overview of my technical skills and professional experience in this interview

tell me a time when

1. you called on an expert for their expertise
2. successfully avoided an obstacle to deliver a project on time
3. learnt something new to accomplish a project
4. had to turn a general goal to a realistic plan
5. responsible for implementing a new project/process. better use an example that involved someone
else
6. had to take significant risk to sell an idea when others did not see the potential of the idea

Case questions are(the notes are not allowed to be taken out, but ok if by memory):
1. Capital One is working with a department store on a credit card. Initial opening bonus paid to
store, interest cost, annual fee etc. are given on a piece of paper. You'll need to calc the profit. And
it's not profitable. So what's the BEP of opening bonus? What if we want to have a progressive
opening bonus based on accounts opened? What's the curve of profit against accounts opened?
Where's the highest point and how much?
2. You are CEO of a satellite TV company by the time when it's unpopular. What's the advantage and
risk for this situation? Then you're given estimated revenue and cost(variable and fixed). Calc
profitability. There are 2 ways to increase profit, 1 is to offer more free months and attract more
customer, 1 is to reduce fixed cost but might reduce customer. Which is optimal? Where does the
reduced customer and original proposal breakeven?
Then when they decided to give you an offer, you'll be arranged to be called by the director of the
department you'll be assigned to

Case1: I'm assuming that the situation is Capital One is launching a credit card with the
department store. I'm assuming (I rephrased the questions) given data the questions
are to 1) What is the profit for Capital One; 2) What is the break even point?; 3) What
will be the impact of progressive opening bonus based on accounts opened?; 4) How
does the profit curve look like?; 5) What is the maximum number of accounts and price?
My Answer: Hmm... These are interesting questions. Since I don't really know the
business structure of credit cards and department stores is I would first ask what the
nature of the business is and also to ask definitions to terminology that might be alien

to me. For example I would ask what is the opening bonus is. Is the interest cost cost to
customers or department stores or Capital One? Then once I identified the problem type
I would apply a framework. For example to answer question 1) I would apply the
profitability framework. I'm assuming linear profit function. Profit can be segmented into
total revenue and total cost. Revenue then can be segmented into revenue's per unit
and number of unit's sold. I would ask the information about the revenue's per unit and
the number of unit's sold. On the cost we can segment it into cost per unit and number
of units sold. These also can be segmented into fixed cost and variable cost. I also
would ask information about it also. Given these information it is pretty much a straight
forward elementary mathematics. The equation might have several variables depending
on what the final revenue and cost structure may be. To answer question 2) we know
the profit function from answering question 1). Thus we need to know when profit
equals zero. If the unknown is Q(=# of units) then solve for Q when profit is nil. An
algebra problem. To answer question 3) I would first question what the relationship is for
the quantity (or volume). For example for an increment in accounts opened what is the
opening bonus? Profit will vary according to this quantity. You can see that profit will
vary because the profit equation will NOT BE linear. To answer question 4) if you the
relationship of the profit curve given the answer to question 3) you will be able to draw
the profit curve on a plane. As quantity (# accounts opened) varies the profit will vary
since it is not a constant. To answer question 5) the profit function should be a quadratic
function and to take its derivative with respect to price and set it equal to zero, you
should be able to find the maximum price. Once this is found you can plug it back to the
quantity function and find the maximum quantity.
If someone finds errors in my answer please post comments.
CuriousJ on May 17, 2014

Case2: This is an interesting case. I would ask the interviewer on where to start. If the
interviewer does not provide a starting point then I would apply a general framework. In
order to answer the first question of the pros and cons (risk) of the particular situation I
would ask the interviewer questions on why this situation occurred and whether find out
whether this situation is firm specific or industry wide. In particular, who is the
customer? I want to find the segment size, growth rates and market share for different
types of customers. I also would ask information about the current year to historical
numbers regarding customer segment size, growth rates and market share in order to

identify demand trends. Other questions would be the needs of the each customer
segments, price they are willing to pay etc. I would like at the company and its
capabilities, cost structure and so forth. Hopefully by identifying key trends we are able
to make a score card, then count the pros and cons and make a statement of whether
there are advantages and what are the caveats. Calculating the profitability I would use
the profitability framework where profit = total revenue - total cost and break down the
segments there and ask information regarding to the each revenue/cost segments.
Once those are known calculating profit is straight forward. For the next question, I
would evaluate each options separately. Offering free months to increase quantity
demand paribus ceteris will have effects to the profit function. Then find the maximum
profit. I would also do the same analysis for option number 2. If maximum profit for
option1 is greater than option2 then assuming the CEO is rational option1 would be
better way to increase profit and vice versa. For the last question, I'm not sure what the
original proposal is but assuming that we are conducting a break even point analysis
regarding option1 and option2 we may look at this as a system of equations. Set
option1 profit equation to nil and likewise to option2 profit function. Since both
equations are equal to zero the equations are equal to each other. Then we can solve for
the unknown variable, quantity, that would satisfy both equations. This is the point
where both curves cross.

One case interview was about a call center. they showed you a table about how many minutes per
call they got for customer service from Monday to Sunday and how many calls they got each day.
asked about the average minutes per call. then they told you there are two types of calls: one type is
the representative can solve immediately, the other type is the call has to be transferred to another
person. they told you the percentage of each type and the cost of each call per minute. they told you
type ii is more expensive because it takes longer time. now they want to cut costs by $1 million. how
much is the percentage of type ii calls should be.
second case interview was about atm. they want you to know how atms make profit. by charging
customers from other banks. two types of atms again. one they put at their branches. other they put
elsewhere. they told you the costs of two types. type ii is more expensive to operate but can make
profit. they want you to calculate break even points. then ask you to draw a plot. don't remember
details.
Expect questions on break-even and weighted average questions in case interviews.
Behavioral questions were pretty simple.

Interview Questions

Call center Handling time.

1. Calculate average handling time
2. How much should transfer rate decrease to save $1 Million.
3. Strategy to reach the target
1. 1 case interview was based on basic profit equation. profits= revenues- costs. case was based on
credit card scenario. credit card user population is divided in to two groups. for group 1 I was given
all numbers and asked to calculate profit per year. For the second part i was asked to calculate the
how much a different group has to spend to generate the same amount of profit. we need to make
some assumptions here. I made some mistakes and the interviewer help me thru the case.
2. second case was interview was based on a campaign and calculating the benefits of campaign.
Interviewer asked me how I would calculate the profits related to campaign. he was expecting an
answer like " I would have a target and control group and based on the difference in the increase in
revenue before and after the campaign I can tell what % of the increase in revenue is due to the
campaign". something like that.
my second case interview where I has to calculate the
increase in revenue from campaign run a target and control groups and calculate the difference
-----

Most challenging moment while working

what type of job/work you would enjoy best.

if you will be able to see if the company making profit for loss, percentage , graphical representation
of data. Simple maths but I would suggest you should revise the formula's for Profit/ Loss and Break
Even Analysis,
Questions

Evaluate the value of a shipping business based on variable costs.

question about loan default
all about credit cards

All 3 case interviews were about CC - was given credit limit, annual APR, avg monthly balance,
processing fee, operational cost etc and was asked to find break even point and a bunch of other
info.
One of them was to find the amount of money the bank must have with them to fund a customer's
CC whose avg balance is 'X' dollars. Since the cust pays at the end of 2nd month only for the
previous month;s expense, on avg, the bank would need 1.5X on average to fund it (The interviewer
helped me on this as I found it hard to come up with this answer). apart from that everything else
was fine. And do take proper notes on the case questions- they asked me to summarize the bss
problem and my answers at the end.
Break even for insurance offering.
Describe your prior work experience and the data analysis part of it
"describe how you learned sth new" and "describe how you set up a goal and achieve it". The case
studies were about credit card profit and loss insurance. They were straightforward as long as you
are clear on how to match numbers with cost and revenue. Overall it was an interesting experience.

case study: credit card insurance profit per customer

cost of mailing $0.5, response rate 1%, average balance per month $1000,
insurance charges 1% of average balance monthly, customer claim rate 5%
(once insured customer files a claim, the balance will be wiped and C1
lose $1000).
Question: profit per customer, graph claim rate vs response rate, graph profit vs
response rate and find the response rate for maximum profit (r=1%)

this case is so common that I've seen it more than 4 times on Glassdoor. Aspirant you are wrong
because premiums are paid monthly, while loss is assumed yearly. This has already been a "must
case" for analysts interviews. If you are tested on this at year of 2013, 2014 and have no idea how to
solve it, shame on you.

btw, there is no enough info to determine response rate vs claim rate here. they
appears independently in the question. I guess you have to clearly ask for info here.
How do you deal with the situation when you and your manager is in conflict?
First Case was on credit cards, the common on found on glassdoor.
I blew up the second case, so will try to re-create as much as possible. Cap One wants to run a
campaign for 4 months, what will be profit before and after. How can you determine if the profit is
because of the campaign. Internal team came up with some numbers : 8$ profit per person before 4
months and 9 $ after, and my original calculations were 10$ profit before and 12$ after..so basically
calculate relative profit.. basic concept was incremental profit..so read up on that

case interview was about the decision process for accepting or declining a given credit
card transaction

Talk about your favorite project. why favorite?

Tell one of the most complex issues you have solved in your previous
work Answer Question

Tell one time that you have to deal with a difficult client, colleague, or
supervisor
from resume so be sure to be familiar with your resumes.R

how to do data cleaning/ do you have any questions for us

what is the largest expense for a bank.
a satellite radio company in 2002, who wanted to start the business as a subscription base to the
users. I was asked what's the point to make it profitable, do some simple calculations on whether it is
profitable, and if the lifetime subscription could be profitable over it.
Given a scenario where Capital One pairs with company XYZ and offers a company credit card
through them, what is the break even point when the interchange rate is X%
Name a time when you had to learn a new skill to complete a task