PART A · QUESTION 1
A head of lending tells you: 'We need a dashboard for arrears. Just write the requirements.'
// EXAM HALL22 QUESTIONS · 30 MINUTES
Bank Business Analyst Practice Test
What a change really needs: the process as it is run and not as it is written, the edge cases nobody mentioned, and a requirement nobody has to guess at.
BY MICHAEL SHANG · SIXTEEN YEARS IN COMMERCIAL BANKING · UPDATED
// THE SHORT ANSWER
A bank business analyst practice test asks whether you go and look rather than asking for a description, and whether you can write a requirement an engineer will not have to guess at. This paper has three parts: mapping the real process and finding the need; a process map set on an exhibit, with a workaround, a lapsed control and a business case to test; and calls on scope, sign-off, automation and the edge cases nobody mentioned. Every question is original, and none comes from any bank's test. Sit it against a thirty-minute clock, or take it as practice.
BASIS Practitioner judgment from sixteen years in commercial banking, set out in How Bankers Think (Highbank Press, 2026). Every borrower on this site is a composite constructed for teaching, not a client. The market is mid-market commercial lending as practised in New Zealand and Australia; where a convention differs elsewhere, the page says so.
// HOW TO SIT IT
Answer below as practice, and each read opens as you go. Or sit it as a test: 30 minutes, with every read held back until you finish.
PART A
The method
What a request really is, and how to write down what a change needs.
PART A · QUESTION 2
Sales wants loan approvals in an hour. Credit wants every file to keep its full manual review. Both have written to you as the business analyst, and each asks for your support.
What do you do?
PART A · QUESTION 3
You have four draft requirements for a payment screen. An engineer will build from whichever you write.
Which can be built and tested without guessing?
PART A · QUESTION 4
A change costs US$300,000 to build. It saves 50 hours of staff time a week, at US$50 an hour, with no other cost or saving.
About how long does it take to pay for itself?
PART B
The process map
Two days with the team, eight questions. Read what you saw against what the manual says.
EXHIBIT AK · THE PROCESS MAP
A bank is replacing how it handles early repayment of business loans: about 400 a month, 30% of them on fixed rates. The sponsor's case says the new system “removes step 2”. The system handles floating-rate loans only.
You have been brought in late, with the build done and in testing, and have spent two days with the team. This is the manual, against what you saw.
| Step | The manual says | What you saw |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Receive | Through the portal | The portal, and about a third by email from branches |
| 2. Work out the payout | In the system | In a spreadsheet one person keeps, for every loan, about 20 minutes each |
| 3. Second check | By a second person | By a second person, except on Fridays, when one person does both |
| 4. Send the letter | From the template | From the template, edited by hand for joint borrowers |
| 5. Release the security | After legal checks | After legal checks, and a phone call to ask whether other loans share the security |
In testing, 192 of 200 cases passed. The set included 8 joint-borrower cases, and all 8 failed. The sponsor wants to go live next month.
PART B · QUESTION 5
From Exhibit AK, step 2.
About how many hours a month does it take today?
PART B · QUESTION 6
From Exhibit AK: the new system goes in as described.
About how many hours of step 2 are left each month?
PART B · QUESTION 7
Your sums show that the saving in Exhibit AK's business case is smaller than the sponsor says. The sponsor's steering group meets on Thursday.
What do you do?
PART B · QUESTION 8
Exhibit AK's spreadsheet is not in the manual. One person keeps it, and has for six years.
What do you do about it first?
PART B · QUESTION 9
In Exhibit AK, one person does both the work and the second check on Fridays. It has caused no known errors.
Signal or noise?
PART B · QUESTION 10
A third of Exhibit AK's requests come by email from branches. The sponsor says: 'Portal only, in the new world. Problem solved.'
What do you ask?
PART B · QUESTION 11
In Exhibit AK's step 5, someone rings to ask whether other loans share the security. The sponsor calls it 'a bad habit that automation will remove'.
What does that call tell you to write?
PART B · QUESTION 12
From Exhibit AK's test results. The sponsor says: '96% is a great pass rate. Let us go.'
Signal or noise?
PART C
The calls
The people who want it, and the people who will build it.
PART C · QUESTION 13
You are mapping a loan-servicing process for a change. The procedure manual shows nine steps. A team member mentions, in passing, a spreadsheet the manual does not.
What do you do?
PART C · QUESTION 14
A change automates early loan repayments. Everyone is happy with the normal case. You are asked to sign off the requirements tomorrow.
What do you ask?
PART C · QUESTION 15
You can automate one step this quarter. Step 1 takes the most hours but runs well. Step 2 is small but causes most errors and rework. Step 3 is the team's least favourite.
Which do you look at first?
PART C · QUESTION 16
A 'temporary' manual workaround was added during a system change two years ago. It still runs every day, done by one person, and no one has tested it since.
Signal or noise?
PART C · QUESTION 17
After your change, average handling time fell 20%. The sponsor wants to announce success. Customers' repeat calls about the same issue have risen.
What do you say?
PART C · QUESTION 18
In the last week of testing, the sponsor adds: 'While you are in there, add a new report. It is only small.'
What do you do?
PART C · QUESTION 19
Testing of a change is done. Every requirement passes, and the one open defect is a misaligned column on an internal report, logged with an owner and a date. The sponsor asks for your sign-off.
What do you do?
PART C · QUESTION 20
A team member says the screen 'looks different' from the old one. Everything they need is there, in a different order, and their test cases all pass in the same time.
Signal or noise?
PART C · QUESTION 21
The new system deletes closed-loan records after five years. Nobody has mentioned this. The old one keeps them for longer, though no one can say why.
What do you do?
PART C · QUESTION 22
An engineer asks what happens when a repayment arrives on a public holiday. Your requirements do not say, and the release is tomorrow.
What do you do?
0 OF 22 ANSWERED · 0 WITH THE SENIOR READ · 0 STANDS UP · 0 OFF THE LINE
// THE REST OF THE ROUND
Every question here is original; none is any bank's real test. Written for: Business analyst.
- Business analyst: the interview questions, against a two-minute clock.
- Situational judgement, for any seat.
- The assessment centre: a whole case in forty-five minutes.
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