Financial Modeling Interview Questions

Most common questions (and answers) asked in a financial modeling interview

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Written by CFI Team

What are the Most Common Financial Modeling Interview Questions?

In this Financial Modeling Interview guide, we’ve compiled a list of the most common and frequently asked financial modeling interview questions. This guide is perfect for anyone interviewing for a financial analyst job or any other role requiring knowledge in the field as it helps you prepare for the most critical questions relating to financial modeling concepts and application.

Alongside with this comprehensive guide to financial modeling interview questions (and answers), you may also be interested in exploring “The Analyst Trifecta“ — CFI’s guide on how to be a great financial analyst.

General Tips for Financial Modeling Interview Questions

This guide focuses exclusively on technical financial modeling interview questions, especially the fundamental knowledge of building financial models using software such as Excel.

General best-practices for finance or financial modeling interview questions include:

Take a couple of seconds to plan your answer and repeat the question back to the interviewer out loud (you buy some time by repeating part of the question back at the start of your answer)
Use a structured approach to answering each question, this typically means having points one, two, and three (for example)
If you don’t know the exact answer, state the things you do know that are relevant (and don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know exactly” – that’s much better than guessing or making stuff up)
Demonstrate your line of reasoning (show that you have a logical thought process and can solve problems, even if you don’t know the exact answer)

Financial Modeling Interview Questions (and Answers)

1. What is financial modeling? What is a financial model used for?

A financial model is simply a tool that’s usually built in Excel to forecast, or project, a business’ financial performance into the future. The forecast is typically based on the company’s historical performance and requires preparing an income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and supporting schedules (known as a “three statement model”). From there, more advanced types of models can be built, such as discounted cash flow analysis (DCF model), leveraged-buyout, mergers and acquisitions, and sensitivity analysis.

The output of a financial model is used for decision making and performing financial analysis, whether inside or outside of the company. Inside a company, executives use financial models to make decisions about:

Raising capital (debt and/or equity)
Making acquisitions (businesses and/or assets)
Growing the business organically (e.g., opening new stores, entering new markets, etc.)
Selling or divesting assets and business units
Budgeting and forecasting (planning for the years ahead)
Capital allocation (prioritize which projects to invest in)
Valuing a business

2. How do you build a financial model?

There are 10 major steps involved in building a financial model:

#1 Historical results and assumptions

Building a financial model begins with collecting information from financial statements for the past three years or more and calculating items such as revenue growth rate, gross margins, accounts payable days, inventory days, and accounts receivable days. These metrics are then used in combination with the financial analyst’s insights to lay out the assumptions for the forecast period as hard-codes.

#2 Construct the income statement

With the forecast assumptions in place, you can build the income statement, starting from revenue, COGS, all the way down to EBITDA.

#3 Construct the balance sheet

The balance sheet is the next thing to build. Using the assumptions such as AR days, AP days, and inventory days, balance sheet items like accounts receivable and inventory can be forecast into the future.

#4 Build the supporting schedules

Before completing the income statement and balance sheet, you need to create a schedule for capital assets such as Property, Plant & Equipment (PP&E) as well as for debt and interest.

#5 Complete the I/S and B/S

On the income statement, link depreciation to the PP&E schedule and interest to the debt schedule. You can then finish up the income statement by calculating the earnings before taxes, taxes, and net income. On the balance sheet, link the closing PP&E balance and closing debt balance from the supporting schedules. Shareholder’s equity is computed by adding net income and capital raised, and subtracting dividends or shares repurchased from last year’s closing balance.

#6 Construct the cash flow statement

Upon completing the income statement and balance sheet, you can build the cash flow statement using the reconciliation method. Operating cash flow is calculated by taking net income, adding depreciation, and adjusting for changes in non-cash working capital. Investing cash flow is a function of capital expenditures in the PP&E schedule, and financing cash flow consists of all cash inflows and outflows due to changes in debt and equity.

#7 Perform the DCF analysis

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis is a method of business valuation. It is done by calculating the free cash flows and discounting them back to today at the firm’s cost of capital (or required rate of return). You can then compute the net present value (NPV) of the firm.

#8 Sensitivity analysis and scenarios

Once the DCF analysis is completed, you can incorporate sensitivity analysis and scenarios to assess the impact on the value of the company that results from changing different variables. These are good ways to assess the risk of an investment.

#9 Build charts and graphs

Presenting results of financial analysis using visual components such as charts and graphs helps executives and management better interpret financial results and identify trends quickly.

#10 Stress test and audit

It is important to stress test extreme scenarios to see if the financial model behaves as expected. Financial analysts should also audit the model using tools in Excel.

3. Name three of the most common financial modeling best practices.

By following the industry best practices in financial modeling, financial analysts can build financial models more efficiently and users are able to easily and quickly grasp important information when they look at the models.

#1 Excel tips and tricks

Limit or eliminate the use of your mouse — keyboard shortcuts help speed up the process
Break complex calculations into simpler steps
Know the important Excel formulas and functions (INDEX MATCH MATCH, CHOOSE, VLOOKUP, etc.)

#2 Formatting

Clearly distinguish between inputs (assumptions) and outputs (calculations or formulas) using formatting conventions — blue font for inputs and black font for formulas, shading, borders, etc.

#3 Model layout and design

It is critical to structure a financial model in a logical, easy-to-follow design. This can be achieved by building the entire model on a single worksheet and using the group function to create sections.

It is also a good practice to use the same color theme throughout the whole model to make it professional-looking.

4. Pick a type of financial model and walk me through the process.

Pick a model which allows you to demonstrate some advanced financial modeling knowledge, but don’t be too ambitious so that you end up picking one which you are not familiar with. Make sure you know all the key steps to building the model thoroughly.

It is also a good idea to build a couple of models ahead of the interview, so that they’ll be handy to show and demonstrate the process to the interviewer when this type of question is asked.

Below are some useful resources on different types of financial models:

DCF Model Template Screenshot

5. How would you forecast revenues?

There are two approaches to model building — making your model realistic, or keeping it simple and robust.

The first principles approach identifies various methods to model revenues with high degrees of detail and precision. There are also industry-specific considerations that need to be taken into account. For instance, when forecasting revenue for the retail industry, you forecast expansion rate and derive income per square meter. When forecasting revenue for the telecommunications industry, you predict the market size and use current market share and competitor analysis. When forecasting revenue for service industries, you estimate the headcount and use the income per employee trends.

On the other hand, the quick and simple approach to robust models outlines how you can model revenues in a much more straightforward way, with the benefit that the model will be more simple and easy to use. In this approach, you predict the future growth rate based on historical figures and trends.

6. Tell me the difference between NPV and XNPV functions in Excel.

The NPV function calculates the net present value, given a series of cash flows and a discount rate. The NPV function assumes that payments are spaced out in equal periodic payments.

The function argument is =NPV(rate, [value 1], [value 2],…), where rate is the rate of discount over the length of the period, and value 1, value 2,… are numeric values that represent a series of payments and income.

The XNPV function is far more precise than the NPV function because it takes into account the specific dates on which each of the cash flows takes place. This function requires the input of a discount rate, a series of cash flows, and a series of corresponding dates for each cash flow.

The function is =XNPV(Rate, Cash Flows, Dates of Cash Flow)

In valuing a security, investment, or company, the XNPV function provides a more accurate net present value because it factors in the time value of money, while NPV function does not.

7. How do you forecast free cash flow?

Free cash flow to the firm (a.k.a. “unlevered free cash flow”) is the preferred approach when valuing equities using the DCF method.

The formula to calculate FCFF is: FCFF = EBIT x (1 – Tax%) + Depreciation & Amortization – Net Capital Expenditure – Increase in Working Capital

You can also calculate the free cash flow to equity, which is the amount of cash available to equity investors after paying off debt, interest, and investment required to keep the company operating.

It can be calculated using the formula: FCFE = Cash from operations – Capital Expenditures + Net Debt Issued

8. What is sensitivity analysis and how would you perform one in Excel?

Sensitivity analysis is a tool used in financial modeling to analyze how different values of a set of independent variables impact a specific dependent variable under certain conditions. For example, a financial analyst may want to examine how a company’s profit margin may be impacted when variables such as the cost of goods sold and labor costs change. He can perform a sensitivity analysis to test different sets of values for these variables and see how the profit margin changes accordingly.

One of the most useful tools in Excel for performing sensitivity analysis is the data tables, where you can show the output sensitivity by changing up to two independent variables. Tornado charts are also a great way of showing the impact of changes to many variables at once.

buy side analyst financial model example

9. How are the three Financial Statements linked?

If you get one of the financial modeling interview questions along the lines of, “How are the 3 financial statements linked together?”, in an interview, you shouldn’t go into as much detail as above, but instead simply hit the main points, which are:

Net income from the income statement flowing to the balance sheet and cash flow statement
Depreciation is added back and CapEx is deducted on the cash flow statement, which determines PP&E on the balance sheet
Financing activities mostly affect the balance sheet and cash from finalizing, except for interest, which is shown on the income statement
The sum of the last period’s closing cash plus this period’s cash from operations, investing, and financing is the closing cash balance on the balance sheet

10. How can you make sure your numbers in a financial model are right? What tools in Excel would you use to audit your model?

#1 Model structure — By separating inputs (constants only) from processing and outputs (formulas only), you can easily track the source of inputs and ensure that assumptions are consistent (assumptions should be entered once only).

#2 Go to special — The Go to special function in Excel allows you to highlight cells containing specific content, such as constants, formulas, and text. This helps you check whether all inputs are constants and all outputs are formulas.

#3 Trace precedents and dependents — Tracing precedents identifies what precedes the cell you would like to check (i.e., check which inputs are used in a formula) while tracing dependents identifies where an input cell flows into (i.e., which formulas use that input).