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. 051How do you assess management quality?Company analysisHardtechnicalMorningstarEquity Research · Chicago · 2023

   Say this

   By their record on capital allocation, not by how impressive they are in a meeting. Look at what they bought, what they returned, what they promised and what they delivered.

   Then walk it

   1. Capital allocation first: the returns on the acquisitions they made, whether buybacks were executed at low or high valuations, and whether reinvestment earned above the cost of capital.
   2. Promises versus delivery: pull guidance from three and five years ago and compare it to what happened. Chronic over-promising is the most reliable negative signal available.
   3. Incentive structure: what are they actually paid on? EPS targets encourage buybacks and acquisitions regardless of value; ROIC or total shareholder return targets align better. Read the remuneration section, because it predicts behaviour.
   4. Insider ownership and trading: meaningful personal ownership relative to their salary matters far more than the raw percentage.
   5. Communication quality: do they disclose the metrics that would reveal a problem, or only the flattering ones? Did the definition of the adjusted metric change when it stopped working? Changing the goalposts is a red flag.
   6. And behaviour in the bad period. Anyone looks good in an upcycle. How they behaved in the last downturn, whether they cut the right things and whether they were honest about it, is the real test.

   Where candidates lose it

   Relying on impressions from management meetings. Good management teams are selected for being persuasive, so charisma is an unreliable signal. The evidence is in the capital allocation record and the remuneration policy.

   Expect next

   • What is the best evidence of poor capital allocation?
   • How do incentives change behaviour?
   • What would you ask a CEO in a one-on-one?

   Reported by candidates at Morningstar (Equity Research, Chicago, 2023). 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.