Equity Research interview preparation

Sell side and buy side. Every question is either traced to a named firm from a public candidate report, or tagged at desk level when we could not trace it. Answers lead with the point, then the mechanism, then the limitation.

Jump to the question bank
Question bank

100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them

Questions
100
Traced to a firm
72
Firms
45
Updated
September 2026
Asked at
All firmsMorningstar12Man Group6Balyasny Asset Management5BlackRock5Franklin Templeton5MSCI5Jefferies4Credit Suisse3Fidelity Investments3Moody's3Perella Weinberg Partners3Point723S&P Global3The Vanguard Group3Wellington Management3Advent International2Apollo Global Management2Bank of America2Carlyle Group2D.E. Shaw2Houlihan Lokey2HSBC2Piper Sandler2Sequoia Capital2State Street2Viking Global Investors2William Blair2AQR Capital Management1Baupost Group1BNY Mellon1Centerview Partners1Coatue Management1Goldman Sachs1Guggenheim Securities1Harris Williams1Insight Partners1Invesco1Mizuho1Moelis & Company1Morgan Stanley1PIMCO1Schroders1Scotiabank1T. Rowe Price1Truist 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
Showing 1–1 of 1 · filtered from 100Clear filters
  1. 059What is corporate access and why does it matter?Industry knowledgeIntermediatetechnicalSell-side research

    Say this

    It is the broker arranging meetings between company management and investors: roadshows, conferences, site visits and one-on-ones. It matters because for many clients it is the most valued part of the research product.

    Then walk it

    1. The analyst's relationship with the company is what makes it possible, which is one reason sell-side analysts are careful about the tone of negative research.
    2. For the investor it is direct access to management without having to build the relationship themselves, which is genuinely scarce for smaller funds.
    3. For the company it is efficient access to a curated investor base, which is why they cooperate.
    4. For the bank it drives client votes, which determine research payments, and it supports the corporate broking and capital markets relationship.
    5. The tension worth naming: it creates a conflict. An analyst who downgrades a company may lose access to its management, which reduces the value of their product. That structural conflict is why sell-side ratings skew positive.
    6. Regulation touches it too. Under unbundling, corporate access has to be paid for separately rather than bundled with commissions, which changed how it is arranged and charged.

    Where candidates lose it

    Describing the logistics without naming the conflict of interest. The interesting content is why sell-side ratings distributions skew toward buy, and access is a large part of that explanation.

    Expect next

    • Why do sell-side ratings skew positive?
    • How would you handle downgrading a company you need access to?
    • How does that affect how you read a sell-side note?

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.