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. 020What is the beta of a slot machine?ValuationHardsuperdayRothschild & CoMergers and Acquisitions · New York · 2021Rothschild & CoGeneralist · New York · 2026

   Say this

   Zero. A slot machine's payout is random but the randomness is entirely idiosyncratic, and beta only measures the part of risk that moves with the market. Uncorrelated risk carries no beta.

   Then walk it

   1. Beta is covariance with the market divided by the variance of the market. If the payout is independent of the market, the covariance is zero, so beta is zero.
   2. The machine is enormously risky in a standard deviation sense. That is exactly the point: total volatility and systematic risk are different things.
   3. This is CAPM's central claim. The market only pays you for risk you cannot diversify away, and pure gambling risk diversifies to nothing across many pulls.
   4. The sharp extension: a casino's equity beta is clearly not zero, because discretionary gambling spend rises and falls with the economy. The machine's payout is uncorrelated; the volume of people playing it is not.
   5. So the answer is zero for the mechanism, positive for the business built on it.

   Where candidates lose it

   Answering 'very high, because it is so risky'. That confuses volatility with systematic risk and tells the interviewer you do not really understand CAPM. Get to zero fast, then earn the extra credit with the casino distinction.

   Expect next

   • So why is a casino's beta not zero?
   • How would you value your favourite animal?
   • What is your personal beta?

   Reported by candidates at Rothschild & Co (Mergers and Acquisitions, New York, 2021); Rothschild & Co (Generalist, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 058What type of company is a good candidate for a dividend recapitalisation?LBOHardtechnicalRothschild & CoInvestment Banking · London · 2026

   Say this

   One that has already deleveraged meaningfully, has very stable cash flow, and has no near-term need for its balance sheet. Typically a sponsor-owned asset two or three years into the hold where the exit has been delayed.

   Then walk it

   1. The mechanical precondition is headroom. The company must have paid down enough debt that re-levering back to its original multiple is still something the credit market will fund.
   2. Cash flow has to be genuinely stable, because you are removing the cushion. Contracted revenue, low cyclicality, low CapEx.
   3. No competing call on capital. If the company needs to fund a plant or an acquisition, the cash should go there instead.
   4. The motivation is almost always sponsor-side: fund life is advancing, the exit window is shut, and the sponsor wants to de-risk and crystallise part of the return. It resets the IRR clock because cash returned early is heavily weighted.
   5. And the honest downside: nothing about the operating business improved. Leverage went back up, the equity cushion is thinner, and if the cycle turns the company is more fragile. Lenders price that, and the covenant package usually tightens.

   Where candidates lose it

   Describing the mechanics but not the motive. This question is really asking whether you understand sponsor incentives and fund life. And you should name the downside, because a banker who pitches a recap without acknowledging the fragility is not credible.

   Expect next

   • How does it affect the sponsor's IRR?
   • Why would lenders agree to it?
   • What happens if the cycle turns afterwards?

   Reported by candidates at Rothschild & Co (Investment Banking, London, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

3. 062What makes a company distressed, and why restructuring?RestructuringIntermediatetechnicalEvercoreRestructuring · New York · 2025Rothschild & CoRestructuring · London · 2025

   Say this

   Distress is when a company cannot service its obligations from its cash flow, or cannot refinance a maturity. Distinguish operational distress, where the business is broken, from financial distress, where a good business carries the wrong capital structure.

   Then walk it

   1. The observable triggers: interest coverage falling toward one, a covenant breach, a maturity wall it cannot refinance, bonds trading at a deep discount to par, and a credit downgrade.
   2. Financial distress means the operations work but the balance sheet does not. The fix is a balance sheet fix: amend and extend, a debt-for-equity swap, a rights issue, a liability management exercise.
   3. Operational distress means the business itself is impaired, by a lost contract, structural decline or a broken cost base. No amount of refinancing solves that; you need an operational turnaround or a sale.
   4. The distinction drives everything about the advice, so I would establish it first in any situation.
   5. On why restructuring specifically: the work is analytically harder than M&A because you are valuing the enterprise and then allocating it across a capital structure, and the negotiation is multi-party and adversarial. It is also counter-cyclical, which is a genuine reason to want to be in it.

   Where candidates lose it

   Not separating operational from financial distress. That single distinction is the core intellectual content of restructuring, and a restructuring interviewer will hear immediately whether you have it. Also, do not answer 'why restructuring' with 'because it is counter-cyclical' alone; that reads as cynical.

   Expect next

   • What is the recovery on each claim?
   • Do you understand what we actually do here?
   • What were the recent developments in the debt space?

   Reported by candidates at Evercore (Restructuring, New York, 2025); Rothschild & Co (Restructuring, London, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

4. 080How do you value an apple tree?Case and estimationIntermediatetechnicalLincoln InternationalValuation · New York · 2023Rothschild & CoGeneralist · New York · 2026

   Say this

   As a finite-life cash-generating asset. Forecast the fruit it yields each year, price it, subtract the cost of harvesting, discount over the tree's productive life, and add any terminal value for the land or the timber.

   Then walk it

   1. Cash flows: say 200 kilos of apples a year at a dollar a kilo, so $200 of revenue, less picking, water and treatment of maybe $80. Call it $120 a year.
   2. Shape the life curve. A young tree yields little, a mature tree plateaus, an old tree declines. So this is not a flat annuity; it ramps, plateaus for twenty or thirty years, then falls away.
   3. No perpetuity, because the tree dies. Forecast to the end of the productive life and add salvage, which is the firewood or the cleared land.
   4. Discount rate: this is a risky agricultural cash flow exposed to weather, disease and commodity price. Something well into double digits.
   5. Then the three cross-checks that make it a valuation answer rather than an arithmetic one. Market: what do orchards sell for per tree or per acre? Replacement: what does it cost to buy and grow a sapling to maturity, including the years of no yield? And the option value: if the land under it is worth more as building plots, the tree is worth negative, because you would pay to remove it. That last point is the answer they are listening for.

   Where candidates lose it

   Treating it as a perpetuity. It is a finite-life asset, which is the whole reason the question gets asked. And missing that the highest-value use might be cutting it down, which is the insight that the asset's value depends on the alternative use of what it sits on.

   Expect next

   • What if the land is worth more as development?
   • How does this differ from valuing a mine?
   • What discount rate would you use?

   Reported by candidates at Lincoln International (Valuation, New York, 2023); Rothschild & Co (Generalist, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

5. 081How would you value your favourite animal?Case and estimationIntermediatesuperdayRothschild & CoGeneralist · New York · 2026

   Say this

   Pick an animal with an obvious cash flow so the question becomes tractable. A racehorse: value it on prize money, breeding fees and resale, less training and stabling costs, discounted over its career.

   Then walk it

   1. Choose the animal strategically. A racehorse, a dairy cow or a breeding bull all have identifiable revenue. A panda does not, and you will spend the whole answer fighting your own example.
   2. For a racehorse: expected prize money, weighted by the probability of winning at each grade, plus stud fees after retirement, which for a successful stallion dwarf the racing income.
   3. Costs: training fees, stabling, vet, insurance, jockey and entry fees. These are substantial and largely fixed, so most horses are value-destructive.
   4. Finite life with a terminal value: the residual breeding or resale value at the end of the racing career.
   5. Then the honest framing, which is the point of the question: the expected value is the probability-weighted average of a few enormous outcomes and many zeros. It is an option, not an annuity, so the way to value it is scenario-weighted, and the market price of a yearling at auction is your best cross-check.

   Where candidates lose it

   Freezing on the absurdity, or picking an animal with no cash flow and then trying to force a DCF onto it. Reframe the question as 'value any finite-life risky asset', choose an example that cooperates, and name your framework before you touch any number.

   Expect next

   • What is your personal beta?
   • How would you value a business with the same payoff shape?
   • How would you cross-check your number?

   Reported by candidates at Rothschild & Co (Generalist, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

6. 096Why investment banking, and why this firm?FitCorephone / HireVueGoldman SachsInvestment Banking · New York · 2026CitiInvestment Banking · San Francisco · 2025TSTruist SecuritiesInvestment Banking · Charlotte · 2026Deutsche BankInvestment Banking · London · 2022Rothschild & CoInvestment Banking · London · 2025

   Say this

   Three beats: a specific moment that got you interested, what you did to test that interest, and one concrete reason for this firm that could not be copy-pasted to a competitor.

   Then walk it

   1. The origin has to be specific and true. A deal you followed, a project where you built a model, a company in your family, a case competition. Not 'I have always been passionate about finance'.
   2. Then the evidence that you tested it, because interest is cheap and action is not. A society, a self-taught model, an internship, a stock you have tracked for two years.
   3. Then why banking rather than the adjacent options, and be honest about the trade you are making. Something like: I want the transaction seat rather than the research seat because I want to be inside the execution, and I know what the hours cost.
   4. Then why this firm, with one fact that is true only of them: a specific deal, a sector franchise, the size of the analyst class, the staffing model. One real fact beats three generic compliments.
   5. Keep it to about ninety seconds and finish cleanly instead of trailing off. Then stop talking.

   Where candidates lose it

   A 'why this firm' answer that would work for any of their competitors. Interviewers hear forty versions a day and the generic ones blur. Name one thing only they do, and if you have spoken to someone there, say who and what they told you.

   Expect next

   • Why you over the other candidates from your university with the same experience?
   • What do you think analysts actually do day to day?
   • Which group do you want and why?

   Reported by candidates at Goldman Sachs (Investment Banking, New York, 2026); Citi (Investment Banking, San Francisco, 2025); Truist Securities (Investment Banking, Charlotte, 2026); Deutsche Bank (Investment Banking, London, 2022); Rothschild & Co (Investment Banking, London, 2025). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

7. 097What do analysts actually do day to day, beyond financial modelling?FitIntermediatetechnicalRothschild & CoInvestment Banking · Exeter · 2026

   Say this

   Most of it is not modelling. It is building and formatting pitch materials, running diligence and data rooms, coordinating between lawyers, accountants and the client, and doing the unglamorous version control that keeps a live process from falling over.

   Then walk it

   1. Materials: pitchbooks, management presentations, information memoranda, board decks. Formatting to house standard, and endless turns of comments from three levels of seniority.
   2. Research and diligence: comps and precedent screens, industry reads, buyer lists, and managing the data room and the question log on a live deal.
   3. Process management: scheduling, tracking who has signed which NDA, chasing the lawyers and accountants, and keeping the working group list current. On a live deal this is most of the job.
   4. Then the modelling, which is the part everyone prepares for and probably a fifth of the time.
   5. And the part candidates never mention: quality control. Checking that every number in a 60-page deck ties to the model, and that the version being printed is the current one. That is where analysts actually get judged.
   6. Saying this clearly signals that you know what you are signing up for, which is exactly why the question gets asked.

   Where candidates lose it

   Describing the job as building models and advising CEOs. It is not, for the first two years, and an interviewer who does the job will hear the fantasy immediately. Naming the administrative reality without sounding unwilling to do it is the winning move.

   Expect next

   • Does that sound appealing to you?
   • How do you handle repetitive work?
   • Tell me about a time you fell behind schedule.

   Reported by candidates at Rothschild & Co (Investment Banking, Exeter, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

8. 100Why should we take you over the other candidates from your university with exactly the same experience?FitHardsuperdayRothschild & CoInvestment Banking · Milan · 2025Houlihan LokeyInvestment Banking · New York · 2026MorningstarGeneralist · Chicago · 2024

   Say this

   Do not claim to be smarter or more driven, because everyone in the room says that. Name one specific, verifiable thing you have that they probably do not, and connect it to the work.

   Then walk it

   1. The honest framing first: on paper we are similar, and I would not pretend otherwise. So the answer has to be something specific rather than an adjective.
   2. Then the differentiator, and it should be concrete. Depth in one sector nobody else in the class has looked at. A language and a market. A technical skill like Python or SQL you have actually used on a dataset. Having run something with real accountability and real money.
   3. Then tie it to their business, not to your CV. Something like: your industrials team does a lot of cross-border work in Italy, and I can read Italian filings and speak to a management team without an interpreter. That is useful on day one.
   4. Then the evidence, in one line, because the claim is worthless unless it is checkable.
   5. And avoid the two failure modes: listing adjectives, which is unfalsifiable and forgettable, or disparaging other candidates, which reads badly in a business where you will spend your life in a small team.

   Where candidates lose it

   Answering with 'work ethic' and 'passion'. Every candidate says both and neither can be verified. Pick a specific, checkable capability and connect it to something their desk actually does. Specificity is the entire answer.

   Expect next

   • What is something about you that is not on your CV?
   • Why this group, and what do you add that someone else cannot?
   • What is one thing you wish had gone differently today?

   Reported by candidates at Rothschild & Co (Investment Banking, Milan, 2025); Houlihan Lokey (Investment Banking, New York, 2026); Morningstar (Generalist, Chicago, 2024). 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.