The range of technicals you get tested on

The technical half sounds scary because it feels open-ended. It is not. The universe of first-round technicals is small and well-defined. It comes down to six areas. Get these bulletproof and you have covered the large majority of what any first round will throw at you.

Here is the map. Each one links to a full lesson.

1. Accounting

Everything else is built on this. The three statements, how they link, and what happens to all three when one line moves. The classic opener is "walk me through what happens to the three statements when depreciation goes up by 10." If you can move cleanly across the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, you have cleared the single most common technical on the Street.

Start here: Walk me through the three statements and the individual statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement).

2. Enterprise value vs equity value

This is the concept interviewers use to find out whether you actually understand valuation or just memorized a formula. You need to move between the two cleanly, and you need to know which multiple pairs with which.

That last part trips people up, so be precise about it. Enterprise value pairs with metrics that belong to the whole business before financing, like EBITDA, EBIT, and revenue. Equity value pairs with metrics that are after interest and belong to shareholders, like net income and earnings per share. That is why EV / EBITDA and P / E work, and why EV / net income or P / EBITDA are the mismatches that give a wrong answer away.

Lessons: Enterprise value vs equity value and The multiples that matter.

3. DCF

The discounted cash flow is the one technical you can almost guarantee will come up. Project unlevered free cash flow, discount it back at WACC, add a terminal value, and bridge from enterprise value to equity value. Interviewers push on every assumption, so know why each piece is what it is, not just the order of steps.

Lessons: The DCF explained, Unlevered free cash flow, WACC explained, and Terminal value.

4. Valuation, the three methods

You should be able to name the three core ways bankers value a company and say what each tends to show. Comparable companies (trading comps), precedent transactions, and the DCF. The standard follow-up is which gives the highest value and why, so have a view: precedent transactions usually run high because they include a control premium, and the DCF swings the most because it is the most assumption-driven.

Lessons: How bankers value a company, Trading comparables, and Precedent transactions.

5. Accretion / dilution

The core M&A technical. When one company buys another, does the deal add to or subtract from the buyer's earnings per share, and why. You should be able to reason through the drivers: the mix of cash, stock, and debt used to pay, the relative P / E multiples of the two companies, and the after-tax cost of each funding source. A simple rule to have ready: an all-stock deal is accretive when the buyer's P / E is higher than the target's.

Lesson: Accretion / dilution.

6. The paper LBO

The one you do in your head or on a single sheet, no Excel. Buy a company with mostly debt, grow it a little, pay down debt with its cash flow, sell it in five years, and back out the return. It tests whether you understand what actually drives private equity returns, which is leverage, cash generation, and multiple expansion. Practice running one end to end quickly, because they will watch you do it live.

Lessons: The LBO and the paper LBO and What drives LBO returns.

How to use this

Read the lesson, then go drill it until it is automatic. That is the whole method. Work through the six in order, make each one bulletproof before you move on, and you will walk into the technical half knowing there is very little they can ask that you have not already seen.