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// DIAGNOSTICS / INTERVIEW QUIZ
5 QUESTIONS · 7 MINUTES · NO SIGNUP

Interview Quiz

FIVE QUESTIONS · FOUR ANSWERS EACH

Five questions a commercial banking interviewer is genuinely likely to ask in a first-round interview. Each has four answer options. There is no single correct answer to most of them — but there are answers that show a banker's instinct, and answers that show analyst's mechanics. The two are very different.

For each question: pick the answer closest to yours. The quiz will then show you the senior banker's read on that question — why some answers signal the right instinct, why others quietly mark a candidate down. At the end, you'll see how often your reads aligned with the senior banker's. The point is not the score. The point is the calibration.

5 questions · ~7 minutes · No signup, no email required

// FOUR BLOCKS, FOUR QUIZZES

A bank hires in four blocks, and each block's panel asks different questions. This one is yours.

// THE FIVE QUESTIONS IN THIS ROUND

The four answers to each, and the senior interviewer's read of every one, open when you start.

  1. 01 · Tell me about yourself.

    It is the question most commercial banking interviews open with, and the one that decides — usually within sixty seconds — whether the conversation is going to be a real interview or a polite conversation that happens to last forty-five minutes. There are four ways to answer it.

  2. 02 · Walk me through this borrower.

    The interviewer slides a single page across the table. It contains three years of high-level financials for a manufacturer: revenue grew from US$28m to US$42m. EBITDA grew from US$3.1m to US$3.8m. Operating cash flow went from positive US$1.4m to negative US$0.6m. DSO moved from 48 days to 82 days. The borrower is asking for a US$1.5m increase to a US$3.5m working capital line. You have ninety seconds.

  3. 03 · What's your first question?

    A logistics company — third-party warehousing and distribution for FMCG clients. Revenue US$56m, EBITDA US$9.2m (a 16.4% margin, top quartile for the industry). The CEO is in front of you asking for a US$15m term loan to acquire a competitor. The CFO has prepared a clean pack: three years of audited financials, board-approved budget, a quality-of-earnings report from a Big Four firm. Everything looks well-organized. The deal closes in six weeks. You have one question to ask first. What is it?

  4. 04 · When do you walk away from a long client?

    A property developer who's been a client of the bank for twelve years. Four completed projects, all delivered on time and within 5% of original cost budget. He's now asking for senior debt on a US$48m mid-rise residential project — bigger than anything he's done before, but consistent in shape. You've done diligence. The numbers are within policy: 67% LTC, 55% LVR on completion, 89% pre-sales coverage. The borrower is an experienced operator. The only thing that's changed in the file since the last deal is a new mezzanine lender — provided by a friend of the borrower, on terms the borrower describes as "very favourable." You've asked for the intercreditor terms three times over four weeks and not yet received them. The deal is supposed to close on Friday. What do you do?

  5. 05 · Where do you see yourself in five years?

    We're back to a soft question — but it's the last one of the interview. The interviewer is a senior commercial banker, fifteen years in the role, the person who'll make the actual hiring decision. They've already heard your CV walkthrough, your "tell me about yourself," and probably one technical case discussion. They have a fifteen-minute slot and you have used twelve of them. The question is asked in a tone that is genuinely curious, not gatekeeping. What do you say?