Business Analytics Interview Questions for IT services Companies
40 questions weighted to the interview style of it services companies — 21 easy, 19 medium.
How it services companies interview for Business Analytics
IT services companies hire in large numbers, often in campus or bulk drives. Interviews usually start with an online aptitude and coding test, then one or two technical rounds on fundamentals and your projects, then HR. Clear basics and good communication matter more than rare, advanced topics.
This set focuses on Requirements and Agile (8), Excel for Business Analysts (7), Business Metrics and KPIs (5), Power BI and Tableau (4).
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01
Compare Import mode, DirectQuery and Live Connection in Power BI.
Import copies data into the compressed in-memory model, giving the fastest visuals and full DAX, but data is only as fresh as the last refresh and size is limited. DirectQuery sends queries to the source at view time, so data is near real time but visuals are slower and some DAX is restricted. Live Connection points to an existing published semantic model or Analysis Services model without its own model. Composite models mix Import and DirectQuery.
02
Write a user story with acceptance criteria for password reset.
As a customer, I want to reset my password by email so that I can get back into my account.
Acceptance criteria:
• Reset link expires in 15 minutes
• Password rules are shown while typing
• A success message appears after reset
03
What is the difference between a task and a sub-process in BPMN?
A task is an atomic unit of work that you do not break down further in the diagram, such as Verify PAN details. A sub-process is a compound activity that contains its own flow of tasks, events and gateways, shown with a small plus sign when collapsed. Sub-processes keep high-level diagrams readable: the main map shows Credit Check as one box, and a separate detailed view explains its internal steps.
04
Write a SQL query to find requirements that have no linked UAT test case.
SELECT r.req_id, r.title, r.priority
FROM requirements r
LEFT JOIN test_case_links l ON l.req_id = r.req_id
WHERE l.req_id IS NULL
AND r.status = 'APPROVED'
ORDER BY r.priority;
-- Run this before UAT starts: every approved requirement
-- should trace to at least one test case.
05
Revenue grew 20 percent this quarter but the number of active customers stayed flat. How do you interpret it?
Growth came from more value per customer, not more customers. Break revenue into customers times orders per customer times average order value to see which moved. It could be price increases, larger baskets, a shift to premium products or a few large accounts. Then check risks: is new customer acquisition stalling, is churn being masked, and is growth concentrated in a small segment that could leave?
06
Tell me about a time careful listening helped you uncover a hidden requirement.
Situation: during interviews for a new order system, a warehouse supervisor kept mentioning that Friday evenings were chaotic. Task: understand whether this mattered for the requirements. Action: instead of moving on, I asked what happened on Fridays and learned that bulk orders were split manually because of truck capacity limits. Result: we added an automatic order-splitting rule that nobody had listed, which saved the team about four hours a week and avoided a likely UAT failure.
07
What are heatmaps and session recordings, and when would you use them alongside funnel analysis?
Heatmaps aggregate where users click, move and scroll on a page, while session recordings replay individual user sessions. Funnel analysis tells you where users drop off, for example 40 percent leave on the address page; heatmaps and recordings help explain why, such as a hidden Continue button or a confusing pin code field. They are qualitative, so use them to form hypotheses and then validate fixes with an A/B test. Personal data must be masked in recordings.
08
What steps would you follow to create an AS-IS process map for a customer refund process?
Define the scope: where the process starts, such as a refund request, and where it ends, such as money credited. Identify the roles involved and draw swimlanes. Interview and observe each role, capturing steps, decisions, systems used, handoffs and time taken. Draw the flow in BPMN, mark pain points like rework loops and waiting time, and add measures such as average refund time. Validate the map with the people who do the work.
Promote the first row to headers and remove blank or total rows. Set correct data types for dates and amounts, and use locale settings for Indian date formats. Trim and clean text columns, replace errors and nulls, split combined fields like 'City-State', and unpivot month columns into rows. Remove duplicates on the order ID, then merge with the product master. Rename steps clearly so others can follow the logic.
Given a cart of 1,200 rupees and a valid coupon SAVE10 with a minimum order of 1,000 rupees, when the user applies it, then 10 percent is deducted and the new total is shown. Given an expired coupon, when applied, then the message 'This coupon has expired' appears and the total is unchanged. Given a cart below the minimum, when applied, then the user is told how much more to add.
13
What is a star schema and why do BI tools prefer it?
A star schema has one central fact table holding numeric events (sales, orders) linked to surrounding dimension tables (date, product, customer, region). BI tools prefer it because filters flow cleanly from dimensions to facts, DAX and Tableau calculations stay simple, and compression and query performance improve. A flat single table repeats text values and gets slow, while a snowflake with many chained lookups makes filtering and maintenance harder.
14
You receive two customer lists from sales and billing and must reconcile them. How do you do it?
Standardise both first: trim spaces, fix case, convert IDs to the same type and remove duplicates. Use a unique key like customer ID, or a combined key of phone and email if IDs differ. Then use XLOOKUP or COUNTIFS to mark each record as matched, only in sales or only in billing, or a Power Query merge with anti joins. Summarise mismatches by type and share the exception list with both owners.
15
Write an Excel formula to calculate the monthly EMI for a loan of 10 lakh rupees at 9 percent annual interest for 5 years.
Backlog refinement, also called grooming, is a regular session where the team reviews upcoming backlog items to clarify, split, estimate and order them, so the next sprints have ready work. The BA prepares the stories in advance with business context, acceptance criteria, rules and examples, answers questions from developers and testers, and captures follow-ups. It is usually a short weekly session, not a sprint ceremony.
The cash conversion cycle measures how many days cash is tied up in operations. It equals days inventory outstanding plus days sales outstanding minus days payables outstanding. Example: inventory sits 40 days, customers pay in 30 days and suppliers are paid in 45 days, so the cycle is 40 + 30 - 45 = 25 days. A shorter cycle means less working capital is needed. Some marketplaces have a negative cycle because they collect from customers before paying sellers.
18
What is the difference between Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service and Power BI Mobile?
Power BI Desktop is the free Windows app where you connect to data, model it, write DAX and design reports. Power BI Service is the cloud portal where you publish reports, schedule refresh, build dashboards, set permissions and share with users. Power BI Mobile is the phone app for viewing reports on the go. A typical flow is build in Desktop, publish to a Service workspace, and consume on web or mobile.
Value chain analysis breaks a business into the activities that create value: primary activities such as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service, plus support activities like procurement, technology, HR and infrastructure. For each activity you look at cost and differentiation. In cases it helps locate where costs are rising or where a competitive advantage can be built, for example in last-mile delivery.
MECE means Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive. When you break a problem into parts, the parts should not overlap and together should cover every possibility. For example, profit splits into revenue and cost, and revenue into price times volume. A breakdown of customers into 'young' and 'students' is not MECE because they overlap. MECE structures prevent double counting and missed causes, which is what interviewers check.
21
Write an Excel formula for the NPV of a project with an initial investment today and five yearly cash inflows.
# B1 = discount rate (for example 12%)
# B2 = initial investment entered as a negative number
# B3:B7 = cash inflows for years 1 to 5
=NPV(B1, B3:B7) + B2
# NPV() assumes the first value comes at the end of year 1,
# so the year-0 investment is added outside the function.
22
What is a KPI and give examples for an e-commerce business?
Agile delivers value in small increments with feedback. Scrum organises work in sprints with planning, daily stand-ups, review and retrospective, led by a Scrum Master and Product Owner.
Funnel analysis measures how many users move through a sequence of steps towards a goal, such as visit, product view, add to cart, checkout and payment, and the conversion and drop-off at each step. It shows where the biggest leak is so the team can focus fixes there. Break funnels down by device, channel and new versus returning users, and define a time window for completing the steps.
Use Data Validation with a List rule. Keep the allowed regions in a separate sheet as an Excel Table, name it, and set the validation source to that range so the dropdown grows when you add a region. Turn on an error alert so free text is rejected. Then clean existing entries once with Find and Replace or a mapping lookup. For stronger control, protect the sheet and unlock only the input cells, so the list cannot be edited by mistake.
Decide whether and how to enter a market by evaluating attractiveness, competition, capabilities and entry mode (build, buy, partner), then risks and next steps.
Strengths and Weaknesses are internal; Opportunities and Threats are external. Example: S = strong faculty, W = low brand awareness, O = AI upskilling demand, T = free online content.
33
What is Average Order Value and how can a business increase it?
Average Order Value is total revenue divided by number of orders. If an online store earns 9 lakh from 1,500 orders, AOV is 600 rupees. Businesses increase it with bundles, cross-sell and upsell recommendations, free delivery above a threshold, volume discounts and premium options. Watch margin and conversion while doing so, because a high free-delivery threshold can raise AOV but reduce the number of orders.
BPMN groups its shapes into four categories. Flow objects are events (circles), activities (rounded rectangles) and gateways (diamonds). Connecting objects are sequence flows, message flows and associations. Swimlanes are pools and lanes that show participants and roles. Artifacts are data objects, groups and text annotations that add context without changing the flow. Knowing these four groups lets you read almost any BPMN diagram quickly.
37
CAC is 1,200 rupees, average monthly revenue per customer is 500 rupees and gross margin is 40 percent. What is the CAC payback period?
Monthly gross profit per customer is 500 times 40 percent, which is 200 rupees. Payback period equals CAC divided by monthly gross profit, so 1,200 divided by 200 gives 6 months. If customers churn on average before 6 months, the business loses money on acquisition. Using revenue instead of gross profit would wrongly suggest 2.4 months, which is why margin must be included.
38
Tell me about a time you misunderstood a requirement. What did you learn?
Situation: I was asked for 'monthly active customers' and built it on login data. Task: deliver the report for a review. Action: in the demo, the stakeholder said active meant customers who purchased, not logged in. I owned the mistake, rebuilt the measure in two days and wrote down the definition for sign-off. Result: the report was accepted, and now I always confirm definitions and sample outputs with stakeholders before building anything.
A pool represents a separate participant in a process, such as the customer, your company or an external bank. A lane is a subdivision inside a pool, usually a department, role or system, such as Sales, Finance and Warehouse within your company. Sequence flows can cross lanes within one pool, but communication between two pools must be shown with message flows, because separate participants do not share one controlled flow.
How are Business Analytics interviews at it services companies different?
IT services companies hire in large numbers, often in campus or bulk drives. Interviews usually start with an online aptitude and coding test, then one or two technical rounds on fundamentals and your projects, then HR. Clear basics and good communication matter more than rare, advanced topics.
Which it services companies are covered?
This page links to 33 it services companies, including TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Capgemini, HCLTech, Tech Mahindra, IBM. Each has its own page with rounds and a separate practice set.
What rounds should I expect?
Common rounds at these companies include: Technical interview; HR round; Managerial round; Coding test; Online assessment (aptitude + reasoning). The exact process varies by company and role.