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.

01
Application (Workday)
02
One-way recorded video interview
03
First-round interview
04
Superdaythis round
05
Offer

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.

companyBMO Capital Markets, Careerscapitalmarkets.bmo.com
Program existence and campus-recruiting framing for BMO Capital Markets. Bot-blocked (403) to automated fetches; a human can read it.
companyBMO Careers (jobs.bmo.com)jobs.bmo.com
Investment-banking analyst postings: role, qualifications, penultimate-year eligibility, Toronto / Vancouver / Calgary locations, February deadlines. Individual postings rotate as cycles close.
datalevels.fyi, BMO Financial Grouplevels.fyi
Analyst compensation and level context. No interview-process content.

Sources last checked August 10, 2026. Hiring loops change, so this date is the honest limit on everything above.

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