33 questions reported in Apollo interviews, organised by the group that asks them. Every question carries a model answer and graded feedback on your own attempt.
Questions
Easy · Medium
Hard
Model builds
Built in the spreadsheet grid
Margin bridges, pricing, procurement and 100-day plans. 9 questions
Tests whether a candidate can create accountability without adding a redundant layer of reporting.
A CEO sends a monthly board pack, but operating problems are discovered too late to correct the quarter. How would you design a weekly operating review?
Asked when a sponsor needs cash improvement without cutting productive investment.
How would you run a working-capital improvement programme in the first 90 days?
A foundational operating-partner question after an investment closes.
What is a value creation plan, and what makes one credible?
The operating partner's first deliverable after close.
You've just closed a buyout of a founder-owned manufacturer. What's in your 100-day plan?
Post-close integration is a frequent value-creation case for buyout operations teams.
What would you prioritise when integrating an add-on acquisition into a portfolio company?
Tests how candidates improve management cadence without creating bureaucracy.
Management misses its forecast every quarter. What would you change?
A practical diligence-to-execution question for operating teams.
A company claims $10m of procurement savings. How do you validate that the savings are real?
A value-creation judgement case where a headline cost saving conflicts with customer and execution risk.
A portfolio company can close one of two plants, saving $6m of annual fixed cost. The move requires $10m of capex and $4m of cash restructuring cost, takes 18 months, and reduces spare capacity from…
A judgement case for operational roles in stressed portfolio companies.
A portfolio company is missing plan, burning cash and losing customers. What is your first-month turnaround plan?
Structuring for downside, collateral, priming risk and recovery. 9 questions
A first-round distressed-credit question testing whether a candidate understands why secured creditors can permit a Chapter 11 process without surrendering economic value.
What is adequate protection in Chapter 11, and why does a debtor need to provide it to a secured lender?
A first-round question testing whether a candidate understands the mandate beyond generic private credit.
What does a special situations investor do, and how is the underwriting different from a normal direct loan?
The standard liquidity question in a turnaround or stressed-lending process.
Why do distressed investors focus on a 13-week cash-flow forecast, and what would you challenge in one?
Tests whether a candidate can translate a liquidity gap into protected new-money terms.
A company needs $40m to fund operations through a turnaround. What terms would you seek if you provide rescue financing?
A senior distressed-credit case that combines recovery analysis, process strategy and ownership underwriting.
You own $120m of first-lien debt and the company is being sold in bankruptcy. Explain a credit bid and how you would decide whether to use one.
Special situations and distressed funds compete to provide it.
Why is debtor-in-possession financing attractive to a lender, and why would an existing creditor provide it even at a loss-making rate?
The defining development in leveraged credit over the last decade.
Explain the main liability management exercises. How does a lender end up worse off despite holding senior secured debt?
Special situations interviews test structuring creativity against downside protection.
A company needs $150m urgently and cannot access conventional markets. How would you structure the financing, and how do you get comfortable?
A senior special-situations case on valuing a legacy first-lien position after a non-pro-rata transaction has created a new superpriority tranche.
A company has $400m of legacy first-lien debt. A majority group exchanges into $100m of new superpriority debt and provides $25m of cash, leaving non-participating legacy lenders structurally behind…
LBO modelling, leverage capacity, value creation plans and exit paths. 7 questions
Opening question in most private equity interviews.
Describe the characteristics of an ideal LBO candidate, and then name a type of business that would be a poor LBO candidate despite being a good business.
Asked to see whether you understand sponsor behaviour and its critics.
What is a dividend recapitalisation? Walk through the mechanics, its effect on sponsor returns, and the case against it.
The standard private equity modelling test. Expect a hard time limit.
Build the returns for a five-year buyout. Compute the entry enterprise value from LTM EBITDA and the entry multiple, split it into debt and sponsor equity using the leverage assumption, then grow…
Essential for leveraged finance, private credit and restructuring interviews.
Walk me down the capital structure of a typical LBO from most senior to most junior. For each layer, explain pricing, security, and who buys it.
Core to restructuring, special situations and distressed credit interviews.
What is the fulcrum security? Walk me through how you'd identify it, and explain the loan-to-own strategy.
A quantitative reasoning question asked without a model in front of you.
Take the same business bought at 10x EBITDA. Compare the outcome at 4x leverage versus 6x leverage, in both a good case and a bad case. What does this tell you about how sponsors should choose…
A private equity associate case in which the facts move after the initial underwriting.
You are the associate on a control buyout of Northstar Field Services, a route-based maintenance business. The partner wants a recommendation before final IC. Work through each update, commit to a…
Merger models, accretion/dilution, purchase accounting and deal judgement. 2 questions
Tests whether you can reason from the balance sheet identity rather than recall a rule.
Can a healthy, profitable company have negative shareholders' equity? Explain how it happens and name situations where it isn't a warning sign.
Separates candidates who memorised the formula from those who understand it.
Debt is cheaper than equity and tax-deductible. Does adding debt always lower WACC? Explain what actually happens.
Liquidity runway, fulcrum security, Chapter 11 mechanics and recoveries. 1 question
A core product question for an analyst supporting the first days of a Chapter 11 process.
What is debtor-in-possession financing, and why might a lender provide it to a company already in bankruptcy?
Stochastic calculus, VaR and expected shortfall, and model limitations. 1 question
Liquidity risk is a core risk-management topic for funds, dealers and asset managers.
A portfolio has attractive daily VaR but owns several thinly traded credit instruments. Why can it still be risky, and how would you measure the liquidity risk?
Deal break risk, spread maths, regulatory timelines and downside to unaffected. 1 question
Event-driven funds test whether candidates can translate enterprise value into class-specific recovery before discussing a distressed catalyst.
A bankrupt company is worth $180m after restructuring costs. It has a $40m revolver, $100m first-lien term loan and $80m unsecured notes. Ignoring interest and fees, calculate each class's recovery…
Leverage capacity, documentation, downside cases and portfolio construction. 1 question
A modelling-style prompt used to test whether EBITDA becomes real deleveraging cash.
A borrower generates $30m of EBITDA. Cash interest is $9m, cash taxes are $3m, maintenance capex is $5m, and working capital consumes $4m. How much cash is available for debt paydown? What could make…
Credit statistics, capacity analysis, flex terms and syndication risk. 1 question
Mandatory for private equity interviews and standard in investment banking.
Walk me through a leveraged buyout model from start to finish.
Spread decomposition, liquidity, index arbitrage and dealer inventory. 1 question
Relative-value credit interviews test whether candidates can combine documents, recovery analysis and market pricing into a trade.
A company's first-lien term loan trades at 92 and its unsecured bond trades at 78. Both mature in three years. Under a downside case, you estimate enterprise value of 85 for every 100 of first-lien…
Write your answer, get it graded on technical accuracy, completeness and communication, and see exactly which mechanic you missed.
Company tags reflect where a question type is commonly reported in interviews. They are not sourced from, endorsed by, or affiliated with Apollo.