Placement Papers - Mu Sigma

Hi guys, my name is Soham and I appeared for the Mu sigma Campus placement drive.

Here are the steps which I had to go through:

1) Online Aptitude Test [344 students appeared].
- Conducted by CoCubes.
- Have to answer 15 questions in 25 minutes.
- Here are some of the questions I faced (Disclaimer: the questions may not be exact but they will give you a fair idea about what to expect).

A) How many numbers greater than 5000 can be formed with the numbers 5, 6, 7, 8 without any digit being repeated?

B) A number given by p. Y^3+3. Y^2+8. Y+q (I don't exactly remember the expression but it was something like this) is exactly divisible by (y+2) and (y-2), then find the value of (p+q).

C) A bar graph was given
I) How many companies had a decline in production in the year 1998-1999?
II) What was the percentage increase of production of company X from the year 1996 to 2000?

D) A diagram of a paper was given and then it was folded and cut (everything shown diagrammatically) and you had to tick the correct final pattern. (two questions from here).

E) A train travelled with 25% more speed in the forward journey than the return journey between two stations. In between it took a break of 1 hour. The distance between the two stations is 800 km and the entire journey took 17 hours. Find the average speed of the train.

Like this, a few more questions were there. The questions were solely from quantitative, Logical reasoning, and Data Interpretation; no verbal ability questions were asked. This is quite unlike the tests of other companies where they definitely ask questions from verbal ability.

2) Coding and Case Study [166 students were selected from the aptitude test].
- Each one of us was handed a worksheet.
- The first part had a "pseudo-code" (for those who do not know what a pseudo-code is, it is a program written in ordinary English language. Please GOOGLE for further information on pseudo-code).
- We had to write the output of the pseudo-code and write the output after a slight modification was made to the program (the instructions will be clearly written on the paper, don't worry!).
- We were given 30 minutes for the pseudo-code.
- My code was about updating the mark sheet of the students in a class and computing their maximum score. (Any person with a decent knowledge of any sort of programming will get through. The program was an easy one but written complexly in order to confuse the student. My advice is to read through the code for the first 15 minutes carefully and then start attempting the questions. ).
- After the 30 minutes were over we were told to flip to the side of the sheet where the cast study was given.

The case study was as follows, "A certain router company has the following list of information:
1) Data flow rate.
2) Subscriber identity.
3) Website information being accessed.
4) Time at which data is being exchanged.
5) Amount of data being exchanged".

Questions:
1) With the information given frame 5 questions which can be answered.
{Note: Since Mu Sigma is a data analytics company they are interested in data. So your questions can be like - Which subscriber has the maximum amount of data exchanged at a particular time of day? Which website is being accessed most frequently in the afternoon? }

2) Add any 3 more information which according to you will help the router administrator to get more in-depth into the process.

3) Now frame 3 more questions with the additional data you provided. [you can combine your data with their data to frame the next set of questions].
- We were given 15 minutes for this. In the end, they told us to break and met them again after 1.5 hours.

4) Video synthesis and Group discussion [ 70 students were selected from the previous round. Then these 70 students were divided into 10 groups of 7 students each].
- Now comes the infamous Video Synthesis round of Mu Sigma. True to the rumours it is the most unpredictable round of the process.
- Here a video will be shown (for my group we were shown a video of Mu Sigma's founder Dhiraj giving a lecture on problems and solutions).
- After the video was shown we were told to synthesise the video. (for those who don't know what a video synthesis is, it is not CONCLUDING but jotting the the points which you perceived as important after seeing the video. Please go through the internet for more information on video synthesis).
- We were given 5 minutes to jot down the points. (Note that before showing the video they will hand everyone a sheet of paper. My advice is to continuously jot down the important moments of the video while watching. This will help you to complete your synthesis on time. ).
- Then after the video synthesis was over we were given a topic to discuss. (for us it was "Do you believe that LEARNING is more important than KNOWING". Please note that the topic of the GD will be something picked up from the video shown, so it is absolutely important that you observe the video carefully. Our topic was chosen like this because in the video Dhiraj has said that he believes that learning is more important than knowing).
- There is no fixed time allotted for GD and ours continued for a very long time. (Please brush up on GD etiquette for better performance).

Note that a GD is very unpredictable. It depends on the people in your group, the mentality of the moderator, the topic and so on. Your best chance of doing well is to be very conversant in English, not be afraid of public speaking and to practice becoming a quick thinker. These three qualities are very important. Also remain calm throughout the process and don't let any member get on your nerves. After the GD there were some groups which had none of their members selected while some other groups had 90% of their members selected. But mostly they selected 3 from each group. So be very careful about the performance of the group as a whole.

5) Personal Interview [ 28 students were selected from the previous round].
- Out of the selected 28 students many had to go for 2 rounds of interviews while others had only one round. (Note: the number of rounds on interviews conducted does in no way determine your chances of being selected).
- I had to go for two rounds of interviews. My experience was as follows:

1st interview:
He: So, Soham man, how are you doing? Have a seat, please.
Me: Fine sir. Thank you.

He: So man tell me about yourself.
Me: Sir, my name is Soham and I went to.

He: Soham, what does your name mean?
Me: Sir, it means "I am the one".

He: Really?
Me: Yes, sir. It is a Sanskrit word and was frequently used by Swami Vivekananda.

He: God, you do the "Art of living" thing?
Me: Yes, sir. (I lied).

He: Well good good. Tell me Soham, why MU Sigma?
Me: Sir because I admire the company.

He: Really? How many other placements have you sat for?
Me: One sir, Deloitte. I was rejected after my interviews.

He: So you don't admire Deloitte?
Me: Yes, sir I admire both Deloitte and Mu-sigma.

He: Then Why Mu-sigma?
Me: Because Deloitte didn't take me and you guys might.

He (laughs): Okay. So suppose you work as a team leader in Mu Sigma and you have trained your team so well that they do the job without you. How would you feel?
Me: I would feel redundant sir and I would never let that happen.

He: Soham, I was this close to offering you the job but you gave up.
Me: what, sir?

He: You see in a company like ours. (then he went on about how we have to do many things at once and thus redundancy is a good concept and so on and so forth and continuously nodded in agreement). So you get what I am saying?
Me: Yes sir absolutely.

He: Good, so I hope to see you in the next round. It was a pleasure Soham.
Me: Thank you sir. It was indeed a pleasure likewise.
(In between he had asked something about my work and my grades being too high, but they were routine questions, nothing to be worried about).

2nd Interview:
He (this guy was a senior personnel): Soham, have a seat and take this chocolate. (offers me a chocolate).
Me: Thank you, sir.

He: So Soham tell me about yourself.
Me: sir, my name is Soham and I was born in Kolkata. My father is a businessman and so on.

He: Your father is a businessman?
Me: Yes sir.

He: What does he do?
Me: Sir he supplies finished footwear products to a brand called Sreeleathers. They don't have vertical integration backwards and hence they purchase form individual suppliers and sell them at a higher price.

He: They take from anyone?
Me: No sir, they set a certain quality standard that a supplier must pass in order to be able to do business with them.

He: So, suppose you are working for Mu Sigma and your father hires you what are the ready data that is available to you for analysis?
Me: (foolish answer).

He: No, no there are many more data that I can see which are ripe for analysis.
Me: (another foolish answer).

He: Alright. Now tell me how do you plug the inefficiencies with the data collected?
Me: (some more shitty answers).

He: No. I was more interested in internal inefficiencies.
Me: (stay silent).

He: (he carefully scans through my resume). Okay, Soham so do you have any questions for us?
Me: Sir, what are the opportunities for a fresher in your company?

He: But, I already answered that question in the presentation.
Me: Yes sir. Sir well do you think the Westerners have a positive approach towards Indian companies since I think they are biased?

He: Who told you that Soham? That's a completely wrong idea you have.
Me: (visibly perspiring by now) Sir, why does the developed nations will come to an Indian institution to do their work?

He: I think Soham that they don't have a choice. We are the pioneers of data analysis and are work quality is really good.
Me: Thank you, sir.
He: Thank you Soham.

So I left the room and after 15 minutes they declared that I was selected. Out of the 28 who were for the interviews they took about 23-24.

Anyway, so that was my experience. Thank you and best of luck.