IIM Bangalore EPGP Written Ability Test: topics, format and timed practice
The IIM Bangalore EPGP Written Ability Test gives you 25 to 30 minutes to plan and write one response of around 250 words, on interview day, 25 to 30 minutes before you are called in to the panel.
EPGP prompts are long, framed stems anchored to a specific issue, such as a policy question, a business-model debate or a governance dilemma, and they ask you to take a position and defend it. The panel is not checking whether you know the topic; it is checking whether you can organise a coherent, defensible view under time pressure.
This page carries all 35 practice topics across seven categories, the format facts, and what the panel scores. Run a timed simulation below and get scored on clear position, logical structure, balanced reasoning, concrete examples and direct communication.
IIM Bangalore EPGP WAT timed practice
Timed practice · 30 minutes · one prompt
One prompt, 30 minutes on the clock. Target Around 250 words, up to 300. Responses under 80 words cannot be submitted or scored.
No account needed to practise. Sign in when you want the response scored.
IIM Bangalore EPGP WAT format
| Structure | One prompt |
|---|---|
| Duration | 25 to 30 minutes to plan and write |
| Length | Around 250 words, with some allowing closer to 300 |
| Mode | Handwritten at the venue, or a proctored online test with webcam monitoring |
| When | 25 to 30 minutes before you are called in to the panel |
| Panel | Has often glanced at your response before or during the interview |
What the IIM Bangalore EPGP panel scores
These prompts test structured reasoning, so the score follows whether you took a position and defended it properly inside the word band. Your practice response is scored on exactly these dimensions.
- Clear position
- A stated stance rather than a fence-sitting summary of both sides.
- Logical structure
- An introduction, two or three developed arguments and a real conclusion, followable without re-reading a sentence twice.
- Balanced reasoning
- The strongest counterargument acknowledged and answered, not ignored.
- Concrete examples
- A specific, even imperfect, real-world reference beats a generic claim every time.
- Direct communication
- Direct rather than padded with throat-clearing phrases, and economical inside the word band.
How to structure your IIM Bangalore EPGP WAT response
- 1Open with your position in the first two sentences. No warm-up paragraph.
- 2Give two or three supporting points, each with the mechanism spelled out rather than asserted.
- 3Acknowledge the strongest opposing view explicitly, and answer it.
- 4Close by reaffirming the position without simply repeating the opening.
IIM Bangalore EPGP WAT: common questions
- How long is the IIM Bangalore EPGP WAT?
- 25 to 30 minutes in total to plan and write one response, on interview day itself, shortly before you meet the panel.
- How many words should the EPGP WAT response be?
- Around 250 words, with some candidates reporting closer to 300 allowed. The tight ceiling makes word economy part of what is being scored.
- Is the IIM Bangalore EPGP WAT handwritten?
- It depends on the venue. Some candidates report a handwritten response completed at the venue, others describe a proctored online test with webcam monitoring.
- Does the EPGP panel read what you wrote?
- The panel has often glanced at the response before or during your conversation, so write something you can defend in the interview that follows.
- What topics come up in the EPGP WAT?
- Framed, single-question stems anchored to a specific issue in the economy, business strategy, technology, geopolitics, governance, leadership or sustainability, asking you to take and defend a position.
Where these facts come from
Format details and topics on this page come from our own research guide, IIM Bangalore EPGP Written Ability Test: Sample Topics, Timing, and How to Prepare. Selection formats change between rounds and venues, so confirm against your official interview call before you rely on any timing detail.
Last reviewed 19 August 2026.
IIM Bangalore EPGP WAT topics: the full bank
All 35 practice topics for the IIM Bangalore EPGP Written Ability Test, grouped by category. Each is written in the style this school actually sets. Any of them can come up in the timed simulation above.
Economy and public policy (5)
- Should India prioritize fiscal consolidation over public infrastructure investment during a global growth slowdown?
- Is India’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme building genuine manufacturing capability, or subsidizing companies that would have invested anyway?
- Does a simplified GST slab structure help small businesses more than it helps large, already-compliant corporations?
- Should India’s central bank keep targeting retail inflation when most recent price shocks have come from supply disruptions, not excess demand?
- Is continued disinvestment of public sector banks the right direction, or does India’s financial inclusion agenda still need public-sector reach?
Business, strategy, and entrepreneurship (5)
- Is India’s periodic startup funding "winter" a healthy correction, or a sign of a structurally unsustainable growth model?
- Should large, diversified Indian conglomerates continue expanding into unrelated sectors, or does focused specialization now win?
- Is 10-minute quick commerce a durable business model, or a subsidized race that ends when investor patience runs out?
- Should family-run Indian businesses professionalize leadership on a faster timeline than they currently do?
- Is "list first, profit later" still a defensible strategy for new-age Indian companies after recent listing performances?
Technology and society (5)
- Will generative AI eliminate more entry-level white-collar jobs than it creates over the next five years?
- Should India regulate AI before the technology matures, breaking from its historically reactive approach to internet-era regulation?
- Is India’s digital public infrastructure (UPI, Aadhaar, ONDC) genuinely exportable, or does it only work because of India’s specific scale and demographics?
- Should social media platforms carry legal liability for misinformation their own algorithms amplify?
- Has remote and hybrid work been a net gain or a net loss for India’s tier-2 city economies?
Current affairs and geopolitics (5)
- Should India deepen trade engagement with China even as border tensions remain unresolved?
- Is India’s "multi-alignment" foreign policy sustainable as US-China strategic rivalry intensifies?
- Should India accelerate de-dollarization in its trade settlements, or is that premature given the dollar’s continued dominance?
- What should India’s negotiating stance be on carbon border taxes like the EU’s CBAM?
- Is India’s demographic dividend still a genuine economic advantage, or is it becoming a jobs-creation liability?
Ethics, governance, and abstract themes (5)
- Is it ethical for a company to prioritize shareholder returns over workforce job security when automating a function?
- "A leader’s job is to be right, not to be liked." Do you agree?
- Is whistleblowing a moral obligation, or a career risk not worth taking in most real organisations?
- Should merit or need be the primary basis for allocating scholarships and reserved seats in higher education?
- "Success is a lousy teacher." Discuss in the context of business leadership.
Leadership and management philosophy (5)
- Should a new leader inherit responsibility for their predecessor’s unresolved mistakes, or start with a genuinely clean slate?
- Is consensus-driven decision-making a strength or a weakness in a fast-moving, competitive industry?
- Should annual performance reviews be replaced entirely by continuous, informal feedback?
- Is loyalty to an employer still a reasonable expectation to hold of employees in the current job market?
- Can someone be a good manager and a bad leader at the same time, and does a healthy organisation need both roles filled well?
Environment and sustainability (5)
- Should India recalibrate its growth targets to prioritize climate commitments over raw GDP growth?
- Is corporate ESG reporting a genuine driver of reform, or mostly a compliance exercise?
- Should India adopt a domestic carbon tax before its developed-economy peers have finished implementing theirs?
- Is India’s push toward electric vehicles undercut by its continued dependence on coal-based electricity generation?
- Can circular-economy business models genuinely scale in a price-sensitive market like India’s?