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. 034How do you keep up with markets and news?Career and fitCorephone / first roundBLBlackRockAsset Management · Tokyo · 2026Goldman SachsInvestment Banking · New York · 2025

   Say this

   Name specific sources and, more importantly, describe the routine. Then give one thing you have taken from them recently, because the follow-up is always 'so what have you read lately'.

   Then walk it

   1. Be specific rather than listing everything. Two or three daily sources and one or two deeper weekly ones is more credible than a list of ten.
   2. Include primary sources, which is what distinguishes a serious answer: company filings, transcripts, central bank statements. Anyone can read a newspaper; reading the 10-K is the job.
   3. Describe the routine and the time. 'Thirty minutes on the market wrap and transcripts before class, then a longer read at the weekend' is concrete.
   4. Mention how you retain it. A running note on the companies you follow, or a watchlist with your own estimates. That shows a process rather than consumption.
   5. Then be ready with the payoff: one specific thing you read this week and what you concluded from it. Have that loaded before you walk in, because the follow-up is guaranteed.

   Where candidates lose it

   Naming publications you do not actually read. The follow-up is immediate and specific, and being unable to discuss something you claimed to read this morning is worse than naming fewer sources.

   Expect next

   • What have you been reading recently?
   • What did you take from it?
   • What are you watching this week?

   Reported by candidates at BlackRock (Asset Management, Tokyo, 2026); Goldman Sachs (Investment Banking, New York, 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.