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
015Walk me through a DCF.Goldman SachsInvestment Banking · New York · 2026Deutsche BankInvestment Banking · Honolulu · 2025BarclaysInvestment Banking · New York · 2025Truist SecuritiesCorporate Banking · Atlanta · 2025Houlihan LokeyDebt Capital Markets · Los Angeles · 2025Credit 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
- Build unlevered free cash flow: EBIT, taxed, plus D&A, less CapEx, less the change in working capital.
- Discount at WACC, because unlevered cash flow belongs to both debt and equity holders. Use mid-year convention if cash arrives through the year.
- 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.
- Sum the discounted cash flows and the discounted terminal value to get enterprise value.
- 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.
- 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.
047How are current macroeconomic conditions affecting the M&A market?Deutsche BankInvestment Banking · Boston · 2025Perella Weinberg PartnersInvestment Banking · Houston · 2025
Say this
Work the chain from rates to deal volume: the cost and availability of debt sets what sponsors can pay, valuation gaps between buyers and sellers set whether processes clear, and confidence in forecasts sets whether boards will commit at all.
Then walk it
- Rates first. Financing cost sets the sponsor's maximum entry multiple directly, because the deal has to service the debt. Higher rates compress what leverage can support.
- Then the bid-ask spread. Sellers anchor on the multiple they could have got two years ago, buyers price off today's cost of capital. When that gap is wide, processes get pulled and volume falls.
- Then financing availability, which is separate from price. Private credit has taken a large share of leveraged lending from the banks, so deals can now get done even when the syndicated market is shut.
- Then confidence. Boards do not approve transformational deals when they cannot forecast next year. That is why uncertainty hurts volume more than the level of rates does.
- And the composition effect worth naming: in tougher markets you see more all-stock mergers, more minority and structured deals, more corporate carve-outs as companies raise cash, and more take-privates when public multiples fall below private marks.
Where candidates lose it
Answering with stale numbers or none at all. You do not need to be right about the exact policy rate, but you must know roughly where rates sit and one live example of a deal or a sector that reflects it. Update this the week of your interview.
Expect next
- What makes a good IPO environment?
- What would you expect to happen to deal volume next year?
- How has private credit changed leveraged finance?
Reported by candidates at Deutsche Bank (Investment Banking, Boston, 2025); Perella Weinberg Partners (Investment Banking, Houston, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
070What happens to EPS if a company issues debt to buy back shares?Deutsche BankInvestment Banking · San Francisco · 2025
Say this
EPS usually rises, because the share count falls faster than net income does. It is accretive as long as the after-tax cost of the new debt is below the earnings yield of the stock you are buying.
Then walk it
- Net income falls by the after-tax interest on the new debt. Share count falls by the shares repurchased. EPS is the ratio, so the direction depends on which falls proportionally more.
- The test: compare the after-tax cost of debt to the stock's earnings yield, which is the inverse of its P/E. Debt at 6 percent pre-tax is 4.5 percent after tax. A stock at 15 times P/E has a 6.7 percent earnings yield. Accretive.
- Flip it: a stock at 30 times P/E has a 3.3 percent earnings yield, below the 4.5 percent after-tax cost. Dilutive. Which is why expensive stocks should issue equity, not buy it back.
- Say the number to prove you can do it: $1,000 of debt at 6 percent costs $45 after tax at a 25 percent rate. If that buys 100 shares out of 1,000 and net income was $100, EPS goes from $0.10 to $55 over 900 shares, which is $0.061. Dilutive in that case, and the arithmetic tells you immediately.
- Then the value point: higher EPS does not mean more value. You have raised leverage, so the equity is riskier and the multiple should compress. Rearranging the capital structure does not create value on its own.
Where candidates lose it
Answering 'EPS goes up' with no condition. It depends entirely on the relationship between the cost of debt and the earnings yield. And stopping at EPS without noting that the multiple should fall as leverage rises.
Expect next
- So when is a buyback value-destructive?
- What are the different ways to use excess cash?
- How does this change the company's WACC?
Reported by candidates at Deutsche Bank (Investment Banking, San Francisco, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
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.
096Why investment banking, and why this firm?Goldman SachsInvestment Banking · New York · 2026CitiInvestment Banking · San Francisco · 2025Truist SecuritiesInvestment Banking · Charlotte · 2026Deutsche BankInvestment Banking · London · 2022Rothschild & CoInvestment Banking · London · 2025
Say this
Three beats: a specific moment that got you interested, what you did to test that interest, and one concrete reason for this firm that could not be copy-pasted to a competitor.
Then walk it
- The origin has to be specific and true. A deal you followed, a project where you built a model, a company in your family, a case competition. Not 'I have always been passionate about finance'.
- Then the evidence that you tested it, because interest is cheap and action is not. A society, a self-taught model, an internship, a stock you have tracked for two years.
- Then why banking rather than the adjacent options, and be honest about the trade you are making. Something like: I want the transaction seat rather than the research seat because I want to be inside the execution, and I know what the hours cost.
- Then why this firm, with one fact that is true only of them: a specific deal, a sector franchise, the size of the analyst class, the staffing model. One real fact beats three generic compliments.
- Keep it to about ninety seconds and finish cleanly instead of trailing off. Then stop talking.
Where candidates lose it
A 'why this firm' answer that would work for any of their competitors. Interviewers hear forty versions a day and the generic ones blur. Name one thing only they do, and if you have spoken to someone there, say who and what they told you.
Expect next
- Why you over the other candidates from your university with the same experience?
- What do you think analysts actually do day to day?
- Which group do you want and why?
Reported by candidates at Goldman Sachs (Investment Banking, New York, 2026); Citi (Investment Banking, San Francisco, 2025); Truist Securities (Investment Banking, Charlotte, 2026); Deutsche Bank (Investment Banking, London, 2022); Rothschild & Co (Investment Banking, London, 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.