IIM Admission 2023: Know How Saurabh Wani Made His Way to IIM Ahmedabad

Saurabh Wani who bagged 99.10 percentile in CAT 2022 has made his way to IIM Ahmedabad PGP batch 2023-25. In his interview with Shiksha, he shares important tips to crack the interview rounds of IIM Ahmedabad. Read this complete interview to know the questions asked in PI and AWT rounds of other IIMs as well.

Saurabh Wani

 

IIM Admission 2023 Interview-  Saurabh Wani, hailing from Nashik, has recently earned his place at IIM Ahmedabad. He is a Bachelor of Technology graduate from the esteemed Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, with a remarkable 32 months of work experience under his belt as an Associate Systems Engineer for Cadence Design System. After his astounding performance in the CAT 2022 exam, attaining a percentile of 99.10, he was subsequently called for interviews by IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, and Kozhikode. In his exclusive interview with Shiksha, he shared his experience with IIM Ahmedabad, as well as the topics deliberated on in the AWT and WAT tests for the other IIMs. To glean more knowledge on the topic, it is recommended that one reads the entire interview.

Shiksha: Hi, please tell us about yourself.

Saurabh: Hello everyone! My name is Saurabh. I am from Nashik - The Wine Capital of the country. We are a family of 4. My mother - a homemaker, a younger sister and my father - the person behind my interest in robots! This interest in robotics & automation started with casual industry visits with my father to his workplace - The M&M Manufacturing Plant in Nashik. It continued throughout my curriculum in Instrumentation & Control Engineering at NIT Jalandhar. The 4 years I spent at NITJ were full of learning, fun and exploring areas that interested me. I even authored a research paper analysing the tweets about the 2018 Kerala floods that could be helpful to NGOs and charitable organizations.

I joined Cadence Design System as an Associate Systems Engineer right after my under graduation. It has been a good 32-month journey. I worked on many projects during this time. The most interesting one has been "The Code to no code initiative" wherein I took initiative to convert 37 code-based applications to a no-code platform. Proud to share that the senior leaders in my organization took note of this initiative and appreciated me for my efforts. Apart from studies and work, I have always been a football enthusiast. One interesting fact about me is that I have had all the Real Madrid Jerseys since the 2012 season. On a lighter side, I have also been trying my hand at some magic tricks - something that I picked up during the pandemic.

Shiksha: Was IIM Ahmedabad your first choice? Why?

Saurabh: Yes, IIMA was my first choice. There are several reasons, the most important is that IIMA uses the case study approach of teaching. I've always flourished in the applied learning environment. Case study approach helps students to work on current business scenarios and learn from others' successes and failures.

Other reasons are IIMA's industry recognition, brand value, diverse and deep-rooted alumni network, and the fact that my parents can brag about IIMA for the rest of their lives!!

Shiksha: What was your WAT topic and how did you present your argument.

Saurabh: Well I don't remember the exact topics now but it was something along the lines of:

1. IIM Ahmedabad: (It was AWT, not the regular WAT) Social fabric is breaking down.

Man is becoming too individualistic at the cost of the welfare of the household. Then there was an example given.

What are the assumptions, and points to strengthen and weaken the argument?

2. IIM Bangalore: Elephants are seen entering human settlements. What can be done to resolve the Human

- Animal conflict?

3. IIM Calcutta: The COVID times exposed the vulnerabilities of the medical industry in India. What can be done to strengthen this industry so that we are well prepared for the future.

4. IIM Lucknow: Cryptocurrency is a gamble

5. IIM Kozhikode: Technology is developing at a pace more than the rate at which people's wisdom is growing.

I repeat these are not the exact topics. But something close to meaning to this.

My strategy for WAT was to give myself a minute or two (Depending on the total time for WAT) to gather my thoughts and write down key points. The structure I followed was

1. Introduction of the topic (Try mentioning any current affairs topic related to the WAT, if It makes an impact)
2. Two points in favor of your opinion Give examples if you can
3. One point against (Subtle) that might be used to counter the first
4. Please don't be too diplomatic. Have a clear stance but be logical and analytical with your points. No extreme comments.

Also Read:

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• IIM Shortlist 2023: Check institute-wise dates and process
• IIM selection and admission criteria 2023-25 for MBA/PGDM
• What is IIM CAP? Know selection criteria, cut offs, participating IIMs

Shiksha: How was your PI experience? Tell us about your high points or low points during the interview.

Saurabh: PI experience was just amazing. The profs interviewing us are just so smart and creative with their questions.

High points were when I was asked about my work experience and research experience. I was well prepared with ML algorithms, project descriptions, etc. I was able to answer almost all these questions. A part of my job profile was chatbot development. So, many questions were around ChatGPT. This was also well prepared.

Low points were when they randomly asked anything from Finance or any random GK/Current affairs. The thing is that you should accept when you don't know stuff. No one can know everything. Just know all the obvious things about your profile. Messing those up is a no-no.

Shiksha: Can You please Transcript your PI.

Saurabh: Here are the questions I was asked in my IIMA interview.

P1(M):

1. I see that you've done instrumentation and control engineering from NIT Jalandhar and currently doing Software development for 3 Why this shift?
2. Have you worked on any ML projects?
3. Tell me a few models/Algorithms you worked with
4. What is K-Means Clustering?
5. Why is this process iterative? When do we stop the iteration?
6. How to make this algorithm decide on the number of clusters on its own? (I struggled with this a bit)
7. Do you know Information Theory in ML? (Didn't know)
8. Do you know what entropy is (in ML)? (Struggled a bit but he seemed satisfied with my half knowledge)

P2(F)

9. Walk me through your daily routine (work ex)
10. What is the most frustrating thing in your daily work life? (Mentioned constantly changing business requirements put a lot of pressure on us developers)
11. What measures do you take to avoid this?
12. These measures are fine for a reasonable customer but what do you do if the customer is a bit difficult to handle?
13. Are you following any news? (mentioned ChatGPT)
14. With the release of BARD, what are the challenges for ChatGPT?
15. Google also rushed to market with Android, why did it turn out to be such a great product?
16. What should be Google's line of action considering all this?
17. What is the difference between training data for BARD and ChatGPT (I didn't know in depth about this)
18. Any questions regarding PGP at IIMA?

Shiksha: At what point of time during the interview you thought you’ve made it?

Saurabh: Well, it's hard to tell. But I knew I impressed them with my in-depth knowledge of K-Means clustering. I used graphs and optimization functions to explain it better. Also, that BARD vs ChatGPT discussion was awesome. I watched a video 2 days ago regarding the technicalities. I used them in my answers. I always doubted if I could make it or not. But yeah, these were some high points from the interview.

Shiksha: Was there a trick question in PI? How did you handle it?

Saurabh: I think question 12 from my transcript was the trick question. I could have said that we're strict in our procedure, every customer is the same. But I told an honest answer. Every customer is different. Some are more important to the organisation and though not fair, they need that special attention and consideration. I told her (The interviewer) that sometimes we need to compromise a bit. Considering the importance of projects and customer requirements, we might even have to work on the weekends. That's how the business works.

To handle such questions, give honest answers (You should know where to draw the line btw). These people have seen it all, so don't try to paint some ideal picture.

Shiksha: How much credit will you give to your academics and professional experience for IIM Ahmedabad selection?

Saurabh: A lot. What will they judge us on?

They are going to teach us for 2 years. They need to know that we are good learners.

Also, they need to get us placed at a top company that is paying us top salaries. So obviously they also judge us on how employable we are.

Shiksha: Any tips for future aspirants?

Saurabh: Focus on CAT, there's no point preparing for interviews if you can't get the shortlist. Start reading Economic Times (my personal suggestion), it'll help you in keeping up to date with current affairs in business world and this will come in handy during the interviews.

Also, one step at a time!

Shiksha: What is your future plan?

Saurabh: I want to leverage 2 years at IIMA to learn as much as I can and make some lifelong friends. I want to get into a job role that'll help me grow my skillset with some challenging and diverse scenarios.

Honestly, the long-term plan is not yet figured out.

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