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
056Which yields a greater return, an IRR of 25 percent over 5 years or an IRR of 30 percent over 3 years?Centerview PartnersGeneralist · New York · 2026
Say this
The 25 percent over five years returns more total money: about 3.05 times against about 2.2 times. But the 30 percent is the better rate of return, so the answer depends on whether you can redeploy the capital.
Then walk it
- 1.25 to the fifth is roughly 3.05 times. 1.3 cubed is roughly 2.2 times. So more absolute money from the longer hold.
- But IRR is an annualised rate, and 30 percent beats 25 percent per year of capital employed.
- The deciding question is reinvestment. If you can put that capital straight into another 30 percent deal for the remaining two years, the short hold wins comfortably: 2.2 times 1.69 is about 3.7 times.
- If the capital sits in cash for two years, the long hold wins.
- This is exactly why limited partners care about both IRR and multiple on invested capital, and why a fund with spectacular IRR from fast flips can return less cash than one with lower IRR and longer holds.
Where candidates lose it
Answering with only one of the two framings. The question is deliberately ambiguous, and the right move is to compute both, then name reinvestment risk as the thing that decides it.
Expect next
- So which would a limited partner prefer?
- Why do funds report both IRR and MOIC?
- How would you game an IRR?
Reported by candidates at Centerview Partners (Generalist, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
091What angle is formed by the clock hands at 3:15?Centerview PartnersInvestment Banking · Menlo Park · 2025
Say this
7.5 degrees. The minute hand is exactly on the 3, but the hour hand has moved a quarter of the way from 3 to 4. Each hour is 30 degrees, so a quarter of that is 7.5.
Then walk it
- The clock face is 360 degrees over 12 hours, so each hour mark is 30 degrees apart.
- At 3:15 the minute hand sits exactly at the 3, which is 90 degrees from twelve.
- The hour hand does not stay on the 3. In 15 minutes it travels a quarter of the way to the 4, which is a quarter of 30 degrees, so 7.5 degrees past the 3.
- The gap between them is therefore 7.5 degrees.
- The general formula worth having: the angle equals the absolute value of 30 times the hour minus 5.5 times the minutes. Here that is 90 minus 82.5, which is 7.5.
Where candidates lose it
Answering zero, because you assumed both hands are on the 3. The hour hand moves continuously, and that is the entire point of the question. Say the formula afterwards to show it was not luck.
Expect next
- When is the next time the hands overlap exactly?
- How many times a day do the hands overlap?
- How many 0s are in 1000 factorial?
Reported by candidates at Centerview Partners (Investment Banking, Menlo Park, 2025). 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.