Mutual Fund Mastery interview preparation

Indian AMCs, distributors, registrars and the global fund houses that hire for the same skills — covering the trust structure, NAV and cut-off rules, SEBI scheme categorisation, debt risk and the Potential Risk Class matrix, passives, costs, taxation and distribution. Every question is either traced to a named firm from a public candidate report, or tagged at desk level when we could not trace it; we do not invent attributions.

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Question bank

100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them

Questions
100
Traced to a firm
32
Firms
19
Updated
September 2026
Asked at
All firmsVanguard5BlackRock3Franklin Templeton3Invesco3PIMCO3Fidelity Investments2J.P. Morgan2Morningstar2Neuberger Berman2Schroders2T. Rowe Price2Amundi1BNY Mellon1Goldman Sachs1Man Group1Northern Trust1State Street1Sycamore Partners1Wellington 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
Showing 1–1 of 1 · filtered from 100Clear filters
  1. 063Walk me through the taxation of equity mutual funds in India.TaxationCoretechnicalIndian AMCsDistribution and sales

    Say this

    For an equity-oriented scheme, held over twelve months the gain is long-term and taxed at 12.5 percent above an annual exemption of 1.25 lakh. Held twelve months or less it is short-term and taxed at 20 percent. Both rates were changed in July 2024, from 10 and 15 percent respectively.

    Then walk it

    1. The definition matters first: equity-oriented means at least 65 percent of the portfolio in equity of domestic companies. That is what brings arbitrage funds, aggressive hybrids and equity savings funds into this treatment.
    2. Long-term: holding over twelve months, 12.5 percent without indexation, and the first 1.25 lakh of aggregate long-term equity gains in the financial year is exempt. The exemption is per person per year across all equity assets, not per scheme.
    3. Short-term: twelve months or less, 20 percent flat regardless of the investor's slab. A high earner pays 20 and so does someone in the 5 percent bracket, which occasionally makes short-term redemption worse than slab treatment for a low earner.
    4. Securities transaction tax of 0.001 percent applies on redemption of equity-oriented units, plus a 0.005 percent stamp duty on purchases and switch-ins. Small, but they exist and interviewers ask.
    5. Set-off and carry-forward: short-term losses can be set against both short and long-term gains, long-term losses only against long-term gains, and unabsorbed losses carry forward eight years if the return is filed on time.
    6. The practical consequence for advice: the twelve-month line plus the 1.25 lakh exemption is the single most valuable planning tool a distributor has. Harvest gains up to the exemption each year, and never let a client redeem in month eleven when waiting four weeks moves him from 20 percent to 12.5.

    Where candidates lose it

    Quoting the pre-July-2024 rates of 10 and 15 percent. That dates you instantly and is the most common error on this question in 2026. Also know the 65 percent definition — if you cannot say why an arbitrage fund gets equity taxation, you do not really know the rule.

    Expect next

    • Which hybrid funds qualify as equity-oriented?
    • How do you use the 1.25 lakh exemption?
    • How are losses set off and carried forward?

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.