Ingredients of finance

interviews

HR
Finance Concepts
Puzzles
Stress test & attitude questions

Puzzles
Logical puzzles eg. Why are manhole covers round? How many
matches in a 128 player knockout tournament?
Guesstimates Understand the case -> consider various approaches
-> break it down into smaller pieces -> Make reasonable estimates.
One can use a top-down approach to break up the problem, and
then work your way upwards with the calculations. Make
approximations to help calculations. Ask questions in case you need
specific data
- eg. No of ping pong balls that can fit inside the fuselage of an
airplane, number of ppl in a local train during peak hours etc
Calculation based:

Contd..
Basic Probability based questions
Trick questions. Keep your cool. Dont jump
the gun on these ones. In most cases these
are elimination questions eg. you are
driving on a one-mile track. You do one lap
at 30 miles an hour. How fast do you have
to do the second lap to average 60 miles a
hour?
More involved puzzles
- Its ok if you dont get to the end of such
puzzles. Think aloud. Use pen and paper.
The interviewer may guide you to the end if
youre on the right track. Line of thought is
the key here.

Finance stuf
Equities basic concepts EPS, dividend, preferred
stock etc
Futures and Options call option, put option, swaps,
pricing of options, etc
Balance sheets & valuation should know basics..
Might help in finance cases
Interest rates, currencies & bonds bond pricing,
dependence of interest rates on currencies and vice
versa
If you have mentioned some finance course/project in
your resume, you can be sure that youre gonna get
grilled there.. Prepare that part well. That can make or
break your interview
Brush up hss 101. Might help.

Misc things you should

know
Your resume
Finance jargon you dont want to be
talking about something else!
Sensex levels, interest & currency rates,
oil prices etc.. A general idea on whats
happening in the financial world.
MA 10x and 20x courses, probability.
They might ask you algebra/stochastic
calculus for a quant profile
Some companies might ask you to
design algorithms too. Get hold of CSE
folks!

Useful resources
www.investopedia.com for finance basics.
Good for beginners. Use the beginners
tutorials on equities, options, interest rates &
currencies, inflation etc ..
Vault guides on finance interviews general
prep really useful for last minute brush up
Editorials ET, the economist, financial
times, bloomberg, etc
Options and derivatives John C Hull
CLR for algos, George summers for puzzles
Loads of puzzles/brainteasers etc are
available on the net