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
065What specific line items would you look at on the financial statements when evaluating creditworthiness?RBC Capital MarketsCorporate Banking · New York · 2026Wells Fargo SecuritiesGeneralist · North Carolina · 2025
Say this
Cash flow from operations, because that is what repays debt. Then interest expense, total debt and its maturity schedule, cash, the undrawn revolver, CapEx, and the working capital lines.
Then walk it
- Start with cash from operations across several years. One good year proves nothing; consistency through a downturn proves a lot.
- Interest expense against EBITDA gives coverage. Debt and the maturity schedule tell you when the pressure comes.
- Cash and the undrawn facility are the liquidity buffer. Compare them to the next 12 to 24 months of obligations.
- CapEx split into maintenance and growth. Maintenance CapEx is non-discretionary, so it competes with debt service. Growth CapEx can be cut in a bad year, which is a real source of flexibility.
- Then the working capital lines, receivables, inventory and payables, because deterioration shows up there before it reaches the income statement. Rising receivable days means customers are struggling or revenue is being pushed.
- And off the face of the statements: operating lease liabilities, pension deficits, guarantees and contingent liabilities in the notes. Those are real claims that do not sit in the debt line.
Where candidates lose it
Staying on the income statement. Credit is about cash and claims, so the answer lives on the cash flow statement and in the notes. Mentioning the notes, and specifically contingent liabilities, is what separates a credit answer from an equity answer.
Expect next
- How would you assess a good borrower qualitatively?
- What would you ask the CFO if you were the lead analyst?
- How do you determine whether a company is good for credit investing?
Reported by candidates at RBC Capital Markets (Corporate Banking, New York, 2026); Wells Fargo Securities (Generalist, North Carolina, 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.