Are SA interviews group specific or always generalist?

It entirely depends on the bank. Usually, capital markets recruiting is run separately from M&A/coverage recruiting. But there are some banks where the generalist program spans across capital markets and coverage/M&A. I know Moelis runs group specific recruiting for PCA, their Capital Markets group (which covers ECM, DCM, and levfin), and their Life Sciences coverage group. Btw you can place into PCA and life sciences through Moelis' generalist program, but these groups also have group specific recruiting pathways. If you're applying for an industry specific boutique, then you should study that industry well and be prepared for industry-specific technicals (in that sense industry specific boutique recruiting is like group specific recruiting at larger banks). The best way to figure out what places have group specific recruiting is to create an account with Adventis (their internship database). Once you're looking at recently posted internships, scroll to the bottom to go further back (like you would if you scrolled to the bottom of google after a google search). Eventually you'll start seeing all of the postings that came out during this past cycle. If there was a group-specific application, Adventis will let you know most of the time. FWIW, I know that JEFF does a ton of group specific recruiting; they also have an Israel coverage group which seems interesting (you need to be fluent in Hebrew to work there). I'll lastly mention that the idea of group-specific recruiting and city-specific recruiting can overlap. For example, if you recruit for Lazard SF, you'll be doing TMT-specific recruiting as well. Lazard's SF office only does TMT, so that's something else to be aware of.