IIM CAP Interview Experience

7 Day GD WAT PI Program by Cetking
Day 1 – PI Past! Achievements, Introduction
Day 2 – PI Future! Why MBA, Goals…
Day 3 – PI Present! Hobbies Interest Strength Weakness
Day 4 – WAT Essay Writing / SOP Building Workshop
Day 5 – Case Study / Group Activities / Group Exercises
Day 6 – Current Affairs! Business & Geo Political News!
Day 7 – Technical Knowledge! Marketing finance Knowledge Workshops

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List of IIMs Participating in CAP
The CAP round is organized for the IIMs which started operation in 2010-11 and for the new generation IIMs that started operating in 2015-16. It is the final selection round comprising common PI-WAT process for following 9 IIMs which participated in CAP:

IIM Udaipur
IIM Tiruchirappalli
IIM Kashipur
IIM Raipur
IIM Ranchi
IIM Bodh Gaya
IIM Jammu
IIM Sambalpur
IIM Sirmaur

Five New IIMs in CAP (keep changing every year)
Out of 6 New IIMs, 5 IIMs namely IIM Kashipur, IIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi, IIM Tiruchirappalli and IIM Udaipur participated in CAP 2023. IIM Rohtak opted out of Common Admission process and conducted its own PI-WAT round.

Four Baby IIMs in CAP
Out of the 7 Baby IIMs, 4 of them namely, IIM Bodh Gaya, IIM Jammu, IIM Sambalpur, IIM Sirmaur participated in CAP.

Step 1 Eligibility Criteria

Category	Section-1 VARC	Section-2 DILR	Section-3 Quant	Overall CAT cut off Percentile
General	70	70	70	92
EWS	40	40	40	70
NC-OBC	45	45	45	74
SC	35	35	35	54
ST	25	25	32.5	40
DAP	25	25	32.5	40

Step 2: Final Selection Weights after CAP

Name of the IIM	Weight %age for CAT Score	Weight %age for CAP PI round	Weight %age for Academics & Work Ex	Weight %age for Diversity & Others
IIM Kashipur	33	25	25	17
IIM Raipur	35	35	18	12
IIM Ranchi	40	30	20	10
IIM Tiruchirappalli	50	25	15	10
IIM Udaipur	60	15	18	7
IIM Bodhgaya	40	30	24	6
IIM Jammu	40	30	17	13
IIM Sambalpur	30	20	30	20
IIM Sirmaur	35	30	20	15

Step 3: Shortlisted Students

More candidates per seat are shortlisted by IIMs as against earlier ratio.

CAP Year	Total seats in participating IIMs	Total candidates shortlisted
CAP 2022	2200	20879
CAP 2021	2000+	20000+
CAP 2020	1600+	17000
CAP 2019	1500+	14000+
CAP 2018	1460	12790

Step 4 Gender & Diversity

The statistics of Male & Female candidates registered for CAP category wise is as follows:

Category	Total Regd candidates	Male	Female
General	6957	5296	1661
EWS	1535	1231	304
NC-OBC	4141	3303	838
SC	2269	1728	541
ST	664	488	176
DAP	118	99	19
Total	15684	12145	3539

Step 5 Profile of Students

Profile Particulars	Number of Candidates Registered for CAP
Engineers	10,451
Non-Engineers	5,233
Freshers	7,182
Candidates with Work Experience	8,502

WAT PI Schedule of CAP Rounds

IIM CAP Activity	CAP Date
CAP Shortlist Release	January Mid
Last Date for CAP Registration	January End
Intimation regarding IIM-CAP Personal Interview (PI)	February First Week
IIM-CAP PI Round – Week-I	February Mid
IIM-CAP PI Round – Week-II	February End
IIM-CAP PI Round – Week-III	March First Week
CAP Result Date	April Last Week/May second week
Final Admission Offer	April Last Week/May Second Week

Particulars	Number of Candidates
Total Number of candidates Shortlisted for CAP	20879
Total Number of candidates Registered for CAP	15684
Total candidates participated in CAP	13891
Total Seats in CAP	2000

February 14, forenoon session

2 Panelist- 2 Males

age- 40+

One was eating chana, during the interview and ordering chai, coffee.

It didn’t seem like an IIM interview.

Greeted everyone.

M1 – So, Akanksha what is your strategy for this interview.

me- I will just be confident enough.

M1- And what’s your plan after this interview.

(Since it was a valentine day, he tried to mess with me, for my plans.)

me- gave him the answer with a smiling face.

M1- Asked about my specialization in graduation, and asked few questions related to that.

Since my hons. is Botany, so asked me about the Botanical names of few flowers and plants.

M2- Who is your role model.

Me- I mentioned Falguni Nayyar, and told them about her that how she started a business at the age of 50.

M2- So, What’s the pro and cons. of starting the business at 50.

me- gave him the satisfying answer. He was quite happy after that.

M2- Mention any place, where you acted as a leader.

me- gave him the prepared answer, and in the same answer i mentioned him why MBA too, since he didn’t ask me at first.

M2- do you read newspaper?

Me- NO, But i read e news.

M2-tell me any site which you read.

Told him The economic times.

M2- Any news which you have read, in last 15 days.

Me- mentioned about Budget,

and here I lead him towards the budget, because i have prepared it.

M2- What do you like about this budget?

Me- Gave him the prepared answer.

Since I mentioned economy there, he asked me

Mention few things which are affecting economy positively, or negatively .

mentioned about few points from budget, global recession, Adani vs Hindenberg .

He seemed Quite satisfied after that.

M2- Asked me about extracurricular activities, since, i haven’t attached any.

Answered him.

M1- Okay Akanksha, you can log out now.

Interview was around 8–10 minutes.

had a very mixed feeling after interview.

But the panelist didn’t try to grill me a lot.

Since there are plenty of students in IIM CAP, interview wouldn’t run for more than 10 mins.

The IIM interview is a crucial step in the admissions process for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. Candidates face a panel of experts who assess their academic background, work experience, and general awareness. Questions range from personal achievements to current affairs, testing analytical and communication skills. The interview aims to gauge a candidate’s suitability for the rigorous MBA program and assess their leadership potential. It is imperative for candidates to articulate their goals, showcase adaptability, and demonstrate a clear understanding of the business world. Successful candidates convey confidence, enthusiasm, and a passion for contributing to the IIM community.

Disclaimer – *To the people who think a Zoology graduate cannot crack IIM calls*

First of all I want to share my point of view that whenever I used to read these Interview experiences as an aspirant I panicked a lot until this year 2023 when I myself gave the interview. So, I completely get you all right now. Also, I want you to know that it is quite scary as the tag IIM makes it but once you give your first interview you are boosted with high levels of confidence and it is worth it.

IIM CAP INTERVIEW ( CONDUCTED BY IIM UDAIPUR)

DETAILS – 81/80/65 BSC ZOOLOGY FRESHER WITH GAP YEAR.

There were 2 panelists both were males.

Male Panelist 1- Greeted and asked how was I doing. Then quickly shifted to Tell me about Yourself.

Me – Since I knew my entire interview was based on this TMAY , I had already made a planned answer. I replied –

Starting with the city I was born and raised to the school where I completed my 12th then swiftly moved to why I choose Zoology as a subject in my graduation. I knew that me taking a completely diverse subject in my graduation and then aspiring to do an MBA would probably be their target follow up question hence I arranged each and every step of my life in a way that would somehow connect to the reason I wanted to do an MBA. I went exactly like my strategy and it worked in my favour.

The follow up question went like –

How would your graduation subject help you in management course?

I patiently answered it linking how my subject of human behaviour ( animal behaviour) was beneficial to the role of Human Resource Management. He agreed and nodded in a yes.

He went on to ask some question on my academics i.e Genetics –

What is BT cotton ? What are Genetically modified crops and organisms?

What does BT stands?

What are genetic defects ? etc. He then let the other panelist to take over.

Panelist 2 – I was a bit lucky as this guy’s connection wasn’t that proper and it went cracking in between.

He asked me about the ongoing Adani’s case and why was Gautam Adani in news these days.

I answered 2/3 points from the Hindenberg’s Report and answered them in brief.

The interview went for 10 -12 mins and they asked me to sign off.

I want to tell everyone aspiring for an IIM work hard towards your dreams.

( Radisson Blu, New Delhi)

GEM Fresher.

WAT topic: Sharing everything about life on social media. Your take on this trend.

Interview:

(Both were in 40s may be, Bengalis)

Me : Gud evening sir.

P1: So Harshit, how are you feeling,?

Me: Excited, but a bit nervous.

P2: Goes out to receive a call.

P1: Glances over my file, oo currently you live in Jharkhand.

Me: Yes in a place very close to Bengal.

P1 asked about my father’s profession and why I didn’t think of becoming judge or studying law at least which went for another couple of minutes.

P1: Why are u thinking for MBA after civil?

Me: Told

P1 was neither happy nor satisfied.

P2 enters.

P1: your hobbies?

Me: Cricket lover and travel enthusiast.

P1: Which places have you been to?

Me: Except 7 sisters and Lakshadweep, all states in India.

P1: Intresting. Which is the most beautiful place ?

Me: Kerala. Examined how it has everything from mountains, tea gardens to beautiful beaches and backwaters.

P1 asked p2 to look at the file ,P2 declined his offer.

P2: So, you are a cricket enthusiast. Why don’t you make a career in cricket or tourism?

Me: Sir MBA will keep those options open.

P2: Tell me one person each who made their careers in sports management and travel related work.

Me: Sir my idol Harsha Bhogle and travel I guess malishka , the radio jockey. She used to host a show.

P2: So I wish after 10 years I see Harshit pandey as the next Harsha Bhogle.

Me: Hopefully.

P2: Tell me how many matches azahruddin played?

Me: 99. I also added the fact that his highest score was 199.

P2 looked impressed and said good!!

P2: Why are there some steel rods in bridges in form of triangles?

Me: Explained him in terms of tension and compression giving example of Howrah bridge( Bengali factor )

P1: What kind of buildings will you construct in earthquake prone areas?

Me: Explained, he was satisfied.

P1: Let’s have an extempore. Take a cookie and water.

Me: Thankyou sir

P1: Your topic is ” should India become an autocrat?”

P2: 1 minute to think and finish the cookie.

Me: Ready in about 55 seconds( before they were to say, I said I am ready :p)

Me: Talked about emergency and Indira Gandhi period , later shifted to benefits, then at last told the demerits. Gave kim Jong’s example.

A couple of cross questions from them on which I was able to clearify my views. They seemed satisfied with the answer.

P1: Okay, it was great. Any questions for us?

Me: Asked what he liked about me!

P1: Your happy and smiling attitude throughout.

Me: My name is Harshit which means happy, So I have it’s effect on me.

Both laughed and said “well done. You may go.”

IIM Sambhalpur

Interview details- 2 panelists ( P1-male- 60–65yr, P2- female- 45–50 yr), Afternoon slot (I was second last or third last to give interview, had to wait for around 3–4 hours)

Education- 12th- commerce, graduation- Bachelor in Arts- Psychology Major.

As I told I was second or third last to attend interview so the very first question asked by them was…

P1- How did you spend your time?

to this a random answer was given by me.

P1- Give a glance of what have you done so far?

narrated answer of introduce yourself.

P1- Asked me all my marks and percentage from 10th to grad. (to check if I remember them properly and also the exact figure)

P1- Asked me about the sports certificates and checked if they are original or not.

P2- Why MBA after psychology? and how could you connect psychology with MBA?

answered and also some follow up questions.

P2- gave a case study and asked how will you use the knowledge of psychology here.

had a nice conversation with the P2 and as she had some time constraints and I suppose more candidates were waiting, she was told to end the interview but the feedback given by her was positive.

not much of grilling and gk/current affairs questions.

verdict- converted IIM Sambhalpur.

PROFILE

CAT 92.05%ile (NC-OBC)

Workex 18months

B.Tech 8.45

12th 85%

10th 95%

1) Tell me about yourself

Told them about myself, where I’m from, where and what I did at work, also told them that I have taken a break for a year because of Covid.

2) Questions on graphs and charts

A total of 7 questions were asked and the first question I started off was a mistake and it was a very silly error which I later realised, so I didn’t have the perfect start to my interview. The rest of the questions I managed to answer.

3) Achievements in School and College

Mentioned that I was part of my school football team and also participated in intra college football tournaments.

4) What do you know about the Suez Canal Evergiven ship news?

Briefly explained what had happened and told them that 30% of all trades happen through that route although I made a mistake in presenting the numbers, it was actually 13% of world’s trade.

5) Any recent Cryptocurrency news you’ve read?

Explained about the situation between cryptocurrency and Indian government. Also mentioned why the Indian government has banned crypto trading and the concerns related to it.

6) If you have to measure a country’s World Happiness index, what factors will you consider?

Told him that, I’d consider freedom of speech, the income/spending capacity of the people, healthcare system and infrastructure.

7) Name the country that is leading in the world happiness index.

Told him that, I’m not very sure which one of the Scandinavian countries it is, it’s either Norway or Sweden that is leading the charts.

Correct answer : Finland

8) What about India’s happiness index?

Sir, India’s world happiness index has dropped down this year.

9) Top 5 Indian companies with marketcap

After a pause for few seconds, I told him – Tata, Reliance industries and Adani group. Then, I told him – Sir, I could randomly say 2 more companies but it would be like me taking a wild guess.

Panel – smiles at me and says okay next question.

10) Mention 3 Government schemes

I told him Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Beti bachao and Vocal for local.

Panel – Is vocal for local a slogan or a scheme?

Hmm, I guess it’s a slogan, my bad.

11) Tell me about Aatmanirbhar Bharat, how much money has the government allocated for it and the plan of action.

Sir, Aatmanirbhar Bharat is a plan to make India a self sustainable country and to promote indeginious products. I honestly do not know how much they have allocated towards it.

12) Any questions for us?

What makes IIM Amritsar the fastest growing baby IIM of all?

Panel – There are many factors to it like location, students, faculty members, our tie-ups with corporates and much more.

Thank you, it was lovely interacting with you both. All the best.

RESULT : Got selected for MBA and MBA-BA (2021-2023)

OPINION : After the interview, I thought my chances of converting were low because I couldn’t answer a lot of questions but to my surprise I got selected. It’s not about how many answers you get right but the way you present yourself at the interview and it’s always okay to say that you don’t know the answer rather than bullshiting something. All the best if you are preparing for your MBA interviews, hope this helps.

PROFILE

CAT 92.05%ile (NC-OBC)

Workex 18months

B.Tech 8.45

12th 85%

10th 95%

1) Tell me about yourself

Told them about myself, where I’m from, where and what I did at work, also told them that I have taken a break for a year because of Covid.

2) Questions on graphs and charts

3) Achievements in School and College

Mentioned that I was part of my school football team and also participated in intra college football tournaments.

4) What do you know about the Suez Canal Evergiven ship news?

Briefly explained what had happened and told them that 30% of all trades happen through that route although I made a mistake in presenting the numbers, it was actually 13% of world’s trade.

5) Any recent Cryptocurrency news you’ve read?

Explained about the situation between cryptocurrency and Indian government. Also mentioned why the Indian government has banned crypto trading and the concerns related to it.

6) If you have to measure a country’s World Happiness index, what factors will you consider?

Told him that, I’d consider freedom of speech, the income/spending capacity of the people, healthcare system and infrastructure.

7) Name the country that is leading in the world happiness index.

Told him that, I’m not very sure which one of the Scandinavian countries it is, it’s either Norway or Sweden that is leading the charts.

Correct answer : Finland

8) What about India’s happiness index?

Sir, India’s world happiness index has dropped down this year.

9) Top 5 Indian companies with marketcap

Panel – smiles at me and says okay next question.

10) Mention 3 Government schemes

I told him Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Beti bachao and Vocal for local.

Panel – Is vocal for local a slogan or a scheme?

Hmm, I guess it’s a slogan, my bad.

11) Tell me about Aatmanirbhar Bharat, how much money has the government allocated for it and the plan of action.

Sir, Aatmanirbhar Bharat is a plan to make India a self sustainable country and to promote indeginious products. I honestly do not know how much they have allocated towards it.

12) Any questions for us?

What makes IIM Amritsar the fastest growing baby IIM of all?

Panel – There are many factors to it like location, students, faculty members, our tie-ups with corporates and much more.

Thank you, it was lovely interacting with you both. All the best.

RESULT : Got selected for MBA and MBA-BA (2021-2023)

OPINION : After the interview, I thought my chances of converting were low because I couldn’t answer a lot of questions but to my surprise I got selected. It’s not about how many answers you get right but the way you present yourself at the interview and it’s always okay to say that you don’t know the answer rather than bullshiting something. All the best if you are preparing for your MBA interviews, hope this helps.

Background:- BBA(Marketing), Average extracurricular, some experience of volunteering and started a business venture during High School.

Interview reporting time:- 1:25(Zoom)

It started after waiting for more than two hours. There were two panels one Male (M), one Female(F).

M:- How are you Ankit.

Answered

M:- Why nervous?

Said

M:- Walk me through your personal and professional life so far in 90 seconds.

Gave well-prepared answer.

M(picked something when I was answering):- So you started a business tell me about that.

Told

M:- Great, In which year did you start?

ANSWERED

M:- Tell me about the major challenges you faced.

Told

M:- Do you know about Facebook and Jio collaboration?

Said

M:- How digitalization has affected buying behaviour?

Said

M:- How you can use technology in your business?

ANSWERED IN BRIEF

M:- Tell me about the selling model of the big basket.

Described

M:- What all sets you apart from competitors in the market?

Answered

F:- Tell me about the Marketing mix in the context of your business.

Answered in detail

F:- What was your pricing strategy?

Answered

F:- If you restart your business now what changes you will make?

Said

F:- How your business will operate in metro cities and tier 3 cities?

Answered

F:- So you had a subscription model. Why people should commit to the long term if they can buy on daily basis?

Answered

F:- How you were convincing people?

Answered in detail.

F:- Name a few entrepreneurs from Bihar.

Can tell only one but mentioned how Bihar can be changed from IAS producing state to IAS and ENTREPRENEURS producing state.

They seemed to be very satisfied. Professor said, “It is great that you started business at such early age, congratulations”.

Total time:- 21-22 minutes.

Everything was smooth.

Learning:- GIVE THEM SOMETHING INTERESTING TO TALK AND HAVE THOROUGH KNOWLEDGE OF THAT TOPIC.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES COMMENT DOWN.
SHARE WITH ANYONE LOOKING FOR THIS ANSWER.

Profile: 10th- 8.8 CGPA, 12th- 92%, B.Tech- 66.98 CPI.

CAT: 96.46(VARC/DILR/QA: 98.88/92.22/86.01)

Venue, Hotel Vivanta by Taj, New Delhi 12:30pm slot.

WAT: Opinion on Honour Killing and something along the lines. 300 words, 20 mins.

I was the 7th person to be interviewed in my panel. My turn came around 4:30 There were two panelists, A male and a female, both 40ish. I’ll call them M and F respectively.

I: Good evening Sir, Good evening ma’am. May I take a seat?

F: Good evening, please take a seat. (They asked me to wait for a minute while they were ordering coffee.)

M: Tanay, tell me something that is not there on this form.(Pointing towards my profile data form)

I: Talked about my overall personality, my hobbies and special interests.

M: Spanish football clubs don’t interest you? (I had mentioned about my interest in football and Chelsea FC.)

I: Answered regarding the competitiveness of the league.

M: May I have a look at your folder?

I: Handed him my folder.

M: If you are willing to spend so much money on MBA, why not join any private university where you can get in easily, why IIM?

I: Gave him my prepared answer, talked about institutes of national importance, faculty known for imparting quality education, peer to peer learning etc.

M: (In Hindi) Beta, learning se sab kuch nahi hota. 2 years down the line, after completing your MBA you wouldn’t be talking about your learning. Money is what matters at the end of the day.

I: Answered again replying that what I learn would never go waste and of course money is a concern but not a primary one. Elaborated the answer further.

M: Do you have calls from any other IIMs?

I: Replied in the negative.

(F had been silent this whole while, came up with her first question)

F: What is the ranking of IIM A globally?

I: Replied it is ranked in the top 10 in Asia.

F: No, I asked globally!

I: I’m sorry, I don’t know.

F: What is it IIM A known for?

I: (Told her that I didn’t understand what answer she wanted. She explained by giving the example of IIM B saying it is known for Public Policy and management, similarly what is IIM A known for?)

I: Told her I didn’t know. (She asked me if I would take a guess, I chose not to)

F: As an individual, what do you consider your greatest strength, which would also help you in a management career?

I: Answered.

F: How would you resolve a conflict between 2 people? Would you take a stand rightaway.(Probably asked me this because I had taken an outright stand against honour killing in my WAT essay)

I: Answered.

M: Your college percentage are fairly average, could it have been better?

I: Yes.

F: Then tell me why it isn’t?

I: Explained, how I enjoyed too much freedom in the first semester, but later on understood my mistake and told if you see in the subsequent semester, there is an increasing trend in the marks, but most of the damage was done in the first semester itself.

M: Are you still in college?

I: No sir, I graduated in 2018.

M: So what were you doing till now?

I: Talked that the major focus was on preparation for CAT, apart from that, talked about the freelance social media management that I did.

M: Tell me the techniques you used for promoting on social media.

I: Answered.

F: Did you create a tagline?

I: Answered.

(M by this time had finished going through my folder.)

M: You completed a management development programme from xyz institute. Tell me what did you learn?

I: Started by saying why I did the course. Answered what is marketing? what is marketing analytics? …. interrupted by M.

M: So tell me what is marketing?

I: Quoted Philip Kotler’s definition of marketing.

M: Don’t give me the bookish definition, tell me what you understand from marketing.

I: Talked about needs and wants.

M: Agar needs ki baat hai toh Apple ki marketing sabse bekaar hai.

I: Told about how they use the premium pricing approach as they claim to have a unique product.

F: Tell me about flash sale.

I: Went completely blank, couldn’t answer.

(M leaves the panel)

F: Have you been following current affairs?

I: Replied in the affirmative.

F: Tell me what have you read?

I: Answered.

F: What is the capital of Arunachal Pradesh? (A follow up question because I had mentioned PM’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh)

I: Answered.

F: Assam? Manipur?

I: Answered both.

F: Tanay, thank you so much, you may leave now, after 1 minute send the next candidate.

I: Greeted her and left.

The entire interview seemed like a normal conversation, they didn’t ask me anything related to my academics and all the questions they asked were extremely basic. Moreover both the panelists were expressionless while listening to my answers.

At the end of the day it was a good learning experience.

Converts: IIM Sirmaur, Bodh Gaya and Jammu.

Wait-listed: IIM Raipur, Udaipur and Kashipur.

Calls: IIM Trichy, Ranchi, Raipur, Udaipur, Kashipur, Bodh Gaya, Sirmaur, Jammu and Sambalpur.

Time Slot: 1:30PM

CAT: 97++ (VARC: 92.93, DILR: 96.73, QA: 95.52)

Acads: 10 CGPA/ 81.8 / 75.7 ( GEF)

They took attendance at 1:30PM on Zoom Platform and asked to wait in the waiting room. (Assigned me the serial number)

My interview started around 3 PM.

There were Two Panellist: – One Male (M) and One Female (F)

M – So Anshika, how are you doing?

A – I am doing great sir, how are you?

M – You left your job in December, what are you doing right now?

A – I have done digital marketing course along with excel and business analytics course during my preparation. I have applied for internship in digital marketing in December and I got selected as a social media marketer. It’s a paid internship and my job role is to make social media plan for our clients and to do Facebook and Instagram marketing for their products and services.

M – As a Marketer what is the most important thing for you?

A – For me the most important thing is, the one who is selling the product or service and the customer, should always be on the same page.

M – How can you both be on the same page, you are selling the product and customer is buying the product?

A – Purpose of my selling and the purpose of customer’s buying should be same. For Example: – The purpose to sell Pepsi is that customer should buy it for enjoyment, on get together, happy moment or in festivals. Customers are also buying for the same motive, so we are on the same page.

M – Ok, pretty well explained. Suppose you are going to buy a new service or product, what all parameters you will consider and how will you make up your mind for buying the same?

A – I will consider the urgency of how much I am in need of that product/ service at that particular time, what kind of benefit I am getting and how it is going to simplify my life. Since I am into digital marketing, I will google about that product or service. Check the ratings and reviews. Ask about the same to my friends and relatives. If I will be satisfied enough then I will go for it.

M – If your family member/ friend is into that business only then how you are going to trust their reviews?

A – First of all my family/ friends belongs to a technical background and if in case this happens, I will dive more into the details of that product/service.

M – Ok. Not from marketing point of view in general what do you understand from Need and Want, what is difference between both?

A – Need is something you cannot live without like food, cloth and house . Want is something additional you add to simplify your life. For example: – When I started preparation for CAT 2020, going to the coaching was my need to understand about the exam, syllabus and competition. But, doing courses (excel, business analytics and digital marketing) was my want because I want to grow my skillsets.

M – Then what is desire?

A – Next year I want to go to Maldives is my desire, something hypothetical.

M – Ok, so Ferrari is my need, I want it at any cost. Now tell me the difference between need, want and desire.

A – Need is something very important or essential rather than being desirable and I think having a Ferrari is something someone wishes/desires for. For that you need to push yourself more.

F – Actually she is not ready to accept that Ferrari can be someone’s need.

M – Okay so you are saying that before selling your product you will see my status?

A – Sir, in digital marketing if we are selling a product which cost around 6000 bucks, even for that, in audience targeting section we filter out the customers who prefer high value goods and if we are selling product which is around crores. Then yes, to market our product to potential customers, income status matters.

F – Okay Anshika, you must have heard about Indra Nooyi.

A – Yes, Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is my role model and she was the former CEO of Pepsico and alumni of IIM Calcutta.

F – Then you must want to be like her.

A – I just want to follow her footsteps but want to be like Anshika only, I want to carry my originality along with following her footsteps.

F – Nice, recently she said that women cannot have it all due to her biological process. What do you think about this?

A – I completely agree with this because doesn’t matter what position we hold in an Organisation at the end it’s only Female who’s going to be a Mother and the duration of Motherhood is not simply limited to 9 Months. We are more responsible for taking care of elders and children in a family. But directly or indirectly women are helping in business. For Example: – Mukesh Ambani has built such a giant business and for next coming decades it belongs to theirs only because women gave him their heir.

M – Great! So, what other calls do you have?

A – IIM K, IIM Rohtak, IIM Shillong, MDI G, IMT G, Xavier……

M – If you will get selected in all of them which one would you prefer?

A – I am sorry sir, but I will go for IIM K, because ever since one prepares for CAT, he/she dreams for going into BLACKI IIMs. And I want to go for the bestest. But, right now I don’t know what is in my destiny I would love to get into any IIM’s as IIM is a brand in itself.

M – You are very honest person, I like your honesty.

F – I like your energy and confidence Anshika. Thank you

M – Is there anything you want to ask.

A – No sir, Thank you to both of you.

F – You may leave the meeting.

A – Ok, NAMASTAY. (Leaves)

| Verdict- Converted all new and baby IIMs |

Your interviews for B Schools are primarily dependent on your profile. Hence no two people can have the same interview. However, you can always get some idea from the interview experience of a candidate with a somewhat similar profile. I am sharing my interview experience for IIM Nagpur as it was the one, I would remember for a really long time for many reasons.

My Profile –

Scored 86%lile in

28 months work ex in IT

BE Electronics and Telecommunication

Academics – Average

IIM Nagpur conducts a separate process (Yes, it is not part of the CAP process). Since IIM Nagpur starts its interview process around March every year and being “The Year”, my interview was scheduled , IIM Nagpur had scrapped its WAT process.

The Admission committee followed the schedule quite promptly, and I was allowed into the meeting room sharp at the allotted time. The interview panel consisted of two male faculties (I1 and I2).

I1 and I2 – Greetings

I1 – Tell me about yourself.

Answered. The golden question, and it was the first time I was asked this question in any B school interview. There were a couple of follow-up questions related to my work ex.

I2 – Why MBA and Why IIM Nagpur

Answered

I1 – So, how did you spend your lockdown

Answered

I2 – Some discussion around Covid -19. Then asked, “What are your views about the sudden lockdown imposed by the Government. Were they right in doing so?”. This was followed up with questions like “The condition of workmen was terrible. So, wasn’t it the government’s fault?”

Answered. This discussion lasted for around 15 mins. I feel they were trying to check my awareness about general things and if I have my opinion and stand by it.

I1 and I2 – General Awareness questions (4-5)

I was able to answer just 3

My interview lasted for approx. 30 mins. Overall, it was a smooth process. I came for a visit to my hometown and had to stay back due to lockdown. I didn’t even have my formals for the interview. But they were considerate enough to understand the situation.

Even after scoring this low and with average Acads, I was able to convert to IIM Nagpur. So naturally, my interview was a game-changer for me. IIMs or, for that matter, any B school judges you based on multiple factors. So you must build your profile and make most of the SOP you write in your forms. DO NOT FAKE anything. These faculties are very experienced and can see right through your lies.

Lastly, be calm and confident during the process. All the Best

Attendance and Verification:

Sharp at 8:00 AM, I was online waiting in the lobby of the zoom call. A person from the Student Association Council addressed me and asked me to wait for ten minutes. She was polite and to my surprise, highly energetic at 8:00 AM. My process of verification was quick and straightforward as I had all the documents arranged in order. The hashtag, being organised, always pays off.

Personal Interview:

I joined the interview call; I could see two panelists already in the meeting. I was anticipating that there would be more panelists joining the meet, but to my surprise, the interview started with the two faculty. I greeted them, and they asked about my well-being. We started with a casual conversation regarding COVID-19 situation in my locality and what measures state government is taking in this regard. What should the government do for unorganized workers after COVID is over? They made me comfortable, and then started with the interview questions such as; “Why MBA?”, “What is your proudest moment till now, and why?” “Is there anything that you did which you are not proud of?”, “Is there any incident that you would consider as a life-changing experience?”.

They also asked about my weakness which stood out from my application form, it stated that I am – “Argumentative when unnecessary and not argumentative when required”. Don’t judge, I know this is a weird weakness, but hey, shouldn’t you be putting the truth in the form?

Anyway, I elaborated on the statement that when an abnormal amount of work is allocated to me, I never argued, but among friends, when someone tries to convince me regarding something, they are in for a hard time even if they are right.

Next, they asked if I have visited IIM Nagpur official website, and were there any specifics that I liked?

The panellists were quite genuine, this one time they asked, “what will happen to the economy during and after COVID?”, I presented my view, and then they put forward their opinion, we had a meaningful discussion. I did not feel like a candidate during the interview, but it was more of a knowledgeable conversation.

After almost 15 minutes of discussion, they gave me a puzzle to solve, which was:

“I have six pair socks of two different colour, and they were mixed properly. How many times do I need to draw one sock to complete one pair?” – The answer was easy. I responded quickly.

Then, they asked me – “what if socks were left and right legged?” – I answered that as well.

At the end of the interview, they asked if I had any questions for them. I jumped up to the opportunity and asked if the institution is going to change any of its policies concerning the COVID situation. They assured me that no harm would be witnessed to the rigour of the college policies even in these unfortunate times (which indeed is true as far as my current observation is concerned). They wished me the best of luck, I thanked them for the engaging talk, and the interview ended.

Process

The selection process (CAP) for new IIMs consists of Essay Writing (WAT) followed by Personal Interview.

Feedback – Essay Writing (WAT)

Average Duration: 20 minutes
Word Limit: 300 words

Modern lifestyle is generating a lot of waste. Suggest waste disposal techniques. What can the citizens do?
Ways to control pollution in Delhi.
Why have women kept quiet for so long? What effects will this movement have?
Padmaavat
Harms of increasing trend of social media. Suggest solutions.
People do not verify the validity of information before posting opinions, facts, etc on social media. What problems can this lead to? Suggest steps to improve this situation. Give examples.
Mob censorship challenges artistic freedom and rights of creative people. Should a writer be allowed to express his / her views, even if they oppose views of some individuals or groups? Give your views with examples.
With the advent of photography techniques do you think natural zoo’s can be replace by virtual zoo’s? What are the impacts on zoo’s if such thing happens?
Why is India called the land of festivals? What is the significance of festivals in Indian society?
Firecracker ban in Delhi during Diwali by Supreme Court to reduce particulate matter levels has met with lot of praise and criticism throughout country. What steps would you take to reduce the pollution in Delhi?
Causes, consequences and solutions for Global Warming.

Feedback – Personal Interview

Average Duration: 10-15 minutes
No. of Panelists: 2-7

Excerpt from Interview 1-

Candidate Profile: B.Tech (CSE) with work experience

Where is IIM Kashipur? (The candidate belongs to Uttarakhand) What all technologies have you used for data analysis? What data analysis formally taught? What is CDMA? Where is Jim Corbett National Park and when was it founded? Tell me about your hobbies? Tell us five things about Sikhism? Which IIM would you want to join? (Some questions related to work experience were asked)

Extempore (2 minutes) – Do you know about green marketing and climate change?

Excerpt from Interview 2-

Candidate Profile: Fresher, Commerce graduate

What all subjects have you studied during under graduation? What are the functions of HR? Tell me about different types of interviews? How can we check the efficiency of our recruitment process? Tell me the 4 P’s and 7 P’s of marketing? Have you studied Taxation? (The panel gave a situation based on it and then cross-questioned) How is the president of India elected? Name the seven sisters with capital? Have you read about any major news in past six months? What is it? How will it impact firms and consumers? (Again gave a situation and cross-questioned on it).

Extempore (2 minutes) – The panel asked the candidate to speak on any topic of his choice.

Excerpt from Interview 3-

Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Tech (Chemical)

So, what have you been doing all this time? Are you placed? Why do you think Indian IT sector is facing a downturn? What do you know about Indian economic slowdown? According to you, what is the main highlight of Indian budget? How do you think government is going to generate so much money for this scheme? What is a venture? What is Cp/Cv ratio? What are your hobbies? How many places have you been? So, which place do you want to visit again? Which is the government in Maharashtra? Name the Chief Minister of Maharashtra? So, which of the new IIMs is closest to your place? Which IIM would you prefer to go to? (The candidate talked about TedX) Which other new IIMs conduct Ted X?

(No extempore)

Excerpt from Interview 4-

Candidate Profile: B.Tech (CSE) with work experience

Tell me something that makes you unique? (Questions were asked on candidate’s hobby- sketching) What is special about Mona Lisa? What are different types of paintings? What do you learn from sketching? Tell me something about your native place. Name two important railway junctions of North India and South India? Tell me how CSE is relevant in robotics? What is humanoid? What creative feature will you add in your rover to Mars?

Extempore (2 minutes) – Painting is nothing but a pause.

Excerpt from Interview 5-

Candidate Profile: B.Tech (CSE) with work experience

Tell me about yourself. Does your company support work or R&D? You have a work experience of 7 months. What have you learnt in your job? What are the advantages and disadvantages in a team? You have a work experience of less than a year. What will you do specially to fit in? Have you spoken to anyone who has done an MBA in IIM? What advice did they give you? How is it useful? Have you checked the website? What will IIMs teach? Does every IIM have same course? What other calls have you got? What is the order of your choice? and on what parameters? Doesn’t fee play a role in your choice? What is it that you mentioned under national in extracurricular activities? Do you have reservation? What is fuzzy logic? What is the difference between optical fibres and copper cables? Why are they preferred? Who is the father of fuzzy logic? You are from a State University. What is the difference between State and deemed universities? What is the difference between State and Central universities? Name some Central Universities. What are the advantages and disadvantages of State and Central Universities? What will u choose? and why? Write these two linear equations in matrix form.

Excerpt from Interview 6-

Candidate Profile: B.Tech (Mechanical) with work experience

What is the harm in working at a family tea shop? What were your job responsibilities? If you are a mechanical engineer and working in IT, then you must be working on a low level job? Why MBA? If you want to become an entrepreneur why did you come for an MBA? What is the Nestle cereal debacle? What is the name of the firm from which Indian MBA curriculum has been derived from?

Extempore (2 minutes): Child Labour, Other options for extempore topics: Capital Punishment, Big girls don’t cry.

Excerpt from Interview 7-

Candidate Profile: Fresher, Science graduate

Why MBA after science? Name Indian FMCG companies? Give some reactions of organic chemistry? What is substitution and elimination reaction? Give example. What is delocalidation? Tell me about benzene? Draw graph of log. What is rational number? What is irrational number? Pi is also used as 22/7 so is it a rational or irrational number? What is a whole number? Is 2.5 a whole number? What’s natural number? What is harmonic mean? What is arithmetic and geometric mean? What have you read about Greek mythology?

Extempore (2 minutes) – Reason why startups fail?

Excerpt from Interview 8-

Candidate Profile: B.Tech (Civil) with work experience

Where are you working right now? Well, you seem to have good experience in market research. I see you have done your graduation in civil engineering. Why the dramatic shift in career? What variables you used and how did you forecast? What is the difference between Correlation and Regression analysis? Any extracurricular activities you did? Who is the President of India?

Extempore (2 minutes) – Managers know that they should not be myopic or shortsighted in their decisions and should have long term vision. Yet they end up being myopic in their decision. What do you think of it and explain why?

Excerpt from Interview 9-

Candidate Profile: Fresher, B.Tech (Electrical)

So you are also an electrical engineer. Why do all engineers want to do MBA only? Tell us something about yourself. What did you learn from your event managerial experience? If you have to work with an arrogant person, how will you handle it? (Questions asked from technical subjects) What is alternator and generator? Do you about fermi level? What is difference between Dc and Ac transmission? In which countries is HVDC transmission used?

Extempore (2 minutes) – Supreme Court order on playing national anthem in cinema halls.

IIM CAP INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE

Calls: IIM Trichy, Ranchi, Raipur, Udaipur, Kashipur, Bodh Gaya, Sirmaur, Jammu and Sambalpur.

Date: 18.02.2021

Time Slot: 1:30PM

CAT: 97++ (VARC: 92.93, DILR: 96.73, QA: 95.52)

Acads: 10 CGPA/ 81.8 / 75.7 ( GEF)

They took attendance at 1:30PM on Zoom Platform and asked to wait in the waiting room. (Assigned me the serial number)

My interview started around 3 PM.

There were Two Panellist: – One Male (M) and One Female (F)

M – So Anshika, how are you doing?

A – I am doing great sir, how are you?

M – You left your job in December, what are you doing right now?

M – As a Marketer what is the most important thing for you?

A – For me the most important thing is, the one who is selling the product or service and the customer, should always be on the same page.

M – How can you both be on the same page, you are selling the product and customer is buying the product?

M – Ok, pretty well explained. Suppose you are going to buy a new service or product, what all parameters you will consider and how will you make up your mind for buying the same?

M – If your family member/ friend is into that business only then how you are going to trust their reviews?

A – First of all my family/ friends belongs to a technical background and if in case this happens, I will dive more into the details of that product/service.

M – Ok. Not from marketing point of view in general what do you understand from Need and Want, what is difference between both?

M – Then what is desire?

A – Next year I want to go to Maldives is my desire, something hypothetical.

M – Ok, so Ferrari is my need, I want it at any cost. Now tell me the difference between need, want and desire.

A – Need is something very important or essential rather than being desirable and I think having a Ferrari is something someone wishes/desires for. For that you need to push yourself more.

F – Actually she is not ready to accept that Ferrari can be someone’s need.

M – Okay so you are saying that before selling your product you will see my status?

F – Okay Anshika, you must have heard about Indra Nooyi.

A – Yes, Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is my role model and she was the former CEO of Pepsico and alumni of IIM Calcutta.

F – Then you must want to be like her.

A – I just want to follow her footsteps but want to be like Anshika only, I want to carry my originality along with following her footsteps.

F – Nice, recently she said that women cannot have it all due to her biological process. What do you think about this?

M – Great! So, what other calls do you have?

A – IIM K, IIM Rohtak, IIM Shillong, MDI G, IMT G, Xavier……

M – If you will get selected in all of them which one would you prefer?

M – You are very honest person, I like your honesty.

F – I like your energy and confidence Anshika. Thank you

M – Is there anything you want to ask.

A – No sir, Thank you to both of you.

F – You may leave the meeting.

A – Ok, NAMASTAY. (Leaves)

| Verdict- Converted all new and baby IIMs |

For sure one of the Worst interviews of my life

Calls – All new IIMs

Location – Goldfinch Hotel, Mumbai

Background –

10th – 89.5%

12th – 93.38%

Graduation – 9.21 (BBA Marketing)

Cat Score – 97.31%ile

WAT – It was something about China’s influence on India, don’t remember exactly, doesn’t matter

Decent performance from my side.

Personal Interview – (around 25 minutes long)

2nd in the panel

Panel – S – Sir , M- Mam

Enters

Good Morning Sir, Good Morning Mam

S – So, what did you study, Vinay?

Me – Sir, I did my graduation in Bachelors of Business Administration.

S – Why not take some work experience before going for your MBA?

Me – Sir, in my opinion, I better should be completing all my learning’s in one go and when…(interrupts)

S – Your opinion doesn’t matters in an IIM.

Me – Sir, with all due respect, my personal opinion matters for me because they give me a clarity on what path I take.

S – Still, better get some work experience before MBA. What is your age?

Me – 21, sir.

S – So, what did you study in Entrepreneurship Development?

Me – How to set up business, Startups, Skills, funding for business and other such fundamentals, Sir.

S – What is business effectuation? ( now here I heard it Infatuation)

Me – (thinking that I must say something. Cant say no to the first academic question) Sir product Infatuation is when a person highly likes a ….(interrupts)

S – Areeeeeee, I said effectuation!

Me – Sorry Sir, I don’t know.

S – Difference between business plan and business Model?

Me – tried answering the question however neither of the party was convinced.

S – Draw a graph of value of product to a customer and price.

Me – No idea, Sir.

S – You are good at guesstimating, try this out.

Me – Draws some rubbish graph saying some direct relation exists, other things remaining the same.

S – Will it be infinite?

Me – No sir as there is a limitation on paying capacity and also the value derived from the product is limited.

S – What are the types of statement?

Me – Cash Statement, Income statement…(interrupts)

S – What is P&L statement?

Me – Profit and Loss, sir.

S – What is it?

Me – It involves profit and administrative expenses.

S – Bass?

Me- Also selling and marketing expenses.

S – What else you know about it?

Me – Prepared after Trading Account, shows the Net profit which is then carried on to Balance Sheet of the Company.

S – What did you Study in Statistics?

Me – Thinking ( Please no, not this subject) Skewness, Co-relation of coefficient…(interrupts)

S – What are those?

Me – I cant remember sir, It was my weak subject.

S – Ok, What did you study in Adv. Marketing Management?

Me – The selling process, theories…(interrupts)

S – What is the difference between Selling and marketing?

Me – told, old school memorized answer.

S – How would you analyse a business environment?

Me – PESTEL analysis, sir.

S – What is it?

Me – (with a smile on my face) told ( took about 4 minutes)

S – Any International news?

Me – Trade War.

S – What is it?

Me – Vague answer, Started with US, China then went on to India angle, introduction to CTT, thanks to Studyiq ( maaf karna idhar udhar nikal jata hu)

S – This is an incomplete Answer

Me – few more details.

S – Mam, do you want to ask anything?

M – Not interested, he is not ready. ( Palm face. I knew that going to new IIMs was not my choice. But being brutally killed is another such thing. I could take it anymore)

Me -(Heroic entry) Mam, can I say anything?

M – Hmmm

Me – went on to why I want to do this MBA and why I am not taking Work experience for the same reason.

No recognition from the panel here. Awkward moment strikes. I started introspecting what did I just say.

S- Accha, tell me how many freshers are there in an IIM

Me – Though figure varies across all the IIMs,but around 30–35%

S – Consider there are 2 lakhs aspirants who gave CAT of which 1 Lakh are freshers, 30% seats in IIMs are for freshers and you have a 5% chance of getting selected in this interview ( this, my friend, hurts) Calculate the probability.

Me – Done something rubbish on paper. With not so Calm mind at my disposal, I kept on thinking about 5% chance of getting selected. After a minute, I said I don’t know.

S – Ok, We are done, tysm

ME – Tysm sir, Tysm Mam.

Up and Run.

CAP 2023 date and timing : 3rd March. Afternoon slot.

Profile: General Engineer Male(GEM). UG Degree in Mechanical Engineering from a private tier-2 college in Kerala. Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing from CDAC Pune. WorkEx in software development(full stack developer).

Academics: Average in 10th and 12th. Not so good UG marks.( I was not a studios/hard-working student throughout my schooling and UG. Though I worked hard in CDAC and secured a software job because I genuinely liked coding).

Some additional background(you can skip this part):

I wrote a few competitive exams this year(2022). I had prepared for CGL and bank exams through mocks and RS Agarwal quant book. So my basic arithmetic and problem solving skills were good. Haven’t prepared exclusively for CAT. I randomly applied for many exams this year, CAT was one amongst them. I had a bank PO mains exam on November 26 and CAT was on November 27. So I chose to prepare for PO mains only. On the day of the CAT exam, I went to the CAT 2022 website in the morning and attempted a mock. That’s it. I attempted the CAT exam without any strategy and with a lax attitude. Wasted time in quant section by attempting questions on algebra and trigonometry which I had not prepared for. Was also disappointed with my VARC performance. Therefore I was particularly surprised when the results came. I had secured 93.20 percentile. I was excited when I started receiving PI calls. But then when I came to know about the IIM fee structure, my excitement dropped(Middle class. Family not favourable to loans and debt).

PI calls received : Got calls for CAP and baby IIM’s PI. I skipped applying for the PI process of IIM Amritsar. Applied for baby IIMs and CAP PI.

PI Experience : CAP PI was completely online. Was a new experience. Signed in to Zoom, waited for around 1.5 hours staring at a white screen and suddenly streaming started with two middle aged people appearing on the screen smiling. Smiled back and greeted them. Panel consisted of a male(M) and a female(F).

They were scanning through my profile and started the interview.

Panelist M: Asked me why I did my higher secondary through NIOS(Open schooling) and why I chose self schooling.

Me: I explained about my overconfidence back then and that I was simultaneously preparing for engineering entrance exams myself etc..

Panelist F: Cross questioned and asked “after putting so much effort schooling yourself, preparing for entrance and studying engineering for 4 years, why are you choosing MBA now? She continued, “Can’t understand the logic”(in a mocking way).

Me: Answered but she replied that these are cliche answers we repeatedly hear. I smiled back.( I did not want that discussion to go on).

Panelist M: Asked me about gaps.

Me: Explained.

Panelist M: So you are a Mechanical Engineer…( I interrupted and said that though I graduated in mechanical my field of work was software development and that I was a Software Engineer by profession. He said OK and continued). He asked me how does rockets work.

Me: I explained gas combustion and explosion and subsequent expulsion through exhaust and action-reaction etc …He was not satisfied, he asked me what laws govern it’s working. I replied Newton’s laws of motion.

Panelist F: Newton’s which law of motion?

Me: Mam not sure, I think its Newton’s first law of motion and said that any object exerts the same force back etc ..(action reaction is actually Newton’s 3rd law).

Panelist F: Okay explain all Newton’s laws of motion.

Me: I was confused which law was stating what. So I said that though I knew the principles of Newton’s laws, but can’t really recall which law is stating those. She laughed and tried mocking me for not knowing these clearly being a mechanical engineer. I smiled back.

Panelist M: Asked me about vehicle transmission( I skipped), Gears, mechanism of vehicle gears etc..

Me: Just answered whatever little I knew. I was not prepared on these.

Panelist F: Asked me who were the MLA and MP of my region.

Me: Answered.

Panelist F: You graduated from Mahatma Gandhi University, so what do you know about Gandhi?

Me: He was a London educated Lawyer who started his professional life in South Africa….Anti-Apartheid….Independence movement…etc etc..

Panelist F: Interrupts and asks me why he returned to India and who invited him?

Me: Answered that he came to India to join the Independence movement led by INC etc…

Panelist F: What are your hobbies? What do you do in your freetime?

Me: I enjoy singing and listening to music. I also enjoy playing cricket with friends and watching important matches.

Panelist F: Can you sing a song for us?

Me: Yeah sure, but I have to look up the lyrics( because I did not wanted to sing a Malayalam song). Shall I search for the lyrics online and sing a song for you?

Panelist F: Yes, go ahead.

Me: I searched the web( while searching I glanced at them, I noticed them looking at each other and smiling ) and sang “Pee Loon” song.( Hindi song. Frankly speaking, though I like this song, I did not exactly know the meaning of this song’s lyrics and after the interview I checked the lyric’s literal meaning and was embarrassed that I chose this song to sing).

They wished me good luck and winded up the PI process.

Conclusion: Considering my weak profile and low CAT score, I don’t put much hope on the result. I attended the PI process primarily to get acquainted with the IIM admission process and it was a good experience for me. I was very relaxed and confident during my interview as I was not much concerned about the result( I am waiting for the final results of a couple of other exams I gave ).

Cap interview experience

Profile – EWS-MALE-ENGINEER – FRESHER

ACADS – Xth – 92% XIIth – 90.3% B.Tech – 64.9% (6.99 CGPA)

CAT – Total Percentile – 86.18 VARC – 92.3 DILR – 89.95 QA – 54.2 (But I am Actually good at math trust me)

Place – Online Zoom Platform

Time – We were asked to join the waiting room at 1:30 PM, 2–3 people were interviewed before me so I was allowed into the meeting at around 2:20PM

Highlight – COVID came in as a blessing in disguise the GD/WAT round was scrapped, I am okay with GD but WAT has always been a troublemaker & also I might have been part of one of the fastest IIM interviews in history My interview got done in 9 minutes.(which is the avg for almost everyone in this year’s cap round)

INTERVIEW – My panel had two members One Male & One Female both looked like they were late 30 to mid 40ish.

1st Q) Tell me Something about yourself

ANS -: I told the basic details about myself in like 30 secs and told them I was tutoring 10th class CBSE students for MATHS (told you I am good at math)

2nd Q) (Asked by F) So what are the challenges that you face while tutoring kids and what are the differences between online teaching and offline teaching?

ANS -: Told them I personally felt Online teaching to be difficult than offline

3rd Q) (Asked by F) So what do you think the ideal scenario is then?

ANS -: I mentioned about 3 possibilities out of which 1st one being that the Schooling system should be effective enough so that Children become competent enough to avoid tuitions (Thanks to NEP, Hope it work efficiently). 2nd one is that even if there are few particular concepts that they might not have understood at school, parents should take up that responsibility and the 3rd option that incase if not for parents a mentor like tutor is fine but offline is the best medium.

FROM HERE ALL THE QUESTIONS WERE ASKED BY THE MALE PANELIST

4th Q) So your Background is ECE tell me what is a diode and a triode?

ANSWERED

5th Q) What is a Semiconductor?

ANSWERED

6th Q) So what is your Favorite Subject ? (picked MPMC & DC) What is the difference between the processors between Windows 7,8 & Windows 10?

ANSWERED

7th Q) What is the units of speed of a processor?

ANSWERED

8th Q) What is Bandwidth?

ANSWERED

9th Q) If I have to generate and accommodate 20000Mbps of Data speed what are the techniques and devices I need to use?

ANSWERED

PANELISTS – That’s it from our side you can disconnect the call now.

Keep checking this space for Updates.

Converted IIM Jammu,Sambalpur,Ranchi & Sirmaur not joining them, Converted IIT-KGP joining it.

IIM CAP Interview experience

( IIM CAP )

Online interview on zoom

( I wait for 2 hours then my PI started )

Name : Shubham Kumar

Education : BSC Physics hons.

(10/12/graduation )marks : (77.9/80/56.87)

Two panel members (P1 & P2)

P1 : Tell me about you ?

P1 : Wait not this usual thing something different !

( They want to know the work I had done apart from academics some interesting facts about me )

P1 : So , You seem to focus more on extracurricular than academics (I had done a lot of small activities )

P1 : Why low score in gradion

P1 : Explain Lagrange & Freeman theorem

P1 : In casual way , I know you are not expecting this much deep questions (He is smiling because he wants to make me comfortable after this question)

P1 : Explain basic elements of nature

P1: Explain Bose einstein condensate ?

P1 : Which subject you like most in graduation ?

P1 : Draw the graph of (Y =X^3)

P1 : Find maximum & minimum value of (Y=X^3)

P2: You told me you like optics , Tell me about refractive index

P1 : Tell me the part of the business you like

P1 : Wow you like two things at a same time ,Tell me about operation

P1: What is the role of Finance minister in one sentence

Summary : You can’t be unprepared about your academics & try to remain calm .

Before interview revise all the academics question because it is the most important part of Interview

Stay calm because they can asked anything

Overall IIM CAP interview is based on academics so be prepared for this .

In IIM CAP weightage of IIM PI Questions is in approximately

Academics weightage is more than 60 %
Business question weightage is around 20%
About your general awareness is nearly 20%

Venue – Goldfinch Hotel, Andheri, Mumbai
Slot – 8:30 am
Profile (X/XII/GRAD) – (76/83.6/70) Cat – 97.90
Work ex – 4.5 months ( currently in IDBI AMC.)

I reach the venue at 7:50 am, the professors guided us on how to arrange our documents and verified the same.
8:50 – The instructions for WAT are announced:-
20 mins will be given to write on a topic in under 300 words, the main thing that they are testing is how well you organize your thoughts, your command on the language, grammatical errors, presentation skills, they don’t care whether the view you are taking is politically correct or not.
WAT TOPIC: Is China’s growing economy is a threat to India’s growth?
9:50 – They started sending students in pairs of 2 from every panel for the interview.
10:50 – Finally my turn arrives, the interviewer opens the door and calls my name, I greet him and get inside.
There were 2 Interviewers, let’s call them P1 and P2.
P1 – So how are you? Is this your first attempt at CAT?
Me – I greet him then say – Yes sir, In fact, this is my first interview.
P1 – How was your experience of WAT and what did you do waiting for the interview?
Me – told him that experience was good and I talked to the other candidates about their cat scores and discussing which calls they got and asked about their overall cat experience
P1 – So what did you find out? What inputs did they give? Be honest.
Me – Told him that candidates were expressing their distress about how people with lower percentiles than them got a call from ABCLKI but they didn’t even after having a decent profile.
Both P1 and P2 start smiling appreciating the honesty
P2 – looks at my file and asks me about my work experience
Me- I tell him in detail about my work and how I like my office and my field.
P1 – interrupts me in between and asks me What’s the full form of IDBI (Current employer)
Me – (I tell him confidently)
P2 – Do you read follow the news?
Me- Yes sir, I try to stay updated, I read the financial news without fail and a little bit of political news
P1 – So what’s the latest political news
Me – I tell him about the Delhi election results that happened the day before
P2 – What are your thoughts on the govt selling a stake of LIC
Me – told them and added some facts that I knew. (They looked impressed)
P1 – What are some of the public sector banks that are merging
Me – (I couldn’t recall the names) Sir I have heard about that govt announced 10 banks are merging but I can’t recall their names
P1- Okay, no worries, let’s move on to the next question. Now I’ll give you a situation and you have to give me an honest answer,
If you were the CEO of a bank and your bank is underperforming significantly if you do not act fast the bank could shut down in a few weeks, a guy comes in and offers you a lot of business that can save your business but you have to bribe him to get the deal. So would you bribe him? The bribe would remain a secret.
Me – No sir, I wouldn’t be able to as it is not in my nature to do something like this, this is the way my parents have raised me,
P2 – You wouldn’t lie even if all 300 of your employees lose their job? How would you answer your employees?
Me – Sir, but you said the deal is going to remain a secret, so I won’t have to say anything about this deal at all
(P1 and P2 smile)
P1 – Would you lie once to save 300 people from dying?
Me – (after thinking for a while) Yes sir, I would
P1 – Now you’re contradicting yourself.
Me – Sir, here lives are at stake, in the 1st scenario people can still find a new job, but I can’t let someone die just because of my principals.(P1 still not impressed but P2 moves on to next question)
Then they asked me a few accounting and finance questions:-
1. What are the methods of calculating depreciation
2. What is the quick ratio? What does it depict?
3. Why is human resource quality not represented on the balance sheet
I answer all correctly.
P2 – All right Karan the last question On a scale of 1 to 10 how weird are you?
1 is not weird at all and 10 is super weird
Me – (Surprised but without thing much) Sir I think I’m a 6
P2 – What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done?
Me – Sometimes when I’m travelling on the train, I wave at strangers through the window just to look at their surprised faces.
P1 and P2 start laughing.
P2 – That’ll be all, you can leave now.
Hope this helps.

Result: Converted all 9 CAP IIMs but decided not to join due to the pandemic

Profile – GEM Fresher (Computer Engineering)
Acads – 93/88/84 (10/12/graduation)
CAT – 99.05%ile

2 Male Panelists (P1-50s, P2-30s) and M is Me

Had some internet issues so sometimes there was some audio issue.

M – Good Evening sir

P1 – Good Afternoon

M – Good Afternoon sir

P1 – So what were you doing now

M – checking india-eng 3rd Test score.

P1- stop it right away, maybe due to it, the bandwidth is not so great.

M – sir I was just checking the score on Cricbuzz

P1 – ok ok, introduce yourself to the panel

M – answered

P1 – great, my colleague will now ask question

P2 – Vedant, I can see that you scored very less in 5th sem so I will ask questions about ML (My overall CGPA is 8.42 but got 7.5 in sem 5)

M – sure sir

P2 – diff between supervised and unsupervised learning

M – answered fully

P2 – bias-variance tradeoff

M – couldn’t answer perfectly

P2 – do u know a matrix is used in ml to get accuracy and recall

M – told about the true positive/negative and false positive/negative. Answered accuracy but didn’t recall the definition of “recall“ so just answered the formula

P2 – Do you know what is bubble sort? What is its time complexity

M – Worst time complexity is O(n^2)

P2 – And what is the best and average time complexity

M – Same, O(n^2) (I answered for the usual bubble sort and not optimized version)

P2 – Difference between C and C++

M – Object-Oriented Language

P2 – What is Object-Oriented

M – explained and said about Polymorphism, abstraction, etc.

P2 – can polymorphism be used in Python

M – yes (Was not sure but answered bcoz python also supports OOPS)

P2 – what is the name of the stadium where the match is going on right now

M – Narendra Modi stadium

P2- where is it

M – Ahmedabad

P2- wherein Ahmedabad, what was it used to call

M – motera stadium

P2- that’s what I am looking for. Do you know about any accusation made in the first 2 tests?

M – I said that the pitch was very spin-friendly and not very good.

P2 – the accusation was that the pitch won’t last for 5 days. Okay, so do you know which soil is used there?

M – I don’t know about Chennai but in Ahmedabad, red soil from Mumbai has been brought.

P2 – why is red soil used?

M – took a guess that it dries up early and stuff

P2- ok ok, tell me a weakness of Joe Root.

M – I don’t know

P2 – so u r such a fan and u don’t know even this

M – I am not a die-hard fan, I was seeing the match to relax a bit

P2- oh so you watch it to relax before the interview

M- yes sir

P2- okay tell me why would you be a good manager

M – answered

P2 – tell me your co-curricular and extracurricular

M – told

P2- tell me some highlights of the budget

M- pointed some 5-6 points and was continuing but he said he got it and said thank you, you may leave

IIM CAP Interview Experience

Time: 3:30 PM

Duration: 15 mins

Profile:

10th – 96.4%

12th – 94.4%

Graduation- 9.38 CGPA

UG- BTech in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering from IIEST,Shibpur

One of the interviewers was female(F1) while the other one was male(M1).

M1: So Shuvannita, tell us about yourself.

S: Told them.

There was a brief discussion about my schools. I was asked the difference in schooling of Kolkata and Pune.

M1: Tell us about your family.

S: Talked about my parents and brother.

F1: Who is your favourite woman in business and why?

I spoke about Indra Nooyi, her achievements and why I consider her my favourite.

F1: Why do you think number of women in business is so less?

Stated my opinion on it.

F1:Why Aluminium utensils are being replaced?

Aluminium utensils may react with different food items while cooking and may cause Alzheimer’s disease and many other health problems.

M1: Four things about Kolkata that makes the place unique

Bengali Sweets and different kinds of food in general

Indian Museum

Alipore Zoo

National Library

F1:When and by whom was Howrah Bridge built?

It was opened on 1943 but couldn’t recollect who built it. It was built by Braithwaite ,Burn & Jessop Construction Company.

F1:Application of Metallurgy in electric vehicles.

Talked about Lithium ion batteries and also that for the vehicle body they can use AHSS.

My ID was checked.

M1: Thank you Shuvannita, your interview is over.

I thanked them.

Verdict Awaited.

GEM

X– 95

XII – 95

BTech – 9.06 cgpa

WorkEx – 1 month(as per the CAT form)

CAP interview experience.

2 panelists (M1-male in the ’50s, M2 – male in 30’s)

M1 -Tell us something about yourself.

Me – Gave the standard answer to this universal question.

M1– oh so you’re an author, what all books have you written?

Me – told about the 3 books and their genre along with their places of sale/availability.

M1 – Do you have an interest in history?

Me – Sir I’m not in touch with history for quite a few time… But I have an interest in national politics post-independence.

M1 – That means you have an interest in modern history… Right?

Me – Yes sir… But modern history confined to national politics.

M1 – OK… When was our constitution formed?

Me – 1950…also sir it has the best features from the different constitutions of the world… Like Irish, French, etc.

M1 – What have we adopted from the Irish and French constitution?

Me – Sorry sir… I’m not able to recall it.

M1 – From British?

Me – The IPC’s and criminal laws.

M1 – How are these laws changed?

Me – Sir… They are amended from time to time… Keeping in mind the national societal needs from both the houses of Parliament and then getting the final assent from the president.

M1 – Is there any bill that can’t be presented in Rajya sabha? (don’t remember the exact question… Take it with a pinch of salt)

Me – Yes sir!

M1 – What bill is it?

Me – Sir… I don’t have an idea about it.

M1 – Is it the finance bill?

Me – Sir… I think it called the money bill… As per the terminology in civics

M1 – Who is the speaker of Rajya sabha? And Lok Sabha

Me – Vice president Mr. Venkaiyah Naidu is the speaker of Lok sabha. And Mr. Bidala is the speaker of Lok sabha, he fought Lok sabha elections from Kota, Rajasthan.

M1 – Ok, can u tell me who elects the president?

Me – Sir the prime minister… Along with his council of ministers nominates the president. ( I know I answered it wrong)

M1 – Hmm… What is the difference between elected and nominated? I thought President was elected!

Me – Sir… To the best of my knowledge… The president is nominated…and in case there are multiple nominations as during the years of Mrs. Pratibha Patil… Then the president is elected.

M1 – OK… You’re from Lucknow, right? What are the good places to visit?

Me – Yes sir… Told about the famous places.

M1 – Have u been to residency? Did u see those bullet marks? What is its historical importance?

Me – Yes sir… I’ve been to residency… And it is almost 3 yrs since my last visit. I’ve seen those bullet marks and it’s the place from where the Britishers re-strengthened their footholds during the sepoy mutiny of 1857.

M1 – You’re a mechanical engineer with good grades… Why MBA?

Me – Told the generic why MBA answer. Better opportunities… Etc. Etc.

M1 – You were born and brought up in Lucknow… You’re doing a job there too… Is there something special in Lucknow?

Me – Sir last year I was quite hopeful of getting into a good b school… But was waitlisted… And hence I missed the on-campus mechanical placements since I had my interviews during those placement sessions. Hence, I applied for off-campus placements and took the best job which was available to me.

M2 – Define Quality.

Me – Sir quality is a loss that happens to a society when a product is sold to a customer.

M2 – Can you plz elaborate? I didn’t get this definition.

Me – Used the bottle in front to explain

M2– Okay… What is six sigma?

Me – Sir it is a way to improve the quality standards. Also, it is a certification program now.

M2 – What does it mean?

Me – It means zero-defect… It basically focuses on reducing defects/waste and improving the efficiency of a production system.

M2 – What is this sigma? Why not alpha, beta gamma?

Me – Sir it is a Greek alphabet… And here it signifies the standard deviation. Can I draw and explain it, sir?

M2 -Yeah… Surely!

Me – Drew and explained it.

M2 – What is acceptance sampling?

Me – Sir I don’t have a clear idea about it. Although I know about random sampling and some other types of sampling.

M2 – Go ahead!

Me – Sir… There are two types of sampling probabilistic and non-probabilistic. Then there are sampling like stratified… Opportunistic, volunteer, etc.

M2 – What is stratified sampling?

Me – Sir… Strata means layer… Can I explain by using an example?

M2 – Yeah surely.

Me – Sir suppose we want to perform experiment/sampling on individuals of a particular income bracket amongst a pool of different income individuals… So then we use stratified sampling.

M2 – Okay!

Both panelists – I think we are done now.

Me – Thank you, sirs!

P. S – M1 was mostly smiling and asking questions and M2 was analyzing the interviewee. Overall the process was very chilled out!

Runtime – approx 20 minutes.

Verdict : Converts – – IIM Udaipur / Ranchi / Trichy / Raipur / Kashipur / Sirmaur / Bodhgaya.

Waitlisted – – IIM Jammu / Sambhalpur.

Disclaimer:

Take this post with a pinch of salt, the author should not be held responsible for any decision taken by the readers on the basis of this post.

CAT : 97.17%ile ( 89.xx , 95.xx , 96.xx)

Academics : 95% , 70.8% , 66.70

Background : Obc , Non engineer (BA Economics honours)

My reporting time was 9:30 am on zoom call. They let me in at 10 am to tell the order of interview . I was at 6th position. My turn came at around 11:15 pm .

Initially , there were two male penalists. But later on they forwarded me to 3rd one .

Penalist 1 (M)

Q. In which city you are right now ?

: Answered

Q. You have studied .. , ….., …. subjects in your graduation . Which is your favourite subject?

: Microeconomics

Q. What have you studied in microeconomics?

: Mentioned 4-5 topics including LDMU (Law of diminishing marginal utility)

Q. Explain LDMU . Some cross question on this .

: Answered

Q. What do you do apart from your academics (hobbies)?

: Answered

Penalist 2 (M)

Q. Why MBA ?

Q. When did you decide to do mba ? Before graduation or in graduation.

: Answered in detail (when I couldn’t get admission in IITs)

Q. Did you not do well in iit jee ?

: I explained that I passed but missed IIT by some ranks.

Q. What are the skills you are going to learn in mba?

: Answered

Penalist 3 (M)

Q. You performed well in class 10th i.e. 95% but you couldn’t perform well in 12th and graduation. Why ?

: I explained that average marking in my board is very low . Even by scoring just 70.8 percent , i was in top 5% . Also I topped in my graduation in honours paper.

Q. How much time you couldn’t spend in college during graduation due to pandemic ?

: Answered

Q. Which newspaper do you follow? Any business magazine?

: Answered

Q. You said that your favourite subject is microeconomics. How does indifference curve look like?

: Answered

Q. What is the slope of indifference curve?

Q. Have you read about oligopoly?

: Answered

Q. Who is the chief economic advisor of india?

: Couldn’t answer

Conclusion : There were two factual question which i couldn’t answer. Most of the question were basic and were general in nature . Penalists were very friendly . Overall, the interview went very well and I was satisfied with it .

Profile:

General/Male/Non engineer

CAT- 95.52

X- 88.60

XII- 74.80

UG- 76.25 (BA)

PG- 78.20 (MA)

There were three panelists. 1 female and 2 were male.

P1- Tell me about yourself that is not written in the daf (detailed application form).

A- Told her about the startup- edtech LLP co-founded by me in 2021. Three books published under the startup and the revenue model along with marketing strategies adopted. I have formed one NGO in 2021, told about it as well.

P1– Asked about the three books which were published and the functioning and domain of the NGO.

A1–Told her about the books and domain of the NGO.

P1– Tell me about the poverty where person is poor but in actual he is not poor.

A- Situational poverty, Generational poverty and Relative poverty.

P1–Tell me the population which is below poverty line.

A- Told.

P1– Inflation and its type.

A- Told

P1– Difference between monetary and fiscal policy.

A- Told about RBI and government roles.

P1–Instruments used by RBI to control the inflation and regulate the market.

A- Cash Reserve Ratio, Statutory Liquidity Rate, Marginal Standing Facility, Loan Adjustment Facility, Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate, Open Market Operations, Promp Corrective Actions. (Didn’t ask me to get into detail)

After this, P2 turns up. He was more into grilling mode.

P2–So Atul, you are in police. Tell me the ranks of police officers in the department from the top.

A- Told the answer both for non commissionerate and commissionerate separately.

For Non Commissionerate:—

DGP, ADG, IG, DIG, SSP, SP, ASP, CO/DSP, Inspector, Sub Inspector, Head Constable, Constable.

For Commissionerate:—

Commissioner, Joint Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, Inspector, Sub Inspector, Head Constable, Constable.

P2– So where in UP, commissionerate system is prevalent?

A- Lucknow, Noida, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Agra.

P2– What is the difference between commissionerate and non commissionerate rule ?

A- In commissionerate magestirial power is in the hands of gazetted police officers rather than civil officers.

He seemed to be bit confused so gave him the example of Mumbai police commissionerate system and told him that in UP, all the powers of commissioner are not conferred but focus is over the law and order domain in particular. Then, I elaborated by giving the reference of section 145 CrPc, 107/116/116(3)/151 CrPC but he cut me in between and asked the next question.

P2– Who is having more power in commissionerate- DM or Commissioner ?

A- Told that in case of law and order, decision of commissioner will be prevalent.

P2– He was in shock and asked how is this possible ? You mean to say Commissioner will not obey DM and DM can’t give order to Commissioner ?

A- At this point I also got confused but within a second I justified my answer by saying that Commissioner of Police is of the rank of ADG who is technically two post senior than DM, so yes, DM can’t give order to commissioner. He nodded his head in yes.

(Honestly speaking, he made me confused but I tried my best to confront him as much as possible)

P2–I am apprehensive that will you be able to compete with engineers in IIMs? As the curriculum here is very rigorous and seeing your diverse background it doesn’t seem so.

A- I told him about my story of dropping from B.Tech.

P2– He was again in shock but in solidarity, he asked me about the branch, college, CGPA in first two years of B.Tech.

A- SRM University, Kattankulathur Campus, Mechanical Branch with 8.25 CGPA for the first two years.

P2– I am done.

A- Thankyou Sir.

Now I thought the interview got over but suddenly ‘Mr. Muthuswamy’ emerges on the screen from nowhere. Actually he was the moderator and I had no idea that he is one of the panelists as well.

P3– So let’s talk about entertainment. Tell me your favourite movie.

A- The Shawashank Redemption,1993.

P3–Tell me any hindi movie.

A- A Wednesday by Neeraj Pandey.

P3–What do you like about it ?

A- Sir, raising if social issues, corruption and terrorism.

P3–What do you like in movies like screenplay etc. ?

A- Editing, screnplay, direction, story and back ground score. Star cast in the last.

P3–Why Lucknow is famous ?

A- Chicken, cloth, Nawabs, historical monuments.

P3– Seats in Lok sabha and Rajya Sabha.

A- 543 and 245.

P3–Police department comes under which ministry ?

A- Home ministry, both at the state and central level, and the department is Personnel and Training.

P3– Who is the home minister?

A- Mr. Amit Shah.

P3– Tell me three states having most crime rate ?

A- Bihar, UP, Punjab (This was the first wrong answer by me as I googled on NCRB data Maharashtra was on the top to my utter surprise, obviously they show the data of reported crime).

P3–What kind of crimes are happening most in UP?

A- Women related crimes like rape.

P3–What is police department doing for that ?

A- Told about 181 Asha Jyoti Kendra, 1090, 112, Akanksha NGO etc.

P3–Do you think police officers are biased towards rich and influential people and do not pay attention to poor and common man ?

A- Partially agree. Not all are like this. But majority are and for them there are pressure groups like NGOs, Politicians, Media etc. So in the presence of these pressure groups they are bound to help all equally.

P3–How much do you rate National Investigative Agency out of 10 and why ?

A- 7 because NIA at times doesn’t get expected support from local police and other intelligence reports due to absence of effective centralised software for coordination among different wings of police and free flow of information.

Okay you may leave the room. Switched off the camera and laptop.

Khatam…Tata…Bye Bye….

IIM CAP

B. com fresher

Acads- 9/9/7

okay, a disclaimer. This was not very similar to a normal interview, it went like a conversation with a lot of cross questioning and discussion. So few questions more grilling.

P1- female around 30

P2- I don’t know who, the camera was off and P1 took the whole interview. [ lost half my happiness here only]

1. please go on and Introduce yourself.

ME: gave my prepared answer.

2. You know I have seen that most of the non-engineers have low graduation marks, why do you think that is so.

ME: mam I can’t talk on behalf of everybody here but in my case, the few reasons were that there weren’t a lot of classes due to covid and I was also a little lenient as I thought I would be able to score since I was good in school and because of that my attention got shifted to CAT preparation.

3. Okay and why do you wanna do an MBA before getting any experience

ME: gave the prepared answer. She said why would a company hire you there is another candidate with the same profile as yours but with workex.

And then we had a lengthy conversation about this with several back and forth arguments.

4. Are you aware of the Russia Ukraine news, can you please explain it to me. And once again a lot of questions on what do you think will happen, can there be a world war 3, whos side will china take, whos side will India take, do you think the US will indulge in a world war 3 etc, etc.

5. Why according to you Inflation right now is one very big threat all around the globe. Why is the inflation bad, how much is tolerable, if it is good how so on and so forth.

6. What is the current rate of inflation, and she also tricked me with what is consumer goods inflation, later on told me that I was correct in the first place.

7. what is the difference between GDPmp and GDPfc, what is real GDP and nominal again, again tried to trick me here that I have interchanged both the definitions but I didn’t get tricked this time. Also what is GDP deflator etc.

8. BOP and BOT, what is the difference, what are the elements in both.

9. current account capital account in BOP. She said too generic answer so I explained further giving some examples.

she said okay that was my last question you can log off, thankyou. I thanked her and logged off.

Also, I think the reason for it being weird could be that I was last in my slot and after reporting at 9:30 am my turn came at 12:30.

Verdict: may 12th -waitlised in udaipur, rest converted.

IIM CAP Round: Bangalore

Monarch Luxur Hotel – forenoon

General Engineer Male(GEM)

Profile: 86.33/84/8.81(80.6) in 10/12/Btech

CAT: 99.99/99.99/99.84 OA 100

Work ex: 6 months – Network Consulting Engineer at Cisco Systems Inc.

WAT: Is the rise of China, a threat to the Indian economy?

I was the second person in the group for the PI.

Three male profs ( quite old). One was cheerful throughout, One was stoic and third looked like he just wanted to get this over with. (P1, P2, and P3)

I heard one of them (P2) say ” he works in Cisco and makes **LPA ” like it was an incredulous thought.

P2: Kannada barutha? ( Do you know Kannada)

I: Baruthe sir. ( I do sir)

P2: Good. So, are you a Tamilian or Kannadiga?

I: I’m a Malayali, actually.

P2: So is it true that north Keralites are nice while south Keralites are rude people?

P2: You earn well at Cisco, why MBA now? ( He also spoke about Bill Gates and other tech entrepreneurs )

P3: Would you like to continue in the same domain post MBA?

I: I spoke about how I wish to move into Product Management.

P2: What is your CAT Percentile?

I:100

P2: Why would you join us then? You will go to A/B/C.

I: (I had prepared a story about how I applied only to the best colleges and that I would take whichever I get an admit from)

P3: Ok tell me about your hobbies?

I: Reading novels – fiction/fantasy/mythology are my favorites.

We had a discussion around favorite books.

P2: Tell us about the budget? – Spoke on it for a min

P2: What is PPP ( Purchasing power parity )? What is the Big Mac index and what is used for?

I: Answered.

P2: Did you speak to anybody outside?

I: I spoke about two people I met outside the interview room – a female mechanical engineer and a male BA marketing grad (who was a Malayali). We had a discussion around how there are Malayalis everywhere and about how it is stereotypically rare to meet female mechanical engineers.

P1: Do you have any questions?

I: No

P2: You can leave then.

End of interview

CAP Calls

Profile : 8.8/70/8.52 GEM CSE, 28 Months of experience as a tech consultant at HPE.

CAT21: 97.97%ile, 95+ each section

Mode of interview : Online (Zoom)

The interview was scheduled at 1:30 PM , IIM T was the CAP convenier.

I wait till 2PM, no initiation on my zoom call, I just joined the link (Me thinking to myself, have they forgotten about it? AM I an exception ? )

The screen suddenly connects to the panel.

Panel : P1 (M 35–40 years old) , P2 (F 30–35 years old )

P1 : Tell us something about yourself that’s not present in the documents that we have with us.

Ans : *Standard revised answer about myself, all the places where I have lived, hobbies, my aspirations, my love for tech *

P1 : If you love tech so much, why don’t you join MS program ?

Ans: Explain to him as to how I plan to use my tech knowledge in MBA and how I aspire for a product manager role, explain it to him that I want to be in a managerial position in tech rather than being totally involved in the engineering side

P1: Oh you have quit your job? Why so?

Ans: Truthfully agree that I took a drop to focus solely on CAT because i was serious about my MBA aspirations and wanted a high score.

P2 : So where do you stay now ? Bangalore or did you move back to your hometown?

Ans: Bangalore

P2: How many seats are there in the lower and upper house of Karnataka?

Asnwered it correctly

P2: What about Jharkhand ?

Answered it correctly

P1 : Can you tell us the first CM of Karnataka

Answered it correctly

P2 : Can you tell us as the current speaker of the house?

Answered it correctly

P1 : Karnataka seems to dislike it’s neighbor, can you shed some light on the issue

Ans: Explain about the cauvery dispute, explain how each state lays a claim on it.

P2 : Can you tell us a solution to this issue ? How should the water be divided?

“Oh boi, this was a total bouncer”

Ans : Explain that the water should be divided on the basis of population of each state.

P1 jumps in : Isn’t that unfair to Karnataka, doesen’t cauvery start in Karnataka ?

Ans : Explain to him that the courts are still trying to arrive at a solution to this , however that would have been my approach

P1 : Can you tell us 3 rivers what are the rivers that flows from west to east ?

**I had read this in an interview transcript so i nail it **

P2 : What about east to west?

Answered it correctly

** I live close to the Old Airport which is now a test center fur HAL **

** LCA Tejas flies over, the sound is thudering, we take a 45 second pause **

P1 : Do you know which plane was that ?

Ans : Answer confidently, explain to them that HAL is nearby.

P2 : Can you tell us as as to when did the tejas program start?

**Blank**

Ans : I’ll have to check that out after the interview **Sheepish smile**

P1 (Trying to stress me out) : These are some basic things that one should be aware about, how are you so ignorant about the surrounding ?

Ans : Staying calm , I tell them that i read it somewhere but can’t recall.

P2 (Looking through my extra curricular ) : So you have no representation at national/international level, no extra curricular that are on a national level.

Ans: Telling them about fest work

P1 cuts in : So you have basically done nothing in your life ?

** Thinking to myself, mai Ma****c**d hu jo yaha aaya **

Ans : Sir, i was keenly interested in ML and data science in my college, I have written a paper which has 21 citations as of now. The paper was published in a reputed International Journal.

P2 : So Srinabh, which IIM would you join if you convert all of them?

Ans: (Had expected this one) Udaipur

P2: Why so?

Ans: Talk about the city of lakes, talk about it’s international ranking of MBA, talk about BV Doshi, the architect of the campus and how much i appreciate his architecture

P1 and P2 : We are done, do you have any questions for us ?

Ans : No, thank you so much for your time!

Verdict : Cleared Kashipur and Trichy in the First List, convert all others in subsequent waitlist

I had my CAP interview slot 1 .

This year CAP was conducted by IIM U.

Profile —

General Engineer Male.

Over All —— 99.25 percentile

VARC — 93.43
DILR — 96.67
QA — 99.63

I have done my B.E. in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University, a tier 1 University and famous for engineering fraternity.

I have 7 months of work ex in Vedanta Resources PLC, a leading metal and chemical conglomerate .

Academics —

9/8/8 profile .

Done 10th and 12th from West Bengal State Board ( relatively less scoring than CBSE/ICSE) .

PI experience —-

I was third in the panel. I had to wait for 45 mins approx. And my interview went approx 20 mins.

Directly Interview started without any document verification.

2 panelist both male , (M1, M2)

Both approx early 50s.

M1;

Q. Three lines apart from your CV.

Q. Difference between unit process and unit operation.

Q. COO of Vedanta Lanjigarh

Q. Will sterlite plant will restart? What’s your opinion.

Q. Governor of Odisha (as I’m working in odisha)

Q. Governor of West Bengal ( as I’m from WB )

Q. Name 3 women CEOs of India .

Q. First Female PM of India.

Now M1 handed over to M2.

Q. The infamous incident of Vedanta Aluminium Refinery Lanjigath , ( historical incident that took place), as I’m working at Vedanta.

Q. Do Vedanta takes care of environmental issues ? Why people are so against vedanta ?

Q. About expansion project of alumina refinery of vedanta and target to be achieved by financial yr.23.

Q. Main ore of aluminium?

Q. What is the ratio of domestic and imported bauxite at Vedanta Alumina. Why need of bauxite import?

Q. Your Hobbies.

Thank you ; you can log off.

It was pretty chill interview. Both the interviewers were bery friendly . No grilling as such , it was smooth .

I want to put some of my other calls more priority over new /baby IIMs. But If I have to choose among CAP IIMs

IIM Udaipur, Trichy, Raipur, Ranchi are good to go

IIM CAP Interview

Professor Nithyananda KV, Ajitha Soundararaj (IIM Trichy)

CAT : 96.95

General, Non-engineering, female

Give an introduction

What was your favorite subject in college?

(Financial Management)

What is CAPM?

Difference between capital expenditures and revenue expenditures

Difference between cash flow and fund flow

Difference between equity and debt?

Which one of the two is cheaper?

What is NPV and IRR?

What was your least favourite subject?

(Business mathematics and statistics)

What is a straight line? What is the equation of a straight line?

(I was answering the finance questions really well so he just wanted to check my comfort with other subjects, I tried both the answers, even used the concepts of graph to explain it, I am not really sure if they were correct)

What are your hobbies?

What books do you read? Why fiction?

What dance form do you practise? (Kathak)

Where does it come from?

Name some other classical dance forms.

Which states do they come from?

Who is the governor of West Bengal?

Tell us about your family (told about siblings and got interrupted)

Is he your twin brother?

Do you read newspapers?

Today’s news?

Difference between chatgpt and llama?

Profile : 91/82/88 with 4 months work experience

Had to wait for 2 hours before the panelists allowed me to enter the room ( ZOOM )

Two Panelists, Male, M1 and M2

M1: Tell me your name and about yourself.

Me: Told.

M1: Tell me about the recent US elections. Who won? What did the Republicans think about the election? What happened to Trump?

Me: Told.

M1: Tell me about the recent happenings around India’s border.

Me: Told about China.

M1: Anything else to the east of India?

Me: Knew it was about the PM getting arrested, forgot the country. Later M1 told it was Myanmar.

M1: What stream did you take up in engineering?

Me: Electronics and Communication Engineering, sir.

M1: What’s the difference between analog and digital? What’s a MODEM? What’s the difference between 3G, 4G and 5G. Tell me more specifically.

Me: Was able to answer most of the questions, but a few were vague answers.

M1: Tell me about your job. What’s your role? Tell me in detail.

Me: Spoke for around 3–4 minutes here. Told him in detail about what I do.

M2: You mentioned about Karate. What’s the main purpose of Karate? Tell me about your achievements in Karate.

Me: Told, again for around 2 minutes.

That was the only question the panelist asked. In a nutshell, they covered by work, graduation, extra-curriculars and current affairs in 10–12 minutes. Was a decent interview in terms of the answers I gave, but felt the standard of the interview was below par.

Thanks for the read, and all the best.

Interview lasted 10 minutes, it was a disaster. I was last in round for 10 candidates for online round. And it was expected that the panelist would be tired by this time. I am writing this experience here on quora right after my interview.
Panelist – One Male (M) and one female Professor (F)

Mode : Online Zoom Meeting

Background-

Interviewer– Tell us about yourself

Me: I joined BTech 2013–17 for ECE in Punjab Engineering College. Couldn’t get dream placement, prepared 1–1.5 years for Civil Services and other competitive exams but couldn’t get through.
Then applied for Advance PG course for Diploma in Advanced Computing in CDAC ACTS in August 2018. Got placed in Nokia. Worked in Nokia for 2 years 7 months, I explained my role in an elaborated way .

Me:
Some hardcore techie stuff, but they weren’t seemed interested.

Interviewer– Why your grades and CGPA in college very low?

Me: I said I got good grades in 10th and 12th because I worked consistently there but in college I tried working on last week of exam and could never able to get grades based on extempore preparation

Interviewer- But then you will again have to work hard in IIM and study, won’t you fear you will again fail, working hard.

Me: Sir, this was in 2013–17 phase and now I have evolved much. At that time I wasn’t sure should I be working in technical or Civil Services but yes after 4–5 years now, the picture seems quite perfect. I am now working in technical domain for 3 years and if you see my CDAC grades, there was a gradual improvement.

(Male Interviewer didn’t seemed convinced. He was in a hurry to wrap things up)

Male Interviewer– Okay Rajeev, you tell us 3 good things about your hometown and 3 weaknesses.
Me: I belong to Amritsar. industry wise this isn’t much suited for employment. Amritsar is mainly based on tourism. People from all over the world come and visit Kashmir + Amritsar circuit. Other good thing is the cuisines of Amritsar. There are certain hotspots which only a local person would know. So tourism wise, it is good.
Amritsar hasn’t been able to produce much jobs so we see many youth going to abroad or Canada. One industry I see booming in Amritsar is the IELTS , GMAT coaching industry. Everyone here is looking to go abroad.

Industry wise – Punjab is mainly an agrarian economy. Punjab led the green revolution in 1966 for wheat procurement and hence called the wheat bowl of India, but ever since then it has always been labour intensive and not capital intensive. Now today in 2022 ,along with Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Western UP is also leading producers of wheat. Punjab hasn’t been able to keep its industry up to the 21st century mark.
Partly the problem has been the political structure which is very much chaotic right now.

Interviewer: Can you explain us the 3 pros and cons of Farming in Punjab?
Me: The pros are with 3 farm laws – all farmers will come under government data and this sector would be more organised. If private sector comes in arrangement with the farmers, it would be good for any external shocks for contracts. Cons is that , private sector can use it for their benefit

The cons of the farm laws is that people aren’t sure about its outcomes. There is an extensive network of APMC, Mandis which they fear will be removed.

M Interviewer– Farmers not rotating crops, and some cancer related problems in Bathinda, aren’t these the problems? What are your views on it?

Me: Yes, agreed 100%. Ours is the only state where Electricity is given free to farmers for irrigation purposes, for vote banks and MSP will be gone is also a concern and our water table is also dropping. Substances like Mercury are added and hence its causing cancers, so yeah this is alarming.

Interviewer: So what are your achievements? Anything you have played, worked in NGO?

Me: Sir I like Chess very much.

Interviewer: No no, I mean any achievement you have got

Me: Sir ,I like to travel.

Interviewer: No Rajeev, you are not understanding the question. I am not asking about your hobbies, have you played anything like badminton, Tennis?

Me: Sir, I like to play Badminton, Tennis and played locally, but not for any tournaments. Didn’t joined any NGO or any club

Interviewer: Okay Rajeev, many thanks for your time. We are done, do you want to ask anything?

(I was like WTF, only in 10 minutes, you are done already, i knew its gone and there’s not much bragging now)
Me: No Sir, that’s it from my side as well

Verdict: Expected to be Rejected, will edit only if something is positive

I would like to say- keep your calm, and do involve in any extra curricular activities also if possible. Also, they didn’t asked anything related to my field which I worked for 3 years (cloud and DeVos), all they were interested were in

1. low grades
2. any achievements which I got (which was nothing) and
3. I was subjective of my answers instead of objective which means they could have felt I have talked more about my opinion rather than the facts if I could introspect- My answers weren’t that polished while delivering and other thing was him and me both were speaking at very brisk pace, so calming down a bit of nerves was lacking

(Do give as many interviews as you can, in this way you can judge yourself to the rest of the world. I was also selected for IIM Amritsar but skipped the interview, and this wasn’t a good move)

Edit1:
I got placed in my domain of field with average package equivalent to IIM Udaipur after 5 months. So what I could have achieved after 2 years of study and 12 lakh fees, is now with me with 1/4 th time and no cost. In my personal opinion, do prefer to study abroad over IIMs

CAP – 5 new iims + 4 baby iims

Background : BSc (H) Maths , 2019–2022 (final yr)

10/12/grad – 95/94.6/86.2

CAT – 92.41℅ile

Interview scheduled at forenoon session 9:30

Waiting time – 45min

Interview start – 10:15

Ends – 10:33 (18 minutes)

There were two panelist both males ,

let say P1(55+) , P2 (40+)

P1– Tell me about yourself , your family , your prior work ex all of such things.

Me- Told fully prepared Answer.

P1– Why MBA

Me– Sir I had that analytical and data crunching skills that is requiered in business thanks to my mathematics degree , but now i want to learn the managerial aspects of the business too.

I want to learn business practics from one of the best faculties of the country.

P1– You mentioned you work with ngo , what was that , and what is main problem your ngo work on ?

Me – Sir i worked with ngo naming Aashman foundation for 6 Months as an Assistant supervisor in HR department.

Sir our ngo suppourts widows and those women who are sole breadwinner in the house. Ngo provides them basic eminities required in day to day life eg – groceries , clothes , sanitary pads etc.

P1 – Rohit you are Honours in mathematics and you mentioned you are very analytical and use that in your MBA carrer , i am giving you puzzle , lets see if you can solve it or not.

Me – oK sir , i will try my best.

P1– xyz + xyz + xyz = zzz , find x, y, z

P1 – your strength and weakness

Me – Told

P1– Rohit you are just of 21 i guess and i think this is very early to go for mba , dont you think you should first go for job then gather some work ex and then go for mba ?

Me – Sir i dont think so , the justification for this is :-

Freshers have a fresh perspective towards things because they dont have any pre-conceived notion of the work culture of industry.
They are ready to put more of their time into things in which they are new and enthusiasm freshers have is unbeatable.
Finally sir we know “Experiments sometimes leads to inventions “ , henceforth freshers are not by anymeans lesser than workex people.

P1– Noded fully and seems really convinced , Ok rohit i am done with mine (refering to P2) sir you can ask.

P2– Rohit , what latest news are you following up right now.

Me– sir

Russia – Ukraine crisis
NSE scam
Sri lanka crisis

P2– what is NSE scam

Me – told

P2– what is collocation

Me – told (didnt told rightly)

P2– what is algorithm trading

Me– told (halfy correct)

P2– So you must be knowing statistics as well as you are maths student

Me– yes sir.

P2– what is random variable

Me– silence (didnt remember at that time , was cramed binomial and normal distribution type things but didnt even worked on basic definitions)

P2– What is differnce Between standard deviation and variance

Me– told by giving egamples still not knowing proper defintions.

P2– Where do you see yoursef in long run?

Me – Told

P2– Thankyou rohit i am done by my side , you can log off.

So finally not very good not very bad , it was kind of average one specially P2 , I would advice to freshers to focus on acad topics primarly basic of basics as they ask only that. I made mistake by not giving kuch importance to basics but gave my much of time learning advance ones.

It was a chill interview both were nodding and suppourting throughout the interview , no questions on hobbies , extra-curriculars , co-curriculars as i was expecting because in the pre interview form we were asked to mention all such things.

Cheers !

Edit 1 : Converted iim bodhgaya , iim jammu and iim sirmaur. Joining none !!

Location: Novotel, Kolkata

Profile: General Engineer Male(GEM)

I reported there at 12:30 pm sharp. First,document verification was done. Before that, candidates were divided into groups for different interview panels and were seated accordingly for WAT.

WAT started around 2:10 pm and 20 minutes were given to write an essay within 300 words.

WAT topic: Success of an educational institution depends on placements it provides and the no of research papers it publishes in a year. Write your own review about it.

Started with different types of educational institutions and focused on primary educational institutions being a large part of it and how not providing any placement upon completion still instils success. Later wrote on secondary and tertiary educational institutions, current scenarios in India ,ranking being dropped etc. Concluded with focus areas and way forward.

I felt content about what I had written.

PI: I was the 5th person to be interviewed in my panel and it consisted of 3 male interviewers, aged mid 40s. I will denote them as M1, M2 and M3.

Entered with a smile and greeted all of them.

M2: Please have a seat.

M1: We dont have enough time to spare so let’s start with your brief introduction. Try to keep it within 1 minute.

I: Started with my upbringing, schooling and cracking WBJEE and getting into IIEST, Shibpur. I told about staying in hostel for the first time and being mess coordinator. Interrupted.

M2: so, being a mess coordinator you used to get a lot of ‘gaalis’ from your peers. Is that correct?

I: Yes sir. Started to cook up a story further but interrupted.

M2: So you think managers are accustomed to get ‘gaalis’( abuses) from their colleagues. What is your take?

I: Sir, criticism is always welcome for a manager to grow be it positive or negative. Negative critisisms help identify your voids and fill them creatively.

M2: You told that you were among top 1 percentile in WBJEE. I know a lot of people with single digit rank but still they are a lot benign than you. And here you are, securing a rank under 1000 and still flaunting it in an interview!

Me: (Pokerfaced) Sir, this is the one of the few USPs I have got to flaunt my achievements. And furthermore, I was going to say that my JEE rank was not that good but it fetched me …interrupted again.

M2: I am not saying that your rank was bad but you are flaunting yourself here. Again talked the same thing about knowing people with single digit rank and being down to earth.

Me: ( cursing myself)

M2: Okay, lets see if you have the mettle to prove that you ranked in top 1 percentile in JEE. Then gave me a FBD to solve.

Me: (constantly cursing myself) Solved it, drawn the diagram and handed it to him.

M2: you have drawn it wrong! The placement of angle theta is wrong!

Me: (facepalm moment) Sir, I have drawn it right but i didnt put the angle name just below the angle denotation , I have placed it aside. I always had the habit of drawing it like this. Interrupted again.

M2: This is how the coaching institutes used to tell you how to draw a FBD . Right? You have mugged it up and secured a ‘decent’ rank !

Me: (Laughingly with a facepalm) But sir, I never went to a coaching institute for cracking JEE. Interrupted again.

M2: Tell me the logic begind the FBD.

Me: (Couldn’t recall it and tried to beat around the bush for some time)

M2: Admit that you don’t know.

Me: Okay, I dont remember it right now.

M2 to M1: See, this is today’s generation mugging up everything under the sun and claiming that I have cracked JEE. This fellow while giving presentation in an office will shout to his junior, you know ! I was among the top 1 percentile of my JEE batch!

Me: ( trying hard to leave the planet as well as universe) Sir, if I get into IIM, I will also flaunt by saying I am an IIM alumnus. They started laughing.

M1: Tell me about the job role.

Me: Told

M2: Where have you worked so far and why did you leave your job?

Me: Prepared answer.

M2: Interrupted. So, you left your job to get into MBA! Tell me you didn’t like your job! You studied in a good college and got into a good company and couldn’t sustain there for 2 years! Tell me you wanted a job in an office room with ac and wanted a decent physical hassle free life!

Me: Tried to defend as far as I can by saying MBA was my only goal after joining. I wanted to gain some experience in sales and after that, I wanted to go for MBA and that is why I chose job after college over MBA. Had I not fallen sick, I would never have left the company.

M3: You went through pretty hectic studying during engineering and had a very good score. Why didn’t you go to core? Dont you think you have wasted your 4 years of knowledge by choosing sales and marketing and then you are planning to do MBA?

Me: Prepared answer.

M2: No he is bluffing! All he wanted was a good AC office with fat paycheck. He was not getting any after college so he has decided to do MBA!

Me: Nervous laugh. Didn’t reply to that.

M1: So what you do in your pass time?

Me: I love writing movie reviews.

M1: What is the recent movie you have watched and written review of?

Me: It is an independent genre movie named ‘Fling’. I watched it 3 days back. This movie is based on open relationships

M1: What is an ‘Independent’ genre movie? Why did you choose this movie to write a review?

Me: Answered clearly and without sweating :p

M2: Okay you can leave now.

I thanked all of them and left politely.

Result: Awaited

P.S: I didn’t expect a stress interview as the previous interviewees were telling that the panel is very lenient, not grilling at all. But you can always expect the unexpected.

Process

Feedback – Essay Writing (WAT)

Feedback – Personal Interview

Excerpt from Interview 1-

Excerpt from Interview 2-

Excerpt from Interview 3-

Excerpt from Interview 4-

Excerpt from Interview 5-

Excerpt from Interview 6-

Excerpt from Interview 7-

Excerpt from Interview 8-

Excerpt from Interview 9-

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