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
043Walk me through a deal you have been following, and tell me how it changed the industry.BarclaysInvestment Banking · New York · 2023EvercoreInvestment Banking · Menlo Park · 2025Moelis & CompanyInvestment Banking · London · 2026William BlairInvestment Banking · Atlanta · 2026
Say this
Pick one deal, know it cold, and tell it as a story with a number in every sentence: who bought whom, for how much, at what multiple, funded how, and why it made strategic sense.
Then walk it
- Open with the facts in one breath: acquirer, target, enterprise value, the multiple paid, the premium to the undisturbed price, and the funding mix.
- Then the strategic rationale in one sentence. What did the buyer get that it could not build, and what synergies did it guide to?
- Then your own view, which is the part that matters. Was the price defensible? I would say something like: at fourteen times EBITDA against a peer set at eleven, the buyer needed the full guided synergies to justify it, so the deal is really a bet on integration.
- Then the industry effect: did it trigger consolidation, did it force a competitor response, did it change how the sector is valued?
- Pick a deal in the group you are interviewing with, and pick one where you have an actual opinion. A deal you can only describe is worse than a smaller deal you can argue about.
Where candidates lose it
Choosing the biggest headline deal and only reciting what the press release said. If you cannot say what multiple was paid and whether you think it was too much, you have not followed the deal, you have read about it.
Expect next
- Was the price too high?
- If you were the buyer, what would you have worried about in diligence?
- Who else could have bought it?
Reported by candidates at Barclays (Investment Banking, New York, 2023); Evercore (Investment Banking, Menlo Park, 2025); Moelis & Company (Investment Banking, London, 2026); William Blair (Investment Banking, Atlanta, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
078Tell me a piece of recent news and how it affects this bank.RBC Capital MarketsInvestment Banking · London · 2026BlackRockAsset Management · Tokyo · 2026Deutsche BankGeneralist · New York · 2026
Say this
Pick something with a direct line to their revenue, not a general headline. Then trace the chain: event, effect on a market they operate in, effect on a specific business line of theirs.
Then walk it
- Choose deliberately. A deal in their strongest sector, a regulatory change in their home market, or a competitor's result that reveals something about their position.
- State the fact precisely, with the number. Vagueness here is fatal because it suggests you skimmed a headline.
- Then the chain. For example: a large take-private in their coverage sector signals that sponsors are back in large-cap deals, which flows to their leveraged finance and sponsor coverage revenue, and they have a strong franchise there.
- Then say something specific about the firm that proves you researched it: a mandate they ran, a league table position, a business they recently built or exited.
- Close with why it matters to you: the growth area you want to work in. That converts a market question into a 'why this firm' answer, which is what it really is.
Where candidates lose it
Bringing a headline with no connection to their business, or one they will know better than you and can immediately correct. Pick something in their sector, know the number, and rehearse the three-step chain.
Expect next
- Why does that matter for the division you applied to?
- Which of our competitors benefits more?
- What else have you been reading?
Reported by candidates at RBC Capital Markets (Investment Banking, London, 2026); BlackRock (Asset Management, Tokyo, 2026); Deutsche Bank (Generalist, New York, 2026). Source: Wall Street Oasis.
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.