On Cycle Interview Questions

All -

Know a lot of you are likely reeling from the shock and insanity that is on cycle, though I had a proposal for those of you that went through any recent interviews. A lot of you obviously have access to interview guides, but I've personally found in my historical interview processes that I get a lot of random questions (not necessarily hard to answer or curve balls, just ones that I hadn't prepared for). 

With this in mind, I would suggest any generous souls / interviewees list any questions that they received in this thread (don't need to ascribe to any firm / group) just so it's living repository for those that are going through interview prep. It's something I wished I had access to in the past, so I wanted to make it a point to make the suggestion next time on-cycle came around. I'm thinking things that go beyond the tell me about yourself, tell me about merits / risks for a company, what's a deal you like, etc. 

While I hope people wouldn't view this as a selfish effort, in case it matters, I'm personally headed to business school from a MM PE shop over the next few weeks, so while I may benefit from this list in a year or two when refreshing myself for interviews, I don't personally have anything to gain from it in the near-term (and especially with respect to this year's processes), though hope others will! 

Obviously no need to take it up, but I imagine if a few people get the ball rolling, it could be a really helpful resource that's more up-to-date than whatever the latest interview guides out there have on the topic. 

5 Comments
 

Some questions I was asked off the top of my head for APO/BX/Carlyle/CD&R:

- What is an LBO?

- What is the difference between EBITDA and EBIT?

- What's the difference between PE and IB?

- Why do you want to do PE?

- How many golf balls can fit in a Boeing 767?

- What is IRR?

- How to increase IRR?

black female veteran btw

 

I realize this is low caliber talent but these kinda seem like real layups

 

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