Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(IB Tips)
Investment
Banking Careers
Investment Banking
Interview Questions
(with Answers)
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstre interview topics. As a fresher in this eld, I am sure you may have had
etmojo.com/investme
(https://www.wallstreet jitters as to what and how to prepare for your rst step in this nance
nt-banking-job-
mojo.com/)
description/) world. There could be an unlimited number of questions that can be
Investment Banking asked on investment banking topics and since it is dif cult to cover all
Division (IBD)
(https://www.wallstre
of them here, we would be discussing a few of them which are
etmojo.com/investme important.
nt-banking-division/)
Investment Banking
While reading through this write-up, I would suggest you actively
Associate Salary
(https://www.wallstre keep answering the questions yourself before checking the correct
etmojo.com/investme answer. This will help you develop the habit of brainstorming and
nt-banking-associate-
answering these questions in a structured way. Please consider this
salary/)
Analyst vs Associate as a rst draft of the article. I will keep on regularly updating this
(https://www.wallstre with more questions and answers based on your feedback.
etmojo.com/analyst-
vs-associate/)
The interview nowadays does not have the typical questions being
Investment Banking
Job For Graduates asked which include the basics on nancial concepts. The interviewers
(Engineers) | Top 8 want the candidates to think and avoid theories which everyone
Tips
usually knows. Also since these questions are technical ones there
(https://www.wallstre
etmojo.com/investme would always be a correct answer, so in case you nd yourself not
nt-banking-job-
knowing a particular answer, don’t try and fake one. It is always better
graduate/)
to confess that you don’t know.
How to get an
Investment Banking
Internship? Investment Banking Interview Questions have been divided into the
(https://www.wallstre following 6 topics
etmojo.com/investme
nt-banking-
internship/)
Top 10 Finance
Certi cations Start Your Free Investment Banking Course
Programs
Download IB Excel Templates, Accounting, Valuation, Financial Modeling,
(https://www.wallstre
Video Tutorials
t j /
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
etmojo.com/ nance-
certi cations/)
(https://www.wallstreet
Investment Banking 1. Accounting
mojo.com/)
Lifestyle 2. Corporate Finance
(https://www.wallstre 3. Valuation
etmojo.com/investme
nt-banker-lifestyle/) 4. Merger and Acquisitions (M&A)
Investment Banking 5. Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Exit Opportunities
(https://www.wallstre
6. Miscellaneous
etmojo.com/investme
nt-banking-exit-
opportunities/) #1 – Accounting – Investment
Investment Banking
Banking Interview Questions
Case Studies
(https://www.wallstre
etmojo.com/investme
nt-banking-case- Investment Banking Interview Question #1
studies/)
Tell me about the three most important nancial statements and
Top 10 Best Finance
courses (with Online what is their signi cance
Certi cation)
(https://www.wallstre This is one the most commonly asked investment banking interview
etmojo.com/ nance-
question.
courses/)
Investor Relation Job
Description The three main nancial statements
(https://www.wallstre (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/ nance-for-non- nance-
etmojo.com/investor-
managers-professionals-training/) are the Income Statement,
relation-job-
description/) Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement. Speaking about their
Financial Analyst Job signi cance, the income statement provides with the revenue
Description
(https://www.wallstre
etmojo.com/ nancial- and expenses of a company and shows the nal net income that
analyst-job-
it has made over a period of time.
description/)
Investment Banking The balance sheet signi es
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 4/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
Basics (44+) Balance Sheet: On the asset side because of the depreciation the
(https://www.wallstreet Plants, Property & Equipment goes down by $100, and Cash is
mojo.com/category/inve up by $40 from the changes on the Cash Flow Statement.
stment-
banking/investment-
Investment Banking Interview Question #4
banking-basics)
Imagine a situation where a customer pays for a mobile phone with
Investment Banking
a credit card. What would this look like under cash-based vs.
Firms (27+)
accrual accounting?
(https://www.wallstreet
mojo.com/category/inve
banking/investment-
banking- rms)
Top Banks (42+) Investment Banking Training (117 Courses, 25+
(https://www.wallstreet
Projects)
117 Courses | 25+ Projects | 600+ Hours | Full Lifetime Access | Certi cate
mojo.com/category/inve
of Completion
b ki /
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 6/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-
training-course/)
#2 – Corporate Finance –
Investment Banking
Interview Questions
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 7/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet
mojo.com/)
(https://cdn.wallstreetmojo.com/w
p-
content/uploads/2015/09/Corpor
ate-Finance.jpg)
Investment Banking Interview Question #5
What is the formula for calculating WACC?
WACC (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/weighted-average-
cost-capital-wacc/) = Cost of Equity * Proportion of Equity +
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/what-is-beta-in-capm-
calculate-beta-levered-vs-unlevered-beta/) (CAPM).
The formula is Cost of Equity = Risk free rate + Beta* Equity risk
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
premium
(https://www.wallstreet Cost of Debt = The risk-free rate is basically the yield of a 10-
mojo.com/) year or 20-year US Treasury
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/risk-free-rate/)
Investment Banking Interview Question #6
There are two companies P and Q which are exactly the same, but
one P has debt whereas Q doesn’t have any. In this case, which of
the two companies would have a higher WACC?
Investment Banking Interview Question #7
The interviewer at this juncture might ask you the reasons why
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/wacc-formula/).
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/chapter-7-vs-chapter-13-
mojo.com/) bankruptcy/).
Instinctively, interest rates on debt are usually lower than the
#3 – Valuations – Investment
Banking Interview Questions
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 10/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet
mojo.com/)
(https://cdn.wallstreetmojo.com/w
p-
content/uploads/2015/09/Valuati
on.jpg)
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/transaction-multiples/)
This is when you look at how much others have paid for similar
companies to determine how much the company is worth.
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
with the industry of the company you are valuing as well as the
So to use this method you would also look for out similar
companies to the one you are valuing and look at their price
to earnings (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/pe-ratio/), EBITDA,
investment.
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/terminal-value-formula-
mojo.com/) method-calculations-in-excel/) and that will tell you how much
Investment Banking Interview Question #9
Which are the situations in which we do not use a DCF in the
valuation?
EV/Revenue (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/enterprise-value-
to-sales-ev-to-sales-ratio/)
EV/EBITDA (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/ev-to-ebitda-
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 13/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
multiple-formula/)
This stands for Price/earnings to growth ratio and takes the P/E
ratio and then accounts for how fast the EPS for the company
will grow.
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 14/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
priced will have the same P/E ratio and PEG ratio.
company with the same EPS has a lower P/E ratio, but that also
means that it’s growing faster because the PEG rate is 20.
enterprise value?
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 15/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
Interview Questions
(https://www.wallstreet
mojo.com/)
(https://cdn.wallstreetmojo.com/
wp-
content/uploads/2015/09/MA.jp
g)
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 17/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet Negotiate the price and other key terms of the purchase
mojo.com/) agreement.
Announce the M&A deal
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-mergers-
and-acquisitions/)/transaction.
company with a high P/E in an all-stock deal, will the deal likely be
accretive or dilutive?
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
The reason for this is that the acquirer will have to shell out more
(https://www.wallstreet for each rupee of earnings than the, market values its own
mojo.com/) earnings.
Therefore in such situation the acquirer would have to issue
Synergies are where the buyer gets more value than out of an
acquisition than what the nancials would predict.There are
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet Goodwill is basically the valuable assets which are not shown
mojo.com/) like nancial assets on the balance sheet. For example, brand
name, customer relationship, intellectual property rights etc.
Goodwill is basically the subtraction of the book value of a
company from its equity purchase price. It signi es the value
over the “fair market value” of the seller that the buyer has paid.
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet
mojo.com/)
(https://cdn.wallstreetmojo.com/w
p-
content/uploads/2015/09/IPO.jpg
)
First of all, we would meet the client and gather all the
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
than cash
#1 – Miscellaneous – Investment
Banking Interview Questions
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
training-course/)
Investment Banking Charts
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-charts-
pe-charts-pe-band-chart-football- eld-scenario-graphs/)
Potential acquisition targets or potential buyers
Give the name of the stock you have been following and the
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet You could also talk about the future outlook for the company.
mojo.com/)
purchase price.
By doing this, it will increase the private equity rm’s
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/private-equity-in-india/) rate of
return substantially when exiting the investment.
Convexity (https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/convexity-of-a-
bond-formula-duration/) is a more accurate measure of the
relationship between yield and price changes in bonds in relation
to the change in interest rates.
Duration calculates this as a straight line, when in actuality it is a
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
Conclusion
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
P.S. Kindly note we have only touched upon the technical questions
and their types, apart from these you would also have to prepare for
(https://www.wallstreet
mojo.com/) the personal questions, why investment banking Interview questions
and brain teasers which are usually part of testing the candidates.
Recommended Readings
questions/)
Equity Research Interview Questions (with Answers)
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/equity-research-interview-
questions/)
Corporate Finance Interview Questions (with Answers)
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/corporate- nance-interview-
questions/)
Financial Modeling Interview Questions (With Answers)
(https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/ nancial-modeling-interview-
questions-answers/)
Investment Banking
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 26/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
Investment Banking
(https://www.wallstreet Training (117
mojo.com/) Courses, 25+
Projects)
117 Courses
25+ Projects
600+ Hours
Comments
simply amazing
Reply
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10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
Reply
Reply
Dheeraj says
My pleasure Jaspal!
Reply
Zaie says
Hey..thanks for this question bank..It is going to prove quite helpful for my interview
preparations. Also if you could prepare a similar guide for the personal questions that could be
asked in the HR round of interviews it would be great:)
Reply
Dheeraj says
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/investment-banking-interview-questions/ 28/31
10/2/2019 Top 28 Investment Banking Interview Questions You Must Know! (IB Tips)
(https://www.wallstreet
Thanks Zaie!
mojo.com/)
Reply
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