The investment banking technical interview rewards fluency. Below are the questions that come up most, each with a worked answer. Read them, then practice hundreds more free in the app.
Try to answer each one aloud before reading the solution, the way an interviewer would ask it.
A DCF values a business as the present value of the cash it will generate. Step 1: project unlevered free cash flow for five to ten years, calculated as EBIT x (1 minus tax) plus D&A, less capex, less the change in working capital. Step 2: discount those flows at WACC, the blended cost of debt and equity. Step 3: add a terminal value for everything beyond the forecast, using either perpetuity growth or an exit multiple. Step 4: sum the discounted flows and terminal value to get enterprise value, subtract net debt for equity value, then divide by diluted shares for a per share figure.
Equity value is what belongs to shareholders, which is market capitalisation. Enterprise value is the value of the whole operating business, available to all capital providers: equity value plus debt plus preferred plus minority interest, less cash. You subtract cash because an acquirer could use it to reduce the effective purchase price. EV is capital structure neutral, which is why EV based multiples such as EV/EBITDA compare cleanly across companies carrying different amounts of debt.
Income statement: pre-tax income falls $10, and at a 40% tax rate net income falls $6. Cash flow statement: start from net income of minus $6 and add back the $10 of non-cash depreciation, so cash rises by $4, which is the tax shield. Balance sheet: cash is up $4 and PP&E is down $10, a net reduction in assets of $6; retained earnings fall $6, so equity falls $6. Assets down $6 equals liabilities plus equity down $6, so the balance sheet balances.
Because P/E prices future earnings and risk, not just current earnings. Higher expected growth justifies a higher multiple, and so does a lower required return from safer, more predictable cash flows. A software company growing 30% earns a higher P/E than a mature utility with the same current EPS. The justified multiple is roughly the payout ratio divided by (required return minus growth), so both growth and risk are already embedded in it.
Compare the yield you buy against the cost of funding it. In an all stock deal a quick test is to compare P/E ratios: if the acquirer's P/E is higher than the target's, meaning the target's earnings yield is higher than the acquirer's, the deal is usually accretive to EPS. When funding with cash or debt, compare the target's earnings yield against the after-tax cost of debt or the interest forgone on cash. Accretion means combined EPS rises and dilution means it falls. Accretion is not the same thing as value creation.
Profit is an accrual measure and cash is a timing measure. A fast growing company can report positive net income while cash flow is negative because it is funding working capital, by building inventory and extending receivables, and capex, ahead of the revenue those investments will eventually produce. Growth consumes cash. The position is sustainable only for as long as financing or eventual operating cash flow can fund the gap.
EV/EBITDA is capital structure neutral. EBITDA sits above interest and the enterprise value numerator already includes debt, so two companies with very different leverage can be compared directly. It also removes differences in depreciation policy and, being pre-tax, much of the tax difference. P/E by contrast is distorted by leverage and by one-off items below the operating line. EV/EBITDA is the standard for comparables and LBO screening, while P/E still matters to equity holders and for financial institutions.
WACC is the weighted average cost of capital, the blended return that debt and equity holders require, weighted by their share of the capital structure: (E/V) x cost of equity plus (D/V) x cost of debt x (1 minus tax). We discount unlevered free cash flow at WACC because that cash flow belongs to all capital providers, so the discount rate must reflect the cost of all the capital funding the business. Cost of equity normally comes from CAPM: risk free rate plus beta times the equity risk premium.
There are two methods. Perpetuity growth: final year free cash flow x (1 plus g), divided by (WACC minus g). Exit multiple: final year EBITDA multiplied by a market multiple. The pitfalls matter because terminal value often drives 60% to 80% of the total, so small changes in g or WACC swing the answer sharply. The growth rate must stay modest, near long run GDP, and the two methods should broadly agree. If they do not, an assumption is wrong. Always sanity check the exit multiple that the perpetuity method implies.
An increase in net working capital reduces free cash flow, because cash is tied up in receivables and inventory that have not yet converted to cash, beyond whatever supplier credit funds through payables. In the free cash flow bridge you subtract the change in working capital. This is precisely why rapidly growing companies are cash hungry even when profitable: every incremental dollar of sales must be funded with working capital before it is collected.
A financial sponsor buys a company using mostly debt and a slice of equity. Over a hold period of three to seven years the company's cash flow pays down that debt while EBITDA ideally grows. At exit the business is sold at a similar or higher multiple, and because debt has been repaid a much larger share of enterprise value now accrues to equity. Returns come from three levers: EBITDA growth, multiple expansion and debt paydown, all amplified by the leverage used at entry.
Move down the metric ladder. If EBITDA is negative, use EV/Revenue and separately form a view on the margin the business will eventually earn. For early stage or high growth names a DCF built on a credible path to profitability works, or EV/Revenue benchmarked against peers at a similar growth and margin trajectory. The important discipline is being explicit about the future margin that the revenue multiple implicitly assumes.
Every concept above maps to a module you can practise, with the numbers regenerating on each attempt.
Reading an answer once is recognition. Interviews test recall under pressure, so the questions regenerate with fresh numbers every run.
Start practising freeThe technical bar is high but finite. Accounting, valuation, DCF and LBO fundamentals recur constantly. The real differentiator is fluency, meaning you can walk through the three statements or a DCF without hesitating. Repetition builds that fluency, which is what the app is built to drill.
The three statement walkthrough, DCF mechanics, enterprise versus equity value, EV/EBITDA versus P/E, accretion and dilution, and a basic LBO. If you can answer the twelve questions above smoothly, you are in strong shape for the technical portion.
Enough that the method becomes automatic under pressure. Working through a few hundred varied questions, with the numbers changing each time, beats rereading a guide, because interviews test recall and application rather than recognition.