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
096Why investment banking, and why this firm?Goldman SachsInvestment Banking · New York · 2026CitiInvestment Banking · San Francisco · 2025Truist 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
- 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'.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
097What do analysts actually do day to day, beyond financial modelling?Rothschild & 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
- Materials: pitchbooks, management presentations, information memoranda, board decks. Formatting to house standard, and endless turns of comments from three levels of seniority.
- Research and diligence: comps and precedent screens, industry reads, buyer lists, and managing the data room and the question log on a live deal.
- 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.
- Then the modelling, which is the part everyone prepares for and probably a fifth of the time.
- 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.
- 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.
100Why should we take you over the other candidates from your university with exactly the same experience?Rothschild & 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Then the evidence, in one line, because the claim is worthless unless it is checkable.
- 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.