Superday Interview Questions (final-round investment banking)

Free sample from the Deskcraft question bank

The superday is the final gate: back-to-back interviews with harder technicals and less patience for hesitation. These are the tougher questions from the Deskcraft bank — the ones that separate a summer analyst from a return offer.

1. Decompose LBO returns into their sources.

Model answer

Bridge from entry to exit equity using EBITDA growth times the entry multiple, multiple expansion times exit EBITDA, and debt paydown from cumulative free cash flow, less any leakage. This value-creation bridge shows how much return came from operations versus financial engineering versus market timing.

2. Perpetuity growth versus exit multiple, pros and cons?

Model answer

Perpetuity growth is theoretically grounded but very sensitive to g and WACC. Exit multiple is market-based and intuitive but imports current market sentiment into a future year and can be circular with comps. Best practice is to compute both, cross-check, and present a range.

3. What does a beta of 1.5 tell you about a stock?

Model answer

That it tends to be about 50% more volatile than the market, so when the market moves 1% the stock tends to move around 1.5%. Higher systematic risk means a higher cost of equity and usually a growth or cyclical profile.

4. What is the difference between a stock sale and an asset sale?

Model answer

In a stock sale the buyer acquires the legal entity with all its assets and liabilities, including unknown or contingent ones; it is simpler and the seller gets capital-gains treatment. In an asset sale the buyer selects specific assets and liabilities and gets a stepped-up tax basis, but it is more complex to retitle assets and contracts and can cause double taxation for a C-corp seller.