Investment Banking interview preparation
Every question below is either traced to a named firm from a public candidate report, or tagged at desk level when we could not trace it. Answers are written the way you would actually say them out loud — answer first, then the mechanism, then the limitation.
100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them
- Questions
- 100
- Traced to a firm
- 100
- Firms
- 46
- Updated
- September 2026
078Tell me a piece of recent news and how it affects this bank.RBC Capital MarketsInvestment Banking · London · 2026BlackRockAsset Management · Tokyo · 2026Deutsche BankGeneralist · New York · 2026
Say this
Pick something with a direct line to their revenue, not a general headline. Then trace the chain: event, effect on a market they operate in, effect on a specific business line of theirs.
Then walk it
- Choose deliberately. A deal in their strongest sector, a regulatory change in their home market, or a competitor's result that reveals something about their position.
- State the fact precisely, with the number. Vagueness here is fatal because it suggests you skimmed a headline.
- Then the chain. For example: a large take-private in their coverage sector signals that sponsors are back in large-cap deals, which flows to their leveraged finance and sponsor coverage revenue, and they have a strong franchise there.
- Then say something specific about the firm that proves you researched it: a mandate they ran, a league table position, a business they recently built or exited.
- Close with why it matters to you: the growth area you want to work in. That converts a market question into a 'why this firm' answer, which is what it really is.
Where candidates lose it
Bringing a headline with no connection to their business, or one they will know better than you and can immediately correct. Pick something in their sector, know the number, and rehearse the three-step chain.
Expect next
- Why does that matter for the division you applied to?
- Which of our competitors benefits more?
- What else have you been reading?
Reported by candidates at RBC Capital Markets (Investment Banking, London, 2026); BlackRock (Asset Management, Tokyo, 2026); Deutsche Bank (Generalist, New York, 2026). 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.