Morgan Stanley Investment Banking (IB) Summer Analyst Interview Guide

Morgan Stanley leads the M&A league tables and global equity capital markets year after year, and its investment banking summer analyst interview runs on the tougher end technically for a bulge bracket. The HireVue round reuses prompts across recruiting cycles, which makes past questions a reliable guide to what you'll be asked. Behavioral questions map directly to Morgan Stanley's 5 values, so one story per value covers most of what comes up.

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

Morgan Stanley investment banking summer analyst interview process

The Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst interview opens with a pre-recorded HireVue round that determines who reaches a recruiter or banker. Four stages sit between your application and an offer, and rolling review means the class fills while the application window is still open.

Here's what the interview process can look like:

1. Online application: Submitted through Morgan Stanley's careers site and reviewed on a rolling basis
2. HireVue video interview: A pre-recorded round of 3-5 questions, typically due within 48 to 72 hours of the invitation
3. First-round interview: A 20-30 minute call with an analyst or associate covering behavioral questions and light technicals
4. Superday: 3 back-to-back interviews of 30-45 minutes each, covering technical and motivation questions with progressively senior interviewers

Recruiting has compressed to the point that the class fills months before the internship begins, so submit early.

Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst recruiting timeline

Morgan Stanley opens its US IB summer analyst application on January 1 and closes it about 6 weeks later, roughly 17 months before the internship starts. The deadline matters less than it looks, since rolling review means seats fill before it arrives.

Key application dates

• Applications open: January 1; the 2027 class opened January 1, 2026
• Application deadline: Mid-February; the 2027 class closed February 15, 2026
• Recruiting policy: Rolling review; Morgan Stanley reads applications as they arrive, and the class is largely full by May
• What you submit: Rankings for up to 3 office locations and up to 3 IBD groups
• Feeder programs: Early Insights opens around December and closes in early March; the Richard B. Fisher Scholarship is applied for inside the summer analyst application, not separately

Typical response times between stages

• Application to HireVue: Immediate; the link appears on the submission page, so receiving it doesn't mean you've been shortlisted
• HireVue to first round: About 1 week, sent in batches; some candidates wait 2 weeks
• First round to Superday: 1 to 2 weeks, sometimes as fast as a few days; New York candidates often skip the second round and go straight to the Superday
• Superday to offer: Same day to about 1 week, delivered by phone; waitlisted candidates may wait 2 weeks while Morgan Stanley works through declines
• Application to offer: 3 to 10 weeks for most candidates, longer if you applied late in the window

Offers carry short acceptance windows, and Morgan Stanley expedites top candidates. Schedule your other target-firm interviews before your Morgan Stanley Superday where you can, so you're comparing offers instead of deciding on one.

Morgan Stanley IB networking and early insight programs

Morgan Stanley sends a HireVue invitation to every applicant automatically, so networking won't move you past that stage or skip it. What networking does is get your resume read, which matters most if you're coming from a non-target school where a referral is the practical route in.

Morgan Stanley's Early Insights program is the structured version of this. It's a 2-week virtual program covering the Revenue and Technology divisions, including investment banking, and it runs in sophomore spring ahead of summer analyst recruiting.

Morgan Stanley HireVue video interview

The Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst HireVue is a pre-recorded video interview that appears on the submission page as soon as you apply. Every applicant receives it, so the invitation isn't a signal that you've advanced. Expect 3-5 questions, and prepare for a longer set in case you get one.

You'll get roughly 30 seconds to prepare each answer and 90 seconds to 2 minutes to deliver it. One retry per question is available, and re-recording permanently deletes your earlier take.

Unlimited practice questions run before the graded set begins, and Morgan Stanley never sees them. Use them to check your framing, lighting, and audio before anything counts.

Recordings go through an AI screen on language, word choice, and pacing before bankers review them. Analysts and associates watch the sets that advance. Facial expression analysis was discontinued in 2020, so what's evaluated is what you say and how clearly you say it.

Morgan Stanley mixes behavioral, market, and light technical questions across the set, and rarely uses brainteasers or situational judgment prompts. Build your preparation around structured answers and market reasoning.

Interviewers look for:

• Structured answers within the time limit: Whether you open with a direct answer and support it inside 90 seconds
• A defensible market view: Whether you commit to a direction and give reasons for it
• Firm-specific motivation: Why you want Morgan Stanley over other banks and investment banking over other divisions
• Values alignment: How your examples map to the standards Morgan Stanley publishes
• Composure on camera: Whether your pacing holds up without an interviewer reacting to you

Recently asked behavioral questions

Here are real, recent interview questions reported by candidates:

• Give me an example of a time you faced a challenge, and how you overcame it.
• Tell me about a time you did the right thing.
• What is something you consider important for teamwork?
• Tell me something about yourself that isn't on your resume and how it sets you up to succeed in this role.
• Why investment banking, and why an analyst role in IB rather than another division at Morgan Stanley?
• Which field would you go to if not finance or banking?
• What is a subject that is not taught in school that you feel should be and why?

Recently asked markets and company analysis questions

Morgan Stanley works market and company-analysis prompts into the recorded round alongside behavioral questions. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan run similar prompts, so treat these as standard for bulge bracket recorded rounds.

You're delivering an investment view to a camera with no interviewer to read and no follow-up to clarify your reasoning, which is what makes these harder than the same question asked live.

Here are some real interview questions reported by candidates:

• Where do you see the stock market going within the year?
• Where do you think the S&P 500 will be 12 months from now: higher, lower, or about flat? Why?
• What's a company that you like?
• Briefly analyze one company you have studied before.

Light technical questions appear in some recorded sets, including a DCF walkthrough or how the 3 financial statements connect.

First-round interview

The Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst first round is a 20-30 minute phone or video call with an analyst or associate that blends behavioral questions with light technicals. Some candidates complete a follow-up video round with 1 or 2 vice presidents before reaching the Superday, though New York candidates often go straight from the first round to the Superday.

Morgan Stanley interviewers return to motivation throughout these calls: why banking, why Morgan Stanley, and why the group you applied to. Technical questions run alongside the motivation questions, and both factor into whether you advance.

Interviewers run these calls as a discussion that moves between your resume, your market view, and the group's recent work. Know your material well enough to discuss it in any order, since an unstructured conversation makes a memorized answer obvious.

Technical questions at this stage stay entry-level, covering a DCF walkthrough, how the 3 financial statements connect, or a comparison of valuation methods and which one produces the highest value.

Accretion and dilution can surface here too, usually as a high-level merger model walkthrough. Interviewers are checking that you can build an answer in the right order, so state your structure before you start working through the mechanics.

Interviewers look for:

• Technical fluency out loud: Whether you can explain valuation mechanics verbally and stay accurate
• A specific reason for Morgan Stanley: Why this bank and this division over the alternatives you applied to
• A consistent account of your interest: Whether your reasons for banking and for Morgan Stanley hold together under follow-up
• Conversational range: How you handle an unstructured discussion that moves between your resume and the markets
• Preparation reflected in your questions: What you ask about the group, the deals, and the program

Recently asked questions

Here are real, recent interview questions reported by candidates:

• What are common valuation approaches? Which one gives the highest value?
• Walk through a full DCF including both terminal value methods.
• How do you calculate cost of equity?
• Walk me through a merger model at a high level.

Superday

The Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst Superday runs 3 back-to-back interviews of 30-45 minutes each, covering technical questions and motivation across every conversation. Formats vary by cycle and office, so prepare for either a video Superday or a day held in Morgan Stanley's offices.

Analysts through managing directors all ask technicals, though fit and motivation take up more of the conversation as seniority rises.

You'll answer variations of the same motivation and behavioral questions to every interviewer on the schedule, and they compare notes afterward. A story you sharpen by the fourth interview but told loosely in the first creates a gap they'll see.

Choose your examples before the day starts, since the turnaround between interviews leaves no time to reconsider which story to use.

Interviewers look for:

• Consistency across interviewers: Whether your motivation and stories hold their detail from one conversation to the next
• Response to follow-ups: What you do when an interviewer pushes past the answer you just gave
• Range across examples: Whether you draw on different situations across the day
• Endurance: How your energy and precision hold across a full day of interviews
• Fit across levels: How your delivery adjusts between an analyst and a managing director, since both cover technical and motivation ground

Technical interview

Technical questions at the Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst Superday come from interviewers at every level, and most of them have a second step past the definition. Knowing what a method is gets you to the halfway point of the answer.

Valuation questions show this most clearly. The Superday moves past the walkthroughs covered in the first round and into the conditions where each method stops working, so pair every method you know with the situations that make it the wrong choice.

Accounting questions apply the same pattern across 2 disciplines, resolving inside a valuation instead of ending at the policy. Trace FIFO vs. LIFO all the way through inventory, taxes, and free cash flow, since naming the 2 inventory methods only covers the first step.

Capital markets questions extend it furthest. Prepare IPO and direct listing mechanics to the same depth you'd prepare a DCF, and know why a company would accept the pricing risk of a direct listing, because Morgan Stanley ran more IPO books than any other firm in 2025 and that franchise shows up in what interviewers ask.

Multiple math questions test the same idea arithmetically. Morgan Stanley asks them in both directions, solving for the margin in one question and for the multiple in another, so learn the relationship as an identity you can rearrange without a calculator.

Interviewers look for:

• Method limits: Whether you can name the conditions that make a valuation approach inappropriate
• Accounting fluency: How you trace a policy change through to a valuation output
• Capital markets literacy: Your understanding of how equity deals are structured and executed
• Mental arithmetic: Whether you rearrange a multiple relationship accurately without a calculator
• Reasoning out loud: Whether you show the logic before landing on the answer

Recently asked questions

Here are more real interview questions reported by candidates:

• When is the Gordon Growth Method not appropriate?
• How does FIFO vs. LIFO change a DCF in an inflationary environment?
• Rank cash, debt, and stock from most to least accretive in a deal.
• Walk through the IPO process.
• Why a direct listing vs. a traditional IPO?
• If EV/Sales is 2x and EV/EBITDA is 8x, what's the implied EBITDA margin?
• EV/Sales is 4.0x and the EBITDA margin is 20%. What is the EV/EBITDA multiple?

Fit and motivation interview

Fit questions at the Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst Superday cover why banking, why Morgan Stanley, and why the group you applied to. Vice presidents and managing directors spend more of their conversation here than analysts do.

Morgan Stanley reuses behavioral prompts across its rounds, so the stories you built for the recorded round carry directly into this one. Expect the same questions asked live, with follow-ups on your specific contribution.

Senior interviewers return to your market view here, so commit to a direction and prepare the reasoning, including what would change your mind.

Interviewers look for:

• Firm-specific motivation: Why Morgan Stanley over the other banks you applied to
• Division-specific motivation: Why investment banking over Wealth Management or Sales and Trading
• Values alignment: How your examples map to the standards Morgan Stanley publishes
• A defensible market view: Whether you commit to a direction and support it under questioning
• Group interest: What draws you to the coverage or product group you're interviewing for

Recently asked questions

Morgan Stanley's fit interviews reuse the behavioral prompts from the recorded round, so expect questions about challenges you've overcome, times you've done the right thing, and what you contribute to a team. Senior interviewers add follow-ups on your specific contribution, what you'd do differently, and why you chose the group you applied to.

How to prepare for the Morgan Stanley investment banking summer analyst interview

1. Apply within the first days of the window: Morgan Stanley fills the summer analyst class before applications close, so have your resume finished before the window opens in January.
2. Build one story per Morgan Stanley value: Map a specific example to doing the right thing, putting clients first, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back. Attach a number to the result on each one, since a story ending in "the project went well" gives an interviewer nothing to ask about.
3. Practice the recorded format against a clock: Set a 30-second timer to think and a 90-second timer to answer, then record yourself and watch it back for pacing and eye contact.
4. Complete the HireVue immediately: The link appears as soon as you submit and runs on a 48 hour clock, so have your stories ready before you apply rather than scrambling after.
5. Prepare a market view and one company you can discuss without notes: Commit to a direction on the S&P 500, know one company's business model, valuation, and recent share price drivers, and be ready to name what would change your mind on either.
6. Get multiple referrals if you're at a non-target school: Reach out to Morgan Stanley alumni in the fall, before applications open, since a referral works by getting your resume read and won't help once you're already in the process.
7. Build a specific answer to why Morgan Stanley: Name the specific franchise, group, or deal that drew you, and be ready to explain why investment banking over Wealth Management or Sales and Trading.
8. Practice with mock interviews: Run the technical walkthroughs out loud with a partner, since verbal delivery is what the round tests. Book an expert coach if you want feedback on the Superday format specifically.

About the Morgan Stanley investment banking summer analyst role

The Morgan Stanley investment banking summer analyst program is a 10-week internship inside the Institutional Securities Group. Summer analysts sit in a single assigned coverage or product group for the full program.

For the New York generalist program, group placement happens during onboarding, before the internship begins. The program isn't rotational, so the group you're placed into shapes your entire summer.

Morgan Stanley IB summer analysts are typically placed into groups including:

• Consumer and Retail
• Financial Institutions
• Financial Sponsors
• Healthcare
• Industrials
• Media and Communications
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Power and Energy
• Private Capital Advisory
• Real Estate
• Technology

Morgan Stanley reorganized part of its coverage footprint in late 2025, merging Global Energy and Global Power and Utilities into a single Global Power and Energy Group. Candidates interviewing for energy coverage should reference the combined group.

The program opens with orientation and division-specific training in financial analysis, accounting, and valuation before summer analysts join their groups.

Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst experience requirements

Morgan Stanley asks for a minimum 3.4 GPA for US investment banking summer analyst applicants, but plan around a 3.7 to be competitive. Prior finance coursework, a spring insight program, or a first-year internship strengthens an application considerably.

Additional resources

• Investment Banking Interview Course
• Investment Banking Interview Prep
• How to Answer "Why Morgan Stanley?"
• How to Answer "Why Investment Banking?"
• Investment Banking Interview Questions
• Morgan Stanley IB Interview Questions

FAQs about the Morgan Stanley investment banking summer analyst interview

How does the Morgan Stanley HireVue work?

Morgan Stanley's HireVue is a pre-recorded round of 3-5 questions, typically due within 48 to 72 hours of the invitation. You get roughly 30 seconds to prepare each answer and 90 seconds to 2 minutes to record it, with one retry per question that permanently deletes your earlier take. The invitation appears on the submission page as soon as you apply, and every applicant receives it. Recordings go through an AI screen on language and delivery, and bankers review them from there.

When do Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst applications open?

Morgan Stanley opens IB summer analyst applications on January 1 and closes them in mid-February, targeting sophomores about 17 months before the internship starts. Application dates have moved earlier in recent cycles, so check Morgan Stanley's careers site instead of working from last year's calendar. Apply in the first days of the window, since review is rolling and the class fills before the deadline.

Is there an online assessment in the Morgan Stanley IB interview?

Most US investment banking summer analyst candidates don't take an online assessment at Morgan Stanley, moving from application straight to the HireVue. UK and EMEA candidates and those applying to quantitative tracks may complete numerical, logical, or situational judgment tests earlier in the process, most often through Aon's cut-e platform. Assessment use varies by region and division, so check what your application specifies.

How hard are Morgan Stanley IB technical questions?

Morgan Stanley IB technicals run on the harder end for a bulge bracket, covering standard valuation, accounting, M&A, and capital markets content. Most questions have a second step behind them. Expect follow-ups that push past your first answer, since depth of explanation counts for more than breadth of topics covered.

How long is the Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst Superday?

The Morgan Stanley Superday runs 3 back-to-back interviews of 30-45 minutes each. Interviewers range from analysts to managing directors, and technical and motivation questions come up at every level, with fit taking more of the conversation as seniority rises. Formats vary by cycle and office, so the day may run over video or in Morgan Stanley's offices.

What does Morgan Stanley look for in IB summer analysts?

Morgan Stanley looks for candidates who can justify investment banking over its other divisions, hold a defensible market view, and map their examples to the firm's published values. Technical accuracy matters, though motivation and cultural fit carry more of the decision at every stage. Consistency across interviewers is evaluated directly at the Superday.

How much does a Morgan Stanley IB summer analyst make?

Morgan Stanley's posted base pay rate for the US investment banking summer analyst program is $52.89 per hour, which annualizes to roughly $110,000. Self-reported figures on salary aggregators run higher, closer to $120,000, though those aren't comparable to the published hourly rate. Summer analysts are paid hourly for the duration of the 10-week program, so total summer earnings depend on hours worked. Morgan Stanley doesn't publish a signing bonus or housing stipend figure for the program.