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. 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.

2. 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.

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.