# Technical interview practice for investment bankers An investment banking technical interview reasons through a discounted cash flow model or a comparable company analysis out loud, defending each assumption made along the way in real time. It has a defensible right or wrong answer underneath the conversation, unlike a purely qualitative fit question. Valuation math is checkable. A discount rate assumption either holds up under a follow-up question or it doesn't, and an interviewer will keep pushing until they know which. ## The scenario The AI interviewer asks you to walk through building a discounted cash flow model from scratch for a hypothetical company, starting with how you'd project free cash flow and settling on a discount rate. Partway through, it follows up with a sensitivity twist: what happens to enterprise value if depreciation increases by ten with no change in cash taxes, a classic question with one correct mechanical answer most candidates get wrong on the first attempt. The right response isn't a confident-sounding walkthrough, it's whether the actual mechanics of the model hold together under that follow-up. ## What gets covered Expect a DCF build-out question grounded in a specific set of assumptions, a comparable company selection question testing what would disqualify a comp, and a mechanical sensitivity question with one correct numeric answer. Interest rate and capital structure questions come up too, since a company's floating-rate debt load changes how a rate move actually flows through its financials. A written challenge format is also available for actually building out a model or working the numbers on paper, closer to how you'd do it in a real analyst seat than describing your approach verbally. ## How scoring applies here Calibration floors and caps carry more weight in this session than almost anywhere else in this role's practice options, since valuation modeling has a mechanically checkable answer underneath it. A confident walkthrough that gets the depreciation sensitivity wrong won't score higher than a less polished answer that gets the mechanics right, no matter how fluent the delivery sounds. The Technical dimension carries the specific weight here, with written reasoning explaining exactly where the modeling logic held up and where it didn't. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is this a spreadsheet exercise or a spoken conversation? It's spoken, not a spreadsheet exercise. The technical interview type never has you actually build a model in a tool. A written challenge format exists separately for working through the numbers on paper instead. ### Will the DCF question include specific assumptions to work from? Yes. The scenario grounds the reasoning in specific numeric inputs, since a real DCF walkthrough depends on those assumptions rather than staying abstract. ### How is a confident-sounding but mechanically wrong answer scored? Lower than a less polished one that gets the sensitivity or the enterprise value math right. Calibration floors and caps mean tone can't substitute for correct mechanics. ### Can I actually work through the model instead of just describing it? Yes, through the written challenge format, which lets you build out the numbers the way you'd actually do it in a real analyst seat. ### Does it ever ask about choosing between comparable companies? Yes. Reasoning through what would actually disqualify a comp, size, geography, growth profile, is a common part of this session. ### How is Communication scored alongside the modeling mechanics? A mechanically correct answer explained in a way an interviewer or a client couldn't actually follow still falls short of what the role needs, so both factors get weighed together. ## Related pages - [Investment banking interview questions](/interviews/investment-banker) - [Technical AI interviews](/features/technical-interviews) - [Browse open roles](/jobs) ## Practice an investment banking technical interview Walk through a DCF or a comps sensitivity out loud, then find out whether the underlying modeling mechanics actually held up. Start practicing free: https://www.intervieux.ai/register ยท Hire with Intervieux: https://www.intervieux.ai/employers/signup