Venture Capital interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

31

Firms

12

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsGeneral Atlantic9Insight Partners7Silver Lake6Vista Equity Partners4Bessemer Venture Partners3ACAccel2Advent International2Battery Ventures2Andreessen Horowitz1Coatue Management1Sequoia Capital1WPWarburg Pincus1

Topic

All topicsSourcing and deal flow5Market sizing and estimation8Founders and teams5Unit economics and cohorts11Term sheets12Cap table and dilution7Early-stage valuation7Portfolio construction6Board and governance4Down rounds and secondaries4Exits and liquidity4Fund economics5Sector theses and markets6India venture market6Fit and motivation10

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalFitCaseMarket viewBrainteaser

1. 010If you were to open a restaurant, what would be your key concerns?Market sizing and estimationIntermediatetechnicalGeneral AtlanticGeneralist · Beijing · 2014

   Say this

   Treat it as an investment, not a hobby: location economics, the unit-level P&L, working capital, and whether the concept is repeatable. The concerns in order are rent as a share of revenue, labour, food cost, and whether I can get a second site to work.

   Then walk it

   1. Unit economics first. Restaurant maths is brutal and well known: food cost around 30 percent of revenue, labour 25 to 30, rent under 10, leaving a single-digit to low-teens operating margin if everything goes right.
   2. So the binding constraint is revenue per square foot, which is really seats times turns times average ticket. Forty seats, two turns at lunch and two at dinner, ₹600 average ticket, 26 days — that is about ₹2.5m a month, or ₹30m a year. Every cost decision has to fit inside that.
   3. Then the capital question: fit-out and deposit are largely sunk and unrecoverable, payback on a new site typically runs 18 to 30 months, and the lease term has to be long enough to earn that back. A three-year lease on a five-year payback is not a business.
   4. Working capital is the thing people miss. Suppliers on short credit, aggregators paying out on a lag, staff paid monthly, plus perishable inventory. A profitable restaurant can die on a cash timing mismatch.
   5. Then the concern I would lead with as an investor: is it repeatable without me? A single great restaurant is a job, not an asset. What makes it scalable is a standardised menu, a central kitchen, a manager who is not the founder, and a site-selection model that has worked twice.
   6. And the delivery question, which changed the maths: aggregator commissions of 20 to 30 percent turn a thin dine-in margin negative unless you price a separate delivery menu. Cloud kitchens exist because that one number is so punishing.

   Where candidates lose it

   Answering as a diner — menu, ambience, chef. The interviewer is testing whether you naturally reach for a unit-level P&L and a payback period on an unfamiliar business. Lead with the cost structure and the repeatability, then let the concept discussion follow.

   Expect next

   • How long before you open a second location?
   • Would you ever invest in a restaurant chain? What would you need to see?
   • What is the payback period on a new site and how would you shorten it?

   Reported by candidates at General Atlantic (Generalist, Beijing, 2014). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 013What is 301 times 447?Market sizing and estimationCorephone / first roundGeneral AtlanticGeneralist · New York · 2026Vista Equity PartnersPrivate Equity · Austin · 2021

   Say this

   134,547. Break the awkward number into a round one plus a remainder: 300 times 447 is 134,100, and one more 447 gives 134,547. Say the method out loud as you go, because they are listening to the decomposition more than the answer.

   Then walk it

   1. Split 301 into 300 plus 1. Three times 447 is 1,341, so 300 times 447 is 134,100.
   2. Add the last 447: 134,547. Two steps, about five seconds.
   3. The alternative decomposition works too: 447 is 450 minus 3, so 301 times 450 is 135,450, minus 903 gives 134,547. Same answer, and it is worth knowing both because sometimes one side is the rounder number.
   4. Then sanity-check the magnitude before you speak: 300 times 450 is about 135,000, so anything not starting with 13 is wrong. That check costs nothing and saves you from a transposition error.
   5. Say the working as you do it. In a growth or VC seat mental arithmetic shows up constantly — a revenue multiple in a meeting, an ownership percentage, a dilution check — and the interviewer wants to hear whether you decompose or freeze.
   6. If you genuinely lose the thread, restate the approach and start again rather than guessing. A wrong number said confidently is much worse than ten extra seconds.

   Where candidates lose it

   Trying to do long multiplication in your head, digit by digit, in silence. You will drop a carry and you will look uncomfortable. Round, multiply, adjust, and narrate. Also practise the standard set beforehand: percentages of round numbers, revenue multiples, and 'what IRR is 5x in 5 years'.

   Expect next

   • What is 17 percent of 1,400?
   • A company grows from $4m to $32m of revenue in four years. What is the CAGR?
   • If I invest at a $20m post-money and exit at $340m, what is my multiple on a 10 percent stake?

   Reported by candidates at General Atlantic (Generalist, New York, 2026); Vista Equity Partners (Private Equity, Austin, 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.