List of top Questions asked in XAT

Humane Dynamix is a leadership training organization based in Mumbai. Established in 2015, the organization is gradually becoming a leader in behavioral training. In the organization, trainers are assigned to training projects based on their expertise. Corporates seek behavioral training services on a regular basis, from Humane Dynamix, for upskilling their executives. Humane Dynamix is headed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), to whom the Training Assignment Officer (TAO) reports. The TAO position rotates among the senior trainers for a fixed tenure; the CEO assigns this position to a senior trainer.
Companies, desirous of hiring Humane Dynamix, share their training needs with the organization. The TAO assigns a trainer to the client. Typically, the satisfied client requests for a particular trainer that the client is satisfied, giving repeat business to Humane Dynamix from the same client company. However, the TAO takes the nal call. Years of training experience plays a big role in client satisfaction, and hence, senior trainers conduct most training programs while the newly recruited trainers apprentice with them. However, the senior trainers have the autonomy to decide on who they want to accept as an apprentice..
Further, during a training program, the senior trainer takes most of the sessions, if not all, while the apprentice helps the senior trainers to organize their sessions, and occasionally take a few sessions. As the apprentices gain experience, they start getting their own independent projects, but that typically takes quite some time..
Dheeraj, a senior trainer, takes over as the TAO. As soon as he assumes the office, the CEO shares a concern with him: “We have a lot of young trainers who we have recently recruited. Since they are not known to the outside world, they do not get enough opportunities. Many of them are impatient to prove their mettle. Unless they are assigned more programs, we risk losing them rapidly.”

KindCare hospital, located in the small industrial town of Chinar, is one of the largest hospitals within 50 kilometers radius. It is well-regarded among the locals for emergency services.
However, for critical surgeries, they prefer to travel to the nearest city Shamili, which is 100 kilometers away. When KindCare was established 50 years ago, the town was still in its early stages of development. 
Consequently, the hospital needed to incorporate several facilities within its premises, including a 24-hour cafeteria, to accommodate needs of the patients and their relatives who would come from nearby places. Another facility that KindCare built and takes pride in is its state-of-the-art testing lab. It is the most sought after testing lab in Chinar even today when many independent labs have come up around KindCare. Moreover, many other facilities have also come up in the surrounding area of the hospital such as pharmacies, food joints, hotels etc. Further, a standalone pharmacy chain has gained a strong foothold in Chinar as they expand their reach into Tier-3 cities.
When it comes to KindCare, a signi cant proportion of its patients are outpatients with a substantial number seeking emergency services. As the sole 600-bed hospital in the region, KindCare plays a crucial role in medical services, and receives generous funding from two major corporations operating locally, further enabling KindCare to cater to the growing medical needs of the community.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, KindCare made signi cant investment in enhancing internet connectivity, enabling many doctors, and the majority of administrative staff, to seamlessly work remotely. This investment also allowed KindCare to bring in doctors from other cities through remote care.
Further, COVID-19 was a wakeup call for KindCare to enhance their infrastructure. Though KindCare made signi cant improvements, they kept the major renovations on hold due to the constant ow of patients. KindCare believes that if the held renovations are not taken up on an urgent basis now, the operations at the hospital will get obstructed

Aarya had always been a mediocre student. Luckily, after finishing her undergraduate degree from a tier-two engineering college, she secured a decent but modestly paying job at a reputable IT company.
However, after a year on the job, Aarya found her role mundane. When her best friend at the company, Shruti, left to pursue an MBA from a top-tier business school, citing significant career growth and potential salary increase upon graduation, Aarya felt intrigued and inspired to follow the same path. Shruti appreciated Aarya’s aspirations, telling her that doing an MBA from a top-tier business school could not only land Aarya a lucrative job but also it could fast-track her career progression. However, Aarya was concerned whether she would be able to balance between her MBA entrance exam preparation and her current job. Aarya considered resigning to focus entirely on MBA entrance exam preparation, but Shruti cautioned her that top-tier business schools might view a career break unfavourably, as they prefer continuous professional engagement.

Mr. Zubin Mistry is the owner and the chief editor of the newspaper The Pluralist, renowned for its high reporting standards and outstanding writing quality. The Pluralist’s authentic reporting distinguishes it from other newspapers that sensationalize news. They are responsible employers, known to be highly supportive towards their employees. Its news editing team is led by Ms. Ramya Kattabomman, a respected veteran in the newspaper reporting industry, wellknown for her stringent adherence to the ethical standards of newspaper reporting. 
Mr. Aditya Swaroop Verma, an award-winning senior journalist, has brought in an exposé into the activities of a mining company, operating in an ecologically vulnerable area. In his hardhitting reporting style, he has presented interviews with tens of people, delineating how the mining company has used illegal means to start mining in that area. These mining activities may lead to the destruction of the local ecological balance. However, Aditya Swaroop is unable to obtain an interview with the management of the mining company.
Aditya Swaroop’s investigative report article offers signi cant revelations about the alleged illegal activities of the mining company which were hardly covered in the media otherwise. Nevertheless, his sources have requested for complete anonymity

TrueColor, an event management company in eastern India, had been in a business of inviting Tollywood singers to a city called Tivanna, and made money out of selling tickets of their concerts. The stars were paid a xed fee regardless of the number of tickets sold. The company had a specialized team that negotiated the singers’ fee with their managers. However, for selling the tickets of such events, they were reliant on an external media agency called Zedius. Zedius had a long-standing relationship with TrueColor, and had been instrumental in achieving a target of 50,000 tickets for each of the agship events.. 
Mr. Sukanta Rao joined TrueColor as an inhouse sales and marketing manager, a position exclusively created for him. The CEO, Mr. Adil Banerjee, had assigned a task of increasing the sales of tickets to 100,000. In Sukanta’s earlier stint, he had seen that similar cities sell more than 75,000 tickets for such events. He felt that, over time, reaching 100,000 was plausible for TrueColor

Ned Flanders and Homer Simpson Partners Limited is a law rm, known for its unwavering commitment to client satisfaction. They treat the clients as family members who have grown along with the rm. Further, they are highly regarded in the industry, consulted by the country’s top organizations. Among the founders, Homer Simpson is amboyant, while Ned Flanders is serious. Together, they bring a dynamic balance to the team.
The organization believes in a strong socialization ritual that bonds the new lawyers (newcomers) with the existing members. Also, the socialization ritual ensures that newcomers fully understand the nature of their work and integrate seamlessly into the company’s culture. During their rst week, newcomers are overloaded with a barrage of artificial tasks, unexpected client calls, and a challenging meeting with the founders. This results in newcomers getting overwhelmed, and doubting their decision to join the rm, only for the founders to meet them and reveal that this is one big prank and a way to welcome them to the organization. This socialization ritual has served them well for the past two decades. However, not all the newcomers appreciate the utility of this ritual.
One of the lawyers, Ms. Lisa Simpleton, who joined in 2023 and went through the same socialization ritual, found it unwelcoming. She believes that other newcomers might also share the same opinion. Lisa thinks that the current generation, especially post-COVID, needs more friendly welcome, and the rm must put an end to this ritual.

No one argues that the rich should be rich because they were born to wealthy parents. Critics of inequality may complain that those who would abolish inheritance taxes, say, are implicitly endorsing hereditary privilege. But no one defends hereditary privilege outright or disputes the principle that careers should be open to talents.  
Most of our debates about access to jobs, education, and public o ce proceed from the premise of equal opportunity. Our disagreements are less about the principle itself than about what it requires. For example, critics of a rmative action in hiring and college admissions argue that such policies are inconsistent with equality of opportunity, because they judge applicants on factors other than merit. Defenders of a rmative action reply that such policies are necessary to make equality of opportunity a reality for members of groups that have suffered discrimination or disadvantage.
At the level of principle at least, and political rhetoric, meritocracy has won the day. In democracies throughout the world, politicians of the center-left and center-right claim that their policies are the ones that will enable all citizens, whatever their race or ethnicity, gender or class, to compete on equal terms and to rise as far as their efforts and talents will take them. When people complain about meritocracy, the complaint is usually not about the ideal but about our failure to live up to it: The wealthy and powerful have rigged the system to perpetuate their privilege; the professional classes have gured out how to pass their advantages on to their children, converting the meritocracy into a hereditary aristocracy; colleges that claim to select students on merit give an edge to the sons and daughters of the wealthy and the well-connected. According to this complaint, meritocracy is a myth, a distant promise yet to be redeemed.

Look how you turned on
the ceiling fan—it’s too high,
see how it shakes and trembles.
You walk into this room
with your hot ideas
and the ceiling fan has to work harder
to cool down the room
for us. You walk into this room
with your crazy eyes
and the ceiling fan
wants to y loose. It dreams
of becoming a spider lily. 

Recently, a team of social scientists launched an experiment to test that hypothesis. They recruited 1,500 entrepreneurs in West Africa—a mix of women and men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s—who were running small startups in manufacturing, service, and commerce. They randomly assigned the founders to one of three groups. One was a control group: they went about their business as usual. The other two were training groups: they spent a week learning new concepts, analyzing them in case studies of other entrepreneurs, and applying them to their own startups through role-play and re section exercises. What differed was whether the training focused on cognitive skills or character skills. In cognitive skills training, the founders took an accredited business course created by the International Finance Corporation. They studied nance, accounting, HR, marketing, and pricing,  and practiced using what they learned to solve challenges and seize opportunities. In character skills training, the founders attended a class designed by psychologists to teach personal initiative. They studied proactivity, discipline, and determination, and practiced putting those qualities into action. Character skills training had a dramatic impact. After founders had spent merely ve days working on these skills, their rms’ pro ts grew by an average of 30 percent over the next two years. That was nearly triple the bene t of training in cognitive skills. Finance and marketing knowledge might have equipped founders to capitalize on opportunities, but studying proactivity and discipline enabled them to generate opportunities. They learned to anticipate market changes rather than react to them. They developed more creative ideas and introduced more new products. When they encountered nancial obstacles, instead of giving up, they were more resilient and resourceful in seeking loans. Along with demonstrating that character skills can propel us to achieve greater things, this evidence reveals that it’s never too late to build them … Character doesn’t set like plaster—it retains its plasticity. Character is often confused with personality, but they’re not the same. Personality is your predisposition—your basic instincts for how to think, feel, and act. Character is your capacity to prioritize your values over your instincts. Knowing your principles doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to practice them, particularly under stress or pressure. It’s easy to be proactive and determined when things are going well. The true test of character is whether you manage to stand by those values when the deck is stacked against you. If personality is how you respond on a typical day, character is how you show up on a hard day. Personality is not your destiny—it’s your tendency. Character skills enable you to transcend that tendency to be true to your principles. It’s not about the traits you have—it’s what you decide to do with them. Wherever you are today, there’s no reason why you can’t grow your character skills starting now.

This uidity and situational dependence is uniquely human. In other species, in-group/outgroup distinctions re ect degrees of biological relatedness, or what evolutionary biologists call “kin selection.” Rodents distinguish between a sibling, a cousin, and a stranger by smell—xed, genetically determined pheromonal signatures—and adapt their cooperation accordingly. Those murderous groups of chimps are largely made up of brothers or cousins who grew up together and predominantly harm outsiders. Humans are plenty capable of kin-selective violence themselves, yet human group mentality is often utterly independent of such instinctual familial bonds. Most modern human societies rely instead on cultural kin selection, a process allowing people to feel closely related to what are, in a biological sense, total strangers. Often, this requires a highly active process of inculcation, with its attendant rituals and vocabularies. Consider military drills producing “bands of brothers,” unrelated college freshmen becoming sorority “sisters,” or the bygone value of welcoming immigrants into “the American family.” This malleable, rather than genetically xed, path of identity formation also drives people to adopt arbitrary markers that enable them to spot their cultural kin in an ocean of strangers—hence the importance various communities attach to ags, dress, or facial hair. The hipster beard, the turban, and the “Make America Great Again” hat all fulfill this role by sending strong signals of tribal belonging. Moreover, these cultural communities are arbitrary when compared to the relatively axed logic of biological kin selection. Few things show this arbitrariness better than the experience of immigrant families, where the randomness of a visa lottery can radically reshu e a child’s education, career opportunities, and cultural predilections. Had my grandparents and father missed the train out of Moscow that they instead barely made, maybe I’d be a chain smoking Russian academic rather than a Birkenstock-wearing American one, moved to tears by the heroism during the Battle of Stalingrad rather than that at Pearl Harbor. Scaled up from the level of individual family histories, our big-picture group identities—the national identities and cultural principles that structure our lives— are just as arbitrary and subject to the vagaries of history.

You may laugh at a hat, but what you are making fun of, in this case, is not the piece of felt or straw, but the shape that men have given it, -- the human caprice whose mould it has assumed. It is strange that so important a fact, and such a simple one too, has not attracted to a greater degree the attention of philosophers. Several have de ned man as "an animal which laughs." They might equally well have de ned him as an animal which is laughed at; for if any other animal, or some lifeless object, produces the same effect, it is always because of some resemblance to man, of the stamp he gives it or the use he puts it to. 
Here I would point out, as a symptom equally worthy of notice, the ABSENCE OF FEELING which usually accompanies laughter. It seems as though the comic could not produce its disturbing effect unless it fell, so to say, on the surface of a soul that is thoroughly calm and unru ed. Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotion. I do not mean that we could not laugh at a person who inspires us with pity, for instance, or evenwith affection, but in such a case we must, for the moment, put our affection out of court and impose silence upon our pity. In a society composed of pure intelligences there would probably be no more tears, though perhaps there would still be laughter; whereas highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every event would be sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither know nor understand laughter. Try, for a moment, to become interested in everything that is being said and done; act, in imagination, with those who act, and feel with those who feel; in a word, give your sympathy its widest expansion: as though at the touch of a fairy wand you will see the imsiest of objects assume importance, and a gloomy hue spread over everything. Now step aside, look upon life as a disinterested spectator: many a drama will turn into a comedy. It is enough for us to stop our ears to the sound of music, in a room where dancing is going on, for the dancers at once to appear ridiculous. How many human actions would stand a similar test? Should we not see many of them suddenly pass from grave to gay, on isolating them from the accompanying music of sentiment? To produce the whole of its effect, then, the comic demands something like a momentary anesthesia of the heart. Its appeal is to intelligence, pure and simple