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

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalCaseFitMarket viewBrainteaser

1. 054You own an underground car park in Mayfair with an empty floor and all the usual services already provided. What would you do with it?OperationsHardsuperdayHIH.I.G. CapitalPrivate Equity · Paris · 2024

   Say this

   Work out what the space is actually worth per square foot in that location, then find the highest-value use that does not need natural light, street frontage or planning permission you cannot get.

   Then walk it

   1. First establish the constraints, because they define the answer: no natural light, restricted access, ceiling height, ventilation, fire regulation, and whatever the lease and planning consent permit.
   2. Then the location advantage: Mayfair means extremely high-value residents and businesses within a very short radius, and extremely expensive surface space. So the value is in anything that needs proximity but not daylight.
   3. Candidate uses: secure storage for art, wine or documents, which is high margin and needs exactly these conditions; last-mile delivery and dark-store fulfilment; a gym or padel courts, which work well underground; data or telecoms infrastructure; or EV charging with premium pricing.
   4. Then size it properly rather than just listing ideas: rough square footage, achievable rent or revenue per square foot, the capital cost to convert, and the payback. Art and wine storage in central London commands a large multiple of parking revenue per square foot.
   5. Then check the downside: what is the reversibility of the conversion, and does it restrict a future sale of the whole asset?
   6. And the honest baseline: compare every option to simply improving the parking yield through dynamic pricing and monthly contracts, which costs nothing. Sometimes the best answer to a value-add question is that the incremental capital is not justified.

   Where candidates lose it

   Brainstorming a list with no numbers and no constraints. The test is commercial judgement under constraints: name the constraints first, size one or two options, and compare to the do-nothing baseline.

   Expect next

   • How would you size the storage opportunity?
   • What would you need to check in the lease?
   • What is the payback on your preferred option?

   Reported by candidates at H.I.G. Capital (Private Equity, Paris, 2024). 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.