Private Equity
Prepalyst has 20 growth equity interview questions with model answers, covering unit economics, cohort retention, burn efficiency and minority protections. Every question is graded on technical accuracy, completeness and interview communication. Practice is free.
A first-round metric question that tests whether you can explain retention rather than merely define it.
What is net revenue retention, and why do growth equity investors care about it?
A foundational diligence question for software and subscription businesses.
A company reports $30m of ARR. What would you need to know before treating that figure as high-quality recurring revenue?
An opening screen question used to test whether you know what a growth fund is trying to own.
What makes a company an attractive growth equity investment?
A cash-efficiency follow-up common in later-stage software diligence.
What is burn multiple? A company burned $18m of cash to add $12m of net new ARR last year. What does that tell you?
A common software-investing shorthand that interviewers use to test judgement about growth and profitability.
Explain the Rule of 40. A SaaS company grows 32% and has an EBITDA margin of negative 12%: how would you use the result?
Growth investors use this to test whether a headline TAM can support the required underwriting period.
How would you build a bottom-up market size for a vertical software company selling to US dental practices?
A practical diligence test for an associate expected to turn customer conversations into an investment view.
You have five customer reference calls for a growth equity diligence. How do you select the customers and what do you need to learn?
A structuring question that is really a judgement question about incentives.
A founder wants $20m of the $80m round to be secondary. Cash to them personally rather than into the company. How do you think about it?
The framing question in every growth equity interview.
How does growth equity differ from buyout investing? What changes in how you underwrite?
A diligence question that distinguishes a real retention analysis from a blended KPI recital.
Management says retention is strong because company-wide NRR is 112%. How would you diligence that claim?
A cap-table maths question that tests whether you distinguish a valuation outcome from an investor's actual ownership outcome.
You invest $25m at a $75m pre-money valuation. The company later raises $50m at a $200m pre-money valuation, and you do not participate. What ownership do you have after each round, and why does this matter in…
A final-round growth-equity case testing auction discipline, minority protections, and the willingness to walk away.
You are leading the final round of a growth-equity auction for a minority investment in Atlas Compliance, a vertical SaaS company. Bid as new information changes valuation, negotiate an exclusivity path, and decide…
An investment-committee question that tests whether you can turn operating risks into an ownership and liquidity outcome.
How would you construct a downside case for a minority growth equity investment in a software company?
A growth-equity associate case testing whether a candidate can reset valuation and structure when the most important SaaS KPI deteriorates.
You are staffing final investment committee for a $55m minority investment in Meridian Workflow, vertical software for hospitals. A new cohort analysis changes the retention picture three days before signing. Make the…
Growth investors live or die on the terms, because they cannot control the outcome.
You're investing $80m for 25% of a founder-controlled company. What protections do you negotiate, and which matter most?
A growth-equity associate diligence exercise before an investment committee recommendation.
You are diligencing a vertical-software company for a growth-equity investment. The CIM, management model and raw billing export tell subtly different stories about recurring revenue, retention and concentration.…
A judgement-heavy diligence question for businesses whose valuation relies on long-term margin expansion.
A growth company says it has pricing power. How would you test whether that is true before underwriting margin expansion?
A source-reconciliation exercise testing whether the candidate trusts evidence by quality rather than convenience.
A software target claims accelerating growth and 118% net retention. Reconcile the CIM, operating model, billing export and customer interviews before recommending whether to proceed.
A growth-equity associate live case testing whether the investment view changes when customer data contradicts management's headline metrics.
You are preparing a final investment-committee recommendation for a minority investment in a vertical SaaS company. Work through new evidence as it arrives, make a decision at each checkpoint, then write the final…
The attribution exercise a growth fund runs at investment committee.
You invest at 8.0x revenue in a company with $50m revenue growing 40% a year. You hold five years and exit at 6.0x revenue. What return do you make, and where does it come from?
Write your answer, get it graded on technical accuracy, completeness and communication, and see exactly which mechanic you missed.
Firm names indicate where a question type is commonly reported in interviews. They are not sourced from, endorsed by, or affiliated with the firms named.