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. 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.

2. 044A founder owns sixty percent and raises ten million at a forty million pre-money. What do they own afterwards?Cap table and dilutionCorephone / first roundGrowth equity

   Say this

   Forty-eight percent. The post-money is $50m, the new investor takes $10m over $50m which is 20 percent, and every existing holder is diluted by that 20 percent. Sixty times 0.8 is 48.

   Then walk it

   1. Post-money equals pre-money plus the raise: $40m plus $10m is $50m.
   2. Investor ownership is new money over post-money: $10m over $50m, so 20 percent. Never over the pre-money — that is the standard error and it gives you 25 percent.
   3. Dilution factor for everyone else is one minus 20 percent, so 0.8. The founder's 60 percent becomes 48 percent. The other existing 40 percent becomes 32 percent. Check: 48 plus 32 plus 20 is 100.
   4. Now the follow-up that always comes: add a 10 percent post-closing option pool out of the pre-money. The pool takes 10 percent of the post-money company, so the existing holders are diluted by both the pool and the round. The founder lands nearer 42 percent than 48.
   5. And say whether you are quoting fully diluted. Fully diluted includes the option pool, issued and unissued options, warrants, and any convertible instruments. Every real ownership number in venture is fully diluted, and 'on an as-converted basis' is the phrase that signals you know it.
   6. One sanity habit: check that the percentages sum to 100 before you speak. Half the errors in these questions are arithmetic, not concept, and the interviewer cannot tell the difference.

   Where candidates lose it

   Dividing the raise by the pre-money. $10m over $40m is 25 percent and it is wrong. Ownership is always new money over post-money. The second trap is answering the clean question and then getting caught by the pool version, so volunteer the pool adjustment before they ask.

   Expect next

   • Now add a 12 percent option pool out of the pre-money. What do they own?
   • What if there is $3m of SAFEs at a $15m cap outstanding?
   • What would they own after two more rounds of 20 percent each?

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.