ZS Associates
Selection Process: Test (online), Personal Interview
Pattern of the Test
The online assessment was conducted on the Talview Platform and consisted of three elimination rounds with pre-determined cutoffs.
The first round was an MCQ round with 50 questions to be answered in 45 minutes, featuring mainly CAT-style aptitude questions.
The second round, called the Problem Solving Deep Dive, included 8 MCQ questions to be answered in 30 minutes based on a short case study. Candidates could only move to the next question after answering the current one, with no option to go back.
The third round was an AI-based video interview where candidates had 10 seconds to read each question and 3 minutes to record their answers, which focused on HR and guesstimates.
Group/Case Discussion
Guesstimates asked in Online test:
-> Number of traffic lights in Delhi.
Case Study round ( First round after qualifying Online Test):
-> Case Study & Debriefing Interview : The day kicked off with a meet around 8 AM, where the HR person showed a video describing the case study that the candidates were about to solve along with Q&A. There were mainly 3 sections for which they had to either type their answers or add an attachment within 1 hr.
Section 1 : Given a set of 5 tables and an output table arranged by ZS associates, write SQL queries/ER Diagram/Procedure/Algorithm to accomplish the same outcome.
Section 2 : Suggest ways to improvise the schema of the tables (ex- Normalization etc.)
How would you improve the data quality? ( Add/Remove variables, find data discrepancies and put checks to handle them and so on)
Section 3 : Ways to implement some loyalty programs based on case study, what factors will you chose. ( Attention to detail ).
Technical Interview
After the case study, the candidates were called for an interview, where they had to explain what they had done. Along with that some questions were also asked. It was hosted on zoom and lasted for an hour.
In one case, the interviewer started with introducing herself and asked for the candidate’s introduction, then asked him to explain what approach he had applied to solve the case study given earlier; asked to explain every step of it and went on like a conversation with cross questions; then she asked asked the interviewe to look at every table being provided and to point out the errors in them (attention to details)—it was really hectic to concentrate under stress and point out errors so well hidden, All this lasted for around 40 minutes;
Later she asked questions based on SQL like JOIN and SELF JOIN, How to extract particular data from dataset using SQL ( SQL Queries), gave an Employees table asked himt to write an SQL query performing SELF JOIN operation; Puzzles ( measure time using identical wires & water puzzle of filling jars ); Questions based on DSA and OOPS; Do you have any questions?
HR Interview
Fit Interview Round + technical, with questions which were more of brain-teasers; HR questions and Guess estimates – this was hosted on Zoom and lasted for almost an hour Questions based on Machine Learning (From Resume); Questions based on Group Management, Time management, Approach towards being a group leader and how will you proceed with the work; Questions based on data science (from Resume, Step by step implementation before analyzing a data); Why should we hire you; Explain a life situation where you showed yourself matching with ZS values; Puzzles ( how many squares in a Chessbox, how many single color squares in a chess box); why do you want to join ZS ?; Few more general HR questions like career goals and interests; Guesstimate ( How many traffic lights are there in Delhi ?); Do you have any questions?