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
Level
AnyCoreIntermediateHard
Type
AnyTechnicalCaseBrainteaserMarket viewFit
Showing 1–3 of 3 · filtered from 100Clear filters
  1. 077What is your favourite Excel function?Modelling, Excel and dataCorephone / first roundState StreetTax · Boston · 2022

    Say this

    INDEX with MATCH, or XLOOKUP if the version supports it, because it looks up in any direction and does not break when a column is inserted. Give an actual function, then say what you built with it, because that is the part they are testing.

    Then walk it

    1. Why INDEX MATCH over VLOOKUP: VLOOKUP only looks right, it breaks silently when columns move, and it is slower on large ranges. That answer alone tells an interviewer you have maintained someone else's file.
    2. Then say where you used it. Something like: I used INDEX MATCH on two axes to map 400 cost centres to a reporting hierarchy, so a change in the hierarchy needed one table update rather than re-pointing 400 formulas.
    3. Have two more ready, because the real question is the breadth of your toolkit. SUMIFS for driver-based aggregation, which is the workhorse of any actuals-versus-budget pack. And a pivot table over a clean flat table, which is still the fastest way to interrogate a ledger extract.
    4. If they push further, the ones worth naming are power query for repeatable data cleaning, dynamic arrays like FILTER and UNIQUE, and OFFSET or CHOOSE for scenario switching, plus goal seek and data tables for sensitivity.
    5. And one thing to volunteer: I avoid volatile and hard-to-audit constructions. Nested IFs five deep, merged cells, and formulas that span sheets in long chains all make a model unmaintainable even when they work.
    6. The habit I would mention is building the data layer as one flat table with one row per transaction and no merged cells, because every reporting problem downstream gets easier if the source is clean.

    Where candidates lose it

    Naming VLOOKUP with no reason, or answering with a life philosophy instead of a function. Name one, say why it beats the obvious alternative, and attach it to something you actually built. That takes 30 seconds and passes the screen.

    Expect next

    • Why not VLOOKUP?
    • Show me how you would build an actuals-versus-budget pack.
    • What Excel habit do you consider bad practice?

    Reported by candidates at State Street (Tax, Boston, 2022). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

  2. 078Tell me about your Excel and Python skills. What do you use each for?Modelling, Excel and dataIntermediatetechnicalState StreetGlobal Data · Boston · 2024

    Say this

    Excel for anything a human has to read, review or change, which is most of finance. Python when the data is too big, too messy or too repetitive for Excel, so extracting and cleaning, reconciliations across large files, and anything I have to run every month.

    Then walk it

    1. Be specific about Excel level. Not 'advanced' but what you can do: three-statement models with circularity handled, driver-based revenue builds, power query transformations, pivot-based reporting packs, sensitivity tables and data validation.
    2. Then Python with named libraries and a real use. Pandas for joining and cleaning, openpyxl or xlsxwriter to write the formatted output back to Excel, requests for pulling from an API. The example is what counts: I built a script that reconciled a 400,000-row ledger extract against a bank statement and produced an exceptions file, which replaced two days of manual matching each month.
    3. Say where you draw the line, because that is the judgement they are testing. A model the CFO will change the assumptions in stays in Excel. A monthly data pull with 15 transformation steps goes into Python. Putting business logic in a script nobody else can read is a handover risk, not a win.
    4. Mention SQL if you have it, because in most GCC and shared service roles the data sits in a warehouse and being able to write your own query removes your dependence on a reporting team.
    5. Add the visualisation layer if it is real: Power BI or Tableau, and specifically whether you have built a data model with relationships rather than just charts.
    6. And be honest about the level. Claiming Python and then failing a simple list-comprehension question is far worse than saying you are comfortable with pandas and still learning object-oriented work.

    Where candidates lose it

    Saying 'advanced Excel and basic Python' with no evidence. Name the functions, name the libraries, and attach one before-and-after with a time saving. Overclaiming is fatal because these questions are usually followed by a live test.

    Expect next

    • What would you never do in Python that you would do in Excel?
    • Do you write SQL?
    • Walk me through the logic of your reconciliation script.

    Reported by candidates at State Street (Global Data, Boston, 2024). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

  3. 086Tell me about a time you faced an ethical decision.Business partneringHardsuperdayState StreetGlobal Data · Boston · 2024

    Say this

    Pick a real dilemma with a cost to you, describe how you decided, and say what you actually did. The story has to involve pressure, otherwise it is not an ethical decision, it is just a correct one.

    Then walk it

    1. A usable finance example: being asked to push a cost accrual into the next period to hold a quarterly margin. Small, plausible, and everybody in finance recognises it.
    2. Describe the pressure honestly. It came from someone senior, the amount looked immaterial, and there was a defensible-sounding argument, that the invoice had not arrived. That is exactly how real accounting issues begin, as a judgement rather than a lie.
    3. Then how you reasoned: is the expense incurred in this period, yes, so the accrual belongs here. Then the test I would name out loud, would I be comfortable explaining this to the auditor and having it in the file. If the answer is no, the decision is made.
    4. Then the action, which is where it matters: I raised it with my manager first, in private, with the supporting documentation rather than an accusation, and asked how they wanted it handled. It was booked in the correct period.
    5. Then the outcome and cost, including if it was awkward. If the result had gone the other way, the next step is the controller, and being able to say you know the escalation path matters more than having a triumphant ending.
    6. Keep it proportionate. You do not need a whistleblowing epic. A small, well-handled accrual question with a clear principle applied is more credible than a dramatic story, and interviewers hear the invented ones immediately.

    Where candidates lose it

    Choosing an example with no cost or no pressure, which shows you have not thought about it. Equally bad is making your manager the villain. Show that you escalated with documentation, privately and proportionately, and that you know the next escalation step.

    Expect next

    • What if your manager had insisted?
    • Where is the line between judgement and manipulation in an accrual?
    • Have you ever seen something you did not report?

    Reported by candidates at State Street (Global Data, Boston, 2024). 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.