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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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. 014You have an hour with a set of accounts. What is your earnings quality checklist?Accounting policy and standardsHardcase studyRating agenciesBig Four

    Say this

    Six checks, in this order: cash conversion, receivable and inventory days, the gap between effective and cash tax, related-party transactions, auditor and policy changes, and the size of one-offs. Each one takes minutes and together they catch most of what goes wrong.

    Then walk it

    1. Cash conversion first. Cumulative operating cash flow divided by cumulative EBITDA over three to five years. Below about 70 percent on a mature business and I want an explanation.
    2. Then working capital in days, by line, over five years. Trends, not levels. Receivable days rising while revenue accelerates is the most common early warning in Indian mid-caps.
    3. Then tax. A persistent gap between the effective rate in the P&L and cash tax paid in the cash flow statement means profit is being recognised that the tax authority does not accept yet.
    4. Then related parties. Loans and advances to promoter entities, sales to group companies, royalty payments to the parent. This is where Indian governance failures concentrate, and the note is short enough to read fully.
    5. Then the housekeeping signals: auditor resignation or change, a qualification or emphasis of matter, a change in depreciation life or revenue policy, and any restatement.
    6. Then one-offs, and I would name the limitation in the same breath: add up 'exceptional' items over five years, because if they are exceptional every year they are operating costs with a friendlier label. None of this proves fraud either. It produces a list of questions for management, and the answers are the analysis.

    Where candidates lose it

    Reeling off ratios with no thresholds and no order. A checklist is only useful if you can say what number triggers concern and which check you run first. Cash conversion below 70 percent and rising receivable days are the two that earn their place.

    Expect next

    • Which of those six is the strongest single signal?
    • Walk me through a related-party note you would worry about.
    • How would you handle a company whose auditor just resigned?

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.