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. 019How do you assess earnings quality?AccountingHardtechnicalMoody'sCorporate Finance · New York · 2018MorningstarEquity Research · Chicago · 2023

   Say this

   Compare earnings to cash. If net income is consistently above cash from operations, something is being recognised that has not been collected. Then check the accruals, the adjustments and the one-offs.

   Then walk it

   1. The headline test: cash conversion. Cash from operations divided by net income, tracked over several years. Persistent divergence is the single best red flag available from published accounts.
   2. Then working capital. Receivable days rising faster than revenue means revenue is being pushed to customers or collection is deteriorating. Inventory days rising means a write-down is coming.
   3. Then the adjustments. Compare GAAP to the company's adjusted figures and see what is being excluded. Restructuring charges taken every year for five years are not one-off, they are operating costs in disguise.
   4. Then capitalisation choices: capitalised development costs, capitalised interest, and the depreciation life. Extending useful lives flatters earnings with no economic change.
   5. Then the tax rate and the below-the-line items, since a sudden drop in the effective tax rate can manufacture an EPS beat.
   6. For a note, the useful summary is a bridge from reported earnings to what I think the sustainable earnings power is, with each adjustment listed. That bridge is often the most valuable page in a research report.

   Where candidates lose it

   Listing ratios without the organising idea. The organising idea is that accounting earnings involve judgement and cash does not, so every test is a version of comparing the two. Say that first.

   Expect next

   • What is the single best red flag?
   • How do you treat stock-based compensation?
   • Walk me through a company you thought had poor earnings quality.

   Reported by candidates at Moody's (Corporate Finance, New York, 2018); Morningstar (Equity Research, Chicago, 2023). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 052What would you ask a CEO or CFO in a one-on-one meeting?Research processHardsuperdayMoody'sCorporate Finance · New York · 2018

   Say this

   Ask what you cannot get from the filings: intent, trade-offs and things they have decided not to do. Never ask for a number that is already disclosed.

   Then walk it

   1. Capital allocation intent: what returns do you require from an acquisition, and how does that compare to buying back your own stock at today's price? The answer reveals whether they think in returns or in empire.
   2. Trade-offs: if you had to choose between defending margin and defending share next year, which do you choose? This forces a real answer rather than a rehearsed one.
   3. Competitive reality: which competitor worries you most and why? CEOs answer this more candidly than they should, and it is genuinely informative.
   4. Leading indicators: what internal metric do you watch weekly that we do not see? Sometimes they name it, and now you know what to ask about every quarter.
   5. Then the question that surfaces the risk: what would have to go wrong for you to miss the plan? The hesitation matters as much as the answer.
   6. Then listen for what they avoid. In a thirty-minute meeting the topics they steer away from are usually the ones worth modelling.

   Where candidates lose it

   Asking questions answered in the last filing. Access is scarce and wasting it marks you as unprepared. Every question should be about judgement, intent or something not disclosed.

   Expect next

   • What if their answers contradicted the filings?
   • How much weight do you put on management meetings?
   • How would you verify what they told you?

   Reported by candidates at Moody's (Corporate Finance, New York, 2018). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

3. 079Walk me through the three statements and tell me which one you would want if you could only have one.AccountingCorephone / first roundMoody'sGeneralist · New York · 2022JefferiesEquity Research · New York · 2026

   Say this

   The cash flow statement. It is the hardest to manipulate, it tells you whether the reported profit is real, and it shows you the capital allocation decisions, which reveal what management actually believes.

   Then walk it

   1. The linkage first: net income flows from the income statement to the top of the cash flow statement and into retained earnings; ending cash flows onto the balance sheet.
   2. Why cash flow: it reconciles accounting judgement back to something verifiable. Starting from net income and adjusting to cash, it exposes the accruals in between.
   3. It also contains the investing and financing sections, so you see CapEx, acquisitions, buybacks, dividends and debt movements. That is the capital allocation record in one page.
   4. The honest caveat: the cash flow statement alone does not tell you whether the business is profitable, what the margin structure is, or how leveraged the balance sheet is. You would be flying with one instrument.
   5. And it can be managed at the margin: classifying items between operating and investing, timing payments around the period end, and factoring receivables all flatter operating cash flow.
   6. But among the three, it is the one where the gap between reality and presentation is smallest, which is why it is the right answer.

   Where candidates lose it

   Picking the income statement because it shows profit. The expected answer is cash flow, and more importantly the reason: accounting profit involves judgement and cash largely does not. Give the caveat too, since the question is testing judgement, not recall.

   Expect next

   • What can still be manipulated in the cash flow statement?
   • What would you miss without the balance sheet?
   • How do you assess earnings quality from it?

   Reported by candidates at Moody's (Generalist, New York, 2022); Jefferies (Equity Research, 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.