Equity Research interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

72

Firms

45

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsMorningstar12Man Group6Balyasny Asset Management5BLBlackRock5FTFranklin Templeton5MSCI5Jefferies4CSCredit Suisse3Fidelity Investments3Moody's3Perella Weinberg Partners3Point723S&P Global3The Vanguard Group3WMWellington Management3Advent International2Apollo Global Management2Bank of America2Carlyle Group2DED.E. Shaw2Houlihan Lokey2HSBC2Piper Sandler2Sequoia Capital2SSState Street2Viking Global Investors2WBWilliam Blair2ACAQR Capital Management1BGBaupost Group1BMBNY Mellon1Centerview Partners1Coatue Management1Goldman Sachs1GSGuggenheim Securities1HWHarris Williams1Insight Partners1Invesco1Mizuho1Moelis & Company1MSMorgan Stanley1PIMCO1SCSchroders1Scotiabank1T. Rowe Price1TSTruist Securities1

Topic

All topicsResearch process9Stock pitch6Company analysis8Investment philosophy5Valuation14Modelling2Portfolio and risk8Macro8Sector knowledge2Accounting8Career and fit12Industry knowledge6Quantitative research1Sector: technology3Sector: consumer1Sector: healthcare1Sector: energy1Sector: financials2Sector: industrials1Case and estimation2

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitBrainteaserMarket view

1. 086Give me a two-line thesis on a company you would short.Stock pitchHardsuperdayBalyasny Asset ManagementGeneralist · New York · 2020

   Say this

   One line on the structural problem, one line on the catalyst that forces the market to see it. Something like: the company's growth is funded by discounting that is destroying its unit economics, and the covenant test at the next refinancing will expose it.

   Then walk it

   1. Line one has to be a mechanism, not a valuation. 'Expensive' is not a thesis. 'Gross margin has fallen 600 basis points over six quarters while revenue growth held up, because they are buying volume' is a mechanism.
   2. Line two is the clock: the specific event that makes the market agree. A refinancing, a covenant test, a contract renewal, a patent expiry, a competitor launch, a change in the disclosure that removes the cover.
   3. Then the numbers that support it, in one breath: the trend in the metric, and the gap between what management guides and what the trend implies.
   4. Then the risk: what would squeeze you. A cheap balance sheet, a possible takeover, heavy existing short interest, or a founder who could take it private.
   5. And the practicalities: borrow cost and days to cover, because a 20 percent borrow makes a slow thesis unprofitable even if you are right.
   6. Prepare a real one before you walk in. Being unable to construct a short is a common failure in buy-side interviews, and it reveals that you have only ever thought about why things go up.

   Where candidates lose it

   Not having one prepared. Long-short interviews ask for both sides, and candidates almost always have three longs and no shorts. Prepare one short properly, including the borrow cost and the squeeze risk.

   Expect next

   • What is the borrow?
   • What would squeeze you?
   • How would you size it?

   Reported by candidates at Balyasny Asset Management (Generalist, New York, 2020). 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.