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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1. 091What is 301 times 447?BrainteasersIntermediatetechnicalGeneral AtlanticGeneralist · New York · 2026

   Say this

   134,547. Split 301 into 300 plus 1. Three hundred times 447 is 134,100, then add one more 447.

   Then walk it

   1. Decompose to the round number: 301 is 300 plus 1.
   2. 447 times 3 is 1,341, so times 300 is 134,100.
   3. Add the remaining 447 to get 134,547.
   4. Announce the decomposition before computing, so the interviewer can follow your method even if you slip on the arithmetic.
   5. The same technique handles most of these: round one factor, multiply, then correct. For 19 times 63, do 20 times 63 and subtract 63.
   6. Offer a sanity check as you go: 300 times 450 is 135,000, so the answer should be just under that. That check costs two seconds and catches an order-of-magnitude error.

   Where candidates lose it

   Attempting long multiplication mentally and losing a digit. These are method tests. Decompose out loud, keep one running total, and give a sanity-check bound before you commit to the exact figure.

   Expect next

   • What is 56 times 67?
   • If a date is a Monday, what day is it a year later?
   • If I make 8 times my money in 6 years, what is my IRR?

   Reported by candidates at General Atlantic (Generalist, New York, 2026). 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.