Top 32 Personal Interview Questions for MBA | PI Preparation Guide
Common Admission Test 2026 ( CAT )
Registration - To be notified
MBA admissions in India is divided in multiple stages starting with an entrance test. Usually, candidates are shortlisted for GD and PI based on their entrance exam scores. Check common Personal Interview questions to prepare for the PI round.
Personal Interview Questions: Most MBA admissions across India and abroad require candidates to appear for Personal Interview rounds. Sometimes, preparing for a Group Discussion and a Personal Interview round becomes tougher than passing an entrance exam for MBA admissions. One can easily tackle PI process with the correct preparation strategy. Candidates who are shortlisted for admission rounds must start by prapring with the most common questions asked in Personal Interview.
Questions asked during a PI round for MBA admission typically revolves around the theme set in the resume. A candidate with a work experience may be asked about the industry he/she was involved in. Freshers may find more predictible questions. Candidates who are shortlisted for MBA admission process must prepare for common PI questions. Check some most common PI questions here.
Top 32 Personal Interview Questions for MBA Admissions
A personal interview round for MBA admission is a personality assessment test in which the admission panel has a good opportunity to know a candidate and the candidate has a good opportunity to present their best aspects. It is more of an interpersonal interaction which includes professional as well as personal questions. Here are the most commonly asked questions in MBA personal interview round for admission:
- Tell us something about yourself.
- Why do you think should we give you admission in our college?
- What are your key skills/ greatest strengths?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- What is your greatest achievement?
- Where do you see yourself five years down the line?
- What are your career goals?
- What are your short-term goals?
- What are your long-term goals?
- Why do you want to join this College/B-school?
- Why MBA? Also Check: MBA PI Questions: How to Answer 'Why MBA' Question? With Example
- Why marketing/ finance/ etc. specialisation?
- Why this particular programme?
- What are your hobbies and interests?
- Who is your role model?
- Who inspires you?
- What is the difference between a good manager and a good leader?
- Why should we admit you?
- What are some reasons to reject your application?
- Walk me through your resume/profile.
- What is your biggest failure or challenge?
- How will you contribute to the class if we choose you?
- How will you contribute to the campus if we choose you?
- How will you add value to the campus if chosen?
- What is your expectation from this MBA programme?
- How do you deal with failures?
- How do you deal with criticism?
- What have you learnt from your failures?
- Discuss a situation when you were a leader.
- Where else have you applied? What other calls have you received?
- What are the newspaper headings that grabbed your attention?
- Do you want to ask or know anything (about the college)?
Also Read: Personal Interviews: 5 Situations That May Stump You
Commonly asked questions
CAT question papers are released within a week of the exam in the form of a PDF as a response sheet and answer key. Candidates who have appeared for the test are able to access the CAT question paper and answer key. The question paper of every slot is released on the same day along with candidate response sheet and official answer to all question. If any candidate needs previous year CAT question papers for preparation purpose, then they can download them from Shiksha website. We have hosted last five years' CAT question papers for aspirants to download and practice. These official CAT question papers are available for download free. You can download the CAT question paper PDFs at this link: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-exam-question-papers Candidates must check and practice the latest CAT question paper to know the latest exam pattern and difficulty level.
No, it is not mandatory to attempt all the questions in CAT. Candidates can choose to attempt questions as per their preparation. It is not possible also to attempt all the questions due to time limitation and difficulty level. Reading dense RC passages often take up a lot of time. In DILR and QA too, some questions are time taking and calculation intensive due to which not much time is left in hand to attempt all questions. The aim of every test taker should be to attempt about 2/3rd of the total questions in all the sections of CAT.
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GD/PI Experience of IIM Students
Check out the articles below to know how these students converted IIM Interview calls.
| Student Name |
IIM |
Interview |
|---|---|---|
| Abhishek Roy |
IIM Lucknow |
|
| Vedant Chandewar |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Harshil Satasiya |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Nishanth Pandey |
IIM Lucknow |
|
| Shreshth Khare |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Satya Gopal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Akash |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Akansha Ghosh |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Rupesh Gupta |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Akshay Mehendiratta |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Anchal Taatya |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Ananya Mishra |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Pratham Mani |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Omkar Mukherjee |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Vaibhav Jatin Shah |
IIM Shillong |
|
| Parth Agarwal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Anshul Aggarwal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Ankur Parmar |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Satya Gopal |
IIM Kozhikode |
|
| Priyanjit Biswas |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Sai Prabhu |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Ruchika Bhartiya |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Abhinav Paigwar |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Mayank |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Shreshth Khare |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Parth Agarwal |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Ankit Anand |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Pratham Mani |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Aditi Agarwal |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Gursimran Ahuja |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Biswanath Chakraborty |
IIM Indore |
|
| Nishant Shah |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Biswanath Chakraborty |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Achintya Bhattacharya |
IIM Bangalore |
|
| Biswanath Chakraborty |
IIM Lucknow |
|
| Shubham Varshney |
IIM Ahmedabad |
|
| Shubham Ranka |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Dhiraj Bedi |
IIM Calcutta |
|
| Wasim Khan Pathan |
IIM Calcutta |
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 16 hours ago
Yes, students can get admission in KG Reddy College of Engineering and Technology MBA without CAT. The college instead accepts TSICET scores. Students do not have to appear for CAT or other management exams.
M
Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
No, CAT is not a compulsory entrance exam in order to apply for BITSoM Mumbai MBA admission. Other than CAT, candidates also have the option of applying through a valid score of GMAT, GMAT-GRE or GRE for MBA at BITSoM Mumbai.
Appearing for one of the aforementioned entrance exams is a mandatory requi
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
GIBS Business School's PGDM cutoff is moderate and generally does not reach the high levels of an IIM. The main factors impacting cutoff are your entrance test scores and other criteria.
Cutoff Recent Data:
- CAT: 60-70 Percentile approximately
- XAT: 60-70 Percentile approximately
- MAT: 60-65 Percentile ap
M
Contributor-Level 8
Answered 3 days ago
The minimum marks or CAT cut off to appear for IIM selection round is different for every institute. Tier 1 colleges select candidates with CAT score above 95 percentile, Tier 2 colleges select candidates with score between 80-90 percentile and Tier 2 colleges select candidates with score lower than
P
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 3 days ago
There is no CAT PI shortlist for IIMs. Candidates have to simply login with their CAT credentials and fill the PI shortlist form.
S
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 3 days ago
There is no minimum qualifying marks for CAT. Anybody scoring above 0 in the exam is eligible for admission, however the B-Schools select candidates on the basis of cut offs which are 60 and above percentile.
N
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 3 days ago
The final CAT cutoff are not released publically. However, candidates can check qualifying cut offs in the admission criteria document released by IIMs and other institute before the exam.
A
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 3 days ago
CAT cut off is prepared by all accepting colleges individually. There is no one authorized body to do so. Even the IIMs determine their admission cut offs separately.
J
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 4 days ago
If we're talking about GIBS Business School Bangalore, they don't have some super high CAT cutoff. In simple words, you don't need to be in the 99+ percentile to get considered.
- They look for a decent CAT score, usually around 70–80 percentile as a safe benchmark
- Scores are important, but they also ca
P
Contributor-Level 7
Answered 5 days ago
Not CAT necessarily, but still, you need to take a national-level entrance exam required for MBA admissions.
J
Contributor-Level 10
Abhishek is a content writer and editor with 7+ years of experience in education journalism. He completed his graduation from University of Delhi with a BA Degree. At Shiksha.com, he handles content for MBA, BBA, an
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