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CAP Interview Experience
April 27 2024

The CAP (Common Admission Process) interview is conducted for admission to the Post Graduate Programmes in Management (PGP) offered jointly by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other prestigious management institutes in India. While I can't provide a specific interview experience for CAP as it varies from year to year and from candidate to candidate, I can offer some insights into what to expect and how to prepare:

  1. Format: The CAP interview process typically involves a panel of interviewers who assess candidates based on their academic background, work experience (if any), extracurricular activities, general awareness, and suitability for the PGP programme.

  2. Content: The interviewers may ask a wide range of questions to assess your suitability for the programme. These questions may include:

    • Academic background: Questions related to your academic achievements, projects, and areas of interest.
    • Work experience: If you have work experience, expect questions about your role, responsibilities, achievements, challenges faced, and how your experience relates to your future goals.
    • Personal traits: Questions to assess your leadership potential, teamwork skills, problem-solving abilities, and ethical values.
    • Current affairs: Stay updated with current events, especially in the fields of business, economics, politics, and social issues, as you may be asked to discuss recent developments or their implications.
    • Goals and aspirations: Be prepared to articulate your short-term and long-term career goals, why you want to pursue an MBA, and how the programme aligns with your aspirations.
  3. Preparation:

    • Review your application: Familiarize yourself with your resume, essays, and application materials to ensure consistency in your responses.
    • Mock interviews: Practice mock interviews with peers, mentors, or professional coaches to simulate the interview experience and receive constructive feedback.
    • Self-reflection: Reflect on your strengths, weaknesses, achievements, challenges faced, and lessons learned from past experiences to articulate compelling responses.
    • Stay updated: Read newspapers, business magazines, and online publications to stay informed about current affairs and trending topics.
    • Research the institutes: Familiarize yourself with the programmes, faculty, campus culture, and values of the participating institutes to demonstrate your genuine interest and fit.
  4. Etiquette: Dress professionally, arrive on time, greet the interviewers courteously, maintain eye contact, and exhibit confidence and enthusiasm throughout the interview.

Remember, the CAP interview is an opportunity for you to showcase your personality, accomplishments, and potential to excel in the PGP programme. Approach the interview with confidence, preparation, and a positive attitude, and you'll be well-positioned to make a strong impression on the interview panel.

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In this article, we delve into the firsthand experiences of individuals who've navigated the CAP interview gauntlet, offering invaluable insights into preparation strategies, challenges faced, and the keys to success in securing coveted roles within the consulting industry.

Read more about IIM Personal interviews

 

IIM CAP Interview Transcript

9/9/8 - OBC EM 98.82 percentile, 18 months of work experience

2 Male panelists

M1: What is the meaning of your name?

M1: what are the disadvantages of the sun, do you have them too(follow-up to Q1)

M1: You already have a well-paid job why do you want to come here, quoting the dipping placement this year?

M1: What is the functional role of a Product Manager and how does it vary with the scale of an organization?

M2: So, you are a software developer and India is a leader in software exports, what is 1 disadvantage of this to the Indian public?

M2: The Indian government is taking up initiatives to keep the flow of the service sector to Indian consumers (favoring more Indian projects), what suggestions will you give to the government?

M2:  define REST API and explain its working in layman’s terms.

M1: Name any 5 businesswomen of India

CAP Interview Experience

21 February (Afternoon slot)

BCom (p) student

Work experience 1.5 yrs. (Amar Ujala) 

2 panelists

1M 1F (both in their mid 30's)

I said good afternoon and was nervous. 

They jumped right into Tell me about your work experience, like what was my job role.

Gave my prepared answer.

Asked about my Cat percentile. 

Asked about other calls that I have. 

Asked me about my preferences if I am converting all the calls and why. 

Asked me about social media marketing as I was involved in my job for the same. 

Asked about my command of the English language the same questions for Quants. 

Female panelist started asking after that. 

She asked me about the basic principles of finance. 

Asked about human resource management. 

Then asked about standard deviation and coefficient of variation diff (which I could not recall) 

Then she asked me who was going to get the Bharat Ratna for this year 2024.

Then they asked me about the recent Farmer's protest and why is it happening again and about MSP. 

She asked about gallantry awards and who got them recently. 

She saw my room and started asking about my genre of music. 

My favorite singers?

Cap Interview Experience

BCom

1 year of work experience

Both panelist (Male 30-40)

P1 - In which subject did you have done your graduation? 

P1 - What is demand?

P1 - If you must give investment advice to a layman, what would it be?

P1 - What does your name mean?

Me - A skillful person.

P1 - Are you a skillful person?

Me - Yes sir I feel I am.

P1 - How would you rate yourself in management?

Me - 9

P1 - why 9?

Me - I feel there is always some scope for improvement.

P1 - Then why do you want to do an MBA?

Me - (Gave my well-prepared answer for why MBA but said the most relevant part only because he was looking impatient, and it felt that he would cut me off in between)

P1 - you know both of your statements are contradicting as you said you are 9 in management and you say that you want to learn business management,

Then why do you want to do an MBA if you are already a 9 on a scale of 10, just to gain that one extra point?

Me - Sir that depends on the kind of task given to me,

I rated myself 9 considering that I already possess the skills required for that task but at this point, I don't have business management skills and I want to leave and read business comprehensively.

P1 - Ok I got it.

(I feel I understood the question) 

P1 - Who is the vice president of India?

Me - Shri Jagdish Dhankhar.

P1 - Where he is from?

Me - sir I don't know about his belongings.

P1 - Where are you from?

Me - Rajasthan

P1 - Do you think he also belongs to the same state?

Me - Sir I'm not sure I can't say.

P1 - Who is the president of India?

Me - Smt. Draupadi Murmu

P1 - where does she belong to

Me - sir she was the CM of Jharkhand (said CM instead of governor) but she belongs to Odisha.

P2 - interest coverage ratio

P2 - in the cash flow statement under which activity these will be stated.

    - interest received

    - interest paid

P2 - on which basis of accounting closing stock is valued. 

P2 - Why do balance sheets always tally?

P2 – the difference between Operating leverage and financial leverage 

P2 - What is the margin of safety?

P2 - what is BEP sales?

P2 - if a company is facing losses, then what should it do to achieve BEP?

ME - I got stuck here because he started putting values in the question and we spent 3-5 min on this question.

But I could give half the correct answer.

P2 - What is the market cap of India?

P2 - no of India in M Cap

P2 - no one country based on the map. 

P2 - thank you

 


CAP Interview Experience

BBA M

8/7/8

30 months’ work experience

2 Panelist M (35), F (40)

Female-

1. TMAY

2. Do you watch movies

3. Favorite Actor

4. How do you see movie as a business

5. Why is there a discrepancy between good movie and box office

6. Difference between Oppenheimer and Barbie as movies?

7. BAFTA Awards?

8. Management lessons from Barbie?

 

Male-

1. Describe your role as an Assistant Manager of Sales

2. Tell why you had to shut down your startup

3. What is operational management

4. What is the need for operation research to grow your business

5. Tell basic steps for a marketing campaign

6. What is a customer journey map

Approx. 17 -18 minutes.

They conversational to some extent but mostly rapid fire but they gave time to speak.

CAP Interview

BAF & master’s in public relations

  • What is Public Relations?
  • What does a degree in public relations entail?
  • What is a brand? Is it a commodity?
  • Why an MBA after a Public Relations master’s?
  • Why not an MBA after a bachelors?
  • What fascinates you in PR?
  • How does it help in Brand building?
  • Do you read the news?
  • What are national and international news right now?
  • What are the farmers protesting for?
  • Do you have any extracurriculars?

Handed over to male panelist:

Is digitalization good or bad?

Are the SMS frauds the fault of the consumer or the con of digitalization itself?

What is a firewall?

What is GDP?

What is inflation?

How does inflation affect GDP?

Who regulates the stock exchange in India?

What does SEBI stand for?

Who regulates mobile operations in India? (Couldn’t answer properly)

Have you heard of TRAI? (Yes, but cannot recall the name right now)

Done

CAP Interview

Forenoon slot

B. Tech- EEE- Fresher

1 Female panelist, 1 male Panalist

1) TMAY (anything missed in your CV or u couldn't add up)

2) Youngest state of the country

3) Youngest union territory

4) Gave a Situation:

You along with your team went on a mountain trek.

The team members are:

 •old couple (experienced trekking)

•Solo traveler (never done before)

•Solo traveler 50 (experienced tracking)

•And you

Order of Que.?

Who would lead? And who will be following?

Over to Male panelist

1)Who is Pentala Hari Krishna (as I've mentioned I play chess)

2)what is the Sicilian move

3)What is your opening move

4)Difference between analog and digital electronics

5)Probability of a coin that is biased

6)While playing chess, if there is a situation, where opponents are left only with their king and you have your king, knight and your pawn is about to promote. And u have two options ( You can either choose bishop or knight) what would you choose and in which position will u checkmate that king??

7)Longest Indian River

Overall experience is good

 

CAP Interview Experience

GEM (10/6/7) 94.98%ile, 14 months’ work experience

2 panelists both male P1(late 40s), P2(late 30s)

P1

Tell me about yourself about things that are not mentioned in your resume such as what are your plans, and what motivates you in life.

Why do you want to do an MBA and what stream would you choose? 

Have you faced any hardships in your life and if yes then what was it? 

If you must complete a job and present it to a client tomorrow, you have 4 men who all are absent due to personal problems and would rather resign than come to work. In that situation what would you do? 

What are your qualities that you think would help you as an operations manager (as I mentioned operations as the stream I will choose) and give me an example from your past that shows these qualities? 

During the 14 months in an IT company in a non-managerial position did you learn anything that would help you as a manager? 

Any achievements at work? 

P2 

You have completed graduation from computer science so tell me your favorite subject. 

What is the waterfall model? 

What is the difference between waterfall and agile model? 

What is a sprint in the agile model? 

What kind of current affairs news do you follow?

I said sports and politics.

Who won the Australian Open?

I answered Djokovic in panic but also said I only follow cricket and football. 

Who is the ranked football team in the recently released ranking? 

Who is the captain of the Argentina football team? 

That's all from us you can leave the meeting.

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Author
Anisha Mukhija

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