Mutual Fund Mastery interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

32

Firms

19

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsVanguard5BLBlackRock3FTFranklin Templeton3Invesco3PIMCO3Fidelity Investments2J.P. Morgan2Morningstar2Neuberger Berman2SCSchroders2T. Rowe Price2Amundi1BMBNY Mellon1Goldman Sachs1Man Group1Northern Trust1SSState Street1Sycamore Partners1WMWellington Management1

Topic

All topicsFund structure and regulation7NAV and operations6Scheme categorisation4Equity schemes5Debt schemes7Risk, liquidity and disclosure7Index funds and ETFs6Hybrid and solution schemes3Costs, plans and commissions6SIP and investor mechanics5Performance measurement6Taxation5Distribution, compliance and NISM5Portfolio construction and advice5Estimation and numeracy5Markets and industry6Career and fit12

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitBrainteaserMarket view

1. 008What makes up a NAV?NAV and operationsCoretechnicalMan GroupEquity Hedge · Boston · 2019

   Say this

   Market value of all the scheme's assets, plus receivables, minus all liabilities and accrued expenses, divided by the number of units outstanding. The two things people forget are the accrued expenses — the TER is charged daily, not annually — and that units outstanding changes every day in an open-ended fund.

   Then walk it

   1. Assets: securities at market value, cash and bank balances, accrued interest and dividend receivable, and receivables on trades done but not settled.
   2. Liabilities: payables on unsettled purchases, redemption payable, and the accrued portion of the expense ratio, management fee, audit fee, custody and RTA charges.
   3. Divide by units outstanding at the end of the day, after the day's creations and cancellations. In an open-ended scheme there is no fixed unit count — units come into existence when money comes in.
   4. The daily accrual of expenses is the bit that trips people. A 1.8 percent TER is charged as roughly one basis point every business day, so NAV is always net of fees. There is no separate fee deduction from your folio.
   5. Rounding conventions matter in practice: liquid and debt scheme NAVs are published to four decimals, equity to two. On a liquid fund earning 6 percent a year, the fourth decimal is real money for a treasury investor.
   6. The limitation: NAV is only as honest as the valuation of the assets. For listed equity it is a closing price and beyond argument. For an unlisted or thinly traded bond it is a model or an agency price, and that is where NAV disputes live.

   Where candidates lose it

   Giving the formula and stopping. Add the accrued expense line and the moving unit count, and name the valuation weakness on illiquid debt. A candidate who says 'NAV is assets minus liabilities over units' has answered a textbook; one who says 'and that is why an illiquid debt NAV is an estimate' has answered the question.

   Expect next

   • Whose NAV is wrong if a bond in the portfolio has not traded for three weeks?
   • How often is the expense ratio charged?
   • By when must an AMC publish NAV?

   Reported by candidates at Man Group (Equity Hedge, Boston, 2019). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 010Explain the cut-off timing rules for mutual fund transactions.NAV and operationsCoretechnicalIndian AMCsFund operations

   Say this

   Three pm for everything except liquid and overnight funds, where purchase cut-off is 1:30 pm. But since February 2021 the time stamp alone does not decide anything on a purchase — you get the NAV of the day the money is actually available to the scheme for utilisation, whatever the amount.

   Then walk it

   1. Purchases in all schemes other than liquid and overnight: application received by 3 pm and funds realised by 3 pm gets the same day's NAV. Late on either leg and it is the next business day.
   2. Liquid and overnight funds: 1:30 pm for purchase, and because these schemes earn from the day of allotment, an application in by 1:30 with funds available gets the closing NAV of the previous day.
   3. Redemptions: 3 pm across the board, including liquid, and the NAV is the same day's if you are inside the cut-off.
   4. The 2021 change is the one interviewers probe. Before it, applications up to two lakh got the time-stamp NAV even if the money had not arrived. Now the realisation test applies to every rupee, which killed the practice of getting a favourable NAV on an unfunded application.
   5. Practical consequence for a distributor: a cheque or a NEFT initiated at 2:55 pm does not get you today's NAV, because it will not be credited and available for utilisation by 3. On a treasury ticket in a liquid fund, one day of NAV on 10 crore at 6 percent is about 1.6 lakh rupees.
   6. The exception to know: switches are treated as a redemption in one scheme and a purchase in the other, and the purchase leg still needs the redemption proceeds to be available, so a switch from an equity fund into a liquid fund does not get same-day liquid NAV.

   Where candidates lose it

   Quoting 3 pm and 1:30 pm and stopping. The realisation-of-funds rule is the whole modern answer, and the liquid fund previous-day NAV catches almost everyone. Say both.

   Expect next

   • An investor's money hits the scheme account at 3:10 pm. Which NAV does he get?
   • Why do liquid funds give the previous day's NAV?
   • How are switches time-stamped?
3. 013Walk me through the KYC and onboarding process for a new mutual fund investor in India, and tell me what the RTA does in it.NAV and operationsCorephone / first roundRegistrars and transfer agentsDistribution and sales

   Say this

   PAN, Aadhaar-based verification, proof of address, bank account details, a FATCA and CRS declaration and a nomination or an explicit opt-out. The record goes to a KRA and to the central KYC registry, so once it is validated the investor can transact across every AMC in the country. The RTA is the entity that holds the folio, applies the transaction and maintains the record.

   Then walk it

   1. Identity and address: PAN, which is the unique key for the whole system, plus Aadhaar-based e-KYC or a video-based in-person verification. Physical IPV still exists for cases that cannot be done digitally.
   2. Bank and tax layer: a bank account in the investor's own name for the payout mandate, FATCA and CRS self-certification, and tax residency status. Third-party payments are not accepted, which is a money-laundering control, not paperwork.
   3. Central registration: the record is filed with a KYC Registration Agency such as CVL or CAMS KRA and with CKYC at CERSAI. That is what makes KYC portable across fund houses.
   4. Since 2024 the status label matters. A KYC record is validated only if the PAN and Aadhaar are linked and the documents are of the accepted type. Registered or on-hold records can block fresh purchases at a new AMC, which is now the single most common onboarding failure in the industry.
   5. Nomination is mandatory unless the investor signs an opt-out. Getting this wrong creates a transmission problem years later that the family, not the investor, has to solve.
   6. RTA's role: CAMS or KFintech creates the folio, time-stamps the application, applies the cut-off rules, allots units, runs the SIP mandate, generates the consolidated account statement and holds the KYC. Most entry-level operations hiring in this industry is at an RTA, and this question is really asking whether you know that.

   Where candidates lose it

   Listing documents like a form-filling exercise. The examinable points are that KYC is centralised and portable, that the validation status introduced in 2024 can block a transaction at a new AMC even for an old investor, and that third-party payments are barred. Mention nomination — it is where most real folios are defective.

   Expect next

   • What is the difference between a KYC validated and a KYC registered record?
   • Can someone else pay for my SIP?
   • How does a nominee actually claim units after death?

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.