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.
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.