By the FinLingo Team | Capital markets practitioner, front office experience at a major European investment bank. FinLingo covers 342 lessons from bonds to exotic derivatives. About · Last updated:
Finance interview practice has two layers: a question bank with desk-level expected answers, and a way to drill them under time pressure. The best practice mixes static lists (Wall Street Oasis, Mergers and Inquisitions), interactive question banks (FinLingo's 350 desk-level questions across 7 desks), and live mock interviews with a peer. Depth on 100 questions beats breadth on 1000.
Three skills get tested in a finance technical round, and they require different practice methods.
Recall. The interviewer asks for a definition, formula, or convention. "What is duration?" "Define gamma." "How does a CDS settle?" Recall is solved by repetition. Flashcards work.
Reasoning. The interviewer asks you to derive, walk through, or apply. "Walk me through put-call parity." "If vol rises 5%, what happens to a digital option's price?" Reasoning is solved by working examples. Prose Q&A with follow-ups beats flashcards.
Delivery. The interviewer asks the same questions a real desk would, in the same order, at the same pace. Forty-five minutes, 8 to 12 questions, 3 to 4 minutes per answer, no rambling. Delivery is solved by mock interviews. Solo practice cannot fully replace this.
Read-through. Lowest leverage. Reading 100 questions with answers feels productive but barely sticks. Useful for the first pass to identify what you don't know.
Flashcards. Good for recall: formulas, definitions, conventions. Bad for reasoning. Anki and Quizlet work fine. Custom decks beat pre-made ones because the act of writing the card is itself the learning.
Spaced repetition with prose. Best for retention. Review questions on increasing intervals. The same 100 questions reviewed weekly for two months locks in better than reading 500 once. FinLingo's flashcard system uses a Leitner three-box algorithm to schedule.
Live mock. Best for delivery. A peer (or a senior) asks you questions in real time, listens for hesitation, fires unscripted follow-ups. The hardest mode to set up. Worth the friction once a week in the month before interviews.
FinLingo. 350 desk-level questions across 7 desks: Global Markets (free), Equity Derivatives, Structured Products, Rates, FX, Commodities, Summer Internship. Each question has a written answer, follow-up questions, and a "trap" note where common mistakes lie. Mobile-first PWA plus iOS native, built by an markets practitioner. Best for markets-side practice on the commute. Pricing: Level 1 free, Pro at 24.99 EUR/month with 3-day trial.
Wall Street Oasis. Community-driven Q&A, primarily desktop, IB-leaning. The forum has thousands of historical interview reports tagged by bank and group. Strong on M&A, weaker on derivatives and rates desks. Free tier covers most content; WSO Academy courses run 200 to 500 USD.
Mergers and Inquisitions / Breaking Into Wall Street. Brian DeJesus's content empire. Deep written guides on IB, equity research, and asset management interviews. The BIWS modeling course is the standard reference for IB technicals. Best for IB candidates who can sit at a desktop and work through Excel models. Pricing: courses 200 to 500 USD individually, packages up to 1500 USD.
Corporate Finance Institute. Broad financial modeling courses with a certification track (FMVA). Useful as a general financial modeling reference, less useful for interview-specific practice. Pricing: subscription model around 500 USD/year.
Investopedia Academy. Generalist finance learning. Good for definitions and overview, weak for serious interview practice. Frequently the first stop for career changers; not the right tool for an HEC candidate going into S&T.
Mock interviews are the highest-leverage practice mode and the hardest to set up. The friction kills most candidates' prep.
Two solutions. Peer mock. Find one person targeting the same role type. Schedule a 30-minute mock once a week. Take turns asking and answering. Record audio. Replay the answers you fumbled. The peer relationship matters more than the questions; pick someone you'll actually meet.
Solo mock. Use a voice memo. Pick 10 questions from your bank. Read each aloud, then answer aloud, with a 3-minute timer. Replay the recording at 1.5x speed. The exercise is uncomfortable. That is the point. Real interviews are uncomfortable; you should not encounter that feeling for the first time on the actual day.
"Doing 1000 questions wins." No. Depth on 100 wins. Interviewers test reasoning, not recall. Knowing 100 questions cold and being able to defend each answer with a follow-up beats reading 1000 once.
"Memorise the answers." No. Memorise the frameworks. A good candidate can derive an answer from first principles. A great candidate can do it with the right numerical example.
"All questions are the same." No. S&T desk questions and IB M&A questions are different domains. Practice for the role you're interviewing for, not for "finance" in general.
"Group prep beats solo." Mixed. Group prep helps for the first pass and for delivery practice via peer mocks. Solo practice on flashcards and prose Q&A wins for retention. Combine them, do not pick one.
There is no single best. For markets-side roles (S&T, structuring, derivatives), FinLingo's 350 desk-level questions across 7 desks fit best, especially for mobile practice. For IB modeling and M&A, BIWS and Mergers and Inquisitions remain the deeper references. Wall Street Oasis covers community-driven Q&A across both sides.
Depth on 100 questions beats breadth on 1000. Pick the questions most likely to appear for your target role and be able to answer each one cold, with a follow-up. The interviewer is testing reasoning, not recall. A candidate who deeply understands 100 questions outperforms one who has read 1000.
Yes, at the final layer. Solo practice handles recall and reasoning. A partner adds delivery, time pressure, and the unscripted follow-up. Find someone targeting the same desk type, schedule a 30-minute mock weekly, and replay the worst answers. If no partner is available, use a voice memo and replay yourself.
FinLingo is purpose-built for mobile interview practice. 350 desk-level questions, organized by desk (Global Markets, Equity Derivatives, Structured Products, Rates, FX, Commodities, Summer Internship). Each question has a written answer, follow-ups, and a "trap" note. Designed for 5-minute sessions between meetings or on the commute.
Effective for definitions, less so for reasoning. Use flashcards to lock in formulas, conventions, and standard derivations. Use prose Q&A with follow-ups for reasoning questions. Spaced repetition on a small core set retains both better than reading through a long list once.
Learn this interactively on FinLingo. Level 1 is free.
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