Sources checked
Centerview Partners
Says bankers at Centerview are made, not born, and hires across schools and disciplines rather than on pedigree. That shows up in the interview: alongside standard valuation, the reported analyst bank is dominated by brain teasers, market sizing and mental math, which cannot be memorised the way a DCF walk can.
The Centerview Partners process
3 of 5 stages you can practise here
- 01Application
A resume through the online form on the Centerview careers page. Centerview recruits formally at a set of undergraduate campuses and informally from a much broader range, and says it is open to candidates from all schools and academic disciplines. Applying to more than one office is explicitly not reviewed, so pick the office.
- 02
The short screen: motivation, a clean resume walk and a first read on thinking
motivationcommunicationbackground fit - 03First-round interviews
Interviews with bankers, mixing fit with fundamentals. Centerview is the outlier of the elite boutiques in what it asks: alongside standard accounting and valuation, the reported bank is heavy with brain teasers, market-sizing estimates and mental math, because the firm is reading raw problem solving rather than memorised drills.
2 rounds you can practise
Fit with bankers at a firm that hires for raw ability over pedigree
motivationjudgmentteamworkThe Centerview shape: fundamentals next to brain teasers and market sizing
brain teasersmarket sizingvaluation - 04
Senior bankers, harder valuation and teasers you cannot prepare for
brain teasersvaluationmerger model - 05Offer
Centerview hires summer interns from the junior class and full-time analysts after graduation, and says it commits extra resources to analysts in the hope they stay beyond the analyst years rather than rolling off at two.
Common questions
- Is there a coding round in the Centerview Partners investment banking interview?
- No. The Centerview investment banking analyst loop is entirely spoken: a screen, first-round interviews with bankers, and a final round with senior bankers. There is no coding round and no take-home modeling exam.
- Does Centerview Partners ask brain teasers?
- Yes, and more than any comparable firm. The reported analyst bank is heavy with brain teasers, market-sizing estimates and mental math, from estimating windows on a campus to clock-hand geometry to arithmetic like 1004 multiplied by 1007, sitting alongside standard valuation questions.
- Does Centerview Partners only recruit at target schools?
- No. Centerview says it recruits formally at a number of undergraduate campuses and informally from a much broader range, and that it is open to candidates from all schools and academic disciplines, from throughout the marketplace, and with various work experiences.
- Can you apply to more than one Centerview office?
- No. Centerview states that applications submitted for multiple offices will not be reviewed, and it discourages sending unsolicited emails to multiple staff members. Pick the office and apply once.
- How long is the Centerview analyst program?
- It is deliberately not a fixed two-year program. Centerview says it commits extra resources to give analysts additional training and development in the hope they will stay beyond their analyst years, which is a departure from the standard model.
Sources
Built from what Centerview Partners publishes about its own process and from real interview data. No leaked question lists. The questions you get are generated against your own resume, so they are not from anyone else's interview.
The firm's stated hiring philosophy, "Bankers at Centerview Partners are made, not born", its openness to candidates from all schools and academic disciplines with various work experiences, summer internships for college juniors feeding full-time analyst hiring, the deliberate departure from a two-year analyst program in favour of investing so analysts stay longer, resume submission through an online form, and the instruction that applications to multiple offices will not be reviewed.
The advisory lines a candidate is hired into: Strategic Advisory, Restructuring and Recapitalization, Independent Board Advice, Special Committee, Shareholder Activism and Capital Advisory. Also the Vault survey ranking the firm the number one investment bank to work for.
Investment banking compensation and level context. No interview-process content.
Sources last checked . Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.