40 questions reported in Fidelity 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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Conviction, downside cases and knowing when the work says no. 18 questions
A first-round buy-side question testing whether you distinguish company quality from an investment opportunity.
A candidate says, "I would buy Company A because it has great products, loyal customers and a strong management team." What is missing from that answer?
Management assessment is critical to buy-side investing. This tests judgment of leadership.
What framework do you use to assess management quality, and what are the red flags that indicate poor management?
Sector rotation is a core investment strategy. This tests understanding of market cycles.
What indicators do you monitor to identify sector rotation opportunities, and how do you differentiate between cyclical and structural shifts?
The foundational buy-side question. Understanding the difference is essential for the role.
Explain the key differences between buy-side and sell-side research. How does the focus, time horizon, and incentive structure differ?
Passive investing has transformed markets. This tests understanding of structural changes.
How has the rise of ETFs and passive investing affected your analysis and the opportunities available to active managers?
A junior research exercise testing whether you can reconcile a headline growth rate before accepting management's narrative.
A consumer company reports revenue rising from $500m to $550m, or 10%. Management says acquisitions added 6 percentage points and foreign exchange added 2 percentage points. What was organic growth,…
Asked to check you understand which job you're applying for.
What's the difference between buy-side and sell-side research? Which is the harder job?
Moat analysis is core to buy-side investing. This tests understanding of sustainable competitive advantages.
What framework do you use to assess competitive moats, and how do you determine whether a moat is sustainable?
Earnings quality is critical to avoid value traps. This tests forensic accounting skills.
What metrics and red flags do you look at to assess the quality of reported earnings? How do you distinguish high-quality from low-quality earnings?
Value vs growth is a fundamental investment debate. This tests portfolio construction philosophy.
How do you think about the value versus growth trade-off in portfolio construction? When do you prefer one style over the other?
Sell discipline is as important as buy discipline. This tests portfolio management skills.
What are your sell criteria, and how do you distinguish between temporary volatility and a deteriorating thesis?
Position sizing is critical to risk management. This tests portfolio construction discipline.
What framework do you use to determine position size, and how do you balance conviction with risk?
Catalysts are essential to timing buy-side investments. This tests understanding of what moves stocks.
What types of catalysts do you look for, and how do you assess their probability and timing?
Scenario analysis is critical to managing uncertainty. This tests quantitative thinking.
You're valuing a company with significant uncertainty around growth rates and margins. How do you structure and weight scenarios to arrive at a fair value estimate?
A research interview scenario testing how you turn an earnings release into a differentiated trade decision.
You cover a retailer whose shares trade at $40. Consensus expects next year's EPS of $4.00 and management guides to $3.70 after a weak quarter. Your initial work suggests the miss comes from a…
A buy-side final-round case testing whether you can revise a recommendation when primary research conflicts with management guidance.
You own a 4% long position in a software company at $80. Your base case is worth $105 (60% probability), your bear case is $55 (25%), and your bull case is $125 (15%). Two of five channel-check…
A final-round judgement question testing whether you can reject a polished growth narrative when cohort evidence weakens it.
A vertical-software company trades at 7x forward revenue and reports 108% net revenue retention. It also gives customers a 12-month implementation holiday, has doubled sales commissions capitalised on…
A buy-side analyst simulation testing whether you can update a view before the morning investment meeting.
You cover a long position in a vertical-software company. An alternative-data alert challenges the core thesis two hours before the portfolio-manager meeting. Work through the evidence and write the…
Business quality, position sizing, benchmark risk and turnover discipline. 14 questions
A first-round question for analyst programmes at long-only equity managers.
Before buying a single stock for an active equity fund, what do you need to know about its benchmark, objective and constraints? Why is a benchmark not simply a scorecard?
A practical valuation check in an equity-manager analyst interview.
A portfolio has three holdings: 50% in a company trading at 10x forward earnings, 30% at 20x and 20% at 30x. Calculate the weighted-average forward P/E. Then explain why that number alone is not…
A first-round calculation that tests whether a candidate can describe a portfolio decision relative to its benchmark.
A global equity fund owns 6% in Company X, 1% in Company Y and 0% in Company Z. Its benchmark weights are 3%, 4% and 2%, respectively. Calculate the active weight in each name and explain what an…
A basic calculation and interpretation check in equity research and portfolio-management screens.
You buy a share at $100. One year later it is $108 and it paid a $3 dividend. The company’s EPS rose from $5.00 to $5.40. Decompose the shareholder return and explain what you would investigate next.
A deceptively open question testing whether you ask before you answer.
How would you invest $1 million? Walk me through your thinking.
You are interviewing at an active manager. This question is not rhetorical.
Most active managers underperform their benchmark after fees. Why are you pursuing a career in active management? Make the strongest case, and acknowledge the strongest counterargument.
Guaranteed in every asset management, equity research and long/short interview.
Pitch me a stock. Structure your answer as you would in an interview, covering thesis, valuation, catalysts and risks.
Common in research and growth investing interviews. Assume no internet access.
Estimate the annual revenue of the US coffee shop market. Show your reasoning, then tell me which assumption your answer is most sensitive to.
Tests whether an equity analyst can turn a headline beat into a tradable, falsifiable view.
A company beats quarterly EPS by 6%, but management keeps full-year guidance unchanged. The share price rises 9% on the day. How would you decide whether to add to a position, hold it, or sell into…
A practical portfolio-management question about converting research into net client returns.
An analyst proposes selling a 4% holding to buy a new idea expected to outperform by 5% over the next year. The round-trip trading cost is 70 basis points, and selling would realise a 20% taxable gain…
An offer-level portfolio-management case on treating redeeming and remaining clients fairly under liquidity pressure.
Your long-only equity fund receives a 12% redemption request to settle in five trading days. Its 8% small-cap holding trades only 5% of its average daily volume without material market impact; its…
An offer-level case for fundamental investors, where process matters more than sounding brave in a drawdown.
Your fund owns a 7% position in a consumer company because you underwrote stable pricing power and margin expansion. A major competitor cuts prices, the company misses earnings, and the share price…
A long-only portfolio-management judgement question about letting winners run without allowing a position to become an unmanaged risk.
A stock you bought at a 3% portfolio weight has doubled and is now an 8% weight. The thesis remains intact, but the valuation is above your base-case fair value. How would you decide whether to trim,…
An evidence-weighting exercise that makes confidence explicit before the recommendation.
You are reviewing a consumer compounder after a profit warning. Allocate 100 confidence points across bullish, bearish and unresolved explanations as evidence arrives, then make a position…
Duration and curve positioning, spread decisions and index construction. 6 questions
Tests whether you can match a straightforward client objective to an implementable fixed-income portfolio.
A client needs predictable annual cash flows for the next five years but worries rates may rise. How would a bond ladder help?
A basic calculation used to test whether a candidate can translate a rate view into portfolio risk.
Your bond portfolio has a modified duration of 6. If yields rise by 25bp, what happens to its value, and what does the estimate leave out?
A realistic portfolio-management scenario for an open-ended bond fund facing client redemptions during a risk-off session.
Your investment-grade bond fund receives a $75m redemption request at 10:00am while credit spreads are widening. The portfolio has $20m of Treasury bills, $40m of recently issued liquid industrial…
A core analyst question for a credit research rotation within a fixed-income manager.
You are considering a five-year bond issued by an investment-grade company. What would you analyse before buying it?
The primary active decision in a fixed income mandate.
You run a bond fund benchmarked to an index with a duration of 6.5. You think rates will fall. How do you position, and how much risk is that?
A fixed-income portfolio-management replay after a government funding update changes the curve and sector valuations.
You help manage an intermediate-duration bond portfolio when a government borrowing update triggers a sharp curve move. Make the portfolio decisions as information arrives, then prepare a note for the…
Strategic versus tactical allocation, risk parity and rebalancing rules. 1 question
A practical portfolio management question for all allocation roles.
Why rebalance a multi-asset portfolio instead of letting winners run?
Driver-based models, differentiated estimates and defending a rating. 1 question
A reasoning question with no single right answer. The interviewer wants your framework.
Two companies in the same industry have identical revenue, EBITDA and growth. One trades at 12x EV/EBITDA, the other at 7x. Give me the possible explanations.
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 Fidelity.