ZS Associates Interview Questions

47 total interview insight submissions

Interview Experience (96%)

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.

3.9
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (99%)

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.

3.4
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult
% Interns - FT Offers (99%)

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.

79%
  • 0%
  • 20%
  • 40%
  • 60%
  • 80%
  • 100%
  • 10%
  • 30%
  • 50%
  • 70%
  • 90%

Interviews at ZS Associates

YearPositionLocationGroup/DivisionExperienceDifficulty
2017Decision Analytics AssociateChicagoHealthcarePositiveAverage
Strategy Insights and Planning Associate InternNew YorkDifficult
2021Strategy Insights & Planning InternStrategyVery PositiveDifficult
2020Associate ConsultantprincetonPharmaceuticalsVery PositiveDifficult
2019Strategy Insights and Planning Associate InternPrincetonGeneralistPositiveEasy
2020Summer AssociateLos AngelesN/AVery PositiveDifficult
2014associate New YorkMergers and AcquisitionsNeutralDifficult
2019zs associatesSan FranciscoGeneralistNeutralAverage
2019Summer internshipShanghaiGeneralistNeutralVery Difficult
2019business operation associateEvanstonConsultingVery NegativeAverage

Decision Analytics Associate Interview - Healthcare

Anonymous employee in Chicago

Outcome

Accepted Offer

Interview Source

Applied Online

Length of Process

2-3 months
Interviewed: February 2017 Date Submitted: Nov 15, 2021

Application

Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test

Interview

Phone interview first
Case phone interview
Superday in office that involved multiple fit questions, technical questions, and brainteasers

Interview Questions

Brainteaser
Sample Answer

Strategy Insights and Planning Associate Intern Interview -

Anonymous interview candidate in New York

Outcome

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: Date Submitted: Oct 18, 2021

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Interview

3 30 minute interviews back to back to back. One case, one behavioral, and one unstructured case (more to understand business acumen and strategic thinking), interviewed in the AM, got called with offer in the early evening

Interview Questions

Sample Answer

Strategy Insights & Planning Intern Interview - Strategy

Anonymous employee in

Outcome

Accepted Offer

Interview Source

Employee Referral

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: October 2021 Date Submitted: Oct 17, 2021

Application

1 on 1 Interview
Presentation
Other

Interview

Given that everything is remote now, my interviews (EBI, Structured Case, Unstructured Case) were each held over Zoom and lasted 30-35 minutes per session. They were super flexible with my school/work schedule as well.

Interview Questions

The structured case interview was candidate-led, meaning they simply present the information and ask very open-ended questions like: "What sort of actionable information can you derive?" They don't confirm whether or not you're heading in the right direction with your observations, and will politely scrutinize any concrete answer you give with questions like "Are you sure about that? Can you walk me through the thinking that led to your conclusion again?"

Especially on the portion where a little math is needed will they test the confidence in your calculations. I calculated profit margins for a question about which merger made the most sense to follow, and she asked me to confirm the math 3 times.
Sample Answer

Associate Consultant Interview - Pharmaceuticals

Anonymous employee in princeton

Outcome

Accepted Offer

Interview Source

Recruiter

Length of Process

1-2 months
Interviewed: June 2020 Date Submitted: Dec 25, 2020

Application

Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Presentation
Skills Test
Personality Test
Background Check

Interview

First round 1:1 with Consultant, then 4 interview superday with 1 behavioral, 2 technical/behavioral, and 1 presentation

Interview Questions

Gave time for a 30 minute deck to be built and 15 minutes to present
Sample Answer

Strategy Insights and Planning Associate Intern Interview - Generalist

Anonymous employee in Princeton

Outcome

Accepted Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: November 2019 Date Submitted: Sep 17, 2020

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Interview

One day of interviews; had three different interviews during this time with Principals from various offices. I was asked some behavioral questions and each interview finished with a case interview, centered on life sciences issues.

Interview Questions

Tell me about a time you failed.
Sample Answer

Summer Associate Interview

Anonymous employee in Los Angeles

Outcome

Accepted Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: January 2020 Date Submitted: Feb 14, 2020

Application

1 on 1 Interview
Skills Test
IQ / Intelligence Test
Personality Test

Interview

Very well coordinated process. After applying online you do three interviews consecutively in which your fit/personality and ability to approach cases, both quantitatively and in a more abstract manner, are tested. Notified of decisions within a week after.

Interview Questions

Can't give away details but behavioral, structured and unstructured case, each 25-40min. I'd make sure to know how to approach common/standard behavioral questions and case practices/structuring from Case In Point. Don't get too caught up in the frameworks for case types but rather learn the general approaches. BCG interactive case library was of help during prep too. And no unexpected questions, but during the unstructured you may get a problem you might never have considered in the past, but thats the point, they want to see how you logically go about in approaching a new, sort of random problem type.
Sample Answer

associate Interview - Mergers and Acquisitions

Anonymous interview candidate in New York

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

Recruiter

Length of Process

1-2 months
Interviewed: April 2014 Date Submitted: Jan 15, 2020

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Interview

Two rounds of interviews with both behavior and case study.
How to grow the revenue of a chain store

Interview Questions

How to grow the revenue

 Increase revenue of current restaurants
 No. of customers:
 Attract new customers: more marketing campaign; customer segmentation and enter the new segments; Provide delivery service to approach customers
 Customer retention: improve our service, change the menu, optimize our products offering
 ASP per customers: change the product mix; up-selling


Non- Organic growth
 Acquire
 Benefits: standalone and synergy
 Cost
 Risks


 Open up new restaurants
 Evaluate supply and demand in the new regions
 Current competition landscape
 Market potential


Sample Answer

zs associates Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in San Francisco

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

College / University / On Campus Recruiting

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: October 2019 Date Submitted: Oct 11, 2019

Application

1 on 1 Interview

Interview

3 rounds on campus: one behavioral, one structure, one constructed; people are generally nice and the result is out next day

Interview Questions

It was asking about opening a store and the whole case was very unstructured and I did not have time to write down my thoughts-it is all conversational based and the interviewer keeps asking questions. The behavioral is just fine and consisted of typical behavioral questions. The structured case was not difficult but instead of talking and interacting with each other, they gave me a printed ppt and ask me to read through it and solve problems one by one and I was a bit confused and did not know what to do because I was used to talking
Sample Answer

Summer internship Interview - Generalist

Anonymous interview candidate in Shanghai

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

Applied Online

Length of Process

Less than 1 month
Interviewed: July 2019 Date Submitted: Oct 02, 2019

Application

Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview

Interview

2 M&A case. One is about healthcare industry, one is about auto industry. Quite unique to have two M&A case for the whole interview.
Prepare well for the framework.

Interview Questions

A friend wants to open an art gallery in shanghai, how do you suggest him where to open it?
A new drug case, has sizing in it, should be familiar with the diagnostic flow
Written case: a cookie café found that its sales increased but margin decreased a lot, find out why and give suggestions. Tips: lay out framework first and find information to fill it in, don’t read the whole thing because time is not enough

What’s your biggest failure until now? What do you learn from this failure?
Why do you want to do consulting?
Why ZS?
Why Healthcare?
They value proactiveness
Sample Answer

business operation associate Interview - Consulting

Anonymous interview candidate in Evanston

Outcome

No Offer

Interview Source

Applied Online

Length of Process

1-2 months
Interviewed: May 2019 Date Submitted: Jun 08, 2019

Application

Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Presentation

Interview

After applying online, the recruiter set up a phone call asking basic questions like "why do you want to work for us?" or "what do you know about ZS?". The first round interview is a phone call interview. The interview consists of a simple case and a behavioral which goes in-depth of what you have accomplished. I am still waiting for the next round.

Interview Questions

I would say nothing was unexpected. The phone interview was very standard. The interviewer asked me to do a self-introduction and then just questions about a specific project that I did in the past. I think he was mainly trying to examine my leadership skills and the ability to learn and improve in the future. For the case study, if you some knowledge in knowing about datasets and business, you will be fine. It is really really easy. Just go with the flow and you will be able to solve the problems they gave you.
Sample Answer