IB 400 QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026
1. I see you've done mostly marketing/social media related internships. Can you discuss your
quantitative skills? - Answers discuss specific times you have had to analyze numbers
-budgeting process (kappa as assistant finance)
-research for one brilliant that I had to implement
-research for Brighton the day to optimize readership
2. Can you walk me through the thought process for analyzing a company for BIG? - Answers -key is
to break everything down into steps
-
4. What initiative have you taken on your own to learn more about finance? - Answers -getting
certified for Bloomberg Market Concepts
-be conservative with how much you claim to know, re-iterate that you are not an "expert" but that
you have taken the initiative to learn something on your own
6. can you tell me about a time when you submitted a report/project with misspellings or grammatical
mistakes? - Answers -briefly mention a careless mistake: on an anthropology exam I wrote "pacific"
instead of specifying which part of the vast ocean leading to the wrong score
-spend the majority of the time discussing what you learned and how you improved citing another
specific example of how you improved the second time around
ex: adjusted to the geographically emphasis of the course and was able to successfully increase my
written response grades
7. What 's the most # of classes you ever took at once and how well did you do in each of them? -
Answers -best to point to something specific
-"during my freshman year, I was taking 6 classes at once as well as working on securing an internship
and rushing a sorority as well as getting involved on campus and I was still able to get A's in all of
them"
-try to think of the most stressful time in your academic life and use that as a reference for your
answer
How well can you multi-task? - Answers -give a concrete and specific example of a time when you
were working on multiple projects at the same time (work, school, or activities)
-emphasize that despite the considerable demands, you pulled off everything successfully
-anything involving teamwork or collaboration is also good to use in this response
my example: my sophomore year, I was balancing classes with my new position as a junior analyst
with big, with my current internship with website and startup company Brighton the day. Despite the
considerable demands, I was able to achieve a 4.0 (hopefully) and continue to excel in my internship. I
was also able to be ranked in the top 25% quartile for my BIG presentations
Have you ever worked on a project or report that was shown to a large number of people? - Answers
-a journal, student publication or anything similar could be good to mention here as could anything
show to a client/multiple clients in your work experience or internship
my example: I did run Brighton The Day's Pinterest page, which had close to 30 thousand followers. I
produced 20-25 pieces of unique content per day and then created my own metrics to analyze the
performance of these pins to see which increased readership and which did not.
what is the key point of background questions? - Answers -come across as being an interesting
person
-talk about how your experiences better prepared you for IB
Walk me through your resume - Answers -go through all the lessons on telling your "story"
-start at "the beginning" if you're in college, where you grew up/went to high school
"I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I attended a small, private, boarding high school as a day
student."
then, go through how you 1st became interested in finance/business, how your interest has
developed over the years via specific internships/jobs/other experiences you had and conclude with a
strong statement about why you are interviewing today
,"I have always been passionate about business. As a senior in high school, I pursued 2 internships as
part of a senior project with small, start-up companies. The first was One Brilliant, a retail boutique,
where I was responsible for transforming the consumer base to include millennials. Here, I re-built the
boutique's e-commerce experience through analyzing statistical and market research. My second
internship was with Simple Sugars LLC, which is an all-natural skincare line. Here I worked on growing
the brand as quickly as possible by growing relationships with sponsors and expanding the customer
loyalty program as well as social media platforms. Both of these internships developed my problem-
solving and people skills."
"This summer, I started my current internship with Brighton The Day LLC, a fashion blog and social
media platform where I work directly under CEO Brighton Keller. Over the summer, I led their Search
Engine Optimization function to increase readership and further established corporate relations by
negotiating partnerships with brands. Today, I run their Pinterest platform by curating and optimizing
both in-house and out of house content. Using market research, I have implemented new strategies
to grow Pinterests reach and have successfully gained close to 200 followers per week."
"I also recently joined the Boule
Why did you attend SMU? Im sure you had many options. - Answers -say that you looked a lot of
places but settle on where've you went due to its excellent academic reputation
-try to sound like you made a thoughtful decision
"Based on my passion for business, I looked at many schools with strong business programs. I had
never heard of SMU before as very few students in the Pittsburgh area attend or even know about it.
But, when I got into the BBA Scholars program in Cox, I decided to come visit and I am so lucky and
grateful that I did. I immediately fell in love with Dallas and my program was perfect for me. as 1 of 90
students, I was preadmitted into Cox directly launching me into a top 20 undergraduate program."
Why are you majoring in Finance? - Answers -I love that finance requires analytical and technical skills
as well as relationship-oriented/personal skills.
Where else did you apply for school? Did you get in anywhere else? - Answers -you applied to a
number of top schools and got in at other places, but you went through a careful decision-making
process and settled on SMU due to the BBA Scholar program
-show that you're "in-demand" by others and you always become more attractive
What do you do for fun? - Answers -be honest
"I really love fitness and working out. I was always an athlete growing up, so I still love to play tennis
and golf. I also really enjoy football and hockey. I honestly also really love to learn, so I am constantly
reading."
What are your favorite movies/books? - Answers 2 common mistakes:
1. saying something like Wall Street, American Psycho, or Liar's poker that indicates you're a boring
person
2. saying something in the middle-above pop literature/film but not something that has to do with
finance specifically
Favorite movie: "Lion is one of my all-time favorite movies. It is so moving and just amazed me what
the power of the internet can do."
Favorite book: "Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg or the autobiography of coco Chanel. I love reading about
women in business and learning about how different coco Chanel's rise to fame was versus COO of
Facebook Sheryl Sandberg was so interesting. I read both of them in the same summer and I felt I
really learned so much about women in general."
Tell me something interesting about you thats not listed on your resume - Answers "I used to be an
avid babysitter. The summer before my senior year in high school, I was a full time nanny for a family
of 5 children---all under the age of 12. It was a lot of work, but one of the most rewarding
experiences. Even today, I still have families in Dallas that I babysit for. its something that I find a lot
of joy in"
You've had tons of marketing experience and you've worked at many start-up social media
companies. Why do you want to be an investment banker now? - Answers -talk about how you dislike
, the limited advancement opportunities and how your work didn't affect the world at large, rather
only what the specific company was doing
-you want to do finance because you like the business and number aspect of marketing rather than
the marketing aspect of marketing
-you want to make an impact with your work and become an investor/advisor one day
Pretend (difference between accounting and finance)? - Answers -accounting: boring and mundane
-finance: faster-paced and more suited to your personality "I want to interact with people just as
much as I want to work with numbers"
what draws you to IB rather than consulting? - Answers "I was at a cross-roads for a bit but quickly
decided on banking because of its ability to merge the personal relationship skills with the
quantitative ones. From my own research and talking with , consulting seems less result-oriented and
there is a lack of quantitative learning involved"
Where else are you interviewing? is it just banking? consulting? other companies - Answers just
banking, not interested in consulting
-say this no matter what
are you mostly interviewing at larger banks like us? what kind of options within banking are you
considering? - Answers -mostly larger banks, but you have received some interest from other places
so you're looking at a couple options
-if you can mention specific names, that makes your answer even better
-if you're interviewing in a group like M&A or healthcare, talk about how youre mostly speaking with
similar groups to show you're serious about that area
Recently some Analysts and Associates have left "Early" and jumped to hedge funds or private equity.
If the opportunity comes up, why would you stay here instead? - Answers You looked into investing
but realized you don't like the nature of the work-theres too much due diligence and "looking at
deals" rather than taking action and doing the deals
-as a result, after your research (or my actual experience with PE) speaking with alumni and other
connections, you're set on banking
Tell me about a time when you failed to honor a commitment - Answers -they key with this type of
question is to bring up a "Failure" briefly and then to spend most o your time talking about what
you've learned from it and how you've improved rather than dwelling on the failure itself
"as an intern at Brighton The Day, I was responsible for scheduling and optimizing on-brand content
and in-house content, but with a heavy schoolload, one time I fell short of the right amount of
content. This taught me to really hone in on prioritizing and working ahead, I was able to better create
a schedule that not only produced more content but also higher-quality content."
If I gave you an offer right now on the spot would you take it? - Answers Yes, of course, show me the
dotted line and I would sign right now
-even if this is a lie, you still have to say it in an interview or you will NOT get an offer
Let's say that we were to give you an offer-how long would you need to decide whether to accept it or
not? - Answers "show it to me and I will sign and accept it right now"
-some people think this is "unethical" if you're really not certain, but keep in mind that until you've
signed something in writing you can do whatever you want
What should you focus on for the "why our firm" question - Answers -focus on the people, whom
you've met and spoke with there, what they've told you about the firm and what appeals to you
-most banks have very similar cultures-people are nice but competitive and driven, and theres the
expectation that you can do endless amounts of work for the firm
-thats why focusing on people and anecdotes works much better than giving generic answers
since you worked at bank of America this past year, you probably had the chance to go to a lot of
different large banks. why are you interested in us specifically? - Answers -theres rarely a "great" way
to answer this question so I would recommend either referencing someone you spoke with at the
bank or what they've told you or if you don't have that kind of experience, you can give the usual
generic reasons
-this ? often reflects a lazy interviewer
when you were working at that boutique this past summer, you mentioned how you liked the smaller
team and more hands-on environment. why not just go back there? why do you want to move to a
larger bank? - Answers -its always good to be positive about past experiences but at the same time
you want to give a good reason as to why you're moving elsewherre
1. I see you've done mostly marketing/social media related internships. Can you discuss your
quantitative skills? - Answers discuss specific times you have had to analyze numbers
-budgeting process (kappa as assistant finance)
-research for one brilliant that I had to implement
-research for Brighton the day to optimize readership
2. Can you walk me through the thought process for analyzing a company for BIG? - Answers -key is
to break everything down into steps
-
4. What initiative have you taken on your own to learn more about finance? - Answers -getting
certified for Bloomberg Market Concepts
-be conservative with how much you claim to know, re-iterate that you are not an "expert" but that
you have taken the initiative to learn something on your own
6. can you tell me about a time when you submitted a report/project with misspellings or grammatical
mistakes? - Answers -briefly mention a careless mistake: on an anthropology exam I wrote "pacific"
instead of specifying which part of the vast ocean leading to the wrong score
-spend the majority of the time discussing what you learned and how you improved citing another
specific example of how you improved the second time around
ex: adjusted to the geographically emphasis of the course and was able to successfully increase my
written response grades
7. What 's the most # of classes you ever took at once and how well did you do in each of them? -
Answers -best to point to something specific
-"during my freshman year, I was taking 6 classes at once as well as working on securing an internship
and rushing a sorority as well as getting involved on campus and I was still able to get A's in all of
them"
-try to think of the most stressful time in your academic life and use that as a reference for your
answer
How well can you multi-task? - Answers -give a concrete and specific example of a time when you
were working on multiple projects at the same time (work, school, or activities)
-emphasize that despite the considerable demands, you pulled off everything successfully
-anything involving teamwork or collaboration is also good to use in this response
my example: my sophomore year, I was balancing classes with my new position as a junior analyst
with big, with my current internship with website and startup company Brighton the day. Despite the
considerable demands, I was able to achieve a 4.0 (hopefully) and continue to excel in my internship. I
was also able to be ranked in the top 25% quartile for my BIG presentations
Have you ever worked on a project or report that was shown to a large number of people? - Answers
-a journal, student publication or anything similar could be good to mention here as could anything
show to a client/multiple clients in your work experience or internship
my example: I did run Brighton The Day's Pinterest page, which had close to 30 thousand followers. I
produced 20-25 pieces of unique content per day and then created my own metrics to analyze the
performance of these pins to see which increased readership and which did not.
what is the key point of background questions? - Answers -come across as being an interesting
person
-talk about how your experiences better prepared you for IB
Walk me through your resume - Answers -go through all the lessons on telling your "story"
-start at "the beginning" if you're in college, where you grew up/went to high school
"I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I attended a small, private, boarding high school as a day
student."
then, go through how you 1st became interested in finance/business, how your interest has
developed over the years via specific internships/jobs/other experiences you had and conclude with a
strong statement about why you are interviewing today
,"I have always been passionate about business. As a senior in high school, I pursued 2 internships as
part of a senior project with small, start-up companies. The first was One Brilliant, a retail boutique,
where I was responsible for transforming the consumer base to include millennials. Here, I re-built the
boutique's e-commerce experience through analyzing statistical and market research. My second
internship was with Simple Sugars LLC, which is an all-natural skincare line. Here I worked on growing
the brand as quickly as possible by growing relationships with sponsors and expanding the customer
loyalty program as well as social media platforms. Both of these internships developed my problem-
solving and people skills."
"This summer, I started my current internship with Brighton The Day LLC, a fashion blog and social
media platform where I work directly under CEO Brighton Keller. Over the summer, I led their Search
Engine Optimization function to increase readership and further established corporate relations by
negotiating partnerships with brands. Today, I run their Pinterest platform by curating and optimizing
both in-house and out of house content. Using market research, I have implemented new strategies
to grow Pinterests reach and have successfully gained close to 200 followers per week."
"I also recently joined the Boule
Why did you attend SMU? Im sure you had many options. - Answers -say that you looked a lot of
places but settle on where've you went due to its excellent academic reputation
-try to sound like you made a thoughtful decision
"Based on my passion for business, I looked at many schools with strong business programs. I had
never heard of SMU before as very few students in the Pittsburgh area attend or even know about it.
But, when I got into the BBA Scholars program in Cox, I decided to come visit and I am so lucky and
grateful that I did. I immediately fell in love with Dallas and my program was perfect for me. as 1 of 90
students, I was preadmitted into Cox directly launching me into a top 20 undergraduate program."
Why are you majoring in Finance? - Answers -I love that finance requires analytical and technical skills
as well as relationship-oriented/personal skills.
Where else did you apply for school? Did you get in anywhere else? - Answers -you applied to a
number of top schools and got in at other places, but you went through a careful decision-making
process and settled on SMU due to the BBA Scholar program
-show that you're "in-demand" by others and you always become more attractive
What do you do for fun? - Answers -be honest
"I really love fitness and working out. I was always an athlete growing up, so I still love to play tennis
and golf. I also really enjoy football and hockey. I honestly also really love to learn, so I am constantly
reading."
What are your favorite movies/books? - Answers 2 common mistakes:
1. saying something like Wall Street, American Psycho, or Liar's poker that indicates you're a boring
person
2. saying something in the middle-above pop literature/film but not something that has to do with
finance specifically
Favorite movie: "Lion is one of my all-time favorite movies. It is so moving and just amazed me what
the power of the internet can do."
Favorite book: "Lean in by Sheryl Sandberg or the autobiography of coco Chanel. I love reading about
women in business and learning about how different coco Chanel's rise to fame was versus COO of
Facebook Sheryl Sandberg was so interesting. I read both of them in the same summer and I felt I
really learned so much about women in general."
Tell me something interesting about you thats not listed on your resume - Answers "I used to be an
avid babysitter. The summer before my senior year in high school, I was a full time nanny for a family
of 5 children---all under the age of 12. It was a lot of work, but one of the most rewarding
experiences. Even today, I still have families in Dallas that I babysit for. its something that I find a lot
of joy in"
You've had tons of marketing experience and you've worked at many start-up social media
companies. Why do you want to be an investment banker now? - Answers -talk about how you dislike
, the limited advancement opportunities and how your work didn't affect the world at large, rather
only what the specific company was doing
-you want to do finance because you like the business and number aspect of marketing rather than
the marketing aspect of marketing
-you want to make an impact with your work and become an investor/advisor one day
Pretend (difference between accounting and finance)? - Answers -accounting: boring and mundane
-finance: faster-paced and more suited to your personality "I want to interact with people just as
much as I want to work with numbers"
what draws you to IB rather than consulting? - Answers "I was at a cross-roads for a bit but quickly
decided on banking because of its ability to merge the personal relationship skills with the
quantitative ones. From my own research and talking with , consulting seems less result-oriented and
there is a lack of quantitative learning involved"
Where else are you interviewing? is it just banking? consulting? other companies - Answers just
banking, not interested in consulting
-say this no matter what
are you mostly interviewing at larger banks like us? what kind of options within banking are you
considering? - Answers -mostly larger banks, but you have received some interest from other places
so you're looking at a couple options
-if you can mention specific names, that makes your answer even better
-if you're interviewing in a group like M&A or healthcare, talk about how youre mostly speaking with
similar groups to show you're serious about that area
Recently some Analysts and Associates have left "Early" and jumped to hedge funds or private equity.
If the opportunity comes up, why would you stay here instead? - Answers You looked into investing
but realized you don't like the nature of the work-theres too much due diligence and "looking at
deals" rather than taking action and doing the deals
-as a result, after your research (or my actual experience with PE) speaking with alumni and other
connections, you're set on banking
Tell me about a time when you failed to honor a commitment - Answers -they key with this type of
question is to bring up a "Failure" briefly and then to spend most o your time talking about what
you've learned from it and how you've improved rather than dwelling on the failure itself
"as an intern at Brighton The Day, I was responsible for scheduling and optimizing on-brand content
and in-house content, but with a heavy schoolload, one time I fell short of the right amount of
content. This taught me to really hone in on prioritizing and working ahead, I was able to better create
a schedule that not only produced more content but also higher-quality content."
If I gave you an offer right now on the spot would you take it? - Answers Yes, of course, show me the
dotted line and I would sign right now
-even if this is a lie, you still have to say it in an interview or you will NOT get an offer
Let's say that we were to give you an offer-how long would you need to decide whether to accept it or
not? - Answers "show it to me and I will sign and accept it right now"
-some people think this is "unethical" if you're really not certain, but keep in mind that until you've
signed something in writing you can do whatever you want
What should you focus on for the "why our firm" question - Answers -focus on the people, whom
you've met and spoke with there, what they've told you about the firm and what appeals to you
-most banks have very similar cultures-people are nice but competitive and driven, and theres the
expectation that you can do endless amounts of work for the firm
-thats why focusing on people and anecdotes works much better than giving generic answers
since you worked at bank of America this past year, you probably had the chance to go to a lot of
different large banks. why are you interested in us specifically? - Answers -theres rarely a "great" way
to answer this question so I would recommend either referencing someone you spoke with at the
bank or what they've told you or if you don't have that kind of experience, you can give the usual
generic reasons
-this ? often reflects a lazy interviewer
when you were working at that boutique this past summer, you mentioned how you liked the smaller
team and more hands-on environment. why not just go back there? why do you want to move to a
larger bank? - Answers -its always good to be positive about past experiences but at the same time
you want to give a good reason as to why you're moving elsewherre
