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
067Walk me through the syndication process.ScotiabankDebt Capital Markets · New York · 2026
Say this
The arranging bank commits to the borrower, then sells the loan down to other lenders. Underwrite and mandate, prepare the information memorandum and ratings, launch to a lender group, build the book, then allocate, close and fund.
Then walk it
- Mandate and structure: the bank agrees the terms and either underwrites, meaning it guarantees the full amount and takes the risk of selling it, or arranges on a best-efforts basis.
- Preparation: build the information memorandum and the model, get ratings from the agencies if it is a rated deal, and agree the credit agreement terms with the borrower.
- Launch: a bank meeting or lender call presents the credit. Then a commitment period, usually one to two weeks, during which institutional investors submit orders at a price.
- Price discovery and flex: if the book is undersubscribed the arranger uses flex language to widen pricing or tighten terms. If it is oversubscribed they tighten. This is the part that makes underwriting risky.
- Allocation, documentation, closing and funding. Then the paper trades in the secondary market, which is where the loan's price is discovered from then on.
- The risk that matters commercially: in an underwritten deal, if the market gaps between commitment and syndication, the bank is left holding paper it has to sell at a loss. That is hung debt, and it is why underwriting fees exist.
Where candidates lose it
Describing it as a simple sequence and missing flex and underwriting risk. The commercial substance of syndication is who bears the market risk between commitment and sell-down. Name flex language and hung debt.
Expect next
- Tell me about the two different types of loans in the broadly syndicated loan market.
- What is market flex?
- What happens if the deal does not clear?
Reported by candidates at Scotiabank (Debt Capital Markets, 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.