Bank of America interview questions

A standard product comparison in leveraged finance interviews.

Compare a leveraged loan with a high-yield bond.

A mechanics question for acquisition financings.

What goes into sources and uses for a sponsor acquisition financing?

A first-round product question for analysts staffing an acquisition financing.

Compare a Term Loan A with a Term Loan B. Why would a sponsor-backed borrower use both?

Asked to test whether candidates understand investor reinvestment risk.

What is call protection and why do debt investors care about it?

A leveraged-finance analyst must turn scattered sponsor and lender comments into an actionable underwriting response before syndication.

At 6:45am, the lead underwriter asks for a response before the financing launch call. The sponsor wants leverage unchanged despite weaker trading. Prioritise each reply and prepare a concise…

A harder levfin question on where underwriting losses actually come from.

A bank commits to a $2bn leveraged financing. Markets sell off and investors only want the debt at 90. What happens?

Asked to test whether you understand where a leveraged finance desk actually loses money.

What is market flex, and what happens to the bank if a committed financing cannot be syndicated?

A leveraged-finance analyst review before an underwriting committee discussion.

A first-year analyst has prepared the debt-sizing case for a sponsor acquisition of a packaging distributor. Find the errors that change debt capacity or returns, protect the underwriting timeline,…

ECM analysts are expected to form a practical view on whether a client can launch.

A client asks whether it should launch an equity offering this week. What would you check before advising that the equity window is open?

An ECM process simulation testing sequencing, dependencies and market-window judgement.

You are coordinating an IPO across the issuer, lawyers, auditors and syndicate. Put the work in executable order as diligence issues and a volatile market window threaten the launch.

An ECM analyst calculation testing whether you can translate an announced primary raise into shareholder dilution.

A company has 80 million shares outstanding. A founder owns 20 million shares and does not participate in a primary follow-on. The company raises $300m by issuing shares at $25. What is the founder's…

An execution question on how a bank converts underwriting risk into price certainty for a client.

What is a bought deal, and why would a company accept a lower price to use one?

An ECM analyst simulation in which investor feedback and market volatility force a fresh launch recommendation.

You are staffing an IPO launch for a sponsor-backed industrial technology company. The syndicate desk needs a recommendation after early-look feedback, an earnings update and a sharp move in the…

An ECM process question on a confidential seller block after the stock has become volatile.

A major shareholder wants to sell a confidential block tonight. How would you manage wall-crossing, allocation and launch risk when demand may be thin?

An ECM analyst process case coordinating a marketed follow-on while disclosure and market conditions move.

You are the ECM analyst coordinating a marketed follow-on for a software issuer. The CFO wants to launch before an industry conference, but diligence and the market tape keep changing. Sequence each…

An analyst-level arithmetic check used when preparing an issuance summary and sources-and-uses bridge.

A company issues $500 million face amount of 10-year notes at 99.25. Underwriting fees are 35 bps of face amount and legal, rating, and printing costs total $0.60 million. Calculate gross cash…

A core DCM screening calculation used when a banker discusses preliminary pricing with an investment-grade issuer.

A BBB-rated industrial company plans to issue a new five-year USD senior unsecured bond. The on-the-run five-year Treasury yields 3.80%, and comparable bonds indicate the new issue should price at…

A DCM associate asks for a recommendation before a client call on how to finance a near-term acquisition.

A BBB consumer company needs $600 million for an acquisition closing in two weeks. It has $400 million of floating-rate revolver debt, stable dollar cash flows, and no near-term maturities. The DCM…

The core mechanic of a debt capital markets desk.

An investment grade issuer wants to raise $750m of 10-year notes. Walk me through how you arrive at the coupon.

A DCM superday case tests whether you can turn a maturity schedule into an actionable financing recommendation rather than merely reciting current spreads.

A BBB- issuer has $1.2bn of notes maturing in 18 months and $900m maturing 30 months from now. It has $400m of cash, a $750m undrawn revolver, and forecast annual free cash flow of $250m before debt…

A structuring interview uses this to test whether the candidate can distinguish a conditional rates hedge from a binding swap.

A company expects to issue fixed-rate debt in six months to finance an acquisition, but the acquisition may not close. It is worried that interest rates will rise before then. Explain why a payer…

A common sales and trading screen testing whether you can connect a derivative to a corporate financing problem.

A company has $100m of floating-rate debt paying SOFR plus 2%. It fears rates will rise. Explain the simplest interest-rate swap it could enter, what cash flows it would exchange, and what risk…

A desk arithmetic test after a candidate proposes a cap as protection for floating-rate debt.

A borrower has $50m of 90-day SOFR debt paying SOFR plus 1.80%. It buys a cap on $50m with a 4.00% strike for the same 90-day period. If realised SOFR fixes at 5.20%, calculate the cap payment and the…

A client-facing structuring case testing whether you can translate an operating exposure into a proportionate hedge recommendation.

A US manufacturer will pay EUR 50m for components in six months. Its gross margin is only 8%, it cannot pass through a sudden euro appreciation immediately, and management wants protection but does…

A cross-product structuring case used to test whether a candidate can explain an equity derivative, accounting-sensitive client objective, and dealer hedge in one answer.

A company wants to spend $500m repurchasing stock but wants most shares delivered immediately, before a two-month execution period ends. A bank proposes an accelerated share repurchase (ASR) priced…

Foundational for DCF and LBO modeling; asked across all banking groups.

Where does capex appear on each statement? Distinguish maintenance from growth capex and explain why the split matters in valuation.

A quick warm-up before harder statement questions.

Walk me through the three statements when a company raises $100 of debt at 6%. Then do the same for $100 of equity. Assume a 25% tax rate and that the cash is held, not spent.

Screening question across banking, corporate finance and credit interviews.

Define working capital and net working capital. What does an increase in net working capital do to cash flow, and what does a negative working capital balance tell you about a business?

Tests whether you can critique the tools you use.

Compare EV/EBITDA and P/E. Give a specific situation where each one gives a misleading signal.

A basic modelling screen for research associates who will update consensus-facing earnings models.

A company earns $240 million of net income and has 120 million diluted shares. What is EPS? If a $60 million after-tax charge is excluded from adjusted earnings, what is adjusted EPS, and what must…

Tests practical judgement on management access, material non-public information and research independence.

You arrange a management meeting for clients. During preparation, an executive starts to indicate that the upcoming quarter will miss guidance. What do you do, and how do you preserve the value of…

A client-facing research exercise that tests whether a candidate can turn an event list into a falsifiable expectation and tradeable risk-reward framework.

A stock is down 18% year-to-date. Over the next four months it has an investor day, a product launch, quarterly earnings, and a regulatory decision. Consensus expects 5% revenue growth, while your…

Credit desk interviews often start by asking candidates to translate a compact market quote into plain English.

A dealer quotes a corporate bond at 98.50 / 99.00, with a spread of 225bp over the Treasury curve. Explain each number and which side you would hit if you wanted to buy $5 million face value.

New-issue pricing is a practical test of how a credit trader distinguishes valuation from primary-market technicals.

An issuer's outstanding five-year bonds trade at Treasury + 180bp. It launches a new five-year bond at Treasury + 205bp. Is the 25bp difference attractive, and what would you check before buying?

Credit-desk interviews test whether an analyst can distinguish useful flow intelligence from a reason to chase a price move.

At 10:00am, three real-money accounts ask for offers in the same issuer's 2029 unsecured bond. The bond has widened 12bp while the issuer's CDS and peer bonds are unchanged. The trader asks whether to…

Tests the bond vocabulary a junior needs before discussing a Treasury, gilt or corporate bond quote.

A newly issued five-year bond has a 4% annual coupon and trades at par. If market yields immediately rise to 5%, will the bond trade above or below par? Explain the difference between coupon and…

A junior sales-and-trading screen that checks whether a candidate can reconcile a simple Treasury-futures move before discussing a trade.

You buy one Treasury futures contract at 110-16 and sell it at 110-20. The contract's minimum tick is 1/32 of a point and each tick is worth $31.25. What is your P&L, and why is futures-price…

This is a standard follow-up for market-risk analyst candidates.

Your desk has a one-day 99% VaR of $4 million. Explain precisely what that says, what it does not say, and how you would use it in a daily risk meeting.

This mirrors the morning escalation a market-risk analyst may prepare after a desk breaches an approved risk limit.

At 8:30am, a credit-trading desk's expected shortfall is $18m against a $15m limit, up from $11m yesterday. The trader says no meaningful risk was added. What would you investigate, and what would you…

A basic industrials coverage question on how a production model changes forecasting and cash-flow risk.

Explain the difference between a make-to-stock manufacturer and a make-to-order manufacturer. How does each model change revenue visibility, working capital and downside risk?

A basic industrials margin question.

Why do industrial companies often have high operating leverage?

An FX desk uses this first-round check to see whether you can speak precisely about a market quote.

EUR/USD moves from 1.0800 to 1.0950. Which currency strengthened, by how much, and how would you explain the move to a US importer?

The client conversation an FX sales desk has daily.

A US corporate expects €100m of revenue over the next year. Walk me through the hedging options and what you'd recommend.

Tests whether a candidate sees refinancing as a portfolio-risk problem rather than just a cost-of-debt question.

A company has $3bn of bonds all maturing in the same year. Why is that risky, and how would you redesign its maturity profile?

LNG is a growing energy subsector with unique economics. This tests whether you understand the global gas market.

Explain how LNG pricing works and the economics of LNG transport. How does it differ from pipeline gas?

A FIG associate gives this as a short earnings-model check before asking for the credit-cycle implication.

A bank reports $2,400m of net interest income, $900m of fee income, $1,850m of non-interest expense, $420m of provision for credit losses, and $180m of tax expense. Calculate pre-provision net revenue…

A standard equities-sales-and-trading follow-up after a candidate says a company beat consensus.

A company reports quarterly EPS of $1.05 versus published consensus of $1.00, yet its stock falls 8% after the release. Give a structured explanation and say what you would check before trading it.

Core to treasury, corporate development and strategic finance interviews.

You're the treasurer of a mid-cap company currently at 1.0x net debt / EBITDA. The CFO asks whether you should lever up to 3.0x and buy back stock. How would you analyse this, and what would you…