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. 033Tell me about something going on in the world that has interested you.MacroCorefirst roundBLBlackRockInvestment Research · New York · 2026BLBlackRockGeneralist · London · 2026HSBCEquity Research · New York · 2026

   Say this

   Pick something with an investable consequence, explain the mechanism in two sentences, then say what it means for an asset price. The test is whether you think in cause and effect or in headlines.

   Then walk it

   1. Choose something you can trace to a market. Trade policy, an energy transition bottleneck, a demographic shift, a regulatory change, a technology capital expenditure cycle.
   2. State the fact precisely and with a number. Precision is the whole credibility signal here.
   3. Then the mechanism: who gains, who loses, and through what channel. 'Tariffs on component imports raise input costs for domestic assemblers, who cannot fully pass them through, so margins compress' is a chain of reasoning.
   4. Then the market conclusion: which asset, which direction, and whether you think it is already priced.
   5. Then the uncertainty: what would make you wrong. Interviewers at asset managers are wary of people with strong opinions and no error bars.
   6. Keep politics out of it. Analyse the policy's effect, do not evaluate the politics.

   Where candidates lose it

   Recounting a news story with no transmission mechanism and no asset implication. Also picking something so large and obvious that you cannot say anything differentiated about it.

   Expect next

   • So how would you position for it?
   • Is that priced in?
   • What would change your view?

   Reported by candidates at BlackRock (Investment Research, New York, 2026); BlackRock (Generalist, London, 2026); HSBC (Equity Research, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 063Which equities have duration?MacroHardtechnicalBLBlackRockRisk and Quantitative Analysis · New York · 2026

   Say this

   Any equity whose cash flows sit far in the future. High-growth companies with earnings expected years out behave like long bonds, while stable high-yielding mature businesses are shorter duration.

   Then walk it

   1. Duration in equities means the weighted average time to the cash flows. A company earning little today and a lot in a decade has most of its value in distant cash flows, so its value is highly sensitive to the discount rate.
   2. So unprofitable high-growth technology is the longest-duration equity there is, which is why it falls hardest when yields rise.
   3. Conversely, a mature high-dividend business returns cash now, so its duration is shorter and it is less rate-sensitive on the discount channel, though it may compete with bonds for income investors.
   4. Utilities and infrastructure are an interesting case: long contracted cash flows make them long duration, and heavy leverage adds a second rate exposure. They behave like bond proxies.
   5. Value stocks are generally shorter duration than growth, which is a large part of why the value-growth relative performance tracks real yields so closely.
   6. The practical implication for a portfolio: equity duration is a factor exposure you can measure and hedge, and on a risk platform it will be monitored explicitly rather than left implicit.

   Where candidates lose it

   Treating duration as purely a fixed income concept. The question is testing whether you can transfer it. Naming the value-growth spread as a duration trade is the answer that shows real fluency.

   Expect next

   • How would you measure it?
   • Why does value outperform when real yields rise?
   • How would you hedge equity duration?

   Reported by candidates at BlackRock (Risk and Quantitative Analysis, New York, 2026). 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.