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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Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitMarket viewBrainteaser

1. 013What do you know about our fund?Firm knowledgeCorefirst roundEQTInfrastructure · Munich · 2013Platinum EquityPrivate Equity · Los Angeles · 2014Apollo Global ManagementCredit · New York · 2025

   Say this

   Know the strategy, the fund size and vintage, the typical cheque size and sector focus, two or three recent deals, and what genuinely differentiates them. Then connect one of those to why you are sitting there.

   Then walk it

   1. Strategy and scale: which fund they are investing, how large it is, what enterprise value range they target, and whether they take control or minority positions.
   2. Sector focus and geography, and whether they are generalist or specialist. If they are specialist, know the sector thesis.
   3. Two or three recent deals with actual detail: what the business does, roughly what they paid if disclosed, and what the value creation angle appears to be.
   4. The differentiator: an operating partner model, a buy-and-build approach, a sector network, a carve-out specialism, a take-private focus. Every fund claims one, and knowing theirs shows you read past the homepage.
   5. Exits and track record where public, and the fundraising position, since a firm between funds behaves differently from one that has just closed.
   6. Then the connection: 'your carve-out focus is why I am here, because the two transactions I worked on were both divestitures from large corporates.' The research only counts if you land it on yourself.

   Where candidates lose it

   Reciting the website's about page. Funds ask this to filter for genuine interest, and everyone can read the homepage. Knowing a specific deal, and having a view on it, is what separates candidates.

   Expect next

   • Which of our deals do you find most interesting and why?
   • Which would you not have done?
   • Why us rather than a larger fund?

   Reported by candidates at EQT (Infrastructure, Munich, 2013); Platinum Equity (Private Equity, Los Angeles, 2014); Apollo Global Management (Credit, New York, 2025). 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.