case study interview banking

47 case interview examples (from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.)

One of the best ways to prepare for   case interviews  at firms like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, is by studying case interview examples. 

There are a lot of free sample cases out there, but it's really hard to know where to start. So in this article, we have listed all the best free case examples available, in one place.

The below list of resources includes interactive case interview samples provided by consulting firms, video case interview demonstrations, case books, and materials developed by the team here at IGotAnOffer. Let's continue to the list.

• McKinsey examples
• BCG examples
• Bain examples
• Deloitte examples
• Other firms' examples
• Case books from consulting clubs
• Case interview preparation

Click here to practise 1-on-1 with MBB ex-interviewers

1. mckinsey case interview examples.

• Beautify case interview (McKinsey website)
• Diconsa case interview (McKinsey website)
• Electro-light case interview (McKinsey website)
• GlobaPharm case interview (McKinsey website)
• National Education case interview (McKinsey website)
• Talbot Trucks case interview (McKinsey website)
• Shops Corporation case interview (McKinsey website)
• Conservation Forever case interview (McKinsey website)
• McKinsey case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
• McKinsey live case interview extract (by IGotAnOffer) - See below

2. BCG case interview examples

• Foods Inc and GenCo case samples  (BCG website)
• Chateau Boomerang written case interview  (BCG website)
• BCG case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
• Written cases guide (by IGotAnOffer)
• BCG live case interview with notes (by IGotAnOffer)
• BCG mock case interview with ex-BCG associate director - Public sector case (by IGotAnOffer)
• BCG mock case interview: Revenue problem case (by IGotAnOffer) - See below

3. Bain case interview examples

• CoffeeCo practice case (Bain website)
• FashionCo practice case (Bain website)
• Associate Consultant mock interview video (Bain website)
• Consultant mock interview video (Bain website)
• Written case interview tips (Bain website)
• Bain case interview guide   (by IGotAnOffer)
• Bain case mock interview with ex-Bain manager (below)

4. Deloitte case interview examples

• Engagement Strategy practice case (Deloitte website)
• Recreation Unlimited practice case (Deloitte website)
• Strategic Vision practice case (Deloitte website)
• Retail Strategy practice case  (Deloitte website)
• Finance Strategy practice case  (Deloitte website)
• Talent Management practice case (Deloitte website)
• Enterprise Resource Management practice case (Deloitte website)
• Footloose written case  (by Deloitte)
• Deloitte case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

5. Accenture case interview examples

• Case interview workbook (by Accenture)
• Accenture case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

6. OC&C case interview examples

• Leisure Club case example (by OC&C)
• Imported Spirits case example (by OC&C)

7. Oliver Wyman case interview examples

• Wumbleworld case sample (Oliver Wyman website)
• Aqualine case sample (Oliver Wyman website)
• Oliver Wyman case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

8. A.T. Kearney case interview examples

• Promotion planning case question (A.T. Kearney website)
• Consulting case book and examples (by A.T. Kearney)
• AT Kearney case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

9. Strategy& / PWC case interview examples

• Presentation overview with sample questions (by Strategy& / PWC)
• Strategy& / PWC case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

10. L.E.K. Consulting case interview examples

• Case interview example video walkthrough   (L.E.K. website)
• Market sizing case example video walkthrough  (L.E.K. website)

11. Roland Berger case interview examples

• Transit oriented development case webinar part 1  (Roland Berger website)
• Transit oriented development case webinar part 2   (Roland Berger website)
• 3D printed hip implants case webinar part 1   (Roland Berger website)
• 3D printed hip implants case webinar part 2   (Roland Berger website)
• Roland Berger case interview guide   (by IGotAnOffer)

12. Capital One case interview examples

• Case interview example video walkthrough  (Capital One website)
• Capital One case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

13. Consulting clubs case interview examples

• Berkeley case book (2006)
• Columbia case book (2006)
• Darden case book (2012)
• Darden case book (2018)
• Duke case book (2010)
• Duke case book (2014)
• ESADE case book (2011)
• Goizueta case book (2006)
• Illinois case book (2015)
• LBS case book (2006)
• MIT case book (2001)
• Notre Dame case book (2017)
• Ross case book (2010)
• Wharton case book (2010)

Practice with experts

Using case interview examples is a key part of your interview preparation, but it isn’t enough.

At some point you’ll want to practise with friends or family who can give some useful feedback. However, if you really want the best possible preparation for your case interview, you'll also want to work with ex-consultants who have experience running interviews at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc.

If you know anyone who fits that description, fantastic! But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen. And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well.

Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. We’ve created a coaching service where you can do mock case interviews 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from MBB firms . Start scheduling sessions today!

The IGotAnOffer team

Investment Banking Case Study Examples – A Guide

If you are preparing for an investment banking interview, you’ll probably need to conquer a case study interview. because case studies are a very crucial component in the investment banking hiring process. particularly if you have never completed a case study before, that will be very challenging for you to get into the investment banking field. this article has covered everything you need to know about investment banking and potential investment banking case studies. there are also tips and practice investment banking case study questions with examples of how to resolve them..

What is Investment Banking?

Investment banks are financial firms that perform a variety of tasks, including underwriting, assisting companies with the issuance of stock and debt securities through initial public offerings or fixed-priced offerings enabling mergers and acquisitions on both the buy side and sell side of the deal, corporate restructuring and many other tasks. 

To efficiently complete these significant deals, a firm turns into an investment banker when it requires finance services. With some of the best benefits in the businesses, it is an extremely competitive industry.

How Does Investment Banking Work?

Investment banking offers services and serves as the middleman between businesses and investors and focuses mostly on shares and stock exchanges. 

Investment banking services help big businesses and organizations in developing a successful investment strategy that includes accurate financial instrument valuation.

When a company conducts an IPO or initial public offering, an investment bank purchases the majority of the shares immediately on the firm’s behalf.

The investment bank, which is now serving as a stand-in for the company then sells these shares on the market. The investment bank improves the company’s revenue in this way while also making sure that all governing rules are observed.

The investment bank makes money by marking up the initial price of shares when selling them to investors, helping the organization in making the most profit possible from this activity.

If a circumstance in the market emerges where the stock becomes overpriced, the investment bank also runs the risk of losing money by selling the stock at a lower price. 

An organization should assess its requirements and carefully consider all of its possibilities before seeking guidance from an investor banker. Before the company visits an investment bank, there are a few crucial considerations including the amount of capital being raised and the level of market competition. When the business has clarity in these areas, it can enlist the assistance of investment bankers to find new businesses to invest in.

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Benefits of Investment Banking

Investment banking assists big businesses in a variety of ways to make crucial financial decisions and make sure they maximize revenues. That’s the reason, Investment banks are a prevalent financial institution among these businesses and even governments.

Here Are Some of the Advantages of Investment Banking:

• Investment banks effectively manage their client and provide them with the information they require regarding the advantage and disadvantages of investing their money in other businesses or organizations.
• These banks serve as a bridge between the company and the investor, ensuring a rise in financial capital by helping in major financial transactions like mergers and acquisitions.
• It conducts an in-depth analysis of the deal and project that will be undertaken by its customer to ensure that the client’s money is invested safely and helps to reduce the risks involved with the mentioned deal or project.

What is Investment Banking Case Study?

You must have solved case studies during your investment banking training. 

Analyzing a business condition is done in case studies during investment banking interviews.

You would be provided with all the necessary data and have adequate time to examine broad case studies. There you would be asked for your opinion on business-related issues.

Your Task Includes,

• Make the necessary deduction.
• Investigate the matter, which is typically a client’s business.
• Give suggestions for resolving the current issue along with an explanation.

Investment banking case studies are frequently used to evaluate a job candidate’s potential performance in real circumstances, where your interviewers would give you a problem and ask for a detailed recommendation.

By presenting them with a hypothetical scenario similar to those experiences while working in the field, your job is simply to analyze the scenario and give them justified reasons. 

Case studies are typically presented at the end of the application process, most frequently at the final interview or during the assessment center.

The majority of questions in investment banking case studies revolve around acquisition, capital raising, or business growth.

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What Are the Types of Case Studies?

Take home investment banking case study.

• You will probably receive the case in advance so you have more time to work on it before the assessment day.
• In the case of take-home case studies, you are given a few days to work on them, complete your analysis, and showcase your recommendation to the bankers over a 30-45 minutes presentation.
• It involves a much deeper analysis including merger/LBO modeling, company procedures, and valuation.

On the Spot or Blind Investment Banking Case Study

• On the day of your assessment center, the case can be presented to you blindly with little time for preparation.
• These are given to you on the day of your interview and within an hour or two you are supposed to present it on the spot. 
• The time split for this process would usually be 45-60 minutes of preparation, 10 minutes of presentation followed by a round of question and answer.
• It would not involve such deep study.
• Some case studies on investment banking may occasionally be given as a group task, where the employer will use this as an opportunity to examine the candidate’s analytical skills and teamwork qualities.

Why You Should Prepare for Investment Banking Case Study?

The theory behind these case studies is that because the qualification for various professions varies, bankers don’t trust the conventional method of interviewing applicants.

Case studies are preferred by banking recruiters as a better way to evaluate applicants because they show how you should perform in the workplace. 

You don’t need to worry about whether your response is right or wrong in this situation because the interviewer is more interested in how the candidate thinks and how well they can use logic and analysis to come up with an innovative answer to the challenge at that time.

Investment banking case study writers aim to inspire applicants to come up with their ideas and apply critical thinking.

Candidates for these positions must have a variety of skills, but problem-solving ability is one of the most important. 

Recruiters are interested in learning how you would approach difficult circumstances and use your intelligence, education, and professional experience to handle them successfully.

Additionally, candidates get an amazing chance to practice their other abilities including presentation, communication, and interpersonal skills.

These factors make case studies significantly more important than the other methods of evaluating applicants in the investment banking hiring process.

How to Prepare for Case Studies Before Assessment Day?

• Read as much deal news as you can while preparing and going through the daily market and business news in popular publications.
• Discover the many valuation methods, how they are calculated, and how they are evaluated then try out your calculations after watching YouTube videos or reading information on valuation methods.
• You must prepare a structure using PowerPoint and Excel consistently, especially for modeling and valuation-based case studies.
• Also, improve your familiarity with software like Microsoft Excel so that you can use spreadsheets effectively.
• You should practice the kinds of questions you might get during your presentation. 
• Real case study interview questions used by banks might not be available to you.
• But, knowing that you need to practice, consider contacting a colleague or friend, or mentor you know who has gone through case study rounds for the types of questions they were asked.

How to Solve It and Perform Well During Assessment Day?

• To solve the case study, take an organized strategy.
• Before making a conclusion or deciding how to solve the problem, carefully analyze the case and the questions.
• Professionally prepare Excel and PowerPoint while modeling case studies.
• Every assentation you make should be supported by solid logical arguments, and the first few points should address that case’s most important issues.
• Even if is not necessary, it would be advantageous to have a specialized understanding of the industry being studied.
• Do not beat around the bush as you have limited time and hence be precise as you speak.

Investment Banking Case Study Examples and Answers

The decision-making case and the financial modeling case are two main types of case studies used in investment banking assessments.

Modeling – Investment Banking Case Study

Modeling case studies are typically take-home tasks that require you to perform straightforward valuation and financial modeling.

So rather than being a case study, it is more of a modeling exam.

The investment banker gives an overview of creating models as well as developing a variety of methods for an in-depth and useful understanding of the subject.

The modeling case study will either use a simpler merger or leveraged buyout model or a free cash flow to the business valuation. 

To assess whether the firms are overvalued or undervalued, you would be asked to examine their valuation multiples.

In most cases, you will be given a few days to finish your analysis. Then on the day of the interview, you must spend 30-45 minutes presenting your case to the bankers. 

Because you will have more time to work on it, the analysis will be considerably more in-depth than in a client case or decision-making case study.

Evaluating Strategic Alternative: Case Study 1 

To maximize shareholder value, a magazine publisher is deciding whether to sell, grow organically or make tiny “tuck-in” acquisitions. It is looking for an investment bank to assist it with its alternatives and has asked for a presentation from your company.

Given Materials: 

They would provide you with a firm summary with financial statements and five-year forecasts, a ten-page market analysis with main competitors, minor acquisition candidates, and recent transactions.

• First, go through everything to get a sense of the industry, where it’s going, and how much this firm is worth in comparison.
• Complete a quick assessment using publicly available rivals and prior transactions and a DCF.
• Evaluate the figures provided by the value, the company’s potential for organic growth, and the availability of suitable targets for acquisition.

Decide what to do, in most cases it is advisable to say “Sell” unless the industry is expanding rapidly (Above 10% annually) the company is completely undervalued, or these are acquisition candidates that will increase revenue or profit by at least 20-30%.

After you have come to a decision, you must prepare your presentation and decide what to tell the bankers.

If you are analyzing scenarios like this during a 30-minute presentation, choose 10 slides with 3-4 important themes each and attempt to spend 3-4 minutes on each slide.

If you choose to write “Sell the company”, consider the following steps in preparing a presentation:

• List the three main reasons for recommending selling
• Overview of the industry- Is it expanding? Falling off? Or Being Inactive?
• Position of the company in the industry? Leader or Second level position? Or is it strong or weak?
• What would organic growth look like in five to ten years? How much larger or more valuable would the company be?
• Prospective tuck-in acquisition candidates
• Why organic growth and acquisition are not the answers.
• Why selling now will generate the most shareholder value
• Show prior transactions and public comparable valuations
• Display the DCF output and the sensitivity chart valuation
• Summary- State again that the best course of action is to sell your company right away and that neither organic development nor the acquisition of smaller firms would increase your company’s valuation in five to ten years.

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Decision Making- Investment Banking Case Study

Case studies that include decision-making are more common than case studies that involve modeling.

In this kind of case study, the applicant is required to decide for their client and offer advice.

The client case study can center on locating financial sources or determining whether or not a proposed merger should go forward.

At the interview, you should be prepared for these questions. Because you will have a set amount of time in which to examine and present the case. You will be given a total of 45-60 minutes to prepare and beforehand 10 minutes presentation with a Q&A round.

Case Study 1

A customer owns her company fully and wants to release some liquidity while keeping a stake in it (Worth £400 million) what suggestions would you provide the client to get the best possible price?

Given Materials:

A corporate overview and details about the company’s performance over the last three years are provided.

Examine all financial information thoroughly and forecast the company’s organic development.

Consider the breakdown of the present valuation if you are provided with the relevant facts.

Think about the client’s industry and the expected trends for that market.

• How does the valuation stack up against others in the field?
• Is the current valuation backed up by reliable industry forecasts?
• Given the slow development of the industry, would it be wise to give up more equity?
• Is it expected that this industry will keep growing?

Consider present customer portfolios, projects, etc., while deciding whether any actions could be performed to boost the company’s value.

Think about suggestions for the client’s negotiation strategy:

• How much equity should they be prepared to give up?
• What number should the client choose as their actual reserve price, in your opinion?

Case Study 2

A publicly traded firm contacts you in the hope to raise money. Analysts’ expectations were met by recent profits and the latest financial report, but the company’s market values are lowest throughout the year. The management of the company has developed a project that it hopes would significantly boost EBIDTA and is looking to raise funding for it. What should the business do to raise the required capital?

Given material:

A summary of the business and its financial statements will be provided to you to prepare for this question.

You must think about whether the organization should raise debt or stock.

Think about the market capitalization, share count, and share price:

• How would the company be affected in this environment if it issued fresh shares?
• In terms of dilution of ownership, would equity financing be an appropriate option?
• How would the effect currently differ from what it would be if the share price were back to normal?

Then examine the provided financial statements:

• Would increasing debt be a better course of action if they are actually under management’s predictions?
• How much they could possibly raise?
• What potential problems could a debt increase bring about?
• How could the cost of interest be reduced?

Prepare your presentation by organizing your ideas clearly and go through your questions and thought process to get at your recommendation.

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Potential Acquisition: Case Study 3 

A software company is considering a large acquisition. It has chosen the company it wishes to acquire and has contacted a number of investment banks to obtain their thoughts on the transaction and how much they should pay. Based on these presentation, it will choose an advisor and decide what to do.

Two page summaries of the buyers and seller, each containing financial data as well as statistics and multiples for similar organization.

With a recommendation on whether to move forward with the acquisition and if so, how much to pay for the target, create five minute presentation.

For the very first, you should consider this two question to solve this,

• Should they purchase that target business?
• What price should they want for the target business?

For an example,

Let’s assume that the comparable companies are trading at EBITDA multiples that range from 4 to 8 times, with the median at 6 times and the 75th percentile at 7 times, respectively. You choose the 25th to 75th percentile range of 5x-7x and apply it to the target company’s $10 million EBITDA since the target company’s profit margins and revenue growth are comparable.

Therefore, the purchase price should range between $50 million and $70 million.

If you have access to a computer, you can also design a DSF, but if you are short of time, keep it straightforward and use multiples.

To answer the question “Should they buy?” take note of the following:

• Will the buyer be able to purchase the seller with enough cash, debt, or stock issuances?
• Will the vendor increase the buyer’s revenue and profit?
• Will the buyer benefit from new consumers, new goods, new markets, or other kinds of benefits as a result of the seller’s acquisition?

After concluding these, you can complete your presentation.

Investment Banking Case Study: FAQs

Q. what is an investment banking case study in short terms.

By presenting candidates with a hypothetical scenario that is comparable to those they might face on the job, investment banking case studies are frequently used to evaluate how the candidate would function in real circumstances.

Q. Which skills are tested in investment banking case study interviews?

Candidates’ analytical and financial skills as well as problem-solving, presentation skills, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills are tested during investment banking interviews.

Q. Is there any way to practice investment banking case studies?

There are various tools, financial modeling online courses, and investment banking textbooks accessible to practice investment banking case studies. Additionally, there are certain career services offered at universities and institutions that provide investment banking programs with case studies.

Investment Banking Case Study: Conclusion

The opportunities to demonstrate your abilities and expertise to investment bankers are provided by investment banking case studies, which are a crucial component of an interview process. 

We have covered some of the investment banking case study examples that will help you in preparation for an investment banking interview.

No doubt it is a very competitive yet tough field to break into but we hope, through this article you achieve the success ladder in the investment banking industry.

Author: Swati Varli

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Financial Services Case Interview: 4 Tips on How to Pass

• Last Updated December, 2021

A good case structure will get through any consulting case interview question. But some industries have specific issues that make it a lot easier to pass the case if you know what to expect. Financial services case interviews are like that.

Government regulation of financial institutions, their corporate structure, and business models are quite different from other industries, so it’s good to brush up on the financial services industry before facing a case.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Differences between financial services firms and other firms.
• Common types of financial services case interviews.
• A financial services case example.
• 4 Tips on acing your financial services case interview.

Let’s get started!

Differences Between Financial Services Firms & Other Firms

Financial services case interview example, common types of financial services case interviews.

5 Tips On Acing Your Financial Services Case Interview

Financial services firms don’t make cars or serve hamburgers to customers to generate revenue the way an auto company or a fast-food restaurant does. Instead, they provide retail customers (individual consumers – people like you and me) and businesses with loans, deposit accounts, or insurance policies. Or they help them invest their money in stocks, bonds, or other financial instruments.

Corporate Structure

There are many different types of financial institutions and they exist both on paper (e.g., online banks) and in actual brick-and-mortar form (e.g., retail bank branches with ATMs). Typical financial institutions include:

• Commercial banks (provide business loans, home mortgage loans, and savings/checking accounts)
• Investment banks and securities firms (help people buy and sell stocks and bonds and help companies issue them)
• Insurance companies (provide insurance for homes, cars, business risk, health, etc.)
• Mutual funds and pension funds (manage retirement savings or savings for other goals, e.g., education, health, etc., by investing it in stocks, bonds, and other assets)
• Microfinance companies (provide small loans to populations underserved by traditional financial institutions)

Businesses that “make stuff” have a factory where parts go in one end and cars or hamburgers go out the other. Financial institutions, on the other hand, have people who handle the bank accounts, stocks purchases/sales, or insurance products that they provide, and all the investment decisions and paperwork that go with that service.

Business Model

Unlike other sectors, the financial services industry’s business model is largely based on interest, fees, and premiums. Don’t get bogged down by the variety of products and services that a financial institution has to offer. You only need to remember:

• Key income sources: interest earned by selling retail and corporate loans, premiums earned on insurance policies, fees earned on financial advisory (e.g., stockbroking) or on deposit accounts, etc.
• Key costs: interest paid on deposits from retail investors and corporates, insurance claims/payouts, branch operations, manpower, SG&A, etc.

Always confirm and validate the drivers of revenue and cost with your interviewer before jumping to solving any financial services case.

Regulation and Risk

A well-functioning financial system is vital for the economy, businesses, and consumers. When a financial institution fails, it can create problems for the wider economy as the 2007-2009 financial crisis showed us. Financial services firms, therefore, attract high levels of scrutiny and oversight.

Government regulation helps make sure that these institutions have good management so they don’t make bad investments or become too risky. They require that financial institutions hold “shock absorbers” (i.e., capital) to help deal with bad investments. Each country has its own set of norms and regulations that create the framework and operating model for financial institutions.

In a financial services case, therefore, it’s always important to include regulation as a category in your issue tree. You can check with your interviewer on which aspects of financial regulation and risk are relevant to ensure that ideas you brainstorm in the case won’t break laws. Aligning on this upfront increases your credibility with the interviewer, but regulation is not typically the focus of the case.

Nail the case & fit interview with strategies from former MBB Interviewers that have helped 89.6% of our clients pass the case interview.

Financial services cases can include revenue growth, cost reduction, or new product introduction like they would for any other industry. They can also include managing the “back office” where financial account information is maintained or stock and bond trades are cleared.

Here are some financial services case interview examples:

• Disconsa – A McKinsey case on developing better financial service offerings for a not-for-profit entity serving remote Mexican communities.
• Internet Bank – An L.E.K. case on product diversification for a large insurance company in Europe.
• Big Bucks Bank – A Deloitte case on technology transformation for a large US-based bank.
• Bank of Zurich – A Deloitte case on developing a strategy to structure the organization’s data program.

We’ve also curated a list of case examples , to help you hone your business problem-solving skills. Head to Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep to learn what a case interview is and its various stages (i.e., opening, structure, analysis, and conclusion). The best way to get smarter about answering financial services case interview questions is to master this general four-part approach first and then apply financial services specifics as appropriate.

Let’s dive into a financial services case example.

Case Question

“Your client is Go-for-Growth bank, a large bank in a frontier market that wants to rapidly build its agent network to grow revenue for its payment and banking business. How should they go about it?”

First, repeat the main information in the prompt to the interviewer to make sure you got it right, and ask clarifying questions. If you don’t know what a frontier market is or who banking agents are, ask your interviewer.

Frontier market is a classification made by Standard & Poors, a financial rating agency, that’s used to classify less advanced economies in the developing world, e.g., Vietnam, Kenya, Nigeria, Cambodia, etc.

A banking agent is a retail or a postal outlet contracted out by a financial institution (in this case Go-for-Growth bank) to process clients’ transactions. Typically, in less advanced economies, the population has little access to banks but significantly higher interaction with establishments such as pharmacies, grocery stores, post offices, and beauty salons. The agents help the banks get new customers and typically make money on commissions.

Take a moment to develop your own hypothesis for the Go-for-Growth bank case.

Financial Services Case Hypothesis

Your hypothesis could be that a banking agent is a cost-efficient way for the bank to acquire customers and distribute financial products vs. having to set up their own branches across the country (including paying rent for office space and hiring staff in each location).

Next, validate your understanding of the bank’s business model, corporate structure, and applicable regulations. Here, the bank is a traditional commercial bank that wants to add agents as a channel to acquire retail customers and sell traditional financial products and services (e.g., loans, deposits, etc.) Building an agent network is allowed within the regulatory framework of the country.

A great candidate would also establish:

• The purpose of agent acquisition: “Why agents?” “Why now?” and “What is the size of the opportunity (or market) that the bank is chasing?” Here, the interviewer can confirm your hypothesis about agents being cost-efficient vs. Go-for-Growth Bank having to set up brick-and-mortar establishments.
• The size of the opportunity: Establishing an agent network is a big undertaking so it’s worth ensuring the opportunity size is big enough to justify the cost. In this case, the total opportunity size is $3 billion given the country is largely underpenetrated with only 10-20% of the total population of 100+ million having access to financial services, so the opportunity is worth it. (Note that to make this a short case or one that would be appropriate for undergrad summer interns, sizing the market could be the sole focus.)
• The client’s key success metrics : “What does success look like to Go-for-Growth Bank?” Here, you should clarify the target network size and the target timeframe to meet the client’s growth target. Say, your interviewer adds that they want to scale up to a size of 200,000 agents in 2 years to achieve the topline impact of $3+ billion.

You’d now ask for a minute to lay down your thoughts so that you can build your structure.

Take a moment to think about how you would structure this case before reading ahead. That will give you a sense of what business issues come naturally to you in a financial services case and where you need to push your thinking further.

Here’s a sample case structure:

• Which services/revenue streams should Go-for-Growth Bank market via the agents and to which end customers?
• Which of the existing products and services are most profitable?
• Which products and services don’t need extensive training for agents to sell?
• Which products and services best meet the needs of the customers who agents serve (e.g., payments and basic deposit accounts and loans, not more sophisticated financial products).
• Is there a segmentation of customers who should be targeted by the agents?
• Will the bank need to tweak their products to make them profitable to customers acquired through the agent network? (An A+ answer would note that clients with low incomes or lumpy earnings might need bank accounts with lower minimums.)
• Is there opportunity for cross-sell/ up-sell of products to customers?
• How to reach the agents? (sales force/feet on the ground vs. email campaign)
• How to get them interested in becoming a channel partner? Will one-time, up-front incentives be required?
• What is the process to get them on board?
• What cut can be given to the agents (so the bank continues to be profitable)?
• What will be meaningful for the agents?
• Can gamification reward schemes be introduced?
• Would certification or co-branding, such as a sticker to display the agent’s affiliation with Go-for-Growth Bank, appeal to potential agents?
• What banking products can be sold to the agents?
• Can the agents be offered discounted pricing on the products?
• What is the up-front effort/cost to acquire agents?
• What is the expected revenue or profit uplift per agent to the bank?
• How much should each agent sell annually/monthly to continue being profitable to the bank?
• What are the recurring costs to maintain the agent network?
• Which metrics should be used for tracking performance?
• Can low performers be segmented further based on their potential?
• What will be the plan of action for consistent low-performing agents?
• Which training(s) and products’ brochures should be offered to agents to keep the customer conversion rate high?
• How can we create a community within the agent network to provide product information updates and support agency retention (such as Facebook or WhatsApp groups)?
• How can we set up the right operating model for providing cash to agents as needed?
• How can we make sure the agents have the right processes in place to ensure Go-for-Growth Bank’s cash is safeguarded?

This structure is quite exhaustive. Don’t worry if you didn’t have every bullet point in your structure. In practice, since you only have about 2 minutes to lay this out, you don’t need to write full questions on your piece of paper but only a couple of keywords for each bucket and each sub-bucket.

We recommend going through our article on Issue Trees to learn more about how to create a case structure.

After you lay out your case structure, your interviewer would prompt you to brainstorm which agents to acquire and which products and services to sell, so if you’ve already alluded to it in your structure, that gives you a headstart.

Here, your interviewer would hand you a few exhibits that detail population density by region, classification of the retail stores with metrics on annual revenue, footfall, etc., a list of Go-for-Growth Bank’s products and the associated profitability of each product, and the results of a survey that details the wishlist of financial services and products by underserved consumers and small businesses.

On brainstorming ideas, you’ll be rated on both your structure and your creativity. Make sure to always articulate the logic behind your ideas, using your past experience, analogies, or your general knowledge.

Ideas for Increasing Go-for-Growth Bank’s Revenue

• Target the agents that receive the highest customer footfall (grocery stores) AND/OR agents that are well-versed in handling legal/administrative documentation (postal outlets). Let’s assume the bank can cover 60% of the untapped population by acquiring grocery stores and postal outlets as agents in the Tier 2 cities.
• Sell products that are profitable to the bank and at the same time relevant to the customers (payment transfer, insurance products, working capital loans, home loans, etc.)
• Onboard agents as customers first to establish other customers’ trust in the bank’s products. Given it’s a less advanced economy where customers rely on heavy interactions with retail stores for information on financial products, word-of-mouth from the agent will establish trust upfront and lead to longer lifetime value (LTV) for the bank.

Ideas on Incentives for Agents

• Provide commission to agents of 0.15% on each insurance/loan product.
• Organize monthly or quarterly leagues with leaderboards to recognize top performers, e.g., highest transaction value, highest growth, highest customer acquisition, etc.
• Leverage social media to build an agent community via Facebook or WhatsApp groups. These groups can create engagement and serve as an efficient mode of communication, allowing the bank to solicit agent referrals and publish leaderboards.
• Introduce friendly competitions like “Best shop-front display” to increase the visibility of Go-for-Growth Bank’s products.
• Test if affiliation with the Bank’s brand in the country is a motivator for agents.

You could classify “high performers” as agents with transaction volume and transaction value in the top 10%. Agent’s potential information (e.g., footfall, turnover, location potential) can also be collected to have a more nuanced segmentation for tracking and governance purposes.

Running the Numbers on Go-for-Growth’s Agent Strategy

Finally, you should consider pressure testing the unit economics of each agent to ensure the bank’s targets are met. To do this, you’ll need to leverage the information you were provided during the opening of the case as well as make some assumptions. A quick way to round this up would be:

• Total # of customers = % of population targeted * Annual conversion rate per agent = 60% of population targeted * 10% conversion rate = 60% * (80% [% of population currently underserved by financial institutions] * 100 million [total population]) * 10% [conversion rate]= 4.8 million customers
• Revenue per customer = Avg # of banking products sold per customer * Annual price per product = 1.5 avg # of products * $500 price 1 = $750 annual revenue per customer.

1 Based on data from interviewer.

• Therefore, Topline impact = 4.8 million * $750 = $3600 million = $3.6 billion (validated as this meets the $3+ billion target)

Keep drawing on the interviewer to test the assumptions and/or ask for industry benchmarks on conversion rates, average number of products, prices, etc. to make your analysis rigorous.

A great candidate would also establish bottom line impact for the bank:

• Total bottom line opportunity = Topline opportunity * Profit margin = $3.6 billion * (5-7% profit margin – 0.15% cut to agents) = $175 to $250 million.

“Go-for-Growth Bank’s CEO walks into the team room and asks you about your findings. What do you tell her?”

You should lead with your recommendation to the client and detail the key reasons supporting that recommendation. Then, mention any risks to consider which might impact the outcome and the next steps that you’d suggest to double down on the analysis. There is no need to repeat everything you covered during the case: be succinct and stick to the key arguments.

What would you say? Give it a try before reading ahead.

“We recommend acquiring the grocery stores and postal outlets in the Tier-2 cities as agents for the bank to help sell loan and insurance products at a profit margin of 5-7% to retail and small business clients with a 0.15% cut to the agents. This way, we cover 60%+ of the underpenetrated population with our highest profitability products and provide an additional source of income to the agents at no additional cost to them. The high perceived value in being affiliated with the Go-for-Growth Bank brand will attract agent interest. This will allow us to add $3 billion to the top line and $175-$250 million to the bottom line annually.

One concern we’d like to address next is whether competitors could potentially take away our first-mover advantage by luring away agents with better commissions, especially in densely populous areas. We should address this potential problem with contract terms and incentives in our agent agreements.”

Congrats, you made it through your first financial services case interview!

4 Tips On Acing Your Financial Services Case Interview

1. validate corporate structure and business model.

Always remember to validate the corporate structure and business model of the financial institution in your financial services case interview. You don’t want to end up confusing a commercial bank with an investment bank!

As a candidate, you’re not expected to know everything. Therefore, ask as many questions as possible to understand what you’re really dealing with. For instance, you could say, “Hey, I’m not familiar with the corporate structure and the business model of a pension fund, could you please explain that to me so I can start to understand the drivers of value for the business a bit better.”

2. Align on the Success Metrics

To be able to reach your destination, you must know what the destination is. This is especially relevant in the financial services case interview, where there could be dozens of metrics that can be solved for. Therefore, it’s critical to align on the North Star with your interviewer so you can solve for the target the client cares most about.

3. Apply First-Principles Thinking to Structure the Case

To navigate through a financial services case interview, you need to think on your toes. Chances are the corporate structure, business model, regulatory environment, and risk aspects will be unfamiliar to you. Instead of feeling bogged down by these nuances, take a big picture lens and apply first-principles thinking to structure the case.

You may not know the industry terms such as “net interest margin” or “dividend-adjusted return,” but you can always ask the first-principles question on “What drives value for the business?” and engage with your interviewer to identify the underlying sources of value.

Demonstrating intellectual curiosity in financial services cases will hold you in good stead. Start with “Why?” then get to the “What?” and only then solve for “How?”

4. Remain Calm and Confident

It’s easy to lose nerve when you’re out of your comfort zone. If financial services case interviews tend to throw you off, practice staying calm while solving the case. During your practice, monitor yourself for signs of nervousness. Pause, take a deep breath, smile, and then continue solving the case. The more practice you put in, the calmer your nerves will become. Also, include elements such as reading financial news, financial statements, etc., into your case prep so that you become familiar with industry terminologies. Incorporating these habits into your holistic practice will boost your confidence naturally.

– – – – –

In this article, we’ve covered:

• Key differences between financial services firms and other firms,
• Common types of financial services case interviews,
• A financial services case interview example, and
• 4 tips on acing your financial services case interview.

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about financial services case interviews, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

Other people prepping for consulting case interviews found the following pages helpful:

• Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep
• Issue Trees
• Market-sizing Case Interview
• Supply Chain Case Interview

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The Complete Guide to Investment Banking Interview Questions

Investment banking is an incredibly competitive field to interview for and work in. 

Whether you’re aiming for a small boutique firm or a bulge-bracket firm, you’ll be competing for a position with dozens, or hundreds, of other possible applicants. In your investment banking interviews, your work ethic, hustle, and technical knowledge will be what sets you apart – and your passion for the work and people skills will be what sells the firm on YOU. 

Most of the below investment banking interview questions are directed at candidates entering investment banking at the pre-MBA level. If you are entering investment banking after a few years working in another finance sector or post-MBA, you can expect a bit more technical questions than I cover here. 

The first category of questions you can expect are basic “fit” questions. 

Investment Banking Fit Questions

These questions are your generic interview questions, but they give you a really good chance to sell yourself. This is where your “soft” resume skills can show up well: work ethic, public speaking, and good old-fashioned hustle.  

Walk me through your resume.

This is not supposed to be your full life history – your interviewer has already looked over your resume and knows what’s there. Keep it brief, and pull out specific items of interest. 

If you’ve had some real finance experience – e.g. if you managed your finance club’s practice investment fund – talk about your results, the most interesting thing you learned, or some other important bit. 

If the interviewer asks specific questions about resume items, feel free to go into more detail. If you have experience listed that isn’t specifically related to investment banking, be prepared to tie it to the specific job you’re interviewing for. For example, if you were a club or professional fraternity president, or a sports team captain, highlight the leadership experience you’ve gained and how it could help you on the job. 

If you’ve done your research about the firm (and even the specific interviewer if you’re lucky) you can use this question to highlight specific things about your resume that would impress that person specifically. If you looked up your recruiter on LinkedIn before the interview, you might see items in their CV that can tie to yours – maybe they were in the same fraternity, or you both have a specific interest in international banking. Only do this if it’s genuine; it’s not something that can be forced. 

Don’t be afraid to conduct this type of research ahead of time. To some degree, they’re doing it to you – you should feel free to find out more about them too. Just don’t divulge so much that you come across as creepy. 

Why should we pick you?

Investment banking is so competitive that you have nothing to lose by giving a positive, confident pitch about yourself. 

In your preparation, you should ask yourself “What (actually) sets you apart? What makes you unique?” 

Create a one- or two-sentence description of yourself. Your tagline, your slogan, your elevator pitch; whatever you want to call it, it’s a powerful description of how you’re ready to bring value to the world. 

And remember that the biggest thing they are looking for is work ethic and hustle so make sure you show in your pitch how passionate and excited you are for this job.

Why investment banking? 

Recruiters want to know you’re serious about investment banking. Your answer to this question reveals a lot about why you’re sitting in that chair in the recruiter’s office. 

Are you looking for an interesting, challenging career? Are you ready to work long hours?

Do you want a job with prestige and a big paycheck? (Hint: even if you do, don’t talk about that during your interviews).

If you’re going into investment banking because you hope to springboard to a different area of finance in a few years, like VC, growth equity, or private equity, that’s fine. It’s a very popular path for young finance professionals. However, the company you’re interviewing for now doesn’t want to know about your future plans to leave them! So don’t discuss this in your interviews. 

Their main concern is that you will be a reliable, hardworking, creative employee – and stay long enough that you can be an asset to the company. 

If you have a specific interest or life experience that has drawn you to investment banking as a career, feel free to give a more personal reason why it’s important to you – but again, it’s not the time for a long story. 

For a deeper dive on why investment banking , check out this article.

What kind of work environment do you do well in?

Everyone is different, and every bank is different (or wants to think they are). 

Interviewers are looking for candidates who thrive in a fast-paced, ambitious, and competitive environment. In your answer, make sure to back it up with examples from your past experience.

What are your hobbies?

This is a good opportunity to let your personal side show a bit. 

Whether you like mountain climbing, oil painting, or something else, this is a nice way to show your employer that you are a well-rounded person with unique interests outside of work. 

If your favorite hobby is truly reading the Wall Street Journal and keeping up with the stock market, absolutely say so – but you don’t have to pretend it is just for the sake of the job. 

Keep the answer brief – this answer is likely not going to get you the job.  So, answer succinctly and let them see a new side of you.  Then move on.

Why This Bank?

To answer this question, do your research before the interview. 

Show your interviewer that you’ve researched all the external facing information about the bank.  For instance, what does the website say about the bank’s strategy?  What did the CEO talk about on the recent earnings call?  

This is also a good opportunity to show off any networking you’ve done. If you attended a campus event or spoke to a recruiter before interviewing, this is a good time to drop names and mention what you learned about the company. “I spoke to X at the Y event, and he told me about this company’s role in Z. I’m especially interested in Z, and am looking forward to working on Z- related projects in the next few years.” 

If you have specific social ethics or values, you can mention how they line up with the company’s CSR or ESG goals – but this shouldn’t necessarily be the main reason you chose the firm.  But don’t go overboard here, unless you’re specifically interviewing for an ESG role.

Investment Banking Behavioral Questions

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on these. They’re pretty standard interview questions. Be prepared to answer them, but put most of your preparation into the technical and firm-specific questions.

• What’s the thing you’re most proud of?
• What is your biggest strength?
• What is your biggest weakness and how do you deal with it?
• How do you deal with stress?
• Tell me about a time you had to work extremely hard.

Investment Banking Technical Interview Questions 

This is the real meat of an investment banking interview. Knowing the principles of finance and investing inside out will go further towards distinguishing you from other candidates than any discussion of your personal preferences.  

What is the difference between equity value and enterprise value?

Equity value is a component of enterprise value.

The enterprise value is the full value of any business.  Because many businesses have debt, part of this value will be attributable to NET DEBT, while the rest will be attributed to EQUITY.

Enterprise value = Equity + Net Debt

Investors who are interested in valuing or acquiring entire businesses are generally interested in enterprise value. If you are going into private equity where leverage is heavily emphasized as an acquisition strategy, you will certainly rely on  enterprise valuation. 

Think of it like the value of a home.  The enterprise value is the price you sell your home for – let’s say $1 million.  However, because you have a mortgage on the home with an outstanding balance of $300,000, then you only have $700,000 in equity value.  This means when you sell for $1 million you would only get $700,000 in net proceeds (or equity) when you sell.

Same idea as enterprise value vs. equity value.

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What is EBITDA, and why are EBITDA multiples sometimes preferred to P/E ratios?

EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization. 

A company valuation based on EBITDA often reflects the true value of a company better than a P/E ratio for one important reason: it excludes capital structure and non-core factors from the company’s earnings. 

Since Net Income includes so many one-off things that may not be reflective of the ongoing business activities, it can skew the company valuation’s valuation, which should only reflect going forward activities. 

What are the main valuation methods for companies?

A few of the primary methods for companies are discounted cash flow (DCF), comparables or multiple analysis, and asset-based valuation. 

Discounted cash flow is very common among investment bankers, as it gives the theoretical value of any company.  It essentially calculates the value of the business by projecting forward its cash flows and then discounting them back to today’s date, using a discount rate.  The downside of this method is that it relies on several assumptions and can be too theoretical to use in practice.  

Comparable analysis compares the sale price or market valuation of the company in question to other similar companies in the market. There are two kinds of comparables – “trading” comps, which compares public companies, and “acquisition” comps, which compares M&A deals.  The companies have to be similar in terms of industry, size and yearly earnings to be comparable in value. This valuation method is extremely common since it shows the actual market prices of real companies in the market, rather than some theoretical value as in the case of DCF.

Another form of valuation is called “replacement value.” If a company is being sold, one way to value it is by calculating the cost required to completely rebuild or duplicate the company.  If a company wants to sell for $400 million, but buyers know they can rebuild its assets for just $50 million, this may constrain the valuation the company can achieve in its sale process.

Which has a higher cost of capital: debt or equity? Why?

Equity financing has a higher cost of capital than debt financing. 

This is because the providers of the financing take on a greater risk in providing equity than they would in providing debt. They will demand a higher return on their money to compensate for the increased risk. 

Companies have a legal requirement to pay back the debt they owe before the equity, and they must make debt payments before they pay dividends to shareholders. This offers a few benefits. First, it decreases the risk that they will default on the debt, creating the possibility of a lower cost of capital. Second, the interest the company will pay on that debt is usually tax-deductible, reducing their cost of capital by their corporate tax rate. 

Equity financing has none of these benefits. The company has no legal obligation to pay shareholders. This alone creates more risk for the shareholders, and they will demand a higher return in exchange. Payments to shareholders are also not tax-deductible as interest on debt financing is. Because of this, even equity financing that provides the same rate of return as debt financing will always be more expensive to the company because of the tax rate. 

Explain what net working capital is, and how it impacts cash flow.

Net working capital is the difference between a company’s current assets (excluding cash) and current liabilities (excluding current portion of long-term debt). 

It shows two important things: 

First, it shows how easily a company would be able to meet their current liabilities with their current assets, should they need to in an emergency. 

Second, working capital can be a significant source (or use) of cash for the business in ongoing operations. Changes to the net working capital will increase or decrease the unlevered free cash flow of the firm.  

Walk Me Through a DCF

This is another technical question, and one that requires slightly more preparation than the others. 

The key here is preparation – the interviewer wants to see not only that you have the technical knowledge, but that you are mentally organized enough to discuss it fluently and intelligently. 

To answer this question in an interview, follow a basic outline in your head that you can flesh out as you go. Something like this: 

Define DCF: A DCF, or discounted cash flow model, shows the value of future cash flows from a company over a period of time, adjusted by a discount rate back to the present time period. 

State the purpose of a DCF: The end goal of a DCF is to determine the theoretical enterprise value of a company . This gives potential investors a realistic idea of the value in the company independent of market forces. This is a solid anchor for valuation and pricing estimates. 

Explain how a DCF works: Before you can find the discount part of a DCF, you have to find the cash flow part. You will need to project forward a cash flow statement to find free cash flow for the end of each period – usually five years. To do this, you will need the EBITDA and other financial metrics affecting cash besides EBITDA to get down to Free Cash Flow for each projected year (e.g. interest, working capital, taxes, capital expenditures, etc.). .

Once you have the ending free cash flow for each period, you need to calculate the discount rate in order to find the present value of each year’s cash flow. The discount rate is calculated by finding the WACC (weighted average cost of capital) for the company. This is a weighted average of the returns that debt and equity investors can expect from the deal. If the company is highly leveraged, the WACC will generally be lower than if it is financed with larger amounts of equity. 

Now that you have the WACC and the free cash flow for each year, you then have to discount each year’s cash flow separately back to the present day, based on the WACC and the time period for each cash amount. 

Finally, you’ll need to calculate the “terminal value” of the enterprise.  This is the value of all cash flows that occur outside of the projection period (e.g. if the projection period is 5 years, then the terminal value is for year 6 and beyond).  You can calculate this value either through a perpetual growth rate or by applying a valuation multiple to the FCF in that year.  Likewise, you will then apply the discount rate to see the present day valuation of the terminal value.

Once you have all the present-day equivalents of the cash flows, you can add them all together to obtain an approximate company valuation. 

Discuss pros and cons of a DCF:

• Pros: Assuming that the WACC and assumed growth rate are accurate, the DCF is one of the best ways to obtain a company valuation. It eliminates the impact of prevaling market forces.
• Cons: The Con is the same as the Pro:  Market forces.  While the DCF eliminates the impact of market forces outside the company’s control, these forces CAN and DO easily change the valuation of companies overnight in the real world.  Also, the DCF relies on several assumptions (WACC, discount rate, etc.) that are theoretical and hard to justify. 

How are the three main financial statements linked?

Like the last question, this is one that is best answered with a basic framework that you can build off of. 

Describe the three main financial statements: 

• Income statement: shows all revenue and expenses for the past fiscal period
• Balance sheet: shows all assets, liabilities, and equity at the end of the period
• Cash flow statement: translates the accrual accounting basis to actual cash on hand for the period

Describe how they impact each other: 

The first statement you have to compile is the income statement. This shows all the revenue earned and expenses incurred.

The balance sheet , of course, is impacted by the income statement because net income (or loss) from the period flows through to retained earnings in the equity section of the balance sheet, where it can be distributed to owners and shareholders.  

There are other income statement items that impact other balance items. A prominent example is depreciation & amortization and how it impacts the balance of PP&E on the balance sheet.

Finally, the cash flow statement pulls from both the income statement and the balance sheet.  The cash flow statement ultimately measures the change in cash flow for the business.  The change in cash is ultimately quite different from the income it earns, but this statement helps you track the differences.  This statement starts with net income from the income statement, and then it will detail all non-cash items that are counted within net income (e.g. operating activities) or need to be included (e.g. investing or financing activities).  Examples include capital expenditures from the balance sheet, and depreciation from the income statement. 

Then, the change in cash flow measured on the cash flow statement is ultimately reflected back on the balance sheet!

To cross-check the ending cash balance on the balance sheet, you can check that the ending cash balance from the last period plus the current period’s cash from operations, investing, and financing (cash flow statement) are the same. 

Investment Banking Case Study

Your investment banking interview may include a case study. While this is more common in sectors like private equity or growth equity , you may also see it here, especially at interviews above entry-level positions. 

In general, though, investment bankers prefer to test your knowledge with technical questions and follow-ups like the information in this article, rather than actual assignments. 

Private equity interviews may include a detailed take-home case study or in-person valuation model. 

The most common case study you’ll see in an investment banking interview process would be a very light DCF model with little complexity. This is something you might only see at a very small boutique firm, and won’t see at all at larger firms or bulge-bracket banks – they simply don’t have the time or capacity to review case studies on a large scale. 

If you’re going into investment banking as a step to a future career in private or growth equity, the case study is a good thing to remember for the future, but you most likely won’t need to deal with it now. 

Questions To Ask Your Investment Banking Interviewer

This is a good time to ask any questions you may have about company culture or specific answers to questions you may have thought of that you couldn’t find on the website. 

If you did some networking before the interview, you can mention any questions you didn’t get to ask in your networking conversations. “I really enjoyed speaking with X about the work this bank is doing with Y. I’d love to know more about that project.” 

This isn’t the time to appear self-interested in working hours or salary. Think of it as the flip side of the interviewer’s “why should we hire you?” question. Now you get to ask questions to see if you are a good personality and work style fit for the company. You can also ask your interviewer more personal questions.

“What is your favorite part about working for X?” 

 “What were your first couple years working for X bank like? Is that a similar experience to what new hires now can expect?”

Preparing for a big career interview like investment banking can be a bit nerve-wracking if you haven’t done many like it before. Don’t worry – you’ll get over it quickly. Practice in front of a mirror, or record yourself giving confident answers. Investment banking is a rewarding, lucrative career, and you’re ready to do what it takes to get you there.

Preparing for an investment banking interview requires a thorough understanding of the various types of questions that may be asked, such as fit, behavioral, and technical inquiries. 

It is critical to conduct research on the bank you are interviewing with and be able to articulate why you want to work for them.

Technical questions, such as walking through a DCF and understanding the relationship between financial statements, must also be mastered. Furthermore, practicing investment banking case studies and preparing thoughtful interview questions can help you stand out and make a good impression.

You will be better prepared to succeed in your investment banking interview (including your HireVue interview ) and land your dream job if you follow this guide.

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Investment Banking Interview Guide 4.0

Here’s How to Gain an ‘Unfair Advantage’ Over Other Candidates in Investment Banking Interviews

– Without Memorizing Hundreds of Repetitive Questions and Answers

Pitch yourself like a pro

Use our templates to answer the “Walk me through your resume/CV” question

Ace the technical questions

Learn the concepts so you don’t have to “memorize” anything

Prepare efficiently for "fit" questions

Re-use the same few stories to answer any fit/behavioral question

Test yourself and practice for case studies

You’ll get 17+ case studies and 218+ quiz questions with full answer keys

View short course outline  or scroll down for the details

Join Our Community Join the 56,763+ students and professionals who have already used our training to win interviews and job offers Prepare Quickly Get study plans for 4 hours, 2 days, and 1 week, plus an "interview checklist" with the key points you need to know Get Expert Support Unlimited access to course files, 5 years of support/updates/video access, and a 90-day money-back guarantee Test Yourself Complete global case studies, answer quiz questions, and get feedback on your "story" and other interview answers

Gain an Advantage by Quickly Conquering the Two Topics that Matter the Most in IB Interviews:

When you cut away all the fluff, two topics matter more than anything else in investment banking interviews:

1 Your answer to the “Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your resume/CV” or “Why are you here?” question.

In my 10+ years of conducting mock interviews, I’ve never once heard a good initial answer to this question.

That’s why it’s so tough to win offers in investment banking interviews – answer that one question wrong in the first 2-3 minutes, and you’re out!

But if you use our templates, and you outline your story and get feedback directly from us , you instantly jump ahead of everyone else in the interview room.

2 Your ability to answer technical questions competently and prove that you can do the work.

Technical knowledge is required to win offers. If you can’t explain the financial statements, valuation, or DCF analysis, you’ve eliminated yourself before the interview even begins.

It’s not possible to learn everything at the last minute because there is a lot of material – but you can focus on the most important concepts and use the quizzes and Excel files in this Interview Guide to make sure you know the ropes.

Our Interview Guide is designed around these two critical topics .

Yes, there’s lot of other stuff in here – fit/behavioral questions and answers, quizzes, practice case studies, industry-specific questions, deal discussions, and more.

But if you answer questions in these two categories like a pro, the rest is icing on the cake .

Highlights of the Investment Banking Interview Guide 4.0 Include:

Take a Look at What You’ll Get Immediately After Signing Up…

Module 1: Action Plan and Quick Start Guide

This module will show you how to get the most out of the Interview Guide with limited time, and what to focus on if you have only a few hours or a few days to prepare.

You get a Quick Start Guide with 4-hour, 2-day, and 1-week-long study plans, as well as checklists of everything you need to do before and after the interview.

You’ll also learn how the recruiting process works and what you must do to be a competitive candidate.

• 3 Written Guides: Quick Start Guide, Interview Checklist and What to Do Before and After the Interview, and The Recruiting Process and Differences at the MBA Level and in Other Countries.

Module 2: How to Tell Your Story (Resume Walkthrough Tutorials)

In this module, you’ll learn how to answer the most important question in any interview: “Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your resume/CV” or “Why are you here today?”

If you answer this question effectively, all the other “fit” questions will be easy because you can keep referencing your ‘story’ to answer those questions.

If you don’t answer this question effectively, the rest of the interview is pointless because the interviewer will stop paying attention after 1-2 minutes.

• 1 Written Guide: How to Tell Your Story in Interviews.
• 4 Slide Presentations and 4 Videos: Overall Strategy, Undergrads and Recent Grads, Experienced Professionals and MBA-Level Candidates, and IB Exit Opportunities.
• 5 Templates and Executed Examples for Undergrads and Recent Grads: Engineer to IB, Liberal Arts to IB, Mixed Finance to IB, Previous Banking Experience to IB, and Consulting to IB.
• 8 Templates and Executed Examples for MBA-Level Candidates and Career Changers: Big 4 and Accounting to IB, Corporate Finance to IB, Experienced Executive to IB, Law to IB, Back and Middle Office to IB, Military to IB, Equity Research or Sales & Trading to IB, and Entrepreneurship to IB.
• 5 Templates and Executed Examples for IB Exit Opportunities: IB to Private Equity, IB to Hedge Funds, IB to Venture Capital, IB to Other Groups, and IB to Other Banks.

Module 3: Fit Questions and Deal and Market Discussions

In this module of the Interview Guide, you’ll learn how to answer “fit” questions (e.g., your strengths, weaknesses, and leadership skills) and how to discuss deals, companies, and markets, including your own deal experience.

Instead of presenting a laundry list of questions and answers, we focus on the strategies behind answering questions and how to prepare your discussions efficiently. We provide sample answers for the key “fit” questions as well as many examples of transaction discussions – for IPOs and equity deals, M&A deals, and debt deals.

You’ll also learn how to present your work if you have non-investment-banking deal experience, such as client work at a Big 4 firm, law firm, consulting firm, or in a credit risk role.

• 3 Written Guides: “Fit” Questions and Answers, Deal and Market Discussions, and How to Discuss Your Own Deal Experience.
• 3 Templates and Executed Examples for Deal and Market Discussions: One initial public offering (IPO) example, one leveraged buyout (LBO) example, and one shipping/maritime market discussion example.
• 3 Templates and Executed Examples for Discussing Your Own Deal Experience: One sell-side M&A example, one buy-side M&A example, and one capital markets (debt/equity) example.

Module 4: Technical Questions and Answers

In this module, you’ll master all the technical concepts.

You’ll start by learning about the core concepts required to understand everything else: The time value of money, present value, net present value, discount rates, WACC, and IRR.

Then, you’ll move into accounting and 3-statement modeling, equity value and enterprise value, and valuation and DCF analysis.

The remaining lessons and guides cover M&A deals and merger models, leveraged buyouts and LBO models, and more specialized topics such as private companies, equity and debt capital markets analysis, and industry-specific technical questions.

Each guide has “key rules of thumb” that explain the concepts, as well as interview questions and answers and accompanying Excel files so you can test yourself.

The core sections alone have 578+ pages of instruction and guidance, along with hundreds of annotated diagrams and screenshots, making this the most comprehensive coverage of technical questions available on the planet.

• 10+ Written Guides: Core Concepts, Accounting and the Three Financial Statements, Equity Value and Enterprise Value, Valuation and DCF Analysis, M&A and Merger Models, Leveraged Buyouts and LBO Models, Industry-Specific Guides (Real Estate; Oil & Gas; Banks and Insurance; and Restructuring), Equity and Debt Capital Markets and Leveraged Finance, and Private Companies.
• 18+ Excel Files: These files concisely demonstrate all the mechanics, from the fundamental concepts to their actual application to real-life deals.
• Short Video Walk-Through for Each Guide: These short tutorials summarize the most important points for each topic and explain how to use the written guides, questions and answers, and Excel files efficiently.

Module 5: Interactive Quizzes

This module lets you test your knowledge of the key technical topics by completing quizzes on Core Concepts, Accounting, Equity Value and Enterprise Value, Valuation and DCF Analysis, Merger Models, and LBO Models.

These quizzes are intended to be CHALLENGING – even if you have excellent knowledge of the material, you are unlikely to pass with a score of at least 90% on your first attempt.

Once you’ve tested yourself with these quizzes, you can download the full answer keys to verify that you understand the fundamental concepts.

In total, you’ll get to test yourself with 218+ questions across all the topics.

• 6 Interactive Quizzes: These cover the core technical topics and expand on the questions and answers covered in the technical sections of the Interview Guide in Module 4. There are many trick questions!

Module 6: Case Study Exercises

In this module, you’ll get practice completing a variety of case studies and modeling tests given in interviews and at assessment centers in the EMEA region.

The time required for these case studies ranges from 30 minutes up to 2 hours to simulate the time pressure you will encounter in interviews.

The topics covered include 3-statement modeling, valuation and DCF analysis, M&A and merger models, LBO modeling, and credit analysis. There are both qualitative and quantitative case studies, and some exercises mix the two.

We feature companies and deals from all 6 inhabited continents and a variety of industries, including airlines, manufacturing, professional services, retail, and more.

• 3 Three-Statement Modeling Exercises: A 30-minute case for Illinois Tool Works (U.S.), a 60-minute case for Frank Recruitment (U.K.), and a 90-minute case for Avianca (Colombia).
• 3 Valuation and DCF Exercises: A 30-minute case for Idea Cellular (India), a 90-minute case for Michael Hill (Australia and New Zealand), and a 30-minute case for Attendo (Nordics).
• 6 M&A and Merger Model Exercises: A 30-minute case for Steinhoff (South Africa), a 30-minute qualitative M&A deal discussion, a 30-minute deal discussion case for DSV (Europe), a 30-minute assessment center M&A case study, a 60-minute M&A calculations case study, and a 90-minute M&A case study on Starbucks and Krispy Kreme (U.S.).
• 4 Leveraged Buyout and LBO Model Exercises: A 30-minute “paper LBO” model, a 60-minute case for Diana Shipping (Greece), a 90-minute case for Fromageries Bel (France), and a 2-hour case for My Family Fit (Singapore).
• 1 Debt vs. Equity Exercise: 60-minute case for Central Japan Railway (Japan).

Hear Directly from Customers Who Achieved Spectacular RESULTS with the Investment Banking Interview Guide:

“i was shocked at just how well the guide prepared me for the questions they asked. it was like they were quizzing me on the guide.”.

“Your prep material is by far the best, and you have an amazing intuition for how people learn information. Thank you so much. I am a customer and advocate of BIWS for life.”

“What I feel is the real unique selling point of the guide is the fact that it doesn't give you a preset answer but teaches you to formulate your own answers to the questions.”

“I'm a law school graduate with no financial background that will be starting at a BB M&A group in July.”

“I am an undergraduate junior at MIT who was recently given an offer for a summer internship at Barclays IBD.”

“I just wanted to take a moment to say that thanks to your interview guide, I landed an offer this summer at Goldman Sachs's Special Situations Group in New York.”

“I've since recommended the interview prep guide to friends in other industries as the gold standard.”

“I went through the EMEA IBD summer internship recruiting process last year and ended up with 2 offers. I decided to join JP Morgan's summer internship in London this summer and got a full-time offer.”

“I wanted to let you know that I have secured a graduate position at a bulge bracket investment bank. I would not have been able to get through the technical interview questions without the interview guide.”

“As an MBA student with absolutely zero finance experience, your IB Interview Guide was the most resourceful guide in my preparation.”

“After a year of trying, I finally landed my dream job of working in IB at a big bank.”

“I have secured 4 summer associate offers in London in IBD at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Nomura.”

The BIWS Interactive Learning Portal is Your Roadmap to Fast Understanding and Quick Answers from Our Expert Support Team

Can I See Samples of What’s in the Guide?

Sure! Just click on the links below to check out a few samples of what’s inside:

• Sample “Story” Template and Example – Engineer or Technical Major to IB
• Sample Chapter from the “Fit” Questions and Answers – Strengths and Weaknesses
• Sample Technical Guide and Excel Files – Equity Value, Enterprise Value, and Valuation Multiples
• Sample 30-Minute Case Study – Three-Statement Projection Model for Illinois Tool Works

ADD TO CART 100% Unconditional Money-Back Guarantee

Plus Expert Support From Experienced Investment Bankers

Just moments after you enroll, you’ll receive Instant Access to the entire Guide.

Everything is digital, so you do not have to wait for physical products to arrive in the mail, and there are no shipping charges.

But that’s not the best part.

The best part is 365-day-per-year expert support, for a full 5 years after purchase!

If there’s anything at all you don’t understand or need to clarify, just go to the “Question/Comment” area below each and every lesson, and ask your question there.

These comments are monitored and responded to by our expert support team – every one of whom has personal experience working on deals at investment banks, private equity firms, and other finance firms.

That ensures that you’ll get responses from people with deep experience in the field – not a clueless high school temp clutching the “Help Desk” manual.

This personalized, expert support is one of the things that sets Breaking Into Wall Street apart and gets you to your goals faster.

You can often learn just as much from reading other customers’ questions and our responses, as you will from the lessons themselves!

Our 1-on-1 coaching rate is $200+ per hour. But when you invest in the Investment Banking Interview Guide 4.0, personal support is included for FREE .

NOTE: There are some limitations to these support services. For example, we cannot complete models, case studies, or homework assignments for you.

We also cannot provide play-by-play support with an earpiece during interviews.

Finally, we cannot answer questions on topics not covered in the guide, such as sales & trading interview questions or coding/programming interview questions.

We’re happy to answer career-related, qualitative, and technical questions that are related to the course materials.

So, What’s Your Investment in the IB Interview Guide 4.0 ?

To put this in context, let’s look at your Return on Investment in this guide…

The compensation for entry-level investment banking jobs varies from year to year, but it’s safe to say that even entry-level Analysts right out of university earn $150,000 USD at the bare minimum.

And the pay range is often more like $150,000 – $200,000, depending on your region and firm.

At the MBA level, that climbs to $300,000 – $400,000 USD or more (again, just in your first year out of school).

And as you progress, your total compensation only gets higher and higher; top senior bankers earn over $1 million USD annually.

And every top banker had to start at the entry level and get their foot in the door, just like you today.

So, we could charge $500 or $1,000 for this Guide because of the huge payoff potential and the fact it’s flat-out impossible to find out all this information and knowledge any other way (unless you have several years to do full-time research).

But I also want to make this information as accessible as possible to the finance community.

Many customers who sign up for the Interview Guide are so impressed that they go on to do more business with us down the road – so it benefits both of us if I lower the barrier to entry as much as possible.

That’s why I’ve decided to offer the complete Investment Banking Interview Guide, including everything described above, for a one-time payment of just $197.

At $197, the price shouldn’t be an object – the right role at the right firm could make you thousands of times that amount over the course of your career.

And perhaps more importantly: You only get one chance to make a good first impression.

That’s why we focus so heavily on your “story” in this Guide: You can do all the preparation in the world, but if you mess up those first 2-3 minutes of the interview, it’s all over.

How much is it worth to avoid that disastrous, but all-too-common, outcome?

An IB internship at a large bank pays $15,000+ USD, and a full-time role pays 10x that amount (or more), so the answer is “A lot more than $197.”

And just in case you’re not totally convinced this Guide is for you, rest assured that you’re covered by our risk-free 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee:

Here’s What Happens Within Minutes of Signing Up

Once you sign up, you’ll immediately have access to the 578+ pages of written technical guides, the 18 templates for pitching yourself in interviews, the “Fit” guide and the deal/market discussion templates, the 18+ Excel files, the 218+ practice quiz questions, the 17 case studies, the video tutorials, and more.

And you’ll have access to our expert support team to ask whatever questions you need, for a full 5 years after purchase.

You’ll also get free updates and new content as we add it.

A Simple Choice…

If you are reading this right now, you’re serious about a career in investment banking, private equity, or hedge funds…

You know the importance of your first impression in that initial 30-minute interview and your performance in the interviews that follow.

Interview success can be the difference between a lucrative career at prestigious firms like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, KKR, and Blackstone… or the back office.

Sure… you could ‘wing it,’ hope for the best, and take a huge risk with your future, even though you know you are competing against some of the best and brightest…

You could prepare to dominate your competition, gain an unfair advantage, and land one of the limited investment banking opportunities available, by investing in the Investment Banking Interview Guide 4.0.

I know you will make the right choice so that you start landing six-figure job offers with investment banks – places that just might make your friends a bit jealous when they hear about your success!

Click here now to gain Instant Access to the Investment Banking Interview Guide .

To YOUR success,

Brian DeChesare Breaking Into Wall Street Founder

P.S. It is never too early to start preparing for the most important interview of your career. Gain Instant Access to the Secure Members’ Area now, and you will receive an email with login instructions within a few short minutes.

In case the Investment Banking Interview Guide 4.0 isn’t everything I say it is, you are covered by our no-questions-asked, 100% risk-free money-back guarantee. You have nothing to lose, and a rewarding career in finance to gain.

P.P.S. Business philosopher Jim Rohn once said, “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is, discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”

My hope is that you do everything you can to ace your interviews and that you never have to live with the knowledge that there’s something you could have done to succeed, but didn’t.

Sign up now , and I’ll see you on the other side.

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Practicing An Investment Banking Case Study:

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If you’re in the midst of interviewing for a role within an investment bank, you most likely will need to ace a case study interview. This can be stressful, especially if you’ve never gone through the process of a case study before. This article  shows you everything you need to know about a possible banking case study. It even has tips and a case study practice question with guidance on how to solve the given problem. Definitely check it out and try to solve the question for some excellent prep.

Some prep work to do  before  your case study interview:

• Read daily about the market and business news, such as through popular newspapers like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal (having a college email address through Bentley can get your accounts for FREE)!
• Watch Youtube videos or read up on valuation techniques and try your own calculations.
• Become more comfortable with tools like Microsoft Excel and be ready to use spreadsheets efficiently.

There are different types of case studies, such as those in which you need to make decisions or where you have to conduct financial modeling. Remember, practice is the only way to get used to this type of interview and it will greatly help you snatch your IB role!

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Investment Banking Interview Questions and Answers

101 common technical, fit, behavioral, and logic investment banking interview assessments with sample answers

Mr. Arora is an experienced private equity investment professional, with experience working across multiple markets. Rohan has a focus in particular on consumer and business services transactions and operational growth. Rohan has also worked at Evercore, where he also spent time in private equity advisory.

Rohan holds a BA (Hons., Scholar) in Economics and Management from Oxford University.

Prior to becoming our CEO & Founder at Wall Street Oasis, Patrick spent three years as a Private Equity  Associate for Tailwind Capital  in New York and two years as an Investment Banking Analyst at Rothschild.

Patrick has an  MBA  in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School and a BA in Economics from Williams College.

• 101 IB Interview Questions And Answers

IB Interview First Impressions - Carrying Yourself

• ​Common First Investment Banking Interview Questions: Crafting Your Story

30 Common Investment Banking Technical Questions

• WSO's Bonus IB Interviews Tip From An Interviewer

14 Bank-Specific Hard Technical Questions

16 ib product group-specific questions, 16 common ib industry-specific questions, 12 most common behavioral fit questions, 7 exclusive bank-specific behavioural/fit questions.

• 6 Logical Puzzles - Interview Brain Teasers
• Questions To Ask The Interviewer At The End

Bonus Interview Preparation Tips

Hirevue investment banking tips.

• M&I 400 IB Questions Guide Vs WSP's The IB Interview Guide (The Red Book) Vs WSO's IB Interview Prep Course

Full WSO IB Prep Guide & Additional Resources

• List Of Bulge Bracket Investment Banks And Boutiques

101 IB Interview Questions and Answers

The Investment Banking (IB) interview process is highly competitive and designed to rigorously filter out potential candidates. Consequently, answering the behavioral, technical, and logical questions that are asked in the interview with proven answers that we provide is key to converting an interview into an offer. 

The following free WSO IB interview guide is a comprehensive tool designed to cover every single aspect of the interview process, guiding you from the very beginning to the very end. 

• This guide features 101 of the most common technical, behavioral, logical, and group-specific questions that are asked by investment banking professionals to candidates during the hiring process as well as sample answers to each one of them. It is a great place to start your preparation before investing in our more comprehensive IB interview course .
• This resource includes 21 bank-specific questions from bulge bracket investment banks (Goldman Sachs, J.P Morgan, Citi, etc.).
• This interview guide consists of 16 sections which cater to various phases of the interview process.

Before we begin, we wanted to make sure you know about WSO Academy, a program that guarantees you are job in high finance (including investment banking)...

The Only Program You Need to Land in High Finance Careers

The most comprehensive curriculum and support network to break into high finance.

We’ve all heard about it at one point or another. Forbes has written on it. “First impressions are the best impressions.”

Within just a few seconds of meeting, people will form a solid opinion of who you are. Perfecting your first impression while carrying yourself with a healthy balance of confidence and humility lays the foundation and tone for the rest of the interview. The following section has been written by Patrick Curtis, CEO of WallStreetOasis, based on his vast experience of interviewing candidates for investment banking positions. 

Read it over, perfect your entry and learn how to leave a lasting impression on your interviewer from the get-go.

How to Carry Yourself

• The biggest thing I am looking for is humble confidence - someone I would like to grab a beer with.
• Listen, listen, listen!!! So many mistakes happen just because of not listening carefully and not being in the moment.
• Be punchy, brief, and learn how to end a sentence. I can't tell you how many times people have gotten into trouble by rambling off into some ass-backward irrelevant tangent. Learn to be comfortable with a little silence here and there while we absorb your answer.

​ Common First Investment Banking Interview Questions: Crafting Your Story

There are no excuses for not perfecting what is in your control. Irrespective of the bank, the position, or your region, you can be sure these 2 questions will be asked as they’re a standard in the industry. 

Anticipating both of these questions beforehand, crafting a compelling narrative around them, and selling yourself on it will make you stand out from amongst the pool of potential candidates. 

1. Walk me through your background/resume

Dial-in a cohesive 90-second resume walkthrough that focuses on the positive and motivating factors behind every transition (school to job, job to better job, most recent job to grad school).  A good example:

I went to school to learn how to design cars, but after my first internship I realized that I like interacting with clients directly and pursued full-time roles in B2B sales. In these sales roles, I developed solid selling skills as well as gained exposure to a, b, and c. Since I wanted to continue honing those skills and branch out to focus on x, y, and z, I am seeking a new role/promotion which provides that opportunity…

Be deliberate. Every move you made should have a reason (preferably that you initiated). Don't be negative. Never say you left because you were bored or "wanted to try something new."

2. Why investment banking?

The answer to this question should be tailored uniquely to you and to the firm you are interviewing with. While answering this question, it is key to capitalize on your previous professional/leadership experience, highlight it and create a logical path as to why you are now trying to break into investment banking. A good answer to this question is addressing the three main reasons, illustrated below with an example each:

Given the variety of professional backgrounds that candidates come from, WSO has created a dedicated page to answer this question.

Did you know?

WSO’s “Why investment banking?”  article covers 43 sample answers , tailored for students and professionals from backgrounds ranging from law to consulting.

Technical questions are a critical component of almost every investment banking recruiting process. You WILL be asked these questions, and your interviewers will expect detailed and accurate responses. The following section features 30 of the most common IB interview questions, with a detailed sample answer for each of them. 

At the end of these 30 questions, we also have provided you with 14 exclusive bank-specific technical questions (from 7 bulge bracket banks) to kickstart your mock interview training.

1. What are the three main financial statements?

Sample Answer: The three main financial statements are

• Income Statement
• Balance Sheet
• Statement of Cash Flows

The Income Statement discloses a company's revenues and expenses, which together yield net income over a period of time. The Balance Sheet discloses a company's assets, liabilities, and equity on a specific date. The Cash Flow Statement starts with net income from the Income Statement; then adjusts for non-cash expenses, non-operating expenses like capital expenditures, changes in working capital, or debt repayment and issuance, to arrive at the company's closing cash balance.

2. How are the three main financial statements connected?

Sample Answer: Net income flows from Income Statement into the Cash Flow Statement (CFS) as Cash Flow from Operations. Net income less dividends are added to retained earnings from the prior period's Balance Sheet (BS) to come up with retained earnings as on the date of the current period's BS. The opening cash balance on the CFS is from the prior period's Balance Sheet while the closing cash balance on the CFS is the balance on the current period's Balance Sheet.”

The following chart gives you a more comprehensive overview of how the 3 financial statements are connected to help visualize and present better for your interview:

3. If you could use only one financial statement to evaluate the financial state of a company, which would you choose?

Sample Answer: The cash flow statement because it shows the actual liquidity of the company and how it is generating and using cash. The balance sheet just shows a snapshot of the company at a point in time, without showing the performance of the company, and the Income statement has several non-cash expenses that may not be affecting the company's health and can be manipulated. Overall, the key to a great company is generating significant cash flow and having a healthy cash balance, both of which are disclosed in the CF statement.

4. How would a $10 increase in depreciation expense affect the three financial statements (assuming a 40% tax rate)?

Sample Answer: In the income statement, the depreciation increase of $10 is set off by a reduction of $4 on taxes as depreciation is a tax-deductible expense for the net reduction in net income of $6. In the cash flow statement, net income is reduced by $6, depreciation is increased by $10, net cash from operations and total cash is increased by $4. This increase in cash is because depreciation is a non-cash expense that has no impact on cash while the reduction in taxes affects the cash flow. In the balance sheet, property, plant, and equipment balances reduce by $10, cash balance increases by $4, and retained earnings reduce by $6 due to the reduction in net income. 

The following points summarize this:

On the income statement

• $10 depreciation expense, 40% tax rate
• Reduction in net income of $10 x (1 - 40%) = $6

Reduction in net income flows to cash from operations

• Net income reduced by $6
• Depreciation increases by $10
• Net increase in cash from operations of $4
• Ending cash increases by $4

Ending cash flows onto th e balance sheet

• Cash increases by $4
• Property, plant, and equipment lose $10 in value
• Net decrease in assets of $6, matches the net drop in shareholder equity due to the reduction of retained earnings from the $6 is net income

5. “Walk me through the Income Statement”

Sample Answer: The first line of the Income Statement represents revenues or sales. From that, we subtract the cost of goods sold, which gives gross margin. Subtracting operating expenses from gross margin gives us operating income (EBIT). We then (add/subtract) interest expense (income), taxes, and other expenses (income) to arrive at Net Income.

6. What is Enterprise Value?

Sample Answer: Enterprise Value (EV) is the value of an entire firm, both debt, and equity. This is the price that would be paid for the company in the event of acquisition without a premium.

EV = Market Value of Equity + Debt + Preferred Stock + minority interest - Cash

7. What is WACC and how do you calculate it?

Sample Answer: WACC is the acronym for Weighted Average Cost of Capital. It reflects the overall cost for a company to raise new capital, which is also a representation of the riskiness of investment in the company (higher the risk, higher the cost of capital). It is commonly used as the discount rate in a discounted cash flow analysis to calculate the present value of a company's cash flows and terminal value .

The formula below helps you calculate the WACC of a company if you are put on the spot and asked to calculate it as part of your technical interview:

where, E = Market value of equity D = Book value of debt P = Value of preferred stock K E = Cost of equity (Calculate using CAPM) K D = Cost of debt (Current yield of debt) K P = Cost of preferred stock (Interested rate on preferred stock) T = Corporate tax rate

8. What is EBITDA?

Sample Answer: EBITDA stands for Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. It gives us a good idea of a company's profitability and is a quick metric for free cash flow because it will allow you to determine how much cash is available from operations to pay interest, CAPEX , etc.

EBITDA = Revenue - Expense (except depreciation and amortization)

It is also often used for rough valuations in a comparable company or precedent transaction analysis as part of the EV/EBITDA multiple.

9. Would you be calculating enterprise value or equity value when using a multiple based on free cash flow or EBITDA?

Sample Answer: EBITDA and free cash flow represent cash flows that are available to repay holders of a company’s debt and equity, so a multiple based on one of those two metrics would describe the value of the whole business from the perspective of all its investors. 

A multiple such as the P/E ratio, based on earnings alone, represents the amount available to common shareholders after all expenses are paid, using which you would be calculating the value of the firm’s equity.

10. Can a company have a negative book equity value?

Book equity value is the accounting value of equity derived by subtracting the value of a company's liabilities from its total assets. It is the total shareholder’s equity, an amount shown as “Total Equity” in the Balance Sheet of the company.

Sample Answer:   Yes. If there are large cash dividends or if the company has been operating at a loss for a long time.

11. What is typical of an LBO (leveraged buyout) transaction?

A firm (usually a PE firm) uses a high amount of debt (70 - 90%) to finance the purchase of a company, then uses the company's cash flows to pay off that debt over time. 

The acquired company’s assets may be used as collateral. Ideally, the original debt of the acquired company would have been partially retired at the time of exit.

In the context of a private equity investment, the debt acts as a way to magnify returns (boost IRR for the fund), but it can also backfire if the acquisition turns south.

12. Why would a company issue equity rather than debt to fund its operations?

Sample Answer: There are many reasons why a company would want to issue equity instead of debt. Some of them are:

• If the company feels its stock price is inflated, it can raise a relatively large amount of capital with comparatively minimal dilution to existing shareholders.
• If the projects the company is looking to invest in do not produce immediate or consistent cash flows to pay its debt.
• If the company wants to adjust the cap structure or pay down debt.
• If the owners of the company want to sell off a portion of their ownership.

13. How is it possible for a company to have a positive net income but go bankrupt?

Sample Answer: This is possible if working capital erodes (such as increasing accounts receivable, lowering accounts payable, lower inventory turnover) or the company is growing so fast that it’s unable to raise enough capital to fund operations. Another possibility is the existence of financial fraud.

14. What are some ways you can value a company?

Sample Answer: The three most common ways of valuing a company are: Comparable companies or multiples analysis: This is the most common way to value a company. This method attempts to find a group of companies that are comparable to the target company and to work out a valuation based on what they are worth. The idea is to look for companies in the same sector and with similar financial statistics (Price to Earnings, Book Value, Free Cash Flow, EBITDA, etc) and then assume that the companies should be priced relatively similarly.

Market valuation or market capitalization: In this method, the market value of equity is used and hence can only be used for publicly traded companies. It is calculated by multiplying the number of shares outstanding by the current stock price.

Discounted cash flow analysis: This method involves calculating the sum of the present values of all future cash flows to give the value of the entire company including debt and equity, which is also called enterprise value .

15. Which of the valuation methodologies will result in the highest valuation?

Here is a list of the four valuation methodologies organized from highest valuation to lowest valuation:

• Precedent Transaction - Since a company will pay a control premium and a premium for synergies coming from the merger, values tend to be high.
• Discounted Cash Flow - Those building the DCF model are frequently optimistic in their projections. 
• Market Comps - Based on other similar companies and how they are trading in the market. No control premium or synergies.
• Market Valuation - Based on how the target is being valued by the market. Just equity value, no premiums or synergies.

16. Why might there be multiple valuations of a single company?

Sample Answer:   Each method of valuation will generate a different value because it is based on different assumptions, different multiples, or different comparable companies and/or transactions. Generally, the precedent transaction methodology and discounted cash flow method lead to higher valuations than comparable companies' analysis or market valuation does. 

The precedent transaction result may be higher because the approach usually will include a “control premium” above the company’s market value to entice shareholders to sell and will account for the “synergies” that are expected from the merger. 

17. Walk me through a DCF.

In an interview, it is important to keep your technical overview at a high level. Start with a high-level overview and be ready to provide more detail upon request.

Sample Answer:  

• Project out cash flows for 5 - 10 years depending on the stability of the company
• Discount these cash flows to account for the time value of money
• Determine the terminal value of the company - assuming that the company does not stop operating after the projection window
• Discount the terminal value to account for the time value of money
• Sum the discounted values to find an enterprise value
• Subtract the present value of debt (this is generally the market value of debt) and then divide by diluted shares outstanding to find an intrinsic share price

Common questions that follow this are:

Why do you multiply by (1-tax rate)?

Sample Answer: You do this because interest expense (the cost of debt) is tax-deductible so you need to account for the benefit provided by this "debt tax shield."

What is the cost of equity?

Sample Answer: The cost of equity is usually calculated using the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). CAPM = Risk-free rate + Beta * (Expected market return - Risk-free rate)

What is the exit multiple method for determining the terminal value?

Sample Answer: Find an industry average multiple and multiply it by final year revenue (if using EV/Revenue) or final year EBITDA (if using EV/EBITDA).

18. What is an Initial Public Offering (IPO)?

Sample Answer 1: An IPO is the first public sale of stock in a previously private company. This is known as “going public.” The IPO process is incredibly complex, and investment banks charge high fees to lead companies through it. Companies go public for several reasons—raising capital, cashing out for the original owners, and investor and employee compensation. Some negatives against “going public” include sharing future profits with public investors, loss of confidentiality, loss of control, IPO fees to investment banks, and legal liabilities.

19. What is the difference between accounts receivable and deferred revenue?

Sample Answer: Accounts receivable is revenue, which has been earned and recognized because the product has been delivered, but the customer has not yet paid the cash. Deferred revenue is cash that has been collected for products that have not yet been delivered, so the revenue has not yet been recognized. Accounts receivable is an asset on the Balance Sheet, whereas deferred revenue is a liability.

20. When calculating enterprise value, do you use the book value or the market value of equity?

Sample Answer: You should use the market value of equity always because the book value is not adjusted once it is recorded in the books at the time of issue of the shares. It is common to very often see a share priced in the hundreds or thousands having a face value of $1 or $10. This is due to the historical nature of accounting. Hence, the book value of equity is useless for any kind of valuation, and market value is the preferred metric to use.

21. If enterprise value (EV) is $80mm, and equity value is $40mm, what is the net debt?

Enterprise Value = Equity Value + Net Debt + Preferred Stock + Minority Interest.

Sample Answer: If we assume there is no minority interest or preferred stock, then Net Debt will be $80mm – $40mm, or $40mm.

22. What is the difference between cash-based accounting and accrual-based accounting?

Sample Answer: Cash-based accounting recognizes sales and expenses when cash flows in and out of the company. 

Accrual-based accounting recognizes revenues and expenses as they are incurred regardless of whether cash flows in or out of the company at that exact time.

Accrual-based accounting is the more common method for large corporations.

23. What are the major factors that drive mergers and acquisitions?

24. All else equal, should the WACC be higher for a company with a $100 million market cap, or a company with a $100 billion market cap?

Sample Answer 1: Normally, the larger company will be considered “safer” and therefore will have a lower WACC all else being equal. However, depending upon their respective capital structures, the larger company could also have a higher WACC.

Sample Answer 2: Without knowing more information about the companies, it is impossible to say. If the capital structures are the same, then the larger company should be less risky and therefore have a lower WACC. However, if the larger company has a lot of high-interest debt, it could have a higher WACC.

25. What is Beta?

Sample Answer: Beta is a measure of the volatility of an investment compared with the market as a whole. The market has a beta of 1, and hence, investments that are more volatile than the market have a beta greater than 1 while those that are less volatile have a beta less than 1.

26. How/why do you lever or unlever Beta?

Sample Answer: Unlevering beta allows us to remove the effect of debt in the capital structure. This shows us the beta of the firm's equity had it not used any leverage in its capital structure. Also, if we are trying to do a market comparison with a company that's not on the market (so no beta), you can take a comparable company and unlever its beta and use this unlevered beta as a proxy for the unlisted company's beta.

27. What is net working capital?

Net Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities

Current assets include items on the Balance Sheet like inventory, accounts receivable, prepaid expenses, and other short-term assets. Current liabilities include items such as accounts payable, accrued expenses, deferred revenue, and other short-term liabilities.

An increase in net working capital means more cash is tied up in the operations. This could be from increasing current assets like inventory or accounts receivable. If you increase inventory, for example, it is not (yet) a cost on the Income Statement, but still blocks the cash that was used for purchasing the inventory which needs to be accounted for on the CF statement. This is why in calculating free cash flow you subtract an increase in net working capital.

A decrease in net working capital means less cash is tied up in operations. This could happen due to changes such as increasing accounts payable or reducing inventory. If you reduce inventory, it means you are selling more goods than you are producing, which means you are realizing a cost on your Income Statement. If you are increasing accounts payable, you are preserving your liquidity by taking a little bit longer to pay your vendors for your raw materials/inputs.

Sample Answer: Net Working Capital is calculated as current assets minus current liabilities. It is a measure of a company’s ability to pay off its short-term liabilities with its short-term assets. A positive number means they can cover their short-term liabilities with their short-term assets. A negative number indicates that the company may have trouble paying off its creditors, which could result in bankruptcy if cash reserves are insufficient and further financing cannot be arranged.

28. What happens to free cash flow if net working capital increases?

Intuitively, you can think of working capital as the net dollars tied up to run the business. As more cash is tied up (either in accounts receivable, inventory, etc.), free cash flow will be reduced.

Remember that if the assets go up in value (denoting a purchase of assets), this is a use of cash; and if a liability goes up (denoting funds received), it is a source of cash.

Sample Answer: You subtract the change in Net Working Capital when you calculate Free Cash Flow, so if Net Working Capital increases, your Free Cash Flow decreases and vice versa.

29. How can a company raise its stock price?

Sample Answer: There are many ways a company can raise its stock price, a few of which are:

• A company can repurchase stock, which lowers the number of shares outstanding and therefore increases its value per share.
• It can improve operations to produce higher earnings, causing its EPS to be higher than anticipated by industry analysts, which will send a positive signal to the market.
• It can announce a change to its organizational structure such as cost-cutting or consolidation, which would lead to increased earnings in general.
• It could announce the institution of a dividend policy or an increase in an existing dividend.
• It can announce an accretive merger or an acquisition that will increase earnings per share.

30. If you were the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a Fortune 500 company, what would be your concerns? Explain from a high level what the long-term financial implications are for your company.

Sample Answer: Fortune 500 companies are usually in the mature stage of their business lifecycle. This means they have stable growth accompanied by a good amount of stable cash flows and balances. As a CFO of one, I would look out for signs of declining products or services to be discontinued while also actively keeping an eye out for opportunities to expand and grow, either through mergers and acquisitions or by increasing the spending on internal research and development. 

WSO’s Bonus IB Interviews Tip From an Interviewer

Walk me through every calculation you are doing. I want to hear you think out loud. 

• The process matters far more than your answer and gives you a chance to demonstrate a grip on the concepts.

I sometimes just ask for a simple calculation, along with "Are you sure?" to put on a little pressure and see how you respond. 

• I am looking here for you to take five seconds, double-check your math, and answer with a confident, "Yes, I am sure."

Don't be afraid to say, "I don't know" to a tough technical question. 

• As an analyst, I expect you to ALWAYS tell me when you don't know something, and never wing your way through an answer. 
• If you give an, "I don't know" follow it with, "But here is what I am thinking. Tell me if I am on the right track." 
• And walk me through your thoughts. This is a great analyst quality because it shows that you'll think about a problem critically before you call me and ask about it.

Being able to clearly, confidently, and consistently answer the 30 technical questions bank-specific questions above will undoubtedly give you a competitive edge over the applicant pool. However, to achieve full technical mastery, it is critical you expect technical questions that are specific to each of the investment banks.

The following section features 14 exclusive questions (2 per investment bank) for 7 of the biggest investment banks in the world, to help kickstart your training process for your interviews and superdays .

The following questions have been taken from WSO's company database which is sourced from the detailed experiences of more than 30,000 people with IB interviews. The WSO IB Interview Course includes access to over 4,000 interview questions across 400+ banks (no other resource comes close).

Goldman Sachs IB Interview Questions

At a high level, there are 5 steps to an LBO:

• Calculate the total acquisition price, including the acquisition of the target's equity, repayment of any outstanding debt, and any transaction fees (such as the fees paid to investment banks and deal lawyers, accountants, consultants, etc.)
• Determine how that total price will be paid, including: - Equity from the PE sponsor,  - Roll-over equity from existing owners or managers,  - Debt, seller financing, etc.​
• Project the target's operating performance over ~5 years and determine how much of the debt principal used to acquire the target can be paid down using the target's FCF over that time.
• Project how much the target could be sold for after ~5 years in light of its projected operating performance; Subtract any remaining net debt from this total to determine projected returns for equity holders.
• Calculate the projected IRR and MoM return on equity based on the amount of equity originally used to acquire the target and the projected equity returns upon exit.

• An increase in cash flow causes an increase in future value (FV)
• An increase in the growth rate of future cash flows

Factors that may cause a company's PV to decrease:

• Increased discount rate
• Delay in receiving future cash flows
• Reduction in the growth rate of future cash flows

JPMorgan Investment Banking Interview Questions

Sample Answer 2: The Nigerian election takes place in February. Four years ago, President Muhammadu Buhari gained power on a surge of optimism, pledging to restore security and end corruption. His Presidential record has been mixed, and his popularity and health have declined (he recently denied rumors of being replaced by a body double). The old regime may regain political power, impacting the free flow of goods through the country.

An increase in the interest rates will affect the cost of borrowing for companies. This means a lesser amount of funding from banks, which leads to companies having slower growth on average as compared to before the interest rate hike.

The higher cost of borrowing will also affect DCM. I would expect companies to issue fewer bonds or maintain the same capital structure but cut back on other expenses e.g. layoffs. Given the slower growth of companies, I would expect lesser interest from investors on IPOs. The slower growth and low valuations will then lead to an increase in M&A by strategics. On the other hand, the higher cost of borrowing might reduce the amount of leveraged M&A activity at the same time.

Overall, I feel that the increase in interest rates will affect M&A and capital markets negatively, and thus hiring will be down next year.

Morgan Stanley Interview Questions

• Retail or Airlines: EV / EBITDAR (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization & Rental Expense)
• Energy: EV / EBITDAX (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortization & Exploration Expense), EV / Daily Production, EV / Proved Reserve Quantities
• Technology (Internet): EV / Unique Visitors, EV / Page views

Note: Feel free to use multiples that you have picked up from other sources. These are for illustrative purposes.

An earthquake would cause the country’s GDP to immediately decline sharply due to the immediate effects of the earthquake as a lot of productive resources may be put out of use. But then the GDP growth will start to increase to an above-average level as there would be an increased amount of spending on rebuilding the infrastructure.

Citigroup Interview Questions and Sample Responses

Yes, a company could have a negative book equity value if the owners are taking out large cash dividends or if the company has been operating for a long time at a net loss, leading to the company having to take on debt to fund loss of cash. Eventually, equity can be negative implying that the entire operation is funded by debt.

This question is a lot more broad, giving you a lot of room to work with. A common method of answering this question would be bringing up 2-3 different types of financial risk concepts, giving a straight definition as to what they are, and following up with an example to demonstrate applied understanding.

Credit Risk - This is the risk of a possible loss being incurred by a business or an individual, should their borrower fail to repay a loan or meet contractual obligations. It is impossible to quantify credit risk and precisely predict which borrowers will default on loans, but there are risk management teams built to minimize a business’ risk and manage their credit exposure. An example of credit risk would simply be a bank lending a citizen a loan of $100,000 to start their business as an entrepreneur, on which the bank incurs the risk of not having the loan repaid should the citizen’s business go bankrupt.

Another related type of risk would be,

Interest Rate Risk - This is the risk incurred where there may be a reduction in the value of investment assets should the interest rate environment change drastically in a short period. An example of this would be that if interest rates increased, the value of fixed-income investments would decrease.

BoA Sample Questions on Superday

Terminal Value or TV is the value of any investment at the end of the investment period. This will usually assume a constant growth rate into the future. it can be calculated by applying an exit multiple to the company’s last projected year’s EBITDA, EBIT, or Free Cash Flow (multiples method). Alternatively, the Gordon Growth method can be used to estimate TV based on its growth rate into perpetuity.

The formula for calculating TV without accounting for growth is: Expected cash flow / (1 + Required rate of return)^Time

The formula for calculating TV using Gordon Growth is: Terminal Value = Expected dividend / (Required rate of return – Growth rate).

The investment banking division is sometimes referred to as corporate finance and is broadly split into 2 sectors, products and industries. The purpose of both is to provide advisory on transactions, mergers, and acquisitions and to arrange (and sometimes even provide) financing for these transactions.

Investment banking product groups are broken down into:

• Leveraged Finance (LevFin) - Issuance of high-yield debt to firms to finance acquisitions and other corporate activities.
• Equity Capital Markets (ECM) - Advice on equity and equity-derived products (IPOs, shares, capital raises, secondary offerings, etc.)
• Debt Capital Markets (DCM) - Advice on raising and structuring debt to finance acquisitions and other corporate activities.
• Restructuring – Improving the structures of a company to make it more profitable or efficient.

Credit Suisse Interviewing Questions

M&A seems to be off the table because REITs have low cash balances and can't do stock issuances because they would be dilutive. Therefore, my advice would be to basically sell assets in non-core markets to raise cash.

Company A’s EPS is $10 / 10 = $1.00.  To complete the deal, Company A must issue 6 ($150 / $25.00) new shares which means that the combined share count after the deal is 16 (10 + 6).  Since no cash or debt was used and the tax rates are the same and the combined net income = Company A net income + Company B net income = $10 + $10 = $20.  The Combined EPS, therefore, is $20 / 16 = $1.25, which is an increase of 25% in the EPS, and this is what is called accretion.

UBS Questions Asked by Interviewers

Thinking of cash flow/share the same way as earnings per share, the PE for A is 2.5 and B is 2.5. As both their EPS are equal, the transaction is neither accretive nor dilutive.

You need to remember that the leverage multiple stands for Debt/EBITDA; so calculating out the leverage multiples, you will see both A and B are leveraged at 2.5, hence, the combined leverage multiple of A and B is still 2.5; if the transaction is equity-financed, the leverage would decrease and the company would be de-leveraged; deals are usually more accretive with debt due to tax deduction on interest expense.

​ Most Common Technical Interview Question - WSO Bonus: ​

15. “pitch me a stock”.

Many interviewers will ask you in one way or another to pitch a stock if you have any experience with trading, a private wealth management internship, a hedge fund internship, or anything that deals with market transactions. If this is you, spend 30 minutes to a couple of hours finding a stock you like and why. Even if it doesn't get asked, it's always better to be safe than sorry. Here's a good explanation of how to answer this question.

Do you have an M&A group interview coming up? Or perhaps an ECM superday right around the corner? We’ve got you covered.

The following 16 group-specific questions have been taken from our forums and company database where over 30,000 candidates have reported their interviewing experiences for different divisions within investment banks. 

The following questions and sample answers will help you achieve specialized focus and demonstrate expertise for the group you’re interviewing for.

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)

The main reason two companies would want to merge would be the synergies the companies could create by combining their operations. However, some other reasons include gaining a new market presence, an effort to consolidate their operations, gaining brand recognition, growing in size, or gaining the rights to some property (physical or intellectual) that they couldn't gain as quickly by creating or building it on their own.

A strategic buyer is generally a corporation that wants to acquire another company for strategic business reasons such as synergies, growth potential, etc. An example of this would be an automobile maker purchasing an auto parts supplier in order to gain more control of their COGS and keep costs down.

A financial buyer is generally a firm looking to acquire another company purely as a financial investment. An example is a private equity fund doing a leveraged buyout of the company.

Leveraged Finance (LevFin)

• Credit card

A car loan is riskier than a home loan because a car loses its value much quicker. To compensate for the higher risk profile and lack of collateral, credit card companies charge much higher interest rates when compared to a typical car loan and mortgage while the risk associated with a lower value of collateral in car loans is why they carry higher interest rates compared to mortgages.

The software company because of recurring revenues from annual contracts that are even more guaranteed than a hardware store, assuming that both companies are mature.

Debt Capital Markets (DCM)

Think about how bonds are priced – based on their discounted future cash flows. If any of those cash flows is in doubt, then the bond's value falls accordingly. (Think of a UST bond as being priced with risk-weighted cash flows of 100%. A BBB bond might be priced with risk-weighted cash-flows of 95%, just as an example - although in reality the bonds are priced with a spread/all-in yield that implicitly contains the risk, rather than calculating the risk % driving the spread). So any macro event that would impact companies' profitability/cash flow would affect the price of corporate bonds. That said, corporate bond spreads are more driven by micro factors than by broader economic trends unless those economic/systemic factors are very pronounced.

The price and yield of a bond move inversely to one another. Therefore, when the price of a bond goes up the yield goes down.

The reason for this is that the return on a bond (when annualized, this is called yield) is the difference between its current price and future repayment (generally bonds are redeemed at par). The lower the price, the higher is the return as the repayment is constant regardless of its price. As the price increases, the return reduces thereby reducing the yield. 

Let’s understand this better with the help of an example. Let’s assume a bond can be redeemed at a par value of $100 on maturity (one year from now). Let’s now assume that the bond is trading at $80. The yield on the bond can be calculated as 25% ((100/80) - 1). What if the price instead was $90? The yield reduces to 11.11% ((100/90) - 1). Hence, higher prices mean lower yields and vice versa.

Equity Capital Markets (ECM)

An Initial Public Offering or IPO is the very first sale of stock to the public by a private company. This is also known as “going public”. Two kinds of companies will undertake an IPO:

• Startup companies looking to raise capital and investors
• Large private companies looking to become publicly traded

To find out more about IPOs, check out WSO’s “What Is An Initial Public Offering (IPO)?” page here .

Since a private company has no market capitalization and no beta, you would most likely use the WACC for a comparable public company adjusted upwards for the lack of liquidity.

Restructuring

This depends on the formal definition of the leverage ratio, but assuming debt/EBIT is implied we can set up two simple equations:

• Debt/EBIT = 5
• EBIT / (Debt * Interest rate) = 5

Solving these equations we find that the interest rate is 4%.

Assuming operating income is EBIT, add back depreciation (a non-cash expense) and deduct CAPEX to get Unlevered Free Cash Flow (UFCF) = 35. Then deduct the interest expense but add back interest tax shield, for the net expense of $9 (15 * (1 - 40%)) assuming 40% tax rate. This gives us a Levered Free Cash Flow (LFCF) of $26.

Value, because the payoff will be quicker. In high inflation periods, short-duration equities are favored as cash flows are eroded less by the higher cost of capital imposed by higher inflation. Growth equities need a longer holding period before capital yielding projects are realized, at which point the discount factor will be higher making them subject to more erosion from inflationary pressure.

It depends, if the product portfolio of the company is vastly different with varying risk profiles, then it would not be right to use WACC as the discount rate. The discount rate is the cost of capital. If the risks in each product line are vastly different, so should the cost of capital. Using a broad stroke denominator such as the company's WACC would not be right in this case.

Sales & Trading (S&T)

Two steps. I’d look at what they’re interested in, and then I’d look at how they wanted to change.

Quite impossible for equities, 0 beta would be risk-free like treasuries. You would have to find two industries that were negatively correlated to remove idiosyncratic risks.

Risk Management

They earn revenue through APR, interchange, late fees, and subscription fees and their primary costs are operations and marketing-related expenses.

Tapering is a balancing act to reverse the effects of quantitative easing once its objectives have been achieved. The Fed must consider the right rate of implementation so as to not lead the economy into a recession.

Are you looking for questions that are unique to particular IB group that you are interested in joining? Do you have an interview coming up and have preferences on what industry you want to join? We've got you covered.

The following 16 industry-specific questions have been taken from our forums and company database where over 30,000 candidates have reported their interviewing experiences for different divisions within investment banks.

The following questions and sample answers will help you achieve specialized focus and demonstrate expertise for the industry you're interviewing for.

Consumer & Retail

The answer to increasing your margins while having lower revenue is to cut back on expenses.  Revenue - expenses = gross profit and gross profit/revenue = gross margins. 

The increase in shareholders equity would be equivalent to the increase in assets (x), due to the effect of the equation below: Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders equity.

Assets are recorded at cost (what you paid for them).

Energy and Utilities

The main regulatory hurdle that the power sector faces is distributed electricity generation. Distributed generation poses a threat to existing power utilities because it takes away power demand from them.

However, there are a number of ways in which to handle this emerging trend. One way is to structure tariffs in a way that increases affordability. The other is to offer time-of-use tariff structures that can flatten the duck curve , which occurs when renewables ramp down in the evenings, exactly when electricity demand is highest.

If we assume it’s a single asset company, we can estimate the capital efficiency based on historical data and apply it against the company's CAPEX forecast to reach a "new additions" production estimate. From there, applying the historical asset production decline rate against "base" production and summing the numbers together leads us to a forward estimate.

Financial Institutions Group (FIG)

WACC decreases at low levels of leverage due to the tax shield created by interest payments and then increases exponentially due to the increasing riskiness of investing in a highly levered company.

A DCF involves predicting the unlevered free cash flows that a business will generate, discounting it into the present and then adding it up to get the enterprise value. 

A DDM on the other hand only looks at dividends the company pays, and then divides it using the required rate of return to find the value of equity.

A DCF typically spits out an enterprise value whereas DDM is an equity value based on the present value of projected free cash flow to equity (% of dividends for a bank since they have regulatory capital requirements, which is a limiter on growth assumptions on a bank DDM).

Comps are more market-based and sensitive to environmental trends, such that in times of high valuations (such as now), comps > DCF, and in times of lower than FMV valuations, DCF > comps.

This is because biotech companies don't operate in perpetuity, we assume that once the patent ends, generics will flood the market driving profits close to zero.

Industrials

Levered beta measures the risk of a firm with debt and equity in its capital structure to the volatility of the market. Unlevered beta removes the debt component.

Take terminal year EBITDA, calculate TEV using current EV/EBITDA multiples of comp set, and take the present value of that total.

Natural Resources

1. Upstream 2. OFS 3. Downstream 4. Midstream

Upstream is likely to be the most volatile, due to its association with risk of exploration and sensitivity to prices. OFS is second because it's adjacent to upstream. Downstream is third because demand is relatively inflexible and is subject mostly to price sensitivity. Midstream is the lowest beta because it's a volume business.

A Section 338(h)(10) election blends the benefits of a stock purchase and an asset purchase.

• Legally it is a stock purchase
• However, accounting-wise it’s treated as an asset purchase.
• The seller is still subject to double-taxation – on its assets that have been appreciated and on the proceeds from the sale.
• The buyer receives a step-up tax basis on the new assets it acquires, and it can depreciate/amortize them so it saves on taxes.

Even though the seller still gets taxed twice, buyers will often pay more in a 338(h)(10) deal because of the tax-savings potential. It’s particularly helpful for:

• Sellers with high NOL balances (more tax-savings for the buyer because this NOL balance will be written down completely – and so more of the excess purchase price can be allocated to asset write-ups).
• If the company has been an S-corporation for over 10 years – in this case, it doesn’t have to pay a tax on the appreciation of its assets.

The requirements to use 338(h)(10) are complex and bankers don’t deal with this – that is the role of lawyers and tax accountants.

- Find key ratios LTV, DSCR, Debt Yield - Assess property value - Assess similar properties in the area - Go over potential covenants

Some statistics to consider in such a situation would be,

• Market Stats (Cap Rate, Rent, Vacancy)
• Asset Class
• Value add or Core

Technology / Media / Telecom (TMT)

MOIC’s simplistic calculation tells investors how much money they’re ultimately receiving from an investment while IRR includes the impact of time over which the returns were generated.

Considering the government measures involving lockdowns, in-store purchases are likely to decrease therefore lowering profits. This can, however, be countered by Apple building an extensive or expanding on its current online infrastructure to ensure an optimal and sustainable online shopping experience for customers.

You've reached the behavioral/ fit interview. This means that the firm believes you are smart enough for the job. At this point, the little things matter. Fit questions are a major part of the IB analyst interview. The focus of fit questions is to see who you are and how you would fit into the firm's culture.

This section features 12 of the most common behavioral/fit questions you are likely to be asked during your interviews, followed by an exclusive set of 7 bank-specific (from 7 bulge bracket banks) behavioral questions to support you in tailoring your response to each bank and walking out with an offer.

1. What are some of your strengths?

If you can, bring up a strength that doesn’t appear on your resume but could catch attention. For example, if you have performed in concert or theatre all your life, learning to be poised in front of strangers and/or large groups, it may be a good strength to share.

2. What is the one word that describes you best?

Motivated, smart, driven, humble, efficient. All of these are good options to use. Make sure to have an example to back up whatever word you choose with a specific story.

3. What has been your favorite class in college and what was your grade?

The course you name should have something to do with business/finance/economics, and the grade you report should be a good one. If you say your favorite class was “dancing”, why are you looking to go into finance? Why do they want to hire you?

It is worth noting however, you must have a genuine justification and rationale behind claiming a finance class was your favorite. If you do not have a compelling reason behind your answer, interviewers will call your bluff and see through it easily.

4. “What is the most important thing your resume doesn’t tell me that I should know?”

Talk about a skill that is unique to you (something that makes you memorable) and that cannot be documented on a resume. Think about things like your communication skills, teamwork skills, etc…not your math skills, which can be seen in GPA or SAT scores. Once you decide on the quality you want to present, illustrate it with a story from your life. A common variation of this question is “What separates you from the last person with your GPA from your school?”

Sample answer: Ever since my freshman year of high school, I have loved to perform. I was in the musical each year of high school, and have had a lead role in a play each year in college. This has allowed me to develop a comfort speaking in public situations, and with people, I don’t know or have just met. I think that this will be an extremely valuable skill in finance, speaking with clients, on the phone, and when presenting my work to my coworkers.

5. “Tell me about a time that…”

There are countless variations of this question, from “Tell me about a time you acted with integrity” to “Tell me about a time that you had difficulty dealing with coworkers”. It is key to have a well-rehearsed response for each of them, and a general guideline to follow.

Ideally, you can come up with 6-8 stories that cover the 30-40 basic questions, with only slight modifications. DON’T wing it. For every potential question, map out the story using the SOAR framework.

Describe the Situation (10-15 seconds), Obstacle (10-15s), Action (60-75s), and Result (15-30s). Stories for these questions should be 1.5 - 2 minutes long and focus only on what's important.

6. What is your biggest weakness?

Seeing as to how common this question is (even outside of the finance industry), we have a dedicated page for this question to support you in answering it perfectly during the interviewer. The “Good Responses To Biggest Weakness Questions” page can be found here .

7. What are you looking for in this job?

The interviewer wants to make sure you are aware of what this job entails, and what most analysts get out of the experience. You should acknowledge the long hours and the heavy workload while making it clear that you are ready to take on the challenge. Emphasize the appeal of a great learning experience that you would be unable to get in any other job straight out of school. Explain how you relish the prospect of pushing yourself and being challenged to do your best work in this job, and working with and learning from successful people.

Sample answer: I am going into this as an unparalleled learning experience. Everyone I have spoken to within the industry tells me you learn everything on the job. While my undergraduate studies prepared me for business, I know that most of the skills I need will be acquired on the job. I understand the hours and the workload, and I want to work incredibly hard to gain real-world experience that isn’t available in any other profession at this stage in my career. I know these skills will prepare me for anything I want to do later in my career.

8. What has been your favorite job so far?

If possible, pick a job that requires similar skills to the job for which you are applying and explain why those skills or requirements made it you're favorite. Talk about how you were forced to learn on the fly or multi-task or think critically because those are all skills you will need in finance.

9. What has been your least favorite job so far?

Talk about a job where you were bored, or not challenged, or not busy. None of those things will be the case in finance so they won’t be an issue.

10. What competitive activities have you participated in, and have they been worthwhile?

Finance is competitive. Firms are always competing for business and colleagues can even be competitive with one another (although most won’t admit it). You need to show that you are comfortable in competitive situations, but still can act with class and show respect.

Sample answer: I played varsity football in college. We won the conference 2 consecutive years and played at the NCAA tournament. Working with my teammates to accomplish a common goal and beat the competition was an amazing experience, really exhilarating.

11. If you had a million dollars that you weren’t allowed to invest, how would you spend it?

Make sure your background backs up whatever answer you give. If you have never volunteered in your life, don’t say you’re going to donate your money to a non-profit and go work for them. Have it relate to something you are interested in, and make sure that whatever you are spending it on can cost roughly a million dollars.

12. What are you interested in?

There are two ways that you can answer this question properly and you may want to explore both in your answer. First, you can mention things that you are interested in that are job-related like keeping up with current events, studying for the CFA, etc. Second, you can speak about your hobbies and your interests outside of work. The latter works great if you happen to share an interest with your interviewer. Hint: If you know the names of your interviewer you can do a little research beforehand and see if you can find any common interests so you can push the conversation in that direction.

WSO's Bonus Tip

"Once you get yourself in that room, I don't care about your GPA or what else you have on your resume. I am looking for 3 things, A connection with myself and the firm's culture, Will you be able to do the work? and Do you have a passion for the job?"

As taken from our forum .

Knowing the culture of each bank before walking into an interview is key to clicking with the interviewer and walking out with an offer.

The following section features 7 exclusive questions for 7 of the biggest investment banks in the world, to help you jump start your training for the respective investment banks you are interviewing for.

The following questions have been taken from WSO’s company database which is sourced from detailed IB interviews experiences of more than 30,000 people.

1. What do you like to do outside of school and work? (Goldman Sachs Behavioral Questions)

Ideally, the interviewer is looking for anything you can speak genuinely and passionately about, and support it with examples of your dedication towards it from your past experiences.

2. What makes you stand out / What should we remember you by? (JP Morgan Fit Questions)

This is similar to the ‘What are your strengths?’ question. Have a concise 30-second pitch prepared. Concentrate on the three main bullets highlighted in the introduction, and identify three of your traits that manifest those qualities. Examples include things like being extremely driven, never giving up, wanting to learn, looking for challenges, etc. Make sure you take only 20-30 seconds and speak with confidence, but make sure to avoid arrogance.

3. What are your leadership involvements outside of finance? (Morgan Stanley Fit Interview)

It is important to show that you are comfortable taking up a leadership role or working under the leadership of someone else. It is important to be able to do both. Talk about past projects that show you being successful in both types of roles. Talk about your teamwork skills (communication, collaboration, etc.) and how those skills are effective when you are the leader as well as when you are supporting someone else’s leadership.

4. Why Citi? (Citigroup Soft Skills Evaluation)

This question can generally be asked by any bank, and the preparation routine is consistent across all such banks. Ideally, you want to tie in and present an alignment between your interests and values, with the firm’s culture, and support this with examples.

An exceptionally strong way of demonstrating this would be networking with current investment bankers at the bank, and talking about the appreciation you felt towards the characteristics of those you networked with (refer to specific people wherever possible) and concluding with how that makes you feel the bank would be a great place to work.

5. What do you consider the biggest negative about this job? (Bank of America Behavioral Questions)

Your interviewer is giving you a chance to give a “negative” about the job and explain why you don’t see it as a negative. The overwhelmingly popular response to this question is the lack of work-life balance, long hours, very unpredictable schedules, etc. Quickly mention the negative and then move on to why it doesn’t bother you.

Sample answer: I have been fortunate enough to have a lot of contacts who work in finance, and their usual response to this question is the long hours. However, every single person I have spoken with has said that they enjoy their job and they think the hours are worth it. This job will give me 4 - 5 years of work experience in only two years. It’s an opportunity I crave and a learning experience I don’t want to miss. I am ready for the challenges and I want to show that I can handle them.

6. How important do you think it is to be maintaining connections in this industry? (Credit Suisse Fit Assessment Question)

While networking is generally seen as important for advancing one’s professional career irrespective of industry, there is significantly more weight placed on its value within the investment banking industry relative to other industries. Ideally, your answer should acknowledge this fact, and you should support this with examples of you maintaining connections with a variety of professionals and the insights you have learned through their shared experiences.

7. What are your hobbies? (UBS Behavioural Interviews)

This question is quite a personal one, so feel free to expand upon this as per your choice. One key point we’d like to iterate is that it is disadvantageous to “fake” an interest or hobby with the intent of faking a “click” with your interviewer. Interviewers can often see through this, and it could potentially harm your chances of getting an offer.

It is much more beneficial to highlight a hobby that requires a set of transferable skills or values to IB, such as competitive sports (which involve having a strong work ethic), and passionately speaking about them.

Everything You Need To Break into Investment Banking

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  6 Logical Puzzles - Interview Brain Teasers

Logical puzzles, brainteasers, and riddles are an important part of the interview process as they allow the interviewer to determine your critical thinking abilities.

For this section of the interview, interviewers aren’t focused on whether you get the right answers or not. Rather, they are interested in your thought process while solving the riddles you are presented with.

Given this, it is key to walk your interviewer through your thinking as you progress through the riddle, who may even probe you with questions to assist you. Giving them a rundown of your thoughts and occasionally asking if you’re headed in the right direction demonstrates your capabilities to reflect, and approach a problem with composure.

It is still, however, extremely useful to anticipate these logical puzzles beforehand to avoid being put on the spot and caught off guard in the interview. The following section has 5 commonly asked logical puzzles that you can prepare for beforehand to impress your interviewer.

1. A room with no windows has 3 light bulbs. You are standing outside with 3 switches that control each of the three bulbs. If you can only enter the room once, how can you determine which switch controls which bulb?

Answer: First, turn on two switches: call them Switch 1 and Switch 2. Leave them on for a couple of minutes to let them get nice and hot. Then, turn off Switch 1 and enter the room. The bulb that is lit should be the one that is controlled by Switch 2. Of the remaining two bulbs, the hot one is the one controlled by Switch 1. The last one, off and not hot, is controlled by Switch 3.

2. What is 17 squared? What’s 18x22?

Answer: Don’t worry; they want to know how you will handle this question, and it is not difficult if you think about it correctly.

Think 17 x 17 is just 17 x 10 plus 17 x 7. You know 17 x 10 is 170. Now 17 x 7 is 10 x 7 and 7 x 7. This gives you 170 + 70 + 49, or 289. Whatever you do, don’t panic!

Now see if you can do 18 x 22: 18 x 20 + 18 x 2. Easy, 360 + 36 = 396.

As far as brainteasers go, this is a rather common one. You will do better if you have practiced these types of questions.

3. How many NYSE-Listed companies have 1 letter ticker symbols?

Answer: It could be 26 (letters in the English alphabet), but it is only 24 because I & M are saved for Intel and Microsoft, in case they change their minds.

4. How many gas stations are there in the United States?

Answer: With a question like this, the interviewer is looking at your thought process, not that you can figure out how many gas stations are in the U.S.

The easiest way to go about answering a question like this is to start small and work your way to the bigger question. Think about your town. Say your town has 30,000 people, and you have 5 gas stations serving that area.

So you have 7,500 towns with 5 gas stations and 2,500 “towns” with only 1.

Do a little mental math and you get the number of 40,000 gas stations in the U.S.

5. A stock is trading at 10 and 1/16. There are 1 million shares outstanding. What is the stock’s market cap?

Answer: This is just a test of your mental math. If a fourth is .25, an eighth is .125, and a sixteenth is .0625... The stock price is 10.0625 and the Market Cap is 10.0625 million.

6. How many degrees are there between a clock’s two hands when the clock reads 3:15?

Answer: The quick thought would be 90 degrees, but it isn’t. If the clock is 360 degrees, the minute hand will be exactly at the 90-degree mark. The hour hand will be ¼ of the way between the 3 and the 4. Since there are 12 numbers, the 3 and the 4 are 30 degrees apart, making the hour hand 7.5 degrees beyond the 3, and 7.5 degrees from the minute hand. The picture below helps illustrate this better.

Questions To Ask The Interviewer at the End

After approximately an hour of drilling from the interviewer, here you are, at the very end. The interviewer looks at you and asks, “Do you have any questions for me?” This is your last and best chance to leave a lasting impression, so ask a thoughtful question for which the answer cannot be found with a simple google search.

Some of the questions WSO recommends are

• I bet you were in my shoes a few years ago - what initially attracted you to X bank?
• How would you describe the culture here?
• Can you talk about your role in the last [M&A, ECM, DCM] deal you worked in and what specifically you learned from it?

These questions have been taken from “What Are Some Good Questions To Ask The Interviewer At The End Of The Interview?”, posted by WSO user @soontobe. Check out his full post with additional questions here .

Once you have asked your question, listen sincerely to the interviewer’s response. They want to see if you are genuinely interested, and not simply asking for the sake of asking. Take down notes occasionally if you have to.

As you wrap up, thank the interviewer once again for their time and shake their hands firmly. Sometimes an interview may go extremely well, while at other times not so much so. Irrespective of the situation, show respect and leave on a positive note with the interviewer. A thank-you email a few hours after the interview is generally appreciated.

Resources to learn more about sending thank you emails after interviews:

• The Muse - How to Write an Interview Thank You Note Email Template
• Indeed - Sample Thank You Letter After Interview
• Zety - Thank You Email After an Interview
• The Balance Careers - Thank You email After Job Interview
• Career Sidekick - Thank You Note After Interview

Having mastered all the technical and behavioral/fit questions, as well as logical riddles above, you are in an exceptionally strong position for your IB interviews.

However, there is much more to excelling in IB interviews than simply memorizing sample questions and answers. In a pool of highly qualified and competitive candidates, interviewers look for more than someone who simply aces technicals.

They look for a candidate who would fit right into the company, who are able to stand out and showcase their strengths in a way their competition can’t match.

Given this, it is no surprise that the most successful candidates go above and beyond in the preparation process, taking the time to master the art of selling themselves in an interview and clicking with their interviewers. They build upon their social skills, and utilize these soft skills to steer the direction of the interview in their favour, giving them an upperhand which cannot be matched.

When considering this, it is not a stretch to say one’s soft skills play just as much as a role in their interview’s outcome as their technical skillset.

If you’d like to get started on learning these powerful tips, here are some additional resources from WSO’s hall of fame.

3 Tools That Will Take You A Long Way

• Read Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People : If you have read it, read it again. Take the time to practice every single one of the principles over and over again. You can become excellent at communicating with this one book, and if you are ambitious, please check out Influence by Robert Cialdini .
• Master selling: Again, people think of selling as something you either have or you don't. WRONG. Selling is a skill that brings together preparation and the skills of communications and influence. Read How to Master The Art of Selling by Tom Hopkins . If you are serious, consider creating a Selling Black book to sell your most valuable commodity - YOU.
• If you're bold, dip your toe in the water and learn the most advanced skills of influence - NLP and conversational hypnosis. As part of this, you will learn nuances of language and non-verbal communications that few people even know about. It's hard to learn from a book, so feel free to google for courses on NLP.

Note: This tip was provided by WSO user @geoffblades, A former investment banker at Goldman Sachs and investor at the Carlyle Group. The full writeup by him, “How Do You CRUSH Your Interviews?”, can be found here . 

Show Them What They Want to See

Your general personality will come out throughout the interview - there is no hiding it. Being able to do the work well is shown through the confidence you display while answering the general questions along with how well you answer the technicals. 

Showing passion is a little more difficult, but it comes out in different ways. A few things that make the interviewer say “This kid knows his stuff” are:

• How excited you are to answer questions,
• The level of detail that you can answer a technical question
• The types of questions that you ask when I tell you about what I do and the product that I trade. 

Chances are, showing passion comes from a combination of those examples.

Additionally, this is learned more with experience, but there comes a point in the interview where you have the ability to gain control of the interview and steer it in the direction you want. If you're having a conversation about China or Michael Lewis, you can keep it going by talking about another book that you have read. If you are asked a question, you can answer it in a way that almost guarantees the next question, which you will be prepared for. 

The number of choke points in an interview where you can gain control and dictate flow is endless, you just need to learn how to spot them.

Note: These are 2 of 10 tips by WSO user @Gekko21. His full writeup, “Gekko's Guidance (10 Rules To Interviewing) - Part 1” can be found here .

So If You Want To Give Yourself A Leg-Up In Getting An Interview (Written by an interviewer)

Below are a few tips to help give you a boost in your investment banking interview:

• It helps to have a high GPA but is not a guarantee for anything.
• You SHOULD address the question of "Is he/she interested in banking?". If you've never interned in finance and are a non-traditional major, you should be actively involved (pref. at a senior level) in the finance clubs, you should participate in finance/modeling training seminars sponsored by your school, or have a section under interests with "Readings'' or "Favorite Books'' that have a finance tinge to them (more “ When Genius Failed ” or “ Fooled by Randomness ” or “ Barbarians at the Gate ”, less “ Monkey Business ” or “ Liars Poker ”)... Wall Street Journal , DealBook , FT , etc... I wouldn't advise adding that section if the rest of your resume already sells your finance interest... otherwise, it’s overkill and you seem uninteresting and boringly uni-dimensional. You want to be well-rounded.
• Formatting is EVERYTHING and there is NO excuse for typos or inconsistencies in formatting.

The full undergrad recruiting series from our forums is available here:

• UG Recruiting Part I: How A Resume Becomes An Interview
• UG Recruiting Part II: The First Round Interview
• UG Recruiting Part III: The Super Day And Offer

What is Hirevue?

Hirevue is a video conferencing program built to reduce hiring time for their clients whilst still attracting and acquiring talented candidates. Hirevue is used by many major banks including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Morgan Stanley.

How does Hirevue work?

Hirevue gives candidates a certain set of questions to answer during the interview process, in which their answers are recorded and then analyzed using artificial intelligence (AI). The results provide insights into candidates which investment banks then use to make informed hiring decisions.

The AI tracks and analyzes verbal, as well as non-verbal cues such as facial movements, body language, speech formation, as well as attire, and clothing. These data points are then processed by algorithms and generate results (employability score) allowing employers to predict a candidate’s performance on the job based on their presentation during the interview.

What are the questions asked in Hirevue interviews?

Hirevue aims to predict your capabilities for the job you’re applying for based upon your soft skills and presentation of yourself during the interview. As such, the interview consists of a majority of behavioral questions (as covered above), with some banks not even asking a single technical question to candidates.

The following is a list of 15 sample questions Hirevue has previously asked candidates during interviews, credit to The University of Colorado .

• Tell me a little about yourself.
• What are your long-term career plans?
• What made you leave your previous job?
• Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.
• Why do you want to work here?
• What makes this position a good fit for you at this point in your career?
• Tell us how your experience and training have prepared you for this position.
• Give us your understanding of our organization
• Tell us about a time when you had to balance multiple priorities. Please give an example that demonstrated how you navigated completing work priorities to attain the best result.
• Describe a work scenario in which you were faced with competing priorities. How did you juggle them all and still meet everyone’s expectations?
• Describe a high-pressure situation (either within a work setting, or beyond) that you were put in unexpectedly. How did you adjust and still create a successful outcome?
• Tell us about a time you were most creative.
• What do you enjoy about working in customer service? What do you dislike or find challenging?
• Explain your approach to completing multiple assignments in a workday.
• Tell us about a mistake you’ve made on the job and what you learned from it.

The following youtube video by Afzal Hussein , an ex-Goldman Sachs employee, shows him covering 18 questions and answers asked by J.P.Morgan’s Hirevue interviews.

WSO’s bonus tips to excelling in Hirevue interviews:

• Dress appropriately (especially for investment banking interviews) This is pretty self-explanatory, make sure you are dressed well and look presentable.
• Rehearse and practice You’re at an advantage with Hirevue as you can anticipate which questions are going to be thrown at you. Prepare for these questions beforehand, rehearse and practice your stories. Record yourself and replay it, find places to improve, and repeat the process until you are able to consistently and confidently answer questions. Ideally, the actual Hirevue interview itself should simply be a rehearsal of your past practice sessions, nothing should be catching you off guard. If you want the upper hand, ask your close friends and other respectable people in the industry to review your recordings and offer feedback. Perfect your delivery, practice makes perfect.

M&I 400 Investment Banking Questions Guide vs WSP’s The Investment Banking Interview Guide (The Red Book) vs WSO’s Investment Banking Interview Prep Course

One question we receive a lot from students and professionals alike, given the many courses flooding the market, is which interview course is the best in the industry for breaking into investment banking. The following table and comparison present a comparison between the top three resource providers: the Wall Street Oasis (WSO), WallStreetPrep (WSP), and Mergers & Inquisitions (M&I). This comparison explains why we believe WSO’s IB Prep Course remains the gold standard in the industry, with features unmatched by competitors.

With that being said, WSO leads the industry for IB recruiting as the IB prep course gives you access to thousands of interview insights by actual candidates all across the world across a variety of divisions in finance. The advantages and insights gained by this are simply unmatched by our competitors, and we believe you’ll feel the same way as us once you’ve got our guide as well.

Many of the sample answers in the guide above were taken from WSO’s very own Investment Banking Interview Prep Course , which features:

• 7,548 questions across 469 investment banks
• 3 Modules to master technical + fit + networking
• Access to Company Database for 12 months

Think about it - if this page can set you miles ahead of the competition, imagine what our complete guide can do for you.

Receiving the title of, “The Insider's Guide on How to Land the Most Prestigious Jobs on Wall Street” , the WSO IB Interview Prep Course will walk you step-by-step through the interview process, and place you in the strongest position to land the job. Click the button below to check it out.

Additional resources from our forums:

• Investment Banking Resume Template - Official WSO CV Example
• Investment Banking In The UK - An Overview
• Investment Banking Analyst: A True Day In The Life
• P/E Vs. EV/EBITDA - Advantages/Disadvantages?
• Investment Banking Vs. Capital Markets - How Different Are They?
• WSO Financial Dictionary
• Some Observations From An MD

List of Bulge Bracket Investment Banks and Boutiques

Currently, the bulge bracket consists of the following banks:

• Goldman Sachs (GS or Goldman) | GS Overview | GS Site
• JPMorgan Chase (JPM) | JPM Overview | JPM Site
• Morgan Stanley (MS) | MS Overview | MS Site
• Credit Suisse (CS) | CS Overview | CS Site
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) | BofA Overview | BofA Site
• UBS | UBS Overview | UBS Site
• Deutsche Bank (DB) | DB Overview | DB Site
• Barclays Capital (BarCap) | BarCap Overview | BarCap Site
• Citigroup (Citi) | Citi Overview | Citi Site

Boutique IBs can range in size from reasonably large, global firms to tiny one-person firms. Below is a list of some of the larger and more well-known boutiques, sometimes referred to as the 'elite boutiques':

• Piper Jaffray (Now Piper Sandler) | Piper Jaffray Overview | Piper Jaffray Site
• Rothschild | Rothschild Overview | Rothschild Site
• Moelis | Moelis Overview | Moelis Site
• Jefferies & Co. | Jefferies & Co. Overview | Jefferies & Co. Site
• Blackstone | Blackstone Overview | Blackstone Site
• Lazard | Lazard Overview | Lazard Site
• Qatalyst Partners | Qatalyst Partners Overview | Qatalyst Partners Site
• Evercore | Evercore Overview | Evercore Site
• Houlihan Lokey | Houlihan Lokey Overview | Houlihan Lokey Site
• Centerview | Centerview Overview | Centerview Site

Additional interview resources

To learn more about interviews and the questions asked, please check out the additional interview resources below:

• Private Equity Interview Questions and Answers
• Hedge Funds Interview Questions and Answers
• Finance Interview Questions and Answers
• Accounting Interview Questions and Answers
• FP&A Interview Questions and Answers

Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.

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Best Investment Banking Interview Prep Courses

What are investment banking case studies, why do investment banks ask case study questions, how to tackle a case study question, how to prepare for investment banking case studies, tips to help you impress, investment banking case study interviews.

Updated October 11, 2023

All products and services featured are independently selected by WikiJob. When you register or purchase through links on this page, we may earn a commission.

1. Investment Banking Interview Skills - Financial Edge

Financial Edge is the firm trusted by the world’s top 4 Investment Banks (as rated by the FT) to train their new analysts. Founded by ex-bankers and a team of experienced instructors, they deliver technical training programs in-house and online through their range of Wall Street-recognized certified courses.

The course takes about 36 minutes to complete with topics like what an investment banker does, the role of an investment banker and preparing for the recruitment process.

Price: £32.50

Visit Investment Banking Interview Skills - Financial Edge

2. The Complete Investment Banking Course 2023 - Udemy

The Complete Investment Banking Course 2023 by Udemy is a comprehensive online course that teaches the fundamentals of investment banking. The course covers topics such as financial modeling, valuation, mergers and acquisitions, how to pass investment banking interviews, and other core skills required for a career in investment banking. The course is designed by industry experts and includes practical exercises, case studies, and quizzes to help learners fully understand the concepts. By taking this course, learners can gain the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue a career in investment banking.

This course includes 11.5 hours of video and 172 downloadable resources.

Price: $13.74

Visit The Complete Investment Banking Course 2023 - Udemy

3. The Ultimate Guide to the Technical Finance Interview - Wall Street Prep

The Ultimate Guide to the Technical Finance Interview by Wall Street Prep is a comprehensive resource for those looking to prepare for a finance interview. It covers a wide range of topics, including financial statement analysis, valuation techniques, and corporate finance. The guide provides in-depth explanations, step-by-step instructions, and real-world examples to help readers understand these complex concepts. It also includes practice problems and interview questions to help readers hone their skills and prepare for the interview process. Overall, The Ultimate Guide to the Technical Finance Interview is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to succeed in a finance interview.

It is a self-study guide with over 275 pdf pages, including 1,000 investment banking interview questions and answers.

Visit The Ultimate Guide to the Technical Finance Interview - Wall Street Prep

When going through the application process for a graduate role at an investment bank, you will likely be faced with a case study interview . Investment banking roles are highly competitive and you must be properly prepared.

This article, along with our comprehensive article on case study interviews , will ensure you know what's coming and can prepare with confidence.

Investment banking case studies are commonly used to assess how a job candidate would perform in a real situation, by presenting them with a theoretical scenario similar to those encountered working in the role.

You will normally encounter case studies at the final stage of the application process, likely during an assessment centre or final-stage interview.

Most investment banking case study questions centre on  acquisition , raising capital or company expansion. The case may be given to you ‘blind’ on the day of your assessment centre with only a short amount of time provided for preparation.

If the case is likely to involve deep analysis, financial modelling or company valuations, you will likely be given the case in advance, to give you more time to work on it before the assessment day.

In some cases, the investment banking case study may be presented as a group task . This is an opportunity for the employer to test how candidates work in teams, as well as their analytical skills .

While  general interview questions can give a surface impression of a candidate’s skills and suitability, case study questions enable interviewers to assess the candidate’s ability to approach a multi-layered client problem . 

Case study questions are not only testing a candidate’s analytical skills but also their ability to reason and communicate. They are useful for assessing how candidates tackle complex problems, make key judgements and present their recommendations.

With many case study questions, there will be more than one way to successfully approach the problem and more than one possible solution. Investment banks are looking for decisive candidates who can present their solution clearly and logically, and defend their decisions under scrutiny.

These questions are not designed to test in-depth sector knowledge but are an opportunity to display the commercial awareness investment banks seek. 

Facing a case study exercise can be daunting. Here are some key tips to help you get started:

• Read through the scenario carefully – at least twice – before beginning to form an opinion on how the problem should be tackled. This will ensure that no intricacies are missed and your response addresses all facets of the case.
• Review the information presented and make informed and necessary assumptions where needed.
• Take time over your analysis:  consider all possible courses of action before settling upon your recommendations.
• If financial information is provided, take note of this carefully. Do not shy away from performing calculations to support your recommendations.

Candidates will likely be asked to give a presentation of their findings at the end of the task.

When preparing your presentation, make sure you outline the path you have taken clearly. It is important to display why the choice was made to discard other courses of action in favour of the selected recommendation.

The case study questions are not necessarily about finding a correct answer, but rather the thought process and analytical skills used to tackle a problem.

What to Expect During a Case Study Interview

Case studies for investment banking interviews come in two forms:

• Take-home case studies
• Blind or on-the-spot case studies

Take-Home Case Studies

Take-home case studies are usually given to candidates up to a week before they are scheduled to attend an interview or assessment day .

You will be expected to work on it at home and then present your analysis and recommendations in a 30 to 45-minute presentation when attending your interview. The level of analysis must reflect the amount of time allowed to complete the task.

Due to the extra time allowed, a take-home case study will usually be a financial modelling case study which will require more in-depth research. Financial modelling and simple valuation will be required.

This may be preparing a straightforward merger, presenting the process for a Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) or performing an FCFF (free cash flow to firm) valuation.

Candidates will need to be confident with valuation multiples; for example, looking at equity and enterprise value to determine accurate, over- or under-valuation.

For more help and advice on investment banking valuations, see our article on Company Valuation Interview Questions .

Blind Case Studies

Blind case studies will be given to the candidate on the day of an assessment centre or later-stage interview.

During a blind case study assessment, a candidate will normally face a decision-making case study, which will not require in-depth research.

These may focus upon whether a particular merger should take place, how to achieve the best valuation or identifying sources through which capital could be raised. These questions are looking more at a candidate’s problem-solving skills and commercial awareness , rather than deep analysis.

Candidates will be given around one hour to complete their analysis and approximately 10 minutes to present. They should be prepared for a substantial round of questions after completing their presentation.

Regardless of which investment banking case study type a candidate is presented with, the thought process and deliverables are the same. The best way to prepare for an investment banking case study is to practise completing similar questions .

Investment banks do not tend to publish case study questions for practice. However, it is possible to formulate your own questions by looking at business scenarios involving possible mergers, necessary valuations or raising of capital.

As mentioned above, candidates will need to be confident with valuation skills . They will also need to display a good level of commercial awareness . Presentation skills and successful team working also need to be considered.

Before your case study interview, keep up-to-date with developments in the investment banking sector, both relating to company conduct and external impacts. This background knowledge is key when demonstrating your knowledge and enthusiasm for investment banking.

Thinking about work experience completed and even any extra-curricular activities from a commercial perspective is also a good way to start to interrogate different types of client relationship and look at the common factors for success.

Candidates should ensure that they can display a full understanding of key business concepts and can use the associated terminology comfortably in a conversation. Make sure you can confidently discuss the following:

• Profit, revenue, and fixed and variable costs in a business;
• Client, stakeholder and competitor landscapes;
• How external/internal factors can influence these and the financial dynamics that rely upon them.

Candidates must practise streamlining their thought process so judgements can be made under time pressure if required.

Candidates should also practise presenting their process of analysis clearly and justifying the recommendations they have made, to prepare for the scrutiny of the interviewer.

Example Case Study Questions and Answers

“A client owns her business (worth £400m) outright and is looking to release some liquidity while retaining a percentage of ownership. What recommendations would you make to the client to achieve maximum valuation?”

Accompanying information is likely to be provided with a question of this kind, such as a company overview and data on the company’s performance over the last three years. Go through any financial data carefully and make predictions as to what organic growth would look like for the company.

If you are given the relevant information, consider the breakdown of the current valuation.

Consider the industry of the client and predicted sector trends:

• How does the valuation compare within the industry?
• Is the current valuation based upon solid industry predictions?
• Would it be wise to give up more equity based on stagnant industry growth?
• Is the sector growing and predicted to continue to do so?

Think about whether any steps could be taken to make the company of increased appeal – consider current client portfolios and projects, etc.

Consider how you would advise the client to negotiate:

• What percentage of equity should they be willing to give up?
• What figure would you advise the client to settle on as their effective reserve price?

“A public company approaches you as they wish to raise capital. Recent earnings and the quarterly report have been reviewed and found to be in line with analyst predictions but the company is currently trading at an all-year low. The company’s management has designed a project it believes will substantially increase its EBITDA and wishes to raise the capital to advance. How should the company go about raising the capital necessary?”

For this question, you would be given an overview of the company and their financial statements to review.

You must consider whether the company should raise debt or equity.

Consider the share price, volume of shares outstanding and the market cap:

• What impact would issuing new shares have on the company in this landscape?
• Would equity financing be a sustainable option regarding ownership dilution?
• How would the impact now differ from that if the share price were back at ‘normal’?

Look over the financial statements provided:

• If these are indeed in line with management predictions, would raising debt be a better option?
• How much might they raise?
• What future issues may raising debt cause?
• How might interest expense be mitigated?

Organise your ideas clearly for your presentation, working through your thought process and the questions you posed to reach your recommendation. Around five PowerPoint slides should be ample.

“A renewables company is looking to make a significant acquisition. You have been asked to review the deal and make your recommendations.”

You will be given an overview and the financial information for both the buying company and the potential acquisition. You will also be provided with information relating to other companies similar to the proposed acquisition.

You will need to decide if the target company should be purchased and, if so, at what price.

You will be expected to use the data provided from comparable companies and apply multiples to the target company to settle upon a purchasing price.

Consider the financial situation of the purchasing company:

• If required, can they raise the necessary capital through raising debt or equity, or do they already have the funds necessary?

Consider the benefits of acquiring the target company:

• What will the company contribute in terms of profit and revenue?
• What other benefits may the acquisition bring the buyer?

Think about how any risks to the buyer can be mitigated.

Present your strategic recommendation clearly and concisely.

Step 1 . Prepare

Practice completing the type of case study questions you are likely to be presented with. Read about examples of mergers, acquisitions and expansions in the news. Get comfortable with all relevant terminology and financial concepts.

Step 2 . Have conviction

Make a solid recommendation backed up with detailed reasoning. Stand by your choices and explain clearly why you believe the course of action to be preferable.

Step 3 . Remain calm

There may not immediately be an obvious solution. Take time to think the problem through with the information given, making necessary assumptions.

Step 4 . Be logical

Work through the problem carefully and strategically. Present your ideas clearly and with justification. Case study questions are intended to challenge candidates to display their thought process.

Step 5 . Teamwork

If the case study task is a group exercise, make sure all members have the opportunity to contribute and present. Performing well yourself, while facilitating others to perform at their best, displays a good awareness of people management skills.

Step 6 . Confidence

Work on your presentation skills so you can convey your ideas decisively and with confidence. A detailed and meticulous analysis won’t count for much unless it can be communicated effectively.

You might also be interested in these other Wikijob articles:

Or explore the Industry / Investment Banking sections.

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Investment Banking Case Studies – Job Application

By Ivy Wang |

 Reviewed By Rebecca Baldridge |

November 21, 2022

What are Investment Banking Case Studies

Candidates will normally encounter case studies at the final stage of the application process, likely during an assessment or final-stage interview. Investment banking roles are highly competitive, and candidates must be properly prepared.

Investment banking case studies are commonly used to assess how a job candidate would perform in a real situation by presenting them with a theoretical scenario similar to those encountered on the job.

Most investment banking case study questions center on acquisitions, raising capital, or company expansion. The case may be given to you ‘blind’ on the day of your assessment with only a short amount of time provided for preparation. If the case is likely to involve deep analysis, financial modeling, or a company valuation, you will likely be given the case in advance to give you more time to work on it before the assessment day.

Key Learning Points

• Investment banking case studies are often used to assess how job candidates would perform in a real situation by presenting them with a theoretical scenario like one they would encounter on the job.
• While general questions give the interviewer a superficial impression of the candidate’s skills and fitness, case study questions allow the interviewer to assess the candidate’s ability to handle multiple levels of analysis and problem-solving.
• Case study questions test reasoning and communication skills as well as analytical skills. They are useful for assessing how candidates approach complex issues, make critical judgments, and deliver recommendations.
• With many case study problems, there will be more than one path to success and more than one possible solution.
• Investment banks are looking for decisive candidates who can articulate and logically present their solutions and defend their decisions under scrutiny.

What are the Types of Investment Banking Case Studies?

In general, there are two types of case studies during an investment banking assessment, the decision-making case, and the financial modeling case.

Decision-Making Investment Banking Case Studies

Decision-making case studies appear more frequently than modeling case studies. In this type of case study, the candidate must make decisions for their client and provide advice. The client case studies could be based on finding funding sources, or whether a proposed merger should proceed and why or why not.

You should expect these questions to be given to you at the interview. Therefore, you must analyze and present the case within a given time frame. Throughout, you will have 45-60 minutes of preparation time and a 10-minute presentation, followed by a round of Q&A.

These case studies do not involve in-depth analysis of the case, given the short amount of time available.

Decision-Making Case Study Example

One of your clients is a global corporation that manufactures and distributes a wide range of perfumes. They are contemplating ways to expand their business. They may either introduce a new range of fragrances with their current distribution channels or start a completely new company with different stores.

You need to determine which solution is better for the business. To do so, you need to compare the return on investment and decide on a solution. Be ready to support your reasoning.

Modeling Investment Banking Case Studies

Modeling case studies are usually take-home assignments where you must do financial modeling and a simple valuation. Thus, it is more of a modeling test than a case study. The Investment Banker provides an introduction to building models, developing multiple techniques for a comprehensive and practical understanding of the topic.

The modeling case study will either employ a free cash flow to the firm (FCFF) valuation on a company or require a simple merger or leveraged buyout model. You would be expected to analyze the corporations’ valuation multiples to determine whether they are undervalued or overvalued.

Generally, you will be given a few days to complete your analysis. Then, you need to spend 30-45 minutes on the day of the interview presenting your case to the bankers. The analysis will go much deeper than a client case study because you will have more time to work on it.

Modeling Investment Banking Case Study Example

A pharmaceutical company wishes to make an acquisition. It has identified the target company and approached you to determine how much they should pay. You will be provided with the necessary financial information, metrics, and multiples, as well as the buyer and seller company profiles.

To complete the case study, you need to determine if the acquisition is feasible. Second, what would be the structure and synergies of the deal if the buyer has access to capital? You need to use multiples and valuation metrics to determine the price range for the transaction.

Access the three-statement case study example to practice a modeling case study.

How to Prepare for Investment Banking Case Studies

Regardless of which type of case study a candidate is presented, the thought process and deliverables are the same. The best way to prepare is to:

• Ensure that key business concepts are well understood and that you can use the associated terminology comfortably in a conversation.
• Learn about various valuation techniques, how to employ them, and how to interpret them. Prepare for case studies by mastering valuation for investment banking with the online investment banker course . Learn how and when to utilize key valuation methodologies and the supporting calculations
• Make sure you read business news regularly and focus on discussing the details of banking transactions in the news.
• Read as many case studies as possible so you get the knack of understanding business scenarios and analyzing Especially for modeling and valuation-based case studies, you must be prepared to format your work using PowerPoint and Excel.
• Check company websites to see if sample case studies are available for reference. Investment banks do not tend to publish case study questions for practice. However, it is possible to formulate your own questions by looking at business scenarios involving possible mergers, valuations, or capital raises.
• Candidates must practice streamlining their thought process so judgments can be made under time pressure.
• Read through the scenario carefully before beginning to form an opinion on how the problem should be tackled. This will ensure that no intricacies are missed, and your response addresses all facets of the case.
• Learn how to stand out from the crowd in your interview with the investment banker interview skills course , designed to prepare you for your interviews and enable you to make a great impression.
• Investment Banking Case Study Example

1.     Scenario

A magazine publisher is evaluating whether it should sell, continue to grow organically, or make small “tuck-in” acquisitions to maximize shareholder value. It is selecting an investment bank to advise on its options and has requested a presentation from your bank.

2.     Task

Review the company’s financial and market information and create a 30-minute presentation analyzing its options. Recommend a specific course of action – selling the company, continuing to grow organically, or making smaller acquisitions.

3.     Solution

The answer to this case study is rather subjective. You should take a stand and support it with well thought out reasons. Here’s how you should approach it:

• First, read through everything and get a sense of the industry, where it’s heading, and how much this company might be worth based on comparables. If they don’t give you much information on comparable public companies or precedent transactions, you’ll have to do your own research.
• Complete a brief valuation using public comps, precedent transactions, and a DCF.
• Weigh the numbers the valuation gives you, the company’s organic growth prospects, and whether there are any good companies to acquire.
• Make a decision-it’s usually best to say “sell” unless the industry is growing quickly (over 10% per year), the company is extremely undervalued, or there are acquisition targets that would boost revenue or profit by at least 20-30%.
• Keep this simple and straightforward-the numbers should back up your reasoning, not take over the entire presentation.
• You could get much fancier with the analysis and look at the company’s valuation now, 5 years from now, and if it acquires 1 or 2 companies, but that isn’t necessary and it may just make your presentation more confusing.

4.     Sample Answer

If you decide to sell, you can write:

Slide 1: Recommendation to sell and the three key reasons why.

Slide 2: Industry overview – Is it growing?  Shrinking?  Stagnant?

Slide 3: Company’s position in the industry – Leader?  Tier 2 player?  Where is it strong / weak?

Slide 4: What organic growth would look like 5 or 10 years in the future – how much bigger / more highly-valued would the company be?

Slide 5: Potential tuck-in acquisition candidates.

Slide 6: Why neither organic growth nor acquisitions are the answer.

Slide 7: Why selling now produces the greatest shareholder value.

Slide 8: Valuation – Show public comps and precedent transactions.

Slide 9: Valuation – Show DCF output and sensitivity table.

Slide 10: Conclusion – Reiterate that selling now is the best option and that neither organic growth nor acquiring smaller companies will result in a higher valuation 5-10 years from now.

If you come to a different conclusion – for example, that acquisitions are the best strategy, you would reverse the order and list the solutions you’re not recommending first, concluding with the one you are suggesting.

Investment banking case studies are an important element in the interview process, it is an opportunity to showcase your skills and talent to investment bankers. In general, there are two types of case studies, the decision-making case study and the financial modeling case study. Candidates will need to be confident in their valuation skills. They will also need to display a good level of commercial awareness. Presentation skills are also critical.

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Investment Banking Interviews

What to expect and how to prepare for investment banking interviews, investment banking interviews 101.

Investment banking interviews may seem daunting at first, but if you understand the process and the questions , you’ll see that they follow a predictable series of steps.

While it is challenging to pass interviews and win internship and job offers, with the right preparation and training, you can dramatically increase your chances.

Here are the key resources you’ll need to ace your interviews and land banking jobs:

Interview Questions & Answers

"Walk Me Through Your Resume"

“Fit” Questions

Why Investment Banking?

Case Studies

"Plan B" Options

The Investment Banking Interview Process

The overall  process of completing interviews varies based on your location (e.g., North America vs. Europe) and the level of roles you’re applying to (e.g., Analyst vs. Associate ).

If you’re in  North America and you’re applying to  Analyst roles, the investment banking interview process usually goes like this:

• Network months in advance and submit your application online.
• Complete a HireVue or other pre-recorded video interview, or possibly a phone interview with a human.
• Then, come into the bank’s office for a “ Superday ,” where you interview in-person with many bankers at all levels (Analyst through Managing Director).

If you get an offer, you’ll hear back quickly; if not, they may not say anything, or they may drag out the decision.

At the  MBA level (for Associate roles), it’s similar, but banks tend to focus on on-campus recruitment at the top business schools.

If you’re applying outside of these formal processes – for example, you’re working at a Big 4 firm or valuation firm and you apply for full-time IB roles – then the process will be a series of interviews over a long period, with unpredictable timing and less reliance on HireVue and other automated assessments.

HireVue questions tend to be  very generic (“ What are your strengths and weaknesses ? Why our bank ? Why investment banking ?”), so they should not require additional preparation.

For more, see our HireVue interview guide .

Real interviews are far more challenging because they could ask you anything, and they’ll judge not only your responses but also your body language and “ cultural fit ” with the group.

In  Europe , and especially the U.K., this process is different because:

• You will have to complete online math, logic, and verbal tests, along with competency questions  (written versions of “fit” questions); and
• Instead of a Superday , you will go to an  assessment center in the final step.

At this “assessment center,” or “AC,” you will complete exercises such as group presentations, report writing, role-playing, and e-tray/in-tray (to simulate your responses to emails) in addition to the standard interviews.

ACs test your ability to  perform in real life more effectively, but you’ll have to spend additional time preparing for them because the tasks are different from those in standard interviews.

In other regions, such as Asia and Australia, the interview process is somewhere in between these two.

We cover the details of this process in the articles on EMEA recruitment , assessment centers , and competency questions .

Common Investment Banking Interview Questions

There are four main categories of interview questions in investment banking interviews , and you must be able to answer each one confidently. They are:

• Category 1: Telling Your Story
• Category 2: “Fit” Questions
• Category 3: Deals, Markets, and Companies
• Category 4: Technical Questions and Answers

Our comprehensive article describes each of these in detail, but the quick summaries are below :

How to Tell Your Story in Interviews

There is only one question in this category, but it may be phrased in different ways:

• “Tell me about yourself.”
• “Walk me through your resume.”
• “Why are you here today?”

The interviewer wants to understand how your previous academic and work experience fits into the role you are applying for, and how this role fits into your long-term career plans.

If you have time for nothing else before your interview, you  must outline a 200 -300-word pitch to answer this question. For tips on how to do this, see our article on how to answer the “Walk me through your resume” question.

Investment Banking “Fit” Questions

In the “fit” category, bankers will ask questions about your strengths and weakness, your ability to work in and lead teams, and how much you know about the group and firm.

All questions that are not related to your story, deal/market/company discussions, and technical concepts are in this category.

Rather than trying to memorize hundreds of prepared answers, we recommend following the advice in our article on Investment Banking Fit Questions . 

In short, you should prepare 3 “short stories” to answer most of these questions, select 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses, and then prepare to address your top 3 “real” weaknesses in interviews.

Questions about Deals, Markets, and Companies

This next question category determines your level of interest in the markets and current events, such as significant deals and new companies.

Anyone can say they’re “interested in working on deals,” but few people can walk through the in’s and out’s of a recent deal in detail and give their opinion of it.

These questions tend to be more important for experienced candidates interviewing for lateral roles, but they still come up for students applying for internship and post-graduation full-time roles.

Please see our articles on how to discuss recent deals and how to prepare a deal sheet for more on these topics.

Technical Interview Questions and Answers

Investment banks now expect candidates to possess detailed technical knowledge of accounting, finance, valuation, and M&A and LBO modeling.

There are no “shortcuts” to mastering these topics; you need to put in the time to read, learn, and practice, or you won’t stand a chance against candidates who have.

We cover these key technical topics in our Investment Banking Interview Guide , and you can  also find good introductions to them in our YouTube Channel: 

• Accounting Concepts
• Equity Value and Enterprise Value
• Valuation Metrics and Multiples
• Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis
• M&A and Merger Models
• Leveraged Buyouts and LBO Models

Investment Banking Interview Preparation Courses

Investment banking has become a highly competitive and sought-after field.

You only get  one shot to make a great first impression in an interview, and there are no “do-overs” if you mess up or state something incorrectly.

That’s why many future investment bankers invest in specialized courses and training to help them pass their interviews with flying colors:

• A good starting point is our flagship Investment Banking Interview Guide , which has hundreds of questions and answers, practice case studies, and detailed guidance on all the aspects of interviews described above.
• The Core Financial Modeling course is good preparation for both interviews and internships, as it focuses on the concepts and shorter case studies.
• The BIWS Premium package is ideal for “on the job” prep since it bundles the Core Financial Modeling course with Excel and PowerPoint training.
• And many of our customers will save money and get the very best in all aspects of investment banking training by enrolling in BIWS Platinum – our entire collection of courses.

Completing these courses will help you win interviews and job offers for roles that pay $150K+ and position you for success in investment banking.

Finally, while our courses provide a great framework and instructions for getting into the industry, you might also be looking for more personalized assistance.

So, if you’re after 1-on-1 coaching for networking, interviews, and the entire job search process, check out Wall Street Mastermind .

They’ve worked with over 1,000 students to help them secure high-paying investment banking jobs out of school, and their coaches include a former Global Head of Recruiting at three different large banks.

They provide personalized, hands-on guidance through the entire networking and interview process – and they have a great track record of results for their clients.

You can book a free consultation with them to learn more .

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Longtime Trump assistant and bank executive each take the stand in hush money trial

The prosecution moved on to its second witness in its case against Donald Trump after former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker finished his testimony, which included attempts by defense attorneys to muddy his remarks about a joint scheme to benefit Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Pecker 's dramatic testimony was followed by two other witnesses, including Rhona Graff, Trump’s longtime assistant and gatekeeper, who said she was testifying pursuant to a subpoena.

Graff said she worked for the Trump Organization for 34 years and was responsible for maintaining Trump's list of contacts and his calendar. People on the contacts list — which prosecutors have a copy of — included former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels, Graff acknowledged. Both women have alleged that they had sexual relations with Trump in 2006 and received money to keep quiet about their claims during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied their claims.

The listing for McDougal included multiple phone numbers and addresses. The contact information for Daniels just said "Stormy" and included a cellphone number, Graff confirmed after their listings were shown in court.

Asked by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger if she'd ever seen Daniels in a reception area at Trump Tower, Graff said she had a "vague recollection" of that. Asked if she knew that Daniels was an adult film actress, Graff said, "Yes, I did."

Prosecutors used Graff's testimony to authenticate Trump's contact list and calendar, while Trump's lawyers used it show another side of their client. Graff testified her job was "exciting" and "stimulating." Asked if Trump was a good boss, Graff said, "I think he was fair." Asked if she felt Trump respected her, Graff said, “I don’t think I would have been there 34 years if he didn’t.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked Graff if the reason Daniels had been at Trump Tower was to discuss appearing on Trump's show "Celebrity Apprentice."

"That was the office chatter, yes," Graff responded.

Trump's lawyers took a tougher tone with Pecker, who began his testimony Monday as the prosecution's first witness.

Pecker had told jurors that Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen had asked him in a 2015 meeting to be their "eyes and ears" when it came to salacious stories that could undermine Trump's candidacy, and also asked him to print negative stories about Trump's opponents.

Pecker testified Thursday that Trump thanked him for his help in suppressing two scandalous stories in a 2017 meeting at Trump Tower, when Trump was president-elect. On Friday, Trump attorney Emil Bove asked Pecker about an FBI interview he sat for in 2018, where the agents said he told them "Trump did not express any gratitude" for his help.

"So the FBI notes here — what somebody is writing down — could be wrong," Pecker said, adding, "I know what the truth is," and it's that Trump thanked him for his assistance.

“So your testimony is inconsistent with what is written in that report?” Bove pressed. “Yes,” Pecker replied.

Follow-up questions from prosecutor Joshua Steinglass showed Pecker had told the FBI about the exchange with Trump in a separate interview about a week later. "Was it the truth then?" he asked, and "is it the truth now?" Pecker answered "yes" to both questions.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Bove also got Pecker to acknowledge the National Enquirer had already been running negative articles about Hillary Clinton, who became the 2016 Democratic nominee for president. Running negative stories about Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was "no issue for you, correct?" Bove asked. Pecker said it was not.

Bove noted that negative articles about Trump's Republican rivals in the race at the time, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Dr. Ben Carson, contained information that was recycled from other news outlets, and asked if that “was cost-efficient and made business sense.” “Yes,” Pecker replied.

Pecker was also questioned about the Enquirer's files and records on Trump, which he had said Trump wanted to purchase and Cohen had asked to go through.

“You’re not suggesting that there’s some trove of sensitive information about President Trump at the Enquirer,” Bove said.

Pecker replied, "There's nothing in those boxes."

"They are worthless?" Bove asked.

"Yes," Pecker responded.

When cross-examination of Pecker began Thursday, Bove immediately set out to poke holes in his credibility, getting him to acknowledge times he had mixed up dates and that the passage of time could affect his memory.

“There are some gaps, correct? Because it was a long time ago?” Bove asked.

“Yes,” Pecker replied.

Bove also got Pecker, 72, to acknowledge that it wasn't unusual for the paper to buy stories from sources that it wouldn't print. Pecker said about half the stories it bought didn't wind up getting printed, although some about celebrities were used as leverage to get other stories from them. He said the tabloid had used hundreds of thousands of nondisclosure agreements with sources over the years.

Steinglass asked on redirect examination Friday afternoon how many of those NDAs they'd coordinated with a presidential candidate in order to help their campaign. "It's the only one," Pecker replied.

He added it was also the only one where he'd negotiated with a "presidential candidate's fixer" — Cohen — on the terms of those NDAs.

Pecker testified this week that he was involved in efforts to kill three stories that could have been damaging to Trump's 2016 campaign. The first involved a doorman who claimed Trump fathered an illegitimate child. The paper paid the doorman $30,000 for his silence, even though, Pecker told the court, the claim was later determined to be “absolutely 1,000% untrue.”

The second story involved McDougal 's claim that she had a monthslong affair with Trump that began in 2006. Pecker said he believed her account, in part because, he said, Trump had told him that she was "a nice girl." Pecker wound up paying her $150,000 for the rights to her story, money he said he initially wanted Trump to pay back before he decided it could cause him legal problems if Trump did so.

Pecker said he was less involved in the third story, which involved Daniels , who claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Pecker said he refused to pay her for her story but encouraged Cohen to do so.

Pecker told the court that one of his employees, Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard, helped negotiate the terms of their eventual $130,000 deal. Trump later repaid Cohen in payments that were listed as legal expenses, which prosecutors say was a sham.

The final witness Friday was Gary Farro, a bank executive who helped Cohen set up the bank account for the shell company he used to pay Daniels. Prosecutors are using his testimony to authenticate documents related to the transaction. His testimony will continue when the trial resumes Tuesday morning.

Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

Gary Grumbach produces and reports for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C.

Jillian Frankel is a 2024 NBC News campaign embed.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

How to Prepare for UBS Investment Banking Interviews

If you're looking to land a job in UBS investment banking, you'll need to prepare thoroughly for the interview process.

Posted May 11, 2023

Table of Contents

If you have an upcoming UBS investment banking interview, congratulations! You've made it through the initial screening process and have caught the attention of one of the world's most prestigious financial institutions. But before you can land the job, you need to ace the interview. Here are some tips on how to prepare for a UBS investment banking interview:

Understanding the UBS Investment Banking Interview Process

Before diving into interview preparation, it's important to understand the UBS investment banking interview process. Typically, you'll go through several rounds of interviews, including a phone or video interview, a one-on-one interview with a hiring manager, and potentially a case study or group presentation. Each round will test different skills and attributes, so it's important to prepare for each one individually.

It's also important to note that UBS values diversity and inclusion in their hiring process. They actively seek out candidates from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, as they believe this leads to a more innovative and successful team. During the interview process, you may be asked about your experiences working with diverse teams or how you would approach working with colleagues from different backgrounds.

Researching UBS Investment Banking Culture and Values

Just like any other job, you want to make sure that UBS is a good fit for you. Research the company's values and culture to ensure that they align with your own. This will not only help you answer questions in the interview but also show your genuine interest in working there.

One way to research UBS's culture and values is to look at their mission statement and company website. This can give you insight into their overall goals and priorities. Additionally, you can reach out to current or former employees to get a better understanding of what it's like to work at UBS. This can be done through networking events, LinkedIn, or even reaching out to people in your personal network who may have connections at the company.

Crafting Your Personal Narrative for UBS Investment Banking Interviews

Your personal narrative should highlight your experience, skills, and accomplishments while demonstrating why you're the perfect fit for the job. Tailor your narrative to UBS's values and the specific role you're applying for. Practice it until you feel confident and comfortable speaking about yourself and your achievements.

When crafting your personal narrative, it's important to remember that UBS is looking for candidates who can bring a unique perspective and approach to their work. Consider highlighting any experiences or skills that set you apart from other candidates and demonstrate your ability to think creatively and solve complex problems.

Additionally, don't be afraid to show your personality in your personal narrative. UBS values candidates who are not only skilled and experienced, but also personable and easy to work with. Incorporating anecdotes or personal stories into your narrative can help showcase your personality and make you more memorable to interviewers.

Building a Strong UBS Investment Banking Resume and Cover Letter

Your resume and cover letter are often your first chances to make a good impression on a recruiter. Make sure they are polished, concise, and highlight your most relevant experiences and skills. Use specific data points to demonstrate your impact and accomplishments in previous roles.

When crafting your resume and cover letter for UBS Investment Banking, it's important to tailor your application to the specific role you are applying for. Research the job description and company culture to ensure that your application aligns with their values and requirements.

In addition to highlighting your experiences and skills, consider including any relevant extracurricular activities or volunteer work that demonstrate your leadership abilities and commitment to the industry. This can help set you apart from other applicants and showcase your well-roundedness.

Developing Your Technical Skills for UBS Investment Banking Interviews

Investment banking requires a strong understanding of finance and accounting. Brush up on technical skills like financial modeling, valuation, and accounting principles. There are many online resources available to help you practice and improve your skills.

In addition to finance and accounting, it is also important to have a solid understanding of the industry and market trends. Stay up-to-date with the latest news and developments in the investment banking industry by reading industry publications and attending conferences and events.

Another important aspect of developing your technical skills is to practice your communication and presentation skills. Investment bankers often need to present complex financial information to clients and colleagues in a clear and concise manner. Consider taking public speaking courses or practicing your presentation skills with friends or colleagues.

Practicing Common UBS Investment Banking Interview Questions

Practice answering common interview questions, both behavioral and technical. Know how to answer questions about your strengths, weaknesses, and leadership style. Prepare for technical questions related to valuations, financial statements, and investment strategies.

It is also important to research the company and the specific role you are interviewing for. Understand the company's values, mission, and recent projects. This will show your interest and dedication to the position. Additionally, be prepared to ask thoughtful questions about the company and the role during the interview.

Another helpful tip is to practice with a friend or mentor. Have them ask you common interview questions and provide feedback on your answers. This will help you feel more confident and prepared for the actual interview.

Preparing for Behavioral and Situational UBS Investment Banking Interview Questions

Behavioral and situational questions are designed to assess your problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Prepare to answer questions about conflicts, challenges, or difficult scenarios you've faced in previous roles. Be sure to demonstrate how you overcame these challenges and what you learned from the experience.

Another important aspect to consider when preparing for behavioral and situational UBS investment banking interview questions is to research the company and its values. This will help you understand the type of culture and work environment you may be entering, and allow you to tailor your responses accordingly. Additionally, it's important to practice your responses to common behavioral and situational questions with a friend or mentor, so that you can refine your answers and feel more confident during the interview.

Finally, it's important to remember that behavioral and situational questions are not meant to trick you or catch you off guard. Rather, they are designed to give the interviewer insight into your thought process and problem-solving abilities. So, be honest and authentic in your responses, and don't be afraid to ask for clarification if you need it. With the right preparation and mindset, you can ace your UBS investment banking interview and land your dream job.

Navigating the Case Study Portion of the UBS Investment Banking Interview

During a UBS investment banking interview, you may be given a case study to solve. Remember to keep your approach structured and highlight your ability to solve complex problems. Make sure to show your strong financial modeling and strategic thinking skills.

When solving the case study, it is important to communicate your thought process clearly and concisely. This will demonstrate your ability to work well under pressure and effectively communicate with team members and clients. Additionally, be prepared to defend your assumptions and conclusions with data and analysis.

It is also important to remember that the case study is not just about finding the right answer, but also about demonstrating your ability to think creatively and outside the box. Don't be afraid to propose unconventional solutions or approaches, as long as they are backed up by sound reasoning and analysis.

Tips for Following Up After Your UBS Investment Banking Interview

After the interview, follow up with a polite thank-you email. Use this opportunity to reiterate your interest in the position and highlight any notable takeaways from the interview. This will leave a positive impression on the interviewer and show your professionalism and enthusiasm for the job.

In addition to sending a thank-you email, consider sending a handwritten note to the interviewer. This personal touch can make a lasting impression and show that you are willing to go above and beyond to stand out from other candidates.

It's also important to continue networking with UBS employees and attending industry events. This demonstrates your commitment to the field and can lead to future job opportunities or connections. Keep in touch with your interviewer and express your interest in any future openings that may arise.

Common Mistakes to Avoid During Your UBS Investment Banking Interview

Avoid common interview mistakes such as being late, dressing inappropriately, or failing to research the company beforehand. Make sure to focus on your key strengths and achievements, and avoid rambling or being overly negative about previous experiences. Always remember to stay professional and positive throughout the interview.

Additional Resources for Preparing for UBS Investment Banking Interviews

There are many books, online courses, and resources available to help you prepare for UBS investment banking interviews. Utilize these resources to hone your skills and techniques and ensure you're fully prepared for the interview process.

By following these tips and thoroughly preparing for each stage of the UBS investment banking interview process, you'll increase your chances of landing the job. Remember to stay confident, professional, and passionate about your goals and experience.

One great resource for preparing for UBS investment banking interviews is to network with current or former UBS employees. They can provide valuable insights into the interview process and what the company is looking for in candidates. Additionally, attending industry events and conferences can help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in investment banking.

Another helpful tip is to practice your interview skills with a friend or mentor. This can help you feel more comfortable and confident during the actual interview. Additionally, consider recording yourself during practice interviews to identify areas where you can improve your communication and presentation skills.

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