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
010I am showing you a set of financials where one number is wrong. Find the error.JefferiesInvestment Banking · New York · 2025
Say this
I would check whether the balance sheet balances first, then whether the cash flow statement ties to the change in cash, then whether the income statement subtotals add. One of those three checks will catch almost any planted error.
Then walk it
- First test: do assets equal liabilities plus equity? If not, the error is a balance sheet line or a missing retained earnings flow.
- Second test: does ending cash on the cash flow statement match the balance sheet cash? A break here points to a missing working capital or financing line.
- Third test: does net income on the cash flow statement match net income on the income statement? People plant errors right there.
- Then sanity-check the ratios. A gross margin that moved 800 basis points with no explanation, or D&A larger than gross PP&E, is usually the plant.
- I would say my checks out loud as I run them, so you can see the process even if I have not found it yet.
Where candidates lose it
Going silent and hunting line by line. This question tests whether you have a systematic tie-out routine, not whether you have sharp eyes. Narrate the three checks; the process is the answer.
Expect next
- You found it. What would you do next if this were a live client model?
- Which single ratio tells you most about earnings quality?
- How would you audit a model you inherited from a departing analyst?
Reported by candidates at Jefferies (Investment Banking, New York, 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.