HR Questions(Common for all roles)

1. Give a short intro about yourself?

2. Why MBA after XX years of work ex in IT?
3. Why do you want to get into a Systems career after MBA?(IDC, Marketing,
Business Development etc)?
4. Why do you want to join the firm? What are your expectations from the
internship?
5. What do you know about the role?
6. Why are you interested in this role and why do you think youll be a good fit?
7. Questions on previous work experience, work and responsibilities?
8. Describe your daily schedule at IIMA?
9. Tell me about your hobbies?
10.Describe your Strengths, Weaknesses & ambitions?
11.Favorite subject in IIM and why?

Tech Questions
Tech Sales and Marketing (Google, SAP, Microsoft)
1. How does Google make money? (Google)
From Adwords and Adsense.
Adwords: Google AdWords is Google's Pay-Per-Click (PPC) program that allows
advertisers to create ads and have them displayed on Google SERPs when
corresponding keywords are entered by a user. Google AdWords also
integrates with Google affiliate websites through its Google AdSense
program.
Using the AdWords control panel, advertisers can enter keywords, domain
names, topics, and demographic targeting preferences, and Google places
the ads on what they see as relevant sites within their content network.
Adsense: AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google Inc. Website
owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video
advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by
Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis
2. Make a sales pitch for Adsense (a Google product)? (Google)
Find out the goal of your client(like whether to create awareness of
their product, increase the sales of their product)
Find out the target customers of the client
Devise a strategy accordingly using Adsense
3. Make a sales pitch to ICICI Marketing manager?(Gave me 3 issues which the
ICICI manager faced, which as to be resolved)(Google)

Same as question 2
4. Who is the main competitor of Google? (Google)
Facebook- Advertising and social media, Apple- Mobile Market iOS, MicrosoftSearch and Mobile OS market, Yahoo- Mail and Search, Amazon, IBM and
Twitter Advertising and Social media
5. How will you design an online marketing campaign for Pepsi? (Google)
Same as question 2
6. Discussion on Google+, why Google+ cant reach the stage of Facebook ?
(Google)
Switching cost will be greater as people will have to learn using
google+ from scratch
Like is much easy to understand than +1. The idea of +1 as a rating of
support has been a point of head scratching and mild snickering.
Social media is already cluttered with many players like Twitter, Skype,
AIM, MSN, forums, a blog, email, the phone which has resulted in
users fatigue
7. A case on Adwords publicity and launch in SMB hotel industry?(Google)
Same as question 2
8. Guesstimate on number of Gmail users in India?(Google)
Find out the number of the internet users in India say 120 million
Then lets say 10-15% of the users would be less than age of 15 who
were interested in mostly playing games in internet, and so most
probably would not be requiring Gmail account
Then there may might be 5-10% of users who started using internet at
the early stage of penetration in India and therefore would be having
mail accounts in yahoo and hotmail.
The rest 75-80%i.e. 96-100 million should be having gmail account.
9. Guesstimate where I was asked to calculate the number of bags that arrive at
Ahmedabad airport?(Google)
Lets say the number of passengers arriving in Ahmedabad airport a
day is 100000
And also assume 10% would be business class travelers who would be
most probably having a single bag at most
The rest 90% economy class travelers would be having at most 2-4
bags. So lets take the average 3 per person
So the total comes to 280000
10.What are CPC (Cost per click), CTR (Click through rate), CR (Conversion rate)?
(Google)
CPC - advertisers pay the publisher (Google) when the ad is clicked

CTR - The clickthrough rate of an advertisement is defined as the number of

clicks on an ad divided by the number of times the ad is shown (impressions),
expressed as a percentage. For example, if a banner ad is delivered 100
times (100 impressions) and receives one click, then the clickthrough rate for
the advertisement would be 1%.
CR - How often a click on the ad resulted in a conversion, a meaningful
action like a sale, lead, or sign-up.
11.Technical questions about virtualization, cloud computing, and SAP (SAP)
Cloud computing: Cloud computing is the use of computing resources
(hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network
(typically the Internet).
Software as a service (SaaS): In this model, cloud providers install and
operate application software in the cloud and cloud users access the
software from cloud clients. The cloud users do not manage the cloud
infrastructure and platform on which the application is running. This
eliminates the need to install and run the application on the cloud
user's own computers simplifying maintenance and support.
Platform as a service (PaaS): In the PaaS model, cloud providers deliver
a computing platform typically including operating system,
programming language execution environment, database, and web
server.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): In this most basic cloud service
model, cloud providers offer computers, as physical or more often as
virtual machines, and other resources.

Virtualization is a framework or methodology of dividing the resources

of a computer into multiple execution environments, by applying one
or more concepts or technologies such as hardware and software
partitioning, time-sharing, partial or complete machine simulation,
emulation, quality of service, and many others.

Program Manager Role (Microsoft IDC, Yahoo)

1. How would you design a spam filter?(Microsoft)
Ans Things to look for Logical thinking, knowledge, relevant questions
asked. Spam filter - The algorithm to decide where a mail is a spam or not
take multiple factors into account like no. of red flagged Keywords (e.g.
Viagra, Lottery, make money etc.), Number of emails sent from that
particular senders email id to all, Attached files with in the mails
Scan the attachments for viruses/Trojan etc. and red flag emails with riskier
attachment, check hyperlinks in the mails and tally them against list of

safe websites, learning mode (this is user specific) learn about users
preference from past activities types of mail user opens and given
enough number of mails with certain keywords(red flagged) remove the red
flags for this particular user on these keywords and also check whether the
person has opened or sent mails from/to the sender previously/persons mail
id is present in this persons contact list or not.
2. Give an algorithm to find a substring of a string of numbers (numbers can be
both +ve or ve) having highest sum? (Microsoft)
Ans Candidate should be at least able to give basic algorithm i.e. find out
all possible substrings, sum them up individually and return the answer. Issue
with this solution is that it is an inefficient one with O(n2) performance. There
is one algorithm that is provides solution with O(n) performance and includes
cumulative summation and certain check.
void maxSumSubArray( int *array, int len, int *start, int *end, int
*maxSum )
{
int maxSumSoFar = -2147483648;
int curSum = 0;
int a = b = s = i = 0;
for( i = 0; i < len; i++ ) {
curSum += array[i];
if ( curSum > maxSumSoFar ) {
maxSumSoFar = curSum;
a = s;
b = i;
}
if( curSum < 0 ) {
curSum = 0;
s = i + 1;
}
}
*start = a;
*end = b;
*maxSum = maxSumSoFar;
}

Complexity O(n)

3. Design a restaurant ordering system? (Microsoft)

Ans Again check for knowledge, awareness about existing systems like
ebay, zomato etc., logical thinking, relevant questions, and creativeness.
Question asked is to provide a web solution where a user can come in and
check food item menu, prices etc and order food for home delivery/pickup.
The website would be used by multiple vendors/restaurants and is not one
particular user specific.
Designing such and system has near endless possibilities in terms of features
to be provided. Some hints Register and login feature for users and admin
(restaurant owners/manager to maintain their prices/menu etc.), maybe

option for users to order food as guest(without login), features to bring more
traffic to this portal applications for mobile phones, search feature in site
geography/ cuisine/rating based restaurant selection etc. Features for users,
like posting review and raising concerns with managers etc. How to handle
issues like fake order for home delivery or pickup. Additional features like
discount coupon provision, payment option COD/online payment, features
for restaurant administrator in that website like update menu/prices/write
details or content of a dish/add picture of that dish, generate reports on
multiple dimensions weekly/monthly/yearly sales, dishes or cuisine with
maximum popularity. Maybe provide additional features to maintain payroll
for employees and manage restaurant accounts.
4. Design a cookie vending machine for children. How should it look like and
what should it do? (Microsoft)
Ans Same as question 3, for particular inputs search online. Like marketing
see features that you would incorporate to differentiate your product as well
as cater to needs and handle problems of this target segment.
5. Given a word write an algorithm to find all possible sub-words within that
which can be found in the Dictionary? (Microsoft)
Method(Back track)
void solve(String s, Set<String> dict, List<String> solution) {
if (s.length == 0)
return
for each prefix of s found in dict
solve(s without prefix, dict, solution + prefix)
}
List<String> solution = new List<String>()
solve(text, dict, solution)

E-Marketing & E-Retail (Flipkart, Cleartrip, Infibeam)

1. Guesstimate for number of parking required for New Delhi International
Airport(Groupon)
a. Estimate some %age of airport staff (1K) coming by cars (assume its
officers)
b. Estimated arrivals per year (35 million), assuming distribution is not even
and peaks to x at some time
c. Estimate 50% arrivals, 50% departures, separate percentage for parking
requirements for arrivals/ departures (e.g. 40-50% for arrivals and 10% for
departures)
d. Assuming waiting time is 1 hour, Littles law (inventory = Rate of arrival *
processing time or waiting time)

2.

How can you convince people that shopping online is safe?(Infibeam)

a. Cash on delivery so that users dont have to use credit cards in online
shopping
b. Promote user reviews which will increase the credibility
c. Persuade users with advertisements similar to what Flipkart did (ads with
children to reinforce trust)
d. Show trust in handling credit card data (SSL certification, Put up a sign
that indicates customers transaction will be %100 secured and safe)
e. Have a clear privacy policy

3. What is the growth potential of the eRetail sector? (Infibeam)

a. Currently online retail account for less than 1% of the total retail market in
India(~ $1 bn)
b. It is anticipated that the online retail sector will grow at a CAGR of around
39% during FY 2013-2016
c. Driven by changing consumer behavior towards shopping and increasing
impact of social media, online retail market in India is set to explore new
growth opportunities in the coming years.
d. Internet penetration in India increased from 2.5 percent in 2007 to about
10 percent in 2011 and is expected to further rise to 30 percent by 2015,
Resultantly, number of users transacting online is also projected to reach
38 million by 2015 from 11 million in 2011
e. Another factor supporting e-commerce growth in the country is a
relatively young and increasingly wealthy population. More than half of
Indias 1.2 billion people are currently below 25 years of age.
f. The main challenge in eRetail industry is the return of goods(not accepted
by customer) which stands around 25%.
g. Looking at the overall industry trend the Indian eRetail sector has high
growth potential
4. What are the new avenues Infibeam should look for in the eRetail sector?
(Infibeam)
a. Sell own line products
b. Build a two sided market where both buyers and sellers can interact (e.g.
e-bay)
c. Sell digital products (e-books, e-magazines, music etc)
5. How should Makemytrip use IRCTCs sites inadequacies to its advantage?
(Info Edge)
a) Better traffic management (more servers)
b) Continual availability of services (no network failures etc.)
c) Better payment managements system (no truncation in between, no
wrongful deduction of amounts etc)
6. How would you stop fake profiles from being registered on jeevansathi.com?
(Info Edge)

During registering, ask for mobile number and make a verification call to
check the filled in details. Also make sure the number is unique to catch hold
of duplicate accounts.
7. Suggest 5 new offerings that Makemytrip could come up with? (Info Edge)
a) Tying up with airlines, credit card companies or other businesses to
provide discounts/ vouchers
b) Suggestions for cab bookings after flight to a particular city is booked
8. What should be done to improve Yahoo mail to match Gmail? (Info Edge)
a) Improve interface, reduce advertisements, Introduce search
b) Better integration of email and IM
c) Ease with attachments (yahoo opens a separate page)
d) Better Folder Organization
e) Better Size of attachments
f) Customization (themes, drag drop features etc)

Operations (Amazon)
1. An online retailer company is experiencing high shipping costs (higher than
normal). How would you diagnose the problem?
2. A work flow related problem from OM-1
Youve just been assigned the job a setting up an electric fan assembly
line with the following tasks:
Task
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H

Time (Mins)
2
1
3.25
1.2
0.5
1
1
1.4

Description
Assemble frame
Mount switch
Assemble motor housing
Mount motor housing in frame
Attach blade
Assemble and attach safety grill
Attach cord
Test

Predecessors
None
A
None
A, C
D
E
B
F, G

What is the Max production per day and the cycle time and the number of
work stations?
Answer:

2
A

1
B

1
G

3.25

1.2

.5

1.4
H

Max Production =

Production time per day

420 mins
=
= 129 units
Bottleneck time
3.25 mins / unit

Required Cycle Time, C =

C=

Production time per period

Required output per period

420 mins / day

= 4.2 mins / unit
100 units / day

3. What is EOQ and EBQ?

EOQ - Economic Order Quantity. It is the order quantity that minimizes total
inventory holding costs and ordering costs. The quantity at which the total
cost for the inventory is the least.
Q=(2DS/H)^0.5
Q is the optimum order quantity.
D is the annual demand quantity
S is the ordering costs per order (fixed)
H the annual holding cost per unit
EBQ Economic batch Quantity. It is a measure used to determine the
quantity of units that can be produced at minimum average costs in a given
batch or production run.
K = setup cost
D = demand rate
F = holding cost
T = cycle length
P = production rate
Formula: squareroot [ (2x annual demand setup costs)/(inventory carrying
cost per unit)]