American Express

As a fourth-year IIT Roorkee student, I recently secured a Data Science role at American Express through our on-campus placements, a position open to all branches with no CGPA criteria that offers a CTC of ₹23.4 LPA for undergraduates and ₹24 LPA for postgraduates. The placement process kicked off with a resume shortlisting phase that ultimately allowed all applicants to proceed to an easy-to-medium online test on Unstop, which comprised 24 numerical ability, 24 logical reasoning, and 12 coding questions—a few of which interestingly matched a shared reference document I had studied. This was followed by two rounds of blended technical and HR interviews. The first round featured a self-introduction, an honest discussion about my specific project contributions where my transparency was highly appreciated, an SQL table analysis, a guesstimate on the annual sales of 1 kg Bikaneri Bhujiya packets, and questions regarding my knowledge of the company. The second round challenged me to highlight two significant real-world problem-solving experiences from my resume, followed by an interrupted guesstimate on the weight of the International Space Station and a classic weighing puzzle involving ten boxes of 10 gm and 20 gm balls. Although I couldn't perfectly solve the final puzzle, the interviewer valued the three different approaches I presented, reinforcing my ultimate takeaways from this rigorous but rewarding milestone: sincerity regarding your experiences, a structured approach to problem-solving, and diligent preparation are crucial keys to achieving success.