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

Showing 1–1 of 1 · filtered from 100Clear filters

012How do you value a corporate bond in a scheme portfolio that has not traded for three weeks?NAV and operationsHardsuperdayFund operationsFixed income desks
Say this
You do not use your own judgement. SEBI requires every AMC to value debt at the security-level prices supplied by the two mandated valuation agencies, CRISIL and ICRA, using the average of the two. Everything on a scheme's debt book is marked to market now — the old amortisation shortcut is gone.
Then walk it
1. The agencies build a matrix from whatever did trade: benchmark government yields, plus a credit spread for that rating and maturity bucket, adjusted for any traded prices in the same issuer.
2. If there is a trade in the security above a minimum size on that day, the traded price governs. Where there is none, the matrix price applies, which is why two identical bonds of the same issuer and maturity carry the same price across every AMC in the country.
3. The history matters here. India used to allow amortisation for short residual maturities, first under 60 days then under 30. After 2019 and 2020 SEBI moved the whole debt book to mark to market, so a liquid fund's NAV now moves with rates instead of pretending it cannot.
4. A default or a downgrade below investment grade triggers a different path: the agencies publish a haircut matrix, the security is written down to the indicated recovery value, and the AMC may create a segregated portfolio.
5. The AMC can deviate from the agency price only with documented justification, and it must report every deviation to the trustee and disclose it. That audit trail is the control.
6. The honest limitation: a matrix price is a model, not a market. In a stressed market the printed NAV is achievable only for small redemptions, which is exactly the gap that swing pricing and the 10 percent liquid asset rule were designed to plug.
Where candidates lose it
Saying you would mark it at cost or amortise it. That was the pre-2019 world and quoting it dates you badly. The strong answer names the two agencies, says average of the two, and then admits that a matrix price is not an exit price.
Expect next
- What happens to the price when the issuer is downgraded to default?
- Why did SEBI move away from amortisation?
- How does this interact with swing pricing?

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.

100 questions, mapped to the firms that asked them

Say this

Then walk it

Where candidates lose it

Expect next