Can You give us an Example of a Rhetorical Question?

IIM Calcutta WAT/PI Experience – 09th March, Monarch Luxur, Bangalore, 8:00 AM.

Profile:

X/XII – 94.2/93.2

B.E. (Chemical Engg) – 7.92

19 months of Workex at Oracle Applications.

CAT ’15 – 99.75

WAT – Something about freedom of press and no corruption in media being vital to a successful democracy. Straight forward topic, with valid recent examples of events, so I’m guessing everyone would’ve done a decent job here.

PI – 1 F (30s), 2 M (one 50ish, other one mid 30s)

I was the last one in my slot. I guess they were probably bored of all the regular questions (and answers) by then, because none of the expected questions came my way.

I walked in, and asked to be seated.

M1 – Why are you asking? The chair is for you to sit, who else? (laughs at his own joke, then proceeds to tell me how this was an example of a rhetorical question)

M2 – Can you give us an example of a rhetorical question?

Me – explain a similar scenario involving a glass of water which is *obviously* meant for drinking, in much the same way as the chair was *obviously* meant to be sat upon.

M1 – Hmm, you sound confident but I’m not sure about your example.

Me – Said that it might not exactly be a rhetorical statement, however this was the best I could come up with on the fly.

M2 (who was meanwhile going through the form, and no doubt asks this question since he notices that college is in Goa) – why is Uber not operating in Goa?

Me – Explained about how the taxi union has influence there etc.

M2 – Granted, but can you think of a more obvious reason?

Me – (Realising what he is hinting at)  Talked about how demand is not that high in Goa, in proportion to its large area, since it’s a state and not a city. Explained how cab aggregators work and why the model would fail in Goa.

M1, M2 seem satisfied with this.

F steps in at this point, and it becomes clear that she was the one tasked with asking the quintessential-IIM-C-interview-maths-question.

F (going through my transcript) – Hmm, seems like you did courses on Operations Research and Optimization in college.

Me – (shit.)

F – Do you remember what topics you studied?

Me – Mention a few random things like Linear programming, Shortest path algorithms, network models etc.

F – (face lights up) Great! So you will be able to answer questions on those!

Me – (With an equally wide smile) No ma’am.

F – Okay what about integration?

Me – No.

F – Differentiation?

Me – No.

F – Matrices?

Me – No.

This back-and-forth went on for a while, until I finally gave up and made a “fine, ask whatever you want” face. She finally settled on probability. Luckily had already encountered a question similar to the one she asked (a conditional probability question), so was able to solve.

M2 – Recently there was news about a case in the SC involving your college (BITS Pilani) and their right to award degrees outside the main campus. (I am from BITS Goa).

M1 – Suppose SC passes a ruling in favour of UGC, and your degree becomes invalid. Then we can’t give you admission. What will you do?

Me – (wtf!) Said that first of all, any such ruling would not be retrospective, it would take into account that people who have already graduated, their degrees would remain valid.

M2 – Chalo, what if I say that even that is not considered, and your degree is actually made invalid. Obviously this is unfair. Now who will you sue? IIMs, BITS Pilani, or UGC?

Me – Sir I can’t make a judgement call on a legal issue without having all the facts. In case what you said actually happens, I would need all details about the ruling of the SC, and only then can I decide legal course of action.

M1 – So you are saying that you’re a cautious sort of person?

Me – Said that rather that calling it cautiousness, I just like to have all the information I can get before making a decision, especially in a situation like this. Would not like to assign blame to one party without all the facts.

F, M1, M2 look at each other.

M2 – Thanks Rohan, we are done. Any questions?

Me – Asked about the football culture at IIM C, since I love playing.

M2 – Explains a bit about how some people do play, etc. Ends up calling Futsal something totally different, and I have to hold back a smirk.

M1 – Don’t worry, you won’t get any time to play football there.

Me – Sir, I will try my best to make some time for it.

Thanked them and left. All this was a little over 10 minutes. And nothing at all from my profile, academics, work experience, or career goals.