Investment banking interviews

What the two banks actually publish

Most of what circulates about banking interviews comes from candidates, not banks. Both of these firms do publish a process, though, and the published version is the only part you can plan around with confidence.

Notice what is missing from both: a list of questions. Neither bank publishes one, which is worth remembering when you meet a compilation of several hundred interview questions attributed to a firm. Those are third-party material, not bank material.

Goldman Sachs: a 30 minute video round, then Superday

Goldman’s student pages set the sequence out in numbered steps. Before you apply it suggests planning your timeline and choosing your path, and it is explicit about researching divisions, since “the same skills may translate to multiple divisions” and it wants you to look at all of them before deciding.

On the first interview the wording is precise: “If your application is selected, you will be asked to participate in a video interview, which will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Engineering applicants will be asked to take a HackerRank assessment.” Goldman names the platform for the recorded round in the next step, referring to “your HireVue interview”, which is the one place among the firms covered here where a vendor is named on the careers site itself.

The final round is Superday: “If selected following your HireVue interview, you’ll be invited to a series of final round interviews. Typically, we conduct between two and five interviews for campus hires, depending on the division. You can expect to meet a cross-section of people whom you could possibly work with.”

Two details are easy to miss. Goldman evaluates applications throughout the season, so silence is not a rejection. And it commits to contacting you three times: shortly after you submit, later in the season with a status update, and at the end of the season.

JPMorganChase: four stages and three assessment formats

JPMorganChase presents hiring as four stages: explore, apply, interview, decision. On the interview stage it says: “If you’re a possible match for a role, we’ll contact you to discuss next steps. The interview process will differ for each position. But as we get to know you, and you get to know us, you can expect to meet with several people in multiple rounds.”

Its two published hints tell you what interviewers have been asked to look for. “We’re interested in hiring the whole person, not just a set of skills. Show us what makes you uniquely you.” And, on the interviews themselves, remember to be yourself, which the bank calls one of the best ways to make a strong impression.

The hiring FAQ is where the mechanics live. You will be told if your role requires an assessment, and the examples the bank gives “include structured live interviews, on-demand/recorded interviews, and virtual skills assessments”.

On the recorded format: an on-demand interview “presents questions and allows you to record your responses”, may evaluate language proficiency, verbal presentation or technical ability, and needs a device with a camera and microphone. You get a designated timeframe to record, and because you are on camera the bank recommends professional business attire and a place where nothing will interrupt you.

On technical rounds: these “may take the form of online tests or technical interviews where you demonstrate your skills live with an interviewer”, and many assessments cannot be retaken for a set period.

Two student-specific rules matter: focus on no more than three summer internship applications, and expect rolling review, since the bank states it cannot accelerate a decision because you hold another offer.

The technical side, and how to know what it covers

Neither bank publishes technical questions, but JPMorganChase does publish something nearly as useful: what it teaches new investment banking analysts in their first week. Its Investment Banking Analyst Program page says the nine-week programme “starts with five days of orientation and classroom instruction on accounting fundamentals, financial modeling, valuation, and Excel”.

That is the bank’s own statement of what the job needs on day one, and it maps cleanly onto the four areas technical interviews cover. Accounting: how the three statements connect, and what a given transaction does to each. Modelling: how a forecast is built, and which drivers move the output. Valuation: the main approaches, what each assumes, and when one is more defensible than another. Excel: whether you can actually work in a spreadsheet under time pressure.

How to answer matters as much as what you know. State the definition in one line, then walk through the mechanics in order, saying each assumption out loud as you use it. If a question needs a number you do not have, say what you would need and why rather than inventing one. These rounds are mostly testing whether you can be trusted in front of a client model, and inventing a figure fails that test instantly.

For technical roles inside these firms the content shifts entirely: Goldman’s published route for engineering applicants is a HackerRank assessment, so confirm with your recruiter which kind of round you face.

Fit questions: why banking, why us, and why you

The fit side carries more weight in banking than candidates expect, partly because so many applicants arrive technically prepared and indistinguishable.

Why banking needs a specific answer, not an enthusiastic one. Name the part of the work you want: advising on a decision, building the analysis behind it, the pace, the exposure to senior decision-makers. Then connect it to something you have already done, however small, that proves the preference is real rather than aspirational.

Why this firm needs the research the firms themselves point you to. Goldman asks candidates to explore its divisions before applying, and JPMorganChase publishes programme pages describing what each group does. Naming the group you want, and why, answers the question in a way no generic praise can.

Why you is where JPMorganChase’s framing helps. If the bank is hiring the whole person and not just a set of skills, then the leadership role, the sport, the side project and the part-time job all belong in your answers, provided each shows something about how you work.

Come with one market or transaction you genuinely understand: what happened, what drove it, what you think it means. Knowing one story properly beats skimming five. And have questions ready, because the question you ask about a team’s work is usually more revealing than any answer you give.

Running the recorded round well

A 30 minute recorded interview and an on-demand interview are the same exercise: talking to a camera with nobody to react to you. Both banks publish enough about the format to prepare for it properly.

Set up on the device you will actually use, and test the camera and microphone on it rather than another machine. Pick a room where nobody will interrupt you, with light on your face and a plain wall behind you. JPMorganChase recommends professional business attire, and the same applies at Goldman: dress as you would for the office.

Structure every answer the same way. One sentence that answers the question, one short example with your own actions in it, one sentence of result. Keep each to about 60 to 90 seconds unless the timer says otherwise. There is no reward for using the full allowance.

Look into the lens, not at your preview window, and pause for a beat before you speak so the recording does not clip your opening words. If you can see the question before recording, use the preparation time to pick your example rather than draft sentences.

Record three practice answers the day before and watch them back with the sound off, then with the sound on and your eyes closed; you will catch different problems each way. Prepare the five answers almost certain to appear: tell me about yourself, why this firm, why this division, a time you worked under pressure, and a time something went wrong.

Superday and what happens after

A Superday is a sequence rather than a single conversation, and Goldman says you will meet a cross-section of people you could end up working with, across typically two to five interviews for campus hires.

That has practical consequences. Your stories will be repeated to different interviewers who compare notes afterwards, so keep them consistent rather than reinventing them to suit each room. Expect energy to be part of the assessment: the fourth interview matters as much as the first, and sounding tired is read as a signal. Ask each interviewer something specific to their group, which also gives you genuinely useful information about where you would be placed.

After the round, both banks ask you to check status in their own portal rather than wait for mail. Goldman tells candidates they can check anytime by logging into the application portal, and JPMorganChase says the status of an active application appears in your profile on the job search page.

Timelines are seasonal, not instant. Goldman evaluates applications throughout the season and contacts candidates at several points in it. JPMorganChase reviews programme applications on a rolling basis and states it cannot accelerate a decision, so a competing deadline is a conversation to have early, not a lever to pull late.

If a round went badly, write down that same day which question caused it and what a better answer would have been. Across banks the process is standardised enough that the same question is almost certainly coming again.