The Investment Banking Interview Guide

What the job actually is, how deals work, and the language of the Street.

• What is investment banking?What investment bankers actually do all day, how a deal team is structured from analyst to MD, and why the analyst is the engine that makes the whole thing move.
• Buy-side vs. sell-sideSell-side banks advise companies and sell securities; buy-side firms invest capital and take the risk. Where an analyst sits, what each does day to day, and why the two meanings of these words trip up beginners.
• Capital markets: ECM and DCMHow companies raise money by selling stock (ECM) or issuing bonds (DCM), how underwriting and the greenshoe actually work, an IPO walked through from the bake-off to the first trade, and where equity research fits without crossing the wall.
• How a deal actually gets doneA live deal isn't one big event. It's months of staged work, and the analyst is the engine that carries each stage. Here's the lifecycle from pitch to close, and where the hours spike.
• Types of investment banks: bulge bracket, elite boutique, middle marketThe taxonomy every 'why our bank' answer assumes you already know. What separates a bulge bracket from an elite boutique from a middle-market firm, what actually changes for you as an analyst, and where the lines are genuinely argued over.
• What banks are really looking forBeing smart is table stakes. What actually gets you hired is proving you get it, you'll grind when it counts, and your work is accurate under pressure. How to show it.
• The IPO processHow a private company goes public: hiring underwriters, filing the S-1, running the roadshow, building the book, pricing the night before, and why the stock so often pops on day one.

How to get in front of a banker before the interview, and how to run the call once you are.

• How to get a networking call (Part 1): the outreachThe outreach that gets answered: warm intros, a short message with the commonality in the subject line and your resume attached, who to target and why junior is not second best, the follow-up ladder, templates worth A/B testing, and the honest hit rate.
• How to get a networking call (Part 2): running it in the Recruiting HubThe tool half: a composer that merges from the contact record, A/B pairs that differ on exactly one thing, reply rates counted from what you actually sent, and a tracker that shows you who has gone quiet and which firms you have nobody at.
• The banking resume, section by sectionHow a first-round screener actually reads your resume, the rules that apply to every line on it, and what goes in Education, Work Experience, Leadership & Activities and Additional Information, drawn from the mentor reviews behind the SuperdayReps Resume Review, with a prompt at the end to run the same review in ChatGPT or Claude.
• The informational interviewThe call itself: why wanting the referral is what ruins it, who should be doing the talking, the questions that make it a conversation, why a technical question can now land on a coffee chat, what to take away from it, and whether you can ever ask for the referral at the end.
• The follow-up that earns the second conversationWhat to send after a networking call and after an interview, why a generic thank-you note is worse than none, the one detail that makes it land, and the follow-up that is not a thank-you at all.
• Managing competing processesWhat to do when two banks move at different speeds: how to ask for time honestly, why an exploding offer is not the emergency it feels like, and why using one offer to pressure another is a much smaller lever than students think.

How a first-round actually runs and the full range of technicals you get tested on.

• How a first-round interview is structuredThe order a first-round IB interview almost always runs in, and the hard truth underneath it: at the analyst level the technicals are what decide it. Ace the fit half and bomb the technicals and it is usually a no-go, and here is why.
• The range of technicals you get tested onThe technical universe of a first-round IB interview is smaller than it feels. It comes down to six areas: accounting, enterprise vs equity value, DCF, the three valuation methods, accretion / dilution, and the paper LBO. Here is the map, with a lesson on each.
• Answer the question, then stopThe most common note in a mock interview is not that the answer was wrong. It is that it was too long. Real target lengths for every kind of question, why over-answering actively costs you, and the ordering trick that makes a 30-second answer feel complete.
• STAR is missing a stepEvery prep resource teaches STAR, and the gap it leaves is never where you would expect. Students tell a complete, well-organised story that contains no evidence they could do the job. The I in STARI is not a line you say. It is the breadcrumbs you plant so the interviewer reaches the conclusion themselves.
• The 3 questions that start all interviews, Part 1: Walk me through your resumeThe first question in almost every interview, and the one most people prepare least. It is not a recital of your bullets. It is a two-minute argument that ends facing forward, and every stop on it has to earn its place.
• The 3 questions that start all interviews, Part 2: Why investment bankingThe easiest question to fail. Why prestige and money answers get you dinged, why the real reason is the education, and how to prove you fit what banks look for.
• The 3 questions that start all interviews, Part 3: Why this bankThe question you cannot prepare from a website. Why a list of people you have actually spoken to beats anything on the firm's About page, what to say about them, how to handle 'why not Firm X', and the two rules that keep you out of trouble.
• AI is on the desk now: the free courses worth a line on your resumeEvery bulge bracket has put an AI assistant in front of its analysts. The free courses from Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, IBM and Harvard that carry a name a banker recognises, what each one costs once you want the certificate, the order to take them in, and how to put it on a resume so it reads as evidence rather than a buzzword.

The three statements, how they link, and the questions every interviewer asks.

• The income statement, line by lineRevenue down to net income, one layer of cost at a time. What each subtotal means, why interest and taxes sit below operating income, and the margins interviewers actually ask about.
• The balance sheet, both sidesThe balance sheet is a point-in-time snapshot of what a company owns and how it paid for it. Assets always equal liabilities plus equity, and knowing why is your check on every accounting answer.
• The cash flow statement, section by sectionThe cash flow statement reconciles accrual net income back to real cash across three sections (operating, investing, financing). This is how it's built and why profit is not the same as cash.
• Walk me through the three statementsWhat each of the three statements actually is, the subsections inside them, how they link, and the $10 depreciation walk interviewers use to test whether you really get it.
• Depreciation goes up by $20... (Advanced)The most-asked technical on the Street, and a harder filter than the three-statement walk itself. The fixed order, the tax shield that makes cash rise, why it balances (net income drives retained earnings), and the two questions that solve any version of it.
• Depreciation and amortizationDepreciation and amortization spread the cost of long-lived assets over their useful life. Both are non-cash, both get added back on the cash flow statement, and the only real cash they move is the tax they save.
• Working capital, and why it eats cashWorking capital is the cash tied up in running the business day to day. When it grows, it drains cash and free cash flow, which is why fast-growing companies can be starved for cash even while profits look great.
• EBITDA and the bridge to free cash flowWhat EBITDA actually is, why bankers lean on it, and the exact bridge from EBITDA to unlevered free cash flow. EBITDA is not cash. Capex, taxes, and working capital are the gap.
• Deferred revenueCash collected before you deliver the product is a liability, not revenue. Here's how deferred revenue works, why it never touches the income statement until earned, and why investors love the businesses that carry a lot of it.
• Deferred taxes: DTAs and DTLsDeferred taxes exist because a company keeps two sets of books, one for shareholders and one for the IRS. DTLs mean you will pay more cash tax later; DTAs mean you will pay less. Here is the timing logic and how each unwinds.
• Goodwill and purchase accountingWhen a buyer pays more than the fair value of the identifiable net assets it acquires, the excess lands on the balance sheet as goodwill. Here is how purchase accounting actually works, why asset write-ups create a deferred tax liability, and why goodwill is tested for impairment, not amortized.
• Diluted shares and the treasury stock methodA company's share count is not one number. Basic vs diluted shares, where dilution comes from, and the treasury stock method worked step by step with clean numbers, plus why diluted shares are the count that drives equity value and EPS.
• Stock-based compensationSBC is a real expense that reduces net income but burns no cash, so it gets added back on the cash flow statement. The catch is the dilution.
• Dividends and buybacksThe two ways a company hands cash back to shareholders. Dividends pay a steady amount per share; buybacks shrink the share count and lift EPS. Why neither creates value on its own, worked with clean numbers.
• Operating leverageOperating leverage is how much of a company's cost base is fixed. High fixed costs mean a small revenue move produces a large profit move, up or down. Contribution margin, flow-through, and break-even explained.

Enterprise vs. equity value, multiples, and how to triangulate what a company is worth.

• How bankers value a companyThere is no single "right" value for a company. Bankers run three or four methods, each answering a different question, and present a range. Here's the toolkit, why the methods disagree, and how the football field ties them together.
• Enterprise value vs. equity valueEnterprise value is what the operating business is worth; equity value is what the shareholders own. The bridge between them, and why cash is subtracted rather than added, is the single most-tested relationship in valuation.
• The multiples that matterEV multiples pair with pre-interest metrics, equity multiples pair with post-interest ones. Get the pairing right and you understand valuation.
• Trading comparablesComparable companies analysis values a business off what the market is paying for similar public companies right now. How to pick the set, which multiples to use, and why EV/EBITDA is the workhorse.
• Precedent transactionsPrecedent transactions value a company off what acquirers actually paid for similar businesses in past M&A deals. The control premium, why they run high, and how they differ from trading comps.

Free cash flow, WACC, terminal value — building a discounted cash flow from scratch.

• The DCF, explainedA discounted cash flow values a company by its own future cash flows. The unlevered FCF build, WACC, terminal value, and the sequence and bridge mistakes that trip people up.
• Time value of moneyA dollar today beats a dollar next year, and that one idea is the engine under every valuation. Present value, discount factors, perpetuities, and why rising rates push valuations down, worked with clean numbers.
• Unlevered free cash flowUnlevered free cash flow is the cash a business generates before any debt payments, so it belongs to every capital provider. The EBIT-based build, why it pairs with WACC, and a clean worked example.
• CAPM and the cost of equityThe cost of equity is the return shareholders demand for the risk they take. CAPM builds it from three inputs, risk-free rate plus beta times the equity risk premium, and it feeds straight into WACC and the DCF.
• Levered vs. unlevered betaA company's observed beta is contaminated by its debt. To value a business you strip debt out (unlever) and re-apply your target's own debt (relever). The two formulas, why it matters, and the errors interviewers fish for.
• The market risk premiumThe extra return investors demand for holding stocks over risk-free bonds. It's the price of risk in the whole market, the same number for every company you value that day, scaled by beta. Where it comes from, why it runs 5-7%, and how not to mangle it.
• WACC, explainedWACC is the blended return debt and equity holders demand, and it's the discount rate for unlevered cash flows. The formula, why you use market weights, and the after-tax cost of debt.
• Terminal valueTerminal value captures everything past your forecast window and usually drives most of a DCF. The two methods (Gordon growth and exit multiple), why you need WACC first, and why you still discount it back.
• DCF conventions and the errors that sink youThe DCF logic is easy. The conventions and the sequence are where candidates lose the offer, so here are the mid-year convention, stub periods, sensitivity tables, and the mistakes that read as sloppy.
• The yield curve and interest ratesA bond's yield is the return you earn holding it to maturity, and plotting yields against maturity gives the yield curve. Here is how it slopes, what inverts it, and why every deal reads it.
• Terminal value (Advanced)The two terminal value methods have to agree, and making them agree is the actual interview test. Implied perpetuity growth, implied exit multiple, normalizing the terminal year, and why terminal value being 70% of your DCF is not automatically a problem.
• WACC and beta (Advanced)Unlevering and relevering beta correctly, why you use a target capital structure rather than today's, and the adjustments interviewers use to probe whether you understand cost of capital or just memorized the formula.

Accretion/dilution, synergies, and the mechanics of buying a company.

• How M&A deals actually workM&A is not one negotiation. It's a staged process with a teaser, a CIM, rounds of bids, and exclusivity, and understanding who can pay more (strategics vs. sponsors) is the thing that separates you.
• Cash vs. stock: how a deal is paid forHow an acquirer pays (cash, debt, or its own shares) drives whether a deal is accretive or dilutive. The cheap-debt intuition, the buyer-vs-target P/E rule for stock deals, and the signal a stock deal sends.
• Synergies: the number that justifies the premiumSynergies are the extra value two companies create together that they couldn't apart. Cost synergies are credible and near-term; revenue synergies are softer. Here's how they justify a control premium, and how deals destroy value by paying the whole thing away.
• Accretion / dilutionAccretion/dilution asks whether a deal raises or lowers the acquirer's earnings per share. The P/E rule of thumb for stock deals, why cash deals usually look accretive, and what the test does and doesn't tell you.
• Building a merger modelA merger model is a sequence, not a spreadsheet. Sources and uses, purchase accounting and goodwill, combine the income statements, then land on pro-forma EPS and accretion/dilution.
• Strategic buyers versus financial buyersWhen a company is for sale, the bidders split into two camps: strategics who fold the target into their own business, and financial sponsors who buy it as a standalone investment. Who they are shapes who pays more and who usually wins.
• Asset deals versus stock dealsThe two legal ways to buy a company. A stock deal buys the whole entity and every liability with it. An asset deal buys chosen assets and hands the buyer a tax step-up. Plus the 338(h)(10) election that gets you both.
• What a sell-side M&A process looks likeA stage-by-stage walk through a sell-side M&A deal, from pitch to close, told from the deal team's seat. What each document does, why the whole game is competitive tension, and what the analyst actually owns day to day.
• Shareholder activism and how bankers help clientsWhat shareholder activists want, the language of a campaign from 13D filings to proxy fights, and how bankers defend a company: vulnerability reviews, stock surveillance, and the fight-or-settle decision.
• Accretion / dilution (Advanced)The full pro-forma EPS build: purchase accounting D&A from the step-up, foregone interest, phased synergies, and the breakeven questions interviewers actually use to separate candidates. Plus why the P/E rule of thumb breaks.

Leverage, returns drivers, and why private equity loves debt.

• The LBO and the paper LBOA leveraged buyout buys a company mostly with borrowed money, then uses the company's own cash flow to pay it down. Sources and uses, IRR and MOIC, and how to run a paper LBO in your head.
• What makes a good LBO candidateThe best LBO targets are boring on purpose. Stable, predictable cash flow that services debt, low capex, a defensible market position, hard assets for collateral, and a clear way out. Why cash-flow stability beats a growth story.
• Sources and usesThe Sources and Uses table is where every LBO starts. Uses is everything you have to pay for; Sources is where the money comes from. The sponsor's equity check is the plug that makes them tie.
• Debt tranches and seniorityHow the capital stack is layered in an LBO, why cost rises as you go down, and who gets paid first when a deal goes bad.
• IRR and MOICThe two numbers a private equity sponsor cares about. MOIC tells you how many times you multiplied your money; IRR tells you how fast. Here's how they connect and how to reason about them in your head.
• What drives LBO returnsAn LBO makes money three ways: paying down debt, growing EBITDA, and selling at a higher multiple than you paid. Here is how leverage amplifies the equity return, and how to walk a clean entry-to-exit bridge to a MOIC.
• Credit ratings and leverage ratiosHow agencies grade a borrower from AAA down to default, where investment grade ends and junk begins, and how leverage and coverage ratios drive both the rating and the cost of debt.
• Capital structureCapital structure is the mix of debt and equity a company uses to fund itself. Debt is cheaper but comes with fixed payments and bankruptcy risk, equity is expensive but forgiving, and the balance drives both WACC and LBO returns.
• What drives LBO returns (Advanced)Returns attribution: splitting an LBO's value creation into EBITDA growth, multiple expansion, and debt paydown, and knowing which one a sponsor can actually control. Plus cash sweeps, dividend recaps, and why IRR and MOIC disagree.

What happens when a company cannot pay: Chapter 11, the waterfall, and who ends up owning it.

• Restructuring basicsWhat happens when a company cannot pay its debts. Out-of-court deals versus Chapter 11, the absolute priority waterfall, recovery rates, and why the fulcrum security ends up owning the reorganized business.
• Why companies get into troubleStressed, distressed and bankrupt, what pushes a company from one to the next, the triggers that bring restructuring bankers in, and how to read liquidity runway and a bond price for signs of trouble.
• CovenantsThe rules lenders write into a loan. Maintenance versus incurrence tests, covenant-lite and the springing covenant, how to measure headroom, what happens on a breach, and how an equity cure works.
• Recovery waterfalls in practiceRunning a waterfall the way an interviewer will test it: what value is actually distributed, what comes off the top, how accrued and PIK interest change the claims, deficiency claims, pari passu sharing, and finding the fulcrum.
• Liquidity and the 13-week cash flowThe model every distressed company lives by: what a 13-week cash flow is, how it is laid out, how a borrowing base shrinks just when it is needed, the levers that buy time, and how the forecast becomes the DIP budget in Chapter 11.
• Inside a Chapter 11How a Chapter 11 case actually runs: the automatic stay, the debtor in possession and first-day motions, 363 sales and stalking horses, how a plan is voted on and confirmed, cram-down, and prepackaged versus pre-negotiated cases.
• Valuing a distressed companyWhy valuation decides who owns a restructured company, why senior and junior creditors argue for different values, how comps, precedents and the DCF are adjusted for distress, and how a liquidation analysis sets the floor.
• Liability managementHow companies restructure out of court by pitting creditors against each other: uptiers, drop-downs and double-dips, the worked numbers that show who wins and loses, how the courts have responded, and why lenders now sign co-operation agreements. Current as of October 2026.
• How creditors get paidWhat creditors actually receive when a restructuring ends: cash, take-back debt and new equity, how a recovery is measured, rights offerings and backstops, warrants for classes out of the money, management's slice of the equity, and convenience classes for small claims.

What each industry group asks on top of the standard technicals, one sector at a time.

• TechnologyWhat a technology or software banking interview asks on top of the standard technicals: why tech, the SaaS revenue model, retention, the metrics bankers actually quote, how software gets valued, and how to talk about a deal.
• Financial Institutions (FIG)What a FIG interview asks on top of the standard technicals: why a bank is not a normal company, why it is valued on equity, price to tangible book and its link to ROE, regulatory capital, a loan loss provision through the statements, insurers, and the fee businesses that value normally.
• HealthcareWhat a healthcare interview asks on top of the standard technicals: the verticals and which ones value normally, why a branded drug's revenue expires, valuing a clinical-stage biotech with probability-adjusted cash flows, generics and the price collapse, hospitals and their volume metrics, payers and the medical loss ratio, and how a drug reaches a patient.
• Real Estate & REITsWhat a real estate interview asks on top of the standard technicals: the property types, NOI and the property pro forma, cap rates and how they move with rates, why property deals carry so much debt, how a REIT works, FFO and AFFO, valuing a REIT on net asset value, and why REIT mergers are paid in stock.
• EnergyWhat an energy interview asks on top of the standard technicals: the oil and gas verticals and how each is valued, reserves and the NAV model, EBITDAX and the production and reserve multiples, price decks and hedging, midstream fees and MLPs, refining and the crack spread, regulated utilities and the rate base, power producers and the spark spread, and valuing a renewable project with contracts, tax credits and project debt.
• FintechWhat a fintech interview asks on top of the standard technicals: sorting a company by whether it earns fees on volume or a spread on its own balance sheet, who gets paid when a card is swiped, take rate and gross against net revenue, the multiples used when there are no earnings, lenders that are really banks, buy now pay later credit risk, neobanks and their partner banks, and the unit economics of a free app.
• Consumer & RetailWhat a consumer and retail interview asks on top of the standard technicals: staples against discretionary and how the cycle moves their multiples, building a retailer's revenue from stores and same-store sales, four-wall EBITDA and new store payback, gross margin and inventory, leases and EBITDAR, franchised against company-owned restaurants, brands and private label, and e-commerce and marketplaces.
• IndustrialsWhat an industrials interview asks on top of the standard technicals: the sub-sectors and how each makes money, why the cycle changes which earnings you value, operating leverage on the way down, capex intensity and the multiples that allow for it, backlog and book-to-bill, aftermarket revenue, pensions in enterprise value, and the transport metrics.
• Metals & MiningWhat a metals and mining interview asks on top of the standard technicals: the sub-sectors and which ones value normally, reserves against resources, grade and mine life, cash costs and all-in sustaining cost, commodity price decks, the mine-by-mine NAV model and P/NAV, metal equivalents, picking mining comparables, and how mining M&A is judged.
• InfrastructureWhat an infrastructure and project finance interview asks on top of the standard technicals: how project finance differs from corporate finance, the asset types and who carries demand risk, concessions and PPPs, CFADS, sizing and sculpting debt on the DSCR, the LLCR, construction loans and their circularity, valuing a finite-life asset without a terminal value, and why infrastructure funds pay what they pay.

Best practices, circularity, and structuring a model an MD can actually read.

• Financial modeling best practicesThe habits that make a model trustworthy: blue inputs and black formulas, one assumptions area, one-directional flow, no buried hardcodes, no plugs, and checks that prove the balance sheet balances.
• Building a three-statement modelHow the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement wire together in an actual model, how the debt schedule feeds interest, and the one-statement-at-a-time way to debug when the balance sheet won't balance.
• The debt schedule and circular referencesA debt schedule tracks how much debt a company owes each year, and it creates a famous circular reference. Here is why the loop exists and how to control it.

Mental math, logic puzzles, and the curveballs that test how you think on your feet.

• Brainteasers and market sizingBrainteasers are a small slice of IB interviews, usually filler. The one that actually shows up is market sizing, and it's graded on your structure and stated assumptions, not the exact number.
• Mental math for the interviewNo calculator in the room, so build reflexes. The rule of 72, quick percentages, growth math, and estimating IRR from MOIC, all with clean round numbers.