BARC Preparation Guide

BARC interview is toughest technical interview of the country.But is it so tough that average students cannot crack? The answer is No.If your preparation is right then definitely you will crack it.

But the question comes, how one should prepare for it.Preparation consist of 3 parts.

1.Material and Books , 2.Past year interview's analysis ,3. Strategy while facing interview

I will discuss all of them in details which i followed. And also all the technical interview process (Ex:ISRO,DRDO Etc.) are same like BARC .

1.Materials and Books:

Heat transfer-Cengel , Strength of Material-James. M .Gere and Goodno , Thermodynamics -Cengel , Fluid Mechanics-Cengel, Engineering Mechanics-H.C Verma and Bedford Fowler.

But only discrete topics should be studied from these book ,not the whole book.Examples given in book of relevant topic discussed below must be analysed. As in my case same concept was asked from example of GERE.

NPTEL Videos- They are beneficial but watch some of them and not all as it is beyond syllabus sometime. S.K Som videos on FM HT THERMO are best and S.O.M lecture of kgp( not roorkee). Watch them by fast forwarding. Only watch videos of topic mentioned below.

In any topic if you find a graph then thoroughly try to understand it,such that you can teach small details to anyone.Their approach is to link all graphs to basic physical or subsidary laws(Ex:Fourier law,etc.).They don't want exact answer,only your approach is important. Even if you give right answer but not able to explain reason . It will create bad impression. They can sometime ask to derive basic formulas. They will ask you to write assumption in different cases while deriving. One should not appear vague during explanation. As it will be fiasco for you.

Topics:

1. HT- Conduction(All the Equations and Boundary Conditions),Convection(Newton law of cooling,Forced and Free convection,Heat flux and Constant temperature B.C),Radiation(Rarely asked)Heat Exchanger(Shell side and tube side fluid ),Transient Heat conduction,Boiling(Boiling curve details) and condensation. Physical significance of dimensionless number(Pr,Nu,Re etc.).Heat flux and Temperature profile in every case.
2. S.O.M- Tensil testing(Every details like loading & reloading effect,Al and Mild steel curve,toughness,resillience,hardness,true and engineering stress +derivation), SFD and BMD of Indeterminate structures and structure of different shapes, Bending stress and Shear stress variation in different cross sections(Ex: H and I shape),Derivation of Bending formula,Torsion formula and Shear stress-Shear force relation formula,Centroid and Moment of inertia formula derivation(Ex:Cylinder,Hollow sphere),Pressure Vessels formula derivation +Thick and thin vessels (different stress variation), Beam design procedure, Columns(Different B.C derivation like both end hinged and details about euler theory), Failiure theory details.
3. Thermodynamics- Two compartment of different gases(What will happen when allowed to mix,final temperature and Pressure,entropy change etc.), Piston cylinder arrangement(With spring attached ,final pressure temperature volume after Q heat given, behaviour after insulation, acceleration and velocity variation with time of heavy piston if turned upside down,temperature variation along length),Different thermodynamics laws with application etc. , Different cycles with diagram and curve on T-S P-V T-V with explanation about each curve.
4. Fluid mechanics- Velocity and Stress profile in laminar flow and effect of viscosity on these profiles. Moody's chart( applications,graphs and limitation) , Bernoullie equation(Assumptions and applications), Venturimeter,Orificemeter,Rotometer,Pitot tube,Different questions on discharge and velocity of oil and water flowing through hole made in container filled upto height H(projectile motion concept required),time to empty tank of different shapes(cylinder,frustum and sphere) and height reached if top surface is closed and ongoing process(why isothermal and not adiabatic?).
5. Engineering Mechanics-Friction concept(Static and Dynamic), Acceleration of different weight attached through string, velocity vs time given and acceleration vs time can be asked or vice-versa or distance vs time can be asked. FBD drawing and projectile motion.

2.Past year interview analysis: This is the most important thing that will guide your preparation. Keep searching through every website for past interview experience and practice their questions and anlyse them because you will do the same on interview day. This will not let you deviate from topic that is expected from you.

3. Strategy while facing interview: Keep one thing in mind that no one can answer 100% (I did 70%) ,so no need to panic if you don't know, clearly say don't know(I said that 6 times).But not everytime ,atleast try to make approach and write related equation but they will ask explanation about it so be prepared for it. While explaining don't use vague term. I used heat flux term while explaning temperature profile ,so they told me(tumko heat flux se bahut pyaar h ,chalo uska variation banao) to draw heat flux variation and i drew that approximately. They will provide hints sometime. But will cross questions at every answer given by you. They will also confuse you. In my case they asked are you sure about mohrs circle you have drawn(i said “yahi hoga ” then he became silent). Be confident and never spill garbage from your mouth ,always give explanation logically. Be confident .

I prepared for 35 days(5hr per day) and got selected.

Best of luck!!!!!!!

NOTE: If you find any whatsapp group for BARC interview preparation , join it and actively participate in discussing questions. This helped me a lot. You can get such group in BARC OCES/DGFS facebook page.