Say each answer aloud and swap the example for something you did. For questions that show up in every process, use the HR interview questions for freshers guide.
Contents
Technical/role knowledge
1. How do you explain debit and credit without calling them good and bad?
Treat them as the two sides of an entry, not as moral labels. Assets and expenses increase on the debit side, while liabilities, equity and income increase on the credit side. Every entry needs equal debits and credits, which is what keeps the books in balance.
A debit is not automatically good and a credit is not automatically bad. Buying stationery for cash debits the expense and credits the bank. The two sides are equal.
2. How can a period show a profit and still be short of cash?
Under accrual accounting, profit matches revenue and costs to the period, which is not always the moment cash moves. A sale you have earned but not collected can increase profit without increasing the bank balance. A cash purchase of equipment can drain the bank while sitting on the balance sheet as an asset, with only depreciation reaching the profit and loss statement over time.
We can show a profit because customers owe us for work already done, and still be unable to pay a supplier today. I would look at receivables and at cash spent on assets before I called the business healthy.
3. What is the balance sheet equation, and why do the sides match?
Assets equal liabilities plus equity. The sides match because each entry changes them by the same total. Profit for the period feeds into equity, which is how the profit and loss statement connects to the balance sheet.
If assets are 10 and liabilities are 4, equity is 6, or the sheet is wrong. I would not force the numbers. I would find the entry that broke the equality.
4. What does a reconciliation prove, and what does it not prove?
A reconciliation compares two records of the same thing and explains every difference. Agreement means those records match, or that you understand the gap. It does not prove the original entry was a wise decision, only that the two sources have been compared.
If the ledger and the statement both show the same unpaid invoice, they agree. That still does not tell me the invoice was correctly approved. It tells me the two lists are not hiding a different balance.
5. What is the difference between accounts payable and accounts receivable?
Accounts payable is money the organisation owes its suppliers. Accounts receivable is money customers owe the organisation. Payable is a liability and receivable is an asset, so mixing them up changes the balance sheet and the story about cash.
A supplier invoice we have not paid is payable. A student fee or a customer invoice we have not collected is receivable. One is money out later, and the other is money in later.
Problem solving and scenario
6. The bank balance does not match the cash book. Where do you start?
Start with the statement and the cash book, and tick the items that appear in both. List what remains: amounts you recorded that the bank has not cleared, amounts the bank shows that you have not recorded, bank charges, and errors on either side. Do not plug a number to force the two totals together.
I would tick the matches first. A deposit I recorded yesterday may still be outstanding, and a bank charge may be missing from the cash book. I would list those rather than edit the opening balance.
7. You find an invoice that looks like a duplicate. What do you do?
Do not pay it a second time and do not delete the row. Check whether a payment has already gone, then flag it for the person who approves payments and keep the trail. If it is a true duplicate, the correction should hold or reverse it in a way someone else can audit.
I would search the supplier and the invoice number, see that the first one is already paid, and mark the second as a duplicate for the approver. I would leave both rows visible.
8. A manager asks you to record a cost in a later month so this month looks better. What do you do?
If the cost belongs in this month, moving it flatters this month and misstates the next one. Say you will not post it that way, and ask a senior how the policy handles the request. Escalate if you are still being asked to record something you believe misstates the period.
I would say the expense belongs in the month we incurred it, and I would not move it to help the report. I would ask my senior to confirm, and I would not post the shifted entry while I waited.
9. How would you explain GST to a teammate without giving tax advice?
Say that GST is a tax on supplies in India, and that the rate and any input credit depend on the kind of supply and the current rule. Do not quote a rate from memory. Say you would check the rule or ask the person who reviews tax before you coded an invoice.
I would describe GST as a tax on the supply, not as a single rate I can recite. Before I put it on an invoice I would check the nature of that supply with the person who owns the tax review.
10. A vendor statement and your ledger disagree. How do you reconcile them?
Treat the statement as their record of what you owe and the ledger as yours. Tick the invoices and payments that appear in both, then list invoices they show which you do not, and payments you sent which they have not credited. Ask them, or your approver, about the remaining lines rather than changing your ledger to match the statement blindly.
I would match invoice numbers first. A payment I sent last week may be missing on their statement, and an invoice on the statement may never have reached us. I would list both before I changed a balance.
HR and behavioural
11. Tell me about a time you found an error in your own work.
Name the error, how you noticed it, who you told, and how you corrected it without hiding the first version. A college accounts assignment, a fest budget or a family shop tally is enough. The point is the check, not a claim that you never err.
I added a fest expense twice in a shared sheet. The category total looked high against the bills, so I told the treasurer the same day and removed the duplicate. I then added a check total against the bill folder.
12. Describe careful work against a deadline.
Say what had to be finished, what you refused to skip, and what you delivered on time. Mention a check that stayed in even when the clock was short. Do not boast about skipping review.
Our fest budget was due before a committee meeting. I still matched each line to a bill and flagged two I could not support. I submitted the sheet with those two marked open rather than guessing them.
13. How do you stay accurate when the work is repetitive?
Describe a rhythm: batches, a tick list, and a total that must agree before you move on. Say what you do when you are tired, which is to stop and recheck the last batch rather than speed up. Mention that you would ask for a second look on anything that changes a reported number.
I enter a page, tick it, and reconcile the batch total before the next page. If the total fails I fix that batch before I continue. I would rather finish fewer rows than carry an error forward.
14. Why finance or accounting?
Connect it to liking a number that someone else can audit. Use a moment when a small mistake would have changed a decision. Avoid a generic claim that you are good at mathematics, and do not claim a professional designation you do not hold.
I like that a figure should have a trail back to a document. In the fest budget, the useful moment was finding the duplicate before the committee used the total. I want work where that trail is the job.
15. Tell me about explaining a number to someone outside finance.
Use plain words, the comparison, and the caveat. Leave the journal entry for a follow-up question. Check that they can repeat the point, because a nod is not the same as understanding.
I told the fest committee we were under the plan because one stall’s bills had not arrived, not because we had spare money. I asked the stall lead to confirm they heard that the gap was timing. They repeated it back.