Guide
Investment Banking Technical Questions
The technical finance topics investment banking candidates should master first, and how to practice them more efficiently.
Technical prep becomes much easier when you stop treating it like a giant list and start treating it like a sequence.
The first topics to master
Start here:
- three-statement accounting flow
- enterprise value versus equity value
- comparable companies
- precedent transactions
- DCF basics
- merger math
Those topics show up constantly and connect to each other.
The mistake most candidates make
Many candidates jump into advanced questions before their core explanations are fast enough. That creates a dangerous pattern:
- you know pieces of the answer
- you speak too slowly
- the follow-up exposes the weak link
Speed with clarity matters almost as much as correctness.
How to practice technicals
Split your prep into two parts:
Concept reps
Can you explain the topic clearly in plain English?
Speed reps
Can you give the same answer in 30 to 60 seconds without losing structure?
Do both. Concept without speed is fragile. Speed without understanding is worse.
The technicals that deserve extra time
These are usually worth the extra reps:
- depreciation flow-through
- WACC intuition
- why a DCF output changes
- what affects accretion and dilution
- when a deal can still make strategic sense even if it is dilutive
The last question matters because it shows judgment, not just memorization.