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. 024Walk me through how you would find comps and precedents for a company.ValuationIntermediatetechnicalEvercoreInvestment Banking · Menlo Park · 2025

   Say this

   Start from what the business actually does and who it competes with, then screen on size, growth, margin and geography. For precedents, screen deals in the same sub-sector over the last three to five years, then throw out the ones with special circumstances.

   Then walk it

   1. First pass on business model, not SIC code. A software company selling to hospitals belongs with healthcare IT, not with enterprise software generally.
   2. Practical sources: the target's own filings name its competitors, equity research initiation reports carry a comp set, and any prior deal in the space has a fairness opinion with a comp list in it.
   3. Then screen for comparability on scale, growth rate, margin profile and end-market mix. A company growing 30 percent does not belong with one growing 3 percent, whatever the sector.
   4. For precedents, filter on date, size and deal type, and separate strategic buyers from sponsors, because they pay differently.
   5. Last step is the judgement call: exclude distressed sales, minority stakes and deals with unusual structures, and be ready to defend every exclusion, because the client will ask.

   Where candidates lose it

   Saying 'I would pull them from Capital IQ' and stopping. The screen is the easy part; the defensible judgement about who belongs in the set is the job. Name your inclusion criteria and your exclusions.

   Expect next

   • How many comps is the right number?
   • Your best comp trades at a huge premium to the rest. What do you do?
   • Build me a buyer universe for this company.

   Reported by candidates at Evercore (Investment Banking, Menlo Park, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 062What makes a company distressed, and why restructuring?RestructuringIntermediatetechnicalEvercoreRestructuring · New York · 2025Rothschild & CoRestructuring · London · 2025

   Say this

   Distress is when a company cannot service its obligations from its cash flow, or cannot refinance a maturity. Distinguish operational distress, where the business is broken, from financial distress, where a good business carries the wrong capital structure.

   Then walk it

   1. The observable triggers: interest coverage falling toward one, a covenant breach, a maturity wall it cannot refinance, bonds trading at a deep discount to par, and a credit downgrade.
   2. Financial distress means the operations work but the balance sheet does not. The fix is a balance sheet fix: amend and extend, a debt-for-equity swap, a rights issue, a liability management exercise.
   3. Operational distress means the business itself is impaired, by a lost contract, structural decline or a broken cost base. No amount of refinancing solves that; you need an operational turnaround or a sale.
   4. The distinction drives everything about the advice, so I would establish it first in any situation.
   5. On why restructuring specifically: the work is analytically harder than M&A because you are valuing the enterprise and then allocating it across a capital structure, and the negotiation is multi-party and adversarial. It is also counter-cyclical, which is a genuine reason to want to be in it.

   Where candidates lose it

   Not separating operational from financial distress. That single distinction is the core intellectual content of restructuring, and a restructuring interviewer will hear immediately whether you have it. Also, do not answer 'why restructuring' with 'because it is counter-cyclical' alone; that reads as cynical.

   Expect next

   • What is the recovery on each claim?
   • Do you understand what we actually do here?
   • What were the recent developments in the debt space?

   Reported by candidates at Evercore (Restructuring, New York, 2025); Rothschild & Co (Restructuring, London, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

3. 089Given a 20x P/E, 10x EV/EBITDA, $20 of interest at a 5 percent rate, $200 of market cap and $20 of depreciation, calculate the tax rate.Case and estimationHardsuperdayEvercoreMergers and Acquisitions · San Francisco · 2026

   Say this

   Work backwards from the multiples to build the income statement. Net income is $10, debt is $400, so enterprise value is $600 and EBITDA is $60. EBIT is $40, pre-tax income is $20, so tax is $10 on $20 — a 50 percent rate. That is above any statutory rate, so I would flag that the inputs are inconsistent rather than just hand you the number.

   Then walk it

   1. Net income: market cap $200 at a 20 times P/E means net income of $10.
   2. Debt: $20 of interest at a 5 percent rate implies $400 of debt.
   3. Enterprise value: $200 equity plus $400 debt is $600, assuming no cash. At 10 times EV/EBITDA, EBITDA is $60.
   4. Then EBIT is EBITDA less depreciation, so $60 less $20 is $40. Pre-tax income is EBIT less interest, so $40 less $20 is $20. Net income is $10, so tax is $10 on $20, which is a 50 percent rate.
   5. I would then flag it: 50 percent is above any statutory rate, which usually means the question contains rounded or inconsistent inputs, or there is a non-operating item I am not being told about.
   6. The way to handle this live is to lay out the chain clearly, state the answer the arithmetic gives, and then say what would make it plausible: cash on the balance sheet would lower enterprise value and therefore EBITDA, and minority interest or a one-off charge below the line would change the bridge.

   Where candidates lose it

   Either freezing on the arithmetic or reporting an absurd tax rate with a straight face. The test is whether you can chain multiples backwards into an income statement, and whether you have the judgement to flag an implausible output rather than just handing it over.

   Expect next

   • What if there were cash on the balance sheet?
   • Which assumption are you least comfortable with?
   • Redo it with $100 of cash.

   Reported by candidates at Evercore (Mergers and Acquisitions, San Francisco, 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.