BMO Capital Markets · Investment banking analyst · Summer Analyst / Analyst
Finance fundamentals conversation
The associate technical seat: accounting, valuation, a DCF walk, sometimes live
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.
- “Walk me through the three financial statements and how they connect.”
- “If depreciation goes up by 10, walk me through how that flows through all three statements (assume a 40 percent tax rate).”
- “What is the difference between enterprise value and equity value?”
- “What are the main valuation methodologies, and which one tends to give the highest value?”
- “Walk me through a DCF.”
- “Conceptually, what makes an acquisition accretive or dilutive to the acquirer?”
- “How would you set up a simple DCF from scratch, step by step, if I asked you to build one?”
What this round is judged on
- Accounting · the three statements and how a change flows through them
- Valuation · comps, precedent transactions and DCF, and when each applies
- DCF · laying out the steps cleanly, including WACC and terminal value
- Commercial reasoning · stating assumptions and reasoning out loud
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
BMO Capital Markets’s published process. Lime marks the stage this round runs.
- 01Application (Workday)
- 02One-way recorded video interview
- 03First-round interview
- 04Superdaythis round
- 05Offer
What happens in each stage›
- Application (Workday)
- Online through BMO's Workday campus portal; resume and transcript, penultimate-year students. Deadlines fall in February, roughly a year before the May start.
- One-way recorded video interview
- BMO is known for a distinctive recorded video round early in the funnel: preset prompts, timed answers, no live interviewer. Behavioral, plus typically one markets or current-events question.
- First-round interview
- A short recruiter screen and a VP- or associate-led interview. Fit-weighted, with light technicals mixed in.
- Superday
- Fast, back-to-back sessions: a behavioral seat with an analyst, a technical seat with an associate (sometimes a live DCF in Excel), and a VP fit conversation.
- Offer
- Decisions move quickly, often within days of the superday.
Sources
Built from what BMO Capital Markets 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.
Program existence and campus-recruiting framing for BMO Capital Markets. Bot-blocked (403) to automated fetches; a human can read it.
Investment-banking analyst postings: role, qualifications, penultimate-year eligibility, Toronto / Vancouver / Calgary locations, February deadlines. Individual postings rotate as cycles close.
Analyst compensation and level context. No interview-process content.
Sources last checked . Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.