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
069Explain the different ways a firm might finance itself, besides straight equity and debt.HSBCGeneralist · New York · 2024Truist SecuritiesCorporate Banking · Atlanta · 2025
Say this
Everything in between: convertible bonds, preferred stock, mezzanine and PIK, plus asset-based routes like securitisation, sale-leaseback, factoring and equipment leasing. And structural options like a rights issue or a convertible preferred.
Then walk it
- Hybrid instruments sit between the two: convertible bonds give a low coupon in exchange for equity upside, preferred stock ranks ahead of common with a fixed dividend, and mezzanine or PIK sits below senior debt with equity warrants attached.
- Asset-based financing monetises specific assets rather than the whole enterprise: asset-backed lending against receivables and inventory, securitisation of a receivables pool, factoring, and equipment leasing.
- Sale-leaseback converts owned real estate into cash while keeping the operational use. It is off-balance-sheet in spirit, though under current standards the lease liability comes back on.
- Operational financing is often overlooked: stretching supplier terms, customer prepayments and deferred revenue are all working capital funding, and they cost nothing.
- And there are equity variants: rights issues to existing holders, PIPEs, convertible preferred for a strategic investor, and in some markets government or development-bank funding for specific projects.
- The structuring logic is to match the funding to the asset. Long-lived assets get long-dated debt, receivables get revolving asset-based facilities, and uncertain growth gets equity or something convertible.
Where candidates lose it
Listing instruments with no organising principle. Group them, hybrids, asset-based, operational, equity variants, and finish with the matching principle. A list without a frame reads like flashcards.
Expect next
- When would you advise a convertible over straight equity?
- What are the primary categories of collateral securing an asset-based loan?
- What is the difference between a loan and a bond?
Reported by candidates at HSBC (Generalist, New York, 2024); Truist Securities (Corporate Banking, Atlanta, 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.