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
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.
099Tell me about a time you faced an ethical dilemma, or saw someone do something you thought was wrong.Bank of AmericaInvestment Banking · New York · 2025J.P. MorganAsset Management · New York · 2026State StreetGlobal Data · Boston · 2024
Say this
Use a real, small, resolved example. Something where you noticed a problem, raised it through the right channel, and it was fixed. Scale does not matter; the pattern does.
Then walk it
- Pick something genuinely ambiguous but low-stakes: a teammate misrepresenting data in a group project, an internship colleague using an outdated figure in a client-facing document, an expenses issue on a society committee.
- Structure it as situation, what made it a dilemma, what you actually did, and the outcome. Fifteen seconds on the setup, most of the time on the action.
- Show that you went to the person first before escalating. Interviewers in regulated firms want to see proportionality, not someone who immediately reports a colleague.
- Be specific about the discomfort. 'I did not want to accuse him, so I asked him where the number came from' is credible. Certainty is not.
- Avoid two failure modes: a story where you did nothing, and a story so grave that it raises questions about the environments you have been in. And never name a real employer's confidential matter, because how you handle that in the interview is itself the test.
Where candidates lose it
Claiming you have never faced one. That reads as either no self-awareness or no willingness to engage. Equally bad is a story where you stayed silent and rationalised it. Have one prepared, rehearsed, and resolved.
Expect next
- What would you have done if raising it had cost you the grade or the offer?
- Tell me about a time you made a difficult decision.
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with a manager.
Reported by candidates at Bank of America (Investment Banking, New York, 2025); J.P. Morgan (Asset Management, New York, 2026); State Street (Global Data, Boston, 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.