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. 014What is an industry you have been following, and why?Sector knowledgeCorephone / first roundFidelity InvestmentsEquity Research · Boston · 2025HSBCEquity Research · New York · 2026MorningstarEquity Research · Chicago · 2023

   Say this

   Pick a sector you can discuss for ten minutes with numbers, name the structural change happening in it, and finish with the company you would own and why. Depth in one sector beats shallow coverage of five.

   Then walk it

   1. Choose deliberately: something with a live debate, where you can take a side. A sector where nothing is happening gives you nothing to say.
   2. Open with the structure: how many players, who has share, what the margin profile looks like, what drives demand.
   3. Then the change you are watching. A regulatory shift, a technology substitution, a capacity cycle, a demand inflection. This is the part that shows you think rather than read.
   4. Then the disagreement: what does the market believe about this that you think is wrong?
   5. Then land on a name. 'So within that, I would own X because it has the lowest cost position and the market is treating it as a commodity producer.' Always end with an actionable conclusion.
   6. Know four or five numbers for the sector: growth rate, typical margin, typical multiple, and the key operating metric. Being unable to answer 'what does it trade at' after claiming to follow it is fatal.

   Where candidates lose it

   Naming a fashionable sector you have only read headlines about. The follow-up is always a specific number, and if you cannot give it the whole answer collapses. Prepare one sector to genuine depth.

   Expect next

   • What does it trade at?
   • Which company in it would you own?
   • Compare the sectors you have covered and tell me which has the best prospects.

   Reported by candidates at Fidelity Investments (Equity Research, Boston, 2025); HSBC (Equity Research, New York, 2026); Morningstar (Equity Research, Chicago, 2023). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 015Compare the sectors you have covered and tell me which has the best prospects.Sector knowledgeIntermediatetechnicalWMWellington ManagementGeneralist · Hong Kong · 2022

   Say this

   Compare them on a consistent frame rather than describing each in turn: structural growth, industry structure and pricing power, capital intensity, and where valuation sits relative to history. Then pick one and commit.

   Then walk it

   1. Set the frame first so the comparison is disciplined. Four axes: demand growth, competitive structure, returns on capital, and starting valuation.
   2. Score each sector briefly on each axis. This takes thirty seconds and it immediately sounds like a portfolio conversation rather than a summary.
   3. Then pick, and make the reason relative rather than absolute. 'Both are good businesses, but one is priced for the improvement and the other is not' is the analytically interesting answer.
   4. Distinguish structural from cyclical prospects. A sector with mediocre long-term economics can be the better investment today if it is at the bottom of its cycle and the market is extrapolating the trough.
   5. Close with the risk to your choice, and what would make you switch. Naming the condition under which you would change your mind is what separates a view from a preference.

   Where candidates lose it

   Describing each sector sequentially without comparing on a common axis. The question is a ranking exercise. Set the criteria first, then apply them, then choose.

   Expect next

   • What is priced into each?
   • Which would you avoid entirely?
   • How would that change in a recession?

   Reported by candidates at Wellington Management (Generalist, Hong Kong, 2022). 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.