Mastek Business Analytics Interview Questions & Answers
Curated interview practice questions with answers. These are practice scenarios, not a verified list of past interview questions.
About Mastek hiring for Business Analytics roles
Mastek is an Indian IT services and digital engineering company with a strong presence in the United Kingdom public sector, healthcare, retail and financial services markets. It delivers application development, cloud migration, Oracle and Salesforce implementations, data and testing services. In India it hires developers, quality engineers, data analysts and cloud engineers who work with global delivery teams on long-running client programmes.
For Business Analytics roles, this Mastek practice set focuses most on Excel for Business Analysts (7), SQL for Business Analysis (6), Requirements and Agile (5), UAT and BA Documentation (5). It has 18 easy, 21 medium, 1 hard questions, so you can start easy and work up to the harder ones.
Company type
IT services
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
Main India offices
Mumbai, Pune
Mastek Business Analytics interview process
Online assessment (aptitude + technical MCQs)
Technical interview
Managerial round
HR round
Typical pattern based on public candidate experiences. Rounds vary by role, team and year.
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01
What is the difference between correlation and causation in product analytics?
Correlation means two metrics move together; causation means one actually changes the other. Users who use the wishlist feature may retain better, but they may simply be more engaged users already. Acting on correlation alone can waste effort, such as forcing everyone into the wishlist. To establish causation, run an A/B test, or use quasi-experimental methods such as difference-in-differences when a test is not possible, and always check for confounders like user tenure or acquisition channel.
Scrum works in fixed sprints with defined roles such as product owner and scrum master, planned sprint goals and ceremonies like planning, review and retrospective. Kanban has no sprints: work flows continuously across a board, and work-in-progress limits on each column prevent overload. Kanban measures cycle time and throughput. Scrum suits product development with planned increments; Kanban suits support, operations and reporting requests that arrive unpredictably.
03
Your monthly Excel report takes a full day of manual work. How would you automate it?
Map the steps first: which files arrive, what cleaning is done and which outputs are needed. Move the import and cleaning into Power Query so a refresh replaces copy-paste. Base calculations on Excel Tables and PivotTables that update automatically, and keep a fixed template for the output. Use a small macro or Office Script only for the remaining formatting or emailing. Add checks such as row counts and totals so errors surface quickly.
04
What are the four basic categories of elements in BPMN?
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.
The story is ambiguous, so bring the three amigos together: BA or product owner, a developer and a tester. Walk through concrete examples, including edge cases and error cases, and write them as acceptance criteria, ideally in Given-When-Then format. Add business rules, sample data and mock-ups where needed. Update the story and use the same practice in refinement for future stories, so gaps are found before coding starts.
08
What are UAT entry and exit criteria? Give examples.
Entry criteria are conditions that must be met before UAT starts, for example system and integration testing completed, no open critical defects, UAT environment and test data ready, test cases reviewed and testers trained. Exit criteria define when UAT is complete, for example 100 percent of critical test cases executed, at least 95 percent passed, no open critical or high defects, and workarounds agreed for remaining medium ones. Clear criteria stop arguments about readiness near go-live.
A tracking plan is a document listing every event the product should log, such as 'checkout_started', with its trigger, properties like price, plan or source, naming rules and owner. It keeps data consistent across web, Android and iOS, prevents duplicate or vague events and makes analysis trustworthy. Without one, teams end up with events like 'click1' and 'buttonClick' meaning the same thing, and analysis becomes guesswork.
11
What is horizontal and vertical analysis of financial statements?
Horizontal analysis compares line items across periods, showing growth, for example revenue up 18 percent year on year while employee costs grew 30 percent. Vertical analysis expresses each item as a percentage of a base within one period, such as each expense as a percentage of revenue, or each asset as a percentage of total assets. Together they show both trends and structure, and vertical analysis also makes companies of different size comparable.
XLOOKUP can look left or right, uses exact match by default, returns a custom value if nothing is found and doesn't break when columns move. VLOOKUP only looks right and needs a column number.
13
In UAT cycle 2, a feature that passed in cycle 1 is now broken after a defect fix. What does this tell you and what should change?
It is a regression: the fix for one defect broke existing functionality, which usually means changes were not impact-analysed and there is no regression suite. Log it as a new high-priority defect linked to the fix. Agree with the team that every UAT build comes with release notes listing the changes, and that QA runs an automated or core manual regression pack before handing the build to business testers. Also add the broken flow to the UAT regression checklist.
14
What is the difference between a test scenario and a test case?
A test scenario is a high-level statement of what to test, usually derived from a business process or user story, such as Customer applies a discount coupon at checkout. A test case is a detailed, executable set of steps with preconditions, test data, expected result and actual result, such as applying an expired coupon to a 1,000 rupee cart shows an expiry message. One scenario usually produces several test cases covering positive, negative and edge conditions.
15
A subscription app starts the month with 8,000 customers, gains 1,200 and loses 400. Calculate churn and net growth.
Churn rate uses customers at the start: 400 divided by 8,000 gives 5 percent. Ending customers are 8,000 plus 1,200 minus 400, which is 8,800. Net growth is 800 divided by 8,000, or 10 percent. Do not divide churned customers by the ending count, since new joiners who have not had a chance to churn would understate the churn rate.
Situation: a new city launch was 30 percent below its order target after two months. Task: present the review to the leadership team. Action: I opened with the number directly, then broke the gap into traffic, conversion and repeat rate, showing repeat rate was the main problem. I came with three options with estimated impact and cost. Result: leadership approved a focused retention campaign instead of more ad spend, and repeat rate rose over the next quarter.
19
What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up market sizing?
Top-down starts from a large known number, such as population or total industry size, and narrows it with percentages to the target segment. Bottom-up starts from a unit, such as one store's daily sales or one customer's purchase frequency, and multiplies up by the number of units. Top-down is fast; bottom-up is more grounded in operations. Doing both and comparing results is a strong sanity check.
20
What is backlog refinement and what is the BA's role in it?
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.
21
You added new rows to the source data, but your PivotTable does not show them even after refresh. Why?
The PivotTable source is probably a fixed range such as A1:F500, so rows added below 500 are outside it. The fix is to convert the data to an Excel Table with Ctrl+T and change the pivot's data source to the table name, so it expands automatically. Also check for blank header cells, filters on the pivot hiding new items, and whether the new rows are actually text values in a numeric column, which can change grouping.
22
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.
23
Tell me about a time you found an error in a spreadsheet just before it went to management.
Situation: an hour before a quarterly review I noticed regional totals were higher than the company total. Task: find the issue without delaying the meeting. Action: I traced it to a SUMIFS range that stopped at row 5000 while new data went beyond it, plus one duplicated region. I fixed both, converted the data to an Excel Table, and added a check cell comparing totals. Result: the correct deck went out on time and the check became part of our template.
24
Write a UAT test case for logging in to a banking app with OTP.
Test case ID: UAT-LOGIN-03. Precondition: registered customer with a verified mobile number. Steps: 1. Open the app and enter the registered mobile number. 2. Tap Send OTP. 3. Enter the 6-digit OTP received by SMS within 3 minutes. 4. Tap Verify. Expected result: the customer lands on the account dashboard, and the login is recorded in the activity log. Related negative cases: wrong OTP shows an error, and three wrong attempts lock login for 30 minutes.
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.
26
Write a SQL query to show cumulative revenue by month.
WITH monthly AS (
SELECT DATE_TRUNC('month', order_date) AS month,
SUM(amount) AS revenue
FROM orders
GROUP BY 1
)
SELECT month, revenue,
SUM(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY month) AS cumulative_revenue
FROM monthly
ORDER BY month;
-- add PARTITION BY EXTRACT(YEAR FROM month) to reset each year
27
Write a SQL query to list customers who have never placed an order.
SELECT c.customer_id, c.name
FROM customers c
LEFT JOIN orders o ON o.customer_id = c.customer_id
WHERE o.order_id IS NULL;
-- alternative
SELECT customer_id, name FROM customers c
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT 1 FROM orders o WHERE o.customer_id = c.customer_id
);
Working capital is current assets minus current liabilities, mainly receivables plus inventory minus payables. It is the money tied up in running daily operations. Too little means the company may struggle to pay suppliers and salaries; too much means cash is locked in slow inventory or unpaid customer invoices. Analysts track it because a growing business often needs more working capital, so fast growth can create cash shortages even when the business is profitable.
29
How would you structure a weekly project status update for stakeholders?
Use a short, fixed format. Start with an overall status of green, amber or red and one line explaining it. Then list what was completed this week, what is planned next week, key risks and issues with owners, and decisions needed from stakeholders with dates. Add a link to the detailed tracker. Keep it under one screen, and highlight anything that changed since last week.
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.
Send an agenda with the goal and the decisions needed beforehand, along with any pre-read. Invite only people who contribute or decide. Start by restating the goal, keep to time, park off-topic issues and confirm decisions aloud. End by summarising actions with owners and dates. Send minutes within a day. A meeting without a clear decision or output usually could have been an email.
33
What is the logical order in which a SQL SELECT query is executed?
Logically the database processes FROM and JOIN first, then WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING, SELECT, DISTINCT, ORDER BY and finally LIMIT or TOP. This explains common errors: you cannot use a SELECT alias in WHERE because WHERE runs earlier, aggregate conditions must go in HAVING, and window functions cannot be filtered in WHERE, so you wrap them in a CTE or subquery. The optimiser may physically reorder steps, but the result follows this order.
34
What is the difference between COUNT(*) and COUNT(column)?
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.
36
Write a DAX measure that shows each category's percent share of total sales.
Structure it: households × car-owning share ÷ replacement cycle + first-time buyers + commercial fleet. State each assumption clearly and sanity-check the final number.
38
Explain exclusive, parallel and inclusive gateways in BPMN.
An exclusive gateway (diamond with X) sends the flow down exactly one path based on a condition, for example approved or rejected. A parallel gateway (diamond with +) splits into all paths at once and, when joining, waits for every path to finish. An inclusive gateway (diamond with O) activates one or more paths whose conditions are true and joins only those that were activated. Choosing the wrong one causes deadlocks or duplicated work in automated processes.
Alpha testing is done internally, by employees or a selected group, in a controlled environment before the product is released to outsiders, and aims to catch major issues early. Beta testing releases the product to a limited group of real external users in real conditions to gather feedback on usability, performance and missing features before general release. For a mobile app, beta often uses store testing tracks, and feedback is fed into the final release backlog.
Tips to crack the Mastek Business Analytics interview
Revise programming basics, SQL joins and software testing concepts, as these are commonly checked in Mastek technical discussions.
Show comfort working with overseas clients by preparing examples of clear written communication and teamwork from college or internships.
Read about Mastek's UK government and healthcare work and its Evosys Oracle cloud business before the interview.
Keep a one-minute story ready for every project on your CV: problem, your part, tools, result.
Practise the hard questions on this page aloud; Mastek interviewers usually ask follow-ups on your first answer.
Frequently asked questions
How many rounds are there in the Mastek Business Analytics interview?
Candidates usually go through 4 stages: Online assessment (aptitude + technical MCQs); Technical interview; Managerial round; HR round. The exact rounds change with the role, team, location and your experience, so confirm the process with the recruiter.
Which topics should I prepare for the Mastek Business Analytics interview?
This practice set leans on Excel for Business Analysts (7), SQL for Business Analysis (6), Requirements and Agile (5), UAT and BA Documentation (5). Revise those first, then practise explaining one or two of your own projects end to end, because most Mastek interviewers ask you to walk through real work.
Are these the exact questions asked at Mastek?
No. These are curated practice questions that match the skills and difficulty usually tested in it services interviews like Mastek's. They are not a leaked or verified list of past questions.
Where does Mastek hire Business Analytics professionals in India?
Mastek has large teams in Mumbai, Pune. Openings and locations change often, so check the Mastek careers page and filter by city and experience.
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