IIM INDORE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Name: Sagnik Sarkar

Date: 22 February, 2023

Venue: ITC SONAR, Kolkata

I entered the venue at 8 AM sharp, which was also my reporting time. I was carrying this huge
black office file (not the transparent ones) that had all my academic transcripts as well as proof
of every single thing I had mentioned in my profile (competitions won, positions of responsibility
held etc. Even screenshots and pictures act as proof points, just make sure you have something
convincing for the panel). I was taken to a hall on the first floor with 15 odd other aspirants. We
were asked to mark our attendance and then arrange our documents in a particular order, not
doing which would result in the document verification officials yelling at us (I’m serious!).

Three major points about the document verification procedure:

1. If you are from the ICSE board, enter the aggregate percentage of ALL THE SUBJECTS
that were there in your mark sheet. No best of 5/4 funda would work here. They’ll legit
calculate the percentage on a calculator then and there and if any discrepancy is found,
your candidature may as well be canceled.
2. If you are going in with some work ex, make sure you have ALL DOCUMENTS related to
your work ex, starting from OFFER LETTERS, Letter of Intent, Salary slips and every
other possible document. You never know what exactly they might ask for!
3. If you are a fresher, even if it is not mentioned in your call letter, make sure you carry a
declaration signed by your HoD stating that you are a final year student who will
graduate this year in May/June. Without that, they might not even allow you.
At times, even with missing/erroneous documents, they allow you to sit for the interview by
signing an undertaking. Make sure you carry some passport size photos in case you need to
paste those in the undertaking.

I was put in Panel-II and I was the second last in my panel. So, I spent the next 2.5 odd hours,
timing the students who went prior to me, judging their reactions with no conclusions
whatsoever. And then, finally, my turn came. I was called in and was asked to carry my file as
well.

The setup was a conference room, where the student would be sitting at one end of a big round
table and the interviewers on the other end. They were already scrolling through something on
the computer in front of them, possibly my online profile forms that I had filled up.

My panel had 2 professors. P1 was a 45-ish male and P2 was a 40-ish male. We exchanged
usual pleasantries and began the interview.

Me: Sir, may I sit down?

P2: Yes yes of course. Areeh baithne ke liye hi toh kursi diya hai in logon ne
Me: (Smiling) Thank you, Sir.
P1: So Sagnik, why don’t you start by introducing yourself?
Me: Well-rehearsed answer, was stopped in the middle of it
P1: So Sagnik, you have done a lot, literally a lot in just four years. I’m just curious how you
could manage all these. Is it by ignoring your academics?
P2: Nahi nahi, batch topper hai yeh, cgpa bhi bariya hain (Thank God I didn’t have to answer
the question)
P2: Achcha, as I can see, you take great interest in Mathematics and statistics, should we start
with that?
Me:(Internally screaming with happiness) As you wish, Sir.
P2: So, in your ID card, I see that your PAN number is XXXXXXXXXX and it is a combination of
4 letters and 6 numbers. If I have (Puts in constraint 1) and (Puts in constraint 2) as a part of my
PAN number generating process, how many such PAN numbers are possible?
Me: (Could answer in less than a minute, panel was super impressed I could see)
P2: Okay fine, let’s say 10 such PAN numbers are generated in the name of 10 such candidates
and would reach them in 10 such numbered envelopes. In how many ways can no PAN card
placed in the envelope reach the individual bearing the same number and moreover the card
placed in envelope numbered 1 is always going to person numbered 2?
Me: (Again answers quickly, simple problem of derangement, panel is impressed yet again)
P1: Sagnik, draw a glass and a car separately, and then under the following circumstances
(States some conditions), mark the forces acting on them.
Me: Did as was told, though P1 was not satisfied. He said that my marking conventions were
wrong (I panicked, felt like my 4 years of engineering went to absolute waste)
P1: Anyways, so Sagnik you have done so many internships and won so many competitions,
we can’t talk about all those in a single sitting, why don’t you tell us your three most favorite of
them all?
Me: Talks about winning the Hero Campus Challenge, interning at PwC and completing a
project under the professors of MDI Gurgaon, in that order. I smartly selected one achievement
from each domain.
P1: Asks me the most obvious problem related to the EV and HV implementation here in India
Me: Explained the problems concerning the establishment of a chain of charging stations in
India and also concerning sufficient Lithium extraction for LIBs. Punched in the fact that huge Li
reserves were found in J&K recently.
P1: (Impressed with the answer) So what software did you use mainly, at PwC?
Me: Alteryx, Sir.
P1: Tell me 5 other softwares that you could have used for the same purpose and why did you
choose Alteryx over them.
Me: Couldn’t talk of 5 but mentioned three, P1 looked convinced.
P2: Achcha yeh jo MDI mein bibliometric analysis kiye ho, is project se tumhara key takeaways
kya hain?
Me: Starts with “Sir, I realised how important citations are….” and was stopped immediately
P2: Areeh woh toh sabko pata hai, yeh toh universal truth hain like ‘Money is important’, ‘Sun
rises in the east’. Kuch concrete batao humein.
Me: Talks about LR, SLR and clustering techniques. P2 finally convinced.
P2: Mechanical engineer ho na tum? Pump toh zarur banaya hoga workshop mein.
Me: Yes, Sir.
P2: What kind of pump did you make? Processes ke naam batao.
Me: Answered efficiently, was also cross questioned on difference between turning and milling.
P1: Okay Sagnik, before you leave, do you keep up with Current affairs?
Me: Yes Sir, I do.
P1: Great, I see you are a debater too. So in 30 seconds time, conduct a debate on the Adani
issue, speaking on Adani’s behalf for 15 seconds and on Hindenburg’s behalf for 15 seconds.
Me: Sure, Sir. (Just covered 4 key points in 15 seconds each, though they said that I missed out
on the most important point itself :’) )
P1: Okay Sagnik, I think that’s all from our end. You can leave.
P2: Any question that you have for us?
Me: *Again, well rehearsed question* (NEVER EVER SAY ‘NO’, this shows that you’ve no
research done )
P2: * Smiling and answering my question *
Me: Thank you Sir, I really look forward to meeting you both on campus, if I’m selected.
P1: Here,take a toffee before you leave. In fact, take two, because….(Stopped abruptly)..umm,
you can go now.
(I kind of knew what two toffees meant, but was trying to keep my excitement under control. I
just rushed out of the hall, ran downstairs, and gave those toffees to my parents, one to my
Mom and the other to my Dad. My Dad jokingly said “cheler jonye IIM Indore er chocolate
khawar o soubhagyo holo” )

Result: Converted