Investment Banking Interview Prep by Firm: Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and More
Same fundamentals everywhere. Different format, different emphasis, different curveball, depending on which firm's superday you're actually walking into.
The technical foundation is the same at every firm: three statements, a DCF, comps, an LBO. What actually differs, and what most generic prep guides skip, is the process itself. How many rounds, who's in the room, how technical-heavy versus behavioral-heavy it runs, and whether there's a curveball format like a group exercise or a stock pitch waiting past the technical questions.
The details below come from aggregated, self-reported candidate accounts (Glassdoor, Wall Street Oasis) rather than anything the banks publish officially, so treat specifics as directional. Formats shift year to year and can vary by group even within the same firm. What tends to hold steady is the overall shape of each process, which is what's actually useful to know going in.
Goldman Sachs
First round is typically a HireVue: a handful of recorded video questions, thirty seconds to prepare and up to two minutes to answer each, almost entirely behavioral at this stage. Candidates commonly report questions like “tell us about a time you had to work in a team,” “how does your background apply to this division,” and “tell us about a project you're proud of.” Technical depth tends to show up later, and how much depends heavily on the specific group.
The practical implication: don't burn your HireVue prep time drilling DCF mechanics. Prepare two or three tight, specific stories (a real team conflict, a real project) you can deliver clean in under two minutes, since that's what the first round is actually scoring.
JPMorgan
Superday is commonly reported as two back-to-back interviews, roughly twenty-five minutes each, and described as almost entirely behavioral with only light technical mixed in. Common ground: team conflicts, leadership, managing deadlines under pressure, and questions probing your understanding of risk and controls, a theme that shows up more at JPMorgan than most peer firms.
Worth actually preparing for here: a specific example of catching or preventing a mistake, and a clear answer for why risk management matters to you specifically, not just to the firm in the abstract.
Morgan Stanley
Structurally the most distinct process among the major banks. Reported as three parts: one-on-one interviews across several seniority levels (associate through executive director), a group exercise where candidates jointly allocate a budget across proposed projects, and a stock pitch where you present and defend an actual investment idea.
- The interviews mix behavioral questions tied to Morgan Stanley's own stated core values with standard technical ground: DCF, LBO, the three statements.
- The group exercise is scored on how you operate in a room, not just what you say. Speaking up without dominating, and building on someone else's point instead of only pushing your own, both read well.
- The stock pitch needs a real thesis, a real catalyst, and a real risk to your own idea named out loud. "I like the company" without a specific catalyst and a specific number is the single most common way candidates fumble it.
Bank of America
Commonly described as a roughly seven-question HireVue (a handful of prompts, a few minutes and one attempt each), followed by a superday two to three weeks later with four or five interviews mixing technical and behavioral. Conversations are reported as conversational in tone but genuinely rigorous on technical concepts, and candidates should expect to be asked about recent deals and current market conditions, not just textbook mechanics.
The market-awareness piece is worth taking seriously: know one or two live deals in the news and have an actual opinion on them, not just the ability to define EV/EBITDA.
Evercore
First round is commonly a phone call with an analyst or associate, described as mostly technical and market-facing with only a couple of behavioral questions mixed in, an earlier and heavier technical bar than the bulge brackets tend to set at the first round. Superday follows with four back-to-back rounds mixing technical and behavioral.
As an elite boutique with a smaller class size than a bulge bracket, technical fluency matters earlier in the process here than it does at the larger banks above, where the first round often stays behavioral-only.
Lazard
First round is a video interview reported as technical-heavy, with DCF valuation alone described as making up the bulk of the conversation in some groups (healthcare coverage specifically has been called out as especially DCF-focused). Second round is an online superday.
If Lazard, or another elite boutique with a similar reputation, is on your list, a DCF you can walk through cold, no notes, no hesitation, is closer to a first-round requirement than a nice-to-have.
What doesn't change by firm
Underneath every one of these processes sits the same core technical rotation: the three statements and how a transaction flows through them, a DCF end to end including both terminal value methods, the EV-to-equity-value bridge, WACC and its inputs, and basic LBO mechanics. Firm-specific prep is a layer on top of that foundation, not a substitute for it. See 25 finance interview questions you'll actually get asked for the rotation itself, and the two-week study plan for how to actually drill it.