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. 089What is the case study process here, and how would you approach a two-week modelling test?Career and fitIntermediatecase studyPoint72Investment Banking · London · 2026DED.E. ShawGeneralist · New York · 2025

   Say this

   Treat it as a recommendation, not a model. Spend the first day deciding what the investment question is, then build only the model you need to answer it, and reserve the last quarter of the time for the write-up.

   Then walk it

   1. Identify the decision first. What is the one variable this investment turns on? Everything you build should serve answering that.
   2. Build a model sized to the question. A beautiful 20-tab model that does not resolve the debate scores worse than a three-tab model that does. Graders are checking judgement about materiality.
   3. Do primary work. Transcripts, competitor filings, industry data, and anything you can verify externally. This is what separates entries, because everyone can build a model.
   4. Structure the output like a note: recommendation and target up front, the variant view, the evidence, the valuation, the risks and the falsifier. Never make the reader hunt for your conclusion.
   5. Sensitise honestly. Show the bear case with a number attached, and say what you are least confident about. Overclaiming certainty is the most common way candidates lose credibility.
   6. Then rehearse defending it out loud, because the presentation is usually where the decision is made. Expect them to attack your weakest assumption, and have the downside quantified before they ask.

   Where candidates lose it

   Spending all the time on the model and writing the conclusion in the last hour. The model is the working; the recommendation is the product. Budget time backwards from the write-up.

   Expect next

   • How did you get your assumptions?
   • What is the bear case worth?
   • What would you have done with another week?

   Reported by candidates at Point72 (Investment Banking, London, 2026); D.E. Shaw (Generalist, New York, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 090How did you arrive at the assumptions in your case study?Research processHardcase studyDED.E. ShawGeneralist · New York · 2025Houlihan LokeyInvestment Banking · Richmond · 2025

   Say this

   Each assumption should trace to something external: a historical rate, a disclosed contract, an industry data point, a peer's experience. Name the source for each, and say which ones you are least confident about.

   Then walk it

   1. Go through them in order of importance to the answer, not in model order. The interviewer cares about the two that drive the result.
   2. For each, give the anchor: 'I used 6 percent price growth because that is what they have taken in each of the last four years and the contracts reprice annually to an index.'
   3. Where you had no data, say so explicitly and explain the logic you substituted. Inventing a source is fatal; reasoning openly from a gap is respected.
   4. Distinguish the assumptions that matter from the ones that do not. 'The tax rate assumption is immaterial; the retention assumption drives 70 percent of the value' shows you understand your own model.
   5. Present the sensitivity around the critical ones rather than defending a point estimate. The honest position is a range with a most likely case.
   6. And volunteer your least confident assumption before they find it. Doing so converts a vulnerability into evidence of self-awareness.

   Where candidates lose it

   Defending every assumption equally, or saying 'that is what management guided'. Guidance is an input to be tested, not a source of truth. Trace assumptions to independent evidence wherever possible.

   Expect next

   • Which assumption are you least confident about?
   • What if that assumption is 20 percent wrong?
   • Where did you disagree with management's guidance?

   Reported by candidates at D.E. Shaw (Generalist, New York, 2025); Houlihan Lokey (Investment Banking, Richmond, 2025). 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.