List of top Decision Making Questions asked in XAT

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Dhan, a poor but enterprising 15-year-old, resided in the world’s largest slum in a metropolitan city, along with her widowed mother. The densely packed slum housed about a million people, mostly in rickety one room tenements, connected by labyrinthine lanes and by-lanes. Dhan’s mother worked intermittently as a daily wager in a small savoury factory. For a 15-year-old, Dhan’s life was hectic. She spends two hours every day in fetching water for the household, packing breakfast and lunch for her mother. In addition, she had to prepare supper. On her mother’s insistence, Dhan also attended an evening bridge school run by an NGO. Dhan’s dream was to provide a comfortable life to her mother and take her family out of poverty. Of late, Dhan observed that the customers to a nearby tea-cum-savoury stall (TCS), were mostly the slum dwellers, who thronged the stall for its low prices and lack of alternatives. Further, Dhan gathered that the TCS could not cater to all of its customers, and the owner still made a neat Rs.800 profit per day. Dhan saw that a probable first step towards her family’s economic independence could be to own her own TCS.
From the following, choose the BEST option that will increase Dhan’s chances of realising her dream of starting a venture?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Bharat Business School (BBS), a premier business school, was renowned for the quality education it provided. Its faculty, known for their domain area expertise and excellence in teaching, competed with each other for a better student feedback. Of late, the institute was finding it difficult to upgrade its course content with rapidly changing global business scenario. The difficulties multiplied when the school realized that some of senior faculty would retire on regular basis, starting in the near future. To overcome these difficulties, BBS decided to recruit young faculty in all the departments (e.g., Economics, Finance, Marketing, HRM, Production etc).
When the Dean - Academics scanned the applications, she found three distinct types of aspirants viz. (i) A type candidates who were very good teachers, competent at teaching the courses taught by existing faculty members; (ii) B type candidates who were average teachers, competent at creating and teaching new courses that would complement existing courses, taught by the current faculty; (iii) C type candidates were not-so-good teachers, willing to teach any course BBS required.
Note1: A course is termed complementary when it covers the latest content and complements existing courses offered by a department.
Note2: Each department decides the suite of courses to be offered.
Suppose the Dean-Academics wanted to ensure the most efficient utilization of faculty resources.
Which of the following hiring decisions will ensure the MOST efficient utilization of faculty resources?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Dhan, a poor but enterprising 15-year-old, resided in the world’s largest slum in a metropolitan city, along with her widowed mother. The densely packed slum housed about a million people, mostly in rickety one room tenements, connected by labyrinthine lanes and by-lanes. Dhan’s mother worked intermittently as a daily wager in a small savoury factory. For a 15-year-old, Dhan’s life was hectic. She spends two hours every day in fetching water for the household, packing breakfast and lunch for her mother. In addition, she had to prepare supper. On her mother’s insistence, Dhan also attended an evening bridge school run by an NGO. Dhan’s dream was to provide a comfortable life to her mother and take her family out of poverty. Of late, Dhan observed that the customers to a nearby tea-cum-savoury stall (TCS), were mostly the slum dwellers, who thronged the stall for its low prices and lack of alternatives. Further, Dhan gathered that the TCS could not cater to all of its customers, and the owner still made a neat Rs.800 profit per day. Dhan saw that a probable first step towards her family’s economic independence could be to own her own TCS.
Within two years of establishment, Dhan’s TCS is not only outcompeting its nearest rivals in the slum but has also earned a goodwill for the quality and taste of its products. Hence, it has become famous within the slum as “Dhan Dhana Dhan” brand. Dhan now aspires to expand the reach of her savouries into the metropolitan region. Dhan wishes to scale up her savoury production from 100 kg to 1000 kg per day while maintaining quality. Dhan realizes that her establishment does not have the space for expansion on its own.
Which of the following options will BEST help Dhan to scale up production with least investment, tightly control quality, and also protect her business interests?

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
In recent years, complaints of sexual harassment at “Fair Consulting” had increased exponentially. Fair Consulting had a gender-neutral, anti-sexual harassment policy and a committee to adjudicate on complaints. During the hearing of complaints, allegations and counter-allegations would fly thick and fast. This made it difficult for the adjudicating committee to conclusively decide on the complaints.
The CEO of Fair Consulting wanted the adjudicating committee to reduce the number of errors while deciding on sexual harassment complaints. The employees suggested that the committee could do the following to reduce errors in judgement.
1). Listen to the arguments of both the complainant and the accused together
2). Listen to the arguments of both the complainant and the accused separately
3). Involve a member of women’s commission
4). Take the help of a retired judge
5). Hire a forensic expert to verify evidences
From the following, choose the MOST effective sequence that would help the committee to arrive at the right decision.

Direction: Read the following scenario and answer the THREE questions that follow.
Bharat Business School (BBS), a premier business school, was renowned for the quality education it provided. Its faculty, known for their domain area expertise and excellence in teaching, competed with each other for a better student feedback. Of late, the institute was finding it difficult to upgrade its course content with rapidly changing global business scenario. The difficulties multiplied when the school realized that some of senior faculty would retire on regular basis, starting in the near future. To overcome these difficulties, BBS decided to recruit young faculty in all the departments (e.g., Economics, Finance, Marketing, HRM, Production etc).
When the Dean - Academics scanned the applications, she found three distinct types of aspirants viz. (i) A type candidates who were very good teachers, competent at teaching the courses taught by existing faculty members; (ii) B type candidates who were average teachers, competent at creating and teaching new courses that would complement existing courses, taught by the current faculty; (iii) C type candidates were not-so-good teachers, willing to teach any course BBS required.
Note1: A course is termed complementary when it covers the latest content and complements existing courses offered by a department.
Note2: Each department decides the suite of courses to be offered.
Given the above context, which of the following options will be the BEST recruitment decision for BBS?

Read the following scenario and answer the three questions that follow.
Ashraf has been working at a cybersecurity company called NuTech Pvt. Ltd. for seven years. Having missed a promotion in the previous appraisal cycle, Ashraf is anxious about it in the upcoming cycle. Ashraf is aware that the HR head is meeting the top management to discuss promotions sometime soon. (At NuTech, the HR head recommends names for promotions to the top management based on inputs from the functional teams.)
On a Friday afternoon, Ashraf receives an email from Sridevi, the HR head. It reads, “Hi, I need an urgent favour from you; please respond if you are free.” It was the first time that Sridevi ever contacted him. Surprised, Ashraf immediately replies back saying, “Sure! How can I help you, Sridevi? Regards, Ashraf.” In a couple of minutes, he receives a reply: “Ashraf, I am in the middle of an important meeting, but have to urgently send gift vouchers worth ₹50,000 to one of our important clients. If you could, please purchase and send the gift vouchers to the email address given below, at the earliest.” Ashraf , without any delay, sends gift vouchers worth ₹50,000 to the given email address.

Read the following scenario and answer the three questions that follow.
The occasion was a hyper publicised switch-on ceremony of solar power facilities on an island, with many villages, in the Bay of Bengal. PK was the brand ambassador of a Multinational Company (MNC) that wasbanking heavily on this CSR initiative to strengthen its presence in India. For the millions of fans, enamoured by the aging super star’s Robinhood like onscreen exploits, the pre-event speech of PK was their first glimpse into his off-screen persona. After an emotional speech that extolled the virtues of electricity as a driver of wellbeing & need for inclusive growth, PK with a flourish of his hand hit the button to remotely switch on the solar power facilities. Tens of media cameras stationed in all the island villages, started beaming live feed across the world. Quickly, the event turned from one of joy to something of shock and horror, as all the thatched households on the island caught fire. A few villagers were seriously injured in the fire. Watching the coverage, PK slapped the MNC representative standing next to him, on live camera, and collapsed on a couch with his head in his hands.

Read the following scenario and answer the question .
Churna is a peaceful village, surrounded by thickly forested high hills that isolate it from the rest of the world. Agriculture is the main occupation of the Churna villagers. Moreover, the forests provide seasonal fruits, tubers, medicinal herbs, and other forest produce in abundance. For all material needs not produced locally, the Churna villagers depend on Tendua, a faraway town.
Once a month, the Churna women would arduously trek with the surplus produce to Tendua. In the Tendua market, they convey the virtues of their produce through a beautiful song and dance routine. Reputed for their hard-bargaining skills, they always manage to extract a premium barter from the traders, more than fulfilling all their other material needs.

Read the following scenario and answer the three questions that follow.
Rohini is one of the most popular faculty members in the finance department, known for her in-class engagement with students. Every year, she offers an elective Financial Risk and Derivatives Management in the fourth term which gets subscribed by about hundred students. This year, owing to Covid-19, she is forced to teach the course online, that too, in the fifth term. The fifth term is notorious for its non-negotiable teaching slots. To enable her teaching, Rohini uses her favourite laptop, Maplebook Lite, sold by Maple.
Rohini converts her family bedroom into a “working room” because of the strong wifi signals. The room is mostly used by Rohini for taking her classes; however, Rinku, her husband, also uses it for running his meetings. Rohini has two children, aged 5 and 8, who use the living room as their playground. During meetings and classes, the working room is shut to save it from unwanted disturbance and noises from the living room.
It is 3:10 p.m. and Rohini’s penultimate session of the course is going to end in twenty minutes. As usual, Rinku enters the room with a cup of Darjeeling tea. Just before entering, he asks his kids to stop playing for some time. He quietly places the teacup on Rohini’s study table and exits the room, leaving the door ajar. As soon as he leaves, a tennis ball comes thundering inside, crashing into her Maplebook monitor. The monitor breaks and Rohini’s class ends abruptly, much before the scheduled time.

Read the following scenario and answer the question .
Saradeep was the proprietor of Saradeep & Sons Pvt. Ltd., an auto parts manufacturing company. He had three children--Taapsi, Kesar and Sandeep. His wife passed away when Sandeep, the youngest kid of the family, was only eight years old. Taapsi, being the eldest sibling, was more of a mother to Kesar and Sandeep.
Taapsi and Kesar joined Saradeep’s business right after college because Saradeep trusted them immensely. He once told Kesar, “I want key positions to be held by the people I trust."
Saradeep wanted Sandeep also to join his business like Kesar and Taapsi. Saradeep felt that Sandeep had a strong business sense, probably the best among his three children. Hence, Saradeep wanted Sandeep to take his higher education in business studies. However, Sandeep had other aspirations; he wanted to become a lawyer. Of late, he was offered admission to the prestigious National Law School, Bengaluru. As soon as he received the admission offer, he rushed to share this news with his family members.

Read the following scenario and answer the question.
Himaja was among the top ten students of her Business Management batch. She got placed in a reputed strategy consulting firm during campus placements. She was delighted to work under Nirmal, her superior, who was known for grooming many stars in the organisation. Nevertheless, he was also regarded as a hard taskmaster. Though she was a fresh recruit, she longed to be in a client-facing role.

Read the following scenario and answer the question.
Amish is the marketing head of an e-commerce firm named FillInCart (FICT). Recently, FICT signed a contract with a top celebrity to endorse their firm. A few months later, the celebrity was signed as the ambassador to promote tourism in a small country, Wadiya, ruled by a dictator. The dictator, in his zeal to bring peace to the region, brutally supressed an armed uprising in Wadiya. He is currently facing sanctions, imposed by a few countries. When the news of the celebrity’s association with Wadiya becomes public, calls for boycott of FICTstart trending on social media.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
A powerful, intelligent king Vanamali once ruled over an ancient kingdom, Vanarajya. The kingdom was known for its high mountains and sprawling plains, and ninety percent of its land was under forest cover. Trade in forest produce was the mainstay of its economy, supported by subsistence agriculture. With the increase of population, over time the forest in the plains was cleared for agriculture. The forest in the mountains continued to supply nutrient-enriched water and abundant forest produce to the plains. As a result, agricultural yields were bountiful. The plains prospered as compared to the mountains.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
Two industrial towns, Jayanagar and Ramnagar, about 15 kms. apart, are similar in land area, population, ethnic diversity and per capita incomes.
Jagdeep Singh owns a bakery named Le Baguette in Jayanagar. He specializes in croissants, masala bread and whole wheat bread; eggless cakes are also a favorite.
Among the four bakeries in Jayanagar, Jagdeep’s bakery with a market share of 30% is second only to the oldest Le Croissant bakery whose market share is 40%. Le Croissant commands a loyal customer base and does not offer eggless varieties.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
Rakesh, who hailed from Dhanbad, worked in Jamshedpur with SPCIL, a government construction company.Although HR policies concerning job security & work-life balance attracted Rakesh to SPCIL, over time he found his work monotonous with no growth opportunities. However, the proximity to Dhanbad enabled him to visit his parents at his convenience.
Recently Rakesh applied to Grow and Prosper (G&P), a multinational company engaged in construction related operations, making inroads into many Indian states. G&P interviewed Rakesh and offered him three times his current salary at SPCIL.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
When Deepti opened the package, she was aghast.She received cotton pillow covers instead of satin pillow covers,she had ordered.Deepti ordered them for her father from a popular e-commerce website that hosted products of many sellers.
Confused,Deepti contacted the seller’s office using the details given on the package.The seller’s representative profusely regretted and promised to send the satin pillow covers at no extra cost. He added that Deepti need not return the cotton covers she received.Deepti happily accepted the deal.
A few days later,Deepti received another package from the seller.Unfortunately,this package also contained cotton pillow covers.Completely disillusioned with the seller’s professionalism,Deepti decided to put to use these cotton pillow covers also.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
The Small Shop, selling computer peripherals, is the only one of its kind in the remote village of Turturunk.Because online purchases take two weeks or more to arrive, The Small Shop is a quick stop for buying items such as pen drives and USB cables. Besides selling computer peripherals, The Small Shop also undertakes repairs of out-of-warranty products.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
A Multinational Company (MNC) sources pristine natural spring water from Bori,a village in Satpura mountains.The unprocessed natural spring water is directly bottled by the MNC.The company brands it as“Natural Spring Water”and sells at 50% premium vis-a-vis other brands that sell processed water.
The local panchayat, under the Panchayati Raj Act,1992 controls the spring water usage. Hence, the company signed a 30-year contract with the panchayat for exclusive access to the spring water for business purposes.This contract contributes 50% to the panchayat’s revenues besides providing 250 jobs in the panchayat.The spring also meets domestic and agricultural needs of the people of Bori and the surrounding villages.

Read the situation below and answer the 3 associated questions:
Vindhya, Shabnam and Amala are interning at a software organization as part of the requirement of their B-school curriculum.
The organization has allotted each of them a project based on their area of specialization. In the first meeting with the HR head,they are informed of a PPO possibility (pre-placement offer,i.e.,an offer to join the company after their MBA), based on their performance. All of them are eager to convert their internship into a job offer.Each of them is assigned a mentor who evaluates the intern's performance along with the HR head.

Read the following caselet and answer the questions that follow:
Due to increased competition, Electro Automobiles, the Indian subsidiary of Robert Automobile Company (RAC) reported lower sales and profits. RAC expects its new model Limo, developed especially for value conscious customers of India and China, would revive its fortunes. In order to prevent customers from buying competing products, RAC announced the launch of Limo six months ahead of schedule. Unrest in its Indian supplier resulted in delayed delivery of essential components to its main plant. Hence, Limo was launched on schedule only in China. Within a short span, Limo captured 30% of the Chinese market , which was 200% higher than expectation. Indian customers were becoming increasingly restless because they couldn't get a Limo in India. Electro’s dealers were worried, customers might switch to other cars.

Read the following caselet and answer questions that follow:
Divya grew up in a business family in Hyderabad. As a Systems engineer she travelled extensively on business deals and later settled in her in-law’s place in Warangal. Once during her visit to Thailand she got to taste some roll over ice cream. Interestingly, a few weeks later, she came across an advertisement from a reputed Bangalore based Rollover Handcrafted Ice Cream Company calling for expression of interest from potential franchises.
Warangal did not have any quality ice cream parlour. The company wanted the potential franchisees to invest Rs. 20 lacs and 700 square feet space. Profits were to be shared in 3:7 ratio between the company and the franchisee. Divya was excited, but was wondering if Rs. 20 lacs was too much to invest. Further, she did not have the entire amount and was thinking of taking a loan. She enquired with the Rollover franchisees and found that a franchisee in Hyderabad had sales revenue varying between 5 and 6 lacs rupees per month with a profit margin between 25-30%. Divya decided to go ahead.
Warangal had three main areas -Kazipet, Jangaon and Warangal. All areas were linked by good roads. Kazipet was a business area where most high end retail formats were located. It was also the education hub of the city. Jangaon, on the other hand, was a growing lower middle class business area and Warangal was mostly residential.
Divya favoured Kazipet. However, she soon encountered problems. Not only was it difficult to obtain space in Kazipet but property rentals touched 30-40 rupees per square feet per month as against Jangaon and Warangal where it was 15-20 rupees per square feet per month. Divya’s friend, who lived in Jangaon, told her that a few branded outlets were opening in Jangaon and it appeared to be the fastest growing market in Warangal with the highest percentage of teenagers. But, Divya was not in favour of Jangaon. She hoped to target college going crowd of Kazipet. High real estate prices in Kazipet and lower profitability estimate in Jangaon market confused Divya.

Read the following caselet and answer the questions that follow:
Mrs. Bhalla is the principal of ‘Happy Public School’. While it is a private school, the trust is socially sensitive and as part of their “Spread Happiness Policy” provides quality education to many needy students from low income neighborhood for free. She received a strange complaint from some of the affluent parents regarding their discomfort with allowing poor children to study along with their kids. They were concerned more about their manners, habits and language than about schooling. They wanted the trust to either start a separate shift for such children or remove them from the school since they are supporting them. On the other hand, the parents of the poor children complained of bullying and teasing and shared their concern regarding the mental trauma their children undergo. While Mrs. Bhalla, by no means wants to yield to the demands of the affluent parents, she also cannot ignore them since some of them have been making substantial donations to the school.

Read the following caselet and answer the questions that follow:
Thakur Raja, a young cabinet minister, glanced through the notes of his secretary regarding the recent controversies on ‘Racket’, the most popular game of the country. While International Racket Association (IRA) has agreed to implement Drug Testing Code (DTC), the Racket Club which controls the entire Racket related activities had some reservations regarding the initiative. A majority of the citizens eagerly awaited their country's participation and performance at the international competitions during the Champions Trophy. Due to the popularity of the game, 70% of the total revenue associated with the game originates from the country. Hence, the Racket Club has earned high bargaining power with the IRA and can influence decisions not aligned with its interests. Three of the most popular and senior players of the Club, including the captain, are against the imposition of DTC citing security reasons. A decision against the interests of these players might result in law and order problems throughout the country. Other players support the decision of their senior colleagues and if the Racket Club refuses, players may support the rebel Counter Racket Club, a new national level initiative. The Counter Racket Club can challenge the monopoly of the Racket Club, if it succeeds in attracting some popular players.
Raja was a great soccer player and has major reservations against racket. According to him, racket has negative influence on the country’s youth and distracts them from productive work. He also considers drug testing as an essential feature of any sports and games across the world. As the new cabinet minister for Youth and Sports, he needs to take some important decisions on this contentious issue.

Read the following caselet and answer questions that follow:
Sanchit group of Hospitals seeks to improve the success rate and patient satisfaction rate by 100% in the next year. However, the management can't afford to send doctors for professional development outside the country nor afford purchasing more equipment. As an in-house measure, the managing board thought of having doctors with high patient satisfaction to mentor those with less. Most of the doctors found it an interference by the management, judgmental and an expression of distrust. There were, however, some isolated few who found it a novel way of learning from each other. The doctors felt the management should instead increase consultancy fees and spend more on recruiting more paramedics who could spend time with patients, rather than blame doctors and decided to call it quits. For the management, this would mean loss of patients.

Read the following caselet and answer the questions that follow:
The Public Relations Department of an organization has spent only 4 crores of its allocated 16 crores on publicity. There are 2 months left in the financial year. Due to shortage of officers, the Assistant Director, Operations has been given an additional charge of publicity. Because of his other commitments, he is unable to find time to undertake tasks such as baseline study, ascertaining communication needs, testing proposed messages and media channels, deciding optimum periodicity, measuring impact, etc. He also argues spending the rest of the budget is unnecessary because their regular programs are already widely known. His boss, the Director, however, feels that only by utilizing the entire budget can a similar amount be demanded the next year. He also thinks that there is nothing like enough publicity.