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 1–1 of 1 · filtered from 100Clear filters
  1. 006I give you two balance sheets and a P&L, but no cash flow statement. Build me the cash flow.Three statementsHardcase studyBig FourCorporate FP&A

    Say this

    I would build it indirect: start from net income, add back the non-cash charges I can see, then explain every balance sheet movement as either operating, investing or financing. Every line on the balance sheet has to be accounted for, and the check is that closing cash ties.

    Then walk it

    1. Take the difference in every balance sheet line, year on year. That list of deltas is the whole cash flow statement, just unsorted.
    2. Operating: net income, plus depreciation which I get from the movement in accumulated depreciation, plus other non-cash items, plus the change in receivables, inventory, payables and provisions. Assets up is a use of cash, liabilities up is a source.
    3. Investing: the change in gross fixed assets plus the depreciation charge gives me capex. Add any movement in investments or acquisitions.
    4. Financing: the change in borrowings, the change in share capital, and dividends paid which I back out of the retained earnings movement, opening retained earnings plus net income less closing retained earnings.
    5. Then the tie-out. The sum of the three sections must equal the change in the cash line. If it does not, I have missed a balance sheet movement, and the usual suspects are revaluation reserves, FX translation and a non-cash acquisition.
    6. On a real set of accounts I would also flag what the indirect method hides: it nets everything, so a company with big gross borrowings and repayments looks quiet. If I had the notes I would show gross.

    Where candidates lose it

    Trying to build it directly from receipts and payments. You do not have that data. Say the word 'indirect', anchor on retained earnings for dividends and accumulated depreciation for the charge, and narrate the tie-out at the end.

    Expect next

    • Where did the dividend number come from?
    • Your closing cash is off by 20. How do you find it?
    • Which balance sheet movements are not cash at all?

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.