Morgan Stanley · Investment banking analyst · Summer Analyst / Analyst

First-round technical interview

Analyst technicals with an unusually heavy markets and macro component

What they actually ask

The question shapes this round uses. Larpy does not read these out. It builds each one from your own resume, because the generic version is the one you have already rehearsed.

“How does a negative change in Net Working Capital affect a company's cash flow?”
“Would a company generally prefer to finance with debt or equity, and why?”
“Why do Precedent Transactions sometimes yield a higher valuation than comparable companies, and why is it sometimes lower?”
“What is the difference between fiscal policy and monetary policy?”
“Tell me about the market today, what is driving it, and where do you think it will be in a year?”

What this round is judged on

Accounting · working capital, cash flow and the three statements under a tax rate
Valuation · methods, multiples and why precedents and comps diverge
Markets · a defensible view on rates, policy and a stock you actually follow
Commercial reasoning · working through a scenario out loud rather than reciting

How Larpy grades this

We score these the way an analyst would. Per topic, what a strong answer lands and the confidently-wrong answers Larpy catches.

ACCThree-statement flow of a depreciation change
Strong
nets the tax effect correctly (net income down 7.5, not 10); adds the full non-cash charge back on the cash flow statement; closes the balance sheet and states that it balances.
We flag
claims extra depreciation raises net income or cash (it lowers net income; cash rises only by the tax shield); forgets the tax rate and moves the full 10 through pre-tax to net income; leaves the balance sheet unbalanced.
VALWalk me through a DCF
Strong
uses UNLEVERED free cash flow discounted at WACC (not levered FCF or cost of equity); includes a terminal value and discounts it back; sums to enterprise value, then bridges to equity.
We flag
discounts unlevered cash flow at the cost of equity; omits terminal value (it is usually the majority of the value); forgets to subtract the change in working capital or capex.

Larpy builds a fresh question per topic from your resume and grades the full answer live. Start the mock for the worked model answer.

Where this round sits

Morgan Stanley’s published process. Lime marks the stage this round runs.

01
Application
02
Recorded video interview
03
First-round interviewsthis round
04
Superday
05
Offer

What happens in each stage›

Application: Apply to a specific program through Morgan Stanley careers. The firm frames the path in three parts, explore, apply and interview, and points candidates at its own interview preparation guidance before the first conversation.
Recorded video interview: A one-way, timed video round reported as the first filter in the banking pipeline. Morgan Stanley does not publish its stage list, so treat the format as the industry norm rather than a firm-published fact: preset behavioral prompts, a short prep window, a capped answer window and nobody to react to. Content is motivation and background, not technicals.
First-round interviews: Live interviews with analysts, associates and VPs. Morgan Stanley says plainly that every interview is different and that interviews could be competency, strengths based, skills based or technical, so the same candidate can get a pure fit conversation in one seat and an accounting drill in the next. Expect a resume walk, why banking and why Morgan Stanley, and analyst-level technicals.
Superday: Back-to-back final interviews with senior bankers, reported rather than published. The firm says it does not always expect the right answer and is interested in seeing how you work through a scenario, which is exactly how the technical seat behaves: the opening question is a prompt and the signal comes from how you reason under a changed assumption.
Offer: Decisions follow quickly after the final round, and the summer analyst class is the main feeder into full-time seats.

Sources

Built from what Morgan Stanley 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.

companyMorgan Stanley Careers, interview preparationmorganstanley.com
What Morgan Stanley says it is reading for and the shapes its interviews take: interviews could be competency, strengths based, skills based or technical; the firm does not always expect the right answer and is interested in how you work through a scenario; candidates are told to know their resume without reading from it and to have a compelling reason for the industry, the firm and the division.
companyMorgan Stanley Careers, students and graduatesmorganstanley.com
The published three-part path (explore, apply, interview). Morgan Stanley does not publish a stage-by-stage interview loop, which is why the video round and the superday below are described as the reported shape rather than a firm-published one.
companyMorgan Stanley, 10 biggest interview mistakesmorganstanley.com
Morgan Stanley senior interviewers naming the questions they always ask (tell me about yourself, why our firm, why this position), the Investment Banking specific expectation to know what deals the firm has done recently, that everything on the resume is fair game, and that they will always ask whether you have questions.
companyMorgan Stanley, common interview questions and how to answer themmorganstanley.com
Vice Chairwoman Carla Harris on the subtext of the standard questions: what tell me about yourself, biggest weakness, why should we hire you and describe a time you failed are actually testing.
datalevels.fyi, Morgan Stanleylevels.fyi
Analyst compensation and level context. No interview-process content.

Sources last checked August 12, 2026. Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.

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