New Participants’ Assessment Document (NPAD): PGP 2021 - 23

The following set of questions are an important part of the evaluation of the incoming batch for a
number of campus activities such as the suitability of applicants for various positions in the Institute,
such as clubs and committees. Similar questions are an integral part of ‘Summer Placement
Selection Process’ across multiple companies and, thus, are crucial from a preparation perspective. 
Since all the questions pertain to your personality and ask for examples from your own experiences,
we do not see any reason for you to copy the answers from anywhere. Taking help from browsing
sites for better ideas is habitual, but beware that they are accessible to all and no two experiences
can be the same. It is suggested that you conduct a thorough self-assessment on 3 Ps – Your Past,
Potential, and Priorities, which would help answer the questions. Plagiarism of any form will lead
to the most severe consequences.

Please make deliberate efforts to answer the questions keeping in mind the following parameters:
 The intent of the question - An understanding of what is being tested via the question
 Clarity of thought - Ambiguous statements or contradicting yourself over the course of the
document should be avoided.
 Structural flow and comprehensiveness – Adopt best practices to maintain a logical flow
 Written language - Grammar errors, typos should be avoided. Use language which you can
reproduce later. Remember that it is not creative writing.
 Substantiation – Use suitable examples when asked.
Word Limit: The questions are formulated in a way so that you can carry out a meaningful discussion
in situations of Placements, Club/ Committee selections, etc. These would be important in carrying
out conversations as well as answering written questions in the concerned pre-processes. Hints have
been provided in brackets alongside the questions, wherever appropriate. To have a handy tool in
the form of this NPAD document, you are required to follow the word limit as per two categories:
Brief- These answers to these questions have a minimum word limit of 250 words with no upper
word limit.
Comprehensive- These answers to these questions have a minimum word limit of 350 words with
no upper word limit.

Please make an effort to utilize your discretion before approaching for clarification on any
question(s).
Humans tend to comprehend tangible items better. So try to give examples wherever possible to
make a point, use figures (quantification) to suggest the impact wherever appropriate.
Participants with work-experience are expected to (preferably) give examples for the same in the
relevant questions. However, in case of the absence of such instances, suitable examples from
academic/ extra-curricular/ co-curricular/ personal situations may be included.
Please read about the STAR Interview Response framework (Situation-Task-Action-Result) used for
answering situational questions.
Answering the questions in bullet points is prohibited. The answers must be written in paragraph.
Additionally you can summarise your answer in bullet points along with the paragraph. Please note
that writing in paragraph is compulsory. Bullet points is optional and it should just be the gist for
your easy and quick reference at a later stage. The word limits mentioned are for the paragraph and
the words in the bullet points will not be counted.
It goes without saying that these questions form an integral part of the placement pre-processes and
failure to complete the document will be taken up seriously in the college placement and committee
selection process. 
Please note that for the benefit of the participants, variants of the same questions have been
added so that they can be answered along similar lines. However, if someone feels that the
variants can have different answers, they are free to answer it separately. However please make
sure that the answers are numbered correctly.
Please ensure that your answers are formatted as Calibri Body (Size 11), 1.5 line spacing.

Please do not consider this document as another mundane work and rush through it just for the
sake of completion. Take your time. Enough time.
Trust us, a genuine attempt towards completing this will help you reflect on yourself, your
experiences, and your learnings till date. It will also be a strong foundation for your summer
placement interview-preparation as variations of these questions are expected in several
interviews. Your schedules post you join the program shall be hectic; if you have these answers
ready, a look at them before your placement process will be a major booster to your preparation.
Hence, put in sincere effort into this document as it would serve as a base for the MBA program.
All the best!
 Category 1: Self-assessment
This section would demand a deeper self-introspection of you. Analyse yourself as a person and try
to bring out the best in you out on paper.
Brief
1. Describe your weakness (Mention atleast 2) (Weaknesses should be written in a positive light,
preferably with remedial action. Do not try to disguise a strength as a weakness) 
OR
What would you want to change about yourself. (Since this question is phrased in relatively mild
language, it’s smart to pick a small, mild and practically insignificant weakness that leads to
showcasing one of your strengths)
OR
Give reasons why we should not hire you (Outline genuine weaknesses that would not significantly
impact your performance at work. However, refrain from using vulnerabilities guised as strengths to
answer this question.)

2. What are the three most important values that guide your thoughts and actions?

Comprehensive 
3. What are your strengths (Mention atleast 3) and cite situations to exemplify each. (Note: It is
expected that strengths are substantiated by examples and must have helped you in the past.)

4. What are your hobbies or interests and extra-curricular activities you engage in? How do you pursue
them during your busy schedules? (Prepare a detailed answer for at least one activity, interviewer
generally picks one hobby and delves deep in it)

OR
How did you spend your time during the lockdown. Did you pick up any new hobby? (Whatever
hobby you choose to discuss, know about it in detail)
5. What do you think is your most significant achievement till date? Justify with reasons as to why you
think this is your most significant achievement. (Focus on the justification part as the interviewer
concerned about knowing your strengths/traits you displayed while achieving this and why it was so
important for you)
OR
What was the most challenging thing that you have ever done? What do you believe were the
reasons you attribute towards the achievement of this task?

Category 2: Situational/behavioural
Situational interview questions/ hypothetical interview questions/ behavioural questions ask you to
put yourself into a speculative situation and explain what action you would take. These help the
interviewer judge your traits, thought-process, and rationale better through real-life situations. Try
to answer with actual happenings of your life rather than citing an imaginative and (or) idealistic
case that has not happened.
Try using the STAR framework; it is most apt for this category of questions.
Brief
6. Describe an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it.
(Try to highlight the challenges you may have faced, explain why it was difficult and share how you
overcame them)
OR
Describe the most significant risk you have taken so far in your life.
OR
Explain a situation where you took a risk and failed. What did you learn? What would you do
differently?

7. Describe (up to) two incidents that have had a deep impact on your life and brought about a
significant change in you? (Hint: Try to highlight your learnings or managerial traits learned even if
your answer involves a personal story.)

8. What is your biggest failure till date? (Try to justify why you consider it to be a failure and what were
your learnings from the event. Please also state actions you have undertaken post the event to
improve yourself or ensure it does not happen again.)

9. Explain a situation where you had to sacrifice the short term goals for long term benefits. (Explain
your deductions/ conviction about the long term gain and why you considered it to be more crucial.)
10. Have you ever demonstrated this ability to propose an innovative solution to a complicated
situation?
OR
Describe an incident where you suggested an out-of-the-box solution and were appreciated for the
results.

Comprehensive
11. Illustrate your ability to build and maintain collaborative relationships (with an example) between
you and the people with whom you have to deal with. What type of team members do you dislike
working with?  (Hint: While describing the team members, you need to highlight your thought
process, which leads to the dislike. Also, try to give a work-around, mention how would you keep up
with these members. Highlight the ultimate objective or guiding principle behind your efforts. State
the difficulties you faced during the process if any and how you overcame them and finally used your
team's ability to get the best results)

12. Explain a situation where you took up something beyond your primary area of responsibility.

Or
Describe a situation when you took up an initiative and discuss about what motivated you to take
that initiative (Recollect cases that may have occurred in your workplace or when you handled a
Position of Responsibility in your school/ college. Justify why it mattered to you to go beyond the
regular course of action.)
OR
Have you founded any start-up/NGO. Discuss your future plans for the start-up and your learning
from the experience?

13. Describe a situation where you convinced people to implement your idea(s). Explain how you tried
to change another person’s perspective, and what strategy did you use? How did it turn out?
OR
Describe a situation in which you effectively developed a solution to a problem by combining
different perspectives or approaches. How did you drive people to adopt your view, if you had one?
OR
 Describe an incident when you ceded to your boss’ demand (or any senior team member in an
organization you have been a part of or the committee/ club you have been a part of) even if you did
not completely agree with him/ her? (Highlight your reasons for doing the same and also comment
genuinely on whether your action was motivated mostly out of respect towards a senior position.
Also understand that the ultimate autonomy lies with your boss but getting your opinions heard
without offending anyone is a skill that recruiters look for.)

14. Name one experience where you faced an issue/ glitch at the last minute and explain how you
handled it. (Answer the question in light of how you are able to handle a stressful situation- your
first impression post the incident, how you strategized your action plan, how you tackled yourself
(and the team), kept them focussed on the result and the outcome of all the efforts. If unsuccessful
due to this issue irrespective of the measures you undertook, follow a similar approach to answer,
give the details, and back-up with the learnings you had.)
OR
Describe an incident where you had to make a split-second decision (Elaborate the constraint(s) you
had-apart from time-for example safety, finance, customer experience, etc. An iterative answer as
suggested earlier, starting from initial reactions to outcome is expected here.)

15.  Describe a situation when you faced a moral conflict and had to choose between two seemingly
right alternatives. How did you resolve them, and what were the repercussions, if any?
OR
Have you ever confronted unethical behaviour and chosen not to say anything (to not rock the
boat)? How did you handle it?

16. What were the challenges faced due to virtualisation and other sudden changes caused due to the
Covid-19 Pandemic? How did you handle the situation? (Highlight challenges faced due to WFH/
Online education shift or any other challenges faced due to the pandemic. Discuss how you
overcame them highlighting a few strengths)

Category 3: MBA
You are entering into a new phase of your life with the decision to pursue MBA. You need to be clear
about the why and why-not of certain aspects and about the decisions that brought you here.
Comprehensive
17. Why did you decide to pursue an MBA after your job / after graduation? What new skills do you
intend to acquire through this course?
OR
What were the primary reasons that you would attribute to your decision to quit your last job (apart
from pursuing an MBA)?
OR 
If you are a fresher, which organization where you placed in, and what were your primary reasons
for not joining the organization (apart from pursuing an MBA)? Alternately, if you did not sit for
placements, what were your reasons for not gaining some full-time professional experience before
pursuing your MBA? (Try to avoid mentioning internships and live projects as your experience here.
Answer genuinely with whatever you seemed to decide was right for you.)      

18. What are your career goals? Please elaborate in three separate categories: Short-term (2-3 years),
Medium-term (5-10 years), Long Term (ultimate)

19. A) Which industry fascinates you the most as a career option after MBA? Why?
B)  Which domain fascinates you, and why?
(This question forms a very important part of your processes. Please note that the answer to this
question is subject to change and must be flexibly adjusted according to the situation you are in. You
must be prepared with an answer for all the domains that you will be applying for. For the purpose
of the document, select the most appropriate choice and answer. Substantiate your answer by
linking the preferred domain with your current educational qualification/work experience and skill
set that qualify you for the domain/industry)
Note: Domain refers to the different functions of a business. For example, Marketing, Finance,
Operations, IT, Consulting, HR. Refer to primers for more info about domains.
The industry is a classification that refers to groups of companies that are related based on their
primary business activities. For example, Energy, Metals/Mining, Pharmaceuticals, IT/Computer
Services, Financial Services/Banking, Electronics, Fast Moving Consumer Goods,
Media/Entertainment & Arts, etc.
20. Name a business leader you look up to and mention a few of their admirable qualities that inspire
you.
21. How will your past experience (UG/ workex background) help you in your journey during and post
MBA ( The answer should be modified to fit in as per the role offered by the company during the
 interview. Other than that talk you can also talk about how your past experience will help you in
your MBA curriculum)

Category 4: Work-ex/Graduation/Internships
Your work experience/graduation/internships will be the most talked-about events in all your
upcoming events, and it is about time that you give it a thorough analysis, look for the acquired
learnings over time, and build connections with your present.
Brief
22. Mention the traits that make you a more suitable choice as opposed to candidates who have more
considerable experience or domain knowledge. (Highlight some qualities/ skill sets that set you apart
from and compensates for your limited experience.) 

23. How do you respond to criticism in general? (Tell about a time when you responded to constructive
criticism and how you used the remarks to improve yourself.)

24. Describe a conflict (situation) at your workplace/organization/club/committee. How had you

handled the same?                                                                 
OR
What do you do if someone at your workplace/organization/club/committee is a disturbance or
cause of irritation? 
25. How well do you deal with stress and have you ever handled an extremely stressful situation in
workplace? How well did you handle it? What were your learnings?
OR
How important is work life balance to you? How will you ensure a proper work life balance is
maintained?

Comprehensive
26. Share the details of one of your key projects (challenging in nature), significant learnings from the
project, recommendations made, and recommendations accepted and implemented as well as those
not implemented. (Try to explain in as non-technical terms as possible without losing its significance.
This is to test of how you address work issues. However, instead of highlighting the issue itself, focus
on how you tackled it. Quantify the outcomes of the project, if possible ) 
27. Give details of the position you held and the responsibilities you had undertaken as part of an
organization/club/committee. What was your primary purpose behind your decision to be
associated with this entity?
OR
Briefly describe your position and nature of work in your last job. Additionally, cite your learnings
and challenges you had faced there (Focus more on personality and other soft traits in learnings over
anything very technical (state them but tone down the technical details). Try to supplement
challenges by briefly describing the problems faced and emphasizing more on the character traits-
resilience, patience, negotiation, etc- picked up as a consequence.)

28. Mention up to three things about your last workplace/organization/club/committee, which,

according to you, would constitute the ideal work environment. Also, mention up to three things
which you would like to change about your last organization. (The purpose of this question is for the
interviewer to understand your notion of the right working environment so that they can make an
informed choice on whether you would be an appropriate fit. It is better when you have prior
information about the company/ position you are interviewing for and accordingly tweak this basic
answer you will draft here.)
29. Describe a project in which you worked with data and used analytics to drive the project to the
implementation stage.