Financial Analysis interview preparation

The three statements, working capital, ratios, forecasting, variance analysis, costing, capital budgeting, valuation and the modelling and Excel work that fills the day, plus the fit questions about why this seat. 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 — we do not invent attributions.

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Question bank

100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them

Questions
100
Traced to a firm
42
Firms
28
Updated
September 2026
Asked at
All firmsMoody's7Bain Capital3State Street3Ares Management2BlackRock2D.E. Shaw2Morgan Stanley2Oaktree Capital Management2S&P Global2Bridgewater Associates1Citadel1Franklin Templeton1Golub Capital1Harris Williams1Houlihan Lokey1J.P. Morgan1Jane Street1Marshall Wace1Millennium Management1Morningstar1PIMCO1Sycamore Partners1Truist Securities1Two Sigma1Vanguard1Wellington 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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  1. 088Quick mental arithmetic: a business does 4.2 crore of revenue a month at a 23 percent EBITDA margin. What is annual EBITDA, and what is the business worth at 9 times?Brainteasers and estimationIntermediatetechnicalMorgan StanleyUtilities · Baltimore · 2025

    Say this

    Annual revenue is about 50 crore, EBITDA is about 11.6 crore, and at 9 times that is roughly 104 crore of enterprise value. Round as you go and say the rounding out loud.

    Then walk it

    1. Revenue: 4.2 times 12 is 50.4 crore. Call it 50 and note you rounded down slightly.
    2. EBITDA: 23 percent of 50 is easiest as 25 percent minus 2 percent. A quarter of 50 is 12.5, 2 percent of 50 is 1, so 11.5. The precise figure on 50.4 is 11.6.
    3. Value: 9 times 11.6. Do 10 times minus 1 times, so 116 minus 11.6, about 104 crore. Never multiply by 9 directly in your head.
    4. The techniques worth having automatic: break percentages into round components, multiply by 10 and subtract, use the rule of 72 for doubling times, and remember that a 10 percent margin means enterprise value equals 0.9 times revenue at a 9 times multiple.
    5. Then add the detail that gets you the point: say whether this is enterprise or equity value. At 104 crore of enterprise value with 30 crore of net debt, the equity is 74. Interviewers ask the mental maths question and then check whether you know what the number is.
    6. And narrate. An interviewer cannot mark a silent pause, but they can mark a clean decomposition even if you fumble the last digit.

    Where candidates lose it

    Going silent and trying to be exact. Speed with narration beats precision in silence. Also, quoting the 9 times number as equity value. State that it is enterprise value and that you would deduct net debt.

    Expect next

    • Now tell me the equity value if net debt is 30 crore.
    • If EBITDA grows 15 percent a year, how long until it doubles?
    • What multiple would make this worth 150 crore?

    Reported by candidates at Morgan Stanley (Utilities, Baltimore, 2025). 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.