Moelis & Company Investment Banking Summer Analyst Interview Guide

Moelis runs an advisory-only, generalist investment banking program, and its summer analyst technicals cover capital structure and downside scenarios that many bulge bracket screens save for full-time hiring. Expect to walk through a liquidation valuation or reason through a conceptual IRR question that a memorized formula won't answer. Recruiting runs group by group on a rolling calendar, so your timeline depends on which track you apply through.

This guide breaks down each stage of the IB summer analyst interview process, what Moelis interviewers look for, and how to prepare with real example questions, actionable tips, and resources.

Moelis investment banking summer analyst interview process

The Moelis IB summer analyst interview process puts the technical bar in the first round and reserves the Superday for fit with senior bankers. A required online assessment gates the application before any banker sees it.

Recruiting then runs separately by group and office, so timing varies more than format does.

Here's what the interview process can look like:

• Suited Assessment: A 2-part online assessment of workplace traits and cognitive competencies, required before your application moves forward
• First round: 1 to 2 interviews of roughly 30 minutes each with an analyst or associate, focused mostly on technicals
• Superday: 3 to 5 back-to-back 30-minute interviews with bankers across seniority levels, centered on fit

Moelis IB summer analyst recruiting timeline

The Moelis IB summer analyst recruiting calendar opens in December of your sophomore year and closes in January, with deadlines that differ by school. Regional offices post first, and Houston has extended offers within days of opening.

Moelis moved the calendar earlier between the 2026 and 2027 cycles, pulling the deadline for schools outside its core group forward by roughly 3 weeks. December 2026 is the expected opening for summer 2028 applications.

Review runs on a rolling basis. Candidates from schools outside the core group hear back last, and Moelis resolves that track at the end of the cycle.

Key Moelis summer analyst application dates

• Applications open: December of your sophomore year, with regional offices posting ahead of New York
• Core school deadline: Early January, set to January 9 in the 2027 cycle for UT Austin, Penn, Michigan, and Indiana
• All other schools: Mid-January, set to January 19 in the 2027 cycle
• Leadership Development Program deadline: Late October, roughly 6 weeks before the summer analyst portal opens, with interviews in November and the 2-day program in January
• Leadership Development Program eligibility: Sophomores, one office per applicant, with an interview opportunity for the summer analyst program attached
• Recruiting policy: Rolling review, with seats in smaller offices filling before the posted deadline

Moelis summer analyst interview response times

• Application to first contact: A few days to 2 weeks
• Suited Assessment: Completed at application, before Moelis reviews it
• First round to Superday invitation: Same day to 1 week, and often the same evening
• Superday to decision: Same day to 48 hours
• Full process: Roughly 20 days on average, and as few as 4 days when Moelis compresses the calendar

Suited Assessment

The Suited Assessment is the first gate in the Moelis investment banking summer analyst interview process, and Moelis won't review your application until your score reaches the firm. Allow roughly 30 uninterrupted minutes, and expect the assessment to cover more than 50 traits.

The psychometric portion is untimed and takes about 20 minutes. You answer Likert and forced-choice items, and you can split it across sittings. The Essential Competencies portion is the timed part, and it takes about 15 minutes. Expect pattern recognition, logical reasoning, and attention-to-detail checking, with no finance content.

The assessment measures:

• Workplace traits: Problem-solving, collaboration, effort, commitment, responsibility, ambition, independence, and task focus
• Values: Achievement, altruism, benevolence, conformity, equity, power, security, self-direction, stimulation, and tradition
• Stress response style: Whether you gravitate toward active coping, positive reframing, or social support under deadline pressure
• Essential competencies: Attention to detail, logical reasoning, and numerical pattern recognition, which Suited ties to the accuracy that financial modeling demands

Suited built the scoring model by having current employees at partner firms take the same psychometric assessment, then matching trait combinations against the firm's own performance ratings. No universal passing profile exists, and the model reads how traits interact across your full set of responses.

Suited doesn't publish whether wrong answers reduce your score, so avoid blind guessing on the timed portion. You can't retake the assessment, so treat your first attempt as final.

Sharing your score with Moelis is a separate step from completing the assessment, and the application won't be considered without it. Confirm the score has transferred before the deadline.

Suited transfers across firms, so a single completed assessment covers every partner firm in your process that requests it. Share the existing results when the next firm asks.

First-round interview

The Moelis IB summer analyst first round runs roughly 30 minutes per interview and moves into technicals quickly, sometimes with no behavioral warm-up at all. Expect 2 short behavioral questions and then technicals for the remainder of the time.

Heavier loops include 5 technical questions in 30 minutes, covering accounting, M&A math, DCF math, and debt. Moelis asks more LBO questions than a typical bulge bracket summer analyst screen does, including whether more leverage always improves returns.

Moelis interviewers don't allow calculators, so multi-step math happens in your head while you narrate it. In some offices the first round splits into a behavioral interview with an associate and a separate technical screen of roughly 45 minutes with an analyst.

Interviewers look for:

• Accounting fluency: How cleanly you move a change through the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement
• Mental math discipline: Whether you can carry a multi-step calculation without losing the arithmetic
• Capital structure reasoning: Your ability to explain the mechanics connecting debt, returns, and risk
• Methodology judgment: Whether you can compare valuation approaches and defend the one that fits the situation
• Motivation that holds up: Whether your reason for choosing banking survives a direct follow-up

Recently asked questions

Here are some real interview questions reported by Moelis candidates:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why Moelis?
• What is working capital, and when would a healthy company run it negative?
• How would you go about pulling comps or precedent transactions?
• Does adding more leverage always raise IRR in an LBO?
• A deal is dilutive by 10 cents per share. The buyer has 100M shares and a 20% tax rate. What pretax synergies are needed to break even?
• Walk me through how minority interest flows across the three statements.

Superday

The Moelis IB summer analyst Superday puts you in front of 3 to 5 bankers across seniority levels, in back-to-back interviews of roughly 30 minutes each. Most interviews focus on behavioral and fit questions, with at least one interview reserved for technicals.

A live case study appears in some Superdays. When it does, you'll get a short deck and roughly 30 minutes to answer whether the company should pursue an acquisition of another, followed by M&A and valuation questions.

You'll deliver the same story to 4 or 5 bankers in sequence, so consistency matters more here than in the first round.

Interviewers look for:

• Fit with a generalist program: Your interest in exposure across M&A and restructuring at the same time
• Specificity in your Moelis answer: What you know about the firm's advisory-only model, generalist staffing, and sponsor coverage
• Consistency across interviewers: Whether your story holds up when several bankers hear it in sequence
• Technical durability: How your reasoning performs on capital structure and merger math after several rounds of questioning
• Commercial instinct: How you reason through a client's options when no formula produces the answer
• Composure through repetition: Your energy level across back-to-back sessions

Recently asked questions

Here are more questions reported by Moelis candidates:

• Why investment banking?
• Explain WACC conceptually.
• Why might a seller prefer a financial sponsor over a strategic buyer?
• Walk me through a liquidation valuation.
• Walk me through the debt waterfall in a distressed scenario.

How to prepare for the Moelis investment banking summer analyst interview

1. Practice technicals out loud without a calculator: Restate the setup before you compute, then narrate each step so an interviewer can follow a long calculation. Say your assumptions out loud so a follow-up mid-calculation doesn't reset your work.
2. Prepare downside cases: Practice a liquidation valuation alongside the recovery waterfall, moving from secured lenders through unsecured creditors to equity. Be ready to explain which asset classes take the steepest discount to book value and why.
3. Rebuild the value bridge: Move between enterprise value and equity value in both directions until you can do it without notes. Be ready to explain why minority interest gets added back and how it moves across all three statements.
4. Practice accretion and dilution math with synergies: Work the math backward, starting from a given dilution per share and returning to the pretax synergies needed to break even. Tax-effect the synergies and keep your answer in cents per share, which is the form Moelis uses.
5. Sharpen your Moelis answer with the firm's model: Name the advisory-only structure, the generalist analyst program, and the financial sponsor coverage, then connect each one to what you want from your first 2 years. Point to something specific about development, such as the roughly 45% of Moelis managing directors promoted from within.
6. Start networking in the fall before applications open: Coffee chats with analysts and associates are the route to the banker who runs intern recruiting for your office and decides which candidates advance. September through November is the window, since the portal opens in December and candidates from schools outside the core group depend on referrals most.
7. Work through structured prep: Our IB Fast Track covers the accounting, valuation, and modeling foundations these rounds test. Prioritize WACC, working capital, comps and precedent transactions, and LBO returns before you move to modeling mechanics.
8. Run timed mock interviews: Practice a 30-minute block of 5 consecutive technicals so the pace stops surprising you. Then deliver your story 4 times in a row to match the repetition of a Superday.

About the Moelis investment banking summer analyst role

Moelis IB summer analysts join an advisory-only independent bank for a 10-week program and start as generalists with no product group assignment. Moelis calls that structure maximum optionality, and it explains why the interview covers capital structure and downside reasoning alongside M&A fundamentals.

The firm advises corporations, governments, and financial sponsors, and analysts see that full client mix. Sponsor coverage puts private equity buyers in front of you early, which shapes how the firm expects you to think about who buys a company and why.

Moelis summer analysts work on:

• Financial analysis and modeling: Building and maintaining the models behind live advisory work
• Company and industry research: Diligence that supports deal teams across sectors
• Client presentations: Preparing materials that go in front of corporate, sponsor, and government clients
• Senior banker and client interaction: Direct exposure to both, which the generalist structure widens across M&A, restructuring, and capital markets

Moelis IB summer analyst experience requirements

Moelis expects summer analysts to take on significant responsibility from the start and names intellectual curiosity, motivation, and analytical aptitude as the qualities it hires for. The firm doesn't expect finished modeling skills, and every summer analyst starts with a 1-week training program covering financial modeling and valuation.

Moelis states the following in its US summer analyst postings:

• Graduation window: Enrollment in a 4-year undergraduate program, graduating in the academic year following the internship
• One location: Applications go to a single office, and Moelis asks candidates to pick one
• Suited Assessment: Completed, with the score shared, or the application isn't considered
• No GPA or major requirement: Moelis publishes neither in its US postings

Additional resources

• Investment Banking Interview Prep Course
• IB Fast Track
• Investment Banking Interview Prep
• "Why investment banking?" Interview Question
• Investment Banking Interview Questions
• Investment Banking Interview Coaching
• Investment Banking Interview Guides
• Evercore IB Summer Analyst Interview Guide
• PJT Partners IB Summer Analyst Interview Guide
• Lazard IB Summer Analyst Interview Guide

FAQs about the Moelis investment banking summer analyst interview

How many rounds does the Moelis IB summer analyst interview have?

The Moelis IB summer analyst interview process runs 2 interview stages after the Suited Assessment: a first round of 1 to 2 interviews and a Superday of 3 to 5 interviews. Some offices add a separate technical screen of roughly 45 minutes between stages. Every stage is a live conversation with bankers, and Moelis doesn't use a recorded video interview at any point. Round counts vary by group and office.

How technical is the Moelis IB summer analyst first round?

The Moelis IB summer analyst first-round interview is heavily technical, with some interviews moving into technicals within the first minute. It's the harder technical stage of the process, and the Superday shifts toward fit with senior bankers. Expect accounting, valuation, M&A math, LBO math, and debt questions, sometimes 5 of them inside 30 minutes. Calculators aren't permitted.

Does Moelis ask restructuring questions in the IB summer analyst interview?

Restructuring questions do appear in the Moelis IB summer analyst interview, though less consistently than accounting and valuation fundamentals. Expect capital structure and distressed topics such as the debt waterfall. Moelis runs roughly two-thirds of its business in M&A, and its capital structure advisory revenue declined in 2025 while M&A grew, so prioritize merger and LBO math over distressed material. Heavier restructuring questioning shows up more often in full-time and restructuring-specific loops.

Does the Moelis IB summer analyst interview include a case study?

A case study appears in some Moelis summer analyst Superdays and is absent from others. When it appears, it runs live during the Superday for roughly 30 minutes, uses a short deck, and asks whether a company should pursue an acquisition, with valuation questions attached. No take-home modeling test is part of the US summer analyst process. Case studies are a more consistent feature of the associate and summer associate processes.

Can you study for the Suited Assessment?

The psychometric part of the Suited Assessment has no correct answers to study toward, since each firm's model is built from the trait profiles of its own high performers. The Essential Competencies portion is a timed cognitive test, so familiarity with logical reasoning and numerical series formats helps with pacing. Neither section tests finance knowledge.

How much does a Moelis IB summer analyst make?

Moelis posts an expected salary of $110,000 annualized for the summer analyst role, and the figure held from the 2026 cycle into 2027. It appears in the firm's own New York summer analyst posting, published under New York and California pay transparency requirements. It's an annualized base rate, so a 10-week internship pays roughly $2,115 a week before tax, or about $21,150 in total.