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
025What is EV/EBITDA and when would you use it?William BlairInvestment Banking · Chicago · 2026
Say this
It values the whole enterprise against operating cash earnings before capital structure and accounting choices. You use it when you want to compare companies with different leverage, different tax positions or different depreciation policies.
Then walk it
- Enterprise value is capital-structure neutral, and EBITDA is pre-interest, so numerator and denominator match. Both belong to all capital providers.
- It strips out D&A, so it lets you compare an asset-heavy company with an asset-light one on operating performance.
- It is the default in M&A and leveraged finance, because a buyer is buying the enterprise and will put its own capital structure on it.
- Where it fails: it ignores capital intensity entirely. Two companies with the same EBITDA but very different CapEx are not worth the same, and EV/EBITDA cannot see that.
- So for capital-heavy businesses I would look at EV/EBIT or EV/EBITDA less CapEx alongside it. And for banks it is meaningless, because interest is revenue.
Where candidates lose it
Not being able to say when it breaks. Everyone knows the formula. The candidate who volunteers 'it is blind to CapEx, so I would pair it with EV/EBIT for a capital-intensive business' has answered the real question.
Expect next
- What happens to EV/EBITDA when EBITDA increases?
- How does EV/EBITDA vary across industries?
- Why would you never use it for a bank?
Reported by candidates at William Blair (Investment Banking, Chicago, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
032How do you get from enterprise value to equity value without using an equation?PIMCOFinancial Institutions Group · New York · 2023Truist SecuritiesCorporate Banking · Atlanta · 2025William BlairMergers and Acquisitions · London · 2026
Say this
Enterprise value is the price of the operating business itself. To get to what shareholders own, you pay off everyone with a prior claim, then add back anything the business owns that is not part of operations.
Then walk it
- Start with the value of the operating business, which is what enterprise value measures.
- Settle the lenders first, because they stand ahead of shareholders. Subtract debt.
- Add back cash, because cash is not part of the operating business and a buyer effectively gets it for free.
- Subtract the other prior claims: preferred stock, minority interest in consolidated subsidiaries, and funded pension shortfalls, since a buyer inherits those obligations.
- Add non-operating assets like stakes in unconsolidated affiliates or surplus real estate, because the operating cash flow never captured them.
- What is left is what the equity is worth. Divide by diluted shares and you have value per share.
Where candidates lose it
Reciting 'EV minus net debt' when the interviewer explicitly asked for no equation. They want the story of who gets paid in what order. Talk in terms of claims and seniority, not symbols.
Expect next
- How do you treat underfunded pensions in that bridge?
- What is the equity ticker and how do you calculate it?
- Why do you add back cash?
Reported by candidates at PIMCO (Financial Institutions Group, New York, 2023); Truist Securities (Corporate Banking, Atlanta, 2025); William Blair (Mergers and Acquisitions, London, 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.