A head of his tour to Washington where he will be testifying before US lawmakers twice, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is getting coached by several experts in how to handle the pressure and questioning. In an astonishing report, the New York Times notes that ahead of the hearings on April 10 and April 11, the frantic preparations inside Facebook make it seem as if Zuckerberg is going for some sort of final exam.

In a separate report, Reuters noted on Monday that Zuckerberg will be kicking off his Washington tour a day before the formal hearings start. On April 9 he is meeting several lawmakers before testing in front of the Senate Committee.

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will hold meetings with some US lawmakers on Monday, a day before he is due to appear at Congressional hearings over a political consultancys use of customer data, two congressional aides said on Sunday, reported Reuters.

The newspaper notes that Zuckerberg is getting tips from Reginald J Brown, a former special assistant to the US president George W Bush on how to handle pointed queries from US senators. There are reportedly more than 500 internal and external communications experts working with Zuckerberg to prepare him for the hearings. Zuckerberg, who is one of the richest and arguably powerful man in the world, doesn’t like to speak out in public. Instead he prefers to focus more on his work and is usually known to push his trusted lieutenants, most notably COO Sheryl Sandberg, to deal with public and policy statements.

The US lawmakers, who are already miffed at Facebook for not doing enough to counter the Russian meddling in the US elections, are expected to come down hard on the Facebook boss. The hearings on April 10 and April 11 will be livestreamed and hence will be also open to media.

The recent hearings come after Facebook found itself inside a scandal that involves Cambridge Analytica, a data analysis firm that offers its services to politicians across the world. In 2014, Cambridge Analytica, acquired data of nearly 87 million Facebook users — around half million of them were from India — that it then reportedly used to help the Donald Trump campaign win the 2016 elections.

The data leak — Facebook doesn’t call it a leak — has prompted the regulators and lawmakers across the world to take a fresh look at the privacy and data sharing policies of the social media site. Mark Zuckerberg has been called to testify by the US and UK lawmakers and many regulators, with FTC being the most notable of them, have opened a probe. Zuckerberg, who until now sent his deputies to testify before lawmakers, has finally agreed to appear in public to answer questions about his company. Although, he is doing it only in the US. In response to invitation from the UK regulators he has said that his deputies — probably Facebook CTO or its chief security officer — will go to London.

In India too, the government has warned Zuckerberg that he could be called to testify before regulators. The Indian IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in March said that if required, the government would ask Zuckerberg to come to India.

“Mr Mark Zuckerberg you better note the observation of the IT Minister of India. We welcome the FB profile in India, but if any data theft of Indians is done through the collusion of FB system, it shall not be tolerated. We have got stringent power in the IT Act, we shall use it, including summoning you in India,” warned Prasad.