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Investment Banking Technicals Flashcards

These flashcards cover the technical answers a banking interview assumes you already have: accounting, enterprise value and equity value, valuation, DCF, LBO and M&A. Each card shows the question, then the answer an interviewer expects. Say your answer out loud before flipping, because recognising an answer and producing one are different skills.

Accounting · Card 1 of 20

How do the three financial statements link together?

How should you use technicals flashcards?

  1. 1. Answer out loud first

    Say the full answer in sentences before you flip. Silent recognition is the exact trap these cards exist to expose, and it is why candidates freeze on questions they had read ten times.

  2. 2. Flip and compare the structure

    Mark a card wrong when you missed the structure, even if you had the right idea. Interviewers grade the order and completeness of the answer, not whether the concept was somewhere in your head.

  3. 3. Work one domain at a time

    Shuffling everything feels productive and hides weak areas. Weak domains only improve if you stay in them long enough to be uncomfortable.

  4. 4. Repeat the misses the next day

    Spacing the repeat is what moves an answer from recognised to available under pressure. Same-session repetition mostly measures short term memory.

Frequently asked questions

What technical topics do banking interviews cover?

Accounting and the three statements, enterprise value versus equity value, trading comps and precedent transactions, DCF, LBO, and accretion dilution. Markets questions and brainteasers sit on top of that at some banks.

Are flashcards enough to prepare for technicals?

They fix recall, which is necessary and not sufficient. Interviews test whether you can produce an ordered spoken answer and defend it under follow-ups, and only answering practice builds that.

What is the most common technical question in a banking interview?

Walk me through the three statements, and how a change in one flows through the others. Interviewers use it because it is quick to ask, hard to fake, and every follow-up branches from it.

How far ahead should I start on technicals?

Early enough that the week before your interview is review rather than learning. The final week should be spent saying answers out loud, not meeting concepts for the first time.

Practice graded technicals

Flashcards tell you whether you recognised the answer. A graded drill makes you write it, then scores the order, the completeness and the parts an interviewer would push on.

Practice graded technicals

Free to start. No card.

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