Investment Banking Interview Prep by Desk, Not Industry
If you have ever sat in a library trying to memorise every technical concept in finance before a single interview, you have already made the mistake most students make. According to Alex Euripidou, what you get tested on is decided by the seat, not the industry, the LBO is everything in private equity and useless in trading, and the right move is to prep the column, not the whole book.
That one line reframes the entire interview prep problem. Most students treat "investment banking interview prep" as one giant syllabus: DCFs, LBOs, comps, brainteasers, market awareness, accounting, all of it, all at once, because they are not sure yet which seat they will land. The result is a mile wide and an inch deep. You walk in half prepared for everything instead of fully prepared for the one thing that seat actually tests.
Why does interview prep differ by seat, not just by industry?
"Investment banking" is a label, not a job. Underneath it sits M&A advisory, equity capital markets, debt capital markets, sales and trading, and private equity, and those are genuinely different jobs with different daily outputs. An M&A analyst builds models and decks. A trader reads markets in real time and manages risk on a desk. A private equity associate underwrites a small number of deals in enormous depth. None of those people do the same work day to day, so there is no reason an interviewer would test them on the same skills.
The mistake is assuming the industry label predicts the test. It does not. The seat predicts the test. Two students can both say they are "going for investment banking" and walk into completely different interviews the same week, one full of modelling questions, the other full of market moves and mental maths.
What do you actually need to know for a private equity interview?
Private equity interviews are built around one core exercise: can you underwrite a deal. That means the LBO is close to unavoidable, both as a full modelling test and as a stripped back paper LBO where you walk through the mechanics out loud without a spreadsheet. If you want a worked example of exactly how that paper version is structured, the paper LBO example walks through the format step by step.
Beyond the LBO itself, PE interviews lean heavily on deal rationale and judgement: why would this business support debt, what would you do differently as an owner, where is the risk in the thesis. It is a narrower technical base than people assume, but it goes deeper on that narrow base than almost any other seat in finance.
What do you need to know for a sales and trading interview?
This is where the caption's point lands hardest. The LBO that a PE candidate lives and breathes is close to irrelevant on a trading desk. Traders are not underwriting companies over a multi year hold, they are pricing and managing risk in real time, so the test shifts entirely. Expect mental maths under time pressure, probability and brainteaser style questions, market awareness (what happened this week and why it matters), and product knowledge specific to the desk you are interviewing for, whether that is rates, equities, FX, or credit.
A candidate who spends their prep time perfecting an LBO model for a trading interview has, in a very literal sense, prepped the wrong column. The technical depth needed is real, it is just a completely different technical depth to PE.
Where does a general IB interview sit between the two?
Corporate advisory and M&A interviews sit closer to the middle of the spectrum. You will still get a DCF walkthrough (see how to do a DCF in an interview if you want the mental model for doing one without a model open in front of you), some comps and precedent transaction logic, and a handful of deal experience or "walk me through a transaction you followed" questions. It is broader than PE prep and less specialised than trading prep, which is exactly why generic "IB interview prep" content tends to be the least useful for candidates who already know their target seat.
How do you find out what your specific seat actually tests?
Three things do most of the work here. First, look at the actual desk or group you are applying to, not the bank as a whole, because prep genuinely differs across desks within the same bank (this is the same logic behind ranking banks by desk rather than by name, covered in the investment bank tier list). Second, talk to people currently in that seat, whether that is a current analyst, an alumnus from your university, or anyone one step ahead of you in the process, and ask what they were actually asked. Third, once you know the seat, prep narrow and deep rather than broad and shallow. A private equity candidate who has drilled paper LBOs repeatedly will out-perform one who has done a couple of LBOs and a bit of everything else.
If you are still deciding which seat to target in the first place, that decision changes what you prep for months before the interview even happens, which is exactly the kind of groundwork worth getting right early.
Want the fuller breakdown of how each track (IB, consulting, law, tech) actually differs before interview season hits? Grab the free AUS Complete Guide briefing and read it before you lock in a lane.
What happens if you prep the wrong things for your seat?
The real cost is not embarrassment in the room, it is time. Interview prep windows are short, often a matter of weeks between an application and a first round, and every hour spent on a technical skill your seat will never test is an hour not spent on the one it will. Students who prep "the whole book" usually run out of runway before they get properly deep on anything, and depth is what actually separates candidates in a final round. Students who identify the column early and drill it tend to walk in noticeably calmer, because they are not guessing at what is coming next.
FAQ
Do I need to know DCF and LBO for every finance interview?
No. A DCF shows up across most corporate finance and advisory interviews because it is a general valuation tool, but the LBO is far more concentrated in private equity and leveraged finance style seats. A trading interview is unlikely to touch either in any depth.
Is the LBO tested in sales and trading interviews?
Generally not in any real depth. Trading interviews test mental maths, probability, market awareness, and product knowledge for the specific desk, which is a different skill set to underwriting a company over a multi year hold, which is what the LBO is built for.
What is the difference between IB, PE, and trading interview prep?
IB advisory prep sits in the middle: DCFs, comps, deal experience, some LBO exposure. PE prep goes deep and narrow on the LBO and deal judgement. Trading prep is almost entirely different, built around speed, probability, and live market reasoning rather than modelling.
How early should I start seat specific interview prep?
As early as you have a genuine sense of which seat you want, which for a lot of Australian students is penultimate year, ahead of the clerkship and internship application windows. The earlier you know the seat, the more of your prep time goes toward the right column instead of a generic version of everything.
Where can I find a full breakdown of what each seat tests?
Start with the free AUS Complete Guide briefing for the overview across tracks, then move to a track specific playbook once you know your lane, since that is where the seat level detail actually lives.
Does interview prep differ between penultimate and final year students?
The core technical content does not change much, but the depth expected usually does. Final year candidates going for a graduate offer after a successful internship are typically expected to be sharper and faster on the same material than a penultimate student sitting their first ever interview in that seat.
Ready to prep the right column
Once you know your seat, the fastest way to close the gap is a resource built for that specific track rather than a generic finance guide. The AUS Complete Guide Playbook covers the IB, PE, trading, and consulting seat differences firm by firm and timeline by timeline, so you are prepping the column, not the whole book.
If you are still torn between seats and want it mapped out for your exact situation rather than a general guide, Career Path Mapping is a personalised 1:1 that gives you the actual plan instead of another framework to interpret yourself.
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