Top 32 Personal Interview Questions for MBA | PI Preparation Guide
Common Admission Test 2025 ( CAT )
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 of the MBA colleges offer admissions after conducting selection rounds, like Group Discussion, Personal Interview, and more. Preparing for GD/PI is tougher compared to preparing for the entrance exam as there is no syllabus in a Personal Interview round. Candidates may be asked questions on any topic in a PI round. Candidates need confidence as well as presence of mind to clear PI rounds. While preparing for MBA admission, candidates often wonder what the top questions to prepare for clearing the PI round are.
Questions in PI round of MBA colleges are mostly connected to the candidate's academics or job/internship which they mention in their resume. Chances of facing questions based on hobbies, past jobs, projects and areas of interest are very high in the personal interview round for MBA admission. However, it is not easy to guess what questions will be asked in a PI round of a B-School. Candidates preparing for MBA admission must prepare for common PI questions well.
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
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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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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.
The CAT VARC section is dominated by RC questions. Out of 24 questions about 14-16 are based on Reading Comprehension passages and the rest of them are based on parajumbles, para completion, etc.
CAT has about 12-16 RC question. Since, it is not mandatory to solve all the questions, candidates can maximize their scores by leaving out the questions related to the passage they find the toughest. There is negative marking in CAT so candidates must ensure that they mark only the correct options or do not mark any option at all.
The key change in CAT question paper 2024 was increase in number of questions in DLIR section. Till 2023, the DILR section used to have 20 questions. In 2024, it had 22 questions. The time limit for it was the same and no other section had less questions. Which means, in CAT 2024, candidates had to attempt 68 questions instead of 66 to solve in the same time (120 minutes). DILR sectional time limit was 40 minutes as in previous years. There was no other change in CAT 2024, the difficulty level was same as previous years.
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.
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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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered 10 hours ago
Candidates with a valid score of CAT/ GMAT/ GRE score are exempted from the written test. These candidates still need to complete the form by paying the application fees. However, these aspirants may get called for the IIM Trichy - Chennai campus PGPBM interview round.
A
Contributor-Level 9
Answered 11 hours ago
CAT is one of the accepting exams for admission to PGDM at IPE Hyderabad. Candidates with a good score in CAT can also get a scholarship. However, CAT is not mandatory. Aspirants with a score in MAT, XAT, ATMA, GMAT or CMAT exams can also get admission in the PGDM course.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered 2 days ago
No, candidates who wish to apply for the Global MBA course at Lexicon MILE are required to clear the LAT conducted by Lexicon MILE. The CAT exam score at Lexicon MILE is only used for deciding the PGDM admissions along with several other entrance exams.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 2 days ago
CAT is one of the accepting exams for MBA admission at Karunya School of Management. However, it is not compulsory. Aspirants can also apply through XAT, MAT or KMAT scores. Candidates must also complete graduation to apply for MBA at KSM Coimbatore.
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Guide-Level 15
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CAT is one of the accepting exams for admission to MBA programme at Amity University Bengaluru. However, it is not compulsory. Aspirants can also get admission in MBA via MAT, GRE or CMAT scores. Candidates with scores in these entrance exams can also get scholarship provided they meet the criteria.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered 2 days ago
No, CAT exam is not mandatory for VIT-AP MBA admissions. Candidates who are interested in the MBA course offered by the institute can also apply through the scores in the XAT and MAT as well.
VIT-AP also accepts the scores obtained in the VITBEE for the MBA admissions. However, candidates with a high
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 3 days ago
No, CAT scores are not compulsory for enrollement into MBA course at IIS Jaipur. As per the info. available on the website of the institute, the institute give prefrences to those students who have secured scored in the management entrance exams, such as CAT/ XAT/ CUET PG/ MAT. Thus, CAT scores can
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Contributor-Level 9
Answered 3 days ago
Yes, Manipur Institute of Management Studies, Manipur University does accept CAT scores for admission to its MBA course. Students can also submit scores of other national-level exams, such as MAT/ XAT/ CMAT/ GMAT/ ATMA etc.
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Contributor-Level 9
Till 2014, there were only two sections in CAT. Quantitative Aptitude was clubbed with Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning was clubbed with Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. In 2015, the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning were clubbed together and Quantitative Aptitude and Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension made two individual sections. Since 2015, the sectional segregation has remained the same but the number of questions have come down from 100 to 66. The exam duration has also been reduced. Until 2019, the CAT exam was of 180 minutes and the total number of questions were 100. However, in 2020, the question paper structure was revised due to COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the total number of questions came down to 76. In 2021 and 2022, the number of questions were further lowered to 66. For the last two years, CAT is conducted for 2 hours, and the number of questions is 66. In CAT 2024 however, the number of questions were increased to 68.
The latest CAT question paper structure is: Total questions: 68 Number of sections: 3 Order of sections - 1. VARC 2. DILR 3. Quantitative Aptitude Sectional time limit: 40 minutes VARC questions: 24 DILR questions: 22 Quantitative Aptitude questions: 22.