65 questions reported in Citi interviews, organised by the group that asks them. Every question carries a model answer and graded feedback on your own attempt.
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Ratings, spreads, tenor and covenant packages, and pricing a new issue. 14 questions
Green bonds are a growing trend. This tests understanding of ESG in debt markets.
What are green bonds, and how do they differ from conventional bonds in terms of structure and pricing?
The yield curve is fundamental to bond pricing. This tests understanding of rate environment.
How does the yield curve affect bond pricing, and how do you determine the appropriate benchmark for a bond issuance?
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 first-round DCM question that checks whether a candidate can turn investor language into an issuer-cost discussion.
An investor says a proposed bond needs a new-issue concession. What does that mean, why might an issuer pay one, and why is the concession not simply a fee paid to the banks?
The foundational DCM question. Understanding the process is essential for the role.
Walk me through the process of a corporate bond issuance. What are the key steps and who are the key participants?
Digital bonds are an emerging trend. This tests understanding of blockchain in capital markets.
What are digital bonds, and how does the issuance process differ from traditional bond issuances?
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.
Bond structuring is core to DCM. This tests understanding of debt terms and investor preferences.
What are the key decisions in structuring a bond issuance, and how do you balance issuer needs with investor preferences?
Syndication is how debt is distributed. This tests understanding of the sales process.
Explain the syndication process for a bond issuance. How do you determine the syndicate structure and allocate bonds?
High yield is a distinct market with different dynamics. This tests understanding of the segment.
What are the key differences between the high yield and investment grade bond markets, and how does this affect issuance strategy?
Credit spreads are the core pricing metric. This tests understanding of credit risk.
What factors determine credit spreads for corporate bonds, and how do you assess whether current spreads are appropriate?
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 live DCM execution judgement test: the desk needs a pricing recommendation, not a description of book-building.
A BBB+ issuer is marketing $1.0 billion of 10-year notes at initial price thoughts of Treasury +165 to +170 bps. Two hours later, the book shows $4.0 billion of demand. However, one hedge fund…
ABS is a specialized market. This tests understanding of securitization.
Explain the structure of asset-backed securities, and how do they differ from corporate bonds?
Capital structure, covenant headroom, FX and interest rate hedging. 13 questions
A foundational treasury interview question because weekly liquidity is managed through a short-term forecast.
Walk me through how you would build a 13-week cash forecast for a company with seasonal sales. What makes it useful rather than merely accurate-looking?
Tests whether a candidate understands how multinational treasury teams make fragmented cash usable.
What is cash pooling? Explain the difference between physical sweeping and notional pooling, and when each can fail.
Treasury teams support contracts where counterparties want payment assurance without an immediate cash deposit.
Explain the difference between a letter of credit and a bank guarantee. Why might a supplier ask for one, and what should treasury check before issuing it?
Treasury teams must protect operating cash and derivative collateral from a bank failure.
Your company holds substantial deposits and derivatives with several banks. How would you manage bank counterparty risk?
A basic FX-risk distinction expected in multinational corporate treasury interviews.
Explain transaction, translation and economic FX exposure. Which should a corporate treasury team hedge?
A common first-round treasury question because account sprawl creates cost, fraud and visibility problems before it creates a funding problem.
A multinational has 480 bank accounts across 18 banks, many with small dormant balances. Why would treasury rationalise the structure, and how would you do it without disrupting the business?
A numerical treasury follow-up that tests whether a candidate hedges the economic net exposure rather than gross invoices.
A US parent expects to collect €12m from customers and pay €9m to suppliers in 90 days. The EUR/USD forward rate is 1.1000 dollars per euro. What is the net exposure, what forward should it enter, and…
A recurring treasury committee decision.
A company has $2bn of floating rate debt. What proportion should be fixed, and how do you decide?
Tests whether a treasury candidate prioritises capital preservation and access over a marginal yield pickup.
Your company has $400m of surplus cash that it does not expect to need for nine months. How would you set the short-term investment policy?
A scenario question that tests liquidity judgement under a deteriorating market backdrop.
Your company has $150m of cash and a $500m undrawn revolver. Debt markets are becoming volatile, but you have no immediate maturity. Should you draw the revolver now?
A standard numerical follow-up after discussing transaction exposure.
A US company must pay €10m in three months. The three-month EUR/USD forward rate is 1.0800 dollars per euro. How would you hedge it, what dollar cost do you lock, and what happens if spot settles at…
Senior treasury interviews use this to test whether the candidate can turn a macro shock into concrete financing actions.
How would you stress test a company's liquidity, and what actions would you take if the downside case shows a shortfall in nine months?
A senior treasury judgement question on turning a large reported cash balance into usable capital without ignoring legal-entity constraints.
A group reports $1.0bn of cash, but $600m sits in foreign subsidiaries. The parent has a $250m maturity in eight months and is considering a share repurchase. How would you determine how much cash is…
Carry, curve shape, storage economics and policy sensitivity. 10 questions
A basic client-coverage question that tests whether you match an instrument to a real exposure.
Distinguish an FX spot trade, forward and option. Give one sensible use case for each.
Sales and trading interviews use a client order to test quote direction, execution and risk awareness.
A dealer quotes USD/JPY at 149.80 / 149.84. A client wants to buy $20m against yen immediately. At what rate do you trade, and what risk does the dealer have after filling the order?
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?
An FX operations-aware first round checks whether a candidate understands that execution is not complete when a trade is agreed.
A bank sells €25m for dollars to a counterparty for value tomorrow. What is FX settlement risk, and how does payment-versus-payment settlement reduce it?
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.
An FX-options interview uses this to test whether you understand how option risk becomes spot risk on a dealer book.
A dealer sells a client a EUR/USD call with a delta of 0.40 on €10m notional. How should the dealer initially hedge the spot exposure, and what changes if EUR/USD rises?
The foundational calculation on any FX desk.
EUR/USD spot is 1.0800. US rates are 4%, euro rates 2%, both for one year. What is the one-year forward, and why can't it be anything else?
Macro and FX interviews use carry unwinds to test whether you can describe risk, not just a yield differential.
You are long a high-yielding emerging-market currency funded in Japanese yen. The central bank unexpectedly signals tighter Japanese policy and global equities fall sharply. What happens to the trade,…
An FX structuring discussion after a client finds that its hedge economics diverged from its USD funding exposure.
A European company funds a US acquisition with USD debt and uses EUR/USD cross-currency swaps to hedge interest and principal. EUR/USD spot moves in its favour, yet the reported hedge mark-to-market…
An FX-options desk asks this when assessing whether a candidate can turn volatility-market information into a disciplined client recommendation.
USD/BRL spot is stable, but three-month USD/BRL implied volatility rises from 12% to 18% and USD calls trade at a much higher implied volatility than equivalent USD puts. A US importer must pay BRL…
Merger models, accretion/dilution, purchase accounting and deal judgement. 6 questions
Foundational screen. Expect it early in a first round.
Explain the difference between accrual and cash accounting, and why public companies report on an accrual basis. Give an example where the two diverge materially.
Standard question once you've named the three methodologies.
Compare comparable companies analysis and precedent transactions. Which produces higher values and why? How do you select the comparable set in each?
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.
The immediate follow-up to the EV vs. equity value question.
Why is cash subtracted when calculating enterprise value? Is all cash treated the same way?
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.
The interviewer is checking whether you understand what your DCF actually values.
Define unlevered and levered free cash flow. Which do you use in a DCF, what discount rate pairs with each, and what does each produce?
IPO process and pricing, dilution, lock-ups, greenshoe and market windows. 5 questions
The opening technical in any equity capital markets interview.
Walk me through the IPO process from the decision to go public through to the first day of trading.
A foundational question that tests whether you understand the client's strategic objective.
Why might a company choose to go public rather than remain private? What are the costs?
Tests whether you can explain a capital raise designed to protect existing shareholders.
Explain a rights offering. Why might a company use one instead of a broadly marketed follow-on?
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…
Asked in ECM and technology coverage; tests whether you can evaluate a structure critically.
How does a SPAC merger differ from a traditional IPO as a route to the public markets? Who bears the cost?
Credit statistics, capacity analysis, flex terms and syndication risk. 4 questions
A quick model-review test for a leveraged-finance analyst.
A borrower generates $90m EBITDA, pays $24m of cash interest, $18m of cash taxes, and $20m of maintenance capex. It has a 50% excess-cash-flow sweep and begins with $10m excess cash after working…
A standard product comparison in leveraged finance interviews.
Compare a leveraged loan with a high-yield bond.
Asked to test whether candidates understand investor reinvestment risk.
What is call protection and why do debt investors care about it?
A key documentation concept in the institutional loan market.
What does covenant-lite mean, and why do investors accept it?
Spread decomposition, liquidity, index arbitrage and dealer inventory. 4 questions
A desk analyst must estimate risk quickly before reaching for a pricing system.
You are long $10 million face value of a corporate bond priced at par with spread duration of 4.5. Its credit spread tightens by 20bp, while Treasury rates are unchanged. Estimate the price and dollar…
A sales-and-trading screen tests whether a candidate understands the cash amount a bond buyer actually pays at settlement.
A corporate bond is quoted at a clean price of 98.40. It has accrued interest of 1.10 points per 100 of par. What price does the buyer pay, and why do traders quote the clean rather than dirty price?
A first-round credit trading screen checks that candidates can interpret a bond quote before discussing a credit view.
A bond has a fixed 5% coupon. Its market price falls from 100 to 95. Does its yield rise or fall, and why?
A credit-trading desk replay after an issuer misses earnings and the market reprices its bonds.
You cover credit trading for a consumer-products issuer reporting before the open. Make a decision at each stage, then leave a concise trading note for the desk head.
Duration, curve trades, auctions, basis and central bank reaction. 4 questions
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…
A first-round rates-desk check that makes sure a candidate can follow a live market conversation.
A trader says, "10-year Treasury yields are up 7bp to 4.32%." What does that mean in percentage terms, and why do rates desks speak in basis points rather than percentages?
Core product knowledge for any rates or corporate derivatives desk.
Explain an interest rate swap. A corporate has floating rate debt and wants fixed. What do they do, and what is a swap spread?
A rates-desk market replay testing reaction function, positioning and risk expression.
You are on a US rates desk into CPI. Commit to a trade as the release and market colour arrive. You will see the reaction only after making each decision.
Greeks, skew, hedging costs and payoff construction. 1 question
A client-structuring case tests whether you match derivative certainty to uncertain operating volumes instead of simply maximising the hedge ratio.
An airline expects to consume 10m gallons of jet fuel next quarter, but bookings are volatile and management believes actual consumption could range from 7m to 10m gallons. Fuel costs are a major…
Driver-based models, differentiated estimates and defending a rating. 1 question
Tests whether an associate can turn a live model into a useful pre-results client note.
Your covered company reports in two weeks. How would you prepare an earnings preview that clients can use, rather than a generic summary of the last quarter?
Project selection, returning capital and measuring per-share value. 1 question
A practical treasury and FP&A question with a clear quantitative component.
A company with $2bn of revenue and $1.4bn of COGS has DSO of 65 days, DIO of 90 days and DPO of 40 days. Calculate the cash conversion cycle, quantify the cash released by improving DSO to 50 days,…
Same-store sales, unit economics, brand durability and channel shift. 1 question
Asked in consumer coverage and equity research when promotional investment makes reported revenue diverge from shelf demand.
A packaged-food company invoices retailers $100m at list price, expects $14m of promotional rebates and slotting allowances, and later estimates an additional $3m of retailer claims. What revenue…
Market impact, liquidity provision, borrow and event flow. 1 question
An international-equities case that tests whether a candidate can reconcile equivalent listings before calling a price discrepancy an arbitrage.
One ADR represents two ordinary shares. The ordinary shares trade at €30 each, EUR/USD is 1.10, and the ADR trades at $63.00. Is the ADR rich or cheap on a simple parity basis? What must you check…
Write your answer, get it graded on technical accuracy, completeness and communication, and see exactly which mechanic you missed.
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