Introduction
The first-round interview is where an investment banking application stops being a document and becomes a conversation. It usually lasts about half an hour, a junior banker runs it more often than a senior one, and its job is narrow: decide whether you deserve a full day of the team's time at a superday.
That makes it a different exam from the final round. A superday tests depth and consistency across several bankers. A first round tests whether you clear a minimum bar on every dimension at once: a clean story, believable motivation, the core technicals and the sense that you would be easy to work with on a long night. Candidates who prepare for it as a smaller superday tend to overdo obscure technicals and underdo the opening ten minutes, which is where most first rounds are decided.
What follows covers the formats you will meet (phone, live video and on campus), who sits across from you, how a typical 30 minutes splits between fit and technicals, how interviewers score what they hear, and what actually moves a candidate onto the superday list. The answers to individual questions have their own posts, linked where they come up rather than repeated here.
What the First Round Is Actually For
Banks run first rounds because the applicant funnel is enormous and superday seats are expensive. Every superday candidate costs several bankers an hour or more each, so the stage before it has to be cheap, fast and ruthlessly selective.
A Filter, Not a Final Exam
The scale explains the design. Goldman Sachs received a record 315,126 applications for its 2024 internship program and hired about 2,600 interns, a hire rate under 1%, according to Fortune's analysis of the Goldman intern class. At those numbers every stage has to remove most of the people who enter it, and the first round is the first point where a person judges you live.
- First-Round Interview
The first live interview in an investment banking recruiting process, usually a 20- to 30-minute phone, video or on-campus conversation with an analyst or associate. It screens for a credible story, clear motivation and core technical knowledge, and decides who is invited to the superday (final round).
The interviewer's real question is modest: would I be comfortable putting this person in front of my colleagues for a day? That makes the first round a negative screen. Interviewers are listening for reasons not to advance you (a shaky answer on the three statements, a vague reason for wanting banking, a flat or arrogant manner) more than for reasons to hire you, because hiring is the superday's job.
Where It Sits in the Process
The phrase "first round" covers more than one thing. At Goldman Sachs, Fortune described a 30-minute recorded video interview as round one and a superday with two to five interviewers as round two, making the recorded screen the only interview before the final round. Other banks put a live first round after the recording, and some smaller firms skip the recording altogether.
In practice, candidates meet three versions:
- Recorded video, then superday. The asynchronous interview is the whole first round, with no live banker until the final day.
- Recorded video, then a live first round. The recording filters the pool and a 30-minute call with a banker decides the superday list.
- Live first round only. Common at middle-market banks, boutiques and through on-campus schedules, where a banker calls or meets you directly after the resume screen.
The stages on either side, from resume screen to offer, are mapped in our guide to the full IB and PE interview process. This post stays on the live first round, the version where a banker can push back on your answers in real time.
First-Round Formats: Phone, Video and On Campus
The questions barely change between formats; the delivery conditions do. A phone call strips away body language, video adds a camera and a closed-book expectation, and an on-campus slot adds a handshake and a schedule running behind.
| Format | Typical length | Usually run by | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone screen | 20-30 minutes | Analyst, associate or recruiter | Voice only, so structure carries everything |
| Live video | About 30 minutes | Analyst or associate, sometimes a VP | Camera presence, no notes on screen |
| On campus | 30 minutes, sometimes two back to back | Bankers, often school alumni | Arrival, small talk, a tight schedule |
| Recorded video | Short timed prompts | No live interviewer | No follow-ups, reviewed later |
The recorded format has its own rules on timing, setup and delivery, covered in our guide to HireVue and video interviews. The three live formats are below.
Phone Screens
The phone screen is the most compressed version of a first round. Some are short recruiter screens on logistics and motivation; others are full banker interviews that simply happen by phone. Without visual cues, the interviewer judges almost entirely on how organized you sound, so signposting ("there are three parts to that") does more work on a call than in a room.
Notes are a real advantage on the phone, but reading from a script is audible. Keep a single page of prompts, not paragraphs.
Live Video Interviews
Live video became a standard first-round format when campus recruiting moved online in 2020, and it has stayed common because it saves bankers travel and lets a group run many interviews in an afternoon. The content matches an in-person round; what changes is camera presence, meaning eye contact with the lens, a steady connection and answers that do not drift while you look at a second screen.
On-Campus Interviews
At target schools and some semi-targets, banks still run first rounds on campus through the career center, often as a day of back-to-back 30-minute slots in interview rooms. Banks frequently send alumni of the school, which helps rapport but also means the interviewer knows the clubs, the courses and how your resume compares with classmates who sat in the same chair an hour earlier.
- Closed List
In on-campus recruiting, an interview schedule filled with candidates the employer has preselected from its applicant pool. It contrasts with an open list, where eligible students sign up or bid for the remaining slots. A place on a closed list means the bank has already rated your resume above most of the pool.
The in-person format adds moments that video removes: the walk from the waiting area, the handshake and the two minutes of small talk before the first question. Interviewers notice them, so treat them as part of the interview rather than a warm-up.
Who Conducts the First Round
The interviewer's seniority shapes the conversation more than the format does. First rounds are staffed with the people whose time is cheapest and who know the day-to-day work best, which usually means junior bankers.
Analysts and Associates
Most first rounds are run by analysts and associates, often the people a summer analyst would work for directly. They are closest to the technical material, so they tend to ask the standard questions precisely and notice small errors, such as a sign mistake on the cash flow statement or a confused answer on enterprise value. They are also asking a practical question: could I hand this person a task at midnight and trust the result?
Many juniors interview between live deals, often several candidates in a row, and fill in feedback within hours. They remember clear answers and clear people, and they rarely remember the middle of a long, unfocused response.
Senior Bankers and Alumni
At smaller banks, in some groups and on some campus days, a VP or managing director runs a first round. Senior interviewers ask fewer technical questions and spend more time on judgment and motivation: why this kind of work, what you have read about a deal, how you handled a hard situation. A candidate who is technically sound but cannot hold a two-way conversation tends to struggle more with them than with an analyst. Alumni interviewers sit somewhere in between: they often start warmly, but warmth is not a pass.
The Fit and Technical Mix in a First Round
A typical 30-minute first round is front-loaded with fit questions and finishes with your questions, with a technical block in the middle. The exact order varies, but candidates and interviewers describe a recognizable arc:
Introductions
Two or three minutes of small talk and the interviewer describing their group and role.
Your story
A walk through your background, usually inside the first five minutes.
Motivation
Why banking, why this bank and, at some firms, why this group or office.
Technicals
Roughly ten to fifteen minutes of core questions, from accounting to valuation, often with a follow-up or two.
A resume probe
One or two questions about a specific experience or claim on your resume.
Your questions
The last few minutes are yours; ask about their work, not facts from the website.
Short rounds compress the middle, not the ends: a 20-minute phone screen still opens with your story and still leaves time for your questions.
The Opening Ten Minutes
The first ten minutes decide more first rounds than the technical block does, because they set the interviewer's frame for everything after. Your personal story should be short, chronological and pointed at banking; the structure and sample versions are in our post on how to answer "tell me about yourself". Your motivation answer has to sound specific and earned, which our examples of strong answers to "why investment banking" break down.
- Fit Interview
The behavioral part of a banking interview, which tests motivation, communication, teamwork and whether the interviewer would want to work with the candidate. In a first round, fit questions usually open the interview and carry as much weight as the technical questions that follow.
What matters for the first round in particular is consistency. The story you tell in minute two has to match your resume, your motivation answer and the questions you ask at the end. Interviewers notice when a candidate says they love valuation work and then cannot name a deal they have followed.
The Technical Block
First-round technicals are core, not exotic. Expect the questions every bank uses to check the technical foundations:
- Accounting: walk me through the three financial statements, and how a change such as more depreciation flows through all three.
- Enterprise value and equity value: the difference, the bridge between them, and why multiples pair with one or the other.
- Valuation methods: the main approaches, when each fits and which tends to give the highest value.
- The DCF: a verbal walk through the steps, without a full model.
- Quick math: a percentage, a multiple or a back-of-the-envelope estimate done aloud.
Accounting is the most reliable of these, and our accounting guide explains where accounting questions show up across interview rounds and what interviewers listen for. The first-round bar is accurate and structured, not flawless: a candidate who catches and corrects a mistake usually scores better than one who answers smoothly and wrongly. The bar does rise for candidates who have already done a finance internship, who should expect follow-ups on the work they claim on their resume.
A thirty-minute first round leaves no time to warm up: Rehearse the story, motivation and core technical questions that open most first rounds, start practicing interview questions for free and find the answers that still wobble before an analyst hears them.
How First Rounds Are Scored
Banks do not publish their interview forms, and the details differ by firm and group. The logic underneath is the one most large employers use: the same core questions for everyone, rated against the same standards, then compared across the pool.
Structured Questions and a Shared Scale
Even when a first round feels like a loose conversation, most of it is built from a standard set of prompts. That is the core of a structured interview, which the US Office of Personnel Management describes as using a standardized questioning and scoring process for all candidates, with every response evaluated on the same rating scale and standards for acceptable answers.
- Structured Interview
An interview in which every candidate answers the same predetermined core questions and every answer is rated on the same scale against agreed standards. Structure makes candidates comparable across different interviewers, which is why large recruiting processes rely on it.
Banking first rounds are rarely fully scripted, but the core prompts are stable enough that interviewers compare you with every other candidate who answered the same questions that week. That is why a generic answer hurts more than it seems: it is being read next to thirty specific ones.
What the Feedback Form Usually Covers
Forms vary, but they tend to ask for a rating on a handful of scoring dimensions plus an overall recommendation, often a simple advance or decline with a line of comments. The table below is an illustrative version, not any one bank's form.
| Dimension | What earns a high mark | What earns a low mark |
|---|---|---|
| Technical foundation | Correct, structured, self-corrects | Memorized phrases that collapse on a follow-up |
| Communication | Concise, signposted answers | Long answers that bury the point |
| Motivation and firm knowledge | Specific reasons, real research | Prestige, money or a generic "learning curve" |
| Fit and presence | Easy to talk to, curious, composed | Flat, arrogant or visibly rehearsed |
The Debrief and the Ranking
After a block of first rounds, interviewers and recruiters compare notes and rank the candidates against the superday slots available. The decision is relative: a solid but unremarkable interview can advance in a thin pool and miss in a deep one.
The comparison usually comes down to the weakest dimension rather than the strongest, which surprises technically focused candidates.
What Moves a Candidate to the Superday
Advancing comes down to two things you control and one you do not. You control whether you clear every bar and whether an interviewer remembers you. You do not control how many seats exist or who else is competing for them.
Clearing Every Bar
Because the first round is a negative screen, the candidates who advance are the ones who give the interviewer no reason to hesitate. A single clear fail, such as being unable to explain how the statements link, admitting you have not thought about why banking, or being short with a recruiter, outweighs strong performance elsewhere.
The positive signal is an interviewer willing to argue for you in the debrief. A banker who writes "strong advance" with a specific reason ("best story of the day, sharp on EV") gives the recruiter something to act on. Networking can help at the margin, since a banker who already knows your name may look for the strengths in a borderline interview, but it does not rescue a weak one.
Slots, Timing and the Rest of the Pool
The arithmetic behind the decision is simple. Suppose, purely for illustration, that a group has 8 superday slots for 32 first-round candidates:
In that pool, being above average is not enough; you need to be in the top quarter. The ratio differs widely by bank, school and cycle, and it can tighten as a process runs, because seats filled early leave fewer for candidates interviewed later.
Response times vary as much as ratios. Some candidates hear within a day or two, others wait a couple of weeks while a bank finishes its first rounds at other schools, so silence is not always a no. Once the invitation arrives, preparation changes character: the final round tests stamina and depth across several interviewers, covered in our guide on how to prepare for an investment banking superday.
The jump from first round to superday can come within days: The 160-page PDF covers the technical and behavioral questions final rounds go deeper on, and start the harder preparation before the invitation lands.
Common First-Round Mistakes
Most first-round rejections trace back to a small set of avoidable errors, and few of them are about knowing too little:
- The five-minute story. A background answer that runs past two minutes uses up the interview and signals poor judgment about length.
- Preparing the superday instead. Hours on niche technicals while "why this bank" is still generic.
- Treating video as casual. Glancing at notes, a cluttered frame or a weak connection reads as low effort.
- No real questions. Asking what the bank does, or nothing at all, wastes the last impression.
Key Takeaways
- A first-round interview is a 20- to 30-minute screen, by phone, live video or on campus, deciding who gets a superday.
- At some banks the recorded video is the whole first round; at others a live round follows it.
- Analysts and associates run most first rounds and judge both technical accuracy and whether you would be easy to work with.
- Expect fit first and core technicals second: accounting, enterprise value, valuation methods and a verbal DCF.
- Scoring is relative and weakest-link: one poor dimension usually costs more than one strong dimension earns.
Conclusion
The first round is the least glamorous interview in the process and the one that removes the most candidates. It is short, usually run by a junior banker, and built to answer a narrow question: is there any reason not to spend a day on this person? Treating it as a screen rather than a showcase changes how you prepare.
That means the opening minutes deserve as much rehearsal as the technicals, every answer should be shorter than feels natural, and the technical block should be about getting the core right and recovering cleanly when you slip. Format adjustments matter at the margin: structure on the phone, camera discipline on video, composure in a crowded campus schedule.
Candidates who reach the superday are rarely the most brilliant person in the first-round pool. They are the ones an interviewer could advance without hesitation, and that is a standard anyone can prepare for.
