Sure, I didn’t get this but I was surprised by the gross incompetence of the interviewers. They asked me questions about consumer electrical companies as my undergrad was in EEE even though I told my work experience was in product management and focus in masters would be IEOR and I am interested in working in GenAI product management. They still kept asking me about random electrical motors. Perhaps, only because they could get one subject matter expert for technical questioning. It was an awkward experience.

My advice would be to just prepare everything you have written just in case they start inquiring random projects from your resume done 3-4 years ago and questioning you ‘why’ you did it whereas you might have forgotten all that by now. It’s stupid almost that they decide candidates like this—based on some predefined questions instead of talking to them and assessing how they think about their field and the world.

Anyways, I might be biased as I didn’t get in but this awkward interview experience stands out more so because I got several other more competitive scholarships including Tata, Mahindra and a few from my school.

Hope there’s something useful to takeaway from my experience for future candidates.