Private Equity Interview Case Study Pdf

When the recruiter sends you the PDF, you will be tempted to open Excel immediately. Stop. Spend the first 30 minutes just reading and annotating.

Create a "Risk Register" on a piece of paper. Look for these three killers in the PDF:

Once you identify these, your model becomes defensive. You will get more credit for flagging the risk of a liquidity crunch than you will for a perfectly formatted Excel sheet. private equity interview case study pdf

Structure:

Time: 15–30 minutes
Tools: Pen, paper, calculator (no Excel) When the recruiter sends you the PDF, you

This is the gatekeeper. If you cannot calculate the IRR and cash-on-cash return of a simplified LBO on a whiteboard within 90 seconds, your interview ends there.

Typical Prompt:

The Trick: You need to solve for Enterprise Value (Entry vs. Exit), subtract debt, find equity value, and then compute IRR. Most candidates forget to account for debt paydown from Free Cash Flow.