The Smart Path to aBANKING OFFER

Drill the questions you'd miss.

For everyGoldman Sachscoffee chat.

Walk me through a DCF.

Project unlevered free cash flows over a 5–10 year period, discount them and a terminal value back to today using WACC to get enterprise value, then subtract net debt to arrive at implied equity value per share.

Intuition

A company is worth the present value of all the cash it will generate in the future. Since a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, we discount future cash flows at WACC, which reflects the blended risk to all capital providers. Terminal value captures the bulk of value because the company operates beyond the explicit forecast period.

Watch

A common trap is being asked why you use unlevered FCF rather than levered FCF. The answer is that unlevered FCF represents cash available to ALL capital providers (debt and equity), which is consistent with discounting at WACC. If you used levered FCF (after interest), you would need to discount at cost of equity only to avoid double-counting the cost of debt.

Deep Dive

Show how profit turns into cash, then how cash and retained earnings update the balance sheet.

**Income Statement:** Net Income is the starting point for Cash Flow from Operations. **Cash Flow Statement:** Add back non-cash expenses, adjust working capital, then include investing and financing activity. **Balance Sheet:** Ending cash, PP&E, debt, and retained earnings all update, and the Balance Sheet must balance.

Sourced from 1,000+ real interviews. A decade of data from

+ 24 more firms

Baird

Barclays

BMO

Credit Suisse

Deutsche Bank

FT Partners

Greenhill

Guggenheim

Harris Williams

Houlihan Lokey

Jefferies

Lincoln

Macquarie

Marathon

Miller Buckfire

MTS

Perella Weinberg

Piper Sandler

PJ Solomon

Qatalyst

Rothschild

UBS

Wells Fargo

William Blair

Earn your banking offer.

“Leetcode forInvestmentBanking”Investment Banking”

Your map

See exactlywhere you stand.

Your map is every topic they can ask you and how solid you are on each one. It fills in as you answer.

Financial Statements0%

Income Statement0%

Revenue0%

EBIT0%

EBITDA0%

Net Income0%

Margins0%

Depreciation & Amortization0%

Balance Sheet0%

Assets & Liabilities0%

Cash0%

Working Capital0%

Cash Flow Statement0%

Capital Expenditures (CapEx)0%

Free Cash Flow0%

Corporate Finance0%

Debt0%

Equity0%

Cost of Capital0%

WACC0%

Valuation0%

Enterprise Value (EV)0%

Equity Value (EQV)0%

CAPM0%

EV/EBITDA0%

EV/Revenue0%

Price-to-Earnings (P/E)0%

Other Multiples0%

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)0%

Terminal Value0%

Tax0%

Deferred Taxes & NOLs0%

Mergers & Acquisitions0%

Synergies0%

Accretion / Dilution0%

Leveraged Buyout (LBO)0%

Returns0%

Nothing to plan

Sit down and it hands you the next question. Pick a topic or a bank if you want, or just keep hitting next.

The ones you miss come back

Miss a question and it keeps showing up until you get it right. The topics you dodge are the ones you see the most.

No credit for lucky guesses

A topic is done when you can answer it every time it shows up.

Questions & answers

A real question, fully answered.

Every question gets the same four-section answer: an organized way to learn it, retain it, and be ready for the traps.

Walk me through a DCF.

Intuition

Watch

A common trap is being asked why you use unlevered FCF rather than levered FCF. The answer is that unlevered FCF represents cash available to ALL capital providers (debt and equity), which is consistent with discounting at WACC. If you used levered FCF (after interest), you'd need to discount at cost of equity only to avoid double-counting the cost of debt.

Deep Dive

Determine the intrinsic value of a company by projecting its future free cash flows and discounting them back to present value.

Phase 1: Project Unlevered Free Cash Flow (typically 5–10 year explicit forecast period)

Step 1: Start with Revenue and build down the income statement to EBIT (operating income).

Step 2: Tax-affect EBIT:

NOPAT = EBIT \times (1 - Tax Rate)

Step 3: Build to Unlevered Free Cash Flow (UFCF):

UFCF = NOPAT + D&A - CapEx - Δ Net Working Capital

Note: UFCF is cash flow available to ALL capital providers (debt + equity), which is why we start pre-interest (EBIT) and do not subtract interest or debt repayments.

Phase 2: Calculate Discount Rate (WACC)

Step 4: Cost of Equity via CAPM:

k_{e} = r_{f} + β \times (r_{m} - r_{f})

Step 5: After-tax Cost of Debt:

k_{d} = r_{d} \times (1 - t)

Step 6: WACC:

WACC = \frac{E}{E + D} \times k_{e} + \frac{D}{E + D} \times k_{d}

Use market values for E and D weights, not book values.

Phase 3: Calculate Terminal Value

Step 7 (Option A — Gordon Growth / Perpetuity Growth):

TV = \frac{UFCF _{final year} \times ( 1 + g )}{WACC - g}

where $g$ is a long-term growth rate, typically 2–3% (anchored to GDP/inflation).

Step 7 (Option B — Exit Multiple):

TV = EBITDA_{final year} \times Selected EV/EBITDA Multiple

Terminal value typically represents 60–80% of total enterprise value — this is normal but worth sensitivity-testing.

Phase 4: Discount Everything Back

Step 8: Discount each year's UFCF and the terminal value to today:

Enterprise Value = t = 1 \sum n \frac{UFCF _{t}}{( 1 + WACC ) ^{t}} + \frac{TV}{( 1 + WACC ) ^{n}}

Mid-year convention adjusts exponents to $t - 0.5$ to reflect cash flows arriving throughout the year rather than at year-end.

Phase 5: Bridge from Enterprise Value to Equity Value per Share

Step 9:

Equity Value = Enterprise Value - Net Debt - Preferred Stock - Minority Interests + Associates / Equity Investments

where Net Debt = Total Debt − Cash.

Step 10:

Implied Share Price = \frac{Equity Value}{Fully Diluted Shares Outstanding}

Fully diluted shares include options/warrants (treasury stock method) and convertibles (if-converted method).

Phase 6: Sanity Check

Step 11: Run sensitivity tables on WACC vs. terminal growth rate (or exit multiple) to show a valuation range rather than a single point estimate. Compare implied multiples (EV/EBITDA, P/E) to trading comps as a gut check.

Shortcut: The entire DCF collapses to just two present values — PV of projected FCFs + PV of terminal value — bridged to equity value per share. If you remember that skeleton (project → discount → bridge), you can rebuild every detail from first principles.

Loading the full answer…

A real question, asked at Lazard · 1st Round · 2026.

The question

One of 3,500+ questions asked in real interviews, tagged by the bank and round it came from.

Direct response

The answer you lead with, tight enough to say out loud in the room.

Intuition

Why it is true, so you hold up when the interviewer pushes on it.

Watch

The traps and follow-ups interviewers use to see how deep you really go.

Deep dive

The full mechanics, tables, walkthroughs and worked numbers, when you want more.

The modes

Four ways to drill.

See how it works →

Advice fromOffer Holders

Start early
Find the right reps before recruiting pressure hits.
01
"This was the holy grail for me... I really internalized the technicals and behavioral frameworks. Wished I found this sooner."
Berkeley to Lincoln
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Trust the reps
Let the hard questions expose gaps, then keep going.
02
"The question sets are tough in the right way, exposing gaps I didn't know I had. After a few days, I was performing instead of just memorizing."
UChicago to Evercore
★★★★★
Learn from a pro
Built by the technical interview lead at UChicago, ex-Centerview.
03
"Michael is the most technically savvy and sharp person I worked with... he knows his stuff and can break it down in a way that actually sticks."
MBB
Consulting to PJT
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Common questions

How do you break into investment banking?+

The usual path is a mix of networking, applications, technical prep, and interview reps. Target-school candidates often start through campus recruiting; non-target, lateral, and career-switcher candidates usually need more direct outreach, sharper technical answers, and a clear story for why banking now. OFFERGOBLIN helps with the interview-prep part: real questions from real interviews, answered in four sections, in the order you should meet them. Miss one and it comes back.

What does the investment banking recruiting process look like?+

Most candidates move from applications and networking to a video interview or first-round screen, then to later rounds or a superday. First rounds usually test fit plus core accounting, valuation, and finance technicals. Later rounds go deeper on judgment, deal awareness, DCFs, M&A, LBOs, and whether your answers stay structured under pressure.

How does OFFERGOBLIN help me prepare?+

Three things. The questions are real, asked in real interviews, tagged by the bank and round they came from. Every one carries four sections: Direct Response, the line you say out loud; Intuition, why it holds up when someone pushes; Watch, the trap and the follow-up they ask next; and Deep Dive, the full mechanics. And your map shows where you stand on every topic. Whatever you missed gets priority until you get it right.

What firms does OFFERGOBLIN cover?+

The question bank covers bulge brackets, elite boutiques, and middle-market firms, including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, Moelis, PJT, Houlihan Lokey, William Blair, Piper Sandler, and more. Every question came out of a real recruiting cycle, not a textbook.

Where should I start if my interviews are coming up soon?+

Start with the highest-hit-rate technicals: accounting, enterprise value, valuation methods, DCF mechanics, merger math, and basic LBO logic. Then run bank- or round-specific sets if you know where you are interviewing. If you are starting from zero, start with GOBLIN100 and work the hundred in order. If you already have the basics, GOBLINMODE picks up where you are and manages the rest.

Is this useful if I am from a non-target school?+

Yes. Non-target candidates usually have less room for vague answers because they may not get as many shots. OFFERGOBLIN will not do networking for you, but it can make the interview side much tighter: you can drill the same technical themes target-school candidates see, practice firm-specific sets, and close obvious gaps before a first round or superday.

Is this only for students, or does it work for laterals too?+

It works for both. Students can use it to build technical fluency before summer analyst recruiting. Laterals and career switchers can use it to refresh accounting, valuation, M&A, and modeling-adjacent technicals while also targeting the banks, rounds, and question styles that match their process.

What is included in the free tier?+

Free users get 7 questions a day in GOBLIN100 and GOBLINMODE, with your full map from day one, and no card is required. Accelerated ($39.99/month) raises the limit to 80 questions a day and unlocks bank, round, and topic filters. You can cancel anytime.

How do I get started?+

Sign in and answer honestly when you miss a question. That is the whole input. If the basics are new to you, run GOBLIN100 in order. If not, GOBLINMODE will find your gaps fast. Either way there is nothing to plan. Switch into topic, bank, or round filters once you have a specific interview on the calendar.

The Smart Path to aBANKING OFFER

Earn your banking offer.

“Leetcode forInvestmentBanking”Investment Banking”

See exactlywhere you stand.

A real question, fully answered.

Four ways to drill.

Advice fromOffer Holders

Start early

Trust the reps

Learn from a pro

Join the Community

Pricing

Casual

Accelerated

Common questions

Know it allbefore you walkin the room.

Know it allbefore you walkin the room.

Know it all beforeyou walk in the room.