Summers Interview Questions 2004

Barclays:
1) Relating to my long term plans
Questions related to my work ex
Some technical questions about pricing of commodity derivatives (since it was mentioned in my resume)
2) Asked me about me work ex, my interests, why did I come to IIMB and why I want to join an Ibank.
3) Mainly resume based questions and situation based questions.
CitiGroup:
1)Asked about Theory of Constraints (industrial engg) asked me about Share buybacks (project). Asked how
Share buybacks better than dividends and how bond prices would move in the near future (corp fin) . Why
finance after sales?
First round was Technical so 2nd HR- What went well in the 1st round? What is a good measure of market
performance? What criterion to distinguish companies ?
some people were also asked about Derivatives, bonds and swaps so academic fundaes are important. Know
your resume and be prepared to defend everything on it.
Deutche Bank:
1)
1. A lot of techie stuff (which I had not studied), eg. Yield curves, interest rates, debt structuring,
calculus, Expansions.
2. A discussion on my internship with HLL and what it took to get a PPO from them.
3. A discussion on movies, particularly Fight Club and Office Space.
4. A discussion on why DB was better than other banks (they were alluding to GS)
5. Why I wanted to do I-banking and which role in particular.
6. A bit about IITD with Amit Bordia.
7. Which bank are you leaning towards and why? ( a tricky question to answer)
2) What defines you as a person? Why investment banking?
If your mother was really sick in India, and you had to choose between coming back or going to New York for
an important job, what would you do?
3) 1.Back Ground Questions (Economics)
2.Mathematical and Logical Puzzles
3.Financial Markets
4) NPV based questions
Brain teasers, HR questions, strong focus on finance
DPWN:
1) Tell me something about yourself?
What kind of projects have you done?
Do you have work-ex?
Ever worked in teams?
2) About my background, education and work-ex, why I switched jobs etc.; why I want to join DPWN, what I
bring to the table, what is my leadership style like; and a guesstimate problem in a role play.
Goldman Sachs:
1) Why IIT? My internship with HLL? My experience in living abroad
General awareness about exchange rates, global economy
Why investment banking (most important)
Stuff relating to cash flows, annual reports, ratios.

Be confident and sharply dressed. GS goes a lot for presentation and is not very high on techie stuff. Most
important speak with confidence and composure. Also develop points of view on global political and
economic events and air them confidently. This is very serious for them.
2) Lots of CorpFin, Macro-eco
3) Tell us something about yourself. Only resume based questions
HSBC:
1) Tell us about your debating?
Why did you not join HLL?
2) Tell me about yourself.
Why I-banking? Interests?
3) Guide us through your resume.
Would you do a racist play?
Achievements. Biggest Achievement.
Weakness
Some questions about my interest in finance.
Where will you invest money?
Some questions on oil prices.
What do you know about HSBC?
Finally, a Puzzle
4) Why HSBC? What did u like about our PPT? What did you not like?
Puzzle, Tell me about yourself, Questions on finance- due to background (forex, derivatives), Tell me about
ICICI, what you did, why you left it
5) Mostly HR, asked about resume, how will I handle stress, tell me about yourself, what do u like about
HSBC? Technical near-nil, asked any specific area you want to work in.
JPMorgan:
1) Bond Pricing
- Some theorems from 1st yr engg maths
- Credit derivatives, default swaps, options, payoff diagrams.
- One simple logical question
- Difference btw poisson and binomial
Few probability questions.
2) Some NPV calculations, questions on options, LOTS of JEE-level math, asked to sell the idea of making a
movie on veerappans life, etc.
3) In how many ways can 5 couples be seated around a round table such that one couple sits together
Taylor series
Expansion of (1+x)-n
A & B start with $100 each. If Head comes A gives B $1 else B give A $1. After 0.5 hr A has $150, B has $50.
What would the amount each have after 24 hrs?
Asked why my GPA at IT was low.
Lehman Asia:
1) First round: HR Interview. Completely resume based. So was more of a personalized interview.
Second Round:
a) First few questions about my project
b) My view on the market

c) Few questions on options and derivatives

d) Last 10 min on functions and Maths.
2) Bayes rule, Graph of ex^2, e-x^2.
Derivation of Continuous compounding
3) My interview was based solely on my resume - it went pretty much point by point and whatever doubts
Joyce had were cleared. Some key Questions.. Tell me about yourself? How is a stock valued? Why
Management after Wipro? Why I-banking ?
4) Was more of a discussion rather than an interview. Focus of discussion was my work experience and how it
is helping me in my MBA course. Talked about my academic record. Nothing technical was asked. Was more
of a personal interview. Talked about what kind of work I would like to do at Lehman.
5) About my undergrad education, major projects, etc. Then I was asked questions about options (though I
said I havent read about options anytime in my life!) how do the option prices change with change in
volatility.
This was more of a personal round, and was face to face unlike the telephonic interview in the first round.
Questions related to team skills were asked like what do I do when my team is not performing and how do I
show my thankfulness to my team members after we have completed a great job. Instance where I thought my
team did great and where it didnt.
Questions were asked in greater details about my projects and past experiences at IIT.
They also asked about my interests, on which the questions really came out from every
look and corner of their brains. They also asked me if I know the structure of an Investment Bank and where
do I see myself in that structure.
Lehman New York:
1) Telephonic Interview
How is life at IIMB?
What are your favorite subjects at IIMB?
- Make sure one of your favorite subjects is Corp Fin
Lots of questions on Capital Asset Pricing Model and one on Probability
Video Conference
Completely a fit interview, Lots of HR questions, A puzzle in the middle. Just have to keep your cool.
2) Academic: CAPM, Economics-supply & demand of housing
Non-academic: Why I-banking? Give me 3 extra curricular interests beyond CV
3) How is life at IIMB? How was life at IITD?
Shape of indifference curves (I had mentioned about the courses on Macro/Micro Economics that I had
enrolled for while in IIT).
Why is IC convex in shape? Budget line, IC for perfect substitutes, slope of the IC for perfect substitutes etc