Although I was able to layout my approach for the guesstimate, he did not feel
very convinced as I did not arrive on the number within time.

Round 2 My second round was completely based on my resume and consulting cases that I has done
during my Work-ex. Last round was HR. Both these rounds were with Partners.

Interview Experience 2
Name Meenakshi Khemani
Background Undergrad : SRCC
Round 1 A Chinese automobile manufaturer wants to enter India. If it should enter, what portfolio
shall it consider.
Solution: 1. PESTEL analysis for India
2. Porter’s 5 forces for automobile industry in India
Established that all forces are in favor and hence we should enter.
3. Operations of the company
Focus on volume and profit share of each product.
Mode of entry – JV/Export/ Manufacturing Units
Target Segment – Which products for which segments
Gave exact answer, which market segment to target, with what product.
Round 2 ‘Mukesh Ambani wants to bid for a team in Indian Soccer League. How much should he bid?’

Solution: After basic clarifying questions of the objective and budget constraints, wrote down
the revenue streams for a soccer team. Turned it into a guesstimate and estimates cashflows
from each source. Was stopped before I could complete the calculations and give an exact
number.

Add-on question, how would you convince TATAs to sponsor your team?
Again, estimation of benefits for TATA and calculations of cashflows for
them. Was stopped mid-way and taken for Partner round.
HR Interview 1: Tell me something about your work experience.
Questions
Interview 2: Do you drink? Do you watch sports? Then straight to case.

Interview 3 (partner round): Casual conversation

(After a long introduction by him) You have a very cluttered CV. All the CVs on your campus
seem to be the same. Tell me something that is not
 there on your CV, that can help me understand you as a person.
I feel that digitization is only for start-ups or for sales and marketing. What is your take? How
can you apply digitization to any 3 business processes to increase efficiency of the company?
Is digitization applicable for old-school industries like Oil and Gas?
I spoke about logistics and procurement, he then converted the question into a case of a
cement manufacturer company. I pointed out the processes that could benefit from
digitization.
Towards the end, he asked me why I want to do consulting at AT Kearney (this topic came up
conversationally; wasn’t a direct question). I supplemented my answer by citing examples of
friends and seniors working at AT Kearney and their experiences.

Interview Experience 3
Name Surbhi Singhania
Background Undergrad : IIT Kanpur
Round 1 Case 1: Estimate the revenues of a super market. What should be done to increase the
revenue of the store.
Case 2: What can be done to increase the popularity of Honey Singh in South India.
Round 2 Case 1: How can a chemical company digitize?
Boston Consulting
Group
Interview Experience 1
Name Shikhar Kohli
Background Undergrad : NSIT
Round 1 A leading bank has consolidated its loan processing (credit check etc) to a central location
and has cut back its on the ground marketing force. Despite an increased push to sell these
loans, the fact is the bank has seen a decline in the number of loans being approved. Why?

Solution: The bank was targeting the wrong set of customers with its ground marketing
force. The sales people were literally going to every household selling the loans. Instead they
should have approached the real estate agents and builders to have a targeted marketing
Regarding the centralization, the probability of loans being approved reduced as reducing
the processing time was a KRA of the employees and hence they rejected all the dicey loans
Round 2 Started off by asking me about my work ex and internship. Moved on to a technology based
case where a client of theirs wanted to reduce their costs of providing an AMC. Essentially,
they had two service levels. Clients could get in touch with a call centre agent who handled
basic troubleshooting. If needed, the second level was activated, where an engineer would
go to the client’s site. You need to cut down on the cost of this AMC operation.

Interview Experience 2
Name Priyanka Unnithan
Background Undergrad : Bits Pilani Goa Campus
Round 1 Started with an HR question: mention one thing each from Acads, Work ex
and extra currics that you are proud of.
Situation- You’re the PM of India. There has been a massive earthquake in
Nepal (assume the recent 2015 one). Case was about trying to estimate how
much aid should the government of India give.

Approach: Started with qualifying questions- confirmed similar degree of

damage as 2015 earthquake, budgetary constraints (none), power of the PM
(unlimited), reasons for giving aid (Nepal has been an ally).
Structure-Tried breaking down “aid provided” into monetary and non-
monetary. Was interrupted and asked to look only at the monetary part.
Broke down monetary aid into micro and macro levels. Micro-to resurrect
life and livelihood; macro – i) counter infrastructural damage – further
segmented into public infra and damaged archaeological sites (Interviewer was curious why I
considered the latter here) and ii) help the affected bread-winning tourism industry.
Declared I’d like to look at the micro aspect first (easy to compute). Tried to
engage the interviewer with estimated people affected (deaths, injured,
displaced) figures. While attempting to go in the direction of rescue persons
required-if we are just sponsoring the local team or sending one ourselves, I
was urged to get to a number for aid quickly. To get to a number, decided to
go first principles with this and estimated amount needed to be expensed for
3 primary requirements of an affected household: food, shelter and medical
expenses. The interviewer hinted that I should look at the figures closely
once I was done. Realised that one of the figures was a per day estimate
while others were per month, rectified that quickly. On the insistence of the
interviewer, came down to a final number. With this, proceeded to ask
specific questions on government relief budget and if the contingency fund
was to be used for both national and international situations. Fell short of
time to continue further.
 Round 2 Started with a generic ‘Tell me about yourself’ HR question. Interviewer
was keen on creating a case from the answer.
Case 1: I had led a team in organizing a Limca Book of Records attempt.
Given that attempt wasn’t successful, the interviewer asked me to strategise
a Guiness Book of Records attempt
Approach: Right away confirmed the premise that such records are either a)
large number of people doing something b) creating a unique product or c) a daring/life-
threatening act usually. Mentioned that for ideas, I would mostly
keep a) in mind since large number of student participants is achievable.
Took the value chain approach and broke down the procedure into: 1) conceptualization of
the event (idea, venue, partnerships), 2)implementation
(team formation, field work) and feedback (analysis, leaving behind
documentation for the next time). Spoke about how the idea itself can be
found in one of two ways- a) establish a new record altogether b) break an
existing record.

Case 2: Create a go-to- market strategy for a trekking-gear company based

out of Cochin

Approach: Started with the qualifying questions about the nature of their
products, how they are unique, existing players, info about location..
Went with STP flow: laid out the value proposition, the suitable target
groups, how to reach them, the communication channels for publicity and so on. Interviewer
interjected when he thought he knew what line of thought I was going for.
Invited questions for him, had a candid conversation on his work, the
marketing projects BCG undertakes, recent breakthroughs with the use of
analytics.
Round 3 Started again with an HR question, this time on work-ex since he works in
the technology. Asked about the role, the job description, key achievements
at Nvidia.

Case: Global product-centric tech firm with two different types of engineers-
remote and onsite of different pay scales. Company provides AMC to clients for its products
and a detailed flow for dealing with complaints was given. Firm finds itself grappling with
increasing labor costs. Find the problem and recommend a solution. Problem statement was
deliberately detail heavy. There was a lot of tech jargon and being from a similar background
helped.
Approach: Clarified what an AMC was, what exactly the company did and
how it served its clients. Initially tried to focus on the engineering division
and understood role of remote vs onsite engineers. Put forth questions
regarding the geographical accuracy of engineer distribution, if work traffic
had displayed any trends recently. Was prompted by the interviewer to look
into the value chain of the complaint handling process.
Quickly charted out a flow and associated high labour costs with the work spilling over to the
expensive remote engineers and the need to find ways to curtail the work to the onsite
engineer level. Couldn’t continue due to lack of time.
HR 1) Mention one thing each from Acads, Work ex and extra currics that
Questions you are proud of.
2) Tell me about yourself
3) Work-ex role, the job description and key achievements

Interview Experience 3
Name Divyanshi Bhansali
Background Undergrad : Hindu College
 Round 1 I’d mentioned that I am from a boarding school in my ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ and so I was
asked to determine how should parents decide whether or not kids should be sent to a
boarding school.

Case: The client was a new VC firm who wanted to invest in a new cab business in Lucknow
and had approached BCG to decide the metrics that they should base their decision on. The
interviewer was more interested in my thought process and structure and did not give me
any data. I had to decide everything about the cab service right from the model of operation
to revenue model of the cab service.

Since we still had time remaining he asked me if I had any questions and I asked about the
Education project in Haryana that BCG had been involved with and stated my reasons for
interest in the same.
Round 2 In the beginning, I was asked about myself and then about why consulting would be the right
career choice for me.

A sheet with data was kept on the table which the interviewer narrated to me. The case was
about an AMC service provider. Before getting to the case I was warned that I should not try
to solve the case but just think out loud. He said I would not be able to solve the case or
even get close to the end even if I tried. I did feel pressurized by the statement and the case
was too technical for me, but I tried maintaining my calm and doing the best that I could.

Interview Experience 4
Name Shivali Vij
Background Undergrad : DTU
Round 1 Started with basic introduction and activities taken up in college.
Read that I had won a competition in supply chain management, so gave a case related to
that

CASE : I am a pharma company and have just finished my growth phase. I observe that after
expansion into china market, my delivery time has reached 7-8 days and I want to reduce it.
Tell me how.

S : May I take a minute to think about the parameters in play

After a minute
S: What do we do as a pharma company , just medicines or equipment too?
I :We produce just medicines
S: Where are we based ?
I : We are an indian company , and are delivering to China. Focus on just this market
S : How are we delivering?
I : We can either deliver by ships or planes, plans cost us 2.5 times more though they take
lesser time (same day ) as compared to ships (2 days)
S: What is the delivery time of our competitors ?
I : They deliver in 4 days after receiving an order, we do in 8.
I draw a structure of delays caused by internal or external reasons. On futher talk I realize
that the problem is internal, we don’t have to work on the cost of delivery
Redraws the internal side value chain

S: So I assume that we have some admin department to collate the orders and pass it on for
manufacturing, we then procure materials from our supplier, have quality check on it, Then
storage would be a step, then we process it to make medicine, then we do another round of
quality checks, next we package them and ship them.
I : Alright, go on
S : Is there any other step our company takes ?
I : You tell me that
S: I can break down manufacture process futher to check for delays
 I : Do that in order. Lets start

S: So by what process do we receive orders ? Is the admin and paperwork efficient ?

I : Yes, there are no problems there
S : Who are our key suppliers?
I : In pharma industry the supplies are fragmented. We receive our total RM from many
vendors, who supply as much as possible. Sometimes they lie that they already have RM in
store to not lose our order.
S: Alright then. Why don’t we look for a bigger vendor who can supply to us. I am sure we
will also save on costs through that.
I : That is not possible in this industry. Besides all our competitors also have fragmented
suppliers
S : So we can introduce mechanisms to ensure supply on time.
I : Like what ?
S : We can think about trade discounts and on-time- delivery benefits for our vendors. We
can give them some technology like a tablet where they can update us on status of shipment
of raw materials, so that we can map when it will reach us. This will help us track RM
I : Alright. Good. Anything else?
S : We can have a warehouse were we can store some common RM. That we will not face
delays.
I : Good. Lets move on
S : Next process would be quality check. This is core to pharma industry and hence this step
cannot be eliminated
I : Yes, it is true. Medicines need huge amount of checks
S : Why don’t we standardize our RM and give specifications to our vendors. That way the
responsibility to maintain quality will be on time as part of contact.
I : Ok, go on.
S : I would like to know more about manufacturing of the medicines
I : So medicines are made in 4 phases, 1st is processing of raw material and making a
solution of required efficacy, next is converting the solution into tablets , 3rd is adding
standard colors and fillers. Last is packaging
S : So we can reduce time in fillers part
I : Actually the 2nd step takes 70% of the time, filler is just a small part
S : but we cannot reduce the main process since quality of the medicine will be
compromised. We can think about reduction of time in fillers and colors since changes in
that will not affect quality of our product.
I : Right
S : Also, in manufacturing, we can think of maintaining some WIP inventory to speeden up
production when order comes, provided life of WIP is high enough
I : Good. Can you conclude and summarize
Round 2 Started with a puzzle after introduction
I am sitting in a boat in a huge swimming pool . The boat has a large rock which I pick up and
throw in water. What will happen to level of water ? Increase Decrease or remain same

CASE 1 : I am working for a client similar to big basket. They deliver items at a slot chosen by
customer. They have a metric called OTIF i.e if the delivery was On Time and if all the items
were delivered (In Full ) . There OTIF is currently at 50% and they aim to take it to 90%.
Suggest ways of doing so

CASE 2 : I am a very rich man and I see that ola and uber have a lot of customers, that it is a
thriving market. But I also know that they both are making losses. I want to start a similar
business but I also want profits within 5 years. Design this business for me
Round 3 CASE : A hardware manufacturer is looking to cut costs. We manufacture machines in-house
and have maintenance services as well. They have 2 types of servicing features of broken
hardware
1. An off shore low-level engineer who takes complaint calls and solves problems via virtual
desk or over call
 2. An on site engineer who visits and repairs machine

Tell me how do I go about cutting costs

Interview Experience 5
Name Himanshu Bhatia
Background Undergrad : IIT Guwahati
Round 1 Client is a logistics company which guarentees 95% ontime performance. Identify the
industries that they should target

Solution: Started with preliminary questions like the areas of operation and pricing policy.
Divided the industry in consumer and industrial segements. Further divided in FMCG,
durables, e commerce etc for consumer and power, automobile, construction etc for
industrial. Compared the industries on basis of importance of on time delivery, return loads,
ability to pay etc to arrive at the rankings.
Round 2 A leading bank has consolidated its loan processing (credit check etc) to a central location
and has cut back its on the ground marketing force. Despite an increased push to sell these
loans, the fact is the bank has seen a decline in the number of loans being approved. Why?

Solution: The bank was targeting the wrong set of customers with its ground marketing
force. The sales people were literally going to every household selling the loans. Instead they
should have approached the real estate agents and builders to have a targeted marketing
Regarding the centralization, the probability of loans being approved reduced as reducing
the processing time was a KRA of the employees and hence they rejected all the dicey loans
Interview Experience 6
Name Radhika Purohit
Background Undergrad : Kamla Nehru College
Round 1 I was given one case.

You’re the PM of India and Nepal recently had an earthquake and you have to calculate the
relief amount you’ll be paying.

I started with asking a bit about the case-

When did the calamity take place? Do we have a quantitative idea about the damage? And a
few more. Then re-instated my objective of calculating the relief fund amount.

I gave an over overview of the structure I’ll be using to calculate the amount which included
dividing the damage into broad areas of household infrastructure, commercial infrastructure,
government offices, educational institutes and hospitals then calculating the amount of
damage and then after considering our budget for relief fund, the allocation we’ll be doing.

In the next step I divided the sectors in a detailed manner. I calculated the number of
households based on the number of population and average number of people in a family.
Then divided the sectors further like household into houses completely damaged, need repair
and are unaffected.

The interviewer then asked me to focus on the household sector first, he gave me the size of
homeless population after I inquired about it. After calculating the amount, the interviewer
then asked me to move on to other areas and gave me a time limit (I think to put me under
pressure). I based my calculation for the rest as a percentage of amount of damage in
households and gave a rationale behind the percentage division.

After calculating the total amount of monetary damage and our countries relief budget,
calculated the percentage of damage we’ll be funding keeping in mind the relief received by
Nepal from international organizations like World Bank and other countries.

Round 2 An international hardware tools company in India. I have the second largest share in the
automatic segment but an embarrassing profits in the manual segment. Find the problem and
suggest ways to increase the sales.

I started with asking a few questions about the company, its competitors, consumers, the
products and the division of sales in these products.

I used the 5ps approach and delved further into each. In products I majorly covered quality of
product, price, usage etc. Price was higher as compared to competitors I followed a value chain
process to find points where cost can be reduced. Then moved to promotion and distribution
where I created a chain the company followed. Then moved on to the 5th P, people and asked
various questions like perception, understanding of the utility of product etc. I identified the
problem in this area that people were unaware about the association of the two segments,
the value of the international brand and the quality it offered.

I then moved on to recommendation part. Divided the recommendation into 2, one catering
to the existing problem and the other segment which would help increase in sales beyond the
problem.
Deloitte
Interview Experience 1
Name Rohan Danait
Background Undergrad : COE Pune
Workex : 1 year, ZS Associates
Round 1 There is a telecom company in US having sustained growth since 2005 uptill 2012. Profits
started declining from 2012 -15.
Solution: Qualifying questions regarding the company and industry (growing). Issue was in the
plan mix and the rates for each plan. What kind of data will you look for to identify the issue?
The rates were high compared to the competition especially in the SMS segment. In the data
we had plan rate and customer adoption rate for each service in past 5 years. 1 graph showing
graph of industry and company. Comparison of 2010 and 2015 customer usage of various
services. Calculate the relevant parameters using the data provided. Interviewer asked for exact
figure.

Round 2 Problem: Estimate number of MRI machines in India. Starting point population.
Solution: Divided in cities. Hospitals - > Pvt Govt and Private Clinics.
Round 3 1. What was the case in second round and recommendations on it?
2. Telecom related discussion in India
HR 1. Tell me about yourself
Questions 2. Why Deloitte : Related to consult workex. Ops background. Interest in Ops.
3. Extra-Curricular
4. Work ex related – Guesstimate round
Dos Pay more attention to approach than data for guesstimate. Data based case round. Comfortable
with calculations with big numbers.

Interview Experience 2
Name Amogh Bihani
Undergrad : IIT Delhi
Background
Work Ex : Samsung R&D
Problem: How will you increase the profits of an Insurance company based in US
Solution: Discussed about the product offerings and used Ansoff Matrix to identify new revenue
streams. Next the aspect of pricing was taken up. Various methods like value based, cost based
and reference based were used.
Round 1 Additional Problem: Interviewer explained about the Cobra Insurance industry in USA which
refers to low premium insurance for people switching jobs. Explore if the company shall enter
this market
Solution : Market entry framework and guesstimate to estimate the market size and factors for
entering
Partner Round: Asked to pitch the recommendations to the CEO of insurance company
Round 2 Solution: Prepared the summary of the case in 3 minutes time and presented to the Partner.
Each recommendation had to be backed up with sufficient data and logic.
Round 3 HR Based round
1. Describe a situation where you overcame obstacles
HR
2. Why consulting
Questions
3. Questions on projects done in college and work ex

Interview Experience 3
Name Rishav Krishna
Undergrad : NIT Trichy
Background
WorkEx : 32 months
 Problem: Guesstimate the overall sales of flipkart on big billion day
Solution: Demand side - Started with internet penetration in India, further classified in types of
buyers. Assumed the daily average time spent on purchasing to get the quantity and multiplied
Round 1 by average price to get the total earnings
Supply Side : Started with number of sellers on platform and multiplied by the average daily
revenue of each to get the net sales

Discussion on the case given during campus case workshop

Problem: Telecom company in USA is losing revenue in past few years. Identify the reason
Solution: The case was provided with yearly sales and volume/subscriber data (of last 10
years), last two years - revenue stream data, price-mix data and current market-trends data for
each services.
Round 2
There was a surge in the cheaper internet services as growing number of people started using
internet to place voice calls rather than strictly buying the costlier voice-calling plans from the
service-provider. This had caused decrease in the voice-calling plan users. Besides this, there
were more such negative driver as well, such as decreasing volume of message service users.
There were few more follow-up questions on the same case.
Questions based on work ex
Problem: How could you forecast the sales of a drug?
Round 3 Solution : used the concept of ‘Potential’, ‘Available’, ‘Target’ and ‘Penetrated’ Market from
Kotler and drew parallels with ‘Epidemiology’, ‘Diagnosed Pool’, ‘Treated Pool’ and ‘Penetrated
Pool’ of patients.
HR
Extra-Curricular
Questions

Interview Experience 4
Name Nishant Paliwal

Background Udergrad :
Workex: 4 years
Problem: Market expansion strategy for ERP system providing company. The case was based on
work ex and hence required technical knowledge of the subject
Round 1
Solution: Used the basic market expansion framework to comprehensively analyze various
options and the specific technical requirements in each case.
Problem: Market expansion strategy for payment systems like Paytm and their role in
promoting financial inclusion
Round 2 Solution: The case was provided with data on the industry growth and other trends. Analyzed
the market potential by a guesstimate of market size and present penetration. Further analyzed
the case using ansoff matrix for recommendations
HR Tell me about yourself
Questions Work ex related questions
Summer Internship
Experiences 2015
 Accenture
Management
Consulting

Interview Experience 1
Name: Aditya Pratap Singh
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 3
Commerce in XII.
Did Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) in Finance from SSCBS,
Brief Profile:
DU.
2 years of work experience in EY in the consulting domain.
Interview questions: -
1st round – 1 manager
A. Tell me about yourself – Started with work experience and
took a 1 second pause.
Narration of the case
B. He picked one project (work ex) from my CV and asked me
interview:
to explain the problem and what all levers did we tweak.

C. The discussion went to NPV and IRR (because I mentioned

it) – Was asked very in-depth questions. I had used NPV for a
 hospitality client for a buy-v/s-lease analysis. I was able to justify
it. He then told me that his clients in Steel industry prefer IRR
and asked me as to what could be the reasons.

D. Gave a small case – Telecom client is rolling out promotional

schemes and offers but the conversion is low. Client wants to
improve conversion. More information was given upon
questioning.

a. Conversion was less than 1% - comparable to industry norms

but the client wants us to improve it.
b. Established player
c. Schemes are targeting existing customers
d. STP has no issue
e. 3 ways of rolling out schemes – SMS, IVRS calls, manual calls.
f. Focus on SMS, identify possible areas and generate ideas –
some of the areas were – content, frequency, personalization of
text messages (mention the name of customer using a script),
ease of ordering (reply using SMS, missed call, website etc.),
channel conflict, overall service experience and satisfaction,
pricing and so on. These factors were categorized to appear
structured.

2nd round – 1 partner/director

Was made to wait 15-20 minutes
A. 3 reasons why should I select you
B. Guesstimate – Titan is launching a smart watch for Rs.
12,000. Estimate the market.

a. I identified the cuts.

b. Explained the approach that I planned
c. Asked him if he was ok with it and if he wanted to put
numbers - He said that numbers are not required
d. Countered me at one place on logic – I Was able to defend my
stance using Aspirational value concept

3rd round – 1 HR
Be nice to the HR who is scheduling you (even if you are being
made to wait), he/she might take your final round
2-3 minutes interview
A. How were your earlier rounds?
B. Did you make any mistake?
C. 3 things that will stop you from becoming a good consultant
– I struggled in this question. I had an answer ready for
weakness but it was (obviously) miles from consulting. Tried to
globe
D. It seems that you are overconfident – tried to globe yet again.
Finally, came up with 1 genuine weakness related to consulting.

What do you think went

Leveraged my work experience.
right in this interview?
What do you think went Should have prepared an answer for "3 things that will stop you
wrong in this interview? from becoming a consultant"
 Any tips for future Confidence is most important. Numbers are not at all important.
batches on the basis of Focus on approach and logic. Don't unnecessarily fit models. If
your experience they question you, you must be able to defend it based on logic.

Interview Experience 2
Name: Ankur Agarwal
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 3
VIT University (Mechanical Engineer)
Brief Profile:
10 months work experience at LnT Construction.
- Why consulting??
Need to show that you are interested in it.

Interview questions (With - Why Accenture?

indicative answers if you An in depth knowledge of how Accenture is different firm other
choose to share them) consulting firms and what are the opportunities it can provide.

- Goals in your life?

Should know yourself and your goals.
Round 1:(about 1 hour)
A very interactive round. More of a conversation with the
interviewer sharing his experience. After a few minutes of
interaction, questions were asked based on my work experience
and interest in consulting. Then a case study on the construction
industry was given where there was an issue of material shortage.
An extension of the same was to get to the issue of improper
labor distribution. The interviewer explained the processes and
was very interactive. Not sticking rigidly to a particular
framework was the key as the interviewer was more interested in
the approach and how diverse I could think.

Round 2: (1 hour)
Initially there were many HR questions on why consulting, why
Accenture, why not General Management, my strengths, goals in
Narration of the case life and in depth about my work experience and a few questions
interview (Please be as from my CV. After that a case based on manufacturing industry
descriptive as possible) was given where I was expected to find out the output function
parameters of the machine. The case discussion was nice, but
halfway through the case, he told to switch on to another case.
This was based on my work experience where I was asked to
select any product and do the costing of the same. The
interviewer was interested in seeing what all parameters I take
into consideration and how diverse can I think. After listing
down a lot of parameters, he told me that as a manager of a firm
you are required to cut down the cost considerably to bag a big
order. I was asked to do the cost cutting taking every possible
parameter. Again, diversity in thinking and covering all areas was
what he was looking for.

Round 3: (15 minutes)

The final round was an HR round with the Principal where
questions like strengths, weaknesses, goals, achievement, failure,
 regret in life, one thing you want to change and similar questions
were asked. It also included a rapid fire round in which one word
answers were expected.

Not sticking rigidly to a particular framework for the case studies

worked in my favor, as the case studies were more on my work
experience where application according to the case was more
What do you think went important. Trying to cover all areas and giving all diverse ideas
right in this interview? and trying to interact more with the interviewer and extract more
information played to my advantage. Even asking relevant
questions to the interviewer helped to show that I was interested
in the job.
What do you think went Knowing more about the company would have been better as I
wrong in this interview? had stated a wrong fact about the company.
As stated by all my interviewers, Accenture hires not as interns
but as future prospects, so try to show your interest in the
Any tips for future company. Most importantly, you should be able to convince
batches on the basis of them that you are interested in consulting and that you are
your experience interested in the domain. Know about the company in depth and
do not strict rigidly to a framework for cases, rather apply one as
per the case and be as diverse in your thinking as possible.

Interview Experience 3
Name: Arushi Singh
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 3
B.Com (Hons), SRCC
Brief Profile: Analyst, The Smart Cube (6 months)
PG Diploma in International Business Operations
Round 1:
This was a short 15 minutes interview with the HR. The
questions were CV based, mostly centering on the projects I did
at Smart Cube, the kind of projects I'm interested in, which
sector do I like the most, do I enjoy working in teams, would I
be okay with working on long projects etc. Apart from that, there
were a couple on how I was finding college and what PRiSM
does, wrapping up with if I had any questions for her.

Interview questions (With Round 2:

indicative answers if you This was a 30 min interview with Principal (Vivek Chopra). It
choose to share them) began with HR questions: Tell me about yourself, which POR
did you enjoy the most (Volunteer teacher/social work) and what
would your NGO kids say are your strong points and areas you
can improve upon? I was asked my favourite subject
(International business), which was followed by “Give me 5
reasons why companies choose to go international” and a case
on that. Then he asked me a random question “What logics are
used in lifts?” Since I had absolutely no clue he quickly left it.

Round 3:
 This was a 20 min interview with Partner (Vivek Singh),
beginning with “Tell me something not on your CV” and “What
would your manager say are your strong points and weak areas?”
As I had mentioned a course on Scuba Diving in my CV I was
asked a case on it. After that was a random fun round - Tell me
in One word the first thing that comes to your mind when I say
the following words:
1. Success (Perseverance)
2. Failure (Experience)
3. One thing that irritates you (Fakeness)
4. One thing you hate about engineers (Not mentioning it here!)
Round 2:
Case: "Dabur has hired you to increase its international revenues
to 25%".
He directly wanted the solution instead of going about it like a
case interview, so I used the Ansoff matrix as a base for coming
up with several strategies, did a cost-benefit analysis of each
strategy evaluating them on parameters, and then suggested the
best strategy for short term and long term.
Added a few Dabur-specific things like capitalizing on its
Ayurvedic image and the growing trend towards natural/herbal
products.

Round 3:
Narration of the case
I had to tell in exactly 2 minutes whether it was feasible for him
interview (Please be as
to start a Scuba Diving Institute in India, finance not being a
descriptive as possible)
barrier. So I did a quick market analysis covering the overall
macroeconomic scenario, current and forecasted state of the
industry, and gave a checklist of all the requirements needed to
start the institute.
After establishing feasibility, I proceeded to discuss the probable
locations (primarily Andaman and Nicobar Islands and
Lakshadweep islands. Rejected Lakshadweep islands because
they require entry permits), services offered by the institute and
USP, possible tie ups with travel agencies, cruise ships etc.
A key factor to mention in feasibility was seasonality of the sport.
It rains more than half the year in Andamans, and scuba diving is
not possible when it rains as it becomes difficult to see the
corals.
- Since I’ve lived in both Andamans and Lakshadweep islands
and done scuba diving there, I had a lot of local knowledge,
which I used to my advantage in the case.

- In the 2nd interview, after I had given 5 reasons for why

companies go international, he asked “Give me one more”
What do you think went
another three times to make it stressful. But I didn’t yield and
right in this interview?
gave him as many reasons as he wanted, with real life examples,
which impressed him.

- Overall, I maintained a positive, enthusiastic and confident

demeanor, which helped in establishing a rapport with the
interviewers and making the interviews more like conversations.
 The sudden question on the different kinds of logics used in lifts
What do you think went had me stumped, so I just said that coming from a commerce
wrong in this interview? background I wasn’t aware of it, but could attempt to answer it if
he wanted. Thankfully he didn’t push it.
- Focus on HR and CV. Accenture does not require heavy case
Any tips for future preparation.
batches on the basis of - Always prepare a question for the interviewer, it shows your
your experience interest in the company.
- Stay calm and confident. Smile!

Interview Experience 4
Name: Marut Taneja
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Round 2
Brief Profile : NIT Kurukshetra, B.Tech. – Electrical,
34 months work-ex, B2B Sales in Schneider Elecric
Round 1:
This was more of an HR plus guesstimate round which lasted
for around 30-35 minutes. Below are some of the questions that
were asked
1) Tell me the 3 best points out of your CV
2) Your experience in INDEX committee till now and what
were your responsibilities
3) Why consulting
4) What do you know about AMC
5) What sets you apart from others
6) How will your previous work ex be of any importance to us
Interview questions (With
7) A few questions on my extra-curricular activities
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) I was then given a guesstimate about the number of airplanes
flying over Lucknow at that particular moment. Instead of
arriving at a number, I was asked to describe the approach.
Round 2:
This was a Case based interview which was taken by the
Partner. This again went on for around 30 minutes.
Round 3:
This was a 15 minute HR round.
Some of the questions asked were as below:
1) Why management
2) My motivation to join AMC
3) What did you learn in your previous job
 4) Do you think your sales experience is going to be of any
relevance in AMC
5) What initiatives did you take while working in Schneder
6) Strength and weaknesses
Problem Statement
An MNC that is into manufacturing of Healthcare Wearable
devices wants to expand its operations in India by entering tier-
3 cities. Along with the device it provides service of a personal
health instructor twice a week for a year. After the end of the
period (a year) the device has to be returned. I was supposed to
Narration of the case advice regarding the feasibility of the expansion of operations.
interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible) I started by asking some clarifying questions about the
company, its operations, the product, any competitors in India,
pricing, market share etc. After a discussion of around 10
minutes, he asked me to come out with the market size for the
product in any small city. It was a very interactive discussion
where the interviewer kept guiding me towards the right
direction. Although he did not seem to agree with the number
that I arrived at, but he liked the approach.
I remained calm and confident during all the interviews. This
What do you think went helped me to have a nice conversation which is very important
right in this interview? in a consulting interview. While solving guesstimate and cases, I
tried to involve the interviewer as much as possible by thinking
loudly and explaining my entire approach.

What do you think went My case interview could have been better as I was not able to
wrong in this interview? structure it properly and the interviewer had to constantly pull
me towards the right direction.
Just maintain your composure, show enthusiasm, look
interested and interact well. Prepare your HR answers especially
Any tips for future why consulting and AMC. Also, there is a high probability, you
batches on the basis of might get a case that you have no clue about. It is important
your experience not to get bogged down by the same and ask the right
questions. They are looking for your ability to handle pressure
situations and the logic and structure in your thought process.

Interview Experience 5
Name: Monika Agarwal
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 2
B.Com (Hons), SRCC
Brief Profile:
Fresher
 Round 1: (20 minutes)
2 questions on CV
Case: A reputed FMCG company wants to buy a brand of a
competing FMCG company. The books of accounts value the
brand at USD 100 million but the investment banks suggest a
value of USD 130 million. What could be the reasons behind this
difference?

Interview questions (With Who is your buddy?

indicative answers if you How many times have you spoken to her?
choose to share them) Which all cases you did with her?
Were you satisfied with her guidance?
Tell me something about Accenture.

Round 2: (10 minutes)

Tell me 2 things about yourself that are not on CV.
You have Rs 100. Where will you spend?
A) On locally produced goods
B) Donate to an orphanage
Round 1:
It started at a very positive note with questions from the CV. He
asked about my internship experiences and POR. The
interviewer seemed satisfied with the answers.

Case: It was testing my finance knowledge as I had a few finance-

related points on CV. The reasons could have been higher
expected cash inflows, building of synergies.

Round 2:
Narration of the case
Started with clarifying a few things whether we could divide the
interview (Please be as
amount between the 2 options and if we need to consider what
descriptive as possible)
others are spending in the market.
Asked the interviewer what would the orphanage do with the Rs.
100.
(Ans: fund 4 meals).
I explained to him the multiplier effect that would take place if
money was spent on Option A. (It would benefit the entire
community involved in the channel of distribution and
contribute towards the growth of the domestically made goods).
Since Option A would have a greater impact, I suggested this
option
I was confident throughout. The interviewer tried to distract me
What do you think went in round 1 by asking questions in the middle of the case but I
right in this interview? just answered them without taking off my mind from what I was
doing.
What do you think went Should have read more about the company and practiced a few
wrong in this interview? more cases with my buddy.
Any tips for future Stay calm and composed. Just show that you are confident.
batches on the basis of Clarify any assumption that you take and follow a logical
your experience approach.
Interview Experience 6
Name: Nehaarikaa Talwar
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 3
Graduation: B. Tech - CSE, GGS Indraprastha University
Work Experience: Eko India Financial Services, 9 months
Brief Profile:
Concern Areas: Digital Banking, Payments, Banking
Correspondent
1. Why MBA?
2. Why Consulting - Apart from the usual pointers, I talked
about their projects, related them to my POR/work ex and
explained why they interest me. Projects I talked about:
a. Feasibility analysis of smart cities - talked about during PPT
b. Market Strategy of HUL's Vision 2020 - talked about during
Interview questions (With
PPT
indicative answers if you
c. Go-to-strategy for SBI's digital solution for branch less
choose to share them)
banking - talked about during PPT + News + related to my work
ex
3. Run me through your CV - I talked about my work
experience, PORs
4. Why we should take you? (2 reasons)
5. How have you been spending time at IIM Lucknow?
Round 1: Case Interview + HR
CASE: Your friend has an e-commerce venture and has been
facing losses. What would you recommend? The interviewer
expected me to analyse costs, majorly in logistics and
promotions. Recommendations to control them.

CV related questions on PORs

Why consulting?
Why MBA?
Time at Lucknow?
Run me through your CV

Narration of the case Round 2: Guesstimate + HR

interview (Please be as How many airplanes would be above your head at present?
descriptive as possible) Interviewed wanted a qualitative analysis only. Just the factors
that would affect the answer.
1. Air corridors.
2. Flights Scheduled during that time.
3. If Lucknow lies on the routes

CV related questions. 5 divisions at Accenture Strategy

Round 3: Partner Round

CV related questions. Give us 2 reasons why we should take you?
Why Accenture and consulting? What was the motivation behind
being involved with so many projects/organisations in college? [I
had 6-7 PORs]
1. Talking about 3 projects and relating them to my past
What do you think went experience and interest displayed my interest in the firm and the
right in this interview? role.
2. They look for logic in case interviews and guesstimates.
 There were no major low points.
What do you think went
1. Could have approached the case in a more structured manner.
wrong in this interview?
2. Could have asked better question in round 1.
1. Go through the website, know about the divisions and
projects.
2. Identify your interest in a particular division and sector
Any tips for future 3. Be ready with smart questions to pose to them, if they ask so -
batches on the basis of shows interest.
your experience 4. Be thorough with the sector/industry concerning your
previous organisation. (in case of work ex)
5. Find more reasons to join consulting, than the cliched ones.
6. Be honest & logical, smile and you should be through :)

Interview Experience 7
Name: Sarang Shamshery
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 3
Mechanical Engineer from BITS Pilani Goa, 2013
Brief Profile: 20 months of work experience at Oracle Financial Services
Software Ltd. (Enterprise Risk Management)
Interview questions (With Tell me about yourself. Tell me something not on your resume?
indicative answers if you Why consulting? Why Accenture?Explain Work experience?
choose to share them) Work-ex related projects? 2 cases as elaborated afterwards
Round 1: HR+CV
Basic Tell me about yourself. Work-ex related questions. Tell me
something not on your CV.

Round 2: Case
Interviewer asked me to choose a sector. I picked Financial
Services and e-commerce.
Straight away went into a case. Asked me the valuation of
Snapdeal and will I recommend buying it at say ($5 Billion).

Solution:
Listed out cost and revenue sources elaborately. Interviewer
guided me to segregate buckets like promotions, logistics, etc. He
Narration of the case
needed the factors I'll consider in order to arrive at a decision. I
interview (Please be as
added that I'll even conduct a dupont analysis, which lead to
descriptive as possible)
another discussion on the different parameters of dupont and
what each component represents and how (Profitability, ROE,
etc.).
After drawing an elaborate case diagram, he asked me to
summarise the case. He seemed pretty convinced.

Round 3: Case+CV
Started off by asking whether I attended the ppt. What did I like
about it. After a few minutes of general HR, they went through
my CV and saw that I play guitar. Gave me a case based on it.

Case: I am a person with a lot of money and want to set up a

business manufacturing guitars in India. Should I do it or not?
 Take 2 minutes to think and then give me your answer in 1
minute.

In those 2 minutes, I listed everything that came to my mind

about what can we use to evaluate the guitar market. Started with
the market size of Guitars in India. Like any other market sizing
problem, took suitable assumptions and arrived at a number.
Listed current competitors. Their penetration and brand value.
Whats missing currently from the market.

Went to evaluate the business: Diversity of guitar types-

Acoustic, Classical and Electric. Wood sourcing - different
woods used (rosewood and maplewood), Pickups, strings and
other components. Geographic location (North v/s South) for
making a plant. Evaluated pros and cons. Was cut short that 2
minutes were over and I need to know your answer now. Told
him that it seems a very profitable business and should go ahead.
Supported my decision with rationale and numbers as calculated.
The comfort level I established with the interviewer(s) in all
rounds was one thing that I feel was perfect. One reason for that
What do you think went was that I had already interacted with two of them before during
right in this interview? ppts/case workshops. So, they remembered me by face. I knew
most of the current projects of Accenture and its recent news,
which benefited me in two out of three interviews.
Sometimes, I ended up giving answers too quickly when asked a
What do you think went question, especially in case based interviews. Being able to absorb
wrong in this interview? the question and answer them after giving the right amount of
thought to it is definitely an area for me to work upon.
Maintain your composure.
Know your CV well.
HR answers are crucial for the interview.
Any tips for future
Be prepared with good questions in case the interviewer asks you
batches on the basis of
if you have any questions. It should reflect that you are really
your experience
interested to join them.
Read about the "Digital" focus of Accenture.
Smile and be confident.

Interview Experience 8
Name: Shivi Garg
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 2
B.Tech. (Computer Science) from JIIT, Noida
Brief Profile:
ERS Consultant at Deloitte US India - 22 months
1. Brief intro of yourself
Interview questions (With
2. Profitability of a business plan - business provided was dance
indicative answers if you
academy because I have two year experience in classical music
choose to share them)
3. Problem solving case
1st round - HR+Case
Narration of the case 1. Intro - very detailed. Interrupted and discussed a lot
interview (Please be as 2. HR Question - Biggest achievement
descriptive as possible) 3. If we ask you to invest in a business of opening a dance
academy. Would you invest? Will it be a profitable venture?
 How? Relate to your experience? - I answered telling that it
would be a profitable venture. I also shared my expansion plans
and the marketing strategies I can use to maximize the
profitability.
4. They asked me to summarize the answer in 30 seconds.

2nd round - HR+case

1. A situation where I was in a fix and couldn't make it - shared a
personal experience. The interviewer took it well.

2. Problem solving case (15 minutes) - Gold insurance company

is experiencing lot of costs. Investigate. - Key was to look into all
the cost objects. I figured out that the company was situated in a
rural setup and therefore power and electricity was costing them
bit too much. I suggested using tablets. The interviewer had
laptops in mind

3. Any questions? - I asked how and why Accenture is linking

with amazon cloud. There was a detailed discussion of 15
minutes on this topic.
I maintained my calm and confidence.
I was thinking out loud and presented all the ideas in my mind
even without asking - example while answering the dance
academy question, I proactively shared my future plans and
expansion strategy
What do you think went
The 30 second summary sealed the deal in 1st round
right in this interview?
In the second round, the interview was going moderate but I
asked a question to engage the interviewer in a conversation and
buy some more time to prove my skills and understanding. Did a
healthy discussion with him, which helped a lot
What do you think went I was very confident in the first round but in the second round, I
wrong in this interview? got a little nervous and did not give a good structure to my case.
Just stay calm and confident
Any tips for future Prepare really nice questions
batches on the basis of Write on the paper provided. They do take them into account
your experience Think loud and don't hesitate from sharing your ideas with the
interviewers.

Interview Experience 9
Name: Siddharth B. Ghivari
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 4
College: IIT Roorkee, Chemical Engineering
Brief Profile:
Work Experience: 3 years at IOCL
 Q) Tell me something about yourself?
Q) Why Accenture?
Q) Why consulting when you have a background in Operations?
Interview questions (With Q) What happens in a committee at IIM Lucknow? Tell me
indicative answers if you about Beer Game (Written in CV as part of OIG)?
choose to share them) Q) Tell me five major expense heads as part of promotional
campaign done in Under grad school? (I was the promotional co-
cordinator for my technical fest)
Q) What was your biggest achievement in your work experience?
Round 1: HR + Guestimate
Guestimate: No. of heavy vehicle trucks in western India

Round 2: Case
Case: There is a pharmaceutical company who are having
frequent stockouts at the retailers store. You need to analyse the
problems and come out with a solution.
I asked about the manufacturing (whether in house/ outsourced)
Interviewer: Factories present all over the country but only two
belong to the company. Rest are on lease basis.

Me: Stockouts happening for certain products/ all the products?

Interviewer: Happening for 30% of the products on a regular
basis. Rest of the products it happens sometimes.

Me: Location of factories

Interviewer: Around 6 factories. 2 in North, 1 in west, 1 in East,
2 in South.

Me: Any transportation issues

Interviewer: No
Narration of the case
interview (Please be as
Me: Supply chain of the company.
descriptive as possible)
Interviewer: Manufacture- Main warehouse (one in each region)-
CFA- retail store

Me: Any use of software for communicating the demand from

retailer to manufacturer
Interviewer: An ERP software used but it not very effective

I analysed other problems. At the end he told me that

pharmaceutical cases are very complicated. Took him a year to
solve the one he asked me.

Round 3: Case+ HR
HR: Tell me two things which will convince me to give you an
offer right now?

Case: I have a factory for packaging all kinds of meat. I need to

set the speed of the conveyor belt. What should the speed be?
Ask 6 questions. I'll answer them together.
I asked 6 questions for which his answer for either good question
or not relevant but he did not answer any one of them. He asked
me to ask more questions. I asked one/two more and the round
 ended.

Round 4: HR
One question about the biggest achievement in IOCL?
I was calm during all the rounds. I did not panic in the third
round which was what they were checking as they did not answer
What do you think went
one question I asked in the case. I had gone through my CV a
right in this interview?
no. of times. I had prepared stories about each line. They
analysed my CV completely.
What do you think went I could have done the second case a bit better. I could have
wrong in this interview? made my resume a bit better.
The future batches should prepare their CV well. They need to
Any tips for future
put numbers, which they can defend in an interview. HR is very
batches on the basis of
important. They don't proceed to case without doing HR round
your experience
first. Disha HR questions to be done without fail.

Interview Experience 10
Name: Surbhi Jain
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 3
No work Experience
Brief Profile:
Engineer, Stream- Information Technology
First round started with the most frequently asked question: Tell
me something about yourself. Interrupted in between while I was
talking about POR's. Asked to tell about a POR in detail. Then
the interviewer jumped directly to cases. Was asked two easy
cases in the first round. One was on the declining sales of the
company. I had to find out the reason. On solving I found the
reason was the improper training of sales people. Other was on
the declining manufacturing capacity of a company. I followed
the value chain approach. The reason was more than expected
breakdown of the machines.

Second round started with HR questions from my CV. Asked

about my college project and a POR in detail. Some other HR
Narration of the case questions like a situation where I convinced people about my
interview (Please be as idea and started something from scratch. Told about the dance
descriptive as possible) club I started in undergrad. Then the interviewer moved on to a
case. The case was more of a logical reasoning question. The case
was: If I had to lay off some people from one unit of my
organization, how would I go about it? I divided the problem in
two parts: First we will have to identify the number of people
from each department who can be removed and then we will
find out whom will we remove. I talked about various ways like
bench marking with competitors, with other units of my
organization (Internal bench marking) for the first part. For
second part I talked about parameters such as productivity, work
satisfaction, absenteeism and some more. The interviewer
seemed convinced with the solution.

Third interview was with the partner. It was more of a stress

 interview. I was given a guesstimate. It was about finding the
number of people who will come to my sketching classes started
in Delhi.

I was very confident from the beginning and was well prepared
What do you think went
with the HR questions. In the stress interview I maintained my
right in this interview?
cool.
What do you think went I could have solved the guesstimate better. Made some mistakes
wrong in this interview? in assuming some percentages.
Any tips for future Be well prepared with your HR answers and CV. It can make or
batches on the basis of break your chance to get through a company. Also practice as
your experience many cases as you can with different sets of people.

Interview Experience 11
Name: Vidhu Garg
Company: Accenture Strategy
No. of Rounds: 3
B.Tech in Engineering Physics, IIT Delhi
Brief Profile: Risk Analyst, RBS (7 months)
Business Analyst, Urban Ladder (5 months)
Interview questions (With Round 1: HR + guesstimate + case
indicative answers if you Round 2: HR + case
choose to share them) Round 3: HR + case
Round 1: (60 minutes)
Tell me about yourself
Questions related to work experience, mainly from CV
Why consulting?
Do you think that the ecommerce business model is sustainable?
(I answered that it is. Also talked about what companies are
entering into and their innovation like Kindle and Amazon
cloud)

1 case - You have an ecommerce company, the revenue is

growing but the profit is not. (It was about reducing the costs.
Mentioned the different types of costs involved and then
Narration of the case analysed each of them. Suggested cheaper alternatives. The
interview (Please be as problem was high transportation costs. I was telling him different
descriptive as possible) ways of handling this when he interrupted and asked me to do a
guesstimate instead)

1 guesstimate - Calculate the number of autos in Delhi

(Approached this from the demand side, calculated the number
of rides and then autos)

What major would you go for? (I said that I have not yet come
across all the fields, strategy is still left. I would like to have an
idea of all the branches before choosing one)
Okay, out of Finance and Marketing which one would you
choose? And why? (I said marketing)
Would you like to ask any question?
 Round 2: (20-25 minutes)
A lot of questions from CV
Tell me about a leadership experience of yours?
Which branch of Physics is your favorite?

1 case - I have to launch Parle G glucose biscuits in the US.

What all
factors would you look into (Typical market entry case, was
mainly about STP)
Would you like to ask anything?

Round 3: (15 minutes with 2 partners)

What 2 things about you would you like us to know? (2
strengths)
1 Case - If you work for the CFO of a metal mining company,
what all factors would you care about
- I mentioned 5-6 factors namely political stability of the country,
licenses and regulations, changing technology (told them how
change of extraction process of Aluminum had reduced the costs
significantly), financial condition of international markets (How
Glencore is facing problems of lesser imports from China
because of economy slowdown)
He asked me if I was missing any other point. I said that I could
not think of any. Then he said that FX rates should also be taken
care of.

Would you like to ask any question?

- I asked why they did not hire from IITs like other consulting
firms.
I spoke fluently, answers did not seem rehearsed. I was
spontaneous almost all the time.
What do you think went
Supported my points with examples either from personal
right in this interview?
experience or news.
Interview was more of conversational.
What do you think went I could have been more structured in my approach towards the
wrong in this interview? cases.
Be confident and be yourself. Don't mug up HR answers. That
might be visible in the interview.
Any tips for future Don't lose your calm. The interviewers did not take a stress
batches on the basis of interview and were interactive.
your experience Be logical in your approach. Take time to think and then reply.
Try to solve cases first with common sense, recalling a case
framework might miss out some points.
A T Kearney
Interview Experience 12
Name: Ajay Rathore
Company: A T Kearney
No. of Rounds: 3
NIT Calicut, 2013 Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Brief Profile:
Goldman Sachs, Analyst, 2013-2015

Round 1: General Introduction

Interview questions (With
Round 2: Why consulting, Why ATK?
indicative answers if you
Greatest achievement, both personal & professional
choose to share them)
Round 3: Energy sector as I showed interest in same

Round 1 – Introduction (2 min) + Case

Interviewer - Siddharth Jain
Case - Design a delivery system for e-commerce for a city based
on demand
Basically design everything from number of delivery hubs in city
based on demand and their proximity to one warehouse to
number of delivery boys required, the area they will cover and
number of deliveries per person.
Lot of variables in the case, initially I went to the qualitative
aspect but was told to focus on the actual variables and did so.
I spend around 20-25 minutes on the problem and was asked to
conclude.

Round 2 - HR + Guesstimate (partner round 1)

Narration of the case HR - Why consult, ATK, brief introduction and mainly focused
interview (Please be as on resume
descriptive as possible) Guesstimate - Usage of number of lens pairs in a year
Solved from demand side, from finding actual users to their
average usage
Went for 10-15 minutes maximum. Taken straight to next
partner round

Round 3 - interests + case (partner round 2)

Partner was from energy sector, so we talked mostly about the
Industry since I was interested in renewable sector and the type
of projects.

Case - Market for company in Germany, which produces a part

used in Safety equipment and factor affecting demand
He was mostly testing me on the approach of the case.
Lasted 10 minutes.
 Taking cues from Interviewer.
What do you think went Directing the HR and about me part very well in interviews
right in this interview? Giving cues to Interviewers to talk about
Taking it light.

What do you think went Give better approach to first case and be crisp in it.
wrong in this interview? Could have given better responses to questions asked maybe
Any tips for future
batches on the basis of Be chill, let it flow and enjoy the process.
your experience

Interview Experience 13
Name: Ankit Raj
Company: A T Kearney
No. of Rounds: 4
Mining Engineering - IIT Kharagpur
Brief Profile:
Work ex - KPMG, Management Consulting, 2 years
4 rounds in total - 2 normal case rounds and 2 partner rounds.
Interview questions (With
The first two rounds were case intensive with a guesstimate in
indicative answers if you
the 1st round. Partner rounds were a combination of HR
choose to share them)
questions, a small guesstimate and a small case.
Round 1: 45-60 minutes. Guesstimate + case based on same
Estimate the market size of ISL (Indian Soccer League) in India
(in terms of number of viewers or followers)

I started off with a top-down approach; used assumptions on the

way and cross-checked with the interviewer. The exercise was
quite conversational; the interviewer helped me with some
assumptions as well. At one stage of the estimation, he asked me
a specific question. I needed the proportion of television
watchers who would prefer viewing football. I was going with a
geographic segmentation and he asked for a different method. I
was finally able to give the answer after taking some time. He
was looking for the method of "what else do people watch / do
Narration of the case if not football... so on and so forth"
interview (Please be as I was asked to calculate each and every number quite accurately
descriptive as possible) and give the basis for each assumption as well.
Then after the estimation, he asked what factors you would take
into account to see if the ISL as a whole is profitable or not. This
was a confusing question and I asked a lot of questions to clear
my doubts. The fact that was confusing was which entity to
focus on while calculating profits for ISL. He had mentioned
initially that all stakeholders should make profits – so I clarified
whether I should take my “system” as ISL or the organizing
entity. He pushed me a lot to think of more factors.
Finally, he asked how you would increase the following /
viewership of ISL, if you had sufficient budget – gave answers
relating to promotions and infrastructure investment.
While leaving, he asked me if I had any questions. I had
completely forgotten to prepare for this (in spite of being
repeatedly told), and had to say no nothing.

Round 2: Business scenario case – which country to export to?

(30-35 minutes)
The client is a passenger vehicle manufacturer of India. Sales are
dipping, so client wants to export. How would you decide where
to export?
I started off with basic questions pertaining to the client and its
products. The discussion was much more interviewee-led in this
interview. He just wanted an approach to the problem and not
some specific countries (I clarified this early). In the middle of
the discussion, I was asked to solve the case on the green-board.
I made two buckets - market attractiveness and ease of entry and
listed factors in each of them.
While I was analysing the market attractiveness bucket, he was
pushing me to think of 1 more factor, which I was unable to get.
I then requested him to let me write all factors in both the
buckets. It turned out I had written the said factor under the
second bucket. Once I was on the board, the interview got very
conversational. We were discussing each point, ranging from
costs implications, technology improvements needed in the cars
for a different country, political stability, economic stability etc.
Overall, it went very well.
And yes, I asked a question this time – the basic one – was this a
real case and if yes how did the team go about it?

Round 3: Partner round – HR and a guesstimate (20 minutes)

The round started with him just giving a comment about the
"spot-offer" system. He then asked me what I thought about it.
It was so casual that I didn't realize at first that the interview had
started (he was working on his laptop at the time). But, I
managed to give a balanced answer. The partner was from IIT
KGP and he asked a lot about my life at IIT - what did you do in
your free time; which subjects you liked; which hostel etc. Then a
question on my experience at KPMG - what did you learn?
Then, all of a sudden he asked me to stand-up and quote
something by Brutus from Julius Caesar (it's there on my CV). I
went blank for the first few seconds as I could not understand
why I was being asked this question (Prepare your CV
thoroughly). Finally, I realised and said a line.

Then, he asked me a guesstimate - market size of contact lens in

India. It went average. Finally, I asked him a couple of questions.

Round 4: Partner round – small case (15 minutes)

The Partner asked a little about my internship with Tata steel. He
then went straight to a case from the steel industry – Your client
is a HR/CR coil manufacturer with some related services as well.
How would you increase the realization per unit? He clearly
mentioned that he was just looking for different ways and not a
full-fledged approach. I listed a few suggestions. He seemed
satisfied with them, but was looking for another answer. Finally,
he gave me the answer (bundling of services) – one which I had
 thought of at the first instance but forgot to write down and
hence missed it completely. I told him how I had thought about
the answer – by relating to aviation industry – bundling and un-
bundling of services. He seemed convinced.
I asked a couple of questions in the end.
1. I attempted each case from first principles - using a basic
MECE analysis. I did not try to force fit any frameworks or
asked irrelevant prepared questions. All my questions were
contextual and specific to the case.
2. I engaged the interviewer in all the rounds and had a
conversational approach to solving the case.
What do you think went
3. I was given the feedback at the end that my breadth of
right in this interview?
thinking was very good, and that I did not miss out on any
factors in the interviews,
4. I was completely honest in my responses to the HR questions.
Regarding the Brutus quote, I told the partner honestly that I do
not remember any quotes by him now, so can I quote something
by Antony? He allowed me to do so.
1. I could have solved the guesstimate better. I had made some
irrelevant assumptions, which I tried to defend with the
interviewer. Finally, he asked me not to take such an assumption
and then go ahead. Later, when I arrived at the final number, he
What do you think went showed me how I would have missed about 50-100 mn from my
wrong in this interview? estimate had I taken that assumption.
2. I did some erroneous calculations in the beginning, which
should not have happened.
3. I should have prepared a few questions to ask from the
interviewer,
1. Make full use of the mentors assigned - do at least 3-4 cases
with them. It's evaluative as well as very helpful in preparing you
for the case.
2. Practice different types of cases rather than too many cases.
Doing too many cases leads to a narrow frame of mind - you will
automatically memorize questions and use the same in all cases.
Any tips for future 3. Use basic first principle approach to solve cases - don't force
batches on the basis of fit frameworks.
your experience 4. Be honest in your HR answers. Partners and senior recruiters
will absolutely know when you are lying - trust on this. But you
should also have a proper justification or an alternate suggestion.
5. Prepare 3-4 questions for each company you interview
6. Don't panic if you are stuck. Just think out loud and make
your way. Listen carefully to the interviewer and engage him; he
is there to solve the case with you.

Interview Experience 14
Name: Kavya Bhargava
Company: A T Kearney
No. of Rounds: 3
Brief Profile: Fresher, B.Com (Hons) from SRCC
Interview questions (With
Three cases and about three guesstimates were asked. Details in
indicative answers if you
the next question.
choose to share them)
 Round 1: With a Partner
It started with a tell me about yourself question. Then one
significant achievement in college. Then a case: I was asked to
determine how and why can AT Kearney charge double the price
compared to its competitors. What justifies this action. It wasn't
this direct but it boiled down to this.
Round 2: With a Principal
How to popularize Chess in India and on profitability case. A
Narration of the case national manufacturing company; labour strike in one of the
interview (Please be as factories was the reason.
descriptive as possible) One simple guesstimate; no HR
Round 3: With a Partner
Mostly an informal conversation about IIM Lucknow and the
consulting life. Discussed a couple of cases that the Partner had
worked on.
2 guesstimates: Estimate the number of cups used on campus
and number of people tuning in to the radio daily.
One specific HR question: Why ATK, how did you rank ATK
and why that particular rank.
I think one of the things that worked for me in this particular
company was that by the time I was being interviewed, I wasn't
nervous anymore and to a certain extent I stopped thinking of it
as a do or die situation.
What do you think went It helps you calm down and the interviewer can see and
right in this interview? understand you better. In contrast, you might be too strung up
and hence not able to show how you think/communicate clearly
leading to you tanking the interview.
Another thing I made sure of was that I kept the interviewer
engaged and that they didn't get distracted.
What do you think went I extended my answers a bit sometimes. You can come across as
wrong in this interview? a bit talkative. It's always better to be more to-the-point
- Don't let the pressure get to you. It's not the end of the world.
- Don't talk too much. You don't want to appear immature or
Any tips for future chatty
batches on the basis of - Always give answers according to the person who is
your experience interviewing you. Having backup answers and changing your
attitude according to the person that is interviewing you is always
a good idea.
 Alvarez and Marsal

Interview Experience 15
Name: Deepika Saxena
Company: Alvarez and Marsal
No. of Rounds: 2
 B.Tech in electrical engineering from NIT Allahabad, 2012.
Brief Profile: Worked as design engineer at Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd: 34
months
1. Tell me about yourself
Interview questions (With
2. Guesstimate : Market size for milk in Mumbai
indicative answers if you
3. Case study on whether a PE firm should invest in a multi-
choose to share them)
specialty hospital in Lucknow
Round 1: Tell me about yourself and your work at Reliance. He
asked me why I considered myself an ideal candidate for A&M.
The interviewer asked me to estimate the market size for milk in
Mumbai and analyze why organized players such as Reliance are
losing out to unorganized players in the milk market in Mumbai.
Narration of the case
interview (Please be as
Round 2: Brief introduction about myself and then a case study.
descriptive as possible)
It was related to a multi-specialty hospital in Lucknow and I was
asked to determine whether a private equity firm should invest in
the hospital. This was the problem statement laid out and I had
to ask questions to the interviewer to gather relevant pieces of
information and come up with final recommendation.
Prior to the interview, I had done my homework regarding the
firm and the profile for which it had come to recruit. I was
confident throughout the interview, trying to be as interactive as
What do you think went
I could while solving the case and the market-sizing problem.
right in this interview?
Even when I made certain mistakes, I did not defend myself or
get nervous, rather I admitted whenever I overlooked some
aspect of the question or did any calculation error.
Even though I tried to be very interactive throughout the case
analysis and guesstimate round, there were few instances where I
estimated some figures or adopted a method for solving things
What do you think went
without explaining them clearly to the interviewer. So he had to
wrong in this interview?
ask me why I did certain calculation or how I arrived at a certain
number, which I think I could have avoided by explaining every
single step to the interviewer.
Stay calm and confident. Don't get nervous if you do some
mistake while solving the case. The interviewer is there to guide
you if you go a bit off track. Just maintain a calm composure and
Any tips for future try to keep the case study round going as more of a conversation
batches on the basis of than an interview. Think out loud. If you are asked a question
your experience you don't know the answer to, don't blurt out the first thing that
strikes your mind. Rather, request the interviewer to give you a
minute to gather your thoughts. They'll gladly give you time to
think.

Interview Experience 16
Name: Jay Shah
Company: Alvarez and Marsal
No. of Rounds: 2
B.com, CA, Fresher
Brief Profile:
Done a lot of social work
 Round 1:
Run me through your profile- hardly some time spent here
Case analysis
Interview questions (With
indicative answers if you Round 2:
choose to share them) Tell me about yourself.
CV related questions on extra-curriculars. Didn't ask about
academics
Case analysis
Round 1
Run me through your profile
Picked up TT from my profile and said, "you think you can beat
me?"
Discussion on TT was a light one. Intention was rapport building

Case analysis- kept narrating details on a health sector related

case.
Advise to be given on profitability
Factors considered to be enlisted

Narration of the case Round 2

interview (Please be as Tell me about yourself.
descriptive as possible) Getting a rank in CA Entrance impressed. It suited the profile.
Picked up 'art' from CV and some discussion on the same.

Case analysis:
Case about e commerce. Market entry case related to ethnic
wear. Narrated the case. Gave some figures
Asks factors to be considered.

Before case was over the first round interviewer took her out.
They discussed for 3 whole minutes.
She asked me to stop writing and leave.
As I was leaving, they said "you are selected"
Confidence was critical
At times I couldn't pick on the hints that the interviewers were
dropping about the case. But I stuck on and kept trying. Showed
dedication.
Was cheerful and relaxed throughout the interview.
What do you think went
right in this interview?
Being a CA also gave brownie points

As a matter of coincidence, I had some extra-curriculars for each

of the interviewers liking. Rather than asking questions they
started telling their experience with the activity passionately.
I didn't do justice to number crunching.

I objectively went about analysing the case without going into the
What do you think went
calculations.
wrong in this interview?
I also hadn't done case preparation. I was focusing more on
General Management and marketing. Alvarez and Marsal was the
 only consulting Day 0 call I had. Case practice would have
helped

The role offered is business advisory.

They prefer differentiating themselves from consulting.

Any tips for future A good amount of importance is given to being an organizational
batches on the basis of fit. So be cheerful and show motivation and willingness to learn.
your experience
Not much time is spent on CV/ HR. That part is a hygiene
factor. Majorly does the work of rapport building.
Demonstrate good logic for case analysis.

Interview Experience 17
Name: Saharsh Agarwal
Company: Alvarez and Marsal
No. of Rounds: 2
Shri Ram College of Commerce, (B.Com- Hons)
Brief Profile:
Worked at DE Shaw and OYO Rooms prior to joining IIML
Q. A PE firm wants to invest in the healthcare sector. It needs to
decide on whether it's going to invest in the eye care segment or
Interview questions (With the dialysis segment. Advise.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Q. A snack manufacturer in the unorganized space operational
currently in Maharashtra and Gujarat wants to expand to Madhya
Pradesh and Rajasthan. Advise.
The HR round was the generic questions such as
- Tell me something about yourself
Narration of the case
- Why Consulting?
interview (Please be as
- What do you understand by due diligence?
descriptive as possible)
- Work experience and complete understanding of the role
- Explain the business model of OYO Rooms
Half the interview is won by attitude. Confidence and the
What do you think went willingness to learn in your internship is what was the key.
right in this interview? Number skills are a must (mental math) and the ability to use
numbers while solving a case.
I could have prepared for cases better. Had prepared mainly for
What do you think went
finance because of which the structure wasn't excellent. To my
wrong in this interview?
advantage, structure wasn't exactly the main criterion.
Be thorough with basic finance and interact with companies in
Any tips for future every opportunity provided with. You're judged by companies
batches on the basis of right from Day 1 and make the right impression from the first
your experience time you meet the officials till you walk out of the interview
room.
Auctus Advisors
Interview Experience 18
Name: Argha Mondal
Company: Auctus Advisors
No. of Rounds: 3
IIT Kanpur, B.Tech Electrical Engineering, Batch of 2012
Brief Profile:
Work-ex: Opera Solutions, 33 months
Round 1:
Decision Tree Based Quantitative case. Asked to determine the
optimum inventory for a retailer to maximize profits. Sales
depended on the demand, which had 3 scenarios of high,
medium and low with different sales and occurrence
probabilities. Explained the scenarios, with the expected sales
Interview questions (With
revenue in each case based on basic probability calculations.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them)
Round 2:
PVR is acquiring DT Cinemas. Analyze the situation. I had some
experience with the workings of the multiplex retailers, so the
question was relevant to my work-ex. More of a discussion on
the factors and the pros and cons of inorganic v/s organic
growth.
HR rounds started with basic HR questions like about yourself,
Narration of the case reasons for leaving last job, resume based questions about PORs
interview (Please be as and work projects. Mainly they are trying to look for a fit with
descriptive as possible) their firm and an enthusiasm to work in an uncertain and high
responsibility environment.
Round 1 Case: I asked all the relevant questions and probed for
the right data. I also came up with a MECE framework for the
decision tree.
What do you think went
right in this interview? Round 2 Case: I was able to cover all-important aspects.
HR: My past work-experience allowed me to leverage a lot of my
work into the HR answers. Also, to all his questions, I had
answers with some incident to justify it.
For the second case, I started to solve the case as a quantitative
What do you think went
case, when it was basically a strategy case. The interviewer had to
wrong in this interview?
pull me back from the numbers a couple of times.
 There are two cases in general. One quantitative decision tree
Any tips for future based probability case. These are generally number intensive.
batches on the basis of Second is a qualitative strategy case.
your experience For HR, try to leverage instances from your resume to justify our
answers.

Interview Experience 19
Name: Devika Mathur
Company: Auctus Advisors
No. of Rounds: 2
Grad - NIT Allahabad
Brief Profile: Stream - Biotechnology
Work Ex- 12 months at INDUCTIS (EXL SERVICES)
Interview questions (With Both the rounds had one case each. The cases are different from
indicative answers if you the general market entry and profitability cases. They deal with
choose to share them) expected probability of different scenarios of any situation given.
Round 1: Only Case
Round 2: Case and HR combined

Eg of case: I am a supermarket chain and have to order

deodorant of the brand Ferrari. How much should he order to
Narration of the case maximize his profit.
interview (Please be as On asking the interviewer, you will get the further details.
descriptive as possible)
There are 3 different seasons of sale: low, medium, high. Assume
margin to be same throughout. During these seasons let’s say the
probability of the deodorants being sold is 1, 0.6, 0.4. If you are
not able to sell all the stock and have to return to the company,
you have to bear a loss per every bottle.
The basics of probability, being good at math helps. The cases
are very logical and just think from a basic level. I was honest
What do you think went throughout my HR interview and that is essential under all
right in this interview? circumstances. I am from a consulting background and relating
thing and giving examples from previous background and
learning helps as well.
What do you think went Maintaining your nerves is one thing I could have improved
wrong in this interview? upon. It helps you think logically and helps solve the case better.
During the period of preparation, focus on your mistakes and
Any tips for future
make sure to work upon them. A variety of cases always helps
batches on the basis of
you on the final day. As per the final day is concerned, keep
your experience
yourself calm and composed. :)
Interview Experience 20
Name: Sandip Kumar Sen
Company: Auctus Advisors
No. of Rounds: 3
Graduation college: BITS Pilani
Stream: M.sc Economics+ BE. Mechanical
Brief Profile: Work Experience: 2 Years
Organization: Credit Suisse
Role: Equity research analyst
Round 1 (Case):
A company wanted to find out the best way to prepare itself for
a possible increase in demand. It could continue with current
technology or experiment and invest in a new technology (The
success of new technology was not certain) or it could outsource
surplus demand to other small manufacturers. The cost of
production would have been different in different case. Which of
the three options would have provided with the maximum profit
Interview questions (With given the uncertainty around demand and success of new
indicative answers if you technology?
choose to share them)
Round 2 (HR):
The entire round revolved around my internship experiences and
positions of responsibility. They basically wanted to see how I
will manage client-facing roles and why I wanted to leave finance
and join consulting.
Round 3 (Case):
A bank wants to open 100 ATMs in the city. Where should it
open them for maximum profit?
Round 1 started with small HR round. The interviewer picked
up one of the research work at Credit Suisse and had a small
discussion. Then we proceeded to case. I was able to draw an
exhaustive structure in first five minutes, which helped me ask
key questions. I did the calculations (It was a probability based
case) in next 5 minutes and reached the final conclusion. The
interviewer was quite satisfied.

Round 2 was complete HR round. I had prepared a lot for it and

Narration of the case
so was able to answer all his questions with relevant proof in my
interview (Please be as
CV. He too was very satisfied.
descriptive as possible)
Round 3, the final round was with the partner. Since the first
two rounds went pretty smoothly, I had become slightly
complacent and started very poorly. I was all over the place and
was not able to draw a good structure. However, I recovered in
time and was able to gain some of the lost ground.
Since my round 3 went very bad, they had some additional
informal meetings with me to check my analytical skills. They
discussed with me about Bihar Election, problems in IIM
 Lucknow etc.
Finally they were convinced and I got the offer :)

I was quick to make a good structure in first round and so

reached the solution very neatly. I had prepared a lot for HR
What do you think went interview and so was able to answer all the difficult questions
right in this interview? that they asked in round 2 and the informal session after round
3. In round 3, although I had started horribly, I was able to
maintain my composure and do some bit of damage control.
After two excellent rounds, I assumed that I will get the job and
What do you think went
hence became complacent in round 3. I should have kept myself
wrong in this interview?
on high alert in the all-important round 3 with the partner.
We all are smart enough to crack consulting cases. HR answers
Any tips for future
can sometimes become the differentiating factor in a 50:50 case.
batches on the basis of
So, I would suggest everyone to devote at least 40% of total
your experience
preparation time in HR questions.
 The Boston Consulting
Group

Interview Experience 21
Name: Aatish Pandit
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 2
IIT Delhi - Civil Engineering - 2013 passout
Brief Profile:
KPMG management consulting - 2 years
Interview questions (With Meaning of your name?
indicative answers if you (Try and make it an interesting conversation starter)
choose to share them) Tell me about yourself?
2 rounds (both case)
We were called in a batch of 7, all of us were asked to wait in a
common area and were called one-by-one by our respective
interviewers.
Narration of the case
interview (Please be as
Round 1: with Partner (mainly case)
descriptive as possible)
- general questions like how are feeling today, tell me something
about yourself?
- 5 min chitchat and then into the case
- Very specific problem statement, not an open-ended case
 - Case: A bank has recently acquired licence from RBI to
operate, devise an optimal ATM placement strategy for Delhi
market given a budget constraint of INR 1 crore.
- The partner was looking for factors to be considered. He
narrowed it down to only cost, given budget constraint.
- Listed down all possible costs, and factors on which the costs
will depend. For eg. rent cost will depend on location, cash
replenishment cost will depend on number of cash dispensing
cycles per day etc.
- After considering all the costs and factors, calculated cost for
setting up one ATM at Delhi airport. This came out to be 45
Lacs given very high rent at airport. Hence not advisable to put
an ATM at airport.
- But given high visibility for ATM at the airport, recommended
that the company can simply consider this ATM to be an
advertisement and reach higher number of customers.
- Partner seemed satisfied. Round ended with a knock on the
door by the PCommer.

Round 2: with Project Leader

- started with tell me about yourself and then straight into the
case
- Case: Client is an EPC player, wants to expand into other
businesses. What factors would you consider while suggesting
him?
- started with basic questions like, what do you mean by EPC?,
what business is our client into currently?, in which geography,
why does he plan to expand, any other objective in mind? etc.
- Explained him my approach first that how I would like to
tackle this problem, when he agreed then went into drawing the
structure on paper.
- First, listed all possible industries where EPC is applicable.
- then listed parameters on the basis of which either filtering or
ranking of industries can be done.
- He was satisfied with the approach.
> Came out of the room and after waiting for 10 minutes, was
given the offer by the Partner and Associate Principal.
> Stayed calm & confident
> Asked questions where I did not have prior knowledge
What do you think went
> Stated all my assumptions beforehand
right in this interview?
> Always tried to engage the interviewer by constantly
interacting with him and showing interest in what he is saying
What do you think went > Should have listened carefully to what interviewer wants
wrong in this interview? > Could have made the structures more neatly
Stay calm and confident during the day. Even if you don't know
something, be candid about it and stay focused. Only thing
Any tips for future which will take you through that day is your confidence. But be
batches on the basis of cautious, don't be over-confident, can go horribly wrong if you
your experience come out as arrogant while being confident. Ask for honest
feedbacks from your close and reliable friends while doing mock
interviews.
Interview Experience 22
Name: Avinash R Kothari
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 2
B.com, Chartered Accountant, CFA - US,
Brief Profile: 3 years of work experience in debt syndication and investment
banking (PINC)
Broadly case based interviews with very pointed questions on
HR.

I had one case on pricing a product and deciding on whether to

manufacture in India or China. Required lot of thinking on the
toes.

Second case was on government policy making related to child

Interview questions (With education which is government sponsored. This case was
indicative answers if you difficult and couldn't be cracked without prior knowledge of the
choose to share them) costs involved in government-sponsored education. Some
knowledge related to world bank and IMF funding was also
required.

One question was common in both the rounds. "Why

consulting?"
Given my background in finance and as a CA handling this
question in the right way was very important. More than 5-7
minutes were spent on this question.
My first round was with a partner known as Mr. Gupta. He
seemed to be in a rush though asking questions while we were
walking from one room to another. He was pretty much
straightforward and cut through the small talk relatively quickly.
Just after we sat he gave me the case and we began discussing it.
The case was moderate in difficulty and required us to list down
all the costs involved in manufacturing a product in India and
comparing it with manufacturing costs in China.
Narration of the case
interview (Please be as Interview was very interactive in nature and not at all stressful.
descriptive as possible) He guided my thinking from time to time and appreciated the
good points also giving me a boost of confidence.

Round 2: Principal named Ms. Seema working in social impact

segment.
This round was slightly stressful initially but after hearing the
why consulting answer she got convinced and interview went
smoothly thereafter. Initial minutes were spent only on why

consulting. The one line that worked for me in that answer and
allowed me to sell myself completely was "I look at consulting as
a sophisticated form of entrepreneurship." Handling this
question correctly was key to cracking the interview. Apart from
this there was no other HR question. Remaining part of the
interview was completely case based.
 In the case a prior knowledge of IMF and world bank funding
came to my rescue. The case was a relatively difficult one and she
was very helpful at certain points. It was that kind of case in
which we could have easily lost our composure. Breaking up the
benefits of government-sponsored education in short term and
long term gave the structure. However just mentioning that long
term benefits will be abstract and can’t be counted would not be
correct. I had to mention a number of domains under which
benefits could accrue.

The case ended on a good note and you know it when the
interviewer is still delighted to speak to you even after the time is
over.
Regarding HR questions: Being honest about it made a lot of
difference. Given my background I had to be really convincing
about consulting. This would come only after a good amount of
time is spent on the answer. Speaking confidently with honesty
and being frank about it did the job.

What do you think went Case questions: My ability to have a range in my thinking and to
right in this interview? suggest various parameters to be looked at came very handy.
Coming up with a few corner points convinced the interviewer.
Though this is more random in nature, it worked for me on that
day.

Others: Good eye contact and ability to make the interview

conversational.
Regarding cases I think I could have been more succinct and
quick in reaching to the solution. However that's a perpetual
challenge.

What do you think went The interview could have been better and more convincing if
wrong in this interview? through my HR answers I would have been able to drive the
interview to topics, which I wanted to discuss. Like work
experience and discussion on various sectors that I would have
covered. Had it been so, my reliance on case to crack the
interview would have reduced.
Much has been said about personality, loud voice, eye contact
and an aura to crack consulting interview. But people, BCG is
Any tips for future completely different. It is more about your logical chain of
batches on the basis of thoughts and your achievements. Expect BCG interview
your experience outcomes to be drawn from case solutions and not from cues
about your charm and personality. However, prepare HR
question very well. Don't goof up in that area.

Interview Experience 23
Name: Danvir Suri
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 2
BA (Hons) Economics from Delhi University
Brief Profile:
MSc Economics from LSE
 5 months at HSBC
22 months at Genesis Economic Consulting
Interview questions (With
First round had a case and questions on work experience
indicative answers if you
Second round had a guesstimate and a little HR
choose to share them)
Round 1 -
Had done a project on mobile payments. Interviewer was also
interested in the topic so asked me to describe the project.

Case involved giving costs and benefits of moving children from

Anganwadi to government schools at the age of 4 rather than at
the age of 6 in the context of studies that have shown positive
outcomes for early interventions in education. Interviewer
wanted me talk about the potential benefits. I divided the
benefits into those to the individual and his family (increased
income) the government (increased taxes, lower subsidies) and
society (lesser crime) etc. Was also asked how I would estimate
Narration of the case these benefits. Spoke about how you could use existing studies,
interview (Please be as use a control group etc.
descriptive as possible)
Round 2 -
Was asked to guesstimate the number of x-ray machines sold in a
year. Divided demand into replacement and new. I started with
replacement demand, and took Lucknow as a sample. Spoke
about the different class of people and how they were treated by
different hospitals. Divided hospitals into tiers which would cater
to different section of population. Interviewer at this point asked
me to stop with numbers and just explain the methodology so I
spoke about how the ratio of x-ray machines to number of beds
would vary, and this would be higher for hospitals catering to the
rich. Then spoke about new demand. Was told to stop at this
point.
Was confident and played to my strengths. When I was asked to
What do you think went
explain the mobile payments project I did so in great detail and
right in this interview?
in a structured way.
What do you think went
-
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future
Use HR answers to impress interviewers with communication
batches on the basis of
skills. Prepare a unique answer for Why BCG/McKinsey?
your experience

Interview Experience 24
Name: Diwakar Agarwal
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 2
Btech Mtech dual degree, Electrical Engineering, IIT Kanpur.
Brief Profile:
34 month experience at Intel (software+hardware engineer)
Interview questions (With 1. Estimate the size of new xray machines in India.
indicative answers if you 2. Client has recently received license for banking operations in
choose to share them) India. It wants to start operations in Bangalore such that the net
 annual loss is not more than 1 crore. you need to help him make
the strategy.

Round 1:
It was a small guesstimate. As the interviewers were wrapping up
they asked me to finish it fast telling them the approach along
with approximate numbers without calculating the final answer.

I started with the population of India, divided it in BPL and APL

population (Above Poverty Line population being able to afford
medical care). Then I divided them in 4 age groups i.e 0-15, 15-
30, 30-45, 45 and above. The frequency of each group falling sick
is different with first and last group falling sick much more
(assumed 6 times a year). I assumed that about 40% of times the
treatment will need an X-ray. Hence I had total demand for X-
rays.
Now I made a cut based on Income. High income people would
go to places which are costly and hence less crowded =>
number of X-rays taken by machines in these places per day will
be lesser. Assumed (20,35,50) X-rays per machine for these three
cuts.
After multiplication I had the total number of machines needed.
Now the new machine requirement can be calculated based on
the expected life of a machine and the population growth rate.

At this time interviewer prompted me to think more if I missed

Narration of the case
something, I could not guess. Then he asked me to compare with
interview (Please be as
the car market. Then it realized that I missed accounting for
descriptive as possible)
second hand market for X-ray machines.

Round 2:
It started with a basic tell me about yourself. Then the interview
directly came to the case. In the start he mentioned that this is a
quantitative case and he is looking for specific numbers in the
end.

At first he said that the client is looking for entering in a

particular baking service. He asked me to list all the services
provided by a bank and then he said that he is looking to
establish only ATMs in the first year.

I needed to find out locations and number of ATMs in each

location such that total loss in a year is not more than 1 crore. I
then listed down the sources of revenues (only transaction fee in
this case) and costs (rent, operating cost, electricity, internet etc)
security, refilling cost). I was asked to identify prime locations for
these ATMs (malls, airports, train/bus/metro stations, corporate
offices/parts, school/colleges, residential societies etc). Made a
matrix for the each cost revenue for 5 of these locations. Based
of net profit/loss at each location I suggested some possible
ATM distribution.
 What do you think went During both the rounds, interviewers kept pressurizing me to do
right in this interview? it faster but I did not lose my calm.
I missed few factors during round 2 for which the interviewer
What do you think went
had to probe me. I could have been more thorough in each step
wrong in this interview?
if there was no time pressure.
Just be confident and have a reason for whatever you do during
Any tips for future
the case solving. Always keep in mind what was the problem
batches on the basis of
statement and keep track if your approach is leading to a
your experience
solution.

Interview Experience 25
Name: Manasvi Goyal
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 3
IIT Delhi - Electrical Engineering
Brief Profile:
3 years at NetApp as Software Developer
Interview questions (With Round 1 - General HR + Guesstimates
indicative answers if you Round 2 - Case + Why BCG?
choose to share them) Round 3 - HR + Case + Guesstimate
Round 1:
General HR - Tell me about yourself and Why consulting
questions.

Two guesstimates based on the statement - A new 5 star hotel is

being opened by client in a metro city.

Guesstimate 1 - Estimate the water bottle consumption per day

for the hotel

Started with assuming the metro city to be Delhi. Identified the

customer segments - business/corporate. Identified the various
places where water bottles could be used - rooms(single, double,
suites), conference rooms, party halls, restaurants, waiting area
and staff.
Narration of the case
interview (Please be as
Interviewer asked me to write an equation to define the water
descriptive as possible)
bottle consumption for rooms. Took some constant water bottle
consumption per day (staff + complimentary bottles) and a
occupancy factor for single/double rooms to come up with a
linear equation.

Guesstimate 2 - Interviewer asked me to calculate water bottle

consumption for a restaurant. I started with the standard
approach of taking the population of Delhi and then discussed
some cuts like age, income etc. Interviewer asked me to find a
way in which one could directly estimate the expected footfall in
restaurant. After a while, I figured that by directly looking at the
competitor's footfall we could get a ballpark number. Interviewer
asked if I have any question. Asked him a well thought question.

Round 2: It was a pure case based interview. Profits of a hospital

 were declining. Clarifying questions - location, specialty,
customer segments and competitors. Then looked at the revenue
as well as cost aspects. Interviewer asked me to focus on revenue
streams. Listed out - patients, pharmacy, diagnostic centre,
hospitalization and surgeries as the key revenue drivers.
Interviewer specifically mentioned fall in number of surgeries.
Listed quality, price, technology, image and doctors as the major
factors affecting the number of surgeries. Identified the issue as
reputed doctors moving to a competitor hospital. As patients
were 60+ in age and wealthy people with heart diseases, they
preferred to go to reputed doctors. Other reason was decline in
cleanliness of the hospital. While walking back from the
interview room to the waiting hall, Interviewed asked me why
BCG?

Round 3: The round started with basic HR questions - What is

NetApp? Brief overview of my job responsibilities? Why MBA?
Comparison of life at IIML v/s IITD? Why consulting?
Then it went to a data intensive case. In nutshell the case was to
perform a cost-benefit analysis of moving children of age 4-6yrs
from Aanganvaadi to primary school. Aanganvaadi is a pre-
school place in villages where children of age 4-6years are taught.
Due to lack of workforce Aanganvaadi is not a good place for
educating children. Interviewer asked me to list revenue streams
as well as cost streams for the government if it allows movement
of children.

Guesstimate: Interviewer asked me to calculate number of new

primary school teachers required if children of age 4-6years are
to be moved in primary schools.
In first round, I understood the hints given by the interviewer
and took sufficient time to come to an answer instead of just
trying random ideas.
What do you think went
right in this interview? In second and third round, I was confident and calm. I guess
solving both cases with a well-defined structure and explaining
my thought process to the interviewer helped me build good
rapport. Both these rounds were more of discussion oriented.
What do you think went In first round, I got stuck for a while and repeated an answer
wrong in this interview? twice. I could have avoided it.
Any tips for future
Practice cases well. Be calm and confident during the process.
batches on the basis of
Engage the interviewer by thinking out loud.
your experience

Interview Experience 26
Name: Nitish Rathi
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 3
Brief Profile: B.Tech. Chem Engg., IIT Kharagpur; cleared CFA Level-II;
 Work experience: RIL (project management) - 2.75 years, Motilal
Oswal Securities (equity research, oil & gas) - 7 months, and
Capital One - 6 months
Why did you shift to Motilal Oswal Securities?
Interview questions (With
Tell me about yourself?
indicative answers if you
Have you ever taken risk in life?
choose to share them)
Why do you want to join consulting?
Had total 3 rounds:-
1) Principal – Prateek Gupta
Interview started off with 1 HR question – why did you shift to
Motilal Oswal Securities (I had a few of job-shifts in CV)? Had a
good reason for all of my job-shifts. I used them as
demonstration of willingness to seek challenging work and gain
diverse exposure.
It followed by a calculation heavy case on a tractor manufacturer
who wants to know if he should install capacity of gear boxes in
the existing facility in India or start gear-box manufacturing in
China. He pressured on the time constraint of finishing it in 15
minutes. I had practiced similar cases, hence I was very
comfortable in structuring, getting the relevant data required, and
calculating the break-even period. He then asked if I had any
questions. The interview went really good.

2) Principal – Shweta Bajpai

She asked me a couple of HR questions, which I was prepared
for. One of the question – Have you ever taken risk in life? – was
not so common, but I had thought about such an instance before
Narration of the case during preparation, and hence could share it without any hiccups.
interview (Please be as She then shared her background (she was in Technology and
descriptive as possible) Media practice), and gave a market entry case of a Technology
company who wants to enter India with its internet search engine
tool (similar to google). I briefed her about my structure, but I
was then asked to restrict to market size estimation only. I broke
the revenue streams into parts, and checked with her for
assumptions taken. Many a times she gave cues to where I was
going wrong. Finally, I came up with the size of USD 700 Million
and told her it seems to be an overestimation (I checked later,
actual size was USD300-400 Million, which I think is fairly good
estimation). While summarizing, I was not very crisp, as I was
thinking about where did I go wrong. I left with a feeling that it
didn’t go that well. But, after 10-15 minutes was called for third
round. I was really excited now.

3) Director – Seema Bansal

She asked me where was I from, and I was able to make good
connection, as I shared my diverse exposure of staying at more
than 6-7 States during my education and work-ex. I was then
asked why consulting.
Then she gave a case that a public health organization, which
supplies vaccines across India, was facing frequent stock outages,
or wastages due to oversupply. Post few clarifications, I prepared
 the entire value chain of the vaccine supply and distribution. The
problem lied in demand forecasting. Then the case became more
of discussion as to identifying different ways of demand
forecasting, what should be the criteria to choose, etc. She then
asked me if I had any questions.
It was noon when my interview started, and it was my first
interview for the day. By that time a lot of offers had already
What do you think went
been made. But, I was really cool and calm during my interviews.
right in this interview?
It was something very important in demonstrating confidence in
solving cases, answering HR questions, etc.
In my second round the interviewer had to give me a lot of cues
What do you think went
to get me on the right track, as I had not practiced guess
wrong in this interview?
estimates much.
Any tips for future
Prepare and practice well for the interviews, but on the interview
batches on the basis of
day you should not worry about the outcome.
your experience

Interview Experience 27
Name: Nirali Raichura
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 3
Brief Profile: CA+ Bcom graduate, 2 entrepreneurial ventures.
Round 1- A gearbox manufacturer in India wants to expand the
production capacity. To evaluate options between India and
China
Interview questions (With
Round 2- A new bank has received license in the recent past and
indicative answers if you
wants us to frame the ATM set up strategy in Mumbai.
choose to share them)
Maximum cash burn limit is Rs. 1 crore.

Round 3- A foreign search engine wants to enter rural India,

what all can be done?
 Round 1- No HR, only case (15minutes) as specified above.
Case description:
First was a background study of the company.
Then was told to focus only on quantitative factors for decision-
making and therefore was completely a number focused case
initially.

I started with the differences in the yearly- fixed and variable cost
between alternatives and then the set up cost, etc.

The yearly cost difference was favorable towards China, but the
set up cost for China was high. Ultimately the decision lied on
how much time would we take to recover our set up cost from
the differential benefits in yearly costs.

In my case, we could recover the set up costs in 1.5 years and the
project was for a period of 5 years and hence capacity was to be
set up in China.

After this, I was asked to list down the qualitative factors I would
consider for my decision making- I took the value chain
approach for the same.

Round 2- No HR, only case (15minutes) as specified above.

Case description: After the problem statement was given, I asked
Narration of the case for some moments to think so that I could go about my initial
interview (Please be as questioning. However, the partner said "No. Suppose I am
descriptive as possible) taking you to the CEO of this Bank right now and he asks you
what your strategy is going to be. Give me a 30 second response
that you will give him". After 2-3 permutations, the apt answer to
be given was "I will set up some ATMs at residential locations,
corporate houses, railway stations, airport, near colleges, malls,
etc. The number of ATMs need to be evaluated."

The case then turned completely numerical. I was supposed to

estimate cash inflows and outflows for each of the 6 alternatives
above and arrive at a decision. The trick was to do it using matrix
method and marginal costing. Also, the partner did not
appreciate the standard way we approach cases- evaluation of
environment, opportunities, competition, etc for a market entry
case. He kept saying he did not want such approach till the time I
started focusing on numbers, since that was what he wanted. Key
was to take the hint. Another key was to know the meaning of
cash burn.

At the end he asked the 3 most important learnings for me from

the case.

Round 3- 2 minutes HR, case (15minutes) as specified above.

HR- Briefly tell me something about yourself, what is your
biggest achievement during college days.

Case description- A background check on the company was

 done first.

The case started with finding out the rural consumer pain points.
For this I segregated the rural population by age and found their
occupational/ career requirements.
For eg: Trainings for farmers, education for children, etc.

Then I identified the non-educational requirements-

entertainment, etc. On being asked to consolidate on what
possible offerings we could provide, I listed down four: Online
education, Farmer training modules/ collaboration platform,
Entertainment apps and Travel apps.

The next step was to list down the factors affecting decisions for
each one of them- like level of requirement for consumers,
internet connectivity required, population who will use the
products, long and short term benefits, etc. I allocated scores on
the scale of 1 to 5- 5 being the most positive and used matrix
system for presentation.

The case ended with decision-making.

1. Being confident and assertive. I would have easily buckled

down in my 1st and 2 round where there was quite some grilling
and expectations were to go about the non-conventional way for
approaching cases. But, staying confident worked to my
What do you think went
advantage.
right in this interview?
2. Took hints. I had a open mind and hence was able to take
hints towards the direction the interviewer wanted to take the
case to.
Could have used and exhibited my background knowledge (as a
What do you think went CA) a bit more in the 2nd round- which I did towards the end
wrong in this interview? and got the feedback from the interviewer that I should have
done that earlier.
Be prepared for any mix of HR and Case.
Any tips for future
You cannot make it without being very positive and confident.
batches on the basis of
Do not give up till the end, no matter how bad you think the
your experience
interview is going.

Interview Experience 28
Name: Rachit Shah
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 2
Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst Level 3
Cleared with 2.5 years of work experience in the Mergers &
Brief Profile: Acquisitions Advisory department of PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) and 3 months of professional teaching experience (CFA
Level 1 and a finance certification course) at Edupristine
 Round 1 - Guesstimate the number of water bottles used in a
restaurant in a day
Indicative solution - Started with asking questions regarding the
size, type and area where the hotel is located. Went on to
determine the occupancy rate, factor in seasonality and finally
determined the usage in the different sections of the hotel like
rooms, restaurant, meeting rooms, gymnasium, etc.
Post this there was a follow up guesstimate of the expected
footfall in the restaurant

Interview questions (With Round 2 - Cost benefit analysis of reducing the entry age for
indicative answers if you primary education from 6 years to 4 years
choose to share them) Indicative solution - Started with trying to understand the reason
for reducing the entry age. This provided me with a very good
idea of the direction in which the case needs to be solved
(increasing the number of kids who get exposed to formal
education). Went on to do a revenue versus cost analysis both
for short as well as long term.
Potential revenue - Increase in GDP due to higher literacy rate,
higher taxes, entry of private sector investment, increased
employment, etc
Potential costs - Teachers & administrative staff, investment,
marketing expenses, closure of nursery schools, etc.
Round 1 - The round started with an informal discussion about
the campus and what the best memories of the interviewer were
in campus. Went on to talk a little bit about my work experience
in PwC and about life in Mumbai in general. After about 10
minutes of informal discussion, he gave me the guesstimate
which was again was more of a discussion & not a proper case
solving session.

Narration of the case Round 2 - The first 10 minutes were about the interviewers
interview (Please be as experience so far in the company and the interviewer wanting to
descriptive as possible) understand more about my teaching experience (I have been
associated with a professional teaching institute & have also
taught underprivileged children for 8 years). This was followed
by an HR question of Why MBA given my interests and
involvement in the teaching profession.
She then gave me a case in the education sector which seemed
complicated at first but could be solved by maintaining a
continuous conversation with her and because of my prior
experience in the sector.
Continuously maintained a healthy conversation with the
What do you think went
interviewers while solving the cases and this helped to get
right in this interview?
relevant points to solve the cases.
What do you think went
-
wrong in this interview?
 The most important thing is to continuously maintain a
Any tips for future conversation and ask questions if you think you are stuck. The
batches on the basis of interviewer is always willing to help you by giving you hints and
your experience pointers. All you need to do is ask! Also be confident & positive
and always maintain eye contact with the interviewer.

Interview Experience 29
Name: Saksham Pant
Company: BCG
No. of Rounds: 4
B.E. (Hons.) Electronics and Instrumentation, BITS Pilani -
Pilani Campus.
Brief Profile:
Worked for 22 months as a hardware engineer at Nvidia
Corporation, Bengaluru.
Round 1: Case – Tractor manufacturer, with a plant in the
outskirts of Hyderabad. The part of the facility where the spare
parts are manufactured is running out of capacity. Need to take a
decision on whether to establish a new one in the same facility or
in China and then bring the spare parts to India.

Round 2: Case - Regional newspaper in Kolkata, experiencing a

decline in sales. Need to identify the core issues and provide
solutions/recommendations.

Interview questions (With Round 3: Case – Cardiac hospital in Delhi, revenues are
indicative answers if you declining. Need to identify the core issues and provide a
choose to share them) solutions/recommendations.
HR questions like – Why BCG?

Round 4: Case – Anganwadi is a government sponsored child-

care and mother-care center in India. Apart from nutrition it also
provides preschool services to children from 4 to 6 years of age.
The problem is that the children who attend primary school after
going through the Anganwadi preschool perform very poorly
compared to others. So the Government is planning to shift the
preschool services of Anganwadi to formal primary schools.
Need to look at all the cost and benefit considerations.
All rounds lasted for around 20-25 minutes with 1 or 2 extra
minutes in the end for me to ask a question to the interviewer.

Round 1: Partner (don’t remember the name).

The interview started with my brief introduction while the
Narration of the case
interviewer was taking me to the interview room from the
interview (Please be as
waiting area. The case was mostly numbers based and calculation
descriptive as possible)
intensive. I took the value chain approach to cover all the aspects
of cost comparison. Apart from the monetary factors, I also
mentioned some non-monetary concerns like acceptance of
made-in-China products etc. The case was pretty straightforward
and the interviewer was very helpful, so it went quite well.
 Round 2: Principal (don’t remember the name).
This case was a qualitative one. Did a 4P comparison with the
other local regional newspapers along with the online channel.
Forgot to bring the advertisement revenue into consideration
initially and had to be hinted towards that direction. The
interviewer politely contradicted me many times but overall the
interview was good.

Round 3: Anurag Agrawal, Principal and IIML recruitment lead.

This was a very simple and short qualitative case and revolved
around customers experience and promotion. It was more of a
casual conversation and the case lasted for less than 10 minutes.
It was followed by the question of why I want to join BCG. The
interviewer added to my answer based on his own experience.
The interview went well according to me.

Round 4: Seema Bansal, Partner and Director.

I found this case to be the toughest as it required a broad span of
monetary and non-monetary factors to be taken into account. It
also involved a short guesstimate of the number of children
affected by the scheme. I missed out on a few aspects, like the
long term benefit of reduced cost of Government subsidies
through improved education facilities, and had to be hinted. The
interviewer was quite helpful but overall I wasn't able to ace this
round completely.
According to me, my confidence and enthusiasm worked well in
my favour. I was able to properly communicate my approach and
was successful in picking up hints on being prompted by the
What do you think went interviewers. I had prepared a few questions for the interviewers
right in this interview? beforehand, which came in quite handy. I was clear in my mind
and well prepared for questions like why consulting and why
BCG and hence was able to convince the interviewers about the
same.
Not much went wrong for me in the first 3 rounds expect for 1
or 2 small calculation mistakes or missing out on 1 or 2 aspects.
What do you think went In the last round, I was expecting an HR interview and wasn’t
wrong in this interview? prepared mentally for another case based round. I somewhat
lacked energy in this round and could’ve come up with a better
structure.
Based on my experience, I would say that confidence is the key
to crack the interviews. Be confident and enthusiastic at all times
Any tips for future
while communicating with the interviewer. Always keep smiling,
batches on the basis of
even if the interviewer is trying to contradict you. Try to
your experience
communicate your structure and approach before delving into it
and be crisp in your responses. This should do the trick.
 Deloitte S&O

Interview Experience 30
Name: Ashish Kapoor
Company: Deloitte S&O
No. of Rounds: 3
IT Engineer from NSIT. Average extra curriculars/PORs. 4
Brief Profile: years work experience in analytics consulting. Awards and
promotions during work-ex.
Round 1: Guesstimate round - Royal Enfield is launching a new
bike at a price of 2 lakh in India. Estimate the market size.

Round 2: Case study round - A data intensive case. Profits

Interview questions (With
dipping for an insurer. Some basic questions on workex.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them)
Round 3: Partner/Director round - Asked me for feedback on
the ppt and case workshops. Was more of a discussion rather
than an interview on analytics and how it can be leveraged in the
consulting context. Was asked use cases and scenario-based
 questions like how can Deloitte pitch analytics competency to a
client
1. one who has a full-fledged analytics setup
2. one who has heard the buzzword and wants to set it up
Guesstimate Round: 1 interviewer went on for about 20
minutes.
Started with the population of India, split it by age, income and
gender first to find the potential buyer profile. Then assumed a
small market among these potential buyers since not everybody
is interested in bikes and even for those who are, this is a semi-
luxury product and not a utility item. Also looked at other
competitors in this segment like Duke, Kawasaki etc. Also in this
case the usual 5 years life for a vehicle is not applicable as this
segment would in most cases be a onetime purchase. I do not
think I was being evaluated much on the numbers or accuracy of
Narration of the case
assumptions in this round. The focus was more on the approach
interview (Please be as
on how to split the market and which segments to target.
descriptive as possible)
After the guesstimate, he flatly said he had a concern with why I
wanted to move to strategy consulting from a data scientist role
given the demand for analytics. The last 5-7 minutes went in
convincing him. Had a clear answer prepared for this and he did
seem convinced.

Case round: 2 panelists, Went on for close to 40 minutes.

The case was a straightforward profitability problem where the
profits of an insurer were consistently dipping for the last 3 years
while the industry remained stable. The sheet on which he had
the case was divided into four sections and I was being fed data
 sequentially. I started out with dissecting profit into revenue and
costs at which point he showed me revenue trends for last 3
years on the first part of the sheet. Revenue was broken down by
average premium per customer and number of customers. Back
of the envelope calculations without rounding off were expected.
I had to prove that revenue was stable in these years. Made me
calculate percentage change year on year. As soon as we settled
that since revenue isn't an issue, I was given five options on what
could be causing a profit dip (2nd part of the sheet). Three of
these options related to drop in revenue (eg. competitors
lowering prices, new entrants etc) and only one related to costs
(something related to operational inefficiencies in the IT
department). I identified this option and he showed me the next
part of the sheet, which described the processes and steps in IT.
One point clearly stated that a few critical softwares had become
obsolete and had started to malfunction. I suggested that to get
the new software in place, we could either outsource the
development or build it in house or buy a product from a
technology company. They presented data on two options (last
part of the sheet), which had tentative costs and revenues over a
three-year period for two cases: buying a product from Microsoft
and developing the software in house. Was expected to do a cost
benefit analysis taking NPV into account and compare the two
options. Again calculations were pretty intensive and answers
were being checked in decimals. The focus was a lot on speed
and accuracy in calculations and rounding off was not permitted.
At the end I was asked to summarise in 30 seconds for the client
CEO, my findings.
Some basic questions on work-ex were also asked at the
beginning of this round. The guy knew a bit of analytics and
asked me questions on regression and model efficiency etc. Fairly
straightforward.

Partner/director Round: Started off with asking me if I knew

the names of people I had interacted in the previous rounds. I
remembered one name but luckily remembered the name of the
director himself from the PPT and case workshop. Then went
on to ask my feedback on PPT and case workshops. Had a
suggestion on the case workshop, which were discussed in detail.
Asked me if I had any questions at which point I brought up the
concern the interviewer had shown in the first round and made
sure I cleared it out with him as well. This is where the use cases
and scenario questions came in.

I could luckily bring up some industry specific points in the

guesstimate (from my interest in automobiles) and the case (from
prior experience in insurance). I made sure to address their
What do you think went concerns regarding the fitment and my inclination towards
right in this interview? management consulting with examples from my work-ex and
tied in the need for MBA within the same making it a coherent
story which I felt was crucial, especially in the last round. He did
agree that there was a concern.
 Towards the end of the case, i missed an input he had given
What do you think went while I was calculating a number and ended up asking a silly
wrong in this interview? question which could've been avoided. Otherwise I felt it was a
near perfect interview.

Just remain calm and relaxed, especially in the partner round.

Any tips for future
The questions I was asked weren't particularly difficult. They
batches on the basis of
were just looking for structure and clarity of thought is what I
your experience
inferred.

Interview Experience 31
Name: Komal Havelia
Company: Deloitte S&O
No. of Rounds: 2
SRCC – Bcom Hons
Brief Profile:
Work Ex – 3 years - KPMG - 5 months, CEB - 28 months
Round 1: Basic HR questions such as tell me about yourself and
work experience details. I was asked a question on probability in
which time durations were given for the student arrival and bus
departure from the bus stop, and I was supposed to compute the
probability of student catching the bus. The answer was divided
in a number of scenarios.
Interview questions (With
indicative answers if you
Round 2: A lot of HR questions (tell me about yourself, why
choose to share them)
consulting, why did you leave KPMG, my work profile at CEB,
my entrepreneurial initiative, discussion around US bschool
offers I had) and then a case on an insurance company.

Round 3: They just made the offer and asked me “if you decide
to not join Deloitte, what would be the reason”.
The case was on an insurance company based out of US whose
profitability had declined. I was first told about the company
background and the amount of change in profits. I was then
asked the probable reasons why the profitability might have
declined. Post that I was given four factors which the CEO had
shortlisted as reasons behind the decline. I was asked to relate
these factors to the profitability in the US insurance industry
scenario and explain why each of these might be the right causes.
Narration of the case They wanted qualitative answers for this. When they were
interview (Please be as satisfied with my answers, they gave me a sheet having four
descriptive as possible) tables.

The first one had information on components of quantity and

revenue for the 3 insurance products over the period of decline
of profits. I pinpointed that revenue wasn’t an issue here, since
for two products having a majority of sales, the premiums had
increased with the quantity sold and for the third one, revenue
was almost unchanged. So, cost was the problem.
 The second table had information on 4 softwares which were
used for different purposes in the process. One for storing all
client background data, etc. One of the recommendations for
cost savings I made here was integration if possible, otherwise
better collaboration between these four software teams since
their work was not independent of each other.

The third had information on cost and benefits from two

alternative solutions over a period of 3 years. I asked for the
internal rate of return and based on it, calculated the NPV of the
2 alternatives. One alternative had a very heavy negative cash
flow in the first period, followed by increasing net positive flows
whereas the other had much better net inflows in the first period
but they were decreasing over the three years. The NPV of the
first alternative was better. I gave my recommendations with
reservations such as “recommendation is based on the fact that a
similar trend will continue post 3 years”, etc.

Then I was asked to convince a third person who just entered

the room of the viability of my decision. I used the number of
years it would take to recover the lost profits through the
recommended channel vs. the other channel as one of the ways
to convince him.
What do you think went The case went pretty well since I had prepared more
right in this interview? complicated/difficult cases for my other consult shortlists.
In the first interview, I mentioned something about poems in my
What do you think went
“tell me about yourself” answer. He asked me to recite a poem,
wrong in this interview?
and I wasn’t prepared for that.
Any tips for future
Be confident and very interactive during the interview. Don’t
batches on the basis of
hesitate in asking for details not given in the case.
your experience

Interview Experience 32
Name: Pranay Vimal
Company: Deloitte S&O
No. of Rounds: 3
B.E. (IT), BIT Mesra, ZS Associates (17 months), Accenture (12
Brief Profile:
months).
Tell me something about yourself that is not on your CV but still
Interview questions (With connects you to your CV - Explained to them the reason behind
indicative answers if you why I chose Engineering and then my job profiles and how it
choose to share them) shaped my personality.
Why are my engineering grades low?
HR Questions: Basic questions around CV and background.
From there the interviewer jumped to my hobbies - got hooked
on to cooking. Asked me a few questions about my cooking
Narration of the case
preferences and gave a guesstimate on the market size of
interview (Please be as
Chicken in India. Simple one - key metrics to sub divide the
descriptive as possible)
problem - Population - % Vegetarians - Income - Household
Size - Frequency, by this time interviewer said I am satisfied with
your thought process, please go for the next round.
 Case: Production inefficiency of a company. Revenues going
down. Reasons? Gave me 4 options to choose from. I chose
correct. Production Efficiency. Tried to make me buzz as much
as possible from the answer but I had my logic behind it because
customers and revenue per customer both were increasing for
my client. The only reason that I could see was production
inefficiency, so I did not. Some more qualitative questions. What
should your client do? Answer - Either change the technology
used for production or repair it. Again correct. Some data based
questions after that. I did all kind of calculations to show the
profits through both the methods. The interviewer asked me to
find out the Net Present Value, which I could not. I told him
that I do not know how to calculate it.
Partner Round: Where have seen the case before? My team tells
me that you know the case and that your answers are quite
familiar to our solution. I told him that I solved the case just now
and have never seen the case. Having worked in similar
situations, case solving comes naturally to me. He asked me if I
was that kind of a person who does not change his view. I told
him that I am a rational person, I don't buzz only in situations
when I have done my research completely and I am logically
satisfied with my solution.

Second Question- If you don't get into Consulting at all, what

will you do. I told him that I am interested in E-Commerce
companies and will look at the options at my hand before
reaching to any conclusion. After that, it was all about his and my
consulting experiences. We talked for around 10 minutes more.
Comparisons between ZS and Deloitte and how I find them
similar and at the same time quite different organizations.
I had a conversation with all my interviewers and was not trying
to just answer their questions. Always calm even when the
What do you think went
interviewer was trying to make me buzz from my answer. Had
right in this interview?
logic behind everything that I said. Did not utter anything
without a reason behind it.

What do you think went

I could have solved the end part of the case better.
wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future Be calm and talk to the interviewer rather than just answering
batches on the basis of his/her answers. Always have a smile on your face. They would
your experience like to know if you want Consulting as first preference or not.

Interview Experience 33
Name: Sneha Khurana
Company: Deloitte S&O
No. of Rounds: 3
 Dual Degree (Economics and Electronics & Instrumentation)
from BITS Pilani, Goa
Brief Profile: Worked for an year in LatentView Analytics as Business Analyst
and 1.5 years in Thorogood Associates as Business Intelligence
Consultant
1st Round:
Tell me about yourself
Something you are passionate about - I spoke about travel
What did I learn from travelling
Guesstimate to estimate the revenue of Makemytrip in an year
Interview questions (With
Partner Round:
indicative answers if you
What I learnt during my work experience?
choose to share them)
Why does everyone mention leadership when they talk about
work?
Why Deloitte?
If you could ask one question to me (partner) what would you
ask?
The rest was discussion on my feedback from previous rounds
1st Round - The interviewer was a senior manager who asked
me about my background. I mentioned that I want to travel to 30
countries before I am 30 and he asked me to list the countries I
have been to and what I learnt. He then asked me why not travel
to 30 states in India and then asked about a few destinations in
India and what I knew about them. He asked me what was the
feedback from people who had already been interviewed.
He then gave me a guesstimate on the Revenue of Make my Trip
in an year. I first listed all the possible revenue streams of Make
my trip. I had missed out on the revenue from tour packages and
he pointed that out. After that he asked me to just calculate the
revenue from flight tickets.

Round 2:
The Case was on a Hospital in the US whose profits were
declining and the economy was also in recession. After I drew
Narration of the case
the revenue and cost streams they told me that the profitability
interview (Please be as
was low because they were not processing the insurance claims
descriptive as possible)
fast enough and the cost of processing them was high. They gave
me data on 4 processing centers with the revenue, cost,
processing amount of each center. I had to identify the problem
processing centers. They then gave me two options of either -
outsourcing the operations or doing performance improvement
with the cost associated with each and asked me what option
they should go for. They then said the hospital had decided to go
forward with buying a processing agency and with 4 options and
asked me to select which one (based on revenue, cost and
collection %ages). They also gave the P/E and EV/EBITDA
value of recent similar transactions and calculate the price, which
the hospital would need to pay. I was finally asked to give my
recommendation of buy/not. I recommended not buy because
the price of the processing center was more than 60% of revenue
of the hospital because and there was a recession in the
economy. I also mentioned that if I knew the current financial
 position of the hospital and the cost of debt I would be able to
make a better recommendation.
I was pretty relaxed during all the rounds and was not flustered
when they tried to confuse me during the case.
I had prepared questions for Deloitte (mostly based on my
What do you think went interest in Sustainable Supply Chain) and asked one during the
right in this interview? first round and partner round. The interviewers spent quite some
time answering those questions and in the first round he was
happy that I had gone through their practices and projects in
detail.
What do you think went I could have structure my case better and have done the
wrong in this interview? calculations faster.
Any tips for future
batches on the basis of -
your experience

EY
Interview Experience 34
Name: Ankur Kedia
Company: EY (PI)
No. of Rounds: 1
IIT Roorkee, Metallurgical & Materials Eng., 34 months of
Brief Profile:
work-experience at ZS Associates and a startup Voziq
Interview questions
Round1: PI
(With indicative
All questions were based on my CV. Asked me in detail
answers if you choose
about each and every projects I have done.
to share them)
Since my work-experience at ZS was related to consulting in
pharmaceutical domain, the interviewer asked questions on
pharmaceutical market in India and where it is going. Also,
the key players in the market, biosimilars and how attractive
are biosimilars.
Narration of the case
I have also worked on contact center analytics. So, the
interview (Please be as
questions were framed around how to reduce churn in a
descriptive as possible)
telecommunication company of India. What are the key
factors that determine the churn rate in subscription
business model.
Few HR questions on why I switched companies, and why I
want to join EY.
What do you think
went right in this I was able to explain my work-experience very well.
interview?
What do you think
went wrong in this -
interview?
Any tips for future
batches on the basis of Prepare your CV thoroughly
your experience
 KPMG

Interview Experience 35
Name: Ashwini Gupta
Company: KPMG
No. of Rounds: 2
B.TECH(MECHANICAL) from NIT-BHOPAL,
Brief Profile:
58 Months in HPCL as Operations Officer
Two members were present in the interview panel.
1. Tell me about yourself?
Interview questions (With
2. Why MBA after these many years of work-ex?
indicative answers if you
3. What all other IIM calls (Considering my top600 rank in CAT)
choose to share them)
did you have?
-Only L&K; told him about my not so high academic scores
 (10+2 & Grad)
3.a Why your academic scores are low?
-Told him about them being above average but as IIMs compare
relative CGPAs (prevalent now) with the absolute (prevalent
then), they appear below average
4. Describe the job roles that were handled by you in HPCL?
5. Questions about one of my job -projects. How you were able
to save 80 Lakhs. What role did you play in it?
-In-depth knowledge about the project from developing the
blueprint till the execution and end-results.
5a. how were you able to quantify the savings?
6. You like solving puzzles. Then answer this puzzle.
Gave a puzzle.
7. Gave a scenario pertaining to my work-project and asked me
to enumerate at least five factors affecting it.
-was able to give a total of 7 factors with 3 as sub-heads under 1
head; could quantify the effects of each of these factors on the
overall scenario by relating the corresponding sub-projects to
substantiate the claim( e.g. factor 5 can have a max.10 % effect
on overall o/p which is evident from my project x with PCRA
where I got it as 10%)
8.What are your subjects of interest?
9. What methods do you employ to keep off the pressure in
highly demanding situations?
-told what I do in the short-run and in the long-run(related it to
what I used to do during my work-ex)

In the end, they asked me if I have any questions to ask. I asked

two questions one pertaining to KPMG's zero presence in fields
relating to conformance to specialized statutory standards (OISD
in my case), and another pertaining to third-party audits and
inspections which are increasing exponentially in government
sponsored energy sector enterprises.
In the first round we were asked to carry a write-up with
ourselves but since I was pulled out directly from Snapdeal's
Narration of the case
process, I could only get 2 minutes to write it just outside the
interview (Please be as
interview room.
descriptive as possible)
The round two was more like a formality in the form of
interaction with one of their partners
Substantiating every answer by relating it to an experience/event
of my life-This way you are efficiently covering your whole CV in
What do you think went the interview and also making sure that the interviewer have also
right in this interview? thoroughly gone through it. Being thorough and precise about
each and every thing mentioned in the CV. Quantifying all my
CV points.
The write-up that were supposed to be carried along with me.
What do you think went
Though, it seemed it had a very small weightage as compared to
wrong in this interview?
the interview.
Any tips for future
batches on the basis of -
your experience
Interview Experience 36
Name: Samrdhi Ramawat
Company: KPMG
No. of Rounds: 2
College graduation- B.Tech from JIET jodhpur in electronics
Brief Profile: and communication engineering
Work ex- 0 years
What is your passion? How is it positive?
Where are you from?
Tell us about your family. Are you a role model for your younger
brother?
How is your experience at IIML? which subject you like the
Interview questions (With most?
indicative answers if you Are you comfortable with finance?
choose to share them) Imagine you have a matchbox factory, tell us 5 methods in which
you can add more value to its supply chain.
About what you are very passionate? if you are asked to
encourage your juniors to pursue that as hobby then what you
will say?
Do you have any constraints related to travelling?
Narration of the case There were two rounds
interview (Please be as first was HR + functional and the second was partner round in
descriptive as possible) which the senior partner interviewed about my interests
I think my self-confidence and the way I talked that worked in
favor of me.
What do you think went
They wanted to check my interest in the field and how much
right in this interview?
passion i have for my interests. Just be honest and engage them
in the conversation. That's the key to success.
What do you think went I could have done better if I had read more about FRA. A
wrong in this interview? proper interest in one particular area should be there.
Any tips for future Know about the company, the role they are offering. Be clear
batches on the basis of with what they are offering and how you fit in that role. Have
your experience confidence and be clear with your answers.
McKinsey & Co.
Interview Experience 37
Name: Amlan Lenka
Company: McKinsey & Co.
No. of Rounds: 3
Graduation- BE hons CIVIL, BITS Pilani- 2013
Work ex- 23 months.
Business Analyst for DELL Financial Services (Marketing
Brief Profile:
Analytics)-17 months
Assistant Manager- Citibank Global Decision Management
(Campaign Management)-6 months
Round 1 - Junior Partner
It had a basic HR (personal) and 1 Case and 1 Guesstimate
Case- I am a cellphone carrier company (Airtel/Vodafone) and
my revenues are falling.
Guesstimate- Number of Chemical Engineering graduates in the
country.
Round 2 was with a Senior Partner and hence was more of a
Interview questions (With
conversation.
indicative answers if you
Case- I am a white goods manufacturing firm and my growth is
choose to share them)
stagnant (Possible maturity of the industry). Should I venture
into manufacturing smaller electrical equipment. Pros and Cons.
Round 3 Partner
It was an extensive case on online grocery delivery business
(Grofers)
Case- I am a private equity firm. Should I invest in something
like a Grofers. Why? Why not?
Round 1- Lot of numbers and the idea was to check the thinking
capability. I had done a case on the value chain of cell phone
carriers and so that helped.
Guesstimate was also a bit confusing and had lost my calm for a
Narration of the case
minute or two.
interview (Please be as
Round 2- Amazing conversation with the Director. He seemed a
descriptive as possible)
little tired at first but we managed to have a pretty decent chat
over a lot of things including the origin of my name.
Round 3- Extensive number crunching and idea generation.
Heavy case which included a guesstimate for market sizing.
-Maintained my composure at all times
What do you think went
- Was extremely confident
right in this interview?
- Could strike a chord with each of my interviewers
What do you think went - Could have kept my answers short and crispier which is highly
wrong in this interview? critical.
The firm is here to help you. It is not you against them. If you
Any tips for future
have a shortlist you already are good enough. So take the cues
batches on the basis of
and be confident of your own abilities.
your experience
Pick up a friend or two with whom you can practice cases.
Interview Experience 38
Name: Anuj Singh
Company: McKinsey & Co
No. of Rounds: 2
IIT Roorkee B.Tech (Metallurgical and Materials), 35 Months (8
Brief Profile:
Months in Oracle, 27 Months in ZS Associates)
Round 1: Tell me about yourself, resume base, a guesstimate and
a case to find out why the profitability of a cellular network
Interview questions (With
company is declining.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them)
Round 2: Tell me about yourself, case on how to increase
revenue of Google in India by 10x and a guesstimate.
Round 1: Interviewer asked to introduce myself followed by few
questions about my work at Oracle (he knew about the product I
worked on very well). Then he gave a case to determine reason
for decline in profit of a cellular network company. Interviewer
was in a sort of hurry and kept on pushing me to do it fast. He
kept giving me clues, which helped me move forward and solve
the case. This was followed by a guesstimate, which he asked me
Narration of the case
to solve in 2 minutes. I was able to do it but missed a factor
interview (Please be as
towards the last step. Finally he asked me whether I have some
descriptive as possible)
questions for him.

Round 2: Started with "tell me about yourself". The interviewer

used to work previously in Google so asked me a case about how
can Google increase its revenue in India by 10x. He kept on
asking me to give more and more ideas. He then asked me to
synthesize the case. This was followed by a small guesstimate.
What do you think went
-
right in this interview?
In the second round, I felt that I was too involved in solving it
What do you think went rather than making it an interactive exercise.
wrong in this interview? I also got a little nervous during my first round, which the
interviewer was able to sense.
Any tips for future Keep the process interactive.
batches on the basis of Be thorough with everything on your resume.
your experience Practice case and guesstimates with time limits.

Interview Experience 39
Name: Anuja Rege
Company: McKinsey & Co.
No. of Rounds: 2
 B.Com from HR College, Mumbai; Chartered Accountant.
Brief Profile: Work-ex at EY in assurance services of 21mths+ 3 years of
articleship

1 round was with a partner and 1 with a director. Both involved

1 case each with some HR questions.

Round 1- The partner started with some HR questions. Tell me

about your work-ex, some of your qualities, narration of one
incident about one of my qualities, etc. Thereafter we proceeded
Interview questions (With to solve a case. The case was a market entry one. Before ending
indicative answers if you the interview, he asked me whether there was anything I'd like to
choose to share them) ask them.

Round 2- It started with a case with basic HR questions like tell

me about yourself, why McKinsey etc. To ease the talks, he
started with how has the day been, asked me how many
interviews I have given so far. The case was based on supply
chain management.

Round 1- This round lasted for about 30mins. The initial HR

was to assess how I fit into the profile of a consultant. He
remarked that intense interaction with various clients that I had
during my work-ex was a quality, which fit into the life of a
consultant. Thereafter the case was one, which I could not
complete in the given time. An electronic goods company was
not growing since the past few quarters and they wanted to get
into white goods sector, which had seen considerable growth in
Narration of the case
recent times. We discussed why there is a need to diversify, why
interview (Please be as
growth had halted. The case involved him being the CEO and
descriptive as possible)
me as the consultant. So only precise and relevant questions had
to be asked as he had given time constraints.

Round 2- This round lasted for around 20 minutes. I was able to

solve the case pretty quickly. It was a moderately difficult case
with a slight catch. It involved a Japanese chemicals company
wanting to enter India. The HR questions were quite easy to
tackle.

In the round 1, I exhibited confidence even when I understood

that the case was getting nowhere. A thorough revision of the
variety of cases that I had solved in the month of preparation
What do you think went
helped me tackle the crux of the case in Round 2.
right in this interview?
In the HR questions, I answered all of the questions honestly and
took a moment to pause & think when I could not think of an
answer - not being too prompt without having thought through.
In round 2, while laying out options for supplying the product, I
assumed that the product was B2C. The interviewer pointed out
What do you think went
my mistake, which I then readily accepted and amended my
wrong in this interview?
solution. It is vital to not make any assumptions, no matter how
trivial.
 Confidence is the key. Solving a variety of cases is important.
Any tips for future Quantity of cases solved does not matter if each additional case
batches on the basis of you solve does not teach you something new. It's crucial to not
your experience make assumptions and if you need to make any, you should
clarify the same with the interviewer beforehand.

Interview Experience 40
Name: Mugdhaa
Company: McKinsey & Co.
No. of Rounds: 2
B.Pharm. (Hons.) from BITS Pilani, Pilani
Brief Profile: 11 months at Goldman Sachs as an Analyst (Regulatory
Operations)

Tell me something about yourself. (Round 1)

Interview questions (With
Tell me something about yourself in 30 sec (Round 2)
indicative answers if you
Why Pharmacy? Was it your choice or your parents?
choose to share them)
Do you have any questions for me?

Round 1:
Interviewer: Self Intro
Me: A few questions along the way out of curiosity.
Interviewer: Tell me something about yourself.
Me: Answers
Interviewer: Now let's do a case. Asked me my preference
amongst three sectors he'd given. I chose Pharma.
A simple market entry case in which the company had to enter
the market. I had to suggest what exactly should the company
aim at while entering the market to get maximum revenue.
Forgot the main thing. After a few hints, caught it and then
admitted that that should've been the first thing coming to my
mind.
Narration of the case
Round 2:
interview (Please be as
Interviewer: Be crisp, be concise and to the point.
descriptive as possible)
Me: Okay
Interviewer: made me do a guesstimate
Me: Taking time with calculations
Interviewer: Tried to show that he didn't care about it, wanted
answers quickly. Kept asking me questions in the middle to
throw me off while trying to solve the guesstimate.

Next we went to a case: Normal profitability case. Almost had

the answer. He said chuck it. You are almost there. Never
finished. Post that was asked multiple times if I had any
questions for him.

I asked him to introduce himself. Was a short conversation but I

ensured it was still two sided and not just him speaking.
 I communicated well. Accepted that I had forgotten something.
Stayed calm. Tackled it as if it were a conversation rather than an
interview. Followed first principles even if I wasn't able to come
What do you think went up with a structure.
right in this interview? Was confident of whatever assumptions I took during the
interview because I had a logical backing to it.
Gauged that the interviewer in Round 2 didn't want me to use a
paper and wanted me to verbally solve the case.

What do you think went Could've worked a bit better on my guesstimate numbers.
wrong in this interview? Formed a better structure to my case.

The tell me about yourself should be about you and not

everything from your CV. Add that one thing you are passionate
about and in your conversation it should show, maybe through
an instance or an experience.
Any tips for future
Be calm, consider it to be any friend talking to you, it helps.
batches on the basis of
Admitting that you've made a mistake might just work in your
your experience
favour. Do not get worked up because of that.

Try maintaining eye contact with the interviewer(Obviously not

to an extent that it feels like you're staring). Shows that you are
confident.

Interview Experience 41
Name: Sanchit Jain
Company: McKinsey & Company
Round 2 Rounds
Brief Profile : B-Tech, Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi (2009-13)
20 months work experience at Samsung Research Bangalore
Round 1: The interviewer first introducted himself, his practice
areas and work. Then my part started with the standard question
‘tell me about yourself’ which led to more discussions around my
job, interns and PoRs. There were situation based HR questions
as well which went to the secon level detailing atleast. Next we
did a short case on a cement manufacturer which had increasing
costs and a small analytical problem on the same. Finally the
interview ended with me asking some questions about consulting
Interview questions (With in general and McKinsey in particular.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Round 2: The partner met me in the waiting room only and we
chatted on the way to the interview room (which was my section
classroom only). He was also doing a case in Jaipur only (my
hometown), so we talked about, my family, and background.
There were some questions from my CV and then we talked at
length about our recent Europe trips. The case was purely idea
generation for a tourist company entering Jaipur and establishing
an exciting and profitable business. After the case, the
interviewer asked me why I saw McKinsey as a fit. I gave my
 reasons and the conversation culminated with me asking more
questions on the same lines to the partner.

Round 1 Case: A cement manufacturer is facing increasing

costs. After understanding about the company and industry and
doing a value chain approach, we zeroed in on transportation
costs. The mines were located close to the plant so inbound
logistics was not a problem. In outbound logistics, the company
was dependendent on rail (60%) and road (40%). Then I
focussed on road transportation costs and identified the various
levers that can affect these. I divided them into different buckets
and here important points were fuel and backhaul costs (return
journey). The numerical problem was around breakup of some
Narration of the case of these costs for the company and impact of increasing fuel
interview (Please be as prices (the interviewer wanted me to do the exact calculations to
descriptive as possible) the second decimal point and we saw the difference
approximation caused to the final cost figure.)

Round 2 Case: A tourist company was looking to setup

something exciting and profitable in Jaipur. After understanding
the problem statement and requirements, I started with deciding
what to setup. Based on the different attractions I had seen or
heard about, I classified them into categories and tailored them
to Jaipur/ Rajasthan/ Indian context. The partner was impressed
with the idea of a light and sound show (on the lines of Songs of
the Sea, Sentosa, Singapore) on villages and rural India. Next we
talked about concept research, target audience and feasibility.
I was confident and well prepared with my HR answers. My case
What do you think went
solutions reflected some structure and creativity. Throughout my
right in this interview?
interview and resume, travel was reflected and I played that card
well in my second case.
What do you think went My case in the first interview didn’t go that well as I
wrong in this interview? approximated the numbers. But then I course corrected and
quickly did the calculations.
Case preparation is important but keeping an open and creative
Any tips for future thought process is vital. Give a lot of time and thought to HR
batches on the basis of questions and preparing about yourself. The answers should not
your experience be memorised and they should be something that you totally
believe in. Have some good questions prepared for the
interviewer.

Interview Experience 42
Name: Swarnima Gupta
Company: McKinsey & Co.
No. of Rounds: 3
Brief Profile: SRCC, B.A.(Hons). Economics; Fresher
 First Round:
*Tell me about yourself
*One situation when you convinced a group of people : what
approach did you use ? An alternate approach that can work
*Brief discussion on a social entrepreneurship venture that I had
worked on in the past
*Case: how will you reduce the travel cost of the Government of
India:

Second Round- video conference

Interview questions (With *Brief Introduction
indicative answers if you *Case 1: Infosys is growing at below industry average growth
choose to share them) rates. How do you increase growth?
* Case 2: How to reduce logistics cost of E-commerce businesses
like Amazon

Third Round:
*Case : Client is the Govt. of U.P. : work on restructuring the
power distribution system, currently running in losses, has huge
debt -how to make it profitable?
i) Given figures for different costs: Make a P&L
ii) Identify sources of losses
iii) Suggest measures to mitigate the losses and tackle the debt

Narration of the case

interview (Please be as Same as Above
descriptive as possible)

*Maintained composure
What do you think went
*Asked clarifying questions wherever needed
right in this interview?
* structured thinking in case solving

What do you think went

* Solutions of the second round cases lacked detail
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future
*Be very logical throughout
batches on the basis of
*Confidence and maintaining composure is essential
your experience

Interview Experience 43
Name: Utsav Kumar
Company: McKinsey & Co.
No. of Rounds: 2

Dual degree (Economics + Electronics) from BITS Pilani

Brief Profile:
Work experience - Bain Capability Center (11 months)
 1. Work experience related to kind of cases I had worked on
Interview questions (With 2. How would I expect work at McKinsey to be different - what
indicative answers if you different skill sets would I require etc
choose to share them) 3. Discussion on ecommerce industry
4. Small case on the ecommerce Industry

Round 1
The initial discussion was around my work at BCC and the kind
of cases I had worked upon. The interviewer asked me for the
kinds of skills that I had to work with and then asked me to
compare if I expected the work at McKinsey to be any different.
This resulted into a discussion about the client interfacing aspect
which I pointed out would be the stand out difference.
I had also mentioned that I liked McKinsey's focus area of
'Going digital'. So the discussion turned into a case midway as he
asked me for my views on the business model being followed
currently based on heavy discounts offered to capture audiences.
Then he asked me whether the app only model being followed
Narration of the case by some companies is viable or not. This finally turned into a
interview (Please be as small case where an ecommerce company's financial numbers
descriptive as possible) across segments was given and I was asked to calculate which
segments were profitable. Finally I was asked for suggestions to
lower the inventory cost and logistics cost of an ecommerce
company.

Round 2 - Purely HR based

Right out of the box I was asked for reasons why I should be
selected. He pointed out that I was involved in Credence so
would be inclined towards Finance also. I gave my points why I
preferred consulting to Finance and also why I thought Credence
was an important learning experience for me. He then asked me
for my views on ICSE v/s CBSE and which board did I think
was a better option.

The questions in both interviews were very different and

probably not something that I had ready answers for. Hence I
made sure that my answers were logical and most importantly
What do you think went
short and succinct.
right in this interview?
Also in my first interview I was very sure about the workings of
the ecommerce industry. This helped me give very solid answers
especially on the utility of app only model.

I did not realize when my interview turned into a case so I had to

What do you think went
ask clarification questions later on. Had I realized it sooner, I
wrong in this interview?
could have tried to bring them up slightly less abruptly
 Ensure that you know about your work experience especially if it
Any tips for future
is in a highly relevant domain. Also don't neglect reading up on
batches on the basis of
businesses or sectors that you would normally follow. For all that
your experience
you know, your entire interview can be based on it.

Interview Experience 44
Name: Vineet Rawat
Company: McKinsey & Co.
No. of Rounds: 3
IIT BHU Varanasi
Brief Profile:
Work Ex- 0
Having Flipkart on my CV the question was framed on
increasing Logistics cost of Flipkart over years.
Solution:
1. New Products: Furniture, Durable goods incurring more cost
2. Greater Coverage
3. Return Policy
4. Larger Customer Base
Interview questions (With 5. More complaints regarding products so double trip
indicative answers if you 6. Fake Orders
choose to share them) 2. Electricity Distribution Loss
Problems: Bad Debts: Write off policy, collection systems,
penalties levied
2. Transition Loss: Wiring Material, Maintenance, Distance, Step
Up and Step Down variations
3. HR Based + Small Case
3. Theft
4. Govt. Distribution Base
1. Mostly about college life.
2. Leadership instances.
Narration of the case 3. Why Consulting at this age?
interview (Please be as 4. How do you pursue your hobbies.
descriptive as possible) 5. Why Placement Committee when already did this sought of
work in under graduation college
6. Instance: On the feet thinking
1. Structured Approach in all three cases
2. Confidence
3. Be yourself
What do you think went
4. Interaction was the key
right in this interview?
5. Thinking aloud
6. Numbers: Was able to deal with big numbers in Second case1.
Composure
What do you think went
1. Composure
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future
Structures should be intuitive not bookish. Create your own way
batches on the basis of
of solving the case.
your experience
 PWC

Interview Experience 45
Name: Gowtham Maddirala
Company: PWC
No. of Rounds: 1
B-Tech 2010 IIT Madras
Civil Engineering
Brief Profile:
30 months in Mold Tek Technologies Hyd
22 months in I&CAD Andhra Pradesh

1) Tell me about yourself

2) What would you do if there are two high priority works which
are to be submitted simultaneously? - related to team work - you
should say that you would take the help of other employees
3) What have you done in the Irrigation department
4) If there is a railway track to be built what all factors would you
take into account to choose between two villages through which
the track has to pass? - Can answer using PESTLE
5) The same above question if you are profit centric, social
Interview questions (With welfare oriented, if you have to take politics into account
indicative answers if you 6) How would you tackle if your colleague or your immediate
choose to share them) superior is corrupt and unethical? - Maybe this is the turning
point of my interview as I gave examples in my own life,
Volkswagen case where there was a communication gap, satyam
case where the auditors were PWC. Tried to explain that if we
don't tackle these practices immediately it might lead to a huge
organizational failure
7) What do you know about GRID?
8) Tell me about feasibility analysis you have done before
9) Have you done any Technical feasibility analysis?
10) About grades

GRID means Government Reforms and Infrastructure

Development

Interview questions are both technical and HR related. Interview

Narration of the case
went on for one hour. Interview taken by 1 HR (female) and a
interview (Please be as
technical person (male)
descriptive as possible)
HR woman enters and takes the interview for 20 minutes and
leaves. The other guy started asking HR questions and then
slowly moved into technical questions with some HR questions
in between. You will be asked GRID related questions.

My experience was what helped me in the interview. They

already selected some people which made my interview even
more difficult. I have an experience in Irrigation department and
I know everything about the problems of government projects,
technical feasibility etc. For example in the interview, I told them
What do you think went that one of the factors for determining the site for the
right in this interview? construction of a retaining wall would be consulting the villagers
and asking their opinion. Even though it doesn't matter it would
gain the confidence of the villagers and they will in fact would
help us instead of being a hindrance like in Narmada project. He
was very impressed by this and I think this prior experience
helped me a bit.
 I could have been more practical and crisp while talking. I could
What do you think went
have answered the questions without going into too much
wrong in this interview?
details.

Be practical. Know about the company. Show huge enthusiasm

Any tips for future in a calm manner rather than showing desperation. You would
batches on the basis of have to tell lot of examples and be unique. They have to
your experience remember you through your examples. Show confidence and
don't show desperation.

Interview Experience 46
Name: Shashwat Sharma
Company: PWC
No. of Rounds: 2
B.Tech from IIT Mandi in Mechanical
Brief Profile:
10 months work-ex as network and security consultant

Interview questions (With 1st interview was straightforward HR questions, why join this
indicative answers if you company, what do you understand by consulting.
choose to share them) 10 minute interview, 5-6 questions. Others were grilled more.

Was not asked detailed case, they just asked me what factors to
Narration of the case consider when in building a power plant. Went through all the
interview (Please be as possible angles, the interviewer seemed fine with it.
descriptive as possible) Hardly a 10 minute interview, no grilling.
Interviewer asked a little more about family, nothing much.

I could think about different angles in the question about power

What do you think went
plant. Rest I was direct and crisp with answers, which I guess
right in this interview?
they liked (they can see-through globing i guess).

What do you think went I could've been a little more thorough with the HR answers, it
wrong in this interview? would've made a stronger case for me.

Any tips for future Just relax before the interview, be thorough with HR answers,
batches on the basis of have a little knowledge of the industry of your graduation stream.
your experience Nothing more.
 Summer Internship
Experiences 2014
Accenture Management
Consulting
Interview Experience 1
Name: Arushi Agarwal
Company: Accenture Strategy
Name of interviewer and R3- Jayesh Pandey, Partner
designation R1, R2- Don’t remember
Round (First/Second/third) All
Brief Profile : IIT Delhi, B. Tech (Textile Technology)
(Graduation College, stream, 1 year experience at KPMG in Shared Services and Outsourcing
Work ex details, etc.) Advisory (Strategy Consulting)

Interview questions (With Round 1: General HR, followed by Case involving numbers.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Round 2: Pure HR

Round 3: General HR, followed by an abstract case

Narration of the case Round 1: Interview started with ‘Tell me about yourself’. It went
interview (Please be as straightway to a case from the FMCG sector. Problem was about
descriptive as possible) the falling market share of an FMCG company. Interviewer was
looking for a structure to the problem and the various factors that I
can come up specific to the FMCG sector. He gave me some
numbers, which had to be traced backwards to get the company’s
profits. A little tricky but doable. The company’s profit margin had
to be compared to the industry average and some knowledge of
various ratios of this industry, helped me give valuable insights.

Round 2: This was taken by the company HR. The various

questions asked were- How was my last interview? What could I
have done better? Why Consulting? Why not go into my field of
engineering? Why did I leave KPMG? What can I do to motivate a
team? Who has a greater influence in my life- school or parents.
Why? Why Accenture? Any questions you would like to ask?
 Round 3: It was taken by someone in senior position. It started
with tell me about yourself? Revolved around the work I did at
KPMG and why I left it? My biggest learning out of my job? Then
he moved on the case. The case was about a magician who was
controlling the supply of food that was eventually going in the well.
I had to determine the speed of conveyer belt, that would help in
transfering the food. He asked me to list the questions I would like
to ask him. He had made a confusing diagram. I didn’t not get into
the mathematics, and asked basic questions about the motive of the
magician. Why is the food going inside the well etc. I also listed
down the questions related to mathematics on a piece of paper.

What do you think went My approach to the case in the last round. Rather than solving the
right in this interview? problem, I stressed more on what was the problem and what
exactly was happening.
I had also prepared my HR answers well in advance, which helped
me on the final day.
I was confident throughout all the rounds

What do you think went In Round-1, I was in a hurry to do the numbers, which led to some
wrong in this interview? error. I realised it early and immediately corrected it.

Any tips for future batches Prepare HR answers well in advance.

on the basis of your Prepare “Do you have any question for me?”
experience
 Interview Experience 2
Name: Himani Anand
Company: Accenture Strategy
Name of interviewer and Round 1- HR, Round 2 – Head, AsiaPac, Round 3- Partner
designation
Round (First/Second/third) Three rounds

Brief Profile:
(Graduation College, stream, B.Com(Honours), SRCC, Fresher
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Round 1 was the HR Interview with questions covering
indicative answers if you the following-
choose to share them) Tell me about yourself
Why Consulting?
What have you done in IIM Lucknow all this while?
Favourite subjects- Questions covering accounts, ratios,
interpretation of financial statements

Round 2: The round with Asia Pac head started with him asking
me which horizontal or Vertical I see myself in. On mentioning
Finance, the whole interview revolved around Financial
Management and Investment concepts besides basic FRA.
Questions on Capital Asset Pricing model
Other models to measure risk (Harry Markovitz model)
Which one is better?
NPV vs IRR
My stand on US- Syria war, Hong Kong protests
Why consulting
How has the journey been so far in IIM Lucknow?

Round 3: The partner wanted to testify the claims made by the

second round interviewer about my inclination towards Finance.
He gave me situations and asked me what impact each event or
transaction will have on Profit and loss statement, Balance sheet
and Cash flow statement.
Questions about companies preferring lower profit or higher profit
( Shareholder confidence vs tax evasion)
Questions on Income tax provisions, indirect tax provisions
What do you think went Clarity of thought in talking about my area of interest
right in this interview? Structure, coherence in HR Answers

Any tips for future batches Know your CV really well

on the basis of your Maintain your calm, it shows.
experience Enjoy the process

Interview Experience 3
Name: Karthick Nivas
Company: Accenture Strategy
Name of interviewer and NA
designation
Round (First/Second/third) First - HR
Second – Case
Brief Profile : IIT Kanpur
(Graduation College, stream, Civil Engineering (B.Tech.)
Work ex details, etc.) Work Ex 22 months (Flipkart, Aspect Ratio)
Interview questions (With Round 1: HR interview only
indicative answers if you Tell me about yourself.
choose to share them) Why consulting
Questions on my CV - Long discussion on
projects that I did at Flipkart
No cases
Some discussion on the “Digital” focus area of Accenture.
I asked the interviewer about his experience at operations projects
at the company. (Operations was his area of specialization)
Round 2: Case only
Narration of the case A marketing strategy case. Client is a perfume seller in Jaipur. The
interview (Please be as perfumes he sells are not to be found anywhere else in the world.
descriptive as possible) The product has not been tried by people elsewhere apart from the
city. Tourists to the city have been intrigued by its flowery smell
and usually buy some to take back home. How to go about
increasing the business? 8
The case was very interactive. The interviewer expected me to
frame a structure and ask the right questions. There was a lengthy
discussion at the end about pricing and the right marketing
campaign to be chosen.
What do you think went I was able to hold onto my point albeit minor modifications in light
right in this interview? of continuous questions and interruptions by the interviewer. Some
of my answers were made fun of by the interviewer but he was
generally very cheery. I believe he was trying to test my composure
and I think I did well by sharing with him the logic of my answers.

What do you think went I was unsure about some of my points after being mocked by the
wrong in this interview? interviewer. My lack of knowledge of perfumes was a bit of a
problem.
Any tips for future batches Be cool and logical in your thinking. The interviewer looks for gaps
on the basis of your in your thought process. So, list out any assumptions that you take
experience inadvertently in your mind.

Interview Experience 4
Name: Neha Agarwal
Company: Accenture Strategy
R2- Mr. Jayesh Pandey, Partner at AMC
came for the PPT, and a lady interviewer (probably HR), but did
not talk. Before I left the room, she told me about the various
teams at Accenture and asked me for location preference.

R1-Mr. Akash Kedia, Principle

Round (First/Second/third) 2 Rounds (long interviews, 35-40 mins each)
Brief Profile : BITS-Pilani-2012. MSc. Economics & B.E. Mechanical
(Graduation College, stream, 1 Year internship at Morgan Stanley Capital Intl prior graduation-
Work ex details, etc.) (2011-12)
2 years as Research Analyst at Corporate Executive Board
(consulting/research)
Interview questions (With Round 1: long and conversational, asked one case. Overall
indicative answers if you interview was CV heavy.
choose to share them)
Q1- Tell me something about yourself

(During my introduction, I mentioned that I did M.Sc. Eco in UG,

so he started asking questions on the Indian Economy)

Q2- What do you think about the current macro-economic

condition of our country from business perspective
(Spoke about retrospective tax and transfer pricing, discussed the
Vodafone case, how tax policies impact business sentiments)

Q3- What do you think about the current inflation and exchange
rate of our economy?
(lot of discussion happened, QE tapering also came up)

Q4- After QE tapering and witnessing its effect on Indian

exchange rate, what are some of the most impactful steps taken by
Govt to control the fluctuation in exchange rate?
(mentioned cap on gold imports, meeting the demand for foreign
exchange by using country’s reserves- not sure to what extend it is
correct, but he seemed convinced)

Q5- What are some of the things that can be improved to promote
business?
(mentioned about a client co. (Fortune 500 firm) that was trying to
open a subsidiary in India and the challenges it faced, and some
suggestions on what can be done to promote entrepreneurship in
India)

Q6- Asked me to explain a project I did at workplace on reputation

risk
(discussion was mostly focussed on how I conducted primary
research and came up with the final recommendations)

Q7- Tell me something about the firm you worked at and your
role?

Q8- Asked me about 2 other short term projects from work

mentioned in CV

Q9- Asked a case- Very standard ‘Sales Declining’ Case- My client

is from auto industry, his sales are declining, analyse why? (asked
me to list down all the possible reasons)
 Q10- Tell me about your experience at IIM Lucknow and what
would you like to change? (add courses on entrepreneurship, law
and ethics, and sustainable business practices)

Q11- Have you explored Lucknow, outside your college campus?

If so, one thing you’d like to change or dislike?
Ans: Nothing came to my head, so said: Introduce direct flight
from Lucknow to my hometown, Udaipur. The connecting flight
takes more than 15 hrs! He laughed.

Q12- Tell me one thing that is not there on your CV.

Q13- Why Accenture?

Round 2:
Q1- 1 case- refer next section for its description
Q2-One thing I liked about the Accenture PPT and case
workshop, one thing that I did not like (mentioned that function
info was missing)
Q3- Which team would you like to join- CN or India Business- I
did not know what these teams are, so asked them to explain.
Q4- Is it okay if we send you to a small village like xyz on a client
project?
Q5- What will you do if we do not select you? what other shortlists
you have? (mentioned that this cannot be disclosed as per
Placecom rules)

Narration of the case Case in Round 1-

interview (Please be as 1- One of our client’s sales (Auto Industry) are declining, why?
descriptive as possible)
: Sales= Price * Volume
Looked at all the causes affecting Price and Volume. He did not
answer qualifying questions. Told me to list all the possible external
and internal factors. I wrote everything. Then he discussed it point
by point.

Note- Practice drawing a MECE. Refer to the 3-case file they gave
during PPT. He was not looking for industry knowledge.

Case in Round 2- (went on for 35 minutes, lots of questions and

criteria, interviewer gave me a lot of time to think and structure)

There is a housing society “The wasteful society”, you collect all

the household garbage and sell it to 5 different businesses.
Determine what price you will pay to the society members in
Rs/kg, given you want to make a profit of 20% for a year.

Information given:
The garbage you collect is sold to the following 5 vendors:

a. Compost Manufacturer
b. Plastic Recycler
c. Paper Recycler
 d. Metal Recycler
e. Miscellaneous

The following questions were written on the case sheet:

Q1- How would you price the garbage to make a profit? (what
would be your strategy)

Q2- What information would you need to proceed in the case,

prioritize your questions (i.e. the most important information
should be asked first: you will be evaluated on that)

Q3- Apart from obtaining money from the above 5 vendors, what
are other revenue streams?

Q4- What are some of the other factors you would consider when
you price the society? (Ans: Society maintenance charges)

(did not discuss Q3 and Q4 in detail)

Solution:

Ans1- Assess how much waste I would get on a daily basis,

calculate the cost and revenue streams, factor in profit margin and
calculate the price.

Questions asked:

1- What is the amount of garbage produced by the society/

household and how many households are there?
Interviewer: 4.5 kg/ household, 180 households
2- Are all households producing the same amount of garbage?
Interviewer: 120 households produce 14 kg/day, and the
remaining 60 produce 1 kg/day. Recalculate the average
value if it doesn’t come out to be 4.5kg. Gave me a
calculator to do so.
3- Why do these households produce such a large quantity of
garbage? Also, does this lead of 2nd degree price discrimination?
(i.e. charge households on basis of the amount of garbage
supplied)
Interviewer: Large family size. Yes, we charge these households
differently, we will look into this later.

4- Can I assume if the quantity of garbage produced remains same

each day?
Ans: Yes

5- Apart from households, who else supplies us garbage, e.g. local

kirana stores?
Interviewer: Ignore, we only consider households
6- Who is collecting and disposing waste currently? Do we have
the figures on what price the competitors/current vendors are
charging?
Interviewer: Ignore.

7- What is the segregation of waste? i.e. what proportion of waste

goes to each of the 5 vendors? This will help me determine
revenue.
Inter. Assume 20% to each, he also gave me price/kg obtained
from each of the vendors.

Revenue Streams:
Q1- I obtain: 120*14+ 60*1=1740 kgs of waste everyday from the
society. Is all of it segregated and sold or some quantity is wasted/
non usable.
Interviewer: No waste, all of it is useful. So 1740/5 goes to each of
the vendor.

Revenue: Sum of (Price from each vendor*1740/5)

Other revenue stream:

Q: Since I will be collecting waste for an year, can I charge the

society for an annual contract fees/ society maintenance?
Interviewer: No, ignore that. Think of more ways by which you can
earn money.

Q: Do I get any subsidy or payments from government/ society

maintenance unit for cleaning the place, as it leads to social
benefits?
No

Interviewer: let’s look at cost streams, for now, we can stick to the
revenue obtained from our five vendors.

Cost streams :
a. Transport costs:
Int: elaborate more: what transport costs:
Me: I assume a truck goes to collect the waste, it will go from the
garage to the society, collect the material from there and go to five
vendors to deliver.
Do we have the kms travelled per day? And price charged per km?
Interiewer: some discussion on how to determine the cost. He said,
price/kg is not the right metric, gave me price/km/kg of waste
taken. The cost of transport depends on how much it is loaded and
the distance travelled. Also, we decided to assume that it carries all
the waste of 1740 kgs in different containers throughout the route.

So cost is: 60*1740*x

(he was looking for the right metric, price/kg/km. I only asked
kg/km. Also, he also wanted me to ask him how much weight is
carried at one time, as it goes to 5 different vendors delivering
1740/5 kgs. He wanted me to ask these two questions, even
though we later decided to ignore this in calculation)

2- What are the labour costs involved in segregating the waste for
5 vendors? This is a manual process so would require us labour.
Interviewer: we’ll ask the society people to do so. They’ll
segregate the waste and give us. However think of the costs
associated with this.
Me: We’ll keep 5 separate bins for this. So costs of bins is
required.
q- Do these bins wear out, how many times do I change the 5
bins in one year
(interviewer gave me the costs of the bins)

3- Labour: drivers salary (ignore, that’s included in transport),

labour to pick garbage and unload it at vendors place. Cost
associated: total annual salary
My salary, as I manage this business: to be ignored

4- Do we calculate price based on profit before tax, or should I

factor tax paid?
Inter: ignore tax, calculate EBIT

5- Are there any financial costs? Have I made any investment for
running this business on which I to pay interest?
Ignore this

6- Any other set up cost? Ans: No

7- Finally, the price paid to households as we purchase the garbage

from them.

Interviewer: Proceed to calculations

Revenue: X
Costs: Y (from all the factors) + (Z= cost paid for garbage)
Profit: 0.2 total costs
Total Waste 1740 kg
Using all this data, calculate an appropriate price.

X- (Y+Z)= profit= 0.2 (Y+Z), we know X and Y so calculate Z.

Z is the total price I will pay for 1740 kgs of waste. I started
drawing the graph for 1 kg and 14 kg waste to determine price for
these two bundles (2 degree price discrimination). He looked at the
graphs, but told me to ignore and calculate price by directly
dividing it by 1740.

He told me to summarize everything to the lady interviewer sitting

in the room.

Important: I filled 5 sheets in collecting all the information

 He looked at the sheets to see how I organized all the sections of
the case, like cost stream, revenue stream, list of questions to be
asked etc.

What do you think went 1- Was prepared to answer questions based on CV.
right in this interview? 2- Was able to structure the case verbally and on paper. Both the
interviewers checked that
3- Interview was conversational

What do you think went R2 interviewer seemed a bit intimidating in the PPT and I was
wrong in this interview? praying he doesn’t take my interview. However, when I entered the
room, I saw him and got very nervous. Because of this, I stumbled
a little in the beginning, but as the interview progressed, I was fine.
Any tips for future batches 1- Practice cases on paper, draw MECE and structure each
on the basis of your subpart neatly.
experience 2- Know your CV well, specially work and academic projects.
Prepare HR answers.
3- Take notes during PPT and read about the company: they ask
for it during interview.
4- Try to engage the interviewer, especially during the case. Smile
and be confident.
5- Ask one question to each interviewer at the end of the
interview. This shows your interest in the firm.
 Interview Experience 5
Name: Vishwas Nandan R
Company: AMC
Name of interviewer and Round 1 : One Senior Manager
designation
Round 2 : One Partner, One HR
Round (First/Second/third) 2 Rounds
Brief Profile : NITK Surathkal, Mechanical Engineering, 23 months of work
(Graduation College, stream, experience at Hero Motocorp Ltd.
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you  Most of the questions were related to my work experience
choose to share them) at Hero Motocorp (Supply Chain related)
 Explain ABC analysis? (Classification of parts based on
sales)
 Questions related to Flipkart’s Big billion Day
- What is the motive behind Flipkart’s big billion day?
- Given the negative publicity that flipkart witnessed,
would you as an entrepreneur have such a sale for your
company?
- Estimate the customers that flipkart would have gained
due to the Big billion day

Round 2:
 Tell me about yourself?
 Why Consulting?
 Why Accenture?
 Work ex related questions
 Calculate ROI for your project at Hero Motocorp.
 Which subject did you like the most in first term? Explain
economies of scale? Why does the cost increase after certain
volume? How can that be avoided?
 Repeated questioning on why management? and why
consulting?
 How comfortable would you be in applying your work ex
related learnings in a bank?
Narration of the case Questions were mostly related to Flipkart’s Big Billion Day 1)
interview (Please be as Guesstimate the number of customers flipkart would have gained
descriptive as possible) due to the Big Billion Day sale.
- Calculated it for a smaller area taking IIML as sample
and suggested about extrapolating these numbers to a
city like Lucknow or maybe even India
- Mentioned about the skew in the results if extrapolation
was done with IIML as sample.
- Explained about the error corrections that must be
considered while extrapolating like Computer literacy,
awareness about the sale, internet availability etc.
What do you think went Structured approach to all the answers
right in this interview? Was confident throughout the process and involved the
interviewers hence both the rounds were like a discussion
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches Research on the various divisions of Accenture and the kind of
on the basis of your projects taken up by those divisions
experience Know your CV well
Preparation of HR answers is crucial

Alvarez and Marsal

Interview Experience 6
Name: Nishant Kumar
Company: Alvarez & Marshal
Name of interviewer and
designation
Round (First/Second/third) First round was case study based
A case was handed and each candidate was given 20-25 mins to
solve the case before their 1st round

Second round
With the firm partner
A fin question was asked in addition to 2-3 Hr questions regarding
why interested in finance, why consulting etc.
Brief Profile : BITS Pilani, 3 yrs Marketing and Sales Analytics
(Graduation College, stream,
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1:. The case given to me dealt with 2 skin care companies,
indicative answers if you market leaders in their segment. 2 new market companies had
choose to share them) entered the market eroding off the market share of the established
firms.

Data reading working capital, paid in capital and operating

expenses were given. The case was followed with 3 questions.
1) Discuss the current market situation?
2) What should be the strategy of Skin Care India Pvt. Ltd (
the market player in the mass market segment)
3) If you are a PE which firm would you invest in?

In the first round of the interview these questions were discussed

in detail and various other scenarios were also taken into
consideration

Round 2:
A finance question regading P&L statement of 2 companies were
asked.
 Also basic Hr questions such as interest in finance, why consulting
etc were also asked.

Narration of the case Stated above

interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)

What do you think went Logical conclusion of the case in round 1.

right in this interview? I think I was able to justify my interest in finance which added to
my cause.

A T Kearney
Interview Experience 7
Name: Anupam Bhattacharjee
Company: A T Kearney
Name of interviewer and Round 1: Manish, Partner
designation Round 2: Nithin, Principal
Round 3: Can’t Recall

Brief Profile : BITS-Pilani, B.E. (Hons) Electrical and Electronics, Work Ex-23
(Graduation College, stream, Months, Intel and Broadcom (Wireless Communication)
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Brief introduction followed by a guesstimate.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Round 2: General questions about my work area and interests.
Followed it with a case.

Round 3: Introduction followed by discussions on my work area.

No cases in this round.
Narration of the case Round 1: The problem statement for the guesstimate case was:
interview (Please be as One of the leading automobile players in India has decided to
descriptive as possible) launch an electric vehicle (priced at around Rs.7 lakhs) and wants
to estimate the market size for the same.

Initially started with the traditional top-down approach segregating

the potential customer base into rural and urban households and
then looked to find what fraction of households would be
interested in and can afford the EV. Next we discussed the
potential factors and trade-offs that would be involved in the
decision making process of any customer when he has to choose
 between an EV and a fuel based car. Post that we did some
calculations to estimate the size of each segment.

Round 2: This round started with spending the first half hour
discussing my work, projects and interests. It was largely
conversational. This was followed by a case.

Problem Statement: One of the leading players in the automobile

sector in India currently has its production facilities offshore. It
wants to explore the option of setting up local production facilities
and see if it is economically viable to do so.

The case was mostly quantitative and involved lot of numbers

(fixed and variable expenses, projected sales figures for 5 years) and
required calculating the BEP and YoY profits.

Round 3: HR based round which included CV Review, why

consulting, questions on my areas of interest and long term career
goals.
What do you think went 1) Was calm and relaxed throughout the interview.
right in this interview? 2) Wasn’t hesitant to ask for clarification whenever I got struck
while solving the case.
3) Was able to engage with the interviewers while discussing
my interests, work and projects
What do you think went Missed one or two hints while solving the case where the
wrong in this interview? interviewer had to prod me along in the right direction.

Any tips for future batches

on the basis of your
experience

Interview Experience 8
Name: Prateek Sekhani
Company: A.T. Kearney
Name of interviewer and Akshat, Principal
designation
Round (First/Second/third) Round 2
Brief Profile : St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
(Graduation College, stream, B.Sc. Economics Honours
Work ex details, etc.) Work Ex: Futures First; Proprietary Trader; 6 months
Interview questions (With Round 1: Puzzles like how many moves are needed to get from
indicative answers if you one corner of a chessboard to the other.
choose to share them) Plus HR questions like, why will you choose A.T. Kearney etc

Round 2: Case: Various uses of CNG/LPG, and is it feasible for a

vehicle to convert to LPG.

Round 3: Size of the second hand car market in India

Narration of the case Initially Akshat, principal asked me about a few basic points on my
interview (Please be as CV. Then he said if I had any questions. I asked about what work
descriptive as possible) A.T. Kearney did in the energy sector since that was of interest to
me. Then he gave me a case on the same.
He asked me to enlist various uses of CNG/LPG in/around Delhi.
I bifurcated it into 2 parts: Domestic and Commercial.
Domestic included uses In the house and Outside the house. Inside
the house was essentially stoves plus any appliance if any. Outside
include vehicles, generator, etc.
Commercial comprised of factories (I suggested boilers when asked
to specify where), street lighting, office lighting,
trucks+commercial vehicles etc.

Post that he asked me to assess the viability of converting a car to

LPG. I enlisted monetary + non-monetary factors.
Monetary factors included per km cost of using LPG vs per km
cost of Petrol/Diesel. Then based on average distance, the break
even disctance was calculated.
For noon-monetary, factors like trunk space requirements,
reputational factor, accessibility of LPG stations etc were
considered.
Post that we spoke briefly about the Solar sector in general, with
focus on scope of Solar energy in India. This came up since I had
mentioned that it was an area of interest.
What do you think went The fact that I knew in depth about the energy with solar sector
right in this interview? specifically helped a lot.
Apart from that, idea generation was something that went in my
favour.
What do you think went I could have been more crisp and mutually exclusive while enlisting
wrong in this interview? my points.

Any tips for future batches Whatever little I could gather from my experience was that
on the basis of your Consults thrive on good personality, confidence being a BIG
experience factor. Just be extremely composed, confident and converse well.
You probably may not do exceptionally well in the case but as long
as you come across as a smart fellow, you should be sorted. Having
said that, you won’t be able to sound smart if cases don’t go as
intended, so prep those well. ;)
Auctus Advisors
 Interview Experience 9
Name: Deepali Jaiswal
Company: Auctus Advisors
Name of interviewer and Akshat Jalan, Business Analyst (Round 1)
designation Abhishek Mukherjee, Senior Manager (Round 2)
Saurabh Singhal, Associate Director (Round 3)
Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds in all

Brief Profile : B.Tech. Civil Engg, IIT Bombay, Work ex – 23 months at eGain
(Graduation College, stream, Communications (Product Engineer)
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: HR: started with tell me about yourself, asked about my
indicative answers if you PORs at IIT, discussion about my work ex.
choose to share them) Other questions: When in a group – are you the silent one or the
one who speaks the most, Asked to narrate a good story based on
my POR. Why consult? Why Auctus?

Round 2: Case + HR round

Case: 2 cases – 1st quantitative, 2nd qualitative.
HR: Why consult? Why Auctus? How is Auctus different from
other consulting firms?

Round 3: Case + HR round

Case based on organisational structure.
Discussion upon various topics – hometown, family. Other
questions – Do you like travelling? Which all places have you been
to? Why Auctus?
Narration of the case Round 2:
interview (Please be as Quantitative Case:
descriptive as possible) Problem Statement: Company A manufactures beer bottles and has
only 1 customer B. A sells 50 lakhs bottles per annum. B might
raise the demand to 1 crore “after a month” in case IPL takes place
this year. A has to decide “today” if it has to go for production of 1
crore bottles.
Options for increased production are: (i) Produce as much as A can
and get remaining from 3rd party. (ii) Buy a new machine which
could produce 1 crore bottles. There is a probability that the new
machine might be defective.

Approach:

I started the case by stating (drawing tree) that there are 2

possibilities i) go for increased production ii) not go for increased
production.
In case (i) there are 2 possibilities a) purchase the new machine b)
get from 3rd party.
In case (i)(a) again there are 2 possibilities (1) machine is defective
(2) it is not

Followed by stating: to deduce the most appropriate option we

need to calculate expected value of profit for each case for which I
asked following questions:
 Current capacity of production (75 lakhs), probability of
occurrence of event (IPL), current cost, cost of buying new
machine, probability of it being defective and consequences, cost
of getting from 3rd party, profit per bottle. (Asked other questions
as and when required).

Then computed expected value of profit for each of the 3 possible

options and suggested to go for one with maximum expected value
of profit.

Discussed the case for about 45 mins.

The case was followed by HR questions for 20 mins.

Qualitative case:
Problem Statement: A company is planning to construct a school
in Indore. Suggest construction options for profit.
Approach:
I started with questions:
Does the company has prior experience in this sector?
How many schools are there in surrounding area and type?
Which part of the city are we aiming at (outskirts)?
Since it was on outskirts I suggested that it could go for full + day
boarding and continued further on that: type of school (medium,
standards, registration fee).
He stated that the land was quite big and cheaper (as it is located
on outskirts).
I suggested that company could invest in other options like sports
(swimming pool, TT etc.) for which it could charge. Could lend a
portion for cafeteria etc.

Didn’t discuss much on this case due to lack of time.

Round 3:
Case based on organizational structure
Problem Statement: A company X is performing well but the CEO
and CFO are not at good terms. How should X proceed?
Approach: I asked for causes of conflict (Personal + Professional).
Discussed more on the issue and suggested for restructuring.
What do you think went I was confident and the discussion was very interactive.
right in this interview? Picked up hints from interviewer.
Cracked the quantitative case in first attempt (structure +
calculation).
Well prepared for – why consult, why Auctus and about the
company.
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Ask clarification questions. Think loud. Have a good discussion.
on the basis of your Stay calm, confident and happy. Enjoy the process.
experience

Interview Experience 10
Name: Divya Chopra
Company: Auctus Advisors
Name of interviewer and Consultant, Consultant, Senior Manager, Director
designation
Round (First/Second/third) Round 1 : Consultant (HR)
Round 2 : Consultant (case)
Round 3: Senior Manager (Guesstimate)
Round 4: Director (HR)
Brief Profile : Graduation: NIT Nagpur, B.Tech, Electrical and Electronics
(Graduation College, stream, Engineering
Work ex details, etc.) Work Ex: Deloitte Consulting, 23 Months
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you  About me
choose to share them)  Why consulting and why are you a right fit
 CV related questions
 Consulting is very challenging. Do you think it is in line
with what you want to do in life
 Are you fine with travelling for work
 What qualities does a consultant need
 What is the difference between solving a case in an
interview and solving a case practically for a client

Round 2:
 Case

Round 3:
 Guesstimate

Round 4:
 HR
Narration of the case CASE: There is a beer company. Its current sales is X. It
interview (Please be as manufactures the beer bottles in-house at present. Since the World
descriptive as possible) Cup is approaching, it is expected that the sales will become 2X.
The beer company has to take a call whether it should increase its
production. If it increases production, it will have to manufacture
more bottles. At present the bottles manufacturing plant is running
at 80% capacity. Firstly decide if the company should increase its
beer production or not. I had to ask for all the costs involved and
selling price from the interviewer. If we go with the option of
increasing the production, then shall we manufacture the bottles in-
house or outsource them. The costs for each of the activity was
given. Explore all possible scenarios and decide.
 GUESSTIMATE: I have a piece of land. Should I sell off the land
or build a school on it.
For this guesstimate, you need to ask a lot of questions and
calculate the cost of establishing a school on the land and calculate
the cash flows in a 10 year horizon. Compare it with future worth
of selling price of the land.

What do you think went CASE: I could come up with all the possible scenarios quickly. I
right in this interview? calculated the expected profits for each of the scenarios and came
up with the best one. This case could have been solved using
opportunity cost of each scenario as well.

GUESSTIMATE: I asked the right questions.

What do you think went The case was calculation intensive. I made a few calculation
wrong in this interview? mistakes, but the interviewer was not worried about calculation
goof ups.
Any tips for future batches Be confident. They are looking for enthusiastic people, good
on the basis of your communication skills and presence of mind.
experience

Boston Consulting
Group
 Interview Experience 11
Name: Anand Barot
Company: BCG
Name of interviewer and 3 Rounds of interviews.
designation Last round with Partner named Ravi
Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds

Brief Profile : IIT Bombay (Btech +Mtech)

(Graduation College, stream, Workex-33 months,
Work ex details, etc.) 20 months: American Express, Last 13 months: Business
development in a food-processing and retail firm
Interview questions (With Round 1: Case of Market entry
indicative answers if you Scenario: The firm was a two-wheeler manufacturer in India and
choose to share them) wanted to introduce its product in Nigeria. I was asked to explore
the options it might have and how it should do it.
Approach: I first found out the demand and competition in
Nigeria. Also looked at the company’s capacity to meet the price
requirements of the customer. Important point was that the two-
wheelers were used as taxi in Nigeria. This point came out when I
got an answer to the amount of usage of the product as 50,000 kms
annually which was very high.
Price we could offer was higher than competition so I suggested
changing the design to have two customers per ride than just one,
there by increasing revenue per ride and thus customer’s
willingness to pay higher.
Then interviewer asked questions about how to market it. I
suggested a few advertising ideas like showing increase in standard
of living of taxi driver due to usage of product.
Then question was how to get over the inertia that people felt in
buying as no one had used our product. For this my options ranged
from approaching taxi driver unions to limited number of product
units in market for a free 6 month period for the user to
experience the product. I also suggested a more spread out
distribution within the country to increase visibility of product.
Round 2:
5 min HR questions like tell me about yourself, etc.
Case of value chain management
Scenario: The company was a supplier of excavation and other
construction equipment. Recently, it had experienced a sharp rise
in its warranty costs. I had to probe the issue.
Approach: I studied the value chain and understood how product
complains were generated and solution provided by company. In
this I found that the dealer’s engineer was responsible for checking
validity of complains and it was the dealer who got a commission
for every complaint that he managed or solved.
This was major point that hinted at possible collusion between
customer and dealer. On further probing it was found that there
was a fraud happening at the dealer’s end. The dealer was
generating false complains to earn more commission.
To solve the issue I suggested having a company engineer look into
the complaint validity. I also suggested having a remote way of
monitoring the product health. Both these solutions were a bit time
taking and costly. So a better solution from me was to monitor
 each product and number of complains it generated in a given
period of time. If the same product generates more than normal
number of complains in a period, it can hint at possible collusion
and the firm can look into that complain before authorizing the
warranty.

Round 3: Case of distribution network and ROI

Scenario: The firm was a cement manufacturer and wanted to
expand into other regions. I had to explore ways and what areas to
target.
Approach: I looked at regions where the selling price of product
was high and suggested we target these regions. Looked at various
costs to the dealer or seller of the cement such as inventory storage
costs, etc and how we can give him incentive to store and sell our
product. Basically it was about increasing the ROI of the dealer wrt
costs he incurs to keep our product and benefits he receives by
selling it.

Narration of the case Done above.

interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)
What do you think went The first round allowed me to look at a diverse set of options
right in this interview? across functions such as marketing, pricing, design, etc. The good
point was identifying early in the interview that the two-wheeler
was used as a taxi. Another good thing was that with each question
that the interviewer put forward to reject my suggestion, I was able
to give another alternative option.
Second round was more about finding the issue rather than
ideation. I was able to unearth the issue well and solution suggested
was very practical according to the interviewer.
Third round was more about gelling with the Partner and being
calm. At times when he probed me, I was able to maintain
composure.

All 3 rounds went well wrt establishing a good repo with the
interviewer. The communication was two-sided and involved.
What do you think went Most things went well. Only thing that could have been better was
wrong in this interview? that in 2nd round I took some time suggesting a good solution. But
then when interviewer hinted at a few things, I was quick to catch
up. So, that too worked in my favour.
Any tips for future batches It is always good to be prepared with your HR answers. That is not
on the basis of your to suggest that you cram them up. They need to be genuine and
experience your preparation should involve having a few pointers for each
answer.
Most important thing is staying calm and composed and to enjoy
the process. You should come across as someone who is
enthusiastic about solving problems. Isolate each interview and
don’t let it affect next interviews.
It is good to have frameworks at the back of your mind for each
type of case. But in the interview, try to ask good qualifying
question before putting a framework on paper.
Think aloud and let the interviewer be involved with you in the
process of reaching a solution.
 Interview Experience 12
Name: Arpit Vnayak
Company: Boston Consulting Group
Name of interviewer and 3 partners
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds
Brief Profile : Same as above
(Graduation College, stream,
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: 1) Tell me about yourself? 2) What are the important
indicative answers if you factors you will look at if you are a cement dealer?
choose to share them)
Round 2: 1) Case on building materials

Round 3: 1) Guesstimate no of tomatoes sold in a residential area

by a new organised retailer
Narration of the case Round 1: Had to talk about working capital requirement through
interview (Please be as dealer terms, inventory requirement, etc.
descriptive as possible)
Round 2: Two parts 1) draw the decision tree about how would
you look at a niche building materials business and 2) come up with
a formula with clear variables to estimate the overall market size

Round 3: Straightforward guesstimate with important cuts being,

% of people that consume tomatoes, type of people that will buy
from such a store vs regular vegetable vendor, etc
What do you think went Reaching the important points early with little talk on the various
right in this interview? other points that could have been addressed, talked about. They
were not looking for exhaustively looking and covering all points,
instead wanted you to reach solution immediately and then
completely cover them.

What do you think went Not much

wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches While solving cases we emphasize a lot on MECE thinking, trying
on the basis of your to cover everything before reaching a solution. While that is
experience important to make sure we don’t miss out on any point, on the day
of interview it’s different with just 15-20 mins per interview. Try
practising in such time frame closer to the interview date and close
the case within least time possible.

Interview Experience 13
Name: Gautam Bansal
Company: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Name of interviewer and
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 2 rounds
Brief Profile : B.com (H), SRCC
(Graduation College, stream, Audit Analyst with Deloitte and Touche (USI) for 17 months in
Work ex details, etc.) the Asset Management and Real Estate sectors
CFA level 3
Interview questions (With Round 1: Case: Your client is a fruits and vegetables retailer who is
indicative answers if you facing inventory management issues.
choose to share them)
Round 2: Brief introduction. Why consulting? You must be having
a busy day. How many interviews are you through with?
Case: A 20-25 slide PPT. The client is a Dairy farming corp. based
out of Western Europe. Its current market is almost saturated. The
client wants to expand its existing operations. It has several
markets within dairy under consideration. Evaluate the prospects.
Narration of the case R1: Began straight with the case.
interview (Please be as Case Analysis
descriptive as possible) Identified that the problem could either be surplus or wastage.
Understood the inventory procurement and management system.
Took a sample fruit for a given week and proceeded with inventory
optimization. Developed alternative inventory plans and selected
the best one. Then asked to synthesize.

R2:
The interviewer didn’t have my CV. He preferred a brief
introduction. Probed about other shortlists and interviews I had.
Case Analysis
Then opened an elaborate PPT and walked me through the slides.
It was a Dairy Farming Corp. based out of western Europe and we
looked at acquisition targets across 4 markets. After 10 minutes of
running me through a number of tables and graphs, I was given a
minute to think and recommend the best option for the client.
What do you think went R1: I answered to the point and was quick with my analysis.
right in this interview? Seemed like they had no time to waste.
R2: Didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Concluded with a
recommendation and case synthesis.
What do you think went R2: Data overflow. There was too much data to comprehend.
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches 1. Respond to the tone of the interviewer.
on the basis of your 2. Being composed is definitely one of the top 2 things that
experience matter.

Interview Experience 14
Name: Mohit Agarwal
Company: BCG
Name of interviewer and N/A
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds in total. The interview rounds were more case centric and
less focused on HR. The HR questions, if any were interspersed
with the cases. Only the first round had a demarcated HR round
and then a case
Brief Profile : Electrical Engineering, IIT Dlehi
(Graduation College, stream, Deutsche Bank (3 years)
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: 10 minute chat on the HR and then a 20 minute case.
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Round 2: 30 minute case

Round 3: 20 minute case

Narration of the case Round 1: HR questions started with the usual “tell me about
interview (Please be as yourself” which later graduated into “tell me a situation where you
descriptive as possible) created an impact and brought about a change”

Case:
The case was not a very difficult one in terms of laying out the
right levers but had a lot of number crunching to do.

Problem Statement: A pharma company is in phase-1 trials of a

first of it’s kind drug in the world that can cure baldness
permanently. Should it go ahead and sell this formula and rights to
a potential buyer and if yes, for what amount.

Approach -
Two things in the problem statement set the path for me.
a. “Phase -1 trials”, so phase -2, so phase-3 etc had to be looked
into – basically the whole development stage from a drug in a lab
to a drug in the marketplace.
b. “for what amount” – clearly this case demanded working with
numbers, because it was not just a yes/no question, but also asked
an approximate deal price.

Solving the case.

a) I laid out the value chain in development of a drug.
b) The interviewer on prodding gave me costs involved in the
phased clinical trials and their probabilities of success.
c) CATCH: Phase 3 trials success of failures probability does
not affect the overall outcome in expenditure, as even if it is
a failure, you have spent the money
d) So I have an approximate number on cost in different
scenarios.
e) Now, I tried to estimate the potential revenue that can be
earned from this drug. The interviewer gave the selling price
of the drug has been fixed at USD1000.
So now it’s more of a question of market sizing.
f) Since the company is a global pharma giant, it would be
selling all over the world.
 g) The problem was now reduced to finding the number of
potential male bald customers worldwide ready to shell out
USD1000 for a cure.
h) The math worked out that there was no way to make money
from this drug (It took a little bit of guts to state this
conclusion to the interviewer), and the company abandon
this project. Or better still, if somebody is ready to buy the
right, just sell it for any amount above the costs you have
incurred so far.

Round 2: Straight to the case, no beating around the bush, no

small talk. I actually liked this interview style.

Problem statement: The client is a motorcycle manufacturer from

India, wanting to sell motorcycles in Nigeria. For simplicity we will
talk in INR terms. The motorcycle market of Nigeria is dominated
by 3-4 Chinese manufacturers who sell motorcycles at INR25k. My
bikes cost INR50k. How do I sell them there?

Case approach:
First I tried to understand the Nigerian motorcycle market. Also, I
tried to understand if there was any possibility of the Indian maker
to sell cheap – that possibility was ruled out. So, if cost leadership
does not work, product differentiation will. How could we then
differentiate our product?

a) CATCH: As it turned out in the course of our discussion,

the motorcycles were used as taxis
b) The drivers owned the motorcycles and plied pillions
around the city for a fee.
c) I worked out the math for these chinese motorcycles -
buying cost, maintenance, life, mileage, etc.
d) If the Indian client could beat that number, we could have a
winner - the buying cost was high, but we were better on
mileage, on life (3 years vs 2 years for the chinese product)
and on maintenance. Still the number was not favourable.
e) Next came the idea, that if we could not reduce the cost for
the drivers, can we improve the revenue. An idea that I
blurted out, but which turned out to be the one the
interviewer was looking for – was to have a longer seat so
that a total of three people could ride the motorcycle
comfortably.
f) Now the numbers started making sense. Also note that the
previous numbers would have changed, because the mileage
with 3 people on board will be less than 2 ppl onboard.
Also, the amount individual customers are ready to shell out
for a shared taxi will be lesser than for a private taxi. All
these changes accounted for, the numbers still looked
positive.
g) So a go ahead was declared.
h) Now came the second part, given that we decide to enter
Nigeria – how do we position ourselves as a brand and
convince the locals to tru out our new expensive product –
 the benefits of which can only be ascertained after a period
of one or two years
i) The answer came in renting out these bikes to the drivers
on a trial basis, and let them appreciate our better bikes and
let word of mouth do the rest.

Round 3: The case was a no quantitative one. It was about a

private bank which has recently got 50 branch opening licences
from RBI. How to decide where to set up these branches?
What do you think went a). I went in with zero pressure into the interviews
right in this interview? b). I was very calm and interactive throughout. In round one, the
electricity in the interview room went off in the middle of the
interview. And it was very dark. I got up and drew out the
curtains,etc.
c). I did not flabbergasted when the person in front threw numbers
at me.
What do you think went Nothing in particular that I can think of. Sometimes I missed a
wrong in this interview? lever of two, but the interviewer led me in the correct direction
eventually.
Any tips for future batches a). Be calm, but be enthusiastic in the interview. Enthusiasm
on the basis of your shows.
experience b). Make the interview a two way process. Let the interviewer help
you solve the problem. He will drop hints. LISTEN to them.

Interview Experience 15
Name: Mohit Kataria
Company: Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Name of interviewer and Round 1: Partner
designation
Round 2: Partner
Round 3: Partner
Round (First/Second/third) Three Rounds
Brief Profile : B.Tech from PEC. Worked for 21 months in Strategic Services
(Graduation College, stream, Group (SSG) of The Smart Cube, a business research firm.
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you 10 minutes on Introduction and general HR. 20 minutes on the
choose to share them) Case.
Round 2: 20 minutes on the HR. 5 minutes on the Case.
Round 3: 25 minutes on the Case.

Narration of the case Description of 3rd Case

interview (Please be as A tractor manufacturing company’s share is declining.
descriptive as possible) Background Questions:
Company Description, Manufacturing Operations, and Revenue
Split – by product and geography.
The company had 4 tractor models (different hp powers).
Discussed about the various possibilities of the revenues decline –
any particular geography, product or channel.
 There was a particular region where the sales were declining. The
sales in the region primarily consisted of 2 tractor models – 35 and
45 hp.
Tried to approach the problem by dividing the issue areas between
Internal and External.

Internal – Company related issues related to 4Ps.

External – Competition, Consumer Behaving Pattern or External
Environment overall (PESTLE).

The prices of the product w.r.t to competitors was at par.

However, the maintenance costs was higher as compared to
competitors and hence the sales were going down.

Solution:
Proposed a solution of providing extended warranty. Also the
excess costs incurred by the company could be recovered by
increasing costs of the other 2 tractors (as its market price was
slightly lower than its competitors) as the company did not want to
compromise on the profits.
What do you think went It was very interactive. Plus the breadth of issues that I could cover
right in this interview? was the key that impressed him.
What do you think went Missed the maintenance costs in the first phase. Came up with it
wrong in this interview? during the second round of investigation.
Any tips for future batches Just be comprehensive. It does no matter if reach the solution or
on the basis of your not. Just be exhaustive and have a structured approach.
experience

Interview Experience 16
Name: Parvez Jesani
Company: BCG
Name of interviewer and Don’t remember the name, Partner
designation
Round (First/Second/third) First Round – HR + Case

Second Round – Only Case

Third Round – A little bit of HR & Chit chat on why BCG v/s
McK etc
Brief Profile : Narsee Monjee – B.Com, CA, CFA
(Graduation College, stream, 2 Years work ex – Credit Suisse (4 months), Edelweiss (9 months),
Work ex details, etc.) eParent (1 year)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Why consulting, why BCG?
indicative answers if you Case on market entry for a Mobile Repairing Centre
choose to share them)
Round 2: Case – Profitability – Tractor industry.
Narration of the case Round 1 – Tell me something about yourself. Why consulting and
interview (Please be as why BCG?
descriptive as possible) Case on market entry of a Mobile Repairing centre (the authorized
repair centre for a company) – If I am an authorized service centre
for a mobile company and I want to set up my own mobile service
centre to service handsets of products whose warranties have
expired, how should I enter the market.

Round 2 – Case on Profitability – Tractor manufacturing

company. My profits are declining.
On further questioning, I found out that the company dealt in 3
types of tractors. Followed the standard approach and figured out
that there was a problem in the after-sales service of one type of
tractor. He gave me some numbers to work out and suggest
changing the prices of the tractors based on the competitors prices,
gross margins.
What do you think went Round 1 – I screwed up the 1st round. He wasn’t convinced with
right in this interview? my why consult answer and coz of that I screwed up my case too.
Also, it was the 1st interview for the day and screwed up coz of
nervousness.
Didn’t ask qualifying questions. Structure was all over the place.
Round 2 – Perfect Interview.
Qualifying questions were perfect. Applied the correct approach.
Detected the problem in the after sales service. Perfect
recommendations.
What do you think went 1st Round – Since I was very nervous, I screwed up the first round.
wrong in this interview?

Interview Experience 17
Name: Radhika Saini
Company: BCG
Name of interviewer and Partner
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds
Brief Profile : Eco (Hons) – Hanraj College
(Graduation College, stream, MSc Economics – London School of Economics
Work ex details, etc.) Worked for one year on Indo-Pak economic relations policy
research
Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me something about yourself
indicative answers if you Round 2: No questions – only case
choose to share them) Round 3: No questions – only case
Narration of the case Round 1: The case was based on a tractor manufacturer and the
interview (Please be as falling market share of the company. The primary idea was to lay
descriptive as possible) out all possible reasons for such a fall both from the view of supply
and customer demand. The qualifying questions ruled out the
possibility of supply side problems and hence demand side was key.
Repair and maintainence costs were the reason for falling customer
demand. The case was fairly quantitative in nature.
Round 2: The aim was to improve the profit per ton of cement
sold. This was again a quantitative case where the different
transportation routes were to be mapped and the most profitable
 markets were identified. Markets where profits were lower were
abandoned.
Round 3: This was a case discussion as opposed to a case solving
exercise. Here the interviewer discussed the various possibilities for
starting a new shop in terms of pricing, costs, financing,
recruitment, location, etc.

What do you think went The first round required a systematic approach and therefore
right in this interview? adequate preparation helped to solve this case in a structured
manner. The third round required innovation and spontaneous
ideation which is possible if similar cases have been attempted
before. Overall presenting ideas with logic and structure helped me.
What do you think went The second round did not go well for me. Here it was easy to get
wrong in this interview? lost in the many levels of the case and therefore it would be useful
to attempt some quantitative cases as well. Along with this, it was
important to stay calm when solving the case was hard which I
was not able to do well enough.
Any tips for future batches Prepare hard and work on exploring all possible options within a
on the basis of your case.
experience

Deloitte US Strategy &

Operations
Interview Experience 18
Name: Abhinav Maingi
Company: Deloitte
Round (First/Second/third) Round 1: HR
Round 2: Case based
Round 3: HR
Brief Profile : Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee – ECE
(Graduation College, stream, Goldman Sachs - 12 months
Work ex details, etc.) XLPAT (start-up) – 12 months
Interview questions (With Round 1: Discussed points from my CV. Stress was on graduation
indicative answers if you and work-ex. Briefly discussed my reason for joining a start-up
choose to share them) after Goldman Sachs. Why MBA? Why consulting?

Round 2: Started with introduction. Interviewer gave me a case

and then based on my structure gave me a datasheet. Based on
these two, I had to take a decision. (Case was on cable business).

He asked me about items in P and L a/c and balance sheet. Some

more questions revolving around FRA concepts were asked.

Round 3: Why Consulting? Why should we take you? Why should

we not stop recruiting from IIM L? This was a stress interview.
Narration of the case Your client is a cable operator whose profits are declining. You
interview (Please be as need to identify the reason behind this and provide a solution.
descriptive as possible) I asked initial qualifying questions like geography, other businesses,
technology, etc.
Then I asked about forward and backward linkages and explained
him my understanding of the value chain. He approved the value
chain.

He then gave me a datasheet. From the datasheet it could be easily

seen that the problem was in the forward linkages. Then I quickly
discussed the entire value chain with numbers.

He said, give me the most likely problem and solution linked to it.
The problem was with the set-top-boxes and I explained why I felt
it is the problem. Solution was to change the vendor.
What do you think went I solved case quickly and gave recommendations in a structured
right in this interview? way.
What do you think went In my final interview, I was asked names of people who had
wrong in this interview? interviewed me in previous rounds. I did not remember the names.

Any tips for future batches Focus on your academic subjects. Good case solving is just a big +.
on the basis of your
experience

Interview Experience 19
Name: Komal Agrawal
Company: Deloitte
Name of interviewer and -
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 1st Round : HR
2nd Round : Case based
3rd round : Case based + presentation round
Brief Profile : B.Sc. Biology, MBA IB, Associate Consultant at Infosys Ltd-
(Graduation College, stream, 23months
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: It appeared that they intended to make a stress interview.
indicative answers if you As I entered, he stood up, shook hands, but refrained from smiling.
choose to share them)
Work ex details on CV were discussed, was asked to explain the
difference between agile and waterfall methodology of
development (methods used in IT industry) and explanation was
followed by 5 to 6 other questions on the same topic.

Q. Why did I join IIM Lucknow and not IIM Bangalore? A.

justified my stance
Q. Is IIM Lucknow adding value as per your expectations? A. I
mentioned learning in stress, time management and sharing of
ideas…(globe)
Q. In your cv, I don’t find any POR on campus? (committee etc.)
A. told about Bhavishya
Q. What all shortlists do you have?
A. After 3 seconds pause, “It would be good if you could ask
pcom”
Q. Interviewer stood up: “O Really! Every other person who came
to this room told me about other shortlists. Now tell me, what
other shortlists?
A. Ask pcom( it’s important to be calm and not panic)
Q. “B.Sc. Biology! Hm..how good are you in Maths”
A. Humbly gambled, “Sir, I am good that’s why I am here”
I felt like the opportunity died this very moment…
Q. Do you have any questions?
A. No Sir.( he was disappointed and mentioned that everybody else
had a question)
I globed about some friends who are in deloitte and then compared
Mckinsey and deloitte work culture, to prove that I have some idea
of the role being offered. (please prepare a question to be asked)
I was escorted out the door.

Round 2: Case based, qualitative along with data sheet.

Round 3: Principal round. It was mix of case study briefing and cv.
Lot of questions on personal life, work life balance, consistency in
Deloitte. Eg.
Q. If we give you PPO, will you be willing to travel.
Q. Why consulting.
Q. Solution proposed in the case.
Q. You have never done one thing at a time. (Entrepreneur when
student, left college when student, job to IIML etc.) How will you
be consistent and satisfied in Deloitte?
Q. Why didn’t you peruse you start up ahead in spite of being
successful.
A. Told him about problems faced in scaling and some issues in a
small sized organisation that tickled his funny bone. Later I linked
this with best practices in Deloitte.
Q. Any questions.
A. took lessons from previous interview, made up a question and
globed (type of project etc.)
Narration of the case Case: A cable box manufacturer wants to outsource
interview (Please be as manufacturing.
descriptive as possible) (a) Is this a good option
(b) If they don’t pursue this, what else can be done.
(c) What are decision making criteria
(d) If you go for outsourcing, how will you process with the
analysis

Data sheet was provided when I brought up cost into

discussion. Fixed and variable components were given along
with annual production for three years. I was asked to calculate
cost per unit and base my decision on the data of three years(
including cost of machinery- fixed component and other assets)
What do you think went Different scenarios mentioned in the case and don’t know what
right in this interview? they liked in first interview, but probably my answers were to the
point and I didn’t panic
What do you think went I should have prepared a question to be asked, could have
wrong in this interview? rehearsed the answer for “how good in Maths” and “which other
shortlists”.

Any tips for future batches For all the interviews, just know the answer to “who am I”, (you
on the basis of your did somethings, you didn’t do others, you should know why you
experience made those decisions; what are you good at and be aware of things
you are not good at)

It is not only about the time period from the day of your shortlist
till your interview, it is about your journey till date.

Interview Experience 20
Name: Rupika Malhotra
Company: Deloitte Consulting S&O
Name of interviewer and
designation

Round (First/Second/third) I had two rounds of interviews only (the others had three)

Brief Profile : Miranda House, Economics hons

(Graduation College, stream, Work ex: 3 years, at Forrester Research
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: it was a one hour round. Basically they took my 1st and
indicative answers if you 2nd round together. 20 minutes of HR and the rest was case based
choose to share them)
Round 2: last round which was the partner round. They discussed
the case with me again. They asked me to present it as if they were
the client. Other aspects of the case that I missed were also
explored.
Narration of the case The case was about a cable box making company that had to
interview (Please be as decide if they should go for outsourcing or continue manufacturing
descriptive as possible) in house. Profit and sales figures for the last 2 years and expected
figures for the next 2 years were given.
All aspects of the case were to be explored. You are expected to
“think out loud” and talk about everything that might be of
importance in making a decision for the company. And it helps to
be structured in your thoughts. For example, when you talk about
outsourcing, talk about how its going to impact your costs, what
kind of costs (fixed/ variable) and how, what will you do with the
facility that was earlier being used for inhouse manufacturing, etc.
Do the same for the other options. Any approach to solve the case
is fine as long as you cover all aspects in a structured manner. I was
guided well by the interviewer- If he saw me getting stuck
somewhere in the case, he would start a discussion to get my mind
working again. Overall, it was like a discussion and not an
interview.
What do you think went I think the fact that I was “thinking out loud” was a positive. Like I
right in this interview? said, this way I was able to engage well in a discussion with the
interviewer. I was also asked questions about my work ex in the
same interview (HR and case round were taken together in my
case). I had made sure that I knew all aspects of my previous
company (since Deloitte was one of our clients there). I knew there
was a chance that the interviewer would already know a lot about
my previous company and work and so I could not mess up there.
And I think this helped which is why he took my case round in the
same interview. HR round is the first step- one can’t afford to mess
it up.
What do you think went There were times when I gave up (when I was solving the case).
wrong in this interview? That is one thing I should not have done.
Any tips for future batches Prepare HR well.
on the basis of your Practice some cases to build a structured approach to solving them
experience Be confident when you talk about your CV. Shows that you know
where you come from and what you want.

Interview Experience 21
Name: Shalu Mitruka
Company: Deloitte US S&O
Name of interviewer and
designation
Round (First/Second/third) Round 1: Senior Manager
Round 2: Senior Manager
Round 3: Partner
Brief Profile : Architecture and Economics from IIT Kharagpur, with 20 months
(Graduation College, stream, of job ex in Pharma domain
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: 2 small cases (related to pharma domain). Few questions
indicative answers if you on my hobbies. I was asked to summarise my work ex which was
choose to share them) followed by 2 case.

Round 2: Detail case study. They were more looking into idea
generation
 Round 3: Why deloitte? Why consulting? And was asked to
present my case of 2nd round in 2 minutes. Where do you see
yourself after 10 years.

Narration of the case FIRST ROUND

interview (Please be as Case 1: You want to setup a sales force team in India and you are a
descriptive as possible) US based Pharma company. what will be your budget.
So firstly I asked about the drug which I want to launch in India,
generic or patent. Who are my competitors? Then how much I
want to invest, do I want to start small or want to be a market
leader. Do I want to start from scratch, want to sell license, or want
to merge or acquire some Indian based company. Regarding sales
force, do I want to build a new one, or tie up with existing
companies? Further I also asked about pricing regulations in India,
do I have to follow a price cap, if yes then what’s the expected
profit. For all these I was asked to take assumptions and move on.
Secondly I divided costs into external and internal factors.
External factors included (costs related to filing of Patent in Indian
market, etc) . Internal costs related to HR costs, Sales rep salary,
training, samples and free drugs to doctors, land ,factory setups (
told in more detail)

Case 2: further on the above case I was asked to estimate the

number of sales rep required to launch the drug.
Solution: For this I asked rough estimation of market size in India,
and expected market share for the drug. As per the client’s US
benchmark, they invest 30% of the revenue on sales so i got the
amount they want to invest in sales rep ( let’s assume X). If one
sales rep costs Y, therefore we can estimate the number of sales rep
required (X/Y).

SECOND ROUND:
Case: I am a US based company and I sell 3 products A, B, C (I
don’t rem exact name) and I am having losses. I assume the reason
for facing losses can be either economic downturn, new
competitors, or internal problems in the company. Tell me what is
the exact reason

So I started with few general questions to check whether it’s

economic downturn or new competitors or internal problems.
Then I was provided with data sheet ( Please note: the data
mentioned below are just rough numbers to give idea about my
case)

1) As the sales were neither increasing nor decreasing as per

figures and not the market size has increase much. So it was
not an economic downturn. As the client’s market share has
actually increased rather decreasing so it was not
competitor’s problem. So I was only left with increase in
costs due to which my profits have not increased. Further I
also checked if I am pricing less as compared to my
 competitors. So I was asked to calculate the price of
company’s products. So as the prices were not changed in 3
years so I have three equations and 3 variables (2400000 =
1000A+ 1500B+ 1200C, 23000000= 1100A+ 1550B+1100
C and 2500000= 1200A+1600B+1250C). After I wrote
equations I was asked to stop and further sheets were
provided

In second sheet process diagram was made and small footnotes

were given (PLEASE READ FOOTNOTES)
So I figured out that process 2(setup2) was 50% time not working
which was causing delays in process 3 and process 4, thus
increasing costs. Also Setup1 and setup 2 was installed in 2
different time frames and more over they do same work, so there
was no requirement of second setup, setup1 can do it ( there was
good discussion on this, I don’t remember exactly)

After this as I figured out that process was not efficient, I was
given 2 possible systems (shown below with their sales and cost)
and was asked to choose one. Though system 1 seemed to be good
with high sales and less cost but after few years profit was declining
whereas in system 2 though we were at loss but profit was
increasing at a much higher rate. Further I was asked to calculated
NPV values ( on which I said I have no idea as I was asked to
choose some r value)
What do you think went My first round had 2 cases related to job ex. As I prepared for job
right in this interview? ex cases, I was able to do good.

I was confident and was smiling. Whenever I faced problem while

solving the case I asked for help and they were helping me in
solving the case. It was a very friendly environment for me.
What do you think went They asked about NPV and some finance concepts about which I
wrong in this interview? had no idea, except NPV formula
Any tips for future batches 1) Should know about your job ex nicely, each and every detail
on the basis of your 2) Be confident and smile 
experience

KPMG
Interview Experience 22
Name: Prateek Kumar
Company: KPMG
Name of interviewer and Senr. Consultant
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 2
Brief Profile : IIT Kharagpur, Civil Engg. , 22 months in Techno-commercial
(Graduation College, stream, aspects of Construction in JSPL
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: GD – Discuss feasibility of “ Make in India”
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Round 2: PI & Case
Narration of the case Case : If govt. wants to collaborate with private players to open
interview (Please be as education institutions what are possible quality/Financial check
descriptive as possible) measures
What do you think went My Experience in Govt. projects
right in this interview?
What do you think went Gave the solution based on experience & insight too soon without
wrong in this interview? more mental exercise

Any tips for future batches Knowing your CV through and through.
on the basis of your And Case practise
experience

Interview Experience 23
Name: Swapnil Vadnere
Company: KPMG (S&O)
Name of interviewer and Senior. Consultant
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 1
Brief Profile : NIT Bhopal, Information Technology, 24 months at Deloitte
(Graduation College, stream,
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: PI
indicative answers if you
choose to share them)
Narration of the case Case:
interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)

What do you think went My Experience of working at Deloitte

right in this interview?

What do you think went Answered the question “things that you hated about Deloitte”
wrong in this interview? straightforward without giving proper thought
Any tips for future batches Thorough preparation of HR answers, CV and past work
on the basis of your experience details
experience

Interview Experience 24
Name: Tuhin Kanti Mondal
Company: KPMG
Name of interviewer and S&O summer internship
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 1
Brief Profile : IIT Kharagpur, Instrumentaiton; almost 5 year work ex in
(Graduation College, stream, GAIL(India) Ltd. in operation, maintenance and project
Work ex details, etc.) development. Additional relevant exp : quality control, ISO audit
management, SAP procurement job etc.
Interview questions (With Round 1: a) why are you so famous in your batch? Why everybody
indicative answers if you talks about you? b) What did you do in your job? c) a few basic
choose to share them) questions in operation. d) 2-3 questions related to extra academic
activities.
Narration of the case No case was asked.
interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)
What do you think went Their strategy for the interviewees were to test them with a blow of
right in this interview? unexpected question at starting. The success rate depends on how
can you tackle the blow and answer promptly. With a heavy
operation background I faced a few questions related to operation
and a few questions related to relevant work experience.
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Be open minded. And for KPMG you should expect some starting
on the basis of your blow. Whatever it is try to provide the information such a way they
experience can’t verify. Be confident, and try to put a smile. Also be through
about your CV points, in details.
 McKinsey & Co.
Interview Experience 25
Name: Akhilesh Chauhan
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and Suvojoy (Partner)
designation Suveer Sinha (Associate Partner)
Mandar Vaidya (Partner)
Vikas (Director)
Round (First/Second/third) All
Brief Profile : IIT Delhi Dual Degree (Chemical Engg.), 2 years consulting
(Graduation College, stream, experience in Supply Chain, Operations & Risk Management
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: General HR followed by discussion on one of my
indicative answers if you projects in the public sector. Interviewer popped a case out of that.
choose to share them) How to control PDS kerosene leakages in petrol pumps?

Round 2: A case on a hotel operating in losses. Made me calculate

the profit margins for ‘Room’ & ‘Non-Room’ segments of the
hotel followed by qualitative discussion on how to improve
profitability.

Round 3: General HR (mostly around football). Guess estimate on

estimation of 1 year revenue for NEUFC (ISL team)

Round 4: Intense HR
Narration of the case Round 1: Went by the distribution of kerosene across various
interview (Please be as nodes & analysed issues. Discussed measure to control it at retailer
descriptive as possible) points (Consumer data digitization, mapping to Aadhar card in the
future, etc) as well as at wholesaler points (this is where the bulk of
kerosene was lost).
Overall, had a good discussion.

Round 2: Somehow became nervous while doing the initial

calculations. Realized it & took a step back to form an income
statement of the hotel & broke it into ‘Room’ & ‘Non-Room’
segments. Found out that ‘Non-room’ segment is under heavy
losses. Discussed ideas to improve it.
I think this interview did not go well. Did not get a good response
from Suveer.

Round 3: Broke NEUFC revenue into components (Stadium sales

(Tickets+food), Merchandise, Sponsorships, Broadcast revenue,
Player transfers, etc). Guesstimate for only the stadium sales for the
whole tournament.
I think this was the cracker I was waiting for. Interviewer seemed
very much impressed.
 Round 4: Very dis-interested person in front. Did not try to make
an eye contact with me. Working with something while I was
giving my ‘Tell me about yourself’. After I finished he took a 30
second pause looking down. I had absolutely no idea what was
going on. Then he suddenly asks me what is so special about me?
Probably my response was satisfying for him and he asked me
whether I had any questions for him or not. Then we discussed
about his experience at Mck.
What do you think went I believe strong HR answers helped me a lot. Had done decent case
right in this interview? practices which was required.
Also, confidence level was just right in the process.
What do you think went Got stuck in round 2 case. I think I panicked for a while but then I
wrong in this interview? quickly took a step back & approached the problem again in a
structured manner.
Also, could have given more ideas in round 1 & 2 interview cases.
Any tips for future batches Never ever panic in the interview. Always keep a smile on your
on the basis of your face & answer confidently.
experience While doing your case practices, do take time out to introspect for
at least half an hour before sleep every day. This will help you build
strong HR answers.

Interview Experience 26
Name: Amrita Singh
Company: Mckinsey
Name of interviewer and Partner
designation
Round (First/Second/third) All three rounds I was interviewed by partners.
Brief Profile : B.Com (Hons) from Jesus and Mary college, Delhi University.
(Graduation College, stream, Worked at the Paralympic Committee of India for 33 months as
Work ex details, etc.) the Assistant Director (Adminstration & Coordination)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Generic HR questions.One simple guestimate to
indicative answers if you estimate the size and revenue of Apple I phone 6 in India.
choose to share them)
Round 2:A case based on tackling the problem of Anemia in India
(assuming the role of the Prime Minister of India)

Round 3: A case based on market entry of a firm into India (basic

structure required).HR questions on why consulting?Long term
goals?
Narration of the case Case 1: If you were the Prime Minister of India how would you
interview (Please be as tackle the persistent problem of anemia.(key pointers- conduct a
descriptive as possible) pilot, rope in the rural local leaders as they are very strong opinion
leaders)
Case 2 : A well reputed pharma firm wants to enter the indian
market.Chart out the structure for the same.Decision on whether
to manufacture locally or import from the host nation.Slight
costing structure figures were given with basic calculations
required.
What do you think went Confidence and not coming under pressure.Maintaining a calm
right in this interview? attitude really helped.My HR questions went very well as they were
thought over. (comparing different case experiences with friends
led to the conclusion that HR plays a very vital role and is a key
distingushing factor)
What do you think went Interview went well.HR questions were the tricky part.Was
wrong in this interview? repeatedly questioned on why my ambition for music wasn’t
translated into a career choice.Further how suited I was for
consulting given my non analytical background.In the first round I
made an error in the calculation of the guestimate,however they
were only testing the approach/struture.
Any tips for future batches Just be confident.Being yourself is the key.Do not try to lie to
on the basis of your impress the panel.Honesty is highly appreciated.Be clear on why
experience consulting.Practice as many cases (in a formal structure and
environment).Note the feedback and continously work on the
same.

Interview Experience 27
Name: Arpit Vinayak
Company: McKinsey & Co
Name of interviewer and Mr. Rajat Dhawan + 2 other partners
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 3 rounds
Brief Profile : Engineering (IIT Madras, B.Tech Biotechnology), 4 years work-ex:
(Graduation College, stream, Jaypee Capital Services (Derivatives Trader, 6 months), JP Morgan
Work ex details, etc.) (Equity Research Analyst, 2.5 yrs), Samara Capital (PE Analyst, 1
yr)
Interview questions (With Round 1: 1) Tell me about yourself, 2) Biggest failure in life (from
indicative answers if you the McKinsey test), 3) What would your suggestions be to the PM
choose to share them) Narendra Modi on making the recently launched MadeInIndia
Campaign successful, 4) Guesstimate the no. of iPhone 6 that
would be sold in India post the upcoming launch

Round 2: 1) What were your biggest learnings from the work

experiences in all companies/ profiles you worked for/ in 2) Need
to reduce the waiting time in the OPD of a hospital. How would
you do it

Round 3: 1) Why MBA after such work experience? 2) Short

quantitative problem on variable/ fixed expenses of a hotel 3) How
would you reduce the setup cost of a hotel company?
Narration of the case Round 1: 1) Suggested things around SEZs, substituting imports
interview (Please be as (focus on specific sectors), etc 2) Reached a very large no of 30MM
descriptive as possible) over the quarter. Hence was not good overall.
Round 2: Very specific case, data specific. Recently executed by
the partner. Discussed the current work schedule of the doctors
and suggested ways around reducing waiting time: incentives for
taking appointments, etc.
Round 3: Qualitative case
What do you think went Except for round 1, case interviews were good. Was able to reach
right in this interview? exact, tangible solutions.
What do you think went Round 1 wasn’t good. HR answers could have been better.
wrong in this interview? Guesstimate wasn’t good.
Any tips for future batches 1) HR answers are important. Take time to prepare well.
on the basis of your 2) Some interviewers tend to get very friendly, to make you
experience comfortable and talk about things you shouldn’t, don’t lower your
guard/ be too friendly.

Interview Experience 28
Name: Fern Sharma
Company: McKinsey
Name of interviewer and Mr Vikas ,Senior Partner
designation
Round (First/Second/third) First
Brief Profile : Works on Pharma cases
(Graduation College, stream,
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Why consulting? How has IIML been so far
indicative answers if you Spoke about committee and ABG experience. Linked why
choose to share them) consulting with experience in analytics

Round 2: Only HR questions. What advice will you give my 8 year

daughter? Long term plans? What do you think the role of partner
is in the firm?

Advice: Let her follow her dreams. There is no ultimate success.

You choose your own path. She is lucky enough to be born in a
family where all the resources will be provided to her to follow her
passion. All she needs is great guidance and freedom of thought.

Long term Plan: See myself as a partner in McKinsey in 8 years

Narration of the case Movie theatre case. Single screen cinema suffering losses in
interview (Please be as Mumbai
descriptive as possible)
Listed all the revenue and cost streams. It was a cost side problem
as everything was done internally with 100 employees for food
vending, maintenance etc

Solution: Outsource all the activities and cut down on labor costs
What do you think went My confidence in answering all the HR questions. More than the
right in this interview? case, they were judging the communication skills. Also I listened to
their view. In the case it was 50-50 talking.
What do you think went Nothing
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches 1) Prepare Why Consulting? Long term plans and Why McKinsey
on the basis of your questions well
experience 2) Involve the partner as much and take pauses while solving the
case. No need to rush
3) Stick to the structure that you have been following with your
case group

Interview Experience 29
Name: Krishnan Sankaranarayanan
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and R1: Abhishek (EM) R2: Partner (Don’t remember the name) R3:
designation Partner (Don’t remember the name)
Brief Profile : B.Com, Loyola College (2011)
(Graduation College, stream, Goldman Sachs, Fixed Income
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: About me and a case
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Round 2: Case

Round 3: HR
Narration of the case R1: Apart from the pleasantries and usual HR questions, the first
interview (Please be as case was based on automobiles and how the share of the
descriptive as possible) automobiles industry can be improved globally and contribute
more to the GDP. I missed out few options but the interviewer
was satisfied I discussed those options I had put forward at length.

R2: The case was related to the benefit given to LPG customers
(DBT) and how can it be implemented for kerosene since it is
widely used to adulterate diesel. The partner expected a solution
with regard to eliminating the benefit which was not utilized by
deserving people.

R3: Completely HR. The partner asked me a lot of questions on

why consulting, my goals in life, how will working in McKinsey
help me achieve them, etc.
What do you think went Throughout the rounds, I was quite calm. I did not rush
right in this interview? unnecessarily at any point of time and I also gave feasible solutions
rather than giving solutions that could not be implemented. This
worked in my favour. Also, in the 3rd round, I did not memorize
my HR answers and deliver it due to which I was able to engage in
a conversation due to which the partner was interested and the
interview went on for 45 min.
What do you think went During the 2nd round, the case problem was quite long due to
wrong in this interview? which I did not write legibly and the interviewers generally tend to
see what you write to judge your thought process. The partner was
initially apprehensive about my illegible handwriting.
Any tips for future batches During case rounds, make sure you write legibly and think of all the
on the basis of your scenarios possible while trying to do MECE. It does not matter if
experience you take 1 or 2 more minutes but keep the interviewer engaged
during moments of silence. Be honest in your HR answers and do
not tell your HR answers verbatim.

Interview Experience 30
Name: Nishtha Khandelwal
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and Ruchi (Associate Partner)
designation Vikas Badoliya
Malcom Gomes (Engagement Manager)
Rajat Dhawan (Director)
Round (First/Second/third) All
Brief Profile : B. Com Honours, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Fresher
(Graduation College, stream,
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me about yourself followed by 1 case discussion
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Round 2: a case discussion followed by few HR questions

Round 3: HR round and one guesstimate

Round 4: HR Round
Narration of the case Round 1: You own an e-commerce website which sells jewellery,
interview (Please be as fashion products and apparel majorly for women. You have spent a
descriptive as possible) good amount on marketing the site but still are in losses. Now you
have to make a strategy to earn profits.
Basically an idea generation case; suggested innovative ideas to
increase revenues
Round 2: A person owns a single screen cinema hall in Mumbai
which is in losses. Find out problems and suggest ways to
turnaround the same.
Round 3: Guesstimate on how many students pass out as
commerce graduates from Chennai every year.
Round 4: HR round; asked to explain things from cv.
What do you think went All the interviewers were completely engaged in the process; got a
right in this interview? compliment for my confidence. Take time off before starting with
an answer to the case. For HR answers, be confident of whatever
you say, try to quote examples with every answer.
What do you think went Understood the question wrong in one of the round but realized a
wrong in this interview? minute later. Admit your mistake and proceed.
Any tips for future batches Be very confident in the interview. Put a lot of focus on HR
on the basis of your answers as they are equally important.
experience
 Interview Experience 31
Name: Parvez Jesani
Company: McKinsey & Co
Name of interviewer and Mandar, Partner
designation
Round (First/Second/third) First Round – HR + Guesstimate

Second Round – HR + Guesstimate

Brief Profile : Narsee Monjee – B.Com, CA, CFA
(Graduation College, stream, 2 Years work ex – Credit Suisse (4 months), Edelweiss (9 months),
Work ex details, etc.) eParent (1 year)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me something about yourself, asked a lot about my
indicative answers if you start-up as to how and why I started it, etc. – explained him the
choose to share them) problems we faced in scaling it up. Got a case related to that – If I
get a funding of Rs. 10 Cr, what will I do?

Round 2: Tell me something about yourself, why consulting, why

McK?
Guesstimate – Expected sales of iPhone 6 in India
Narration of the case Round 1 - Explained him the strategies that we had thought about
interview (Please be as – Products that we were planning to introduce, the ways we
descriptive as possible) thought of expanding geographically, etc.
And then he made me do a Guesstimate on the expected no of
customers in 3 years.
Followed a top-down approach – Rural/ urban – age – income
level – need-gap.

Round 2 - Followed a top-down approach – Rural/urban – age –

income level – need-gap.
What do you think went Round 1 – It was absolutely perfect. Since it was a case related to
right in this interview? my start-up, I had a few ideas in mind on the expansion front. I
took the cue on the guesstimate and jumped onto it.

Round 2 – The partner was not at all responsive. He showed as if

he didn’t care when I was doing the guesstimate. I kept on running
him through my assumptions and tried my best to engage him.
What do you think went -
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Try to do some cases related to your work-experience.
on the basis of your
experience

Interview Experience 32
Name: Shifali Makkar
Company: Mckinsey
Name of interviewer and
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 4 rounds

Brief Profile : Bcom(Hons)

(Graduation College, stream, Sri Venkateswara College
Work ex details, etc.) Delhi University
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you Ques:
choose to share them) Initial 5 mins HR ques (background, passion, interests etc)
Followed by a small case based on my interest area mentioned in
CV
Round 2:
Case Based
Round 3:
Case Based
Round 4:
Case Based
Narration of the case Round 1:
interview (Please be as Case: To chalk out plan for opening a theatre school
descriptive as possible) I started with a MECE structure about all steps (plan of action).
Then asked him prior to proceeding further which one to focus on
first. The interviewer wanted me to draw out a plan for generating
revenue so then delved further into it listing down all the possible
options. He wanted to test my comfort with numbers too, so asked
the revenue potential of a year and its profitability.
Round 2: Interviewer was a partner
Case:
As an advisor to PM, give suggestions on the MAKE in India
Campaign.
Drew out structure, tried to ensure it to be a MECE one but was a
highly open ended topic.
Was a one sided interview, very little response from the
interviewer’s side.
Round 3:
Interviewer was a lady, senior consultant.
A case on testing the profit viability of a baby care firm going
online.
Round 4: With Partner
A cash flow case on whether government should invest in eco cars
and introduce it across the country
What do you think went In the first 3 rounds, I ensured that I remained calm and confident.
right in this interview? Didn’t lose composure or become nervous. Ensured a
conversation flow with interviewer and took hints at appropriate
times.

In case solving, balanced between structure and spontaneity.

Structures were MECE.
What do you think went Round 4: Structure was in place but faltered in solving it right.
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Always involve the interviewer and remain confident of what you
on the basis of your say. Even if the interviewer refutes your stance, not to get nervous.
experience Keep a calm and pleasant face on. MECE very imp in structures.
Reflects on your holistic thinking ability.

Interview Experience 33
Name: Surbhi Kalia
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and Partner, Partner
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 2
Brief Profile : Chandigarh College of Engineering & Technology, Punjab
(Graduation College, stream, University
Work ex details, etc.) Fresher
Professional Theatre Artist
Interview questions (With Round 1: First round was completely HR. It started with “Tell me
indicative answers if you about yourself”, and questions like “Why Theatre”, “Why
choose to share them) consulting”, “Why Mckinsey” and “your learnings in B-school and
in Internship”, “How have your experiences shaped you” and
“Why MBA after Engineering”, “Why consulting after
Engineering”. Basically, questions were driven from my preceding
answers . To end with “ Any questions for him”.
Round 2: Again, it began with “tell me about yourself”, “Why not
Theatre as a profession” and “Why consulting”. And then he asked
me to connect Theatre with Consulting. Ended with “Any
questions for him”.
Narration of the case Round 1: First round was completely HR. It went for about 30-40
interview (Please be as minutes.
descriptive as possible)
Round 2: After the HR questions, he took me towards the case by
asking what all can I do for Theatre. I listed down few options, out
of which, one was to organise theatre events and have a Theatre
company. He took that as a case topic, and gave a case.
“You own Surbhi Theatre company. How will you promote
Theatre”
(expect unorthodox cases in Mck interview)
I asked for some time, and listed down my thoughts as bullet
points. I gave him options like listing down theatre groups,
organise yearly Theatre events et al. Then after like fifteen minutes
of discussion over this, he asked me to calculate revenue from
these theatre festivals. I divided it into two, one from cities with
lavish Theatre culture like Delhi, others with lesser level of
Theatrical activities and fervour. Based on the Theatre fests I had
been a part of, I calculated the revenue. He seemed pretty satisfied
with the analysis. Importantly, I kept asking him if I can use the
assumptions I am stating. It is imperative to verify your
assumptions.
What do you think went Round 1:
right in this interview? I was honest in my answers. Be yourself in the interview. He kept
asking me questions, and I answered with the experiences of my
life. This turned the interview in a a casual conversation. Towards
the end of the interview, he also shared his own experiences of the
organisation with me.

Round 2:
It was about Theatre! Again, I verified my assumptions. And I kept
him engaged.
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Be yourself.
on the basis of your Keep a smile on your face. It helps to keep your calm.
experience Think on your feet.
I think, having a question to him in the end, when he asks, does
help.
Read the cues and expressions of the interviewer.
Take time to structure your thoughts. It becomes easier for you to
think ahead in the right direction.

Interview Experience 34
Name: Swati Thakur
Company: McKinsey and Co.
Name of interviewer and Round 1: Partner (Case)
designation Round 2: Partner (Case)
Round 3: Director (Short-HR Only)
Round (First/Second/third)
Brief Profile : Economics (H), St. Stepehen’s College, Delhi,
(Graduation College, stream, 24 months across Analytics & Consulting
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: HR-Tell me about yourself, background, experience so
indicative answers if you far (personal)
choose to share them) Discussion on PORs, slightly longer discussion on my work-
projects undertaken, insights
Guesstimate: No. of tennis balls in India at any point of time (2
approaches)
Case: Falling revenue of a Theatre in Mumbai; wasn’t typical was a
detailed discussion on all possible aspects that could affect
revenue/profitability

Round 2:Brief intro, some basic HR; Follow-up

question/comments on my answers in the HR form filled a week
prior to placements
Case: Valuation of different revenue streams for an Indian Super
League Team (mainly a lot of number work)

Round 3:Short HR with Director (10 minutes)

Questions on past work-ex, activities in college, views on some
current economic issue
Narration of the case Round 1: Guesstimate: No. of tennis balls in India at any point of
interview (Please be as time
descriptive as possible) Though the initial plan was to discuss the appraoch and the
numbers both, we ended up discussing the apprach at great length.
He then asked me to give him another apprach for the same, which
I did.
We discussed the pros and cons of both approaches.

Case: Falling revenue of a Theatre in Mumbai

Asked qualifying questions about the industry, about the revenue
streams, the theatre and genre. Laid down the basic structure of the
case; then we went into a detailed discussion of the value chain.
Beyond the basic structure, I think I was being tested on depth of
analysis, idea generation and thinking on my feet.

We discussed the whole process of how and why a customer

would come to any particular theatre, then looked at the possible
issues at each step.
We then proceeded to discuss different scenarios-what would
happen if any particular aspect of the theatre as altered, what can
be the possible areas of improvement for the theatre in particular
and any theatre in general.

Round 2: Valuation of different revenue streams for an Indian

Super League Team
The intent of the case was to check my comfort level with numbers
because that’s what the partner made me do. I had no idea about
ISL and I said that clearly to which the partner readily gave me a
brief overview of how it works. Then, I laid down a structure after
asking a few basic questions about their revenue streams. From
then on, it was me calculating revenue from different sources to
the last decimal. Even when I did make a small error, I gracefully
accepted it and it was fine.
What do you think went Round 1: HR- I was honest with my answers and the interviwer
right in this interview? mentioned this as something he liked.
Guesstimate- I was able to switch to a different approach as soon
as he asked me to. Was able to point out possible flaws in both
approaches.
Case: The detailing and idea generation were things he really liked.
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches  It is important that your HR answers are not made-up because
on the basis of your the interviwers appreciate honesty
experience  Its good to have a question in mind to ask when you’re given a
chance at the end of the interview
 If you don’t know something in a guesstimate/case or if you
think you made an error somewhere, it is perfectly okay to
ask/accept and take a step back
Summer Internship
Experiences 2013
 Accenture
Management
Consulting
Interview Experience 1
Name: Mohammed Mudassar
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Rounds 1,3: Do not know
designation Round 2: HR
Round 4 (Telephonic) : Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner

Round 4 Rounds
Brief Profile : Computer Science Engineering, Osmania University, Hyd.
12 months at Google as Corporate Operations Engineer
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you Why would a person with a very technical background want to go
choose to share them) into consulting?

What is the current mobile phone I use? (At the time, I used a
Micromax A74)
Why has Micromax succeeded? What has it done correctly?
What do you understand from Micromax’s recent advertising
campaigns? Why has it cast Hugh Jackman?
Why is Nokia doing badly? What are the strategic mistakes it has
made?

Which other industries interest me? (Apart from technology, my

answer was Aviation)
Why is the aviation industry not profitable?
Caselet: How would I approach the situation if Boeing asked me to
help their suppliers (HAL) improve their output?
What recent major deals in aviation did I know about?

How would I be able to handle the pressures and challenges of a

consulting career?

Round 2:
Largely conversational, my experiences and expectations from
consulting and whether Accenture would fit me. No clichéd HR
questions.
 Round 3:
Guesstimate the size of the Indian Diaper market.
Repeating the point about me being too technical for the role.

Round 4:
What is Accenture’s current stock price?
Is Accenture a public or a private company?
Where is Accenture headquartered out of?
What is causing deflation in Japan?
More questions about the state of the Japanese economy and
macroeconomics in general.
What should the governor of RBI focus on?
Narration of the case Boeing parts:
interview  I was only asked to list the broad areas I’d look at. Listed
transportation, supply chain, labour relations, and legal
arrangements.
 Added one or two possible problems under each issue and
suggested solutions.
Guesstimate(Diapers):
 Structured using the number of kids in India using
population statistics, the family income, and cost of diaper
by guessing the percentage of families who would use
diapers.
 My initial estimate was $12 billion, way too high, and
without him pointing it out, I tried to adjust my various
estimates.
 He was fairly happy with the structure and did not try to
correct the numbers too much.
What do you think went  Google on my resume helped. My interviewers looked at
right in this interview? that, smiled at me, and probably did not look beyond that
on the CV.
 In Round 1, the interviewer stated an incorrect fact about
the aviation industry and I corrected him. This made me
look knowledgeable and he didn’t ask too many factual
questions after that.
 Also, on the questions involving me being too technical, I
took a consistent stance that I like technology and I believe
it can be applied through consulting. I felt they were trying
to get me to change my stance, but I stuck to it while
respecting their point of view. I think this helped.
 The spontaneity I was able to show was helpful in turning
the interviews in directions I preferred.
What do you think went  In the second round, I wasn’t really sure what I had to say
wrong in this interview? as I was more prepared for questions than a conversation, I
felt I rambled a bit.
 In the fourth round, I could plainly not answer many
questions on macroeconomics.
 The questions I asked were perhaps a bit naïve.
Any tips for future batches  In-depth knowledge of one or two sectors is very valuable.
on the basis of your  Consistency of answers across interviews and your CV
experience makes you look sane.
 Interview Experience 2
Name: Rhythem Pahwa
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Round 1 – Senior Manager from Supply Chain Vertical
designation
Round 2 – Some HR executive
Round 3 – Vikrant; Partner, heads the sustainability practice are
Round (First/Second/third) Three rounds
Brief Profile : B.Tech from PEC (2010 batch); Prior work experience of about 5
(Graduation College, stream, months with Mu Sigma, Bangalore and 26 months with ZS
Work ex details, etc.) Associates, Gurgaon
Interview questions (With Round 1: Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, why
indicative answers if you consulting
choose to share them)
Discussed one project from Mu Sigma and one from ZS in detail,
nature of responsibilities

Case on an FMCG giant who was facing a sharp decline in profits.

The interviewer did not allow me to use a pen and paper and rather
asked to orally discuss the case. I questioned the ins and outs of the
business, the industry and other basic qualifiers. The issue was with
the supply chain. Gave him recommendations on how to enhance
the profits. After this he gave a couple of hypothetical situations
pertaining to sales and distribution issues and how I would go
ahead. The interview lasted for about 45 mins.

Round 2:
Tell me something about yourself, typical HR situations (significant
achievement, situation where you achieved something significant
after overcoming obstacles, etc.), which practice area would you
like to work in at AMC, what do you know of that practice area,
what do you remember of the ppt, what did you like, what is it that
you didn’t like.
The interview lasted for about half an hour

Round 3:
This was the Partner round. Some general questions from my
work-experience, which practice area would you prefer, why, recent
developments in that practice area, a couple of projects from my
stint at ZS

He asked me an HR case. A Financial services firm recruits and

trains Financial Advisors but for some unknown reason the
attrition rate is huge. Investigate why. He just gave me 5 mins to
discuss and solve the case with him so had to be really fast with the
analysis. After this round he made the offer and I accepted it.
Narration of the case Explained above
interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)
What do you think went Spoke enthusiastically, did well in the cases
right in this interview?

What do you think went Couldn’t justify satisfactorily why I wanted a particular practice area
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Prepare well for HR questions, it helps
on the basis of your
experience

Interview Experience 3
Name: Sabyasachi Dhar
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Principal
designation
Round 3 Rounds
(First/Second/third)
Brief Profile : Economics (Hons.) St. Xavier’s College. Worked for 35 months as
(Graduation College, part of the Essar Group Corporate Risk and Insurance
stream, Work ex details, Management Team
etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you
choose to share them) Tell me about yourself (was the only HR question in this round)

How did you balance your work/studies with your extra-curricular

activities?

Explain your work experience

Questions on work experience like the type of risks associated with
vessels or the state of the Insurance industry in India

If your previous employer came to accenture for consulting advise,

what advice would you give them?

Case
1st asked me about how Tata Sumo is doing in India, to which I
replied not well at all. Then the problem statement was to help
Tata come up with a decision regarding the future of Sumo.

Walked him through the value chain and stressed on the cost and
value drivers and came up with 3 solutions, to which he seemed
impressed and stopped the discussion there
 Post the case, he asked about the current Economic condition of
India and what implications the forthcoming elections and the
budget hold.

Had a discussion on that for 10 minute and then he asked me if I

had any questions. Asked him why Accenture is the only
Consulting firm that is publicly listed while the others are privately
held? He seemed impressed again and explained the whole idea
behind going public. After 10 minutes of discussion, the interview
was concluded.

Round 2:

HR round. Asked various questions like tell me something about

yourself, why Accenture, why consulting, tell us something that
drives you, why did you give up on sports, what convinced you to
do an MBA.

Also ran through my CV and asked HR related questions regarding

the Positions of responsibilities that I held and the extra-curricular
activities I took part in.

Round 3:

Was the final round. Again asked me to introduce myself and in

general spoke about what I did in life and what drives me. Also
wanted to know what I was passionate about in life. I had a feeling
that the objective was to test whether I was passionate about the
things I care about.

The conversation ended with him asking me whether I would like

to choose Accenture Global or Accenture India, to which I replied
Accenture Global and linked it to everything else I had spoken to
him about.
Narration of the case The problem statement was to help Tata come up with a decision
interview (Please be as regarding the future of Sumo.
descriptive as possible)
I took a minute off to get the 1st two layers of the structure in
place. Then started with the Cost and Value drivers and
complemented it with the value chain to figure out where they
were going wrong. After looking at every aspect, we came to the
conclusion that the Tata Sumo is falling behind due to improper
positioning of the vehicle vis-à-vis it competitors and the lack of
sheer innovation that the subsequent models have shown.
What do you think went Clarity of thought
right in this interview? Structure to answers, especially HR answers
Interacting with the Interviewer, asking questions wherever
necessary
Not fumbling and losing the main chain of thought
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Preparation of HR answers, most essential
on the basis of your In a case, look at every aspect possible
experience If you don’t know how to proceed, take time out to think and
involve the interviewer as much as possible
Don’t jump to conclusions

Interview Experience 4
Name: Stuti Garg
Company: AMC
Name of interviewer and
designation --
Round First, Second(telephonic)
(First/Second/third)
Brief Profile : MNNIT Allahabad, Electrical Engineering
(Graduation College, Worked at NTPC Ltd. for about two years
stream, Work ex details,
etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you 1) Walk me through your CV.
choose to share them) Ans: I started with academics. Elaborated on the special
achievements in it. Talked about my stint with NTPC and
the projects I did there. He himself asked about various
extracurriculars
and PORs I mentioned and asked me to
elaborate on them.
2) Which project was your personal favourite at NTPC and
why?
Ans: I spoke about a rural electrification project and told
them how I got complete autonomy while executing it.
Spoke about other facets like interacting with gram
panchayats etc.
3) Do you think Kyoto Protocol is biased? (I conducted a
panel discussion in college about carbon emissions control)
Ans: Talked about its various clauses, how they are
administered and how much say developed nations have in
it. Finally giving some examples concluded that isn’t biased.
4) Which are your favourite three books? (I was a member
of literary club in college)
5) What did you read most as a kid?
Ans: I said Tintin. He too turned out to be a huge tintin fan
and we went on talking about it for another 10 minutes.
6) If I ask your best friend to describe you in one word,
what do you think she’ll say?
7) How is coal paucity hindering our progress? (worked in
thermal plant)
Ans: I said that we had abundant coal. The problem is in our
policies and practices. Elaborated on that.
8) Do you want to ask me anything.
Round 2: Was a telephonic round. Three very generic
questions were asked.
 1) Which was your favourite subject in term 1?
2) What do you do in free time at IIML?
3) How has the journey been so far at IIML?
Narration of the case 1) A burger joint’s profitability is falling despite same sales
interview (Please be as revenue? Analyse the reasons.
descriptive as possible) 2) ESPN has to bid for an upcoming cricket match series.
Give them a reasonable quote.
Ans: I asked about the kind of series: test, oneday
or IPL.
I asked about the match’s location. He replied India to
which I asked if India was playing. Enquired about the
sponsors, ad revenues etc.
What do you think went Coherence and structure in answers
right in this interview? I was very candidly chatting with them which probably
worked in my favour
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future batches Know your CV really well.
on the basis of your Sort things out in your mind before answering.
experience Ask them only relevant questions. Never beat around the
bush.
Stay calm and composed.

Interview Experience 5
Name: Suraj Serikar
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Don’t remember
designation Round 4 (Telephonic) : Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner
Round (First/Second/third) 4 Rounds
Brief Profile : Graduated from IIT Madras, 2 years work ex at Olam as a
(Graduation College, stream, consultant
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Case + HR
indicative answers if you Interview kicked off by tell me about yourself. Then asked about
choose to share them) my PORs at IIT. Gave a case on Olam expansion strategy in
between discussion about my work ex. Then some questions about
Accenture and HR.
Asked if I had any questions for him.

Round 2: HR
Tell me about yourself?
Why Accenture? Why consulting?
HR person was interested in my work ex and PORs, asked a plenty
of questions on that.

Round 3: CV Based + HR
Tell me about yourself?
Asked how my day was, as my energy levels were bit low at that
point of time.
I had an entrepreneurial venture at IIT and interviewer was asking
questions related to entrepreneurship trends in India and issues
faced in my venture, key learnings etc.
 Interviewer was working in a similar domain of supply chain (Sales
and distribution) and we had a discussion on challenges involved in
projects.
What were my expectations from Accenture and why I prefer it
over working for Olam?

Round 4 : Telephonic interview- CV Based

Was very short interview and partner was quickly running through
my CV and asked about my entrepreneurial venture and why it
failed?
Narration of the case Suggest a strategy for Olam to expand in next 2-3 years in coffee
interview (Please be as commodity business unit?
descriptive as possible) Interviewer was looking for structure and logic in the approach. I
walked him through the value chain in coffee business and then
focussed on areas in procurement and distribution currently
controlled by other parties. Then proposed for forward integration
for the product and explained the rationale using some examples of
other businesses of Olam. Interviewer appeared to be quite
convinced at this stage and he moved on to some specific set of
questions in commodities.
What do you think went I was quick to realise the case presented to me in between
right in this interview? conversation and I had asked him time for structuring it.
There were no signs of nervousness as I had sat for ample number
of interviews before and was very comfortable and confident
throughout the process. Was quick to catch cues from interviewer
and focused discussion on topics that engaged him. Was cheerful
throughout the process.
What do you think went I was completely exhausted as interviews were scheduled towards
wrong in this interview? end of the day and my energy levels were not high.
Any tips for future batches Be confident, energetic and enjoy the process.
on the basis of your
experience

Interview Experience 6
Name: Swati Singh
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and -
designation
Round (First/Second/third) Four rounds in all
Brief Profile : Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Delhi
(Graduation College, stream, (Mechanical Engineering)
Work ex details, etc.) 2.5 years’ work ex. with an Indian automobile company (R&D)
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you 1) Tell me something about yourself?
choose to share them) 2) Work profile? (Some more questions related to it)
Most questions after that were supply chain management (SCM)
related because I had worked in an automobile company (caught me
off-guard since my area of work was research and not production).
Some of the questions were -
3) Difference between SCM inside the firm and outside the firm
4) How does an automobile firm manage its inventory?
5) What is the difference between centralized and de-centralized
supply chain? Advantages and Disadvantages of each
 6) What are the various ways in which you’ll reduce inventory
pile up?

Round 2: (HR)
1) Tell me something about yourself
2) How was your experience of working with XYZ Company?
3) Why consulting? Why not join the old firm back?
4) Why Accenture?
5) How do you fit in?
6) What if we are not able to recruit you today?

Round 3 :
Started with the usual tell me something about yourself. Then he
started questioning me on why I want to choose consulting as a
field and why I don’t want to work with my old firm again.
Then he gave me a guesstimate:
Estimate the no of passenger shared auto rickshaws in Lucknow
The guesstimate could have been done using multiple approaches so
he asked me the different approaches I can use to arrive at the final
answer. He also cross questioned me on the assumptions I had made
while solving the guesstimate.

Round 4:

The interviewer was also a mechanical engineer so he asked me a

lot of questions on SI/CI engines, Torque Speed curve, Knocking
etc.
Narration of the case Round 4:
interview (Please be as Market entry strategy for a Chinese automobile firm
descriptive as possible)
My approach was to first evaluate whether it is the right
environment and time to enter and then move on to how to enter-
by utilizing existing capabilities or developing new ones.
What do you think went Round 1:
right in this interview? I was able to give some work related examples to support my
understanding of concepts which I think he really liked
Round 2: I was calm and confident throughout
Round 3: I logically explained my assumptions without getting
perturbed by the interviewer’s cross questioning (even though a
few data points actually turned out wrong)
Round 4: The case went well as I could cover almost all the areas
What do you think went Round 1:
wrong in this interview? I was not very well prepared to handle SCM related questions.
Round 2:
Nothing as such
Round 3:
I should’ve taken more time in solving the guesstimate and not
rushed into getting an answer
Any tips for future batches If you have core manufacturing work-ex, irrespective of the
on the basis of your department you were in, be thoroughly prepared with operations
experience related questions.
Also, be prepared for a few question from your undergraduate
stream
 A T Kearney
Interview Experience 7
Name: Naveen Bansal
Company: A T Kearney
Name of interviewer and -
designation
Round (First/Second/third) -
Brief Profile : PEC, Goldman Sachs
(Graduation College, stream,
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1-
indicative answers if you 1. Tell me something about yourself (was asked the same question
choose to share them) multiple times in the process)
2. Your most significant achievement in life
3. Support your hobbies with examples: I mentioned reading
novels and was asked about the last novel i read and what did i like
the most in the novel

Round 2 -
1. Explain what I did at Goldman Sachs (Job role and
responsibilities)
2. One instance where you think team work was most important
(linked to work experience)

Guesstimate 1: Estimate the demand of ACs in India

Case 1: A two wheeler manufacturer, a market leader in the

category, has a lot of cash available for investment. The firm is a
proprietorship and has an owner. The owner now wants to move
to the small car segment. Advise him if he should venture into
small car market or not.

Case 2: Estimate the demand of Cement in India.

- Was asked to devise both top-down and bottom-up approach for
estimating the number.
Top-Down approach included looking at Macro indicators (GDP
Per capita and Cement consumption per capita). The Interviewer
had all the numbers but he was waiting for me to ask.
Narration of the case
interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)
What do you think went
right in this interview?
What do you think went
wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches Prepare some questions to ask to the interviewer.
on the basis of your 1. Stay happy! a smile on your face really works!
experience 2. Don't hesitate in asking for time to think. It is perfectly fine!
3. Make HR questions as personal as possible! ( a BIG +)
4. Maintain your stand following the Pcom rules if asked about
offer. Ask for some time to think and contact PCom immediately.
Boston Consulting
Group
 Interview Experience 8
Name: Aditya Dogra
Company: The Boston Consulting Group
Name of interviewer and Rishabh, Project Lead (First Round)
designation Sachin Kotak, Principal (Second Round)
Priyanka, Principal (Third Round)
Amit Sachdev, Principal (Fourth Round)
Brief Profile : B.Tech. Civil Engg, IIT Bombay, Work ex – 11 months at
(Graduation College, stream, Inductis (Analytics)
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Brief introduction followed by a case
indicative answers if you Round 2: No HR questions, went to the case straight away
choose to share them) Round 3: Brief introduction followed by a couple of experience
based questions, this was followed by a case
Round 4: Introduction followed by a guestimate

Narration of the case Round 1: The case was concerning a mobile device manufacturer
interview (Please be as facing a decline in profits. It had opened new stores through a
descriptive as possible) franchisee recently and started selling products at a lower price.
This had affected the equation with the set of old retailers. In
addition the margins provided to the retailers by the client weren’t
competitive which were causing it to lose sales.

Round 2: The interviewer had shaken things up a little by doing

away with the conventional over the table discussion and the case
was solved on a blackboard. Problem statement was developing a
presentation to be made at a round table conference of
procurement managers. I started off by laying out the broad
structure of the presentation. Later the discussion moved onto
coming up with different environmental factors that need to be
included which would concern the day to day work of a
procurement manager. I bucketed these factors into Political,
Economic, Social, Technical and generated ideas for each backing
them up with recent events eg. Under economic factors one of the
concerns was currency fluctuation which would affect price of
procurement and how hedging could mitigate the risk.

Round 3: The case was about a pharmaceutical company

launching a new vaccine and looking to decide upon a pricing
strategy. I listed the 3 factors I would consider to fix the price
point - manufacturing and selling costs, pricing of competitive
products, value of product to customer. The interviewer directed
me to consider the first factor since there were no competing
products and the third factor was very qualitative. The problem
was then reduced to estimating the size of market, forecasting
sales and asking questions to get complete information about the
costs involved (R&D, Patents were major costs).

Round 4: The case involved estimating the demand for the

upcoming Mumbai metro. I proceeded by breaking the problem
into three parts – shifting of passengers from Mumbai local,
shifting of passengers from other modes of public transport,
people shifting from private to public transport. I made reasonable
 assumptions about the % of passengers that would shift from each
segment on the basis of the information I had about the metro
routes. Post that there was some calculation involved in estimating
the size of each segment as frequency multiplied by capacity
(separately for peak and non-peak hours).

The interview ended with a good discussion about my work at

Inductis on a financial services project as Amit himself had been
working in that domain.
What do you think went right Picked up the hints given by the interviewer – in my first round,
in this interview? after laying down the approach I was going in a different direction.
At that point I picked up a hint from the interviewer’s expressions
and took a step back to then move in the right direction.

2 of my interviews had lots of calculation involved which I was

able to handle extremely well.

What do you think went With a new format and a very unconventional case in the 2nd
wrong in this interview? round it took a little time to adjust and for a while I wasn’t giving
the kind of ideas the interviewer was looking for.

Any tips for future batches Extremely important to stay calm and confident throughout the
on the basis of your interview and have a good discussion with the interviewer.
experience

Interview Experience 9
Name: Chinmaya Golecha
Company: The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Name of interviewer and Amit Sachdeva, Principal
designation
Round (First/Second/third) One round

Brief Profile : Worked at Deutsche Bank Centre as a part of the TMT team in
(Graduation College, stream, London (11 months)
Work ex details, etc.) B.Com (H) from SRCC
CA Inter
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you 15 minutes - Quick chat about the CV, some relevant interest areas
choose to share them) around my work-ex and some PoR’s.
25 minutes - Case around Computers/Laptops manufacturer’s
service revenue increase.

Round 2: n/a

Round 3: n/a
Narration of the case Case overview:
interview (Please be as There is a computers/laptop manufacturer, global leader, with two
descriptive as possible) revenue streams – Primary selling of products
Service revenues from maintenance, repair and replacement parts
Global average split is 75%-25% respectively but India split is
95%-5%

Problem Statement:
To increase revenue stream from services in India

Case Approach:
1) Background questions:

Inquired about the supply chain. What services are offered, how
they are offered, who offers them.

Discovered that problem area was sale of replacement parts and

the services entailed therein

Discovered that the company follows a hub-and-spoke model, ie:

one central distributor in the country who gives spare parts to all
retail stores (100% franchisee system)

2) Approach:

Decided to approach the problem using the most basic Revenue

breakdown = Volume x Price
If we can find why revenue is down either because of Volume or
Price than we can find the issue.
I felt, prima facie, that the problem lay in Price (as my
understanding is for a replacement part, I would get something
cheap rather than go the actual store after warranty and overpay).
However, I was told that the price offered outside the stores was
20% higher than the in-store price.

The Problem statement thus became: Why are people not buying
replacement parts from us even if they are cheaper?

To drill into this, I decided to get into the shoes of a consumer.

The various problems (logical flow, thus MECE) could be:
Do I have access to a store?
Do they have parts?
Do they have good staff (technicians that can help etc)?
Turnaround time?
 Other service elements?

I dived into each bucket to find that the problem lay in spare parts
after spending considerable time on good staff and access. (I
established that distribution/reach was good so people did not find
it inconvenient to visit our stores as well as we had skilled help that
could effectively and quickly solve consumer problems)

Re-visited the supply chain to figure out where the problem was
with spare parts. Discovered that the hub sent them to the stores
but still the stores did not have inventory. Spent time analysing the
inventory situation using the interviewers help.
Discovered that each store had an individual P/L and were giving
the inventory to other people (who were in turn selling it at a 20%
markup) and taking a cut!

Recommendations: Establish Inventory issue norms, and ensure

random checking of inventory at stores.
What do you think went Very Interactive – Interviewer was very involved in the case
right in this interview? Picked up all the hints dropped – the interviewer lit up when we
spoke about black market selling of the replacement parts
What do you think went Nothing majorly, Missed a couple of things where the interviewer
wrong in this interview? had to prod me along in the right direction
Any tips for future batches Enjoy the interview! It is actually great fun, and if the interviewer
on the basis of your realises you’re enjoying it, it acts as a huge positive!
experience
Deloitte US Strategy &
Operations
 Interview Experience 10
Name: Abhinandan Pandey
Company: Deloitte
Name of interviewer and
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 1st Round : HR
2nd Round : Case based
3rd round : Case based + presentation round
Brief Profile : Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur
(Graduation College, stream, Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering
Work ex details, etc.) Ericsson India Global Services Pvt. Ltd. – 35 months
Interview questions (With Round 1: Questions on hypothesis testing (I had mentioned QAM
indicative answers if you as my subject of interest)
choose to share them) Why consulting, Why Deloitte, Asked me to sing as I looked
nervous in the beginning of the interview, How your analytical
skills will help in consulting.

Round 2: It was a case based round. A case was provided which

dealt with the sources of revenues and profit and the various
advertisement mediums to be reckoned for the summer Olympics
in 2015. It was a calculation intensive case, so it involved simple
calculations for which the interviewer gave some time. Went for
around 40 minutes

Round 3: The case which was discussed in Round 2 had to be

presented to a senior partner. What followed was an in-depth
discussion on the same case and another case. This round lasted
for around 30 minutes.
Narration of the case Summer Olympics will take place in 2015. Our customers are
interview (Please be as conducting the event.
descriptive as possible) What are the major sources of revenues for them?
Major sources of profit?
What are the costs involved?
How will you price the tickets to earn so and so amount of profit?
How will you make a team. How will you prioritize the tasks?
What do you think went I was confident and bold enough to think on my feet.
right in this interview? The interviewers seemed more interested in how one approaches a
problem. They were complicating the problem as I got deeper into
it. The key is to consider all possible aspects and quickly chose the
best possible alternative as a part of the questions which were
asked.
Might sound like a cliché, Thinking out Loud helps a lot!
What do you think went I fumbled in 2 instances. There are times when the answers just
wrong in this interview? don’t strike! But keep your calm, keep thinking as there is always a
next question and there is always a better way to answer the next
question!

Interview Experience 11
Name: Anmol Mahajan
Company: Deloitte US S&O
Name of interviewer and Senior Manager
designation
Round (First/Second/third) 3 Rounds
Brief Profile : B.Tech in Electronics and Electrical Comm. Engg. from IIT
(Graduation College, stream, Kharagpur (2010).
Work ex details, etc.) Worked for three years as R&D Design Engineer at Analog
Devices, Bangalore
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you In this round, I was asked some basic HR questions like,
choose to share them) Tell me about yourself? Why did you choose consulting as a career?
Why Deloitte? Long term goals? Questions regarding my prior work
experience and my role and scope in R&D.

Then the interviewer introduced himself and we briefly talked about

his role at Deloitte for some time where he answered some of my
questions on his career.
He asked me if I had any questions regarding Deloitte as a firm. I
responded with a question to which he gave a detailed response.

No guesstimates or case questions were asked in this round and it

primarily focused on HR questions and clarity about my long term
goals. This was an elimination round and some of the candidates
were eliminated after this round.

Round 2: Case based round with two Senior Managers

Round 3: Synthesis presentation round with two senior managers.
Narration of the case Round 2:
interview (Please be as Round 2 was with two Senior Managers from Deloitte. There were
descriptive as possible) a few HR questions primarily based on why consulting as a career.
Then the interviewer told me that this is a case round and if analysis
is done right I would be expected to come up with apt
recommendations for the client.
The client is an automobile firm with an annual turnover of around
$10b. Our client has a parts supplier which has an annual business
of around $400m (90% of their total business was done with our
client). On one day, our client company’s CEO gets a call from their
supplier that due to financial troubles, they are going to shut down
operations from next month onwards. The case was about
recommending solutions to our client in this scenario.

I started by asking questions regarding the business model of the

automobile client, their other suppliers, current inventory of parts
with our clients and when will they exhaust it, environmental factors
like geographies they operate in, availability of substitute suppliers in
these geographies.
From the responses to such questions it became clear that a solution
was to found with their current supplier itself. So I started asking
them questions regarding the details of financial problems the
supplier was facing. Upon few of such questions I was given a data
sheet with 5 to 6 tables detailing the various factors like direct costs,
overheads, expenses, number of units sold, unit price, environmental
factors like industry comparison of costs, labour unions etc. at each
of their three plants.
After this, the discussion was more quantitative in nature with me
calculating present profits/loss for each of the plants, suggestions
for cost reduction based on industry comparisons etc. These
 questions primarily focused on the ability to understand the data
given in various tables and link them with each other and come up
with tangible parameters through some number crunching.
Once this analysis was done, he administered another angle by giving
an option to our client to invest $10mn in the supplier’s firm in
return of advancement of technology which would lead to reduction
in prime cost. He asked me if our client should make this investment.
I asked further questions on time factor as to if we invest now how
far from now would we see reduction in costs. He said we would
analyse two situations one where the returns are immediate and the
other where the reduction in costs is earned three years down the
line.
For the current scenario, since I had already calculated the
profitability/loss of each of supplier’s plant, it was easier to calculate
the benefits of the investments. For long term analysis, I answered
that we would have to look into NPV of our investment with
discount factor depending on many risk factors. We briefly discussed
about what could be the risk factors given the data in the data sheet.
On this he was happy and said that I would have to present the
synthesis of the case in the third round.

Round 3:
The third round was act based with a senior manager acting as a
client. I briefly gave the synthesis of the case with my
recommendations. This was followed by a few counter questions
asked by senior manager (acting as a client) which I answered briefly.
Once they were satisfied with my answers, we went back to normal
mode where few questions regarding the expectations from the
internship, expected learnings, etc. were discussed.
What do you think went - Preparation of HR answers and knowledge about Deloitte and
right in this interview? the role on offer
- Ability to perform basic calculations at a good pace
- Exploring various avenues of solving the case and giving logical
pros and cons of each

Interview Experience 12
Name: N Susheel Kumar Reddy
Company: Deloitte US S&O
Name of interviewer and Rd1,2 - Senior Manager
designation Rd 3- Partner
Round (First/Second/third) 3 Rounds
Brief Profile : Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras
(Graduation College, stream, Work in Caterpillar – 35 months, operations
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you Tried to unsettle by saying you are in the wrong room, and I
choose to share them) worked for your company so expect really tough questions

Why consulting and why deloitte?

Few questions from work, and then extracurriculars.

 Guesstimate on stadium gate receipts for Indian Hockey league?
No.of matches played, no.of seats in each stadium, occupancy rate,
etc. were calculated

What are your long term goals?

Round 2:
Case on a firm which has 3 plants and is making huge losses.
Data sheet is given with details of cost and productivity of all 3
plants.
We decided to look into the costs being incurred, split the cost into
3 buckets – Wages, Material and overhead costs.
Material had no scope of cost reduction, Wages – we identified in
plant 3 the no.of salaried were more than hourly hence more cost.
Similarly in overheads – Plant 3 has too much inventory holding
cost.
So we decided to reduce these costs, but even reducing these didn’t
turn a profit so we decided to shut plant 3 and move the
production to plant 1 and plant 2
Later I gave suggestions on how to raise cash for increasing the
production in the other 2 plants – Money by selling plant 3, Loan
or money from market
Later did profit analysis to prove the investment is giving good
profit
Round 3:
Had to present the case I did in Round 2 to the partner – he was
acting as the client whose case we took up and solved.
Drew the tree structure and explained him how we went about
each and every bucket before identifying root causes.
Possible solutions for root causes and suggestions to improve.
The partner kept asking many questions, not agreeing to most. He
was only satisfied when the arguments made were based on
numbers.
Later he asked basic HR questions like, what field of consulting
would I choose? Why deloitte? Etc.
Narration of the case Mentioned Above
interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)

What do you think went

right in this interview?

What do you think went

wrong in this interview?

Any tips for future batches

on the basis of your
experience
 KPMG
Interview Experience 13
Name: Prince Arora
Company: KPMG Advisory Services
Name of interviewer and 2 interviewers over a video call. Do not recall their name and
designation designation
Round (First/Second/third) Only One Round
Brief Profile : Fresher, Dual Degree IIT Madras [8 pointer]
(Graduation College, stream, Member of The Consulting & Strategy Club
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you Tell us about yourself. Questions on Business Current Affairs,
choose to share them) leaders. Why KPMG? Who all are its competitors? What are its
business lines? A few questions on FRA acronyms and their
importance (like EBITDA)
Narration of the case Estimate the market size of Biscuit Industry in India.
interview (Please be as It was a guesstimate. They gave me some time to work out the
descriptive as possible) solution but I made some quick assumptions and took them
through my thinking process. I solved the case from supply side.
Then once I was done, I asked if I should solve it from the demand
side as well. The interviewers asked me to elaborate upon the way
I’ll go about it.
Came up with a ball park figure.
What do you think went The guesstimate and the level of enthusiasm shown towards
right in this interview? solving it. I think they were looking for the right approach and not
the correctness of the final figure.
What do you think went I messes up a little on the company specific questions. Do go
wrong in this interview? through the Company RG before you enter the interview.

Any tips for future batches Stay confident. They seem to like people who are confident about
on the basis of your what they speak. If you don’t know an answer, tell it to them
experience politely.

McKinsey & Co
Interview Experience 14
Name: Abhishek Gupta
Company: Mckinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and Involved an Associate Partner (Pradeep), Partner (Navtez)
designation
Round All
(First/Second/third)
Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, NSIT (2011 Passout)
stream, Work ex details, 18 months in J.P. Morgan and 5 months in Reliance Capital
etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Short tell me about yourself. Then one guesstimate and
indicative answers if you then a case discussion
choose to share them)
Round 2: Tell me about yourself. HR question on leadership
qualities and instance related to that. Case discussion.

Round 3: Purely HR with partner, asked questions on why not

finance, why consulting, why Mckinsey?

After each round you will be asked if you have any questions for
the interviewer, if you have some good questions then do ask, but
do not ask for just for the sake of asking.
Narration of the case Round 1: Guesstimate: Value of a bulb with infinite life (involved
interview (Please be as basic DCF calculation, evaluation of expenditure you might do in
descriptive as possible) case of a normal bulb).
Case: Problems that a truck association might be facing in getting
truck drivers (possible problems and solutions for those). Be
innovative as possible. Although I didn’t reach the exact problem
in the end (only got to know this after the interview from a friend),
but explored quite a few areas to get through to the second round.
The interviewer was very silent and unresponsive, you just had to
carry on with the case on your own. A solution to the truck
problem was that the people got AIDS as they went at different
places, and then they had problems getting married. Second was
that there were health problems, due to them eating food at
different places and uncomfortable seats, no proper place to sleep.

Round 2: Case: Why a shipping company is going in loss. Evaluate

the possible problems and suggest solutions. Suggesting solutions
to every case in the end will be required and this is where one’s idea
generation will be tested. Also involved testing of quant skills,
specifically math calculation required (basic but one can panic
under pressure).

What do you think went Being calm and confident, thinking on the feet really helps. I had
right in this interview? already gone through a fair set of interviews before, so wasn’t
nervous at all. While you would have done an umpteen number of
cases before hand, but every case will be new and will require you
to go to different breadth and depths. While case solving remains a
very important part, they also test you on your HR skills. The
second round was the deciding factor, after which directly there
was a partner round. In the end managed to convert the call.
Finally, it was very important to smile over the course of interview
which lasted 30-45 mins
What do you think went To be frank, I think everything went right for me in this process.
wrong in this interview? Although I did miss out the exact cause of the problem in the first
round but wasn’t so much a big deal. The way you structure your
thoughts is more important.
Any tips for future batches To me case solving had much more importance in the course of
on the basis of your the interview, but HR answers shouldn’t be ignored for sure.
experience Make sure you are properly dressed. You get evaluated on every
aspect.

Interview Experience 15
Name: Anonymous
Company: Mckinsey and Company
Name of interviewer and Rounds 1,2: Case Study
designation Round 3: HR
Round 3 Rounds
Interview questions (With Round 1:
indicative answers if you 1.) Tell me something about yourself?
choose to share them) 2.) Convince me to sell my company even when it is doing very
well in the market.

Round 2:
1.) Case study on Indian Telecom sector

Round 3:
1.) McK vs BCG question
2.) 5 ways India can win 5 Gold medals in upcoming olympics
Narration of the case Case 1: Selling the Company
interview  Started by giving financial benefits of selling the company.
 Gave implications on entrepreneurship front, brought views
surrounding family society

Case 2: Indian Telecom Sector

 Case was about increasing revenues from Mobile apps.
 Started with geographical expansion of the company service
by looking at various strategies (M&A, Alliances, Joint
venture etc).
 Went ahead and looked at companies promotional
strategies, delved into customer segmentation for better
targeting.
 At last suggested some modifications in apps to make it
more users friendly and appropriate for smart phone users.
What do you think went  Case went well, Interviewers were happy in both the cases
right in this interview? about the approach I took.
 Were happy about my past work ex
What do you think went  I could have better put recommendations in cases
wrong in this interview?  Could have brought more practical examples during my HR
answers
 Engagement with partner could have been better.
Any tips for future batches  Keep Structured approach throughout interviews
on the basis of your  Consistency within answers is important
experience  Be confident and calm on D-Day.
 Interview Experience 16
Name: Aviral Srivastava
Company: McKinsey
Name of interviewer and Vikas Bhadoria, Partner
designation Shivanshu, Principal
Mukund Sridhar, Associate Partner (Not sure)
Round (First/Second/third)
Brief Profile : B.Tech Mechanical Engineering from IIT(BHU), Varanasi. One
(Graduation College, stream, year work-ex as Analyst in Inductis, Gurgaon (Analytics
Work ex details, etc.) consulting).
Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me something about yourself not in your resume. (I
indicative answers if you talked about how being a good student in school opened up
choose to share them) avenues in leadership and extra-curriculars and shaped the person I
am).
Turning points in my life that shaped me. Regrets in life. A short
description about my work at Inductis. And then case.

Round 2: A very brief tell me about yourself. How did your

previous interview go according to you? Couple of things about my
interests in meditation. And then case.

Round 3: I was ushered in within 5-10 minutes of my previous

interview. Mckinsey had made us fill a subjective sheet during out
Aptitude test. Mukund had access to the sheet. He asked about a
regret I had written: My CGPA in college.
He asked if I had any questions about Mckinsey and my company
priorities. A little chitchat and that’s all. This round hardly lasted 5
minutes.
Narration of the case Round 1: Vikas brought in the case decisively (not as a gradual flow
interview (Please be as in conversation): “My friend owns a standalone cinema theatre in
descriptive as possible) Mumbai. Profits and revenue taking a hit. What should I do?”
I started the case with the usual qualifiers (since when, what has
changed, industry, competition, type of movies, location etc). I
made a structure but he sounded disinterested. Kept throwing me
off my game with vague disinterested hints. None of my directions
seemed to appeal to him. I persisted. Took some timeouts to
rethink approaches. Came up with 3-4 approaches before we went
into one. Then he asked me to ideate.

Round 2: I am a shipping company. And my profits slipping. Give

an exhaustive list of things you will evaluate.
I did reasonably well. I missed the factor of fuel and he pointed it
out.
New scenario: cost in fuel changed drastically 3 years ago. What
will be your current profit/ loss if the fuel cost hadn’t changed?
Sounds simple and it was. I kept looking for a trap and started
number crunching only after a minute. The moment I got the
number, he seemed satisfied. He asked me to give
recommendations. And I took a 20 sec pause to structure
recommendations instead of hurtling them all out. The interview
 ended here, on a much more positive note compared to the first
one.

What do you think went I was calm across interviews and somehow managed to leave the
right in this interview? stress at the door before all rounds. I received positive feedback
regarding this later on.
Round 1: My HR answers were interesting, passionate, structured
but natural. I never gave up during the case and persisted despite
several setbacks. I didn’t mind starting from scratch repeatedly. My
idea-gen was adequate.
Round 2: I gave an honest and humble feedback about round 1
when asked. Initial structure during case was ok (I missed fuel, but
he pointed it out). Most importantly, I could crack the math in the
case in my first attempt (it was quite simple really, but turns out,
many silly mistakes were made during the day). I managed to
structure my recommendations as well and generate several
relevant ideas.
Round 3: Frank genuine answers about my academics and work
experience. He asked about people at my previous company,
expectations from Mckinsey etc.
What do you think went Round 1: I didn’t think my case went all that great, as the
wrong in this interview? interviewer looked disinterested throughout and kept redirecting
me. Halfway through the case, I realised that cracking the case was
out of the question. I came out of the interview apprehensive but
luckily was ushered into round 2 before I could dwell on it.
Round 2: I entered the interview unsure, given my performance in
the first interview. I kept trying to give subjective solutions and
state assumptions when all the interviewer wanted was simple
math. I kept thinking the case can’t just be simple maths, but
initially it was!
Round 3: I was mentally prepared for a case but there was none.
Any tips for future batches Prepare on your CV. You need to have recall value in the eyes of
on the basis of your the interviewer. Structure HR answers. But they will sound natural
experience only after practice. It helps if you have 2-3 USPs in your mind. For
example, I had quizzing, meditation and a childhood abroad.
Never give up in a case. Keep your cool as people get unsure of
simple math during cases and literally end up doing written
calculation where mental should have sufficed.
Don’t read too much into the interviewer’s body language (unless
he’s giving you hints during a case). Take pauses during cases but
don’t let the silence get heavy.
Each interviewer may ask you at the end if you want to ask him
something about the company. Don’t do DCP. Ask him genuine
questions that you think that a person of his stature and experience
can answer better than a younger employee at the firm.
 Do not judge your own performance in the interview. You will
never know what the interviewer is thinking. You might have been
given a tough case just to see your response.

Interview Experience 17
Name: Ishani Roychowdhury
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and Round 1: Gunjan (Partner)
designation Round 2: Vikas (Partner)
Round 3: Navtez (Partner)
Round Three rounds in total (third round was purely HR)
(First/Second/third)
Brief Profile : Economics Honours from St. Stephen’s College, 21 months of
(Graduation College, work experience at Bain Capability Center (BCC)
stream, Work ex details,
etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: Tell me about yourself, followed by related questions on
indicative answers if you my answer, why consulting. Next 15 minutes was a case. Ended
choose to share them) with a brief discussion about the Partner’s consulting career so far.

Round 2: Follow-up question on an answer that I had written in

the HR form filled a week earlier. This was followed by questions
on my work experience and how the BCC model works. This was
followed by two quick cases.

Round 3: Pure HR round

Narration of the case Round 1: This was the first case of the day for the Partner and we
interview (Please be as spent 12-15 minutes on HR at the beginning. She asked me about
descriptive as possible) myself which I had prepared well. That led to questions around my
career decisions, a bit about my work experience and society work
at undergrad college. This was followed by the case. She gave me
two choices and asked me to pick one. I chose the IT case.

Case statement: I run a software company which sells accounting

software in India. Before launching accounting software, I had
hired a market research firm who estimated the market at Rs.XY
(some figure). However, in spite of having a share of 45%, we have
not been able to penetrate the market any further.

The idea was to start with exhaustive qualifying questions that

covered competition, region of operation, industry dynamics. I
figured that the problem did not lie in the company per se, but in
their target customers. They focused mostly on the SMEs who
used traditional accounting books rather than accounting software.
I was also abruptly stopped in between, after which I quickly
synthesized and gave in my recommendations. My
 recommendations were around creating awareness to migrate more
people to online accounting applications

She asked me if I had any questions for her. I asked her a question
which extended the discussion for 5-7 more minutes.

Round 2: 2-3 questions on the HR form submitted earlier. This was

followed by a detailed discussion about my work experience, some
case examples from my previous work, the BCC model and how it
works and why consulting.

Case statement: My friend owns a single theatre in a metro city, has

been losing profits steadily. Suggest ways to improve his
profitability.

The case was about generating options and the Partner kept
insisting on more suggestions. I looked at the revenue and the cost
side separately, divided them into short term and long term plans,
and tried to logically structure my suggestions. For the revenue
side, I had gone by the customer purchase process approach to
ensure nothing is missed.

This was followed by a second case which was a guesstimate:

Another friend of mine wants to sell tennis balls in India. Estimate
the demand. The approach was usual, starting with sources of
demand and estimating it using population.

Finally, he asked me if I had any question for him. I had a question

and the discussion went on for 5 more minutes.

Round 3: This was the most interesting interview experience of all.

I was told it was like a hygiene test before I went in, and I was
relaxed yet energetic.
The partner looked at my HR form and asked me similar questions,
as in my previous interview. The discussion touched upon various
topics- mostly around my work experience, family, school life and
career decisions (it was like a friendly chat after sometime and I
had much to talk about). He also asked me why I would want to
join McKinsey. At the end, he said it was a good discussion, that he
thought I am fit for consulting and felt no need to give me a case.
What do you think went In all the rounds, I was energetic, smiling and engaging. The HR
right in this interview? questions were extremely crucial which I thought went well.
About the cases, I had thought my first round case wasn’t great- it
was my first case of the day and I couldn’t tell whether she was
happy with my recommendations. However, later I heard from
others that she was actually happy about it.
The second round cases went well- I managed to generate as many
options as he wanted, and did not give up. In fact, I went into lot
of details on the guesstimate and he stopped me in between to ask
for the final answer.
What do you think went Nothing major, I guess. The idea is not to ‘solve’ the case, but to
wrong in this interview? display your structure and your method of thinking and to engage
the interviewer throughout.
Any tips for future batches Be calm and enthusiastic throughout. Carry yourself with
on the basis of your confidence and smile- that reduces the nervousness too. Prepare
experience your ‘about me’ well because that feeds into the discussion that
follows. Also, the questions on ‘why consulting’ and ‘why
McKinsey’ are common. Further, it’s very important to structure
your HR answers too.

Interview Experience 18
Name: Mashantha Viswanathan
Company: McKinsey
Name of interviewer and Mr. Anil Sikka – Senior Specialist
designation Ms. Gunjan Soni – Partner/Senior Partner
Ms. Aayushi – Engagement Manager
Round (First/Second/third) Ms. Aayushi - first
Mr. Anil Sikka – second
Ms. Gunjan Soni - third
Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, B.Com (Professional); St. Francis College for Women,
Work ex details, etc.) Hyderabad, Analyst at Ernst and Young Hyderabad for 11
months in the Advisory service line
Interview questions (With Round 1: HR – Tell me about yourself, one wild/fun thing I had
indicative answers if you done. Guesstimate – If I needed to increase the prevalence (usage)
choose to share them) of contraceptives in India by 20%, what sort of a number would I
be looking at?

Round 2: HR - Tell me about yourself, Working individually vis-à-

vis working with teams, how have I dealt with people taking credit
for work that I do. Guesstimate – As head of a publishing house,
I was asked to estimate the readership for a book that I wanted to
publish

Round 3: HR - Tell me about yourself.

Narration of the case A retail chain wanting to enter India; how would I go about it?
interview (Please be as Variables and KPIs that I would look at. Followed a value-chain
descriptive as possible) centric approach; was asked specific questions at each stage such
as the kind of metrics I would look at.
What do you think went 1) Was confident and comfortable; felt more like a
right in this interview? conversation rather than an interview (especially the second and
third rounds)
2) After a point, we were discussing the solution for the case
together (happened in the first round)
What do you think went 1) Was initially nervous and I guess it showed in my first
wrong in this interview? round
2) Could have been more targeted with my questions
Any tips for future batches 1) Don’t get flustered; keeping your cool is very important
on the basis of your 2) Try to approach it like you’re going to meet a new person
experience rather than you’re going to face the most important interview in
your life; it helps in being yourself => More confidence => Best
performance
 Interview Experience 19
Name: Pratik Goyal
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and Suhail (Associate Partner)
designation Naftez (Partner)
Vikash (Partner)
Round Total 3 Rounds
(First/Second/third) Interviewers names in order
Brief Profile : St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata
(Graduation College, Chartered Accountancy Inter
stream, Work ex details, Fresher
etc.)
Interview questions (With Round 1: 3 structural approaches to solve the problem “ India
indicative answers if you should win 5 gold medals in 2020 olympics”
choose to share them)

Round 2: About yourself not in the CV?

Why consulting?
An estimate of the total number of glucometers sold in India in a
year.

Round 3: A cinema hall whose profits are falling - Problem finding

and Recommendations. An approach to estimate the revenue of
the cinema hall and the cost was also asked.
My leadership roles and why no POR in IIML?
My entrepreneurial venture and the business logic behind it?
Why not Finance as a career choice?
Narration of the case
interview (Please be as
descriptive as possible)
What do you think went The HR part went very well
right in this interview? The idea generation was very important and the initial two levels in
the structuring which should have incorporated a MECE.
The ability to communicate what I was thinking was very
important in the cases.
What do you think went The nervousness was very high and so required a little time in idea
wrong in this interview? generation in the first round but kept talking to the interviewer so
that dint leave much gap and made up for the nervousness.
Any tips for future batches Generally the interviews are targeted to test the idea generation
on the basis of your ability, comfort level with numbers and the problem solving ability
experience which form the main work of consultants.
In the softer aspects the HR answers are very very important.
Knowing the CV is very important and should be a reason for why
u did what u have, and it will generally be a part of all interview
rounds.

Interview Experience 20
Name: Shreya Sachdev
Company: McKinsey and Co.
Name of interviewer and R1- Shivanshu (Partner)
designation R2- Vikas (Partner)
R3- Gunjan (Partner)
R4- Navtez (Partner)
Round (First/Second/third) Round 2
Brief Profile : B.A. (Hons) English- Lady Shri Ram College for Women-Fresher
(Graduation College, stream,
Work ex details, etc.)
Interview questions (With All three interviews revolved around my educational background
indicative answers if you (I’m the rare breed of Literature students that occasionally crop up
choose to share them) here) and how that fit in with IIM Lucknow and Consulting. I was
also asked about my internship with a Fashion House and my
motivation behind taking it up. Finally I got asked about my
expectations from a Consulting job.
The interviews ended with me asking each of the partners
questions.
Shivanshu was working on a data- heavy project so I asked him
about how he dealt with the more mundane aspects of Consulting.
I had a prior interaction with Vikas at the McKinsey dinner and I
continued with the same discussion regarding Entrepreneurship
opportunities at McKinsey.
Gunjan and me spoke about opportunities for women at McKinsey
and the initiative she had started regarding the same.
Navtez was working on a case in the same sector that my father
works in, so we discussed the current challenges faced by that
sector.
Narration of the case “My friend runs a standalone theatre in the heart of Mumbai, but
interview (Please be as has recently been witnessing declining profits.”
descriptive as possible)
I initially structured it into a regular profit and loss case, but after
the first 4-5 minutes (possibly because he gathered that I had no
problem structuring the case) he jumped directly to
recommendations. The rest of my case focused solely on me
shooting options as to how he could possibly increase his profits.
The suggestions included the obvious ones such as price of tickets,
show timings, staff requirements etc, and then we went on to other
areas such as the Food and Beverages counter, Parking and so on.
At that point, after we had exhausted all avenues he asked me to
come up with out-of-the-box solutions, and we spent the rest of
the interview solely on idea generation.
What do you think went I was smiling and confident throughout the interview even though
right in this interview? I was convinced that I had quite possibly tanked the case interview
before this.
I could bring myself to look outside my structure and give him
solutions over and above the ones
What do you think went I didn’t ask for numbers, possibly because numbers were where I
wrong in this interview? had messed up in the last case. If I had gotten over the phobia in
time the case solutions I presented would have had more of an
impact.
Any tips for future batches Reading the cues and expressions of the interviewer always help.
on the basis of your Apart from that don’t make the mistake of getting trapped by your
experience structures because McKinsey partners usually tend towards
unorthodox case interviews.
Summer Internship
Experiences 2012
 Accenture
Management
Consulting
Interview Experience 1
Name Deep Banerjee
Company Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Vishwesh Prabhakar, Partner
designation
Brief Profile Chemical Engineering from Bangalore, 1 yr Work Ex at Tesco
Retail, 3.5 yrs at Indian Oil Corporation as Assistant Manager
handling Supply Chain and Operations
Interview questions Round 1: Work related, Industry related, Latest Trends in Supply
Chain, CV related, Case analysis, Related to current energy
problems in India

Round 2: My apprehensions about Accenture

Round 3: HR Questions
Narration of the case “I’m a chemical manufacturer. Help me optimize my outbound
interview logistics”
What do you think went - Work experience matched with their requirement
right in this interview? - Industry knowledge
- Information about the company
What do you think went In the case interview, I mistook “optimize” as “cost reduction”
wrong in this interview? only. Should have taken other factors into consideration
Any tips for future - Be energetic and enthusiastic
batches on the basis of - I firmly believe that the first 2 minutes in an interview decide
your experience the outcome to a great extent
- In the case interview, even if you go wrong at some place, do
not fluster and keep trying

Interview Experience 2
Name Ipsa Kalra
Company Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Round 1- Anurag Johri, Strategy Head
designation
Round 2- HR
 Round 3-Saurabh Bhatnagar-Partner

Round Case in first round only

Brief Profile Graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering

from Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata. Fresher.
Interview questions Round 1: Started with some questions on leadership as I stated it
as strength. Followed by 2 cases on projected soap and 4 wheeler
market in 2020.

Round 2: Basic HR questions on weaknesses and anyone apart

from me who should make it to AMC.

Round 3: Questions on academics (PGDM), ranging from

MANAC to economics and MS Excel.
Keynesian Vs Classical
Types of Costing
Lookup in excel
Branding
General questions on the current education system in India
Narration of the case I was asked to choose an industry of my choice. I chose FMCG
interview sector. I was first asked to give the market size of the soap
market in the year 2020. The interviewer was not looking at
numbers but at multiple approaches. I gave the income
segmentation approach, rural-urban divide approach. He
suggested the extrapolation of GDP approach. I also made a
point that in the urban market soaps are soon being replaced by
shower gels etc.

What do you think went The interview started on a good note and they liked the way I
right in this interview? spoke and conducted myself.
What do you think went They expected me to suggest the GDP approach myself.
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future Consulting interviews require you to be able to give a holistic
batches on the basis of picture of the case presented. Keep the interviewer involved at
your experience every step.

Interview Experience 3
Name: Meghana Katiki
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Vivek Mishra, Ridhima (HR) and one more Senior partner
designation
Brief Profile IIT Kharagpur, Biotechnology, Deloitte Consulting -23 Months
Interview questions Round 1: Case and CV
 Explain me one of the projects you took up at Deloitte
 Why consulting
 Which subjects did you like in term 1
Based on my answer he said link Marketing and Economics.
 Explain one initiative you took

Round 2: HR
 What do you like about Accenture
 What do you remember from Accenture’s PPT
 Did you attend the session by our senior partner, Give
one positive and one negative feedback
I handled the negative part very tactfully: starting with slight
negativity but ending on a very positive note.
Would like to join IB or GTIN.
Understand the difference properly.

Round 3: CV
 Walk me through your academic background.
 Why did you leave something as promising as
Biotechnology for something as mundane as Management
consulting.
 Tell me one challenging task that you did
I gave the example of a project at Deloitte.
Narration of the case Well a guesstimate was given to me but I never realised it was
interview one. I told about how demand is actually estimated in Apple and
how they produce less than the estimation to keep the hype.
What do you think went I knew from beforehand what they were looking for. I could
right in this interview? project all those qualities in some or the other answer. My HR
answers were well prepared and reviewed before I entered the
interview.
I kept a smiling face though one of the interviewers’ kept a
shrewd expression on his face.
I steered the interview in my way by giving answers of all HR
questions based on experiences and stories and talking about
things I knew very well so that I could handle the drilling
questions.
What do you think went I took Economics’ name as one of my favourite subjects and
wrong in this interview? couldn’t answer some questions properly.

Any tips for future Any company, any interview, HR answers are extremely
batches on the basis of important. More so to tailor the answers to the company. It is
your experience also important to understand the values and culture of the
company and portray a fit in the interview. Accenture’s PPT is
very important to them. If you are serious about that company
make sure you attend the ppt.
Interview Experience 4
Name Preethi Viswanathan
Company Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer Senior Manager
and designation
Round Had three rounds of interviews

Brief Profile Electrical Engineering from Anna University; Prior work

experience - 11 months as Graduate Engineer Trainee in
Larsen & Toubro Ltd, ECC division
Interview questions Round 1:

 Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, other

interviews for the day

 Why did you choose consulting?

 Questions on POR's mentioned in the CV and which I
consider the most important among them

 Why Accenture and how do I feel it is different from

the other consulting firms?

 I was also asked about my role models

 Questions regarding power sector – what are the

problems in the sector at present

Case on a pure-play thermal power generator with installed

capacity of 2,000 MW in India. The company is making
losses in the recent years

I went ahead with a lot of questioning regarding the

company, type of clients current financial position, current
risk exposure in terms of fuel, market etc and the related
businesses that the company is already into.

I came up with a framework to analyses the profitability

using the basic structure of costs and revenues. I first
analysed on the cost side considering various parameters
like fuel, distribution, overheads etc.

I was then told to focus only on the revenue side. After

further probing about the pricing and the sales volume (in
MW) , the interviewer indicated that the power was sold
only to the government. It was found that the company
generated power which exceeded the government's
requirement as per the contract with the company. I
recommended that the excess power generated could be
sold to private players to minimize losses

Round 2: HR round

Questions on primary skills required for a person in

consulting

Was asked about which of the skills I have and which I still
need to develop

Question was again asked about why consulting and why

Accenture?

Round 3:

The Partner asked me about my educational background,

my interest in music, my favourite course in Term I. After
I told it was marketing, I was questioned on some basics
and was asked to explain my marketing project. I was also
questioned on some challenges I faced here at IIM L.
 Questions on work experience were asked maily relating to
the role I had at L&T.

After that he urged me to ask questions as he felt I have

been asked enough. I questioned him about some news
which was mentioned in the RG doc about AMC opening
an Innovation centre.

I further questioned him about the roles offered and the

functions of IB and GTIN and sector preference for
projects.

He explained the answers in a detailed fashion.

I was asked to wait for a while, the offer was made and I
accepted it.
Narration of the case Explained above
interview

What do you think went I prepared well for HR answers and was able to answer the
right in this interview? questions on consulting well.

Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the

CV

A firm answer about why I wanted to join AMC as it was

asked in all rounds of my interview

What do you think went Nothing that I can specifically point out.
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future • For AMC, it pays well to know well about what
batches on the basis of work the company does and some recent
your experience happenings that the company was involved in.
• Frame good questions for asking at the end of the
interview as my third round was primarily based on
that
• Generate a plethora of options when analysing a
case. It shows that you can think in multiple
directions. In summers, most companies look only
for people with ideas rather than skills. Hence, this
is the most important phase of a case interview as
far as summers are concerned.
• Thorough CV and HR preparation are of prime
importance
Interview Experience 5
Name: Sruthi Nooka
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Round 3 Rounds
Brief Profile Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Osmania
University, Hyderabad; Prior work experience - 35 months as
Business Technology Analyst in Deloitte Consulting
Interview questions Round 1:
Questions regarding my prior work experience, nature of
responsibilities, reasons for shifting from technology consulting
to business consulting

Questions regarding my areas of interest(operations in my case)

– I was asked to compare the supply chains of apple and dell,
HUL and P&G

Case on Market expansion for HUL product(Dove) into one of

the north eastern states

Round 2:
What skills do you think a consultant needs? Which one of those
skills do you lack in?

Learning from prior work experience, significant achievements

I was asked if I attended the pre-placement talk and what I liked

the most about it

Round 3:
Questions regarding work experience – I worked on SAP
implementation, so the interviewer asked me to give three
reasons why companies go for ERP implementation – a hidden
form of cost-benefit analysis case

Questions on subjects of Term – I and Term – II: Regarding

Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, Prisoner’s Dilemma, a
small case on how a business operating in oligopoly can stay
profitable, applications of QAM in all areas such as marketing,
finance, operations, economics etc.
Narration of the case Problem Statement: What factors should HUL consider if it’s
interview wants to launch one of its products in one of the north Indian
states?
 The interviewer was looking for the approach only and not
extensive detailing.

Firstly, I clarified on why the expansion is made – for

profitability or expanding the customer base

I analysed the scenario in three parts – Customers, Company’s

capabilities and Competition

By analysing the available customer segments and targeting the

required segment the demand can be estimated and thus the
profitability based on factors such as size, affordability and
growth rate of the chosen segment

In terms of company’s capabilities its financial and operational

capabilities should be considered. Factors such as investment
cost, company’s financial position, investment cost as a
proportion of the company’s overall cost base should be
analysed under financial capabilities. Operational capabilities
include resources, availability of channel partners in the new
market etc.

Competition analysis determines entry barriers and possible

threat from competitors
What do you think went I have answered questions regarding my prior work experience
right in this interview? well and I could explain the reasons for transition from
technology consulting to business consulting convincingly. My
case analysis went pretty well. In the third round, I have
answered all the questions asked about academic subjects with
practical applications.
What do you think went I had to give some impromptu answers for certain questions
wrong in this interview? regarding my previous question. Even though I justified my
answers well finally, I could have organised my answers better.
Any tips for future  Know about the company thoroughly. In case you have not
batches on the basis of attended the ppt, find out the same from your friends who
your experience have attended it and try to get as much information as
possible from seniors.
 Lot of students have been questioned about academic
subjects. So it’s good to brush up on basics before attending
the interview.
 In case of students with prior experience, prepare well in
advance about your nature of work, roles and responsibilities,
nature of projects handled. Be ready with some examples
through which you can explain your problem solving skills
and leadership skills.

Interview Experience 6
Name: Ashok Patsamatla
Company: Accenture Management Consulting
Name of interviewer and Senior Manager
designation
Round 2 Rounds
Brief Profile Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras; Prior work
experience - 24 months as Analyst in KPMG Management
Consulting
Interview questions Round 1:

Some basic questions like tell me about yourself, other interviews

appearing for on that day.

What is your view on team work in consulting? Do you think it is

always important?

Questions regarding my prior work experience, nature of

responsibilities and reasons for continuing in consulting industry

Questions regarding power sector – what are the problems in the

sector at present, recent interventions by the government (SEB
bailout package) and my views on the same,

Case on diversification strategy for a pure-play thermal power

generator with installed capacity of 2,000 MW in India.

I went ahead with a lot of questioning regarding the objective for

diversification, current financial position, current risk exposure in
terms of fuel, market etc and the related businesses that the
company is already into.

Interviewer indicated that the company wishes to leverage on its

current strengths and to hedge current risks through
diversification. Financial position of the company is not a
constraint.

I came up with a framework to cover the entire value chain of

the power sector and a basic fish-bone analysis of options at
each stage of the value chain. I believe that this stage (option
generation) is very crucial and needs to exhaustive. I came up
with close to 20 options for diversification during this stage
which impressed the interviewer.

I was then told to focus only on the immediate upstream and

immediate downstream options with just a macro overview of
each option. I did a basic investment horizon to benefits analysis
for each of the options and finally suggested the following
recommendations:
1. Acquisition of a coal mine in Australia/Indonesia since
exposure to imported coal was found to be high. Also it
can hedge exchange risk (relevant in the current
macroeconomic condition)
 2. JV with a port developer to save on transportation
charges and to benefit from increasing imported coal
demand in India
3. Power trading to better leverage the excess thermal
generation capacity due to seasonal demand fluctuations
4. EPC player – offer EPC solutions to huge upcoming
capacity in India

The interviewer was very much satisfied with this and indicated
that there might be a role suited for me for summers.

Round 2:

HR round was skipped and was directly taken to Partner round.

Round 3:

The Partner (Vishwesh) asked me about my educational

background, CGPA drop during graduation period, current
academic performance at IIM Lucknow in Term I. I justified
these aspects to which there was no other additional questioning.
Then he asked me about the kind of culture that was prevalent at
KPMG and what I did not like about it. He explained in fair
detail about the kind of culture at AMC and what made him stick
to the firm for the past 15 years.

He asked me if I wanted to work on any sector in particular and

I expressed interest in working on some academic oriented
projects that AMC takes up from time to time on pro-bono or in
conjunction with World Bank etc. The partner then told me that
he headed a new practice at AMC – the sustainability practice –
that deals in such projects.

At this stage, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it.

Narration of the case Explained above
interview
What do you think went My sector knowledge in power helped in fair detail at the option
right in this interview? generation stage and I was lucky to have gotten a case in that
sector itself.
I prepared well for HR answers and was able to answer the
question about team work in consulting well.
Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV
What do you think went Nothing that I can specifically point out.
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future  For AMC, it pays well to know well about what work the
batches on the basis of company does and some recent happenings that the company
your experience was involved in.
 Frame good questions for asking at the end of the interview
 Generate a plethora of options when analysing a case. It
shows that you can think in multiple directions. In summers,
most companies look only for people with ideas rather than
 skills. Hence, this is the most important phase of a case
interview as far as summers are concerned.
 Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors.
 Always smile!

A T Kearney
Interview Experience 7
Name: Nidhi Mehta
Company: A.T Kearney
Name of interviewer and 1st Round : Sidharth Jain , 2nd round : Praveen (Principal), 3rd
designation round Manish(Partner)
Round 3 rounds
Brief Profile Shri Ram College of Commerce ( Eco Hons), 13 months work-
ex with Tata Capital Ltd. (Senior Credit Officer)
Interview questions Round 1:Tell me about yourself ; post the case I was asked to
give my view on the recent reduction in CRR rates

Round 2: Why Consulting ?

Round 3: No HR questions were asked. However,The partner

asked me if I had any question for him.
Narration of the case Case 1: FICCI is planning to launch a new electric car, It has
interview been proposed that this will lead to a reduction in pollution.
Should the new car be launched?

Approach : This was a case involving a guesstimate. I first

looked at all the stakeholders that could be affected by this
proposal including the current car manufacturers. The
interviewer however guided me that it is assumed that all car
makers will start manufacturing this car. The question then came
down to the emissions produced by a regular car and an electric
car. I further sub-divided the cars into small, medium sized
(hatch backs and sedans) and SUV’s. I also talked about the
emission levels being different for diesel and petrol cars.
Emission levels depended on the mileage and data was given for
the cars and CO2 emission levels.

Case 2: I am a steel manufacturer. My profits are decreasing.

Help me out.

Approach: This was a simple profitability case. I started out by

asking him about his business: the no of factories, locations and
if profit had been reducing in all of them. I then looked at the
revenue and cost heads. I asked him if he wanted me to look at a
particular head and he said I could start with revenues. Within
revenues I looked at the price and volume. Prices were constant
so I began analysing the factors affecting the volumes. I looked
at both supply and demand sided factors. Through this analysis I
came to know that the competitors had an integrated
procurement whereas the client’s cost of raw materials was
higher. Also some of the machinery was obsolete. Branding of
the steel and delivery time were also issues of concern.I gave
some recommendations such as improving the quality of the
steel ,having a branding strategy, giving cash discounts and
attractive margins to dealers , looking for alternate suppliers.
Working on a backward integration was suggested as a long term
strategy.
 Case 3: Estimate the number of car servicing that take place in
India

Approach : The partner didn’t want me to get into calculations.

He specifically told me to give me the just the approach. I started
with estimating the number of car owners .We could divide
Indian household into different income categories and estimate
car owners. Some percentage of this would be old cars and
others would be new. The new ones would probably be under
free servicing schemes. The old ones could chose to go to the
service centre or chose a local mechanic. The owners of
expensive car owners would chose the servicing. Based on this
we could estimate average number of breakdowns in a year for
different car ownersand the corresponding requirement of
servicing. Next we need to estimate the number of accidents as
servicing will have to be done in this case as well.
What do you think went Case 1 : The catch in the case was that the emission levels were
right in this interview? higher for the electric car. I could identify that this was because
electricity was being generated by thermal energy. I also took
into account transmission losses that would happen in electricity
generation. I guess what went right was that I took into account
all aspects of the case instead of following a narrow approach.

Case 2: The interviewer didn’t have a specific problem in mind.

He was just looking at the approach and how many areas of
concern I could identify. I was comfortable with profitability
cases and I guess I structured the case well.
Case 3: The case lasted for just 5 mins and it was important to
communicate a proper structure.
What do you think went Case 1 : It was not a typical case so in hindsight I could have
wrong in this interview? structured it in a better way.
Case 2 and 3 : Nothing went wrong as such
Any tips for future It is important to stay calm during the case interviews The
batches on the basis of interviewer will be ready to help you out so it is important to
your experience clarify your doubts. Take some time to understand the case
question and confirm with the interviewer before proceeding
further.
Boston Consulting
Group
Interview Experience 8
Name: Mohit Agarwal
Company: Boston Consulting Group
Name of interviewer and Navneet Vashisht, Partner
designation

Round 3 Rounds
Brief Profile Chartered Accountant, Graduate from SRCC; Prior work
experience -22 months as Associate in BMR (tax consultant) and
Ernst & Young (Transaction Advisory Services)
Interview questions Round 1:

Some basic questions like Why consulting and why BCG.

Case on acquisition strategy of a large Indian conglomerate

looking for diversifying into IT services.

I took a complete background check with regard to the

motivation behind diversifying into IT sector. Also, what kind of
IT businesses it wanted to diversify.

The interviewer suggested that they want to achieve revenue of

USD 5Bn from current USD 4Bn. Also, they want a margin of
12-15% from this new business. Also, the major consumer of IT
services are Europe and US.

So, I divided the problem into two parts – 1. Whether IT

business would serve them the purpose for achieving desired
revenue. 2. If yes, then what would be the strategy for entering
into IT services?

I started off with the projected revenue estimates for all types of
IT services. However, the interviewer changed the problem
statement (due to paucity of time I suppose).

He asked what would be the basis for selecting companies from

an acquisition standpoint from an initial pool of companies
across the globe.
I came up with two matrix table wherein I stated what the Indian
conglomerate wants from the acquisition (ie Need) and what it
can offer to the target company (ie want of target) and tried to
match it.

The interviewer informed that the Indian conglomerate was cash

rich company, stands on its values and has strong client
relationship with manufacturing sectors / vendors.

So I started linking all of them –

 funding – requirement for cash strapped companies

 Reputation – It can offer brand value to companies not well
known
 Client relation to leverage – Companies not present in
manufacturing IT services.

Also, during discussion, I linked the problem practically to how

Mahindra went on to acquire Satyam and what factors it looked
before bidding. I think the interviewer was impressed with the
linking to case to practical situation.

However, I think the interview did not go so well. However, I

knew I would be given another chance to perform.

The interview ended on brief chat with Hindi literature on poetry

and short stories.

Round 2:

The interview was taken by Principal in BCG. Problem

Statement – An Indian Cement market share is declining.

MA: Define market share?

Interviewer: Market share is defined by quantity and sales value.

MA: There could be 3 possible scenarios: Market stagnant, we

are losing out to competitors; Market growing but we are not
growing as fast as market; market shrinking but we are losing
more than our competitors.
Interviewer: Second scenario

MA: Major customers

Interviewer: Real estate companies

After a brief background question, I started off with the problem

analysis.

I broke the problem into Demand and Supply side.

Under demand side, I mapped the consumer behaviour analysis
of buyer and brought out several points. However, the
interviewer was interested in delving into supply side. Anyways,
he told me to analyze demand side.

Based on our discussion, we realized that pricing and timely

delivery was an issue. Pricing is based on cost plus pricing. Cost
includes transportation cost which was significantly higher than
industry standards. High transportation cost stems from the fact
that the factory was located far away from the market. Also,
acquisition of lime stone has been a challenge for the company.

I think the interviewer was impressed from the fact that the
problem was solved from the demand side. Also, I quickly
suggested 2 solutions to the problem:
 Short term – Reduce prices and take a hit on profit to
regain market share
  Medium term – Follow hub and spoke model to reduce
delay in delivery time
 Long term – Acquire a source (may be mine or long term
supplier) for lime stone

The interview ended with HR questions as to – why MBA after

CA, why consulting, why BCG and why not industry after CA.

Round 3:

The third round was a very brief round. The problem statement
was – Whether Uninor bid for the next spectrum auction?

I took background questions regarding in which circle it operates

and its vision in India.

I suggested that I would do a Net Present Value analysis and

would bench mark against return expected by Norway Head
Office. We went into revenue stream like voice and data. Cost
included operating, spectrum, license fee etc.

He seemed to be satisfied with the response. Also, he asked me

why AT&T is not bidding for the spectrum. I explained that
Uninor has invested time, effort in understanding Indian market
which AT&T has not. I drew learning curve of both Uninor and
AT&T. He seemed impressed.

At this stage, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it.

Narration of the case Explained above
interview
What do you think went I think structured approach to the problem and able to articulate
right in this interview? it well went right in the interview. Also, I linked the problem to
practical situation which helped me in cracking the case.

What do you think went I was nervous in my first interview; hence initially I went in
wrong in this interview? haywire manner. However, I was told that one needs to perform
in 2 out of 3 interviews to get through. I did well in my second
interview and hence moved to third round. So in case, you do
not do well in one of the interview, it should not matter. It’s
important to think clearly and structurally.
Any tips for future 1. Be calm and composed. Even if one interview does not go
batches on the basis of well, one would have another chance to perform
your experience 2. Take good background questions to understand the problem.
Dissect the problem and then approach
3. Structured thinking is very important. Also, explain briefly
the broad bucket in the structure.
4. All suggestions should have some basis based on the inputs
taken during the interview.
5. Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors.
6. Always smile!
Interview Experience 9
Name: Shraddha Gupta
Company: Boston Consulting Group
Name of interviewer and Rahul Jain, Partner ( First Round)
designation Seema (Second Round)
Brief Profile Economics Honours, St. Stephen’s College
No Work Ex
Interview questions Round 1: What drives you to do well at academics?

A truck company has just entered India. They want you to design
a financing strategy for them. Basically they want to ensure that
people who want to buy their trucks will have access to
financing.

Round 2: The government wants to redesign the way it supplies

vaccines to rural areas. What parts of the supply chain will you
outsource?
Narration of the case The partner started off by asking me about academics (I had a
interview really high CGPA that time) and I asked him a bit about how he
was also one of the top rankers in his time at Lucknow (he’d
mentioned this at the BCG dinner earlier). He then gave me the
case question. I started by focussing on the different factors that
were important for a person to get loans from banks (like
creditworthiness, availability etc.) He said the structure was fine
but he wanted me to focus more on the link between financing
and the truck purchase. So I figured out that I needed to
understand their target customers better. We discussed that for a
 while. It turned out that there were two kinds of customers
(forming 50% of the total each) One was large fleet owners who
bought lots of trucks together and had no trouble with financing.
The others were smaller ‘players’. They took a loan from a local
moneylender and used the purchased truck as collateral. So I
suggested we focus on the smaller guys (because they did not
have access to traditional financing) and try to get the
moneylenders to promote our trucks. He then drew a couple of
graphs and asked me to figure out what kind of monetary
compensation we could offer the moneylender.
What do you think went The case was really different from the ones I had done earlier so
right in this interview? I really enjoyed it. It didn’t really feel like a case interview at all,
felt more like a discussion. I was able to pick up the clues well.
What do you think went Can’t think of anything.
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future Try to have fun. Don’t fret too much about how many cases you
batches on the basis of have practiced.
your experience

McKinsey & Co.

Interview Experience 10
Name: ANURADHA TYAGI
Company: McKinsey & Co
Name of interviewer and Round 1: Pradeep (Principal)
designation Round 2: Navtez (Partner)
Round 3: Mandar (Partner)

Brief Profile Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, Economics

(Hons), Analyst in the Advisory Practice at Ernst & Young
Interview questions Round 1: Apply Econometrics and other Economics concepts
to define the distribution of ticket price between Lufthansa &
United Airways if a passenger pays INR 50,000 to fly the route
Delhi-Frankfurt-New York. (Lufthansa takes the passenger till
Frankfurt and United Airways from Frankfurt till NY)

Ans : Bargaining power, occupancy ratios, original ticket costs

for standalone routes-Range for Lufthansa is INR (15,000-
30,000) & Range for United Airways is INR
(35,000-45,000)

Round 2: Presentation to the industry about projections of

supply & demand of Oil & Natural Gas in India by 2025.
Explain all parameters involved in the projections

Ans: No clear-cut answer in this case. Was tested on general

understanding and ability to tap as many levers as possible

Round 3: You seem to be inclined towards Theatre. Let us try

and understand the functioning of Kingdom of Dreams,
Gurgaon-its profitability and possible recommendations if any

Ans: Again, case involved numbers and exploring several factors.

I don’t remember the exact answer but the revenues came to
approximately 5 crores annually, not too sure.
Narration of the case All three cases stemmed from casual conversations with the
interview respective people. The first one started with talk about my
favourite subjects within Economics, the second was after I was
asked about my background (my father works with RIL) & the
third was when my interest in theatre was questioned. Hence, the
point I am trying to make is that please be clear about what you
speak because your case can be an off-shoot of the conversation.

CASE 1: My questions resulted in me getting details about the

occupancy ratios of the two airlines, competitor airlines, routes
travelled by both the airlines, preference of passengers etc. The
right questions and numbers helped me clarify relevant points &
discuss some economics concepts which the interviewer wanted
to see.

CASE 2: I was not given any data or prior information and

hence had to make assumptions and clarify my logic at each
stage. Started with 3 scenarios-worst, expected & good. Went on
to explain why demand in this industry would always grow &
 hence supply should be the focus. Delved into India’s
dependence on imports, bureaucracy issues, treaties with other
nations-India-Afghanistan pipeline, political scenario of OPEC
countries & other oil rich nations like Iran, geologists & their
ability to tap the right oil fields, Risk Analysis-Probability &
Severity of finding oil in India (this point fetched me great
review) & of course, not to forget the regulatory environment in
India & Public-private players in the Industry.
Some substantial arguments were discussed and I came up with
some other parameters & a conclusion.

CASE 3: In order to understand the case, I questioned about the

revenue levers and what I think was the business model-different
shows-main v/s others, footfall, income through business
besides shows, peak season etc.
Discussed cost levers & made a couple of recommendations
based on the parameters.
What do you think went Structured cases, exhaustive option generation, relaxed &
right in this interview? confident personality and ability to build a connect with each
administrator in all rounds
What do you think went Nothing really. I maintained my cool and came across as relaxed
wrong in this interview? and composed for all three rounds. My feedback from the firm
while they made the offer was that I managed to keep myself
very calm and my cases structured even though at times it
seemed difficult.
Any tips for future -Do not give up at any point in time during any case. Sometimes
batches on the basis of the case may not be your comfort area but you need to drive
your experience yourself till the end & that matters
-When numbers are thrown at you, keep your cool and work it
out without being under any pressure. It’s better to get the right
answer than mess up simple math
-Practice cases and be clear about HR answers. Nothing should
precede the other, give equal importance to both

Interview Experience 11
Name: Swati Sengar
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer and Deepak, Partner
designation
Brief Profile B.Com (Hons) from Shri Ram College of Commerce
23 months work experience with KPMG

Interview questions Since it was Deepak’s first interview of the day, he didn’t want to
do a case. It was a 20-30 minutes HR interview. The broad
questions were:
 - About work experience ( I focussed on achievements and
initiatives)
- About dance (my spike as per my CV: I focussed on
leadership skills, handling failures and motivation skills
adopted)
- Biggest failure in life
- Conflict management techniques used in teams
- Academic performance at IIML (he was referring to my CGP
of term 1)
- Life at IIML ( I focussed on my learnings, positive and
negative aspects)
Narration of the case No case
interview
What do you think went Since it was my first interview of the day, I was quite enthusiastic
right in this interview? and had a big smile on my face (appearance is very important). I
was relieved when Deepak told me that he didn’t want to do a
case. I tried to answer in a story-telling format (its important that
the interviewer understands the flow of the answer).

I believe my energy level was good and I was quite confident

while conversing with Deepak (important to note that its a
conversation and not a question-answer session).

Before entering the room, a senior had told me that Deepak was
in Australia for 2 years so I brought it up in the conversation.

Also, Deepak was among the first batch of students who were
recruited by McKinsey. I asked him about his experience and he
seemed quite emotional about it.
What do you think went For a few questions like biggest failure in life, I first gave an
wrong in this interview? answer which he thought was an achievement and not a failure.
Later, I substantiated the answer with another instance which
seemed to satisfy him.

I was using my hands a little too much and I think Deepak was
getting distracted by the movement.
Any tips for future - Its very important to keep energy level high
batches on the basis of - Engage the interviewer in a conversation and don’t stop
your experience yourself from saying something by virtue of being the
interviewee. Give yourself importance and talk proudly about
your past experiences
- Pick up hints thrown by the interviewer
- A firm handshake always works and exudes confidence
- Don’t freak out and have fun
Summer Internship
Experiences 2011
Accenture Business
Consulting
Interview Experience 1
Company Accenture Business Consulting
Name: Shalabh Malhotra
Round 2 Rounds
Brief Profile : IIT Guwahati, Mechanical Engg., 10 months in NTPC Ltd.

Personal interview 1st Round

questions 1. Tell me about yourself. Examples from life to justify for
whatever points you had mentioned.
2. Guesstimation Case
3. Do you like travelling? Which all places have you been to?
(A consulting job requires a lot of travelling. Make sure you
justify that you love travelling)
4. What do you know about Accenture and ABC? Which
vertical in ABC interests you the most?

2nd Round
This round is based on your work-ex. Know your company
well and have a good hold on your sector.
1. Tell me about your experience in NTPC Ltd.
2. Why NTPC Ltd. after engineering and why MBA now?
3. Present Power Scenario in India. Difficulties faced by
thermal power plants at present.
4. Future of Nuclear Power Plants. Pros and Cons.
5. Hydro-electric plants and their pros and cons.
Narration of the case Problem statement:
interview You are a private company who has got the contract to install
street lights in Lucknow. Guesstimate the number of street
lights that will be required and the expected profit you think
you can earn.

Structure:
1. I assumed Lucknow’s area to be 20km by 20km.
2. I, then, divided the city into a matrix assuming it to be
criss-crossed by #60 20 km roads running horizontally and
vertically each.
3. Then estimated an approximate of 30% area to be under
forest cover.
4. Divided the roads in the remaining 70% area into roads
present in residential and non-residential (commercial +
highways) areas. Took an estimate on number of street
lights present per km in both these areas.
5. Finally came to a number on the number of street lights
taking into account that some places will have 2 lamps on
a single post while others will have just 1.
6. After that estimated the product + set-up cost for each
street light.
7. Estimated the running charges (maintenance and
electricity). Electricity charges would depend on the
number of operation hours and watt-rating of the lamp.
Maintenance charges and profit margin was estimated.
8. In the end a total estimate of profits was calculated.
 What do you think Though I was called for the 2nd interview, I think I didn’t do
went wrong in this well in the Guesstimation case (1st round) itself. The 2nd
interview? interview was good but I guess they were calling people for
the 3rd interview based on both the interviews combined.
Prepare for cases and Guesstimation well.

Interview Experience 2
Company Accenture Business Consulting

Name: Binay Jaiswal

Name of interviewer 4 rounds were held. I don’t remember the specific names of
and designation all the people. The first round was taken by Gautam and
third round was taken by one of the alum.

Round 1st and 2nd round were case interviews. Third was a work
(First/Second/third) experience specific interview and last was the HR round.

Brief Profile : B.Tech in IT from NIT Durgapur

( Graduation College,
stream, Work ex 45 months of work experience:
details, etc. )
 37 months in IBM and 8 months in TCS as SAP ABAP
Technical Consultant.

Personal interview Round 1:

questions (With
indicative answers if The first questioned asked was the number of shortlist on
you choose to share day 0 and the interviewer jumped straight into a slide in his
them) laptop. Basically the slide had plenty of line diagrams. I had
no clue what it was about. As we started interacting, I
figured out the line diagrams showed number of units sold in
a span of 8-9 months.

I was asked to analyse the line diagrams. On further

interaction and based on my answers, I came to know the
diagrams had the data about the number of units sold by
various companies and total number of units sold in each
month. The figures didn’t show any consistent pattern and I
was asked to figure out why was it so. Basically only thing I
could figure out was the sales showed cyclical nature and the
number showed a positive trend just before Oct-Nov and a
dropping trend in Jan-Mar.

There was a clear market leader but the sales were decreasing
in latest months while there was a fierce competition for the
second and the third slot. A detailed discussion took place
about who can take the second place and why. Then he
asked some FRA question related to the graphs. The
discussion boiled down to FIFO/LIFO method and he gave
some data for a particular company and I was asked to show
the impact of LIFO or FIFO on Profit, COGS, Taxes, and
retained earnings.

After that he asked a short case on airline industry and it

didn’t revolved around rising oil prices (Aberration of
current Market condition). According to the case, one
courier company increased the freight charges though there
was a decrease in oil prices. My answers revolved around
higher interest rates and depreciation which decreased the
operating profit of the courier company. But he was looking
for something else and the case was supposed to be analysed
from demand-supply side (Microeconomics!!!!). With his
input we concluded that the business model of freight
industry was changing. Companies who used to transport by
rail/road now started using Air Freight which increased the
demand suddenly and hence the price. Further because of
capacity constraint, the Air Freight company bought few
new aircrafts and hence wanted to break even early to make
the most of current market.

Note: The interview went Ok types. Interviewer expectation

was much more and I think I could not handle the Airline
case upto his expectation. He wished me good luck for the
next round.
Round 2:

I came to know that they have scheduled my first round

again as they were expecting more.

The interview started with “How did the first round went”?
I said “It was decent but I should have done better”. He
asked “would have or should have”? I said “Should have”.
“What went wrong” was his instant question. I gave my
analysis and he looked satisfied by my analysis (He displayed
like that). I was told that this round will have 2 parts: (i)
Case (discussed below) and (ii) some general questions

As he was very satisfied with the case analysis, the second

part of interview was not much of pain. It was more of a
general discussion. As I had work ex in IT industry, I was
asked how will I handle management consulting as its very
different from IT consulting and required very competent
skills. I was also asked about the highest level of client
interaction and how I managed them. He specifically asked
for one of the CV point which was about interacting with
the program director of the US based client and how I
managed to convinced him to increase the scope of the
development, issues faced and what it took to convince him
to approve the increase in man hours effort from 400 to 950.

Few questions about my strengths and how I will handle the

clients specifically when I am interacting with CXO level
people followed. I was also asked why consulting and
whether I would be comfortable travelling after marriage.
Overall I had a very good interview.

Round 3

This round was taken by one of our alums. I was asked if I

am nervous or excited. I said both and was asked to explain
why so. (Good Ice Breaking 5 minutes). I was again asked
the number of process I am running for (Other Shortlists!!!).
A casual discussion followed like it must be tough running
for different process in different parts of the campus.

He was constantly picking up points from my CV and it was

more or less work experience related interview. Questions
like my greatest failure in life so far and my learning from it,
why Accenture business consulting, strengths of Accenture
etc. I was asked to compare between Accenture and (i) IBM
(ii) Deloitte (iii) McKinsey and few other consulting
companies. Why consulting figured again and my fit as a
consultant was asked.

I was also asked about my CGPA and relative position

amongst PGP1 students. Questions like do you face
difficulty studying after 45 months of work ex and how I
 adjusted, how I manage pressure here etc. followed. I asked
three questions to him and a detailed discussion took place.

Round 4

It was HR round which lasted for around 10 minutes.

Questions like Why ABC, Consulting, my strengths, best and
worst feedback received in my previous work ex were asked.
I was asked about my expectation from ABC. Brief
discussion about my POR and CGPA followed.

Narration of the case Problem statement:

interview (Please be as The case was about decreasing sales of Nano in Kolkata and
descriptive as possible) adjoining areas.

Case analysis:
Initially we discussed if it was a normal trend in other parts
of India or not. If there was any price increased by Nano or
any changes with the design which might not have gone well
with the consumers. We also spoke about impact of negative
publicity like engine failure and instances of fire breaking out
in Nano. Marketing strategies of handling negative publicity
was also discussed.

But the maximum discussion happened around 2 points:

1) As Nano was mainly for people with 2 wheelers, I

wanted to understand where the real issue was.
Whether consumers are moving to 2.5-3 lakhs priced
car like Alto and Zen (few others also) or people with
2 wheelers were not able to buy Nano. I asked about
any trend whether any data regarding people
willingness to buy Nano (Through Test Drives taken,
visits to showrooms etc.) but not actually buying was
there or not. After few minute of discussion, I was
told that the main issue was people with 2 wheelers
are not buying Nano. So the main issue was
affordability. I recommended zero % interest rate for
EMI for first 2 years of purchase and very minimal
ROI after that. We also discussed about the bank
Nano should partner with and then he filtered the
question to 1 bank only. I opted for SBI as it has
branches in adjoining remote areas of Kolkata and
people there have higher trust in Govt. banks.

2) We also spoke about the Demand-Supply constraint.

If there was any channel conflict. Brief interaction
revealed that Nano had only 7 distributors in that
part of region and this was a major problem and it
should increase by 3-4.

What do you think My case performance in the second round went pretty well.
went right in this The interviewer complimented me about the analysis
interview? (though it may not look that impressive above). The
 structure and thorough conversation helped me sail through
and I was told that I kept the interviewer interested and
hooked throughout the case solving phase.

After my third round I was also appreciated about my prior

work experience and I was told “You had a quality work
experience and I appreciate your practical approach of
business understanding”.

What do you think My first round didn’t go that well particularly the Airline
went wrong in this question. I should have interacted more to understand
interview? various perspectives rather than being biased with current
market situation (Like higher oil price and interest rates
which was not applicable here)

Any tips for future 1) Stay Cool because it will help you to interact freely
batches on the basis of and focus on various perspectives which is very
your experience important in the case
2) Display a lot of enthusiasm and don’t shy away from
talking. Remember Consultant need to do a lot of
talking. Just ensure you talk sense on that day.
3) Practise some cases before interviews.
4) Never think that you are out of race. Don’t judge
yourself in the interview. Interviewer might give you
chance to bounce back.
5) Higher Work Ex people particularly IT background
can’ t get day zero shortlist is a myth
Interview Experience 3
Company Accenture Business Consulting

Name: Mahesh

Name of interviewer NA
and designation
Round First (of 3 rounds)
(First/Second/third)
Brief Profile : Bpharm
(Graduation College,
stream, Work ex Work experience of 2 years
details, etc. )
Personal interview 1. Tell me something about yourself?
questions (With
indicative answers if 2. Asked me about my role at previous workplace?
you choose to share
them) 3. Why consulting?

4. How did you know Accenture?

HR related questions were asked in the subsequent rounds

Narration of the case Problem statement:

interview (Please be as A multination firm in oil and gas segment is looking at
descriptive as possible) setting up a green field plant by collaborating with ONGC
India. You being one of the directors chosen to work for
this partnership what are the most important factors you
would look at?

Case analysis:
I divided the decisions into HR , operations , finance and
marketing related decisions. Since the venture was a new one
I focussed on the organizational chart development and the
role of director in selecting the right people for higher and
middle management roles. I also talked about getting policies
with regard to skill set of workers, policy on unions being in
place. Talked about setting up a township and hiring a
contractor for it as the location is likely to be in a remote
area. Also focussed on retaining and hiring of talent.

Marketing function decisions included pricing of product

(based on cost estimates of sales force) and sales force for
carrying out B2B activities. Discussion on operations was the
most important one in this case. I talked about the role of
director in hiring a contractor and overlooking the
subcontractors used. I also talked about the timelines of the
project and suggested a milestone based approach with
 penalties to ensure that the work gets done. In addition to
contract related equipment i focused on the equipment
specification to match to the capacity expectations.
Aggregate planning with scaling up was also suggested to
make the factory operational and to sort out initial issues. I
focused on the supply chain related issues to transport the
end product to customers.(Suggested pipeline)

Talked about the role of cost accountant in determining the

price of the end product and also focussed on selecting an
external auditor to oversee the accounting standards.

Structure:
Divided the case as per verticals in an organization

A guestimate on the number of streetlights in Lucknow was

asked (He asked me to be very short in description and
wanted me to use numbers at every step)

I approached this by assuming Lucknow to be close to a

rectangle in shape the dimensions being 20 x 15 Km. Then i
assumed the main streets to be passing though lines joining
the mid points. I assumed that these roads to be two laned
and had the highest density of lights. The next part was
about the streets branching out of these streets and i
assumed lower density of lights here. Thus i got a series and
added them up to get the number of lights.

Other questions
Guesstimate the number of travellers to Antartica
Guesstimate the number of cab drivers in Dehli

What do you think Got the structure. I was able to use the ques from the
went right in this interviewer and could this helped in approaching the case
interview? better.

After the discussion gave 3 points on which a director needs

to focus

What do you think Should have organized the points in each vertical in order of
went wrong in this their importance.
interview?
Any tips for future Ask for clarifications to the interview if needed. Practice a
batches on the basis of lot of cases with your peers.
your experience
Be clear about ‘Why ABC’?
Boston Consulting
Group
Interview Experience 4
Company The Boston Consulting Group

Name: Abhir Bhomavat

Name of interviewer Principal

and designation

Round First

Brief Profile : BITS-Pilani Goa Campus (8.73 – Electronics and

Instrumentation, Fresher with an internship at J.P. Morgan
Investment Banking)

Was a convener on the council during my under graduation.

Institute rank 2nd at IIM-L in the first term with a GPA of 9.4

Personal interview 1. Are you clear about your decision between IB and
questions Consulting?
2. Why consulting
3. Why BCG?

I had a well prepared answer for all these questions

Narration of the case Problem statement:
interview The client is a company that manufactures an interactive
educational tool. It is basically something as big as a
blackboard fitted in the classroom and has touch screen
interactivity. What do you think is the scope of this product
and what are the other things that the company can do in the
field of education to increase its revenues (to 1000 Cr)?

Case analysis:
I first tried to understand the product properly.

Q. Does the company make any other products?

Ans: No

Q. What is this particular product used for majorly? To teach

what?

Ans: English language

I was trying to build a structure at this point when he

interrupted me by asking me if I had understood the question.
I felt he was trying to put a bit of stress. He then asked me to
explore what all are the options that an educational tech
company in India could explore.

Q. Are we looking at only classroom services or online as well?

Ans: Upto you what you want to look at

 I built a structure which split into Classroom learning and
online learning. Then further split classroom learning into
providing education material and products (like the one the
client makes). In online I split it into videos and material.

He was happy with this basic structure. He then asked me that

the client was focusing on language needs of people. So he
asked me to estimate the demand of the English language
learners. He then asked me to estimate how many such are
those who already have a source to learn and how many are
wanting to but do not have a source and what should I target?

I started with the metro population in India. Roughly 14mX4

= 56m. Then divided it by the age group. I dint plug in any
figures. I just made the initial tree. I told him that I would plug
in the figures later. Age group of 16 and less who are going to
schools.

He then asked me why I have not considered adults who want

to learn English.

Then I considered that as well.

He then asked me why I have not taken into consideration

those who do not know that they want to learn English. I
didn’t understand what he meant, so I asked him to explain.
He told me that a domestic maid is latent demand because she
doesn’t know that she want to learn English (got kind of
philosophical at this point)

So he asked me to factor that in as well. He asked me how we

can make them use an online medium when they do not have
basic education in the first place.

Summary:

He helped me a lot with the case. Infact he gave me the 2 most

important points of adult demand and latent demand. Overall
I found the case to be very tough and ambiguous. He kept on
asking me if I understood the question which made me lose
confidence many times.

What do you think I was passionate about the education industry like I had
went right in this mentioned. I also was not put down by his comments of “have
interview? you understood my question”. He didn’t give me much time
to think, but I still managed to build a structure with all the
ambiguity in the problem. I feel he was judging the different
ways in which I could think since it was a pretty open ended
and highly unstructured case to start with.

What do you think At first I didn’t understand why he was focusing on the
went wrong in this demand of English language. I should have taken into
interview? consideration of adults as well. I was looking at only school
children. I was very nervous since it was my first interview of
 the day and was also the very first for BCG in the morning.
The interview was shorter than I anticipated.

Any tips for future Please make sure of what you say in the initial HR questions.
batches on the basis I had mentioned that I liked teaching. That was the reason why
of your experience picked out this case for me. So please make sure you can show
the passion for a particular interest that you have mentioned.

Be calm during the case. He will help you out for sure. It is
important to be persistent and keep going at the problem.

Round Second

Personal interview 1. Are you convinced about consulting vs. IB?

questions 2. Why do you want to do consulting and not IB?
3. Tell me something different/interesting about
yourself.
4. Have you worked on live projects? If so tell me one in
which you used a completely different approach.

Ans: I spoke about a project that I had done during an intern

at a CSIR lab after my 2nd year of engg. It was highly technical
and involved FEM in the field of Biophysics. He asked me
what I did differently. I explained it to him in layman terms.
He was very impressed with my answer.
Narration of the case Problem statement:
interview
A financial services company (NBFC) that has entered India
few years ago wants to know whether it should continue in
India or not?

Case analysis:

Q. I asked him the relative position of the business viz-a-viz

its peers.

Ans: It is not very high. Somewhere around 6th.

Q. What are the different businesses?

Ans: Mutual funds – debt and equity, Asset management, etc.

Equity fund is not performing as well as its competitors. Debt
is on par

Q. What is its target market?

Ans: HNIs with income of INR 5Cr +

I had made a brief structure earlier in which I had said that I
would like to explore 3 things. The historical performance of
the fund, Its competition, and the third thing was future
growth in India.
He gave me some details on the historic performance and all.
He also told me about the competition.
 I was then asked to make a decision of whether to continue in
India.
I told him based on the future growth story they should
remain in India. He wanted me to ask the growth rate of HNIs
in India. He then gave me those figures.

Q: He then asked me what all problems they could face.

Ans: Very volatile equity markets, major source of HNI money

is black so we can’t capture the entire growth in HNI.
Competition could outdo us. If interest rates fall, investors
would want to invest abroad. I gave a few more options that I
can’t recall right now.

Summary:

The case was very straight forward. Basic questions needed to

be asked. I had expressed an interest in finance so I was given
this case.
What do you think He was very impressed with my HR questions. That gave me
went right in this major confidence. The case was simple and need a proper
interview? structure initially which I provided. He was impressed with the
option generation as well.
What do you think I forgot to ask him the growth rate of our target market
went wrong in this (HNIs).
interview?
Any tips for future Prepare HR answers really well. My case was something which
batches on the basis anybody would have cracked but the differentiating part was
of your experience the HR answers.
Round Third

Personal interview 1. Tell me about yourself

questions 2. Why does consulting excite you?
Was well prepared for these.
Narration of the case I had 2 cases in this interview.
interview
1st case:

Problem Statement:

A taxi driver (black and yellow taxi) asked me if he should

move to a radio cab in Delhi.

Analysis:

I was a simple case of cost-benefit. Split into revenues and

cost. Cost split into fixed (maintenance and insurance) and
variable (fuel)
I asked him the km each car run in a day, the mileage, the cost
per liter of diesel. Charge/km. Made the comparison and gave
him the answer.
He asked me what else I should consider. I told him that the
taxi driver had more freedom owning his own cab. But in the
radio cab he won’t have to worry about depreciation of the
vehicle. I also told him that owning his taxi may be a matter
of prestige for the driver.

2nd Case:

Should a PE fund buyout Infosys?

Case analysis:

Q. I asked him what the private equity fund was looking at :

Stake purchase or complete buyout?

Ans. Complete buyout

He asked me how a PE can gain out of buying Infosys.

I told him that the PE would have board members and would
provide guidance and expertise along with the funding
support.

Q. How long is the PE looking to invest in Infy?

Ans. 5 years

Q. what is rate of return that infy will give in 5 years

Ans: 20%

At this point he asked me will the PE be able to increase the

profits of infy?

I told him that we could better management and expertise

from the PE end. He said that the PE would not be able to
manage Infosys better that what it already was.

Q. Will the PE be able to bring in new outside business?

Ans: no

Q. Will the PE be able to generate more than the expected

20% revenue for Infy?
Ans. No
At this point he told me think of it from an IB perspective. He
told me that if infy can be bought for say Rs 100 and would
be worth Rs 120 after 5 years, it’s not a big deal. The PE would
not be interested in something like this. So why would a PE
look to invest?
I luckily had some prior knowledge of Infy (0 debt on its
balance sheet and a hell lot of cash) So I told him that the
entire source of funds was only equity. So the PE could buy
the equity and then pay off dividends to it (since INFY was
cash rich) or else raise debt for leverage.

Q. Will the growth remain 20% even if I raise debt?

 Ans: yes

So I told him that if INFY raises debt of Rs 100, Firm value

would be roughly Rs 200 and growth would be 20% -> Rs
240. Therefore the PE would make 40 on its initial Rs 100 ->
40%.
He was looking for a solution like: Buy it for Rs 100. Replace
Rs 50 of equity by raising debt. And then sell it for Rs120 5
years later. So effective gain would be Rs 20 on Rs 50 which is
still 40%

Q. What is this mechanism called?

Ans. Leveraging
He spoke a bit about LBOs then.

What do you think The extra information I had on Infosys was something he
went right in this was very impressed with. He liked the fact that I was
interview? persistent in the PE case. I was thinking of different options.
He led me to a solution.
What do you think I didn’t get the hint of him leading me to an LBO based
went wrong in this solution even though I knew what an LBO was.
interview?
Any tips for future Be confident and be persistent. Keep on going at the case
batches on the basis even if you are stuck
of your experience
Interview Experience 5
Company The Boston Consulting Group
Name: Arjun Bhaduri
Name of interviewer Arvind Pandey, Partner and Director
and designation
Round First
Brief Profile : B.Sc (Economics Honors) from St. Xavier’s College
No work experience
Personal interview 1. Why should BCG select you?
questions This was a pressure question because everything I said
seemed to displease him. I just tried to match my personality
with BCG and that seemed to work for me.
Narration of the case Problem statement:
interview
A cement manufacturer based out of East India has been
seeing his prices in east India dip heavily in the past few
months. Despite being the market leader, he seems to be
unable to arrest the fall in prices. The aim as a consultant lies
to raise the prices by 10% and find a strategy to make sure the
prices do not fall so easily again.

Case analysis:

This was a very complex case with multiple problems and

solutions with each having a different set of pros and cons. He
wanted me to see the case from a simple demand and supply
point of view.

Structure:

The supply was overshooting demand in the market as a result

of the actions of competitors. So the issue was also to do with
the distributors in the middle and how brand consciousness
would come into the scene. The structure could be simplified
to a 2*2 matrix with price elasticity of demand and brand
consciousness on the axes. The issue could be then simplified
on the basis of the quadrant in focus.

Summary:

Overall, the issue was embedded in being able to use game

theory with the distributor and play prices up and down at
regular intervals. Another strategy was to enter into forward
contracts.
What do you think Calmness and common sense was the key.
went right in this
interview?
What do you think Was a little nervous at the beginning of the interviewing as a
went wrong in this result of the complexity of the case.
interview?
Round Second

Personal interview 1. General conversation for about 5 minutes?

questions The interviewer was very calm and reassuring and that
helped me build the conversation.

Narration of the case Problem statement:

interview
A local taxi driver in Delhi wants to explore the possibility of
signing a contract with a radio taxi service. Help him with his
dilemma

Case analysis:

This was a case that really tested your ability to think far and
wide because the math was simple but the underlying logic
could have been missed very easily

Structure:

Used a simple revenue-cost structure for the pre and post

radio taxi phase. Then tried to see if any of the key variables
could be modified to come up with a different result.

Summary:

The case had two parts- one was the initial decision and the
decision after changing a key variable.

What do you think Thought simple and picked up the cues very well.
went right in this
interview?
What do you think Failed to see the obvious solution the first time and needed a
went wrong in this little pushing in the right direction.
interview?
Round Third

Personal interview 1. Asked my questions about my tastes in food?

questions 2. General discussion on football and tennis and we
spoke about our favorite stars from each of them.
More than anything else, this was an amazing
conversation where I could speak without any fears
and inhibitions.

Narration of the case Problem statement:

interview
 A life insurance company in Sri Lanka is losing out on market
share. Where does the problem lie?

Case analysis:
The case was a test of structure to see if you could create one
with all the levers enlisted.

Structure:

The market share could be seen as a function of number of

policies sold and the revenue per policy. The discussion would
then carry on the aspect of number of policies. The number
of policies itself would be a function of a number of factors,
out of which one of them was creating an issue.

Summary:

The toxic area was something to do with the insurance policy

salesman and the entire structure had to be panned out so as
to get to that

What do you think Was highly energetic and logical in my approach.

went right in this
interview?
What do you think I rushed through the case in parts.
went wrong in this
interview?
Any tips for future Be calm, logical and energetic. That is all you need to impress
batches on the basis the interviewer.
of your experience
Interview Experience 6
Company The Boston Consulting Group
Name: Mustafa Rangwala
Name of interviewer All interviewers were with partners
and designation
Round First
Brief Profile : Did B.Tech in Electronics Engineering from VJTI. Worked
in JP Morgan for 21 months
Personal interview Asked me why I wanted to join Consulting and not stay in
questions finance as my CV was fin-oriented. Also asked I whether I
would join McKinsey or BCG (Be ready with the answer to
the last question as it is going to be asked).

Narration of the case Problem statement:

interview
The client is a financial services company. It has started a
wealth management business five years earlier. The business
is not performing nicely. Should the company keep on
making on investments in this or exit.

Structure:

First asked about the industry. The industry was growing but
the company was losing share. This meant that the problem
was with the company.
Structured to find about the revenue and cost structures of
the industry and the firm in particular. Tried to gather as
much background information on this as possible.
Talked about training the employees, any new adverse
regulations, competitor offerings, etc. In short covered a lot
of different angles.
Finally he asked me to give 10 recommendations to solve the
problem. This was difficult as we had barely discussed the
case for 10 minutes. Took 5 minutes to write down my
suggestions.
Structured my answer in three areas: Customers, employees
and business improvement. Gave 3-4 suggestions in each
bucket.
What do you think I was able to give 10 recommendations which required a lot
went right in this of idea generation
interview?
Any tips for future Idea generation requires a lot of practice. Make sure you do
batches on the basis abstract cases which involve idea generation. Also have
of your experience questions for the interviewer ready for at least 3 rounds of
the process.
Interview Experience 7
Company The Boston Consulting Group

Name: Vinay Doshi

Round First

Brief Profile : UG : Shri Ram College Of Commerce (2011)

Stream: Economics

Work-ex: 0 months

Personal interview Just a little chat about where you’re from, what you like doing
questions and stuff. Of course, it began with the quintessential -“Why
don't you tell me something about yourself?”

Well, the simple approach I took to answering this question

each time was to link the major points on my cv and answer
“Why you for BCG?” I do not think speaking about only one
particular instance or event is a very good idea, unless of course,
the interviewer himself/herself probes the area

Narration of the case Problem statement: About a potato chip manufacturing

interview company

What do you think went Well I didn’t really end up “cracking the case” as well i could
right in this interview? have. That was really a big negative I thought. But i hindsight,
the fact that i got an offer only affirm that there is no such thing
as “cracking the case”- they only judge your approach to
problem solving, and as you very well know there is no one
correct solution

What do you think went I really made a connect with the interviewer I felt. Let him do
wrong in this interview? more of the talking bit as i sat listening. It really helps, because
in the end, the interviewer will inevitably end up dropping those
crucial hints that shall help you reach a conclusion.

Any tips for future You really need to be calm and only then will the analytical skills
batches on the basis of and creativity really show. But do not worry - the interviewer
your experience shall go out of his/her way to make you feel so.

Just be you and try to establish connecting with the interviewer.

A smiling face comes in handy too.

Also, there is a lot of buildup on campus to the start of day

zero- just remain calm during that time. It’s easy to feel over
pressurized, especially with all the short-lists coming in, but just
relax. It’s going to be fine.

Round Second
Personal interview 1. Although the partner did not ask me any questions
questions specifically, I started talking to him about his day, job and
used this as an opportunity to highlight the points in my
work experience which I wanted to share (remember they
will not always ask you everything and do ensure that you
connect it wherever possible)

Narration of the case Problem statement:

interview
The client is a large cement company with the highest market
share. The second close player is cutting prices. To match the
prices the client has also reduced its prices and is facing
declining profits. The client has given us 3 weeks to solve the
problem.

Structure:

I asked him about the dynamics of the industry. He explained

that there is not much difference between the products as well
as the cost structures of the company. This meant that even the
competitor is losing money by the price war.

I suggested 2 alternatives to solve this: first involved analysing

the cost structure and trying to reduce costs. But the interviewer
told me that the client has used all the cost efficiencies possible
(this indicates that the interviewer does not want me to go
deeper).

Second option that I suggested involved was the Game Theory

approach. This involves indicating to the competitor that we
will not reduce our prices even if he does so. This I suggested
could be done by issuing some way of communication to the
competitor. But he said that the competitor is not willing to talk.
I could not think of what could be done so he suggested that
the client should increase the prices. This will show to the
competitor that the client is serious.

Then the interviewer said that after one week, the sales of the
client had declined drastically and the competitor had not
reduced its prices. This created a problem of inventory.

To solve this data was collected geographically and analyzed. It

was found that some dealers had reduced the stocks of the
clients cement. The clients did this as they expected the price
increase to be temporary and thus wanted to postpone the
purchase. I suggested increasing the prices again. This will signal
to the dealers that the price increase is not temporary.

Finally he asked me to give some suggestions about the same. I

suggested that the dealers should be given discounts based on
the average volumes they generate every week and month. This
 will help in inventory planning. Secondly whenever the price is
increased they should be increased all at once and any decrease
should be spread over a larger period. This will not allow
competitors and dealers to pre-empt the client.

What do you think went I was able to get the fact that the problem related to Game
right in this interview? Theory.

What do you think went The case had only one solution but I could not exactly pinpoint
wrong in this interview? that

Any tips for future Even though the ideas might sound outlandish, get them across,
batches on the basis of they will give you the benefit of thinking out of the box. Try to
your experience involve the interviewer in the case as much as possible, if he is
interested he will point you out more and more in the right
direction.

Round Third

Personal interview Started directly with the case. At the end of the case asked me
questions about LBO (Leveraged buyout) and asked me to give an
example in the Indian markets

Narration of the case Problem statement:

interview
I was travelling in a taxi when the driver asked me about
switching his car and joining the radio cab service such as Meru.
What is your advice?

Structure:

I said that we will compare the profits of the two methods and
make our decisions based on that. I asked about the revenue
and costs of the two and calculated the profit.

I proved that joining the radio cab was better. But the
interviewer told me that was the wrong answer. He asked me to
go back.

I took the current taxi and approached the different line items
one by one. I suggested that if the driver installed an AC he will
be able to charge more. But the interviewer asked me to suggest
something else.

If the engine of the cab (which was currently diesel) could be

replaced by CNG (the radio cab used CNG) the fuel cost
reduced drastically making the current cab more profitable. I
showed him the calculations.

What do you think went I was able to get to the required answer.
right in this interview?
What do you think went He expected me to get to the answer much quicker.
wrong in this interview?
Any tips for future Try to be receptive to the hints given by the interviewer in the
batches on the basis of process. They are extremely important to get to the solution
your experience quickly.
KPMG
Interview Experience 8
Company KPMG
Name: Rashik Gupta
Round There were 4 rounds and each round followed a similar
pattern – HR questions followed by a case
Brief Profile : BITS-Pilani, Chemical Engineering, 8 months at ZS
(Graduation College, Associates
stream, Work ex
details, etc. )
Personal interview 1. Tell me about yourself
questions 2. Do you know about the work that KPMG does
3. Experience at IIM Lucknow
4. Describe the project that you did at ZS Associates – This
question was followed by many questions about my project
5. Short-term and long-term goals
6. Personal goals in life
Narration of the case The only thing they were looking was how you structure your
interview analysis and your line of thinking. They were not looking for
any detailed analysis and in all the cases I was stopped after I
had discussed my overall approach.

Case 1:

Problem statement:
Samsung has come up to you with a business proposition i.e.
they want to start an insurance company for electronic
goods. How will you help them?

Case Analysis:

The only thing they were looking was how you structure your
analysis and your line of thinking.
I started with asking questions about the new business model
to extract some information like target customers,, how is the
value proposition different from a warranty, how much can
Samsung expect to charge its customers for insurance.
My first step was to analyze the business model and establish
the financial feasibility. This was followed by target
customers – who are the target customers and are they
sufficient to justify investment and why will they be
interested in our product. Third step was to deal with
operational issues of providing this product.

Case 2:

Problem statement:

A foreign bank wants to open its branch in India. They have

hired you as a consultant. How will you approach this?

Case Analysis:
My first step was to inquire about the bank. So I asked them
about their current scale of operations, countries where they
are operating, their market share and reputation among
clients.
I then explored what are the different areas of banking where
the bank can start its operations and based on the answers to
above questions, narrowed down on 1 area. Next step was to
deal with operational issues, how they will start operations. I
focused on 2 questions in this:
1. Who will be the customers immediately after starting?
2. How will be getting those customers and build
trustworthy relationship with them?
After an approach was finalized to start operations, I also
briefly discussed how they will proceed in short term to
expand their business in India.

Case 3:

Problem statement:
You want to open a petrol pump. Proceed.

Case Analysis:

In this case, my questions were not answered and I was told

that it is your business, make necessary assumptions. So I
took up 3-4 options like highways, a busy market in a city
and similar other options. Then I followed a guesstimate
approach for calculating the demand in these locations.
Comparison of demand or revenues with investment gave
me the best possible option for the petrol pump.

Case 4:

Here they followed a slightly different approach. Before the

case, I was told that no questions will be allowed. I have to
make necessary assumptions by myself and I have 5 minutes
to present my ideas and they won’t allow me to complete if I
am not done in 5 minutes.

Problem statement:

A US car manufacturer wants to setup a plant in India. You

are hired as a consultant. Help them.

Case Analysis:

I started with stating my assumptions to make sure that all of

us are working in the same framework. My assumptions
were:
1. They already export their cars to India: This helped
me to simplify my case as now I am aware of my
target customers and what is my position in the
 market. Also I know how my product is viewed in
Indian market.
2. It is amongst the biggest car manufacturers of US:
This simplified the problem of establishing trust
among customers as the company was a big brand
name and enjoyed a good position in the market.

So I started with the reasons of investing in India. Possible

reason can be increase in demand and lost sales because
imports are not able to meet demand or increase in
competition and therefore for reducing costs, I have to
operate in India rather than import my cars. I stated all the
possible reasons and assumed one reason to be the valid one
for further analysis. Let’s say the reason is increase in
competition.
So we have decided that the motive of investing in India is to
reduce costs. Now next step was to decide on a location that
will help me in this regard. So I looked at 2 possibilities for
this.
1. My customers are uniformly spread throughout India.
In this case, my only concern about the location will
be investment costs i.e. cost of land, cost of setting up
a plant etc. and the tax rebate that I will get from state
government.
2. I have most of my customers located in a particular
area. In this case, I must strike a balance between
above mentioned investment costs and my logistics
costs i.e. plant must be located close to my biggest
market.
Since the reason for investing in India is increased
competition, my last step was to analyze how I will use my
cost savings to deal with competition. I analyzed pros and
cons of different options mentioned below:
1. Increase my marketing budget to attract customers
2. Decrease prices by passing on the savings in
manufacturing to customers
3. A mix of both the strategies
Any tips for future Case analysis is very important. Make sure that you prepare a
batches on the basis of structure and show them the structure of analysis before
your experience starting.
McKinsey & Co.
Interview Experience 9
Company Mckinsey & Co
Name: Tejas Choudhari
Name of interviewer Mr. Sikka, Associate Partner
and designation
Round 1st Round
Brief Profile : BTech(IT) from VJTI, Mumbai
Fresher
Personal interview 1. Tell me about yourself. I had practiced this answer many
questions times so was able to say it fluently and perfectly
2. Asked questions about my entrepreneurial venture and
what was my role in it. Current situation of the venture and
future prospects. General questions, nothing specific
3. Some questions on my cricket career during school and
college
Narration of the case Problem statement:
interview
As he was talking to me about cricket, he started talking
about how we could estimate cricket ball sales in the country
for one year. Basically, I was given a guesstimate first up.

Case analysis:

First, I confirmed whether he was talking about leather cricket

ball. Thereafter, I started talking about where a cricket ball will
be used and who will buy a cricket ball. At each juncture, I
kept on checking with Mr. Sikka so as I’m not deviating from
the solution.
Then I told him that I would estimate sales of cricket balls for
Mumbai and then extrapolate it to the whole country.
I calculated number of matches played in one day by
estimating number of grounds in Mumbai (having played on
most of the grounds, it was easy for me). Then I separated one
day matches and 20-20 matches as one day match requires 2
balls and 20-20 requires 4 balls(As two 20-20 matches are
possible on a single pitch in one day).
Also, considering that each ground hosts practice session 2
times a day and this will also contribute towards the sales.
Then he stopped me and said fine. He did not go into depth
of the guesstimate as it could have got complicated with other
parts of the country to be considered for contribution towards
the sales of cricket balls.
What do you think I was able to connect with the interviewer. I asked him
went right in this questions on which we spoke for 15 minutes and he seemed
interview? interested.
What do you think No idea as such. I guess he needed something more from the
went wrong in this guesstimate. More number crunching could have helped.
interview?
Any tips for future Please practice your cases as well as guesstimates. Also, know
batches on the basis of your CV in and out. Always connect with the interviewer.
your experience
Interview Experience 10
Company McKinsey & Co.
Name: Amit Deshpande
Name of interviewer Rajat Bhargava
and designation
Round First

Personal interview We started the interview by talking about the video

questions conferencing facilities in IIM L, since there was a VC setup
in the interview room. We talked about it for a while and
then we started the interview.
He asked the most standard question: tell me something
about yourself. I gave him a long and descriptive answer
since he wasn’t engaging me much. We ended up talking
about badminton since both of us were badminton players.
Narration of the case Since I am passionate about badminton, he asked me to
interview estimate the no. of badminton courts in India. I started off
by dividing India into rural and urban areas, and confirmed
with him that I can ignore the rural areas for this
guesstimation. I divided the urban areas further into tier 1
and tier 2 cities, and started with Mumbai as an average for
tier 1 cities. The rest of the case was pretty straightforward,
since I took an average number of people per badminton
court and multiplied it by the population. I took a percentage
of the number in case of tier 2 cities to arrive at the total
number.
What do you think Structure was good. I clarified key assumptions with the
went right in this interviewer before proceeding.
interview?
What do you think I overestimated the total number the first time, but corrected
went wrong in this the number after a reality check.
interview?
Any tips for future Draw out an MECE structure before starting analysis of the
batches on the basis of case. Reality checks are essential.
your experience
Round Second

Name of interviewer Amit Kheda

and designation
Personal interview The interviewer was extremely informal. He was talking how
questions weird the interview process is these days, as compared to the
process in his days. We talked about how big the interview
room was and how difficult it is to focus while sitting in a
comfy couch! He didn’t ask me any personal questions since
he said he had already been through my CV a million times.

Narration of the case The case was about a fertilizer manufacturing company
interview based out of the US which was receiving complaints
regarding its poor customer service.
I started by asking details about the company, its operations,
its customers, the competitors and the market in general
(barriers, trends etc.). After the initial questions, I realized
that the problem was in the supply of fertilizers to the
 customers (which were 5 major distributors across the US).
So, I broke down the case into the supply value chain, i.e.,
raw materials (procurement and transportation),
manufacturing process and inventory handling. This led me
to the problem which was their inventory handling methods.
Specifically, the demand estimation was way off; they
estimated demand on an annual basis and it was a word-of-
mouth contract with the customers. Besides, despite
geographical variations within the US, the demand was
estimated by one sales team centrally. This was the key issue
and I got to it pretty quickly. The pace of the interview was
very fast and the interviewer did not let me talk for long
periods of time; basically he was testing me on my speed of
option generation. I thought I did pretty well and suggested
seasonal demand estimation based on geography and that the
contracts with customers should be on paper.

What do you think Good case overall. I got the structure right which helped me
went right in this arrive at the solution fast.
interview?
What do you think Nothing really. However, I really had to think on my toes
went wrong in this because the interviewer was constantly interrupting me and
interview? trying to disturb my thought process.
Round Third

Name of interviewer Gautam Kumra

and designation
Personal interview Very serious interview. He was completely straight-faced
questions right from the word goes. Immediately asked me to tell him
something about myself. After hearing me out, he asked me
to tell him something about my work experience at the Bain
Capability Centre. This part went pretty well.
Narration of the case He didn’t really give me a case. He asked me which sector I
interview followed in India, to which I replied the retail sector. We
then entered into a discussion into the retail sector in India. I
had very little sector knowledge and retail was my best bet.
SO after giving him some facts that I had read, he asked me
what a retail company think should about while entering the
Indian market, i.e., the key success factors. I told him that we
should consider the target customer segment, the product
offerings, the retail format and the locations. The interview
was pretty OK till this point. However, then he started
getting into details. He asked me what a company should do
to compete with the huge unorganized sector, and wasn’t
convinced with my answer. I knew that I’d blown it. Finally
he ended the case and asked me if I had any other shortlists
before I left.

What do you think HR answers.

went right in this
interview?
What do you think Everything else. Sector knowledge let me down.
went wrong in this
interview?
Any tips for future Please prepare one sector thoroughly, not just facts, but to
batches on the basis of have a business opinion about it.
your experience