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
Difficulty level in CAT exam is not specific to any of the three slots. The difficulty level across slots may vary every year. Know how the CAT scores are normalised: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/understanding-cat-normalization-process-blogId-9386.
CAT question papers are released within a week of the exam in the form of a PDF as a response sheet and answer key. Response sheet hosts CAT exam questions and answers.
CAT has 68 questions. Each question carries three marks. There is negative marking of minus one for incorrect attempts. There is no deduction of marks for unanswered questions. Total marks in 204.
In CAT exam, each candidate gets 120 minutes to solve the paper. There are three sections in CAT Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Aptitude. For each section 40 minutes are allotted as sectional time limit. For PwD candidates, the sectional time limit is 53.20 minutes per section. Candidates have to complete each section within the given time limit. Since the CAT is an online mode exam, the test screen will move from first section to the next section automatically as soon as the time limit gets over. Thus candidates have to be mindful of the on-screen timer and pre-decide the number of questions to solve in each section. The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section of CAT has 24 questions, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section has 22 questions and Quantitative Aptitude section has 22 questions. It is not mandatory to solve all the questions in CAT so candidates can devise a strategy to use 40 minutes per section as per their strength and weakness.
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
Answered 22 hours ago
The National Institute of Bank Management Cutoff 2026 for General AI category in CAT exam is 80.
R
Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
No, you cannot use the CAT exam result for direct admission to the MBA/PGDM course at AIMS Institutes, Bangalore.
The college accepts the CAT, XAT and MAT exam results for admission to the management programme. Students have to first attain the qualifying cutoff percentiles and then sit in the select
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
Candidates applying for admission in MBA at IIM Raipur should have qualified the CAT exam. Check below the application fee of CAT:
- INR 2,300 for general category students
- INR 1,150 for SC/ST/PwD students
R
Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
To get a seat in the FLAME University of the MBA/PGDM course, you have to appear for any one of the accepted exams, like CAT, XAT, CMAT, etc. After clearing the exam, you have to get shortlisted for further admission round, which involves PI or GD.
The FLAME University CAT cutoff 2025 was 75 for the
N
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
Yes, candidates can get into MBA courses offered by IILM, Lodhi without appear in CAT. In addition to CAT, this institute also accepts MAT, XAT, ATMA, CMAT and GMAT exam scores as well.
However, candidates must appear in any of these exams mandatorily for IILM, Lodhi MBA eligibility criteria.
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
No the Sai University CAT exam is not compulsory for admission to BA courses. Students who have valid marks in other national level exams can also apply. The university considers exams such as CUET/ SAT India/ ACT, etc. Moreover, students can take admission based on merit also.
A
Contributor-Level 10
Answered 5 days ago
No the Sai University CAT exam is not compulsory for admission to BSc courses. Students who have valid marks in other national level exams can also apply. The university considers exams such as CUET/ SAT India/ ACT, etc.
A
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
Yes, students can take admissions to BITS Law School without appearing from CLAT exam. BITS Law School admissions also conducts its own entrance exam called BITS Law Admission Test. Shortlisted candidates need to appear for Personal Interview rounds for admissions.
P
Contributor-Level 9
Answered a week ago
VGIM Cutoff 2025 is not available yet. However, according to the VGIM MBA/PGDM cutoff 2024, the overall MAT percentile required for admission to PGDM course is 70 for the students belonging to the General AI category
I
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a week ago
No, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar has not mentioned that it accepts CAT score for MBA admissions on their portals. Candidates are instead required to appear for an in-house entrance exam that is conducted by GNDU itself.
S
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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