Equity Research interview preparation
Sell side and buy side. Every question is either traced to a named firm from a public candidate report, or tagged at desk level when we could not trace it. Answers lead with the point, then the mechanism, then the limitation.
100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them
- Questions
- 100
- Traced to a firm
- 72
- Firms
- 45
- Updated
- September 2026
062How do rising interest rates affect different sectors?Apollo Global ManagementManagement Consulting · London · 2026MSCIReal Estate · Mumbai · 2015
Say this
Through three channels: the discount rate, which hurts long-duration assets most; the cost of debt, which hurts leveraged companies; and demand, which hurts anything financed by credit. Banks are the main beneficiary.
Then walk it
- Discount rate: growth companies whose cash flows sit far in the future lose the most value, because more of their valuation is discounted over longer horizons. This is why high-multiple technology de-rates hardest.
- Cost of debt: highly leveraged businesses, especially with floating-rate debt or near-term maturities, see interest expense rise directly. Utilities, real estate and leveraged buyout-owned companies are exposed.
- Demand channel: anything bought on credit. Housing, autos, capital goods and consumer durables all soften as financing costs rise.
- Beneficiaries: banks, as net interest margin expands when they reprice assets faster than deposits, and insurers, who reinvest their float at higher yields. Cash-rich companies earn more on their balances.
- Real estate is the clearest loser because it is both leveraged and valued on a cap rate that moves with yields. Rising rates hit the income and the valuation at once.
- The refinement worth adding: what matters is the move relative to expectations and why rates are rising. Rates rising on strong growth is very different for equities from rates rising on an inflation shock.
Where candidates lose it
Giving a simple 'rates up, stocks down' answer. The examinable content is duration, and the distinction between rates rising for growth reasons versus inflation reasons. Both should appear.
Expect next
- Why do growth stocks fall more?
- Which equities have duration?
- How does that change if rates rise because growth is strong?
Reported by candidates at Apollo Global Management (Management Consulting, London, 2026); MSCI (Real Estate, Mumbai, 2015). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.