Investment Banking Interview Questions

Before you entered business school, I see you switched jobs about once a year. How do I know that you're here to stay for the long-term? (Commitment)

Although you switched jobs pre-MBA, it's quite common to move when better opportunity arises. However, you've done a lot of research, spoken with friends, alumni and other connections and are certain banking is for you after doing your own due diligence. You've actually looked into other career options and nothing is as attractive to you as banking.

Looking into the future 10 years, do you think you'll still be an investment banker? ("Future")

Analysts can, and arguably should, be more uncertain, while business school graduates need to be confident about their career choice.

What are your favorite movies / books? (Background / Personal)

There are 2 common mistakes: 1. Saying something like Wall Street, American Psycho, or Liar's Poker that indicates you're a boring person. 2. Saying something like Harry Potter that indicates you're borderline illiterate. Pick something in the middle - above pop literature/film but not something that has to do with finance specifically. That just sounds weird.

Where else did you apply for school? Did you get in anywhere else? (Background / Personal)

You applied to a number of top schools and got in at other places, but you went through a careful decision-making process and settled on your school for a very good reason. Show that you're "in-demand" by others and you always become more attractive - whether it's to the bank you're interviewing at or to the schools you're applying to.

Let's say that we were to give you an offer - how long would you need to decide whether or not to accept it? (Commitment)

"Show it to me and I'll sign and accept it right now." Some people think this is "unethical" if you're really not certain, but keep in mind that until you've signed something in writing you can do whatever you want. No, they won't like you if you verbally accept and then renege, but it's not the end of the world - just the end of your relationship with that bank.

If I gave you an offer right now on the spot would you take it? (Commitment)

"Yes, show me the dotted line and I'd sign it right now." Even if this is a lie, you still have to say it in an interview or you won't get an offer.

Have you ever worked on a project or report that was shown to a large number of people? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

A journal, student publication or anything similar could be good to mention here, as could anything shown to a client or multiple clients in your work experience or in an internship. If you don't have something like this, the best approach is to come as close possible by saying, for example, "I haven't worked on a widely circulated publication, but I did work on such-and-such..., which required that all the details were perfect and that there were no mistakes..." You could even cite lab or medical work - even if it wasn't widely circulated, anything requiring strong attention to detail suffices.

Tell me something interesting about you that's not listed on your resume. (Background / Personal)

Again, don't say anything illegal/inappropriate - use common sense. Talking about that trip to Easter Island or your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu championship both work well.

What was your greatest failure? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

As with any "weaknesses" question, you need to use a specific story - such as an exam where you did not do well, a project that did not go as planned, or a work situation that did not turn out well - and show what you learned from it and how you've improved since then. Don't say something fake like, "My greatest failure was getting into Yale and Princeton but not Harvard" - that makes you look silly. It's better to give something real and then show how you've used the failure to develop.

I see you wrote here that you're fluent in [Language]. Can you tell me about your most recent internship in [Language]? (Background / Personal)

Be prepared for this if you list any common languages on your resume (Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) or if you happen to "get lucky" and your interviewer is a native speaker in one of the languages you've listed. I would suggest some practice discussing your work experience in whatever language(s) you've listed and making sure you can speak intelligently, at least briefly, about what you've done. If you really don't know much, just tell them upfront rather than making a fool of yourself and trying to talk about EBITDA when you don't know the word for it - I speak from experience on this one.

You've done Big 4 accounting for the past year - why would you want a job that's a lot more stressful with twice the hours? ("Career Changer")

Because your accounting work was boring and mundane, and because there were limited advancement opportunities. Finance is faster-paced and you've realized that after speaking with a lot of friends and doing your own research that it's just more suited to your personality.

You were an English major - how do you know you can handle the quantitative rigor required in investment banking? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

Combine the answers to questions #1 and #4 for this one - the key is to use specific examples rather than just saying, "I got a high math SAT score!" Personal financial experience, classes, self-study courses and independent study work well.

I see you've practiced law at Wilson Sonsini for the past 4 years - if you've been there that long, you're probably on Partner-track by now. Why would you want to leave a lucrative career in law and go back to being an entry-level Associate in banking? ("Career Changer")

Emphasize how business people never respect lawyers and view them as nuisances rather than as a critical part of the team - as a banker, you'd be making deals happen and actually advising companies rather than just proofreading documents and doing "Find-and-Replace" in Word. Of course, you do a lot of this in banking anyway but this angle still works because bankers really do look down on lawyers.

I noticed you studied abroad in [Location]. Can you tell me about that experience and why you went there? (Background / Personal)

Emphasize you did a lot academically rather than partying 24/7. Many study abroad programs do, in fact, involve partying 24/7, but you don't want to admit this. You can mention something about the fun you had, trips you went on, and anything interesting you did (climbing Mt. Fuji, starring in a Korean soap opera, excavating ruins in Troy, etc.) but don't over-do it and make them think you did nothing constructive while you were there. Think "Work hard and play hard" for this one.

What was your favorite class in college / business school? (Background / Personal)

I would not say anything economics/finance-related - it sounds too artificial. Tell them about something you were actually interested in - even if it's not directly related to banking. They want to see who you are as a person, not whether or not you know all the Excel shortcuts in the book.

Why did you major in [Your Major]? (Background / Personal)

If it was something related to business/economics, you can discuss your interest in those fields; for other majors, you can emphasize how you liked the challenge and/or had a personal interest in the field, but also took the time to learn the basics of business/finance on your own.

Did you get an offer to return to where you worked last summer? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

If you did get an offer, this is an easy question: "yes." If you did not receive an offer, I would strongly recommend against lying about it - state that you did not receive an offer, and it was due to the economy, because your group was not hiring or due to other forces beyond your control. The danger with lying is that finance is a very small world and it's quite easy to ask a friend or a friend of a friend what really happened.

I realize it's still early in your career - you haven't even graduated yet - but have you given any thought to your long-term plans? Do you think you'll stick with investment banking? ("Future")

If you're interviewing for an Analyst position, you can be more uncertain about your future and just state you don't know 100% where you'll be yet, but banking is what excites you most and is what will give you the skills you need to succeed. For prospective Associates, you need to be more certain about your career path and show some commitment - indicate you've done your homework, spoken with many people and really want to make a career out of it.

How well can you multi-task? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

In keeping with our theme of specificity, give a concrete example of a time when you were working on multiple projects at the same time - work, school, or activities work equally well for this one. Also emphasize that despite the considerable demands, you pulled off everything successfully. Anything involving teamwork or collaboration is also good to use in this response.

When you were working at that boutique this past summer, you mentioned how you liked the smaller team and more hands-on environment. Why not just go back there? Why do you want to move to a large bank? (Culture)

It's always good to be positive about your experience, but at the same time you also want to give a good reason as to why you're moving elsewhere. If you're moving from a smaller bank to larger one, you want to emphasize learning about how larger / major deals happen, how you want to learn from the best and perhaps even how bankers at your old firm recommended that you go somewhere bigger at the beginning of your career.

Can you tell me about a time when you submitted a report or project with misspellings or grammatical mistakes? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

It's unrealistic to claim that you're perfect and have never done this. Instead, briefly mention a time when you made a careless mistake and then spend the majority of time in your answer discussing what you learned and how you improved, citing another specific example of how you improved the second time around.

Where else are you interviewing? Is it just banking? Consulting? Other companies? (Commitment)

Just banking. You're not interested in consulting / other options and don't want to waste recruiters' time. You need to say this even if you're so uncertain that you're deciding between opening a zebra ranch, going on a spiritual journey to Nepal, going back to McKinsey or starting a laundromat with your roommate's uncle.

Are you mostly interviewing at larger banks like us? What kinds of options within banking are you considering? (Commitment)

Mostly larger banks, but you have received some interest from other places so you're looking at a couple options. If you can mention specific names, that makes your answer even better. If you're interviewing in a group like M&A or Healthcare, talk about how you're mostly speaking with similar groups to show you're serious about that one area.

What do you do for fun? (Background / Personal)

Obviously, don't say anything illegal or questionable/controversial. If you have anything interesting or not very common (hang gliding, directing movies, bungee jumping) you should bring that up. Otherwise, just be honest and if you really like watching football (North American football for international readers) or other sports, just talk about your interest in those.

What's the most number of classes you ever took at once and how well did you do in each of them? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

Once again, it's best to point to something specific - "During my junior year, I was taking 5 classes at once as well as working part-time and running my business fraternity - and I still got A's in all of them." Not everyone has a perfect answer, but try to think about the most stressful time in your academic life and use that as a reference for your answer. State the "challenge" first, then how you responded, and then how well you did.

Why did you attend [Your University / Business School]? I'm sure you had many options. / Why did you transfer to [University Name]? (Background / Personal)

Say that you looked at a lot of places, but settled on wherever you went due to its excellent academic reputation, its strong business/finance/economics program, or something of that nature. If you were interested in something specific it offered (e.g. you were an athlete and went to Stanford on scholarship, or you went to UChicago because of its excellent liberal arts program) you can mention that as well. Try to sound like you made a thoughtful decision rather than deciding randomly. If you transferred elsewhere, a similar strategy applies but make sure to emphasize it was for academic reasons. For example, don't say you wanted to get out of Massachusetts and move to southern California for an "improved lifestyle!"

Why are you interested in our M&A division rather than our industry groups? Our Tech, Healthcare and Energy teams have been really successful this year. (Culture)

Say that you want to gain solid technical and modeling skills and be exposed to a wide variety of industries and different markets. Depending on the interviewer, it may also be appropriate to mention your interest in private equity (if you're planning to go that route) and how M&A will get you there. M&A bankers love to think they're superior to others because of their "in-depth technical knowledge and negotiation skills," so you should play off that and use it to your advantage.

Can you tell me about the process you used to analyze space requirements for the building designs you worked on this past summer? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

Similar to the reasoning above, break it into steps and start by discussing how you made the initial estimates, then how you refined them and made them more exact over time while staying within budget and collaborating with your team

You've had quite diverse experience prior to business school. After you complete your degree, where do you think you'll be going in the long-term? ("Future")

Since this question is given to an MBA candidate, you'll want to be more certain and show more direction in terms of your plans. State that you do want to pursue investment banking as a career, after having done extensive research on your own (and hopefully, having had a previous internship or other experience in the field that you can point to).

Walk me through your resume. (Background / Personal)

Start at "the beginning" - if you're in college, that might be where you grew up or where you went to high school. For anyone in business school or beyond, it might be where you went to undergraduate, your first job, or even where you went to business school. Then, go through how you first became interested in finance/business, how your interest developed over the years via the specific internships / jobs / other experiences you had and conclude with a strong statement about why you're interviewing today. Aim for 2-3 minutes - if you go on longer than this, the interviewer may get bored or impatient. Also, do not look at your resume when going through your "story." The 4 most important points: 1. Be chronological. 2. Show how each experience along the way led you in the direction of finance. 3. State why you're here interviewing today. 4. Aim for 2-3 minutes. What are the most common mistakes with the "Walk me through your resume" question? 1. Going out of order chronologically. 2. Too much exposition - don't start off by saying, "I've had a lot of great experiences." 3. Being too short (under 1 minute) or too long (over 5 minutes). 4. Not sounding certain you want to do banking/finance. 5. Listing your experiences rather than giving a logical transition between each one.

You've had tons of engineering experience and you've worked at many tech companies. Why do you want to be an investment banker now? ("Career Changer")

Talk about how you dislike the limited advancement opportunities and how your work didn't affect the world at large - only what that specific company was doing. You want to do finance because you like the business aspect of technology more than the technology aspect of technology and because you want to make an impact with your work and become an investor or advisor one day.

What were a few areas that your team said you should try to improve upon? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

The 2 most important points to remember with the "weaknesses" / "failure" question: 1. Give a real weakness rather than saying you "work too hard." 2. Show how you improved on it, using specific examples. What are "real" weaknesses you could give? Maybe you weren't as communicative with the team as you should have been at the start; maybe you got lost in the details sometimes and failed to see the big picture; maybe you were too impatient with others or did not delegate tasks appropriately. The point is to say something that is a real weakness but which is also not a "dealbreaker" - like saying you don't like to work hard or can't stand working in teams. After that, state how you're working to improve your weakness. Perhaps you gave more regular updates to your superiors; or maybe you started leveraging other peoples' knowledge or the administrative staff at your work more often.

In your last internship, you analyzed portfolios and recommended investments to clients. Can you walk me through your thought process for analyzing the returns of a client portfolio? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

The key is to break everything down into steps and be very specific about what you did. So you might say that "Step 1" was getting a list of when they bought each investment and how much they invested / how many shares they acquired; "Step 2" was finding a list of when they sold each investment, and what they sold them for; and "Step 3" was aggregating this data over the years in-between for each investment to calculate the compound return.

Tell me about a time when you failed to honor a commitment. (Commitment)

The key with this type of question is to bring up a "failure" briefly and then to spend most of your time talking about what you've learned from it and how you've improved rather than dwelling on the failure itself.

Since you worked at Bank of America this past year, you probably have the chance to go to a lot of different large banks - why are you interested in us specifically? (Culture)

There's rarely a "great" way to answer this question, so I would recommend either referencing someone you've spoken with at the bank and what they've told you OR if you don't have any kind of experience like that, you can just give the usual generic reasons given for each bank. This question often reflects a lazy interviewer more than anything else - the real reason you're interviewing with any bank is because they've given you an interview!

After going through the accounting program at PricewaterhouseCoopers for the past year, what sort of end-of-year review did you get? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

This is a disguised "tell me your strengths and weaknesses" question, so you should follow the advice given above. Since it's in relation to a full-time position you've held, you should be a bit more thoughtful about what you say; generic answers won't work as well if they ask about your performance in a specific job.

What do you think our bank's greatest weaknesses are? (Culture)

This is a silly question, but I can't say I've never heard it before. In a normal "weaknesses" question it's best to say something real and then indicate how you've improved on it, but in this case it's better to say something more innocuous and maybe point to a "weakness" like not being strong in Europe/Asia, or not having as much experience in one industry as another bank - but then indicate how it doesn't matter to you because you're more concerned with other aspects of the firm.

In your internship this past summer, what feedback did you receive? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

This is a variant of the "strengths and weaknesses" question. The most common mistake is being vague and just saying you performed well and they liked you, and then failing to give weaknesses / areas for improvement. The right way to answer this question is to state specific qualities about you that they liked - such as ambition, drive, attention to detail, or willingness to go the extra mile for the team - and then give some specific examples of times when you demonstrated those qualities. Your all-nighters, the times you stayed the weekend working on a presentation, or the time you caught mistakes someone else above you missed are all good to mention. The other critical part is mentioning weaknesses / areas for improvement as well - talk about real weaknesses and how you've worked to improve them (see more on this in #2 below).

Which of our competitors do you admire the most? (Culture)

This is another silly question that is designed to test your knowledge of the industry more than anything else. The best way to answer: briefly point to a competitor and state a widely known trait about them that you admire and then explain how the bank you're interviewing with also has that quality and might even be better at it. For example, Goldman Sachs is known for its "one firm" culture and emphasis on teamwork, while the former Bear Stearns was known for its more "entrepreneurial" environment. You could reference these types of qualities and then state how they're also seen in the bank you're interviewing with.

Imagine that I'm speaking to someone with whom you have not gotten along in the past - what would he/she say about you? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

This is just a disguised "weaknesses" question. However, since it involves someone else this time, it's better to give a weakness such as being stubborn and holding too rigidly to your own views rather than some of the other faults you could state. Weaknesses related to team/group settings are better here. And once again, you need to emphasize how you've worked to improve whatever it is that you did not do well at the time. Don't say something like, "I get along with everyone!" as that sounds unrealistic.

Let's imagine that your best friend is describing you in 3 words - which words would he/she use and why? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

This is just, "Tell me your strengths" in disguise, but you need to narrow it down to 3 words. Since it's your friend describing you, you don't want to say, "Driven, attentive to detail and a team player!" You do want to convey the same ideas - that you can work hard, play well in teams, and get things done no matter what obstacles you face - but you should pick your own language to get this across. For each word you list you should also give 1-2 sentences to back up what you say, using a specific example for each one.

Tell me why we should hire you in 3 sentences. (Strengths / Weaknesses)

This is yet another variation of the "strengths" question. But rather than giving generic strengths, you should highlight any unique experiences you've had. So maybe you haven't had banking internships before - but you have had unique experience abroad, in an unusual setting, or doing something not many others have done, or you've overcome unusual hardship - and those make you particularly well-qualified. Try to make your answer some variant of "I'm smart because of [School / Academics], I can do the work because of [Internships / Previous Jobs], and I'm an interesting person and fun to be around because of [Unique Experience]."

What is your career goal? ("Future")

This might be my least favorite question of all time, but some lazy interviewers will ask you anyway. Again, at the undergraduate level you can afford to be more vague and just indicate you want to do something in business/finance and advance to a high level; MBA candidates should indicate that they're in banking for the long-term.

Why would we decide not to give you an offer today? (Strengths / Weaknesses)

This one is a bit tricky because it's so direct. You could attempt to make a joke out of this one and say something like, "If you decided you weren't hiring at all!" but that may not go well if your interviewer doesn't appreciate humor. Otherwise, the best response may be to turn this around and say, "I see no reason why you wouldn't - I'm your best choice because...." and then give your strengths instead. If they really press you on this, you can admit a weakness and then say how you've been working to improve it.

I see you worked at McKinsey one summer and then went to Citi investment banking the next year. Are you sure you want to do investment banking? ("Career Changer")

Yes. Although you worked at McKinsey, you realized you didn't like consulting because of the wishy-washy nature of the work (making reports and billing by the hour rather than billing by the result) and the constant travel and lack of quantitative skills/learning. You enjoyed your Citi internship much more and realized you wanted to be in banking rather than consulting.

Why do you want to work in Capital Markets? There's hardly any market activity these days. (Culture)

With this type of question - whenever a certain area is depressed at the moment or is not doing well - you want to highlight your long-term view of the market and how things recover in time. For Capital Markets specifically, you can talk about your interest in the markets since you were much younger and how you've always been fascinated by IPOs, secondary offerings and such - as always, specific examples are the key to success.

You've worked at a few prop trading firms and also in Sales & Trading. They get paid pretty well and work market hours - so they have it a lot better than us. Why would you want to switch to investment banking? ("Career Changer")

You didn't like the culture of trading, and wanted to have more of an impact by advising companies on major strategic decisions rather than just making small trades and investments each day. Banking excites you more because of the broader range of opportunities and experiences it gives you.

Wow. I must be honest, I rarely see people who have accomplished as much as you have at your age. You sold your own company for over $1 million within 2 years of starting it, and became a leading real estate investor in Asia at the same time. Why would you ever want to work for other people in banking if you've been so successful on your own? ("Career Changer")

You don't view things in those terms. Although you did well, there's always room to learn and banking would be a great learning opportunity for you. You've spoken with many friends in the industry and have been impressed by what you've heard, and you want to broaden your experience and knowledge so that you can move into higherstakes business.

Recently some Analysts and Associates have left "early" and jumped to hedge funds or private equity. If the opportunity comes up, why would you stay here instead? (Commitment)

You looked into investing but realized you don't like the nature of the work - there's too much due diligence and "looking at deals" rather than taking action and actually doing deals. As a result, after all your research speaking with alumni and other connections, you're set on banking.

You've been working as a lawyer for the past 3 years - what initiative have you taken on your own to learn more about finance? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

You should either present a list of self-study courses or certifications such as the CFA that you've obtained, or speak about your own work studying independently from textbooks, self-study courses and other sources. Be conservative with how much you claim to know - re-iterate that you're "not an expert" but that you have taken the initiative to learn something on your own.

I see you've done mostly journalism and research internships before. Can you discuss your quantitative skills? (Analytical / Attention to Detail)

You should respond by discussing specific times when you had to analyze numbers and/or use logic. Good examples might include: your personal portfolio, any math/science classes you've taken, any type of budgeting process you've been through, any type of research you've done that involved numbers.

You spent this last summer working at Morgan Stanley's investment banking division. It seems like you'd be crazy not to go back - why would you want to work for a smaller firm in our M&A group? (Culture)

You're most likely to get this one if you didn't get a return offer - let's be honest, who really goes from Morgan Stanley to a boutique? It's a tough sell, but you'll have to emphasize how you like the smaller environment where you get more responsibility and work more closely with clients. The banker probably won't believe you, but it's better than outright admitting you didn't get an offer. If the topic does arise, just say your lack of offer was because they were not hiring, because the group did poorly or because of the general economic climate.