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

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseBrainteaserMarket viewFit

1. 086Tell me about a time you faced an ethical decision.Business partneringHardsuperdaySSState 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.