My IIM Interview Experience

X: Hi come on, have a seat.
me: Thank you Sir.
Y: SO are you from Bombay or Jharkhand?
me: Sir, I am from Jharkhand currently based in Bombay.
Y: Oh nice, Ranchi is a beautiful place. Been to Ranchi?
me: Yes Sir it is.
X: So you are a Jha from Jharkhand?
me: Yes Sir.
X: So you guys so big in Jharkhand, that they name the whole state after you?
(laughter all around)
Me: Not exactly Sir. Jharkhand means the land of forests, it has nothing to do with us 'Jhas'.
X: Is it? I thought it was the land of Jhas. So you are not a Jha because you are from Jharkhand?
Me: No Sir. I was a Jha even before Jharkhand was called Jharkhand. 
(laughter all around)
X: Man, I am confused now.Jha not from Jharkhand, Jharkhand not from Jha.So where are Jhas from?
Me: Sir Mithila.
X: Any famous person from Mithila?
Me: Sir, Goddess Sita. She was called Maithili as she was the princess of Mithila.
X: She is from mythology. Any other?
Me: Sir, Prakash Jha, Udit Narayan.
X: They are from bollywood. Any other?
Me: Sir, Jagannath Mishra. He was the CM of Bihar who built the famous Mahatma Gandhi Setu on the Ganga River near Patna.
X: Nice, any more?
Me: Sir, Lalit Narayan Mishra. he was the railway minister of India in 1970s. He was killed in a bomb blast when inaugurating a railway station in Bihar.
X: Can you name the station where the bomb blast happened?
Me: I am not sure, but I can take a guess if you allow me.
X: Hmmm, ok take a guess.
Me: Samastipur?
X: That's right. How did you guess that?
Me: Samastipur is one of the largest stations in North Bihar. And railway penetration in 70s was very less in Bihar. So I guessed it.
X: You guessed it or you knew it?
Me: Sir, I was confused between Hajipur and Samastipur. I guessed Samastipur.
X: Ok. Any more?
Me: Pardon me Sir.
X: Any more famous people from Mithila?
Me: Sir, I do not remember the full name but Prof D N Jha from DU is quite famous.
X: Is he famous or controversial?
Me: I think famous as well as controversial.
X: What is the controversy surrounding him?
Me: Sir, I don't remember what controversy it was exactly.
X: Do you know what he teaches?
Me: Sir, he teaches History. Rather he was the head of the history department of DU.
X: Nice, so you know about him. How do you know about him?
Me: Sir I had a discussion about his book with my brother-in-law in 2001. My brother in law also teaches history in DU colleges.
X: So you remember everything discussed in 2001? Sharp memory you got.
Me: Thank You sir. But it will be wrong to say that I remember everything. If I did, I would remember the controversy as well.
(laughter all around)
X: Ok. Now we will ask something else where you do not need your memory.
(laughter all around)
Me: Ok Sir 
X: Prof D N Jha was recently involved in a vey famous case. Can you guess which case?
Me: Sir, I am not sure. I can take a guess.
X: I asked you to guess only. Do it.
Me: Babri Masjid case in the Allahabad High court.
X: Impressive, how did you guess that?
Me: I could only think of one famous case where opinions of historians was needed.
X: Right. He was one of the four independent historians consulted by the High Court.
Me: Right Sir.
X: What do you want us to ask you?
Me: Sir anything.
X: You think you can answer everything?
Me: No Sir. I meant it is difficult for me to choose.
X: So you don't know what you know?
Me: No Sir. I am very sure what I know and what I don't know.
X: Ok tell me what should we ask you then?
Me: Maths.
X: No. We have given you the rubiks cube to test that.
(laughter all around)
ME: books, football maybe.
X: Ok we will ask about both of them. You are free right?
Me: Excuse me Sir?
X: I mean you are not getting delayed or something. You don't have any appointment or anything?
Me: No Sir, I am totally free. No appointments for today.
(laughter all around)
X: Good.
The interview continued towards books, football and general HR questions.
Y and Z didn't ask anything. X was the one who asked everything.

IIM K Interview Experience

Date 27 FEb
Venue IMI New Delhi

Cat percentile 99.97

We were 8 students in our panel and 2 were absent.

GD: It was a case study about how students used to pay their teachers and how that should be the case today with students deciding the salary of professors so that they teach relevant stuff.
Decent GD. No fish market as was warned of. Entered 4-5 times with examples. would rate 7/10

Interview
My panel gave 30 minutes to each student and asked acads and maths mainly.

P1: Young prof to my left
P2: Old prof to my right.
M: me

P1 called me in
Good afternoon and stuff, they asked me to sit. Thanks and proceed

P1: Asks about my poor engg score.
M: Didn't study for various reasons

P1: What should I ask you from elec engg?
M: Not a big fan of it, you may ask maths

P2: Ok, we will ask maths as well
P1: But, why nothing from elec..
M: keep quiet

P2 takes over
P2: There is a cat like test, with 25 questions and 5 options for every question. If the marking is same as cat. Suppose a student guesses all the answers, find the probability that he gets 20 correct and 5 wrong
M: Sir, the probability of getting one answer right is 1/5 and hence wrong is 4/5, thus by using bernoulli's equation we get 25c20(1/5)^20 (4/5) ^5

P2: Good, Can you give me an estimate of this number?
M: you need an appox value?

P2: Yeah
M: if we multiply num and den by 2^25, then deno becomes 10^25 and numerator 2^x
we can write 2^10=10^3 and hence proceed.. similarly for the 25c20 term we can approx all terms as 20 and proceed.. I found a value..

P2: Thats right! Can you do it using poisson's?
M: Sir, I know poissons but I am not sure how to do it here..
Some discussion about poission goes on.

P2: If we continue with the last question, what is the average score of a person?
M: IS there negative marking?

P2: yeah, its cat like exam
M: 0 will be the answer.. 4(1/5) -1(4/5)=0
This is the reason why cat has this marking scheme!

P2: I know why cat has! its not necessarily for that reason.
P2: Plot the graph of x+sinx
M: plot it with some help

P2: can it be decreasing?
M: No sir, thats an approx plot
I show him using derivatives it can't be decreasing at any point

P2: define e
M: lt n->inf (1+1/n)^n

P2: Is e rational or irrational
M: its irrational

P2: Prove that 2<e<3
M: prove it using binomial expansion

P2: Ok this is your final question?
P2: There are 10 diff books and 3 boys, find the number of ways that each oen gets atleast one.
M: Find the number, he keeps helping as I was determined to show the process of arriving at answers..

P2: good. You have good aptitude, but you must prepare as well. Engineering scores will not be required in management but one must try to do well.

M: I will try my best, Sir!
P2: Ok then!
I was about to stand

P1: What is electromechanical enrgy conversion? How does a motor do that?
M: told

P1: Can there be a 5 pole motor?
M: No ( biggest goof up )

P1: WHy?
M: Magnetic poles appear in pairs..

P1: Ok what do u blog about ( blogging is my hobby, my blog has ben ranked among top 100 wordpress blogs)
M: I have 2 blogs, one is general other is maths

P1: Why this obsession with maths?
M: I enjoy it !

P1: Tell me other platforms of blogging
M: Blogger and wordpress are the ones i use..

P1: Any other?
M: Sir, others generally use these two .. but there may be other platforms. These two are the most popular.

P1: Why is it called a blog?
M: Did not answer this

P1: That will be all
P2: You can leave
M: Thank you sir!

All in all it lasted around 30 mins.. P1 was not very happy with my acads.. He was using his laptop all the while P2 was asking me maths questions