Investment Banking Analyst Interview Prep Checklist (2026)

The general preparation checklist

These twelve steps cover the preparation every candidate needs, whatever the role.

• Research the company, its recent news, its competitors and the people you are meeting.
• Read the job description properly and match three real examples to each key requirement.
• Prepare 6–8 STAR stories covering teamwork, leadership, conflict, failure and delivery.
• Prepare 3–5 thoughtful questions to ask at the end.
• Rehearse your tell-me-about-yourself answer out loud in about two minutes.
• Read your CV line by line because anything on it is fair game.
• Check the salary range for the role and level before the money question catches you cold.
• Confirm whether the format is a panel, one-to-one, technical test or presentation.
• Test your camera, microphone, meeting link or travel route the day before.
• Lay out what you need and keep the final evening calm.
• Eat properly and sleep; late-night cramming costs more than it gives you.
• Arrive or join the video call five minutes early.

Investment Banking Analyst topics to revise

Banking interviews are half technical drill, half stamina test, and everyone knows it. You will be asked to walk a DCF cold, talk through accretion-dilution maths, and explain why you want to spend two years working brutal hours. The candidates who get through pair textbook precision with self-awareness and a real interest in deals. Below are 12 IB analyst questions across behavioural, technical, situational and culture themes, with a way into each. Drill them out loud, including the one where you blank halfway through the terminal value. Fluency under pressure is what separates the offer from the rejection.

• Valuation methodologies: DCF, comparable companies, precedent transactions, and when intrinsic valuation beats relative valuation.
• M&A mechanics: Accretion-dilution analysis, synergies, deal structures, and the strategic logic behind real transactions.
• Financial modeling: Three-statement modelling, LBO mechanics, sensitivity tables, and clean structure while the deadline burns.
• Markets and deal commentary: Following live transactions, IPO market dynamics, and being able to talk credibly about a deal in this week’s news.
• Behavioral and culture: Why banking, why this group, how you cope under pressure, and how you work with VPs and MDs on tight timelines.
• Attention to detail: Pitch books, deal models, footnotes, and the unglamorous discipline that stops a costly error at 2am.

Investment Banking Analyst stories and evidence

Prepare truthful examples from your own work, study or projects. Keep your personal contribution clear and say each answer out loud.

• Drill the standard technicals until they are automatic: DCF, accretion-dilution, the three statements.
• Read deal coverage weekly and keep two transactions ready to discuss.
• Practise a paper LBO on the back of a napkin until it takes 5 minutes.
• Research the specific group and the bankers you will be meeting.
• Run a Voxxhire mock interview out loud. Technicals improve far faster spoken than rehearsed in your head.

When the checklist is done

Run through the role questions, then practise your answers aloud. A checklist gets you organised; spoken rehearsal shows where the answer still wanders.