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. 045Based on the financials in front of you, would you advise this company to sell or not?M&AHardsuperdayHWHarris WilliamsInvestment Banking · Richmond · 2024Lincoln InternationalMergers and Acquisitions · New York · 2025

   Say this

   I would answer the question directly with a recommendation, then defend it on three axes: where the business is in its own trajectory, where the market is in its cycle, and what the owner actually wants.

   Then walk it

   1. Sell into strength. If margins have just peaked, growth is decelerating, and the sector is trading at a cyclical high multiple, that is the moment. Buyers pay for the next three years, not the last three.
   2. Hold if there is a visible, fundable value-creation step the current owner can capture: a margin programme half done, a new facility about to come online, a contract about to be signed. Let the buyer pay for the result, not the plan.
   3. Then the owner's own position. A founder with all their net worth in one asset has a diversification reason to sell that has nothing to do with the multiple. A partial sale can solve that.
   4. Test the buyer universe before recommending a process. A thin buyer list means a weak auction and a weak price, whatever the financials say.
   5. Then commit. Something like: given decelerating growth, peak margins and a deep strategic buyer list, I would run a process now and target the strategics.

   Where candidates lose it

   Hedging. Middle-market bankers ask this to see whether you can make a recommendation on incomplete information. Saying 'it depends' and stopping is a fail. Pick a side, then name what would change your mind.

   Expect next

   • Who would be a dark horse buyer?
   • Build me the buyer universe.
   • What would change your recommendation?

   Reported by candidates at Harris Williams (Investment Banking, Richmond, 2024); Lincoln International (Mergers and Acquisitions, New York, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 046Who would be a dark horse candidate to buy a pen manufacturer?M&AHardsuperdayHWHarris WilliamsMergers and Acquisitions · Richmond · 2025

   Say this

   I would look for buyers who want the capability rather than the product. An injection-moulding or precision-plastics group buying for the manufacturing asset, or a promotional-products and corporate-gifting business buying for the channel.

   Then walk it

   1. The obvious buyers are other stationery brands and their sponsors. Those are not dark horses, so I would name them and move past them.
   2. The manufacturing angle: a pen is a high-volume precision plastics and micro-assembly business. A contract manufacturer in medical devices or cosmetics packaging could want that capacity and tolerance capability.
   3. The channel angle: whoever owns the shelf. A promotional products distributor, or a corporate gifting platform, buys the brand as a hook for a much larger merchandising catalogue.
   4. The brand angle: luxury. If the target has any premium line, a luxury goods group could take the brand and abandon the volume business entirely. That is a different valuation basis, brand not EBITDA.
   5. And the adjacency angle: an office-products distributor integrating backwards, or an Asian manufacturer buying Western distribution and brand. Each of these values a different asset inside the same company, which is the whole point of building a buyer universe properly.

   Where candidates lose it

   Naming only competitors. The word 'dark horse' means they want to see whether you can decompose the company into its separate assets, manufacturing, brand, channel, and find who values each one most. Structure the answer by asset, not by company.

   Expect next

   • Which of those pays the most?
   • How would you approach them differently in a process?
   • How would you value it for a luxury buyer versus a manufacturer?

   Reported by candidates at Harris Williams (Mergers and Acquisitions, Richmond, 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.