PwC SDC Interview Questions Freshers Should Know

These PwC SDC interview questions were shared by chartered accountant freshers who interviewed with PwC’s Service Delivery Centre. The question set is heavily audit-focused, with Ind AS and accounting standards mixed in, so this guide groups every reported question by theme and adds preparation guidance for each.

Table of Contents

• PwC SDC Interview Questions: Audit and Assurance
• PwC SDC Interview Questions: Accounting and Ind AS
• PwC SDC Interview Questions: HR and Personal Round
• What the Interviewer Is Testing
• Sample Strong Answers for 3 Common Questions
• How to Prepare for Your PwC SDC Interview
• Frequently Asked Questions

PwC SDC Interview Questions: Audit and Assurance

Audit dominates this list, which makes sense: PwC SDC supports audit delivery work, so the interviewers check whether your audit fundamentals are interview-ready. The questions reported are:

• What is the meaning of audit risk?
• What are the types of audit risk, and how will you reduce audit risk?
• How are compliance procedures (controls) and substantive procedures (tests of details) related?
• How will you verify accounts payable when internal controls are strong?
• How will you evaluate the internal control system?
• If internal controls are not effective, what will you do?
• If the internal auditor confirms that controls are not that effective, how will you plan the audit?
• What are the types of audit opinion?
• What is the meaning of a clean report?
• What are audit assertions?
• What is external confirmation, and what alternative procedure will you perform if you cannot get confirmation from a debtor?
• Difference between internal audit and statutory audit?
• How will you plan the audit of a new client?
• How to audit trade receivables?
• How will you verify accounts receivable and equity?
• Fixed asset verification
• What is going concern? Examples may be asked as a case scenario.
• Subsequent events
• Materiality
• Cut-off procedures

Audit risk and materiality appear more than once in candidate reports, which is your signal to prepare them twice as well as everything else. Expect follow-ups that turn a definition into a scenario: for example, you define going concern, and the interviewer then describes a client losing its largest customer and asks what you would do.

PwC SDC Interview Questions: Accounting and Ind AS

The second cluster tests whether your accounting standards knowledge holds up outside an exam hall:

• Difference between depreciation and amortization?
• Depreciation rate on plant and machinery
• Depreciation rate on land
• How will you show dividend received and dividend paid in the cash flow statement, for the investing entity and for other entities?
• Formula of EPS
• Formula of NAV
• What is a financial instrument, and which Ind AS is related to it?
• Ind AS 115
• Ind AS 116

A useful detail: “Depreciation rate on land” is a deliberate trap. Land is not depreciated under normal circumstances (it has an indefinite useful life), so the expected answer is that no depreciation rate applies, with a mention of the exception for leasehold land amortised over the lease term. The dividend question is similarly designed to check whether you know that presentation depends on the nature of the entity: dividends received are operating or investing cash flows depending on the entity’s classification, and dividends paid are financing cash flows.

PwC SDC Interview Questions: HR and Personal Round

• Tell me about yourself
• What do you know about SDC?
• Which other companies have you appeared for interviews with?
• Tell me about your articleship experience

“What do you know about SDC?” catches many candidates out. PwC’s Service Delivery Centre is a centralised delivery setup that supports audit and other engagements, often with global client teams. Read up on what the SDC does before the interview, and prepare a two-minute articleship summary focused on audit clients and procedures you actually performed, because the interviewers will connect your articleship work to the audit questions above.

What the Interviewer Is Testing

Three patterns stand out across these PwC SDC interview questions:

1. Depth on a few core areas, not breadth across the syllabus. Audit risk, materiality, internal control evaluation and Ind AS 115/116 repeat. The interviewers would rather hear you work through audit risk reduction in detail than hear you name ten standards.

2. Procedure-level thinking. Many questions ask “how will you” rather than “what is”. How will you verify receivables, how will you plan a new client’s audit, what will you do when controls fail: all of these test whether you can design audit steps, not just recite them.

3. Genuine interest in the SDC role. The SDC questions and the “which other companies” question test motivation. A clear, honest reason for wanting this specific role beats a generic answer.

Sample Strong Answers for 3 Common Questions

“What are the types of audit risk, and how will you reduce audit risk?”

Name the model first: audit risk has three components, inherent risk, control risk and detection risk. You cannot change inherent and control risk; you can only assess them. What you control is detection risk, which you reduce by planning the nature, timing and extent of substantive procedures: more experienced staff on high-risk areas, larger sample sizes, external confirmations and analytical procedures where appropriate. End with the practical line that audit risk is reduced to an acceptably low level, never eliminated.

“What alternative procedure will you perform if you cannot get confirmation from a debtor?”

This tests knowledge of SA 505 alternatives. If external confirmation of a receivable is not received, perform alternative procedures: examine subsequent cash receipts after the year end and trace them to the outstanding invoices, review shipping documents and sales orders as evidence of dispatch, and inspect contracts or correspondence for the outstanding balance. State the rule plainly: if alternative procedures also fail to provide sufficient appropriate evidence, consider the impact on the audit opinion.

“What do you know about SDC?”

Keep it honest and specific. PwC’s Service Delivery Centre is a centralised delivery model where audit and related work is performed for client teams, including teams outside India. Say why that appeals to you as a fresher: exposure to structured audit processes, quality standards and large engagements early in your career. If you have researched recent information about the SDC, cite it; if not, say what you understand the role to involve rather than bluffing.

How to Prepare for Your PwC SDC Interview

1. Master audit risk, materiality and internal control evaluation first. These repeat most often; prepare them with procedures, not just definitions.
2. Revise SA-level procedures for receivables, payables and fixed assets. The “how will you verify” questions expect step-by-step answers.
3. Cover Ind AS 115 and Ind AS 116 at application level. Five-step revenue model and the lessee accounting model, with one example each.
4. Fix the standard traps: land is not depreciated, dividends paid go to financing cash flows, and a clean report means an unmodified opinion.
5. Prepare your articleship story. Two minutes, audit clients, procedures you performed, one challenge you handled.

For company-specific context, explore PwC India’s website.

Spread this revision across the days before your interview with the Study Timetable Generator, giving the heaviest weight to audit procedures and Ind AS application.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the PwC SDC interview mainly about audit?

Yes, based on the questions candidates report. Audit concepts, audit procedures and audit planning dominate, with a smaller cluster on Ind AS and accounting formulas. Prepare audit first and deepest.

What is the PwC SDC?

PwC’s Service Delivery Centre is a centralised setup that supports audit and related engagements, working with client teams across locations. The interviewers expect you to know this much at minimum.

How technical is the HR round?

Light. The reported HR questions cover your background, articleship and motivation for the SDC role. The technical weight sits in the audit and accounting rounds.

Do they ask about articleship in detail?

Yes, “articleship experience” is a recurring question. Keep a ready summary of the clients you handled and the audit procedures you performed, because technical follow-ups often grow out of it.

Are formulas like EPS and NAV really asked?

Candidates report both being asked, so have them ready. EPS is net profit attributable to equity shareholders divided by weighted average equity shares; NAV is total assets minus total liabilities (the net asset base), often expressed per share.

Found this list from your own interview? Share any question that is missing so the next candidate benefits. For more recruiter-wise question lists, visit the Interview Prep category.