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.
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.