Investment banking interview questions, ranked by how often they are searched
We measured US Google search volume for 74 interview questions and technical topics. The questions candidates type as questions draw about 4,400 searches a month. The concepts underneath them draw 15 times more.
Everyone in interview prep claims to know which questions matter. We wanted the number rather than the claim, so we pulled Google search volume for 74 investment banking interview questions and technical concepts, then checked it against the queries that actually reached our own pages in our first month of being indexed.
Two things came out of it. The ranking itself is roughly what you would guess, with one clear leader. The gap between how often people search the questions and how often they search the concepts behind them is not what we expected, and it is the more useful finding.
The questions candidates type as questions
These are the searches only an interview candidate makes. Nobody types walk me through a DCF unless they are about to be asked it. This is every interview-phrased query we measured, not a top-twenty cut, and together they come to 4,390 searches a month in the US.
- walk me through a dcf1,300
- investment banking interview questions720
- walk me through an lbo480
- why investment banking390
- walk me through your resume260
- how do the three financial statements link210
- investment banking brain teasers170
- investment banking interview prep170
- investment banking behavioral questions140
- ib interview questions110
- walk me through the three financial statements90
- what is a paper lbo90
- why do you subtract cash from enterprise value70
- tell me about yourself investment banking70
- investment banking technical interview questions50
- investment banking superday40
- stock pitch interview20
- if depreciation increases by 1010
Walk me through a DCF is the clear leader at 1,300 searches a month, about 2.7 times the volume of walk me through an LBO. The behavioral side is much quieter: why investment banking (390), walk me through your resume (260), and tell me about yourself (70) do not add up to the DCF question on its own. That is a statement about what feels searchable, not about what gets asked. Every banker we know asks why investment banking. Candidates apparently do not think a search engine can help them answer it.
The concepts out-search the questions by 15 to 1
The same technical material, searched as a concept rather than as an interview question, is an order of magnitude bigger. The ten largest concept terms in our set draw about 128,600 searches a month against 4,390 for every interview-phrased query combined, a ratio of 29 to 1. Drop purchase price allocation, the one term with heavy use outside banking, and it is still 68,100 against 4,390, or about 15 to 1.
| Search | Monthly searches | Where we cover it |
|---|---|---|
| purchase price allocation | 60,500 | Read the answerAlso a tax and real-estate term. Treat as an upper bound. |
| what is ebitda | 18,100 | Read the answer |
| free cash flow formula | 12,100 | Read the answer |
| deferred revenue | 8,100 | Read the answer |
| what is a dcf | 8,100 | Read the answer |
| what is goodwill | 5,400 | Read the answer |
| enterprise value formula | 5,400 | Read the answer |
| net working capital | 4,400 | Read the answer |
| cash conversion cycle | 3,600 | Read the answer |
| what is wacc | 2,900 | Read the answer |
| what is leveraged finance | 2,400 | Read the answer |
| lbo model | 2,400 | Read the answer |
| how to calculate wacc | 1,900 | Read the answer |
| pik interest | 1,600 | Read the answer |
| dividend recap | 1,600 | Read the answer |
Some of that gap is audience. Accountants and finance students search what is EBITDA too, and we cannot separate them from candidates in this data. But the direction is too big to be only that. People search the concept at the moment they get stuck on it, not the interview question that will eventually test it. Prep content organized as a list of questions is organized for the wrong moment.
One more number worth sitting with: investment banking interview prep, the phrase describing the entire product category, is searched about 170 times a month in the US. It is the only term in our whole set with anything above Low advertiser competition. An industry of paid courses is competing over a few hundred searches a month while the concepts they teach pull tens of thousands.
What actually showed up in our own search data
The volume figures above are estimates of the whole market. We also have a small but real first-party check: every query that surfaced one of our pages in Google between July 10 and August 10, 2026, our first month indexed. That is 420 distinct queries and 2,820 impressions. The shape of it corroborates the finding above, and sharpens it.
| Query | Impressions | Type |
|---|---|---|
| leveraged finance | 29 | Definitional or sector |
| healthcare investment banking | 26 | Definitional or sector |
| healthcare banking | 23 | Definitional or sector |
| ib atlas | 23 | Brand |
| m&a investment banking | 19 | Definitional or sector |
| control premium | 19 | Definitional or sector |
| cash flow sweep | 18 | Definitional or sector |
| dividend recapitalization | 16 | Definitional or sector |
| consumer retail investment banking | 13 | Definitional or sector |
| negative net working capital | 13 | Definitional or sector |
Not one head term. No walk me through a DCF, no investment banking interview questions. What surfaced instead was jargon: cash flow sweep, control premium, dividend recapitalization, negative net working capital, incurrence test. Nine of the top ten are someone trying to understand a specific term, which is exactly the moment the concept data pointed at. The queries are also a fair description of the long tail as a whole: of 420 queries, the largest drew 29 impressions, so this is a market made almost entirely of small, specific questions.
Method, and what this data cannot tell you
- Search volumes
- Google Keyword Planner, United States, all languages, Google search only, for the twelve months from July 2025 to June 2026. 74 keywords submitted, 71 returned data. Pulled August 12, 2026.
- Observed queries
- Google Search Console, domain property for ibatlas.com, July 10 to August 10, 2026. 420 queries, 2,820 impressions, 31 clicks.
- How the two lists were split
- A query is counted as interview-phrased only if an interview candidate is the only plausible searcher. Walk me through a DCF qualifies. What is EBITDA does not, because accountants and students search it too, so it sits in the concept table instead. We made that call by hand, and it is the one judgment on this page that is not mechanical.
- Limits
- Keyword Planner reports estimates in rounded buckets, not counts, so treat every figure as approximate and do not read anything into a gap of one bucket. Volume measures the phrase, not the intent behind it. The figures are US only. And our own Search Console data reflects the pages we happen to have published and had indexed, so it shows the shape of demand we can see rather than all demand that exists.
Use this
Reproduce any table here with a link back to this page. If you write for a student publication or run a finance club and want the full 74-keyword list, or a cut we have not published, email support@ibatlas.com and we will send it over. We plan to re-run this every recruiting season.
Questions about the data
What is the most-searched investment banking interview question?
Walk me through a DCF, at about 1,300 US searches a month. It is searched roughly 2.7 times as often as walk me through an LBO, which is the second most-searched question at about 480 a month. Both figures are Google Keyword Planner estimates for the twelve months to June 2026.
How many people search for investment banking interview questions?
About 4,390 US searches a month across every interview-phrased query we measured, including 720 a month for the phrase investment banking interview questions itself. That is small next to the technical concepts behind those questions, which draw tens of thousands of searches a month.
Do candidates search for technical questions or behavioral questions more?
Technical, by a wide margin. Walk me through a DCF alone (1,300 a month) is searched more than every behavioral query in our set combined, where why investment banking is 390, walk me through your resume is 260, and tell me about yourself is 70. That gap probably says more about what feels searchable than about what gets asked in the room.
Where does this data come from?
Two sources. Search volumes are from Google Keyword Planner, United States, for the twelve months to June 2026. The query list at the end is from our own Google Search Console property for July 10 to August 10, 2026. The methodology section on this page gives the exact settings and the limits of both.
Can I cite these numbers?
Yes. Reproduce any table with a link back to this page. If you want the underlying keyword list or a cut we have not published, email support@ibatlas.com and we will send it.
Get the full IB interview question bank as one PDF.
General educational practice prompts with study explanations for offline review.
Every question in the tables above has an answer here
The IB Atlas question bank is 125 investment banking interview questions with written answers, study explanations and common conceptual pitfalls. Free to read, no account needed.