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

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Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitBrainteaserMarket view

1. 054What is the difference between EV/EBITDA and P/E, and when do you use each?ValuationCorephone / first roundWBWilliam BlairInvestment Banking · Chicago · 2026

   Say this

   EV/EBITDA values the whole enterprise before capital structure and depreciation policy, so it is for comparing operating businesses. P/E values the equity after everything, so it reflects leverage, tax and accounting choices.

   Then walk it

   1. Use EV/EBITDA when companies differ in leverage, tax position or depreciation policy, and in any M&A context, because a buyer takes the enterprise and refinances it.
   2. Use P/E when comparing similar companies in the same jurisdiction with similar capital structures, and when talking to equity investors who think in earnings per share.
   3. P/E's weaknesses: it is distorted by leverage, by one-offs, by tax rate changes and by share buybacks, and it is meaningless with negative earnings.
   4. EV/EBITDA's weakness: it ignores capital intensity entirely, so two companies with identical EBITDA but very different CapEx look identical when they are not.
   5. For financials you use neither in the usual form. Price to tangible book against ROTE, because enterprise value has no meaning for a bank.
   6. In practice a research note shows both plus a cash-flow-based measure like free cash flow yield, and the interesting analysis is usually where the two multiples disagree, because that gap is telling you something about leverage or capital intensity.

   Where candidates lose it

   Reciting definitions without saying when each breaks. And forgetting that for banks and insurers both are inappropriate, which is the follow-up that catches people.

   Expect next

   • Why can you not use EV/EBITDA for a bank?
   • What if the two multiples disagree?
   • What does free cash flow yield add?

   Reported by candidates at William Blair (Investment Banking, Chicago, 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.