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
073How does a bank make money?J.P. MorganPrivate Banking · Charlotte · 2026
Say this
Two engines: net interest income, which is the spread between what it pays depositors and earns on loans and securities, and fee income from advisory, underwriting, trading, asset management and payments.
Then walk it
- Net interest income is the classic bank business. Borrow short and cheap from depositors, lend long and dearer. The spread times the balance sheet is the revenue, and it is levered, which is why capital rules exist.
- Fee income is everything that does not consume much balance sheet: M&A advisory, ECM and DCM underwriting, trading commissions and spread capture, asset and wealth management fees, and transaction banking.
- The costs are compensation, which dominates, technology, regulatory and compliance, and credit losses through the provision line.
- The distinction that matters for an investment bank specifically: advisory revenue is capital-light and cyclical, while lending revenue is capital-heavy and steadier. That is why banks cross-sell, using the balance sheet to win the advisory mandate.
- So for a universal bank the shape is: net interest income for stability, fees for the upside, and the credit cycle as the thing that occasionally takes it all back.
Where candidates lose it
Answering only 'they lend money at a higher rate than they borrow'. For an investment banking interview you must name fee income and, ideally, the cross-sell point about using lending to win advisory work. That is the actual business model you are joining.
Expect next
- What are the biggest challenges banks face today?
- How would that change in a falling rate environment?
- Which revenue line would you want to be in and why?
Reported by candidates at J.P. Morgan (Private Banking, Charlotte, 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.