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. 003Walk me through the three statements at the point of purchase and then after year one, given $100 of deferred revenue over two years.AccountingHardsuperdayCenterview PartnersInvestment Banking · New York · 2026Piper SandlerInvestment Banking · Houston · 2026

   Say this

   At the moment of sale, cash goes up $100 and deferred revenue, a liability, goes up $100. Nothing touches the income statement yet. After year one, $50 is recognised as revenue, so the liability halves and earnings finally show up.

   Then walk it

   1. Day one: cash up $100 on the asset side, deferred revenue up $100 on the liability side. Income statement untouched, because you have been paid but have not delivered.
   2. Year one: recognise $50 of revenue. At a 25% tax rate that is $37.50 of net income, assuming no costs for simplicity.
   3. Cash flow: net income up $37.50, then a working capital adjustment of minus $50 as deferred revenue unwinds. So cash from operations is minus $12.50 for the year, which is just the tax you paid.
   4. Balance sheet: cash down $12.50 from the year-one peak, deferred revenue down to $50, retained earnings up $37.50.
   5. The economic story is that a subscription business collects cash long before it books profit. That is why deferred revenue growth is a leading indicator.

   Where candidates lose it

   Recognising the revenue on day one. Cash received is not revenue earned. Also, candidates forget the working capital drag in year one and end up with a balance sheet that does not balance. Do the liability and the revenue in the same breath.

   Expect next

   • Would you rather own a business with growing or shrinking deferred revenue, and why?
   • How does deferred revenue affect a DCF?
   • What happens to deferred revenue in an acquisition?

   Reported by candidates at Centerview Partners (Investment Banking, New York, 2026); Piper Sandler (Investment Banking, Houston, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 034How would you value a pre-revenue healthcare company?ValuationHardsuperdayPiper SandlerInvestment Banking · New York · 2026Moelis & CompanyMergers and Acquisitions · Los Angeles · 2022

   Say this

   A risk-adjusted DCF built asset by asset. For each drug candidate, forecast peak sales after launch, discount back, then multiply by the cumulative probability of clinical and regulatory success for that phase.

   Then walk it

   1. Value each pipeline asset separately. A Phase III candidate and a preclinical one are completely different risks and cannot share a discount rate.
   2. For each asset: estimate the addressable patient population, penetration, price and duration of therapy to build peak sales, then shape the ramp and the patent cliff.
   3. Apply probability of technical and regulatory success. Industry benchmarks run roughly 60 to 70 percent from Phase III, around 30 percent from Phase II, and low single digits from preclinical.
   4. Discount at a high rate, often 10 to 15 percent, and net off the cash burn until launch. Then sum the assets and add the cash on the balance sheet.
   5. Cross-check against what the market pays. EV per pipeline asset by phase, precedent biotech M&A, and the last private round. And say plainly that the answer is a wide range, because a single readout can move it by a factor of three.

   Where candidates lose it

   Reaching for revenue multiples when there is no revenue, or building one DCF for the whole company. The technique is per-asset and probability-weighted. If you cannot name roughly what a Phase II success rate looks like, you have not prepared the sector.

   Expect next

   • What probability would you use for a Phase II asset?
   • How do you handle the patent cliff?
   • What would you cross-check this against?

   Reported by candidates at Piper Sandler (Investment Banking, New York, 2026); Moelis & Company (Mergers and Acquisitions, Los Angeles, 2022). 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.