M&A and Integration interview questions

A first-round corporate development question testing whether a candidate starts with strategy rather than a database filter.

Your CEO asks for a list of acquisition targets to strengthen the company's enterprise software offering. How would you build an initial target screen, and what would you avoid treating as a hard filter?

Tests whether a corporate development analyst can reconcile headline consideration to the cash actually paid at closing.

A signed deal uses a $30m net-working-capital peg. At closing, accounts receivable are $18m, inventory is $11m, and accounts payable plus accrued operating expenses are $7m. Cash and debt are excluded. What is net…

Tests basic acquisition economics and whether the candidate can distinguish an achievable benefit from an attractive headline.

What are cost and revenue synergies? Which should a buyer rely on more heavily when setting a price, and why?

Corporate development analysts need this to explain why a deal's accounting profile differs from its cash economics.

After acquiring a business, what is purchase price allocation? Explain goodwill and why the accounting matters to a corporate buyer.

A first-round corporate development question testing whether a candidate understands where analyst work fits in a live acquisition.

Walk me through a corporate acquisition from the first strategic idea to post-close integration. Where does corporate development add value at each stage?

A practical first-round question for candidates who may support early-stage deal execution.

What is a letter of intent in an acquisition, and what key points would you expect it to cover?

Distinguishes a proactive corp dev function from one that reacts to banker calls.

How would you build an acquisition pipeline for a company that has done two deals in five years and wants to do two a year?

Tests commercial judgement when a corporate buyer must recommend terms, not merely compare headline valuations.

A founder-owned target prefers your $200m cash offer with a 45-day close and no financing condition. A financial sponsor offers $215m, but needs 90 days, debt financing, a broad material-adverse-change condition, and an…

Asked to test whether you understand the role you're applying to.

You've done M&A at a bank. How is corporate development different, and what would you have to do differently?

A live-deal case that tests whether an analyst can triage issues rather than produce an unranked diligence list.

You have three weeks left in diligence. Revenue is concentrated in two customers, EBITDA contains large adjustments, and the target's core software is built on a third-party licence. How would you prioritise the work?

The discipline that separates serial acquirers from companies that repeat mistakes.

Two years after an acquisition, how do you assess whether it worked? What do you do with the answer?

A deal-team workflow question for an analyst asked to turn an early indication of interest into an efficient diligence plan.

Your company has signed an NDA for a potential acquisition and receives access to a virtual data room. How would you structure the first request list and manage it so that it helps a decision rather than overwhelms the…

Tests operational judgement: integration plans fail more often from unclear ownership than from an insufficient spreadsheet.

How would you set up governance for a mid-sized acquisition that has 20 synergy initiatives across five functions?

Asked in regulated-industry corp dev interviews to test awareness of conduct risk during the gap between signing and closing.

Why might an acquirer use a clean team between signing and closing? What information can it analyse, and what must the buyer avoid doing before close?

Corporate buyers frequently acquire divisions rather than whole companies, and the risks differ entirely.

You're buying a division from a larger company rather than a standalone business. What changes in your analysis?

An offer-ready integration case testing how a candidate makes a recommendation with incomplete information and competing priorities.

You are acquiring a software company. Finance wants to migrate billing on day one to capture synergies, while the target's sales leader says any billing disruption could jeopardise its ten largest renewals. What do you…

A corporate development case testing value, transition services, and execution risk in a divestiture process.

You are evaluating the acquisition of an industrial software division being carved out of a conglomerate. The seller's EBITDA excludes costs that will not disappear at close. Make the decisions as transition facts…

Integration is where acquisitions actually fail, and corp dev interviews probe it directly.

Your company has just signed a deal to acquire a competitor half its size. You have three months to close. What do you do in that window, and what are the first 100 days after?

A corporate-development analyst must protect deal value and clean-team discipline when new customer information arrives before signing.

You are supporting the acquisition of a workflow-software company. A confidential customer call creates both valuation and antitrust-process issues. Work through the updates and send the CEO a recommendation before…

A branching corporate-development negotiation covering price, certainty and integration risk.

You lead corporate development for a strategic buyer. Two weeks before signing, the target misses earnings and its largest customer delays renewal. Choose the response at each negotiation turn and prepare a CEO…

Corp dev interviews probe this because saying no is a large part of the job.

Your CEO is enthusiastic about an acquisition. Your analysis says the price destroys value. How do you handle it?

Tests whether you understand that valuation depends on who is doing the owning.

A banker values a target at $500m. Your internal analysis says $380m. Both are defensible. Why do they differ?