Top MBA Admission Interview Questions & Answers

The Personal Interview round is conducted by all the MBA colleges for MBA admission. All the top MBA colleges including 20 IIMS, XLRI, FMS, SPJIMR, MDI among others conduct Personal Interview (PI) round for final selection. MBAUniverse.com has prepared this article to highlight top MBA Admission Interview Questions and Answers. So, if you are preparing for MBA Admission Interview, these question and answers will be very helpful.

Importance of Personal Interview Round for IIMs & Top B-schools

Before we talk about MBA Admission Interview Questions and Answers, lets understand its importance. Top IIMs including IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Kozhikode, Indore and other top B-schools like FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, SPJIMR Mumbai award high weightage to Personal Interview round in their final selection process before declaring the final merit list as per following details:

So now that you know the importance of preparing MBA Admission Interview Questions and Answers well, how should you prepare? Well, a great way to start is by knowing and preparing the top MBA Interview questions.

Most Popular Questions for Personal Interview for MBA Admissions
Based on MBAUniverse.com survey of 50+ MBA aspirants who appeared for admission interviews last year, here is a list of most popular questions.

• Question 1: Why MBA: This is the most popular question that frequently appears in MBA interviews.
• Question 2: Tell us about yourself: This is another very popular question that frequently appears in MBA interviews.
• Question 3: Why MBA after Engineering: If you are an Engineer, be ready for this question! This is an MBA interviewer’s favorite.
• Question 4: COVID 19 related questions: Given the impact, this is naturally a popular question. Put don’t expect simple fact-based questions – one candidate was asked to share his “stance on the conspiracy theory of Covid’s origin.” Another candidate was asked to explain “Hidden Markov Model and R0 model for Covid-19” in an IIM B interview.
• Question 5: Past Academic Questions: Your academic profile is an important source of questions in PI round. Nikhilesh N, who scored 98.44 percentile in CAT 2020, was asked questions like UG specialization, how the UG background is related to Business Analytics and the key areas of academic interest in IIM Bangalore PI round
• Question 6: Previous Work Experience Questions: If you have short or long work experience, you are supposed to be ready with a volley of questions on the area in which you are working or have worked. Shuktisindhu Mondal who scored 93.26 percentile in CAT 2019 and is an IIM Ahmedabad student, has a work experience of 41 months. He faced many questions regarding the nature of his work and shares, “Questions that I faced were based on my work experience and current affairs”
• Question 7: Your City/State related question: Interviewers want to know if you have empathy for your roots. So these questions are also frequently asked.
• Question 8: Why this B-school: This is a must-prepare question…If you don’t give a crisp and clear answer, you will leave a bad impression.
• Question 9: Which Specialization and Why? Some B-schools want their students to be clear about their career choice post MBA. They also want you to be clear about which specialization that you will select in 2^nd year and why. This is a sure shot question if you are applying for an Specialized MBA program.
• Question 10: Key Current Affair Events & your opinion on them: With lot of changes happening at the national and international level, your updated knowledge on current affairs and what do you think about them is the key area on which a few questions you are sure to face in PI round. Nikita Agarwal, who scored 99.22 percentile in CAT 2019 and is a student of MDI Gurgaon was asked questions like Chandrayan-2, Cryptocurrency, Bullet trains.
• Question 11: Questions on Extra Curricular Activities: If you are a sports person, a model or an achiever in some other area, the PI questions will be focused on them too. Tanishq Diddee, a national medalist in swimming, a triathlon and marathon participant who scored 99.70 percentile in CAT 2019 and converted IIM Ahmedabad was asked about how a business model can be made around swimming?, How will India capture the POK? Why Kenyan runners are good at marathon?
• Question 12: Which skills are you looking to acquire from an MBA?
• Question 13: If not MBA, then what?
• Question 14: What if you don't get selected here and any other good B-School, what will you do?

How to answer Most Popular Questions for Personal Interview for MBA Admissions. Here are some tips from CAT Toppers studying at IIMs and other top B-school.

Question: Why MBA after Engineering?

A: If you are an Engineer, be ready for this question! This is an MBA interviewer’s favorite.

Therefore, you have to be prepared with how to answer “why MBA after engineering?” to make the B-schools confident about their decision to give you admission. So, how to answer “why MBA after Engineering?”

Answer: You can think about and answer based on these points. I want to do MBA after engineering ____

1. To enhance your managerial skills: As a qualified engineer, you already have an in-depth understanding of how technology works. While your study has sharpened your logical reasoning and rationale, an MBA kick starts you to resolve real-world issues. It will help you identify and improve on communication, allocate and manage human resources, and efficiently devise time management. These skills will come handy when you lead in any managerial enterprise.
2. To understand how business works: MBA program is a great place to understand how business works. You study courses in all the key areas of business – marketing, finance, HR etc.
3. To accelerate your career: With the required managerial skills, engineers can rise higher in the hierarchy into supervisory and leadership roles.
4. To develop start-up/ business ideas/ be an entrepreneur: With all the theories and business vocabulary in place, MBA equips you to be an entrepreneur.
5. For personality development: An MBA course structure gives a lot of importance to presentations and projects, group discussions, and visits to industry sites, which in turn hones your personality by developing confidence and building you into an effective communicator – all skills necessary to become a leader.
6. Building a Network: To rise in the business world, your network comes very handy. MBA is a great place to build your network.

Question: Which specialization will you opt for? Why?

Answer: You can answer this question in two ways –

1. Decide a specialization based on your interest and industry prospects, and share that with the interviewers. Be sure that you have done some research and don’t sound ignorant. You can share industry facts, your work-experience/projects/internships and any other information to highlight your interest. You will be grilled on your choice, but you have a good chance to lead the interview on your area of strength. Key MBA specializations are Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Operations Management and now Business Analytics.
2. Say that you are open to all specializations and will decide after few months into your MBA. You can just say ‘I am not sure, I would like to explore my options during my studies’. The chances of the interviewer grilling you on this are minuscule.

Question: Which skills are you looking to acquire from an MBA?

Answer: This question is asked to understand your motivation for doing an MBA. A good MBA can help you build many skills, like:

• Domain Knowledge
• Strategic Thinking
• Decision-making skills & Problem-solving
• Leadership skills
• Communication skills
• People management
• Creativity and Innovation
• Entrepreneurship

You can highlight key skills that you are looking for.