Placement question bank: Screening / shortlisting call
Every question in our placement bank for the screening / shortlisting call, ordered from the ones you will certainly be asked to the ones that separate a rehearsed answer from a real one. This is a drill, not a simulation: the interviewer moves briskly and does not build a scene.
An intermediate-level session of about 14 minutes. 12 questions, each answered out loud.
The person running a screening call has a list, and you are one line on it. The questions are short and the answers are meant to be short. Branch, aggregate, arrears, relocation — these are facts you already have, and what goes wrong is the decoration around them: a backlog answered in four sentences sounds worse than the backlog. Nothing in this round is asking you to be impressive. It exists to decide whether you go forward at all, so it tests eligibility and availability rather than ability: what you have scored, what you still owe the university, where you will go, when you can start. The relocation question is the one to settle first. Anywhere in India works, and so does a plain limit with a reason behind it — decide which you mean beforehand, because it is not a question you can think through while answering it.
Angles worth taking
- Answer the arrears question in one sentence with the number and the current status, and let the interviewer decide whether to dig.
- Give your aggregate as it stands today, including the semester that pulled it down, before anyone asks you to reconcile it.
- Time the one-minute introduction against a real clock; the cut almost always has to come out of the opening.
- When a question genuinely does not apply to you, say so and stop, rather than building an example to fill the slot.
- Keep repeated details identical across the twelve — a date or a figure that shifts between answers is the one picked up.
Who is in the room
You play
A final-year student practising a full round
You speak with
An interviewer working through a fixed question list at a campus drive, brisk and neutral
Phrases to reach for
These are shown to you before the session starts. They are what you are asked to use, not a list the scorer is checking off.
Ready to speak?
Free to start. You need a TalkDrill account to speak — reading this page does not.
Browse all mock interview roundsThe format
Questions in this round
12
Modes
Learn (guided) · Mock (exam-real)
How a mock interview session works
Pick a round
HR, behavioural, or a role-specific set. Each one tells you how many questions it runs and roughly how long it takes.
Answer out loud
Questions come one at a time and you speak the answer. There is a clock, because a two-minute answer and a five-minute answer are different answers.
Take the follow-ups
Answers get followed up. A vague claim gets pressed on, which is what separates a rehearsed answer from a true one.
Read the report
Structure, evidence, filler and pace per answer, plus the one answer worth recording again before the real thing.
What you're scored on
Every round is assessed the same way, because interviewers are broadly consistent about what a good spoken answer contains.
Answer every question with a specific, structured answer. If you do not have an example, say so and move on rather than inventing one.
Structure
Whether the answer has a shape — situation, action, result — or arrives somewhere by accident after ninety seconds.
Evidence
Specifics over adjectives. "We cut it from six days to two" against "we improved the process significantly".
Relevance
Whether you answered the question asked, including the follow-up, rather than the question you prepared for.
Delivery
Pace, filler words, and whether the last third of the answer is as clear as the first.
More mock interview rounds
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