Interview prep · Trial Balance

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Graduate finance interviews test three things: whether you understand the basics, whether you can explain them clearly, and whether you show the behaviours the firm wants, such as teamwork, curiosity and resilience. You don’t need to know everything. You need to explain what you do know simply and show how you think.

Example. Asked “What is depreciation?”, a strong answer defines it in one sentence, gives a quick example with numbers, and says why it matters.

Key words

Competency question: An interview question that asks for a real example from your past. It usually starts with “Tell me about a time when…”.Example: “Tell me about a time you found a mistake.” Answer with a real example using STAR.
Strengths question: An interview question about what you enjoy and what you are naturally good at, to see whether the job suits you.Example: “What kind of task gives you the most energy?”
STAR: A way to structure an answer to an interview question: Situation (the background), Task (what you had to do), Action (what you did), Result (what happened).Example: Situation: month-end was late. Task: find the cause. Action: I built a checklist. Result: it was finished on day one.
Commercial awareness: Knowing what is happening in business and the economy, and being able to explain how it affects companies and their advisers.Example: Explaining that higher interest rates increase clients’ loan costs, so auditors will look more closely at going concern.
Assessment centre: The final stage of many graduate job applications. It is a half day or full day of tasks, such as a group exercise, a written test, a presentation and an interview.Example: A graduate scheme might invite 30 people to an assessment centre and offer jobs to 10.

Learn

Large firms usually recruit graduates in stages: an online application, online tests, a video interview, then an assessment centre or final interview, which may include a case study, a written exercise or a presentation. The details differ from firm to firm, so check each firm’s careers site.

Answering a technical question

Define it in one sentence.
Give a short example, ideally with numbers.
Say why it matters, to the client or to the audit.

If you don’t know. Say what you do know and reason through it out loud. Interviewers want to see how you think, not a memorised answer.

Competency and strengths questions: STAR

Step	What to say	Share of the answer
Situation	The context, in one or two sentences	Small
Task	What you had to do	Small
Action	What you did, step by step. Say “I”, not “we”	Most
Result	What happened, with a number if possible, and what you learned	Medium

Use examples from work, study, sport and part-time jobs. A finance or admin job, however junior, is a strong source of examples about accuracy, deadlines and dealing with clients.

Commercial awareness

Pick two or three business stories and follow them for a few weeks. For each one, be ready to say what happened, who it affects, and what it means for the firm’s clients and for the firm itself. For audit firms, themes that come up often are audit quality and regulation, technology and AI in audit, sustainability reporting, and how interest rates and inflation affect clients, including going concern.

Common technical questions

What is the difference between profit and cash?

Profit is income minus expenses when they are earned or incurred. Cash is money actually received or paid. They differ because of credit sales and purchases, non-cash items like depreciation, and spending on assets that isn’t an expense.

What is depreciation, and why do we charge it?

It spreads the cost of a non-current asset over its useful life, so the cost is matched to the years that benefit. Example: a £10,000 van used for 5 years costs £2,000 a year on a straight-line basis.

If depreciation rises by £100 and tax is 25%, what happens to the three statements?

Profit after tax falls by £75. In the cash flow the £100 is added back, so cash rises by £25 because of the tax saving. On the balance sheet, assets fall by £100 and rise by £25 of cash (net −£75), and retained earnings fall by £75, so it balances.

What is working capital?

Current assets minus current liabilities. It shows whether a business can fund its day-to-day operations. Too little risks not paying bills; too much means cash is tied up in stock or receivables.

What is goodwill?

The amount paid for a business above the fair value of its net assets. It reflects things like reputation, customers and staff. It is tested for impairment every year.

What is the difference between audit and advisory work?

Audit gives an independent opinion on financial statements for shareholders. Advisory helps a client improve or change something. Firms can’t provide many advisory services to their audit clients because it would threaten independence.

What is professional scepticism?

Keeping a questioning mind: not simply accepting explanations, and looking for evidence that confirms or contradicts what management says.

Good questions to ask at the end

What do the most successful people in your first year do differently?
What kind of clients would I work with in my first year?
How does the team support people studying for professional exams?

Watch it explained

Press play to watch the animation, or step through it at your own pace with the arrows.

Videos from YouTube tutors

These videos are made by independent tutors on YouTube, not by Trial Balance. Some use US terms or older exam names (for example F7 for FR), but the principles are the same.

Worked example

Question: “Tell me about a time you found a mistake.”

STAR	Example answer
Situation	In my finance job, the monthly supplier payment run was due that afternoon.
Task	I was checking the payment list against the purchase ledger before it went for approval.
Action	I noticed one supplier appeared twice with the same invoice number. I checked the invoice, found it had been entered twice, removed the duplicate and told my manager. I then suggested we run a duplicate-invoice check before every payment run.
Result	We avoided paying £2,300 twice, and the check became part of the monthly process. I learned to check for patterns, not just individual lines.

Notice that most of the answer is the Action, it uses “I”, and the result has a number and a lesson.

Practice questions

Type or choose your answers, then press Check answer. Questions with a New numbers button can be repeated with different figures.