64 Data Interpretation Questions with Solutions

Data Interpretation in placement papers

Data interpretation hands you a table, a chart or a paragraph of figures and asks for a share, a growth rate or a total. It appears in 13 of the 29 patterns in the mock-test catalogue, but rarely as a section of its own.

How it is timed

Usually the data questions sit inside a numerical section and share its clock, at 60 to 84 seconds a question: about a fifth of the section in the patterns modelled on the TCS NQT (4 of 20 questions), Cognizant GenC (5 of 25), Wipro's NLTH (3 of 16) and HCLTech (3 of 15). The Goldman Sachs-modelled Numerical Reasoning section is mostly data, 8 of its 12 questions, and the Amazon-modelled Logical Reasoning section carries 4 among its 24. Only two give it a section of its own: the pattern modelled on ZS Associates, 12 questions on an 18-minute budget, almost a quarter of its clock; and CodeKairo's full-length paper, 12 questions in 20 minutes.

How to practise

Work Tables & Charts for tables and charts, and Caselets for figures buried in a paragraph. Before any arithmetic, note the units, whether a totals row is given, and whether the question wants a row or a column. Then estimate, and calculate exactly only when two options are close.

Typical traps

Measuring growth against the later value instead of the earlier one, which turns a 25 per cent rise into 20; and counting an overlap twice, when the readers of A or B are A + B − both.

Data Interpretation topics

• Tables & Charts 35 questions — Read a table or chart, then compute ratios, growth and shares.
• Caselets 29 questions — Data buried in a paragraph — extract it, tabulate it, answer.

Other sections

• Quantitative Aptitude
• Logical Reasoning
• Verbal Ability
• Programming MCQs