Prospect who is getting started practicing technical questions. I want to start off by polishing the most common technicals before moving onto the complex ones that are asked less.
What are the most common technicals other than "Walk me through a DCF" and "How do the 3 financial statements link?"
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How does X transaction affect the three financial statements, name and briefly describe all four valuation techniques, order the valuation techniques from highest to lowest, what is investment banking, what do you know about our bank and group. I would say those are the most common ones I have gotten.
For some reason, in about a third of my interviews I have also gotten the dang handles on a clock questions (thankfully they're easy)
What are on a clock questions
what is the angle created between minute and hour hand at 3:15? at 4:45? etc
for 3:15 it's not 0 degrees because the hour is 1/4 of the way between 3 and 4 while the minute hand is on the 3. answer is 360/12 * (1/4) = 7.5 degrees
4:45 the hour hand is 7.5 degrees from 5 and going from 9 to 5 is 4*30 = 120 so 127.5 degrees
- comparing cost of debt vs cost of equity (+ how to calculate each)
- how $10 of depreciation flows through all 3 statements
- which statement would you choose to evaluate a company
- 3 ways to value a company (DCF, comps, precedents)
- name a few valuation multiples
- FCF formula, enterprise value formula
- high level overview of WACC
- what accretive and dilutive deals are - no math, just understanding terms
These seem like really standard questions.
Rev to FCF, name and rank valuation methods, what is the role of a banking analyst, pros/cons of m&a financing methods
Following
Following x2
All the comments above are good, I would also add walk from Enterprise Value to Equity Value and back, and knowing the common ratios used for both. Can be tacked onto DCF ("now that I have EV, how do I get a share price etc."). What levers to pull in an LBO to increase value? How changes in 3 statements effect the rest of them? Levers to pull in DCF and how they change things? I would also say it really depends on your resume, for example I have an LBO case competition on mine so tend to get lots of LBO stuff. You need to know everything that appears on your resume backwards and forwards, so only embellish within the limits of what you feel discussing in an interview (ie, if you have taken some super in depth accounting class but don't wanna get really tough accounting technicals, don't include a "relevant coursework" section on your CV). This WSO post has the general most common ones and is super helpful, I look at it before every interview:
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/investment-banking-interview-questions-15-answers-to-land-the-job
Definitley also go through all of the WSO/BIWS interview guides (you can find older copies for free online) and spend more time on stuff you don't know super well yet. Make sure at the least you can answer the majority of the questions in the "basic" section, and know the general methodology/way of thinking for each so you can adjust if you get a question you haven't seen before.
Also, especially for SA unless you hear otherwise, you really only need to know the questions in the "basic" section of all the guides. Advanced is more for people who already have FT work experience. There may be some exceptions here (check WSO interview database, if a firm is highly technical then go into advanced) but generally in my SA interviews you only see basic variants of the most common questions. I think generally people spend to much time doing the hard techs for SA, and not enough on behaviorals which are aruguably more important. A good technical base is obviously important, but once you hit the minimum level there are diminishing returns and you should focus more on a cohesive story and being personable/likeable. Particularly important for super days where it is assumed everyone has a good technical base already, or else they wouldn't have made it that far.
del
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I've heard from students that they find FinPrepAI useful for technical interview prep since it leverages AI to assist you. Kinda wild how much things have changed since I was recruiting. FinPrepAI
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