Currently a sophomore who will be recruiting for IB this summer. I wanted to know what the best practices were to be prepared for technical interview questions. If I have memorized all 100 questions on the WSO guide will that be enough or are actual technical interviews much more difficult than that?
Thanks in advance.
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Know what the scope is first, i.e. you have to understand basic accounting, valuation (DCF, comps), baisc M&A questions, etc.
Then go on to IBD 400 Qs (you can easily find this pdf on google) and select relevant questions to read and understand. Once you done that and have extra time, go pick a consumer company or any company easy to model and build a full DCF model over it. Also work on its comps. Find a peers group/mentor to check your model. Repeat the steps over and over to fill the knowledge gap and you're good to go.
At juior level no one really expects you to master any model but its critical to show your effort trying to build up the technical side.
I'd add that you shouldn't memorise the answers, but instead seek to understand why the answers are what they are. This means that 1. if memory fails under the pressure of an interview, you still understand it enough to give a good answer and 2. when you get thrown something that is a bit different, you can figure out how to answer it.
I would say that you have to be able to answer the 400 questions mentioned above. Generally, interview questions tend to be basic (walk me through a 100 depreciation, how do you value a company) but you sometimes have to explain and compare different concepts - though it should be quite easy if you learned the 400 above questions by heart. I've personally never had any questions on deferred tax liabilities, asset write-ups etc. Much more importantly is your fit and desire to work in banking, along with your knowledge of the industry.
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