Leonard Green & Partners interview process

1. Step 1

   First round

   Junior investment professionals lead early rounds, mixing fit and deal-based questions with technical basics.

   • Fit questions cover your interest in private equity, knowledge of the firm, other opportunities you are pursuing, and why Los Angeles.
   • Deal-based questions go down to income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow line items, and technical questions include a paper LBO, a DCF walkthrough, and accounting.
   • “Walk me through a paper LBO given a purchase price, leverage, and exit multiple.”
   • “Why LGP and why LA?”
   • “Would there be any reason that a firm with low fixed assets might be a good target for an LBO?”

2. Step 2

   Case or modeling test

   An investment recommendation paired with financial modeling, reported once as a three-hour Excel case after a 30-minute behavioral interview; junior processes may add a cold-calling exercise.

   • Expect precedent-transaction and comparables-analysis questions, plus EV/EBITDA multiple discussion.
   • Sector judgment in consumer, healthcare, business services, distribution, or industrials carries real weight.

3. Step 3

   Final round

   Senior partners join later rounds; because LGP is a single office, you meet a high share of the real investing team.

   • Senior partners assess cultural fit alongside technical competence.
   • Come ready to discuss LGP's coaching-style relationship with portfolio-company management.

Share of the 6 Leonard Green & Partners questions in our bank by topic. Each topic links to a worked example.

1. Accretion and dilution67%
2. Behavioral questions33%

• Paper and full LBO modeling mechanics, including MOIC from entry and exit multiples, EBITDA growth, and capex.
• Comparables and precedent-transaction analysis, including EV/EBITDA multiples.
• DCF and WACC walkthroughs plus accounting questions candidates report as tricky.
• Genuine fit with a small, dialogue-driven, low-bureaucracy culture, including why Los Angeles.
• Understanding of LGP's coaching-style relationship with portfolio-company management.

Real questions from the set. Open one to answer it with grading.

• Source-based IC challenge: franchised infusion-pharmacy expansionAccretion and dilution|Advanced
• Challenge the deal team: management optimism conflicts with free-cash-flow evidenceBehavioral questions|Advanced
• Commission commercial diligence: unit-level cash flow, reimbursement collections, and showroomAccretion and dilution|Advanced
• Test an add-on: a specialty healthcare franchisor with different clinicalAccretion and dilution|Advanced
• Why this investing platform?: franchised infusion-pharmacy expansionAccretion and dilution|Basic

• Frame the investor-management relationship in coaching or sounding-board terms, echoing how LGP's own partners describe their role, not a control-heavy operator narrative.
• Because LGP runs from one office, demonstrate genuine cultural fit with a small, close-knit team, not only technical fit for the investment thesis.
• Practice a clean paper LBO, a MOIC calculation from entry and exit multiples, and a comparables walkthrough cold. These are reported, recurring technical content here.
• If asked about responsible ownership, reference LGP's stakeholder model of sharing value creation with employees at portfolio companies.