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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.

56,994 financial analyst interview questions shared by candidates

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?

Write a program that given a 2D integer matrix (default value: 0) and a coordinate in the matrix, it sets all of the elements diagonal to the coordinate to a value of 1 (so that if you wrote it on a piece of paper there's an X with the coordinate at the center).
avatar

Financial Software Developer

Interviewed at Bloomberg

4★
Jun 9, 2011

Write a program that given a 2D integer matrix (default value: 0) and a coordinate in the matrix, it sets all of the elements diagonal to the coordinate to a value of 1 (so that if you wrote it on a piece of paper there's an X with the coordinate at the center).

This was a question that I already encountered at another company. You have three lightbulbs in one room and three switches in another room. You can play with the switches as much as you want to, but you can only visit the room withthe bulbs once. How can you determine which switch corresponds to which bulb?
avatar

Financial Software Engineer

Interviewed at Bloomberg

4★
Feb 23, 2010

This was a question that I already encountered at another company. You have three lightbulbs in one room and three switches in another room. You can play with the switches as much as you want to, but you can only visit the room withthe bulbs once. How can you determine which switch corresponds to which bulb?

#1: We have a linked list, but it is special in that it can have pointers down, as well as next. Any node can have an arbitrary number of links down as well as across. Write a function that will "flatten" this linked list so that it does not have any down pointers, but all elements remain in order.
avatar

2010 Financial Software Developer

Interviewed at Bloomberg

4★
Feb 26, 2010

#1: We have a linked list, but it is special in that it can have pointers down, as well as next. Any node can have an arbitrary number of links down as well as across. Write a function that will "flatten" this linked list so that it does not have any down pointers, but all elements remain in order.

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