JPMC

CIB:

Round 1

• How do you value a company?

• What are the most common valuation methods?

• Explain the difference between EV and Equity Value.

• Why do we subtract cash when calculating Enterprise Value?

• What is DCF and its key assumptions?

• Walk me through a DCF model. With multiple cross questions.

• What are synergies in M&A?

• What are LBOs, and how do they work?

• Explain the role of an investment banker in an M&A deal.

• What is the difference between a buy-side and sell-side mandate?

• What are some recent M&A deals in India or globally?

• What is working capital, and why is it important?

• Explain the capital structure of a company.

• What is the WACC formula?

• Why is higher, cost of equity or cost of debt and why?

• What is CAPEX vs. OPEX?

• How do you calculate free cash flow (FCF)?

• What is dividend policy, and how does it affect valuation?

• Explain NPV and IRR.

• Walk me through the 3 financial statements.

• How are the three statements linked?

• What is the difference between profit and cash flow?

• What is accrual accounting?

• Walk me through the structure of a cash flow statement.

• How is the cash flow statement linked with the income statement and balance sheet?

• How does depreciation affect all three financial statements?

• What is depreciation, and what are its methods?

• What is the difference between operating and financing cash flow?

• What is minority interest in financial statements?

• What are the red flags you look for in financial statements?

• What is the formula for the Current Ratio and what does it indicate about liquidity?

• What is the Quick Ratio and how is it different from the Current Ratio?

• What does the Debt-to-Equity Ratio reveal about a company’s financial structure?

• How do you interpret the Interest Coverage Ratio?

• What is Return on Equity, and how is it used to measure performance?

• What is the Price-to-Earnings Ratio, and what are its limitations?

• What does the Asset Turnover Ratio tell you about a company’s efficiency?

• What is the Operating Profit Margin, and why is it important?

• What is the Cash Conversion Cycle, and what does a negative CCC indicate?

• What is the formula for Days Sales Outstanding, and why is it important in working capital
analysis?

• What is inflation, and how is it measured?

• Difference between WPI and CPI.

• What are fiscal and monetary policies?

• What is the repo rate, and how does it impact markets?

• What is stagflation?

• Explain GDP vs. GNP.

• What is quantitative easing?

• How do interest rates impact stock markets?

• What are current key economic trends globally?

• What is the difference between fiscal deficit and revenue deficit?

• What is India’s current GDP growth rate (latest figure)?

• Explain the difference between equity and debt markets.

• What are credit default swaps (CDS)?

• What is interest rate risk?

• Explain LIBOR vs SOFR.

• What is market liquidity risk?

Round 2
• Tell me about yourself.

• Why J.P. Morgan?

• Why CIB and not other divisions?

• What do you know about JPMC’s culture?

• Why do you want to work in investment banking?

• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

• What do you know about our recent deals/projects?

• What is the share price of JPMC right now?

• Who is JPMC’s CEO?

Round 3

• What is your biggest achievement?

• What is your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it?

• Describe a time when you worked in a team.

• Describe a time you led a project.

• What are your strengths?

• What are your weaknesses?What is your leadership style?

• What is your favorite book or movie, and why does it resonate with you?

• Do you have any questions for us?

Interviewer - Please Introduce Yourself.

• Then, from the introduction, they started questioning my work experience.

Interviewer -

• Please elaborate on your work experience. What was your role? What did you do?

Questions on Derivatives

• You must know about futures and options contracts

• Why are they designed?

• What are called options and put options?

• Please draw the payoff diagrams for each case. And what is the maximum profit and loss in
both cases?

• If farmers have to hedge using options, how can they do that?

• Do you know how the prices of futures contracts are determined?

• What is Contango and Backwardation? Give examples from the commodity market.

• Can futures contracts be in backwardation for stocks? If yes, how?

Current happenings in the financial market

• Are you aware that there was one country that had a negative interest rate? (They were
trying to ask me about Japan Interest Rates, Yen Cash and Carry trade)

Questions on Alternative Investment Options

• Have you heard about Interest Futures?

• What will impact your portfolio if you have bought interest-rate futures and the Federal
Government reduces interest rates?

• Explain the impact.

• Could gold be used to hedge against inflation?

Questions on Macroeconomics

• As you have worked in the commodities market, what macroeconomic conditions affect
commodity prices and how?

• Discussion followed the impact on the commodities market through weather, government
policies, technology, inflation, poverty, and international events.

Questions on Statistics

• What is linear regression? What are its parameters?

• What does the equation of the linear regression tell? Does the correlation from the
equation have a negative sign, or is it always a positive sign?
• What are the boundaries of correlation and covariance? Formula and inference.

• What is hypothesis testing? What is the P value? (A few more questions were asked, which
I did not know, so I also didn't remember the questions)

• Right-skewed curve: Also plot (Mean, Median, Mode on it. I made a silly mistake here in
placing MMM on the curve.

Questions on Microeconomics

• What is the substitution effect?

• I might have forgotten other questions in this domain

Questions on Python

• Tuple vs String

• Different functions of libraries. (Although I have worked on the same libraries that they
were asking for, the functions which I used were not the same)

(Many functions were asked, and I was not able to answer most of them, but I told what I
have used)

• Haven't you studied coding at IIT? (I explained I did, but a long time back and used it during
my previous work experience, but the scope was limited)

• They gave me the task to create a matrix index so that the more variables there are, the
better it is, and the fewer variables B is, the better it is. (Used Indexing to solve, and please only
tell us how you will do it)

Questions on Job Description

• What do you understand by the Job description