JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPMC) Interview Experience 2018 | (For Data Science Profile)

Online Test:

JPMC came to our college IIT Guwahati to hire for both Quant Research and Data Science profile. They conducted an hour online test on CoCubes platform. The test consisted of two sections as follows:

The first section consisted of 30 MCQs including quantitative aptitude, mathematics, computer science questions(Test Duration – 30 mins). The second section consisted of 2 coding questions(Test Duration – 30 mins):

1. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/sum-numbers-formed-root-leaf-paths/
2. https://www.techiedelight.com/find-possible-combinations-words-formed-from-mobile-keypad/

Each student got a different question set for both quant and coding round.

Tips & suggestions: Wrong answers were awarded negative marking in the quant round. Attempt questions wisely and mark only if you are confident about your answer. I would suggest doing practice for quant questions from Mathematics Stack Exchange. It has plenty of questions on probability and expectation topics which will help you to cover almost all models. Mathematics questions were JEE level and can be attempted easily. Do keep a check on your calculations and read questions thoroughly. Data structures, algorithms & time complexity calculation knowledge will be enough to answer computer science MCQs. For the coding round, be attentive and active, as time allotted is only 30 minutes for two coding questions. Revise dynamic memory allocation, will be very useful.

After this round, 21 students were shortlisted for QR profile and 25 students were shortlisted for DS profile. I got shortlisted for both.

Round 1 :

1. The interviewer started the conversation by asking, “Let’s start with telling me something about yourself?”
   Tips – This may seem to be a straightforward question, but your answer to this question will convey a lot to the interviewer. So, I would suggest you prepare well for this question beforehand. And most likely this will be the very first question in almost all the interviews.
2. Write a recursive function to print a string in C.
3. Write a function to print all permutations of an integer array in C.
   Tips – Explain your logic along with writing the code. Practice writing code on paper. Most important thing is that you are able to explain your logic well to the interviewer.
4. An elementary probability question.
5. Given two random variables A & B having uniform pdf, find the probability of a²>=2*b.
6. We throw a dice thrice. What is the probability that we obtain 3 numbers in strictly increasing order?
   Tips – Revise p&c and probability concepts. Try to present your logical understanding of the problem.

Finally, he concluded the round by asking if I had any question for him. I asked him about his experience at JPMC and if there is any specific program at JPMC which enables the employees to learn about newer technologies.

Round 2:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. The interviewer explained to me about the difference between both the profiles i.e. quant research and data science. He asked me which profile I prefer more and why?
3. Tell me about all programming languages that you know and the purpose you used it for. Then he asked few basic Python programming language questions. He asked me about the enum function in python and what all libraries I have used in python for my machine learning & deep learning projects.
4. Among all the projects, which project you are most comfortable in explaining?
   As I had prepared all my projects well, I asked him to choose. He asked me to explain about my final year B.Tech. project. I told him about all the work done in the project until now and further modifications that we are planning to do.
5. He asked a passage type question on expectation. He asked me to tell him the expected payoff of throwing a dice. Then he further asked, if you are not satisfied with the outcome of the first throw and allowed to throw again, what will be the expected pay off the game now.

Finally, he concluded the round by asking if I had any question for him. I asked him about his experience at JPMC and the type of projects JPMC India is working on currently.

Round 3:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Trapping Rain Water problem.
   He asked me which programming language I am comfortable in and asked me to write the C++ program for the problem on paper. Tips – Explain the logic clearly and finally talk in terms of space and time complexity.
3. He asked me how comfortable I am with data structures. He finally asked me to design a data structure in which we can insert(), delete(), search() and getRandom() in O(1) time complexity. I was stuck in between, but he gave me slight hint which helped me in finally designing the data structure.
   Tips – Don’t give up on problems easily. Try asking for hints if you are stuck for a long time.

Round 4:

In this round, the interviewer seemed really cool but this turned out to be the most difficult round.

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. The interviewer asked questions based on my intern experiences and on projects I am currently working on.
3. Did you get a pre-placement offer at the company you previously interned? I said yes. To which he further asked the reason behind rejecting the PPO.
4. Design Google Maps. I clarified if this is a system design question to which he answered in affirmative. I told him that I have not studied system design and might not be able to answer certain technical concepts. Still, he wanted me to attempt this question. I gave a brief idea about the data structure that I will use for this app. Then he asked me some technical questions and kept pointing out the flaw in my design and constantly asked me to improve my solution. I mainly answered these questions in data science perspective.

Round 5 (HR Round):

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. The interviewer gave a brief background about himself and then shared few experiences from his college days.
3. Which profile I prefer more.
4. Told me about the various teams at JPMC and various projects they are currently working on.
5. Why finance? Any past experiences that demonstrate my interest in finance.
   Tips – The interviewer is trying to know how keen you are to learn about finance. Don’t bore him with nitty-gritty details of the courses that you have done related to this field.

Finally, he concluded the round by asking if I had any question for him. I asked him about his experience at JPMC and how JPMC helps fresher to learn about finance and risk management.

After the completion of the process, 5 people got selected (3 for QR & 2 for DS, I got selected for DS profile).

Tips – Be confident during the interview. The interviewer is more interested in your thinking process rather than the correct answer. Keep smiling during the interview and handshake firmly with the interviewer. Most importantly, be yourself! 🙂

Thanks a lot to GeeksforGeeks in playing a major role in learning about data structures and algorithms.