How was your IIM C/IIT Kharagpur/ISI Kolkata PGDBA interview experience?
Posted On - Sep 16, 2021One of my friends had the absolute delight to appear for the PGDBA interview conducted by a multifaceted panel. He shared his interview experience which might help you a bit.
Before the interview began, he was taken for a Verification Round wherein, every detail of academics scores or other profile-related information was cross-checked on the IIMs format. Once they received an IIM-verified document they were escorted to the interview venue.
The interview room had 3 panels; one from each institute obviously.
They asked for his brief introduction first. On hearing about his interest in Data Analytics, panelists probed him further with questions like
- What is Data Analytics
- Difference between analytics and analysis
- Contemporary Data analytics and ML
They further asked him why he chose Analytics. He told them that the increasing demand for the same in Europe and China made him realize how much India lacks in this aspect and thus he wanted to invest his efforts in Data Analytics.
Next, he was tested on his knowledge of Statistics and Mathematics with questions like
- Difference between mean, mode, Media
- Skewness
- Relationship of mean, mode, and median in a positive Skew graph
- Hypothesis Testing
- What is Anova
The next panelist took the reins and gave him a problem from SPC quality control. He asked him how do you know that his process in electric bulb making is as per customer Norma and is statistically controlled. My friend was able to answer most of the questions confidently and even solved this problem through charts.
Lastly, he was asked about his extracurricular activities and hobbies. The discussion ended with him asking about GST and the difference between GST and previous tax. Even though he gave a common answer, he managed to convert the interview.
One of my juniors converted his PGDBA offer in 2020. Here is his experience in brief.
- The interview was online via Zoom. The interview panel had three panelists - P1 (IIM C), P2 (ISI), and P3(IIT KGP). The interview went on for 40 minutes.
- First, he was asked to introduce himself, which was followed by some small talk on hobbies and interests.
- The rest of the questions were based on his past academics, and work experience. There were also some general questions like give an intense where you have implemented your knowledge from the degree.
Overall, his interview experience was smooth.
One of my cousins has recently been to a PGDBA interview, and here are some points he briefly talks about:
- There were three panelists, from ISI Kolkata, IIM Kolkata, and IIT Kharagpur. My cousin was first asked to introduce himself in fewer words, following which he was asked what eigenvalues and eigenvectors meant. He was thoroughly counter questioned about related topics.
- The panelists shifted focus to one of the main topics i.e. Statistics and Probability. He was questioned about the definition of Poisson Distribution, to which his reply was rather crisp and plain-sailing. He mentioned, alongside the actual answer, what associated probability mass function meant. They also asked several contradictory questions about the same.
- Following that, he was questioned for the reason behind why public sector banks were merged. Most essentially, they ask about why countries like China and the USA were interested in the Korean land.
- Questions like the difference between supervised learning and unsupervised learning; Israeli Palestinian conflict, and analytics were often enquired to him.
It is suggested that you prepare the concepts of your course very thoroughly, alongside other important subject areas that are one section of the course you have pursued.
