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Financial Analyst Interviews

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Financial Analyst Interview Questions

Interviewers will expect financial analyst candidates to be well-versed in financial markets, modeling, and analysis. Make sure you are comfortable with both micro and macroeconomics. In addition to highly technical questions, be ready to answer a few behavioral questions that will show off your communication and collaboration skills.

Top Financial Analyst Interview Questions & How to Answer

Question 1

Question #1: What is EBITDA, and what is left out of it?

How to answer
How to answer: This question lets you showcase your knowledge of financial analysis. Mention that EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, and many companies use this to assess their overall financial standing. Also, let the interviewer know that the acronym doesn't include the cost of capital investments like property.
Question 2

Question #2: What process do you use to create accurate sales reports?

How to answer
How to answer: Discuss the industry-designed software tools you use to produce accurate financial reports and gauge the financial situations of companies accurately. Talk about how you analyze more specific areas and advise the business about the policies they should change for better profits after looking at the initial report.
Question 3

Question #3: Do you hold any current industry licenses or certifications? If so, why did you get them?

How to answer
How to answer: Talk about your licenses and certifications, and let the interviewer know that you got them to improve your competency, learn more about the latest financial analysis techniques, and increase your appeal to potential clients. For example, many financial analysts have a Chartered Financial Analyst or CFA certification from the Corporate Finance Institute.

56,995 financial analyst interview questions shared by candidates

The chessboard problem. I first mentioned BFS and use of a Queue but the interviewer kept asking about some data structure with less memory that I could extract due to the simple structure of the graph. I did not understand what he meant. I eventually mentioned DFS and proved it works uses less memory. The cache problem took a long time. I kind of though I failed it at some point. I had no prior knowledge of the topic since I am not a CS guy. I eventually, used an array to store the access time to different items and O(n) search through it to find the least frequently used one. The interviewer did not raise the complexity. He wanted me to write code on a paper (which is hard, esp. in C).
avatar

Financial Software Developer

Interviewed at Bloomberg

4★
Jul 11, 2014

The chessboard problem. I first mentioned BFS and use of a Queue but the interviewer kept asking about some data structure with less memory that I could extract due to the simple structure of the graph. I did not understand what he meant. I eventually mentioned DFS and proved it works uses less memory. The cache problem took a long time. I kind of though I failed it at some point. I had no prior knowledge of the topic since I am not a CS guy. I eventually, used an array to store the access time to different items and O(n) search through it to find the least frequently used one. The interviewer did not raise the complexity. He wanted me to write code on a paper (which is hard, esp. in C).

There are one hundred closed lockers in a hallway. A man begins by opening all one hundred lockers. Next, he closes every second locker. Then he goes to every third locker and closes it if it is open or opens it if it is closed (e.g., he toggles every third locker). After his one hundredth pass in the hallway, in which he toggles only locker number one hundred, how many lockers are open?
avatar

Financial Software Developer

Interviewed at Bloomberg

4★
Nov 25, 2011

There are one hundred closed lockers in a hallway. A man begins by opening all one hundred lockers. Next, he closes every second locker. Then he goes to every third locker and closes it if it is open or opens it if it is closed (e.g., he toggles every third locker). After his one hundredth pass in the hallway, in which he toggles only locker number one hundred, how many lockers are open?

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