Investment Banking interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

100

Firms

46

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsTSTruist Securities10Rothschild & Co8Centerview Partners7CSCredit Suisse7HWHarris Williams6Houlihan Lokey6Lazard6Mizuho6Barclays5Citi5Deutsche Bank5Evercore5Moelis & Company5MSMorgan Stanley5Piper Sandler5RCRBC Capital Markets5Goldman Sachs4Nomura4TD Securities4Bank of America3GSGuggenheim Securities3J.P. Morgan3Jefferies3Moody's3Perella Weinberg Partners3WPWarburg Pincus3WBWilliam Blair3HSBC2Lincoln International2Scotiabank2TPTPG2UBS2Wells Fargo Securities2Advent International1Apollo Global Management1Bain Capital1Balyasny Asset Management1BLBlackRock1BPBNP Paribas1General Atlantic1Invesco1Morningstar1PIMCO1STSociété Générale1SSState Street1WMWellington Management1

Topic

All topicsAccounting14Valuation21M&A10Markets and deals10Capital markets3LBO8Leveraged finance3Restructuring2Credit3Debt capital markets2Capital structure2Case and estimation11Brainteasers6Fit5

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseBrainteaserFitMarket view

1. 015Walk me through a DCF.ValuationCoretechnicalGoldman SachsInvestment Banking · New York · 2026Deutsche BankInvestment Banking · Honolulu · 2025BarclaysInvestment Banking · New York · 2025TSTruist SecuritiesCorporate Banking · Atlanta · 2025Houlihan LokeyDebt Capital Markets · Los Angeles · 2025CSCredit SuisseInvestment Banking · São Paulo · 2021

   Say this

   Project unlevered free cash flow for five to ten years, discount it at WACC, add a terminal value for everything beyond the forecast, sum to enterprise value, then bridge to equity value and divide by diluted shares.

   Then walk it

   1. Build unlevered free cash flow: EBIT, taxed, plus D&A, less CapEx, less the change in working capital.
   2. Discount at WACC, because unlevered cash flow belongs to both debt and equity holders. Use mid-year convention if cash arrives through the year.
   3. Terminal value two ways: Gordon growth on the final year cash flow, or an exit multiple on terminal EBITDA. I would run both and check they agree.
   4. Sum the discounted cash flows and the discounted terminal value to get enterprise value.
   5. Bridge down: less net debt, less preferred, less minority interest, plus non-operating assets, to get equity value. Divide by diluted shares for value per share.
   6. Then say the honest part: terminal value is usually 60 to 80 percent of the total, so the answer is mostly a function of the growth rate and discount rate, and I would sensitise both.

   Where candidates lose it

   Delivering it as a memorised list with no acknowledgement that terminal value dominates. Every candidate can recite the steps. The one who volunteers that most of the value sits in an assumption, and offers to sensitise it, sounds like someone who has actually built one.

   Expect next

   • What are the main drivers or sensitivities in your DCF?
   • What discount rate would you use and why?
   • When is a DCF the wrong tool?

   Reported by candidates at Goldman Sachs (Investment Banking, New York, 2026); Deutsche Bank (Investment Banking, Honolulu, 2025); Barclays (Investment Banking, New York, 2025); Truist Securities (Corporate Banking, Atlanta, 2025); Houlihan Lokey (Debt Capital Markets, Los Angeles, 2025); Credit Suisse (Investment Banking, São Paulo, 2021). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 035How would you value a telco versus a software company?ValuationIntermediatetechnicalCSCredit SuisseInvestment Banking · Sydney · 2020

   Say this

   The telco is a capital-intensive, low-growth cash cow, so you value it on EV/EBITDA and EV/EBITDA less CapEx, and you care about the dividend. The software company is asset-light and growth-driven, so you value it on revenue multiples adjusted for growth and retention.

   Then walk it

   1. For the telco, EBITDA is large but so is CapEx on spectrum and network, so EV/EBITDA alone flatters it. EV/EBITDA less CapEx, or EV/EBIT, is the honest read.
   2. Telco value is also driven by regulation, spectrum holdings and subscriber metrics like ARPU and churn. A DCF works well because the cash flows are predictable.
   3. For the software company, current earnings are suppressed by growth spending, so EV/EBITDA is close to meaningless. EV/revenue against growth rate is the working metric.
   4. The quality tests for software are net revenue retention, gross margin and the rule of forty, growth plus margin. Those determine whether a revenue multiple is deserved.
   5. So both get a DCF, but the telco DCF is credible on near-term cash flows while the software DCF is almost entirely terminal value. That difference is the real answer: you trust the telco's forecast and you stress-test the software company's.

   Where candidates lose it

   Treating it as a list of two metric sets. The interviewer wants you to notice that the DCF is reliable for one and mostly assumption for the other. That structural insight is the answer.

   Expect next

   • What is the rule of forty?
   • What is the formula for net revenue retention, gross retention and churn?
   • Which would you rather own at today's multiples?

   Reported by candidates at Credit Suisse (Investment Banking, Sydney, 2020). 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.