These are the latest Credit Suisse interview questions

If you step into an interview with Credit Suisse (presuming you make it through their initial application process), you will want to be prepared. Many people apply for banking jobs. Few make it through. Credit Suisse hasn't released application numbers, but Deutsche Bank recently said it had 110,000 applications for its 619 graduate jobs last year.  If you want to get in, you will need to be good. And to be good, you will need to prepare.

With this in mind, we have scoured the internet for questions asked in recent Credit Suisse interviews. Listed below and categorized for the investment banking division (IDB), sales and trading (markets) and technology, they cover the questions you will probably be asked. You won't definitely get in if you can answer them, but it will certainly help.

IBD (Investment Banking Division) interview questions from Credit Suisse 

To the best of your ability, can you tell us what high yield debt is?

If a company acquires another company with a lower P/E ratio, is the deal accretive or dilutive?

How would you go about calculating free cash flow?

When looking for a good leveraged buyout (LBO) candidate, what characteristics would you typically look for?

What would your client companies tend to do if the interest rate rose? Specifically, how would this influence their M&A activities?

How would you handle a discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis?

What is the angle between the two hands of a clock at 3.15pm?

Can you walk me through a typical IPO?

Could you calculate a DCF or net asset value (NAV) using Excel if I were to give you an appropriate model?

If an unlisted British manufacturer came to us to raise debt on the capital markets, what corporate parameters would you look at and what would you advise them?

Sales and trading interview questions from Credit Suisse

What will influence the price of a residential mortgage backed security?

Can you produce a forward FX model for PLN/USD (the Polish Zloty/the U.S. dollar)?

Can you calculate the delta of an option without using the precise formula for delta? How?

You have a set of scales and nine bowls. One is gold, the rest are bronze and a different weight, You can only use the scales twice. How do you find the gold bowl?

Explain a credit default swap to me?

What recent developments in the news may affect the bank's activities?

If you have one a cube that is made of 6x6x6 little cubes and you put it into paint, how many cubes would get painted?

What are the risks of waiting until 2019 before raising the interest rates substantially in the U.S.?

Describe the behaviour of x^(1/x).

How many zeros are there in 100 factorial?

Technology questions from Credit Suisse

Can you design an algorithm for finding the number of integer squares in a given numerical range?

Can you create a function to register an order which contains these fields: user id, order quantity (e.g.: 3.5 kg), price per kg, (e.g.: £303), order type: BUY or SELL?

What's the different between Java and C++?

Explain extract transform and load (ETL) process in a data warehouse (DW).

You have 1,000 bottles of wine, of which one bottle is poisoned. You have unlimited rats. e.g. You can use 1 rat and get it to drink through the 1,000 bottles (which would takes 1,000 tests). Or you can use 1,000 rats and each rat drinks 1 bottle (1000 rats, 1 test). Find out an optimal solution that use minimum number of rats and minimum number of tests.

How is a normalized database better than a denormalized one?

In the context of SQL, what does Union do?

What is the difference between a levered and an unlevered free cash flow (FCF)?

Give examples of various Agile management methodologies.

Sources: Glassdoor.com, WallStreetOasis.com, Vault.com

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)