PhD Interview

Algorithms and complexity: NP-completeness and reductions, approximation and randomised algorithms, amortised analysis, and when a candidate can prove a bound rather than quote it · Systems: memory hierarchy and cache behaviour, concurrency and consistency models, distributed consensus (Paxos, Raft), CAP trade-offs and how they shape real databases · Machine learning and deep learning: bias-variance and generalisation, optimisation (SGD, Adam), transformers and attention, evaluation leakage, and the limits of benchmarks · Theory of computation and programming languages: decidability, type systems, formal verification, compilers and static analysis · Networks and security: TCP congestion control, SDN, public-key cryptography and TLS, side channels, and threat modelling · Databases and data engineering: query optimisation, transaction isolation levels, indexing, columnar storage, and stream processing · Research craft in CSE: reproducibility, baselines and ablations, artefact evaluation, venue tiers (SIGCOMM, SOSP, NeurIPS, ICSE) versus predatory journals · Teaching CSE at UG level: making recursion, pointers, OS scheduling or Bayes' theorem click for a mixed-ability B.Tech class

24+ seeded questions

Signals and systems: Fourier, Laplace and z-transforms as design tools, sampling and aliasing, filter design, and what the Nyquist criterion really guarantees · Analog and digital VLSI: CMOS scaling, short-channel effects, FinFET and GAA transitions, timing closure, low-power design, and verification · Communication systems: modulation trade-offs, channel capacity and coding (LDPC, polar codes), MIMO and beamforming, 5G NR and the road to 6G · Power systems and power electronics: load flow and stability, converter topologies, grid integration of solar and wind, inverters, HVDC and smart grids · Control systems: stability margins, state-space design, observers, robustness, and model predictive control in practice · Embedded systems and IoT: real-time constraints, RTOS scheduling, energy harvesting, sensor fusion and edge inference · Electromagnetics and devices: antennas, waveguides, photonics, semiconductor physics, and measurement uncertainty · Research craft in ECE: simulation versus fabrication evidence, tape-out and test chips, IEEE Transactions standards, and reproducible measurement

24+ seeded questions

Thermodynamics and heat transfer: entropy generation and exergy analysis, combustion, refrigeration cycles, and conjugate heat-transfer modelling · Fluid mechanics and CFD: turbulence modelling (RANS, LES), boundary layers, verification and validation, and mesh independence · Solid mechanics and design: fatigue and fracture, finite-element formulation and convergence, composites, and failure theories applied to a real component · Manufacturing and materials: additive manufacturing, machining dynamics, microstructure-property relations, Industry 4.0 and digital twins · Structural engineering: limit-state design per IS 456 and IS 800, seismic design per IS 1893, performance-based design, and retrofitting · Geotechnical and transportation: bearing capacity, consolidation, slope stability, pavement design, traffic flow models and road safety · Water resources and environment: hydrology and flood modelling, water treatment, climate-resilient infrastructure, life-cycle assessment · Research craft in mechanical and civil: experimental uncertainty, scale-model similitude, code-calibrated reliability, and field validation

24+ seeded questions

Quantum mechanics: measurement and entanglement, perturbation theory, scattering, path integrals, and what decoherence does and does not explain · Statistical mechanics: ensembles, phase transitions and critical phenomena, renormalisation group ideas, non-equilibrium and fluctuation theorems · Condensed matter: band theory, topological phases, superconductivity (BCS and unconventional), 2D materials, and experimental probes such as ARPES and STM · Electrodynamics and optics: gauge invariance, radiation, nonlinear and quantum optics, lasers, and metamaterials · High-energy, nuclear and astrophysics: the Standard Model and its gaps, neutrino physics, dark matter candidates, gravitational waves, and cosmological parameters · Experimental methods: error analysis, signal-to-noise, detector physics, cryogenics, vacuum, and what a 5-sigma result means · Computational physics: Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, DFT, finite-difference time-domain, and the reproducibility of simulations · Teaching physics at UG level: making entropy, the uncertainty principle or Maxwell's equations intuitive without losing rigour

24+ seeded questions

Organic chemistry: mechanism and stereochemistry, named reactions as tools, asymmetric catalysis, retrosynthesis of a real target, and total synthesis logic · Inorganic and organometallic: ligand field theory, catalytic cycles (cross-coupling, hydroformylation), bioinorganic centres, MOFs and coordination polymers · Physical chemistry: thermodynamics versus kinetics control, transition-state theory, electrochemistry and batteries, spectroscopy selection rules · Analytical and characterisation: NMR (1D and 2D), mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, XPS and electron microscopy, and limits of detection · Materials and nanochemistry: perovskites, quantum dots, polymers, self-assembly, and structure-property relationships · Computational chemistry: DFT functionals and their failures, basis sets, molecular dynamics force fields, and benchmarking against experiment · Green and sustainable chemistry: atom economy, solvent choice, CO2 capture and conversion, hydrogen and electrocatalysis · Research craft in chemistry: purity and yield reporting, reproducibility of synthesis, safety and hazard assessment, and journal standards

24+ seeded questions

Analysis: measure theory and Lebesgue integration, functional analysis (Banach and Hilbert spaces, spectral theorem), and PDE well-posedness · Algebra and number theory: group and ring structure theorems, Galois theory, modules, representation theory, elliptic curves and modular forms at a conversational level · Topology and geometry: fundamental group and covering spaces, homology, manifolds and differential forms, curvature · Probability and stochastic processes: martingales, Markov chains and mixing, Brownian motion, concentration inequalities, large deviations · Statistical inference: likelihood and Bayesian paradigms, asymptotics, hypothesis testing pitfalls, multiple comparisons, and causal inference · Applied and computational mathematics: numerical linear algebra, optimisation (convex and non-convex), finite elements, and error analysis · Statistical learning and data science: regularisation, cross-validation, high-dimensional statistics, and the reproducibility crisis · Teaching mathematics at UG level: motivating epsilon-delta, linear independence or the Central Limit Theorem for a B.Sc. or B.Tech class

24+ seeded questions

Molecular biology and genetics: transcription regulation, epigenetics, CRISPR-Cas systems and off-target effects, RNA biology, and genome editing ethics · Cell biology and biochemistry: signalling cascades, protein folding and misfolding, enzyme kinetics, metabolism and its regulation · Evolution and ecology: population genetics, phylogenetics, speciation, community ecology, biodiversity loss and conservation in India · Microbiology and immunology: antimicrobial resistance, innate and adaptive immunity, vaccine platforms, host-pathogen interactions · Plant and animal physiology: photosynthesis efficiency, stress biology, hormones, neurobiology, and model organisms · Biotechnology and bioinformatics: recombinant proteins, bioprocess scale-up, next-generation sequencing pipelines, structural prediction with AlphaFold, and omics integration · Experimental design and biostatistics: controls, replicates, p-hacking, sample size, and why many biology findings fail to replicate · Research ethics and regulation: animal ethics committees, biosafety levels, DBT and ICMR guidelines, and informed consent

24+ seeded questions

Literary theory and criticism: structuralism to post-structuralism, Marxist and feminist criticism, postcolonial theory (Said, Spivak, Bhabha), ecocriticism, and how a candidate actually uses theory on a text · British literature: Shakespeare and early modern drama, Romanticism, the Victorian novel, modernism (Eliot, Woolf, Joyce), and contemporary British writing · Indian writing in English and in translation: Tagore, Raja Rao, Anita Desai, Amitav Ghosh, Dalit literature, and debates on the canon and language politics · American and world literatures: Transcendentalism, Harlem Renaissance, postmodern American fiction, Latin American and African anglophone writing · Linguistics and ELT: phonology and syntax basics, sociolinguistics, World Englishes, second-language acquisition, and English for Indian classrooms · Research methods in literary studies: archival work, close reading versus distant reading, digital humanities, citation ethics and MLA conventions · Pedagogy of literature: teaching a poem or play to first-generation learners, NEP 2020 multilingualism, and assessment of writing · Current debates: canon revision, translation studies, caste and gender in Indian English, AI and authorship

24+ seeded questions

Historiography and method: sources and their critique, subaltern studies, Cambridge versus nationalist schools, archives, oral history and public history · Ancient and medieval India: state formation, Harappan debates, Mauryan and Gupta polities, Delhi Sultanate and Mughal administration, bhakti and Sufi movements · Modern India: colonial economy and drain theory, peasant and tribal revolts, the national movement and its strands, partition, and the making of the Constitution · World history: revolutions, imperialism, the two world wars, decolonisation, the Cold War and its historiography · Political theory: liberty, equality, justice (Rawls, Sen, Ambedkar), democracy and its critics, secularism in the Indian context · Indian government and politics: federalism, judiciary and basic structure, electoral politics and parties, social movements, and constitutional amendments · International relations and comparative politics: realism versus liberalism, India's foreign policy, the Indo-Pacific, multilateral institutions, and comparative democratisation · Research craft in history and political science: framing a question, mixed methods, survey design, ethics of fieldwork, and writing without partisan slant

24+ seeded questions

Sociological theory: Durkheim, Weber, Marx, functionalism and conflict theory, Bourdieu and Giddens, and Indian sociologists such as M.N. Srinivas, Ghurye and Dube · Indian society: caste and its transformations, religion and secularism, kinship and gender, tribes, urbanisation and migration, and the sociology of development · Social research methods: ethnography, survey design and sampling, mixed methods, reflexivity, ethics of studying vulnerable groups · Cognitive and biological psychology: memory and attention models, neural correlates, replication issues in priming and social psychology · Developmental, social and personality psychology: attachment, identity, prejudice and intergroup relations, the Big Five and cross-cultural validity · Clinical and counselling psychology: DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 frameworks, CBT and other evidence-based therapies, the Mental Healthcare Act 2017, and Indian mental-health realities · Psychometrics and statistics: reliability and validity, factor analysis, test adaptation for Indian languages, effect sizes and pre-registration · Applied fields: organisational behaviour, educational psychology, social policy, and the public role of the social scientist

24+ seeded questions

Microeconomic theory: consumer and producer theory, general equilibrium, game theory and mechanism design, information asymmetry and contract theory · Macroeconomics: DSGE and its critics, monetary transmission and the RBI's inflation-targeting framework, fiscal rules and FRBM, growth models from Solow to endogenous growth · Econometrics and causal inference: identification, instrumental variables, difference-in-differences, RCTs and their critics, panel data methods, and machine learning in economics · Development economics: poverty measurement, India's structural transformation, labour informality, MGNREGA and DBT evaluations, and the welfare state debate · Indian economy: GST and fiscal federalism, banking stress and IBC, agriculture pricing and MSP, trade policy and PLI, and demographic dividend · International and financial economics: exchange-rate regimes, capital flows, trade theory and global value chains, financial crises · Public economics and political economy: taxation incidence, public goods, Finance Commission devolution, and institutions and growth · Research craft in economics: data sources (NSS, PLFS, CMIE, RBI DBIE), replication, pre-analysis plans, and writing a referee-proof empirical paper

24+ seeded questions

Financial reporting: Ind AS and IFRS convergence, revenue recognition (Ind AS 115), leases (Ind AS 116), fair value measurement, and earnings management · Corporate finance: capital structure theories and evidence, cost of capital, dividend policy, valuation methods, and Indian evidence on each · Auditing and governance: SA standards, auditor independence, NFRA, board structures under the Companies Act 2013 and SEBI LODR, and recent corporate failures · Taxation: income-tax law principles, GST design and compliance, international taxation, transfer pricing and BEPS Pillar Two · Financial markets and investments: market efficiency and anomalies, asset pricing models, behavioural finance, derivatives, SEBI regulation and mutual funds · Cost and management accounting: activity-based costing, budgeting, performance measurement, and sustainability (ESG and BRSR) reporting · Banking and fintech: NPAs and resolution, UPI and digital payments, fintech regulation, financial inclusion · Research craft in commerce: event studies, panel regressions on CMIE Prowess data, survey-based research, and avoiding spurious findings

24+ seeded questions

Strategy theory: resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, Porter and its critics, business model innovation, and platform competition · Marketing: consumer behaviour theory, segmentation and positioning, digital and performance marketing, brand equity measurement, and marketing analytics · Organisational behaviour and HRM: motivation theories and their evidence, leadership research, high-performance work systems, diversity and inclusion, gig work · Operations and supply chain: lean and six sigma, inventory and queueing models, supply-chain resilience after disruptions, operations analytics · Finance for managers and entrepreneurship: unit economics, venture funding, start-up failure research, family business in India · Research methods in management: survey design and common-method bias, structural equation modelling, case-study method (Yin, Eisenhardt), qualitative rigour, and experiments · Indian management context: MSMEs, informal sector, public-sector management, bottom-of-the-pyramid markets, and ethics and CSR under the Companies Act · Teaching management: case-method facilitation, simulations, assessing group work, and industry connect

24+ seeded questions