Financial Analysis interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

42

Firms

28

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsMoody's7Bain Capital3SSState Street3AMAres Management2BLBlackRock2DED.E. Shaw2MSMorgan Stanley2Oaktree Capital Management2S&P Global2Bridgewater Associates1Citadel1FTFranklin Templeton1Golub Capital1HWHarris Williams1Houlihan Lokey1J.P. Morgan1Jane Street1MWMarshall Wace1Millennium Management1Morningstar1PIMCO1Sycamore Partners1TSTruist Securities1Two Sigma1Vanguard1WMWellington Management1Wells Fargo Securities1Wolverine Trading1

Topic

All topicsThree statements9Accounting policy and standards5Working capital and cash7Ratio analysis8Forecasting and budgeting9Variance and management reporting7Unit economics and costing8Capital budgeting7Cost of capital and valuation7Markets and rates5Modelling, Excel and data8Business partnering6Brainteasers and estimation4Fit and career10

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Type

AnyTechnicalCaseBrainteaserMarket viewFit

1. 081You are the lead analyst in a meeting with the CFO. What questions would you ask?Business partneringHardsuperdayMoody'sCorporate Finance · New York · 2018

   Say this

   I would ask about the things I cannot get from the accounts: the quality and durability of the revenue, the margin and operating leverage outlook, the financial policy, and the liquidity plan. Questions a CFO cannot answer with a number from the annual report are the ones worth asking.

   Then walk it

   1. Revenue quality: how much of next year's revenue is already contracted, what the renewal or repeat rate is, what the top five customers represent, and where pricing has actually held when input costs moved.
   2. Margin and operating leverage: what proportion of the cost base is fixed, what volume decline takes EBIT to zero, and what the plan is if volumes fall 15 percent. That last question tells you more about management than any strategy slide.
   3. Financial policy, and I would press on it because it is a commitment, not a forecast: what is the leverage ceiling you will not cross, what would you do with a large acquisition opportunity that broke it, and what is the dividend and buyback intention.
   4. Liquidity and maturities: what is the refinancing schedule, how much undrawn committed facility is there, what covenants apply and what headroom exists at the last test date. Headroom, not the ratio, is what tells you about risk.
   5. Then the accounting questions I would want explained rather than assumed: the gap between EBITDA and operating cash flow over three years, the recurring 'exceptional' items, related-party balances, and any change in estimate or policy.
   6. And one open question at the end, because it usually produces the most useful answer: what keeps you awake at night about this business that the market has not focused on? Then listen rather than fill the silence.

   Where candidates lose it

   Asking questions answered in the annual report. The whole test is whether you know what is not in the filings: financial policy intent, covenant headroom, the downside plan. Also, ask about the EBITDA to cash gap specifically, because that is the credit analyst's question.

   Expect next

   • Which of those would you ask first if you had five minutes?
   • The CFO deflects on the covenant headroom. What do you conclude?
   • How would you verify the answers afterwards?

   Reported by candidates at Moody's (Corporate Finance, New York, 2018). 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.