OFFERGOBLIN vs 400 Questions: Which IB Prep Should You Use?

What OFFERGOBLIN is

A cards-based practice platform: each question asks for a spoken answer before anything is revealed, then the candidate self-grades and moves on. Built on:

• 3,500+ verified Wall Street interview questions sourced from candidate reports across 39 banks.
• 68 topic tags. 7,500+ question-tag links.
• Four practice modes: GOBLINMODE (adaptive default), GOBLIN100 (beginner ramp), Bank & Round, and Topics.
• Six-section structured answers: Direct Response, Intuition, Watch, Objective, Mechanics, Script.
• LaTeX math rendering for formulas.
• Self-grading (Know / Don't Know / Skip) that drives adaptive selection.
• An article library, recruiting guides, and an Excel shortcut trainer.
• Daily practice limits: 7/day on Free, 80/day on Accelerated ($39.99/month).

The positioning: the Leetcode of Banking. Candidates do not just read the answer; they practice producing it.

Where the 400 Questions wins

Three real strengths of the static PDF:

1. It is a known canon. Every banking candidate from a target school has seen these PDFs. Knowing the questions exist is a baseline that many candidates have built mental models around.
2. Free. The PDFs are widely available without payment. For a candidate with zero budget, the PDF is a real starting point.
3. Single document for skimming. Some candidates prefer a static reference they can flip through without an app: a one-time read of the 400 questions, top to bottom, takes about 4-6 hours and gives a useful overview.

Where the 400 Questions falls short

1. No retrieval practice. Producing an answer cold, out loud, under time pressure is a different skill than recognizing it on the page. Most candidates who only use the PDF can recognize the answer but stumble when an interviewer asks them cold. The PDF is recognition; banking interviews demand retrieval.
2. Static, not adaptive. Every candidate sees the same 400 questions in the same order. No adjustment for what the candidate already knows, no resurfacing of weak spots.
3. Single-paragraph answers. The PDF answers are one block of text per question. There is no separation between what to say, why it makes sense, what to watch for, and how to deliver it verbally.
4. No bank or round filtering. The 400 are bank-agnostic. There is no "Goldman first round" subset, no "Evercore Superday" filter.
5. Stale. The canonical PDFs were written years ago. Some questions reflect deals and market conditions from a decade back. The bank list, the deal mechanics, and the format all evolved.
6. No progress tracking. A candidate cannot tell which questions they have mastered, which they keep getting wrong, or whether they are ready for an interview.

Where OFFERGOBLIN wins

1. Retrieval, not recognition. Candidates answer out loud, reveal the structured answer, grade themselves, and advance. The cards they get wrong come back at 20x weight in GOBLINMODE. The cards they know fade.
2. 3,500+ questions, not 400. The base is much larger. Candidates do not run out of new material.
3. Six-section structured answers. Direct Response is what the candidate says. Intuition is the why. Watch is the trap. Objective is the lens. Mechanics is the math. Script is the delivery. The PDF format collapses all of these into one block.
4. Bank and round filtering. Accelerated users can filter to a specific firm and round when an interview is on the calendar.
5. Topic filtering. When a weak spot surfaces, the candidate drills the tag.
6. Tracking and resurfacing. The platform remembers what the candidate got wrong and brings it back.

Where OFFERGOBLIN falls short

The honest list:

1. It costs $39.99/month for the full feature set. Free is real, but it is 7/day; serious use is paid.
2. Requires an account. The PDF requires nothing.
3. Less raw text per question. Each OFFERGOBLIN answer is split into six tight sections; some PDF answers are a longer single paragraph that some candidates prefer.
4. No print-ready single document. A candidate who prefers reading on paper and marking up margins gets less out of the platform.

How candidates use both

The pattern most serious candidates settle into:

• Read the 400 Questions PDF top to bottom once. Take 4-6 hours, just for exposure to the canonical question list.
• Use OFFERGOBLIN as the daily practice surface. Free for casual prep, Accelerated when interviews are imminent.
• Use OFFERGOBLIN's Learn library for the deeper concept pages that the PDF only summarizes.
• Use Bank & Round the week before each known interview.

The PDF and the platform do not compete; they sit at different points in the prep arc. The PDF is exposure. OFFERGOBLIN is practice.

Bottom line

If the question is which one to use, the answer is both, but use them for what they are. The PDF is a one-time exposure read. The platform is the daily reps that turn knowledge into reliable interview performance.

If forced to pick one, pick the platform. When an MD pauses and waits for you to talk, producing the answer cleanly is what counts.