Cognizant Interview Questions (2024) - 4 Entries

Cognizant Interview Questions

4 total interview insight submissions

Interview Experience (69%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

3.5

Very Negative
Negative
Neutral
Positive
Very Positive

Interview Difficulty (75%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

2.8

Very Easy
Easy
Average
Difficult
Very Difficult

% Interns - FT Offers (79%)

The % of Interns Getting a Full Time Offer chart is meant to provide a realistic estimate of the hiring practices of the company based on the reviews at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few reviews). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to the simple company average and away from the average of the entire data set.

60%

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100%

Interviews at Cognizant

Get Prepared

Year

Job Title

Group/Division

Location

Experience

Difficulty

1st Year Analyst

Year 2021

Job Title 1st Year Analyst

Group/Division Mergers and Acquisitions

Location New York

Experience

Very Positive

Difficulty

Average

1st Year Analyst

Year 2015

Job Title 1st Year Analyst

Group/Division Other

Location New York

Experience

Positive

Difficulty

Easy

1st Year Analyst

Year 2014

Job Title 1st Year Analyst

Group/Division Technology Consulting

Location Topeka

Experience

Positive

Difficulty

Average

1st Year Associate

Year 2014

Job Title 1st Year Associate

Group/Division Generalist

Location New York

Experience

Very Negative

Difficulty

Average

Interview Questions & Answers - Cognizant Examples

Business Analyst Interview - Mergers and Acquisitions

Anonymous employee in New York

Interviewed: March 2021

Date Submitted: Aug 14, 2021

Outcome

Accepted Offer

Interview Source

Applied Online

Length of Process

2-3 months

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Personality Test

Interview

Applied online, had a virtual pre-recorded interview and personality test, followed by one 1 on 1 case interview.

Interview Questions

A situation where I have to convince a client's colleague that my approach is correct.

Sample Answer

analyst Interview - Other

Anonymous interview candidate in New York

Interviewed: 2015

Date Submitted: Nov 30, 2015

Outcome

Declined Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Interview

One on One first and final interview on campus. Wasn't difficult, there were two managers from specific departments and an HR lady to help out. They were both indian and had strong accents and knew mainly technical knowledge. They wanted to know about the programming experience on my resume that were related to the role, mainly MATLAB and design. The department was engineering manufacturing solutions so it was directly related to the questions.

Interview Questions

what were your toughest programming experiences? Nothing much else out of the ordinary, tell me about yourself and why cognizant? The usual questions

Sample Answer

Technology Solutions Analyst Interview - Technology Consulting

Anonymous employee in Topeka

Interviewed: October 2014

Date Submitted: Oct 12, 2015

Outcome

Accepted Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

1-2 months

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Background Check

Interview

Had first round interview on campus, very relaxed - asked why Cognizant and talk about the firm and consulting in general. Next steps was a behavioral and technical interview at the corporate headquarters. The behavioral was very easy, just talked about Cognizant careers options - the technical was more about your experience.

Interview Questions

Talk about a process improvement- the interviewer went into depth about my ITIL experience and how I used at a previous internship.

Sample Answer

Equity Research Associate Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in New York

Interviewed: March 2014

Date Submitted: Mar 23, 2014

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

Employee Referral

Length of Process

Less than 1 month

Application

Phone Interview

Interview

They started off asking me what my desired salary would be (really??) and I said "similar" to my current non-finance salary which is ~$100k. They indicated that they pay people with 4 years of experience $75K but may be able to get $80 for me if this works out. So awkward! Then I had 2nd phone interview with people who are based in India, but the connection was so bad that we kept getting disconnected and having to reschedule. I ended up stopping the interview process because I could tell that they did not have their act together, not a place I need to be!

Interview Questions

The questions I received by the firm were pretty standard, nothing unexpected really. The first question was what valuation experience I had? Had I worked with DCF? LBO? etc.

Then they took the step to quiz me a bit on valuation and accounting, nothing you do not already see in most investment banking blogs. How do the three financial statements fit together? etc. FYI:
The bottom line of the income statement is net income. Net income links to both the balance sheet and cash flow statement.
In terms of the balance sheet, net income flows into stockholder’s equity via retained earnings. Retained earnings is equal to the previous period’s retained earnings plus net income from this period less dividends from this period.
In terms of the cash flow statement, net income is the first line as it is used to calculate cash flows from operations. Also, any non-cash expenses or non-cash income from the income statement (i.e., depreciation and amortization) flow into the cash flow statement and adjust net income to arrive at cash flow from operations.
Any balance sheet items that have a cash impact (i.e., working capital, financing, PP&E, etc.) are linked to the cash flow statement since it is either a source or use of cash. The net change in cash on the cash flow statement and cash from the previous period’s balance sheet comprise cash for this period.

Sample Answer

Cognizant