DayZeroQuestions Finals 2005

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DB

1. There is a rope of 1 mtr, which burns in 1 hr. There are 2 such ropes with you.

What is the longest interval you can measure?

2. To weigh n kgs (n is a specified number) what is the minimum number of weights

needed?

3. Prove the Rule of 72(rate of interest * no of years =72)

4. What is the value of ii

5. There is an article 1 m long and it is broken randomly at a place. What is the

average length of the shorter piece?

6. In the question above what is the average ratio of the shorter to the longer rods

7. The interest rate in India is 5% and that of US is 2%.Given the current exchange

rate is 45 what is the exchange rate at the end of the year.

8. Puzzles were asked. The cubes question (if we have a N*N unit cubes making a

N*N dimensional cube and now it has a color painted on its outside, then what are

the no. of unit cubes with one face, two faces…..so on, colored.).

9. The ropes question, where u put fire to its one end and the time taken to burn

completely is t. if u now put fire to its both ends what is the time taken. (the

rope’s structure is non-uniform and hence the burning rate at various parts varies)

10. Sell a banana to me.

11. Lots of Resume based questions.

12. Can u draw the yield curve?

13. What’s the value of Iota ^ minus one.

14. Prove the De-moivre’s theorem.

15. Basic questions related to risk hedging, futures, investments and structuring.

Some scenario of oil companies was given and questions regarding future

investments were asked.

16. What are your career plans

17. What is the most important thing for you in a job

18. What is your idea of working abroad

iBank: Information is Power


19. What are your priorities? Say your grandmother is ill will you rush to your side

immediately?

20. The Basics of your background are also tested.

21. What do you know about the company

22. Why do you want to do an MBA

23. General questions to test your soft skills.

24. Asked maths qs like infinite series, i^i

25. Ur grand mom is on the verge of death and u r reqd. in office what would u do.

26. A lot of questions from my resume, primarily on my extensive debating at IITD

and couple of paper presentations I had won, what it took to get a ppo from HLL,

life at IITD

27. Question on how to derive forward rates, basics of yield curves

28. Why do you want to do I Banking, and which function in particular?

29. Which ibanks are you interviewing with and what is your preference order

30. A discussion on why they felt that DB was better than some of the other ibanks

31. Discussion on interest rates around the world, which country has negative interest

rates?

32. If there is a negative interest rate why would people put their money in a bank?

33. An oil producer has come to you for a loan, what unique product can you device

from him?

34. Basic Calculus, Taylor Expansions and portfolio selection – basics of 2nd term

Corp Fin

35. What kind of movies do you like to watch? Discussion on Fight Club

36. She was asked to quiz the interviewers about working in DB.

37. Was asked a Geometric Progression question. A pond can hold 50 lotuses. The

lotuses double very year. Currently, there are 8 lotuses. In how many years will

the pond be full?

38. Structure a deal in oil futures

39. Lots of quant, something like, how many zeros in 100 factorial



Lehman

1. Why do you want to work in Tokyo?

2. Resume is very important. Be completely thorough in that

3. What are the various courses in IIMB?

Asked to a CA

1. Questions from financial accounting and banking related stuff which were quite

general

2. Some typical situations were given. Like, M & A’s and what kind of accounting

could be done. Provisioning requirements for a bank and contemporary issues…,

prices of recent mergers, stock markets operation and their heading etc.

3. Asked about some curves related to statistics.

4. What are your two favorite subjects and related questions? Which division of I-

Bank are u interested in?

5. Tell us about any three points on your resume.

6. Work ex-based questions, what were the learnings from various projects with

clients?

7. Questions related to corporate finance: How do u calculate the present value of

cash flows from a stock? What is CAPM? What is beta and when does it become

negative.

8. Macro economics: questions related to housing demand and supply?

9. Related to reading: what is your favorite novel. Many questions followed on

fountain head.

Second round:



1. Questions asked to a computer engineer: list the efficiency order of bubble, quick

and various other sorts. Interview was quite based on algorithms, data structures.

2. Puzzle: there is a triangular sheet of paper and u have to place coins one by one

(there are two players). Any two coins can overlap each other but not completely.

The player who ultimately has no place to put a coin on loses. What could be the

possible strategy and so on…..

3. Puzzle: if you toss two coins and one is a head, what is the probability that other

is also a head?

4. How do u find the value of beta using regression? About noise in price data and

how would it change the value of beta and by how much.

5. Formula of e^x, e^i, i^i and questions on binomial expansion.

6. Stress interview. Focused solely on technical stuff for half an hour. Finance and

research based Questions since work-ex in treasury support.

7. Tell us about yourself. Basic maths. Then went on swimming because of common

interest.

8. Telecon- life at IIMB, how do u feel about it.

9. What subjects do you have?

10. Portfolio management, correlation in portfolios.

11. If u were made president, what changes would you make? Justify.

12. Why I Banking?

Lehman (Asia)

1. Was asked about the trading game as she is a member of Networth.

2. Basic finance questions

3. In a volatile market like India, how do you make sure that you are not exposed

to undue risk? She talked about hedging.

4. Next question followed from here. She was asked “What is hedging?”

Lehman (NY)



1. Puzzle: There are 10 thieves, you being one of them. There are 10,000 coins

to be divided. Now, you are to divide the coins in such a way that a majority

supports you. If you do not get a majority, you will be disposed off. – Solution

by induction.

2. That took most of the time. Was a teleconference anyway.



HSBC

Case study – about airplane industry, each participant was given a solution and

each had to defend his solution in the GD.

Mainly the GD focused on Negotiation skills.

1. Why do you want to work for us?

2. Some puzzles. Would you do a racist play? The 3-door puzzle. They were looking

more for a balanced view in the play question rather than the ideal answer.

3. What is the basic structure of an I-Bank? Also the various positions in an I-Bank

and their hierarchy. (They were checking if you are really interested in an I-bank

or not? Why I-Bank? If not for an I-Bank, what would you have preferred?

4. Do u invest in stock markets? If not, what is your opinion on Indian economy and

if u were to invest, where would you do? Similar question followed on U.S

economy.

5. Questions on various projects done in B.E?

6. Compare yourself to XYZ (some one who has finished his interview).

7. Tell us something about the HSBC plans in China.

8. Where do you see yourself in the future?

9. Asked about interests. What was wrong with PPT. Tell us about yourself.

10. Logic based Qs at the end. Why MBA

11. Short interview – Was asked about my debating at IITD, panel included a ex-DU

debater so she knew of most of the debates in DU and was asking me which all

ones I had participated in



12. Briefly tell us something about yourself and why HSBC?

13. Mostly based on resume initially.

14. What is the price of oil?

15. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of HSBC? (Never

say “The world’s local bank.” – That’s their tagline and they are not looking for

it)

16. Why will you prefer a competitor over us? (She said “Flexibility about location of

work etc.)

17. Are you achievement oriented? Rate yourself on a scale of 10.

18. Are you the one who worries about the mistakes you have made?

19. How are you in a team? Are you assertive or do you have leadership qualities?

20. What are your strengths and weaknesses?



Barclays

1. Personal questions based on resume

2. Experience

3. Questions related to your academic background

4. Questions to check if you fit into their Risk Management Strategy group

5. Project Related questions

6. Why the shift from Engineering to MBA and why now i-banking?

7. INR vs USD?? Valuation.

8. Do you mind an IT job?

JP Morgan

1. Questions related to fourier and fast fourier transforms.

2. Binomial Theorem.

3. Permutations and Combinations questions.

4. Why have you quit your job?

5. What did you like best in IIT? Worst in IIT? Why?

6. What did you like best in IIMB? Worst in IIMB? Why

7. Questions on digital electronics: Half adder, full adder and making an AND gate

from two NAND gates and some other circuits.

8. Questions on probability (esp. Bayes theorem), vector algebra: modeling of

differential equations with the help of determinants and matrices.

9. Comment on Indian economy and the future trend.

10. State the three market theories.

11. Started with the basic maths fundas and graphs about log and exponential.

12. Taylor expansions, pricing of a bond, options and futures basic Qs.



13. Credit derivatives

14. Lots of Comp. Sci. fundaes.

15. Lots of NPV calculations

16. Stress Interview

17. Payoff on a call/put option

18. Sell the idea of making a movie. Convince them of the need for funds. – He went

to selling desk because of this.

19. JEE math – Taylor Series’ expansion.

20. Techie interview – mostly depending on the interviewee’s background

21. 4 methods of sorting

22. Pricing a bond – basically simple bond valuation, given – time of expiry etc., find

what should the price of bond be?

Goldman Sachs

1. Almost completely based on resume.

2. Are you a team worker? Do you like interacting with people?

3. If you are given three things: power, money and fame, what would you prefer and

why?

4. Why didn’t you go for MS?

5. Leadership qualities focus. Sell a water bottle, how do you keep track of markets.

6. Managing working hours. Preference between Global and IBD.

7. Started with intro. Asked that if you invest money, in which sector will you invest

and why. Discussed in detail about the oil spikes impact. Also focused on how

polished a person is.

8. Started with robotics since it was the summer project. Success factors and fields

of application of robotics. How is robotics relevant to India.

9. 3 flats are available, 2 were bought for 50, how much would you buy the 3 rd one

for?



10. What are the valuation factors for a company?

11. Why do you want to do I-banking?

12. Which particular function in I-banking attracts you?

13. Tell us something about yourself?

14. Why did you go to IITD?

15. A little bit about school life

16. Fin Questions: Run us through an income statement/cash flow

17. If two firms have very similar asset numbers in their B/S yet their stock prices are

different, eg. ONGC & Infosys, why do you think this is?

18. General trends in the global economy, very short discussion on trends in oil prices

and how Ibanks can leverage it do their advantage.

19. Engineering Design related stuff

20. Options & Futures

21. Primarily techie interview

22. Lots of questions one.


DayZeroQuestions Finals 2005

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