EY

1. Application

Apply on the EY careers portal, through a campus drive or via employee referral, which EY uses heavily. Campus hiring runs through the year at CA institutes, commerce colleges, engineering campuses and B-schools, while lateral roles are posted continuously. Make sure your CV highlights the service line you are targeting.

2. CV shortlisting

Recruiters filter on qualification, academic consistency, relevant articleship or work experience and skills. Audit and tax roles favour CA, CA Inter, CMA and commerce graduates; consulting and technology roles look for engineering, MBA and domain certifications; GDS roles often specify tools such as SAP, Power BI or Python.

3. Online assessment

Most campus and many entry-level lateral candidates take an online test covering aptitude, logical reasoning, verbal ability and, for technology roles, coding or technical multiple-choice questions. Some roles include a psychometric or situational judgement section and a short English communication check.

4. Group discussion or case exercise

Campus candidates and consulting applicants usually face a group discussion on a business or current-affairs topic, or a short case study to be analysed and presented. Assessors look at structure, listening, contribution quality and how you handle disagreement.

5. Technical and managerial interviews

One or two interviews with a manager or senior manager, each 30 to 45 minutes. Audit interviews cover accounting standards, auditing procedures and articleship work; tax interviews cover income tax, GST and transfer pricing basics; consulting interviews use mini cases; technology interviews test programming, data and cloud skills.

6. Partner or director interview

The final round is a conversation with a partner or director focused on motivation, client-facing potential, integrity and long-term interest in the practice. It is usually shorter but decisive.

7. Offer and onboarding

Offers are typically released within one to three weeks, followed by document and background verification. Campus hires join in cohorts with structured induction and, for some lines, mandatory certifications.

EY India and EY GDS run broadly similar rounds; GDS technology roles add a stronger technical component, while EY India client-facing roles weigh the partner round more heavily.

Round 1: Online aptitude and technical test

60 to 90 minutes, online. Sections on quantitative aptitude, logical reasoning and verbal ability, with a domain or coding section depending on the role. Cut-offs are applied per section.

• Percentages, ratios, data interpretation and time-based problems
• Syllogisms, series and arrangement puzzles
• Accounting and tax multiple-choice questions for audit and tax roles
• Programming, SQL and logic questions for technology roles

Round 2: Group discussion or case study

15 to 25 minutes in groups of eight to twelve for campus hiring, or a 30 minute individual case for consulting roles. Assessors score structure, relevance, teamwork and communication rather than volume of speech.

• Topics on the Indian economy, technology adoption or business ethics
• A short case on whether a company should enter a new market
• Analysing a simple profit-and-loss scenario and recommending actions

Round 3: Technical interview

30 to 45 minutes with a manager or senior consultant from the practice. Questions are drawn from your qualification and any articleship or project work on your CV.

• Ind AS revenue recognition, leases and financial instruments
• Audit procedures, sampling, materiality and internal controls
• GST input tax credit, TDS provisions and income computation
• Java, Python, SAP modules, data engineering or cloud fundamentals

Round 4: Managerial or senior manager interview

30 to 40 minutes on how you work: handling client deadlines, teaming, pressure during busy season and your understanding of the service line's business.

• A time you managed multiple deliverables with a tight deadline
• How you would respond to a client pushing back on an audit finding
• What you understand about EY's approach to technology-enabled audit

Round 5: Partner or director round

20 to 30 minutes with a partner or director. It covers motivation, career goals, integrity and whether you can represent EY in front of clients, plus a few questions on current business and regulatory developments.

Round 6: HR discussion

A short conversation on compensation, designation, location, notice period and joining date.