Private Equity interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

83

Firms

40

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsAdvent International6Apollo Global Management6Audax Group6Carlyle Group6EQT6Silver Lake6Vista Equity Partners6WPWarburg Pincus6HIH.I.G. Capital5Oaktree Capital Management5Platinum Equity5TPTPG5General Atlantic4AMAres Management3Blackstone3Clayton Dubilier and Rice3GSGuggenheim Securities3Insight Partners3Invesco3Lazard3Neuberger Berman3NUNuveen3TSTruist Securities3Bain Capital2HWHarris Williams2Kohlberg Kravis Roberts2Millennium Management2Moody's2Rothschild & Co2WBWilliam Blair2Bessemer Venture Partners1Citi1Evercore1FTFranklin Templeton1Houlihan Lokey1HPS Investment Partners1KKR1Mizuho1MSMorgan Stanley1Sycamore Partners1

Topic

All topicsLBO mechanics7Value creation5Returns2Fund economics9Investment judgement18Valuation6Firm knowledge2Credit and financing9Operations4Due diligence8Career and fit11Sector knowledge4Accounting2Deal structuring7Industry knowledge3Brainteasers3

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AnyTechnicalCaseFitMarket viewBrainteaser

1. 011Give me a purchase price for this company, given that the acquisition will generate an extra million of EBITDA.ValuationHardtechnicalAudax GroupPrivate Equity · Boston · 2021

   Say this

   Price the standalone business on its own multiple, then decide how much of the synergy you are willing to hand to the seller. In a buy-and-build you want to pay for the asset as it is and keep the synergy for yourself.

   Then walk it

   1. Start with standalone value: the target's own EBITDA at a multiple appropriate to its size and quality. Small bolt-ons trade well below platform multiples, often six to eight times against twelve for the platform.
   2. Then the synergy. That extra million of EBITDA, capitalised at your platform's exit multiple, is worth ten or twelve million of enterprise value to you.
   3. The negotiation is about how much of that you concede. A disciplined buyer pays little or nothing for synergies it creates; a competitive auction forces you to share some of it.
   4. So I would express it as a range: I would open at the standalone multiple, and my walk-away is the price at which the deal stops clearing my return hurdle after synergies.
   5. Then check the maths on the multiple arbitrage: buying at seven times and having it valued at twelve inside the platform creates value immediately, and that arbitrage is the core of any buy-and-build.
   6. And I would probability-weight the synergy. Cost synergies in a bolt-on are largely deliverable; revenue synergies rarely are, so I would underwrite only the former.

   Where candidates lose it

   Adding the synergy to the target's EBITDA and paying a full multiple on the combined figure. That hands the entire value creation to the seller before you have done any work, and it is the error the question is designed to find.

   Expect next

   • How much of the synergy would you pay away in a competitive auction?
   • What is multiple arbitrage?
   • How do you underwrite synergies in diligence?

   Reported by candidates at Audax Group (Private Equity, Boston, 2021). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 046How would you diligence a founder-run business?Due diligenceHardsuperdayAudax GroupPrivate Equity · Boston · 2021HIH.I.G. CapitalPrivate Equity · Paris · 2024

   Say this

   Assume the reporting is weaker than it looks and the founder is more central than anyone admits. The two questions are what the real earnings are, and what happens to the business when the founder steps back.

   Then walk it

   1. Financial reporting is usually thin. There may be no audited accounts, no management accounts by segment, no unit-level profitability. Budget more time and money for quality of earnings than you would for a corporate carve-out.
   2. Personal expenses run through the business are standard: cars, travel, family on the payroll, property. These are legitimate add-backs but each needs verification, and they are also a signal about controls.
   3. Founder dependency is the core risk. Which customer relationships are personal? Who actually makes pricing decisions? Is there a second layer of management, or does everything route through one person?
   4. Test it concretely: ask what happened when the founder took a long holiday. Ask the customers who they call. The answers are usually revealing.
   5. Related-party arrangements: property leased from a founder-owned entity, supply from a family business, loans in both directions. All need to be put on arm's-length terms before closing.
   6. Then structure around what you find. Rollover equity and an earnout keep the founder engaged; a transition agreement with defined handover milestones; and building the second layer of management is usually the first hundred days priority.

   Where candidates lose it

   Treating it like a corporate diligence. The distinctive risks are informal reporting, personal expenses and founder dependency, and the answer should end with how you structure around them rather than just listing them.

   Expect next

   • How would you structure the founder's rollover?
   • What if the founder wants to leave immediately?
   • How do you value a business where the owner works unpaid?

   Reported by candidates at Audax Group (Private Equity, Boston, 2021); H.I.G. Capital (Private Equity, Paris, 2024). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

3. 061How do you think about a roll-up in a fragmented industry?Value creationHardsuperdayAudax GroupPrivate Equity · Boston · 2021

   Say this

   The arithmetic works easily and the execution usually does not. The test is whether the combined entity is genuinely worth more than the sum of the parts, or whether you have just assembled a portfolio of small businesses with a head office on top.

   Then walk it

   1. The value creation is real when there is genuine scale benefit: procurement leverage, shared infrastructure, a single back office, cross-selling, or density in a route-based business where overlapping territories cut cost per job.
   2. It is illusory when the acquired businesses keep operating exactly as before. Then all you have is multiple arbitrage and added overhead, and the exit buyer will see it.
   3. Integration capacity is the binding constraint. Most roll-ups fail because they acquire faster than they can integrate. A platform that closes eight deals a year with a two-person integration team will have problems in year three.
   4. Watch organic growth separately. A buyer at exit will strip out acquired revenue and look at the organic trend. A roll-up growing 30 percent with minus 2 percent organic is worth much less than the headline.
   5. Price discipline erodes over time: the first deals are cheap, then sellers learn what you are doing and the sector gets competitive. Having a walk-away multiple and holding it is what separates good platforms.
   6. And funding: each deal needs capital, so the platform's leverage capacity and lender relationships set the pace. A roll-up that runs out of debt capacity mid-strategy is stuck.

   Where candidates lose it

   Focusing only on the multiple arbitrage. It is the easy half. Integration capacity and organic growth are what determine whether the exit buyer pays the platform multiple, and naming those is what makes the answer credible.

   Expect next

   • How would you measure whether integration is working?
   • What would you do if organic growth went negative?
   • How do you keep discipline on price as the sector heats up?

   Reported by candidates at Audax Group (Private Equity, Boston, 2021). 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.