XLRI interview experience questions

Business & Management
#1

Some interview questions asked in XLRI interviews are as follows:

  1. Where are you from? School? College?

  2. What domain are you working in TCS?

  3. Explain your product?

  4. Why is your product special?

  5. How is this product sold/marketed?

  6. What did you do recently or significantly in the project?

  7. Difference between Business Intelligence and Business Analytics?

  8. Tools for Business Analytics?

  9. Leadership experience in work?

  10. Why were you special at work?

  11. When was Neural Networks invented? (Fav subject in SOP questions)

  12. Do you think Neural Net/ML is cutting edge or old?

  13. What do you think about Jalikattu? Speak on it.

  14. What do you think about Byjus and WhiteHat?

  15. What do you think about technology in the Indian education sector?

  16. How can the govt better manage the Indian education sector?

  17. Why are your board marks low?

#2

Some other questions which were asked included the following:

Where are you based off?
How is the pollution what step do you take to avoid it
What Client do you work for?
What is its biggest/most sold product?
How data helps your client, explain with an example.
How does your client mitigate risks, explain.
Explain Agile manufacturing, how is it better than any other method.
Explain with examples /questions we asked why should we reject you in three point with example from past 20mins.
Explain how you work in a Team and how roles are decided in a group and why can’t you work alone?
Why MBA (some cross questioning)
Introduce yourself
Asked about my favourite subject from graduation. Several follow ups.
What kind of issues have you faced at work (spoke about the behaviour essay)

Similar questions can be expected by the prospective candidates in their interviews

#3

More interview questions for XLRI

  1. Introduce yourself
  2. Why MBA (some cross questioning)
  3. Describe your role at your firm
  4. What kind of issues have you faced at work (spoke about the behaviour essay)
  5. Some cross-questioning about the impact that my actions had
  6. Went back to my Why MBA answer – some cross-questioning there. Asked me to properly explain my motivation.
  7. Asked about my favourite subject from graduation. Several follow ups.
  8. Asked if I had any questions for them (none)

Another person’s experience had the following questions:

  1. What are the challenges to automate any process(since I work in automation).
  2. Explain about the projects I have worked on? (In workex)
  3. Tell me about your company formation.
  4. What is the disadvantages of being a subsidiary of Titan.
  5. Advantages of creating a BOM( related to a point mentioned in form)
  6. What are your hobbies?
  7. Key learnings from sports that can be applied to management.(since I mentioned sports)
  8. What are the disadvantages of each of the learnings? (Follow up to above question)
  9. I had mentioned regarding volunteering I had done in the form, so asked to explain key challenges faced as a volunteer
  10. What was your role as a volunteer?
  11. How did you come to know about the initiative( it was a local community based volunteering experience)
#4

BM interview experience for XLRI Jamshedpur:

My panel included three panelists

P1- Had read a study your company did. What was it? And what do you feel about the findings?
P1 – You grew up in Kolkata. Do you know Bengali.
P1- Bengali or Hindi in Delhi
A. I said Bengali because it’s sweet. Hindi in Delhi is crass.
P1- I’m from Delhi, do you want to change your answer
A. I said No. I still feel Delhi is rude. Then I had a lot of discussion with him on the study he asked about. How data is used in education (10 minutes)
P2- What did I do at work?
P2- What do I feel about the education sector?
P2- Can online learning replace classrooms and teachers
P2- There was a debate in the US about evaluating students using data tests. What do you think is the impact of these on a child’s development and the teachers . Are these tests fair
P3- Asked a few questions on what is regression . How it differs from correlation.
P3- Do you have any questions for us?
Asked
All three answered

Another person had the following experiences
The panel had 3 male panelists

Q: Tell me about your family business
A: Manufacturing of Diesel Generator sets

Q: How does a generator work?
A: Answered

Q: challenges faced in your industry?
A: Answered

Q: How are generator engines different from automobile engines?
A: Answered

Q: How do you compete with giants like kirloskar, cummins?
A: Answered and there was a lot of cross questioning

Q: How can a Generator seller take advantage of me if I dont know much about it?
A: The panel tried to ask me tricky question and I tried my best to answer it and he seemed satisfied at the end of the conversation on the topic at hand

Q: Tell me 3 main parameters I should consider before buying a DG set.
A: Answered

Q: How do I break even the cost of a generator? And how can I charge people for using it?
A: I said you cannot charge any amount as you cannot sell power its illegal.
Had a discussion about why its illegal for 3-4 min. but he seemed to disagree

Q: How do you segment the market in your family business?
A: Answered

Q: Where do you see your family business in 10 years?
A: Answered

#5

The interview experience of an XLRI interview was as follows:

BM Interview
3 male interviewers
My background- Metallurgy, NIT Trichy, 2 months work exp in Tata Steel

P1-

  1. So, you seem very consistent in your academics, even in college, what else do you do?
  2. What did you do after graduation? Work?
  3. What have you been working on in TSL for the last two months?
  4. Tell me what you learnt about Finance? Profit loss statement?
  5. Tell me about the insurance industry.
  6. What is settlement ratio?
  7. Why is the labour participation rate low for women?
  8. What can be done to overcome this?

P2-

  1. How is the steel industry faring today?
  2. How does work from home work for the industrial sector?

P3- (I had mentioned earlier in one answer that I own a blog)

  1. What is the process involved in writing a blog?
  2. How do you structure your blog?
  3. What are your sources?
  4. Who are the stakeholders when you publish a blog?

They ended it abruptly since it was getting very late in the night. The experience was extremely pleasant and one can call it a non stress interview.

Another person’s experience was as follows:

HRM Interview – Morning slot (3 Male professors)
Acads – 9.8/88/74.42
Background – BSc in Hotel Management, 3+ years of work ex as a management trainee and an Assistant Manager
M1 – You have been a good student from a science background then why hotel management? Was your family okay with it and you not pursuing engineering?
M1 – So you did your homework for this delegation (from SOP) what was the basis of your calculation of manpower requirement for this event?
M1 – How would someone like you cope up with mathematics in the curriculum? Were you using quants at work?
M1 – If you give special attention to this delegation and not me I would feel bad. How would you handle that?
M1- 2 basic questions on probability.
M1 – Inventory management and how much soap do you think is consumed in your hotel in a month? How do you do indenting?
M1- People from your background have a good understanding of hands-on management but lack in acads, how will you cope up?
M2- Why are ladies and gentlemen called ladies and gentlemen(from my company’s motto)?
M2- Gave a situation of a wedding in which the host decided to have no food and give away coupons instead. Why is it good or bad, give 3 reasons?
M2 – Why is food a part of every celebration? 3 reasons.
M2 – Do you treat your employees with the same gentleman-like behavior that you show your guests? Why and Why not?
M3 – Why were you biased with these 2 girls at work? Do you have a bias towards women?
M3 – Tell me a situation where you handled a tough guest. (I gave a situation he discredited it so I gave another.)

#6

HRM Interview XLRI

My interview was 15 minutes long and they ended very abruptly by saying if their is anything, the admissions team will get in touch.

  1. Asked about my academics
  2. Why mba after biotech
  3. Told them about my business so they asked about it a little bit.
  4. Chandigarh is a city for retired people so my views on that
  5. What are the roles and responsibilities of HR
  6. AI powered tools in HR
  7. Zoonotic diseases
  8. Farm laws and my views

Another person’s experience was as follows:
BM Interview
My educational background: CA, FRM
Work experience: 46 months
P1: Your father works in PNB, which is infamous for a fraud. What is your take on it.
Ans: Estimate of 11K cr. – spoke about UK approving Nirav Modi’s extradition
P1: Public sector banks are not as profitable as private sector banks. Reasons?
Ans: Stats from Eco Survey 2020
P1: Don’t give me the symptoms, what is the reason?
Ans: Misalignment of incentives, fear of regulators
P2: You mean to say that public sector bank employees are lazy and inefficient.
Ans: That would be incorrect. But their incentives need to be aligned better.
P1: If I look at an income figure, should I take it on face value?
Ans: No – break it down to individual components
P1: (Interrupting) Give me an example where profit is inflated.
Ans: Example of sale of asset valued at historical cost
P1: If I want to invest in real estate, what would be your advice? (I have worked for an NBFC lending to real estate developers)
Ans: Avoid commercial real estate – prefer large listed players for apartments – quoted stats from an ICRA report – very good time to invest considering stamp duty and fungible premium reduction
P2: Why MBA and not further specialisation?
Ans: Prepared answer
P2: If someone with 1 Cr has to buy a home, should he take a loan?
Ans: Depends on overall finances, but highly advisable to take a loan since interest rates are at record lows
P2: What should be done with 1 Cr?
Ans: Depends on the risk profile. If I was in that situation, I would invest in a low-cost index fund coupled with a small portion for opportunistic IPO investing for listing gains
P3: You have mentioned in your SOP that for losing 1 kg, you have to burn 3500 calories. That’s wrong (it was actually wrong, I googled later).
Ans: Sir, those estimates have worked for me.
P3: But you don’t verify before giving out estimates?
Ans: Sir, reality is the best counter to all conjectures. And this is my reality (P1 & P2 start laughing)
P3: Now you are behaving like Trump.
Ans: Sir, but I am open to a counter opinion. Also, if I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to admit it.
P1: Prof, you could be mistaking pounds for kgs.
P3 agrees.
P2: You may leave the meeting.

#7

The interview experience of a candidate was as follows:

BM Interview
I am a BA.LLB Graduate(fresher)
The panel had 3 male panelist

P1: What are you doing after college
P1 : Where have you done internships
P1: Differentiate b/w internship under judge and advocate general(mentioned in where); Then all open ended questions and some discussion regarding
– Sociology
– Laws related to culture and history
– Laws intertwined
– Nation
– Society
– Bad cultural practices and law, Etc.
(This went on for more than 15 min and P1 was interrupted by P2 twice but P1 just raised his finger signaling one more qestion both the time)

P2:Most people move to kota after 10th why did you move away from it
(Must have gathered from my profile)
P2: Why the low marks in 12th boards?
P2: Tell me a concrete solution or idea by which all problems prevailing in judiciary can be solved
P3: Tell me 3 good and bad things about XLRI
P3: Which companies would you choose for placement
You can leave now, Nice talking to you
Thank you and Best of luck.
The interview ended here.
It was a friendly panel

#8

The interview experience of another candidate was as follows:

HRM Interview

My previous career path looked as follows:-
B.E Aerospace Engineering
XAT – 96.95
19 months work experience with KPMG management consulting

P1 : Where are you taking the interview from?
P1 : Were you in a different city before the pandemic?
P1 : How did the pandemic affect you?

  • Mentioned hobbies and reading here*
    P1 : Which book are you reading now?
  • Permanent Record by Edward Snowden*
    P1 : What did you learn from that book?
    P1 : What is KPMG’s whistleblower policy?
    P1 : Should companies disclose how many times the whistleblower hotline has been used and why?
    P1 : * mentions the person you worked with that you disliked SOP answer and asked to elaborate*
    P1 : If employees are hesitant to speak clearly in meetings, is it their fault or the lack of a good work culture?
    P2 : * mentions a certification I had done and asked questions on why I did it*
    P2 : Was your company justified on making you take it even though it was an extra burden?
    P2 : If you represented the certification company, how would you get companies like KPMG to make employees take the certification?
    P3 : Why do you have less scores in 10+2 ?
    P3 : What branch of engineering did you graduate in?
    P3 : Aerospace??? Why did you join KPMG after studying Aerospace?
    P3: Tell me what d/dx ( tan5x) is
  • Gave a wrong answer *
    P3: What other topic shall I ask? Is calculus okay??
  • I mentioned that I would try to answer*
    P3: Nevermind. I’ll give you a statement tell me what you feel about it and if you agree.
    ” Nowadays we are in the midst of many large policy changes such as farm bills, privatisation, etc. I feel that hasty policies will lead to us repeating or mistakes with more hasty policies”
    Answered
    P3 : Give an example of a policy in the past which was unsuccessful and hence there is a new hasty policy now.
  • Answered*
#9

Some standard questions to prepare would be:

  1. Why MBA: This is one of the top MBA Personal Interview Questions for Admission that frequently appears in MBA interviews
  2. Tell us about yourself: This is another very popular question that frequently appears in MBA Personal Interview Questions
  3. COVID 19 related Questions: Given the impact, this is naturally one of the popular MBA Personal Interview Questions. Besides, don’t expect simple fact-based questions – one candidate was asked to share his “stance on the conspiracy theory of Covid’s origin.”
  4. Past Academic Questions: Your academic profile is an important source of top Questions asked in the Personal Interview round of MBA admissions.
  5. Previous Work Experience Questions: If you have short or long work experience, it will be the most important area constituting top MBA Personal Interview Questions for Admission.

Accordingly, one should always be ready with some such top Questions to prepare for Personal Interviews in MBA colleges.

#10

Some more standard questions to prepare would be the following:

  1. Why this B-school: This is one of the top MBA Personal Interview Questions for Admission. If you are appearing in the Personal Interview round, it is one of the top Questions to prepare for a Personal Interview. If you don’t give a crisp and clear answer, you will leave a bad impression.
  2. Which Specialization and Why? Some B-schools want their students to be clear about their career choice post-MBA. They also want you to be clear about which specialization you will select in 2nd year and why. This is a sure-shot question in XLRI Personal Interview round if you are applying for a Specialized MBA program.
  3. Current Affair Events & your opinion on them: With a lot of changes happening at the national and international level, your updated knowledge on current affairs and what do you think about them is the key area on which a few questions you are sure to face in XLRI Personal Interview round.
  4. Questions on Extra-Curricular Activities: If you are a sports person, a model, or an achiever in some other area, the IIM MBA Interview Questions will be focused on them too. Some candidates have been asked questions like how will India capture the POK? Why Kenyan runners are good at marathons?