ISI Interview Tips

Dwija Prasad De
May 2013

1 Personal Question
1. What was your board score?

2. Any mathematical achievements?

3. Have you appeared for JEE Mains?
4. Have you applied to CMI?

5. Why is B-Stat/B-Math your first preference?

6. Which question did you do wrong in the subjective? (Note that they will
have your answer script in front of them)
7. What is your favorite branch of mathematics?

2 Subject-Based Questions
• Algebra
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1. Solve cos x + sec x = x2013 + x2013
√
q p
2. Find all polynomials with rational roots with 2+ 3 + 3 4 as a
root
3. Find all differentiable functions f : R → R satisfying f (xy) = f (x) +
f (y)
4. Let f (x) = (x − a1 )(x − a2 )...(x − a2n ). Is (f (x))2 + 1 reducible?

• Calculus

1. Find the number of solutions of ex = xn

2. What is the volume of rotation below the x-axis of the parabola
y = 4 − 6x − x2
 
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3. Sketch the graph of y = sin |x|

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 p
4. x1 = 12 ; xn+1 = (1 − xn ), n ≥ 1 . Find limn→∞ xn .
5. Suppose f is a continuous function on [a, ∞] and differentiable on
(a, ∞) and limx→∞ f (x) = f (a). Prove that ∃c such that f 0 (c) = 0.

• Combinatorics
1. Let there be n cubes of edge-length 1 through n respectively. They
are to be arranged in a tower such that the cube immediately above
k is at most k + 2. If T (n) be the number of different towers find a
recursion for T (n).
2. Given an 8 ∗ 8 chessboard, show that it cannot be tiled by:

3. Find the number of ways of colouring a (i) cube (ii) tetrahedron if

each face is coloured with a different colour.
4. Given 5 lattice points on the xy-plane, show that some line through
these points passes through another lattice point. Generalize 5 for
three dimensions
• Geometry
1. Let P be a point inside 4ABC such that P A = 3, P B = 4, P C = 5.
How will you find the side-length of the triangle?
2. Let Γ1 and Γ2 be two intersecting circles. Let a common tangent to
these 2 touch Γ1 at A and Γ2 at B. Show that the common chord
bisects AB(possibly when extended).
3. Consider a regular n-gon inscribed in a unit circle. What is the
product of all the diagonals of the polygon?
4. Let P be any point outside an ellipse with focus F such that P is
tangent to it at R and T . If RT meets the directrix at U find 6 SF U .
• Number Theory
1. Show that ∃n + 1 consecutive composite numbers for all n.
2. Does there exist 2 irrational numbers a and b such that bam c = bbn c
for all positive integers n ?
3. Call an integer square-full such that if a prime p|n ⇒ p2 |n . Prove
that there are infinitely many pairs of consecutive square-full num-
bers.
4. Show that gcd(2a − 1, 2b − 1) = 2gcd(a,b) − 1. Is the result true for
lcm?

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 5. S(n) is the sum of digits function. (i) Does there exist n such that
S(n) = 2012 ?
(ii) Show that S(a)S(b) ≥ S(ab)
(iii) Show that S(a + b) ≥ S(a + b)
(iv) If the digits of n are in increasing order from left to right, find
S(9n)

3 Comments
1. Be polite and answer specific to question(not what you have made up and
come)
2. Do not lie about your academic credentials(i.e answer to 1-5)

3. It is better not to include stuff like ”moderator in AoPS” in ”mathematical

achievements”, in fact do not mention AoPS at all. If at all some professor
asks what was your source for Olympiad stuff(nowadays they don’t ask
such questions but still ) say elder brother or something like that :)
4. While you are solving problems keep telling them about your progress if
even you haven’t solved the problem completely, so that they can keep
marking you and they understand there is a difference between you and a
student who couldn’t do anything.
5. Keep your ears open; hints may flow in. It is essential to use the hints they
give. They will give more marks if you solve a easier unknown problem
with hints rather than a tougher, known problem instantly. (Also, if a
problem happens to be known to you, you may bluff that you are thinking
so that they think you solved it on spot :))
6. Special note for geometry-lovers: please brush up your coordinate geom-
etry and complex numbers

7. If they do not ask you what is your favorite topic and start asking questions
straightaway which you cannot answer, do not get tensed. You probably
scored very high in Subjective and they are just checking if you are really
good at everything
8. General tip true for all interviews you’ll ever give: Don’t carry the suc-
cess/fail (the latter more importantly) of the preceding question to next
question. Keep your calm. They are not there to scare in fact just the
opposite. Also, do not try too hard to find what they asked whom; there
is few/no chance of repetition.
9. Avoid using very non-trivial theorems.

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4 Further Preparation
• Firstly, if you are confident, NO NEED FOR FURTHER PREPARATION
• Know the proofs of theorems. Suddenly in the middle of the explanation
of a problem, a professor may ask the proof of the result you are using
• Go through Excursion in Mathematics, Problem Solving Strategies, pre-
vious year question-papers of ISI Entrance and RMO

• Know graph sketching well. They may ask you to sketch a graph of some-
thing, a problem now only reserved for interviews rather than Subjective
Papers