Investment Banking HireVue Questions: Format, Prep & Examples

Investment banking HireVue questions are the 3 to 5 behavioral, market-awareness, and light-technical prompts that candidates answer on a pre-recorded video platform, usually right after submitting an application or a first-round phone screen. This guide is specific to investment banking recruiting: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and several other bulge brackets use HireVue for entry-level and internship IB recruiting, mostly to screen a large applicant pool before human interviewers get involved. HireVue for consulting is covered separately in Road to Offer's HireVue interview guide for consulting, since the question mix, timing patterns, and scoring differ meaningfully between the two industries, MBB/Big 4 case-adjacent prompts show up there instead of the market-awareness questions banks ask.

You get a short prep window (commonly 30 seconds) and a fixed response window (commonly 90 seconds to 3 minutes) per question, and most banks allow one or two retakes. Nail the format mechanics and you clear the screen; freeze on camera and you don't get a callback, regardless of how strong your resume is.

What Is a HireVue Interview?

A HireVue interview is a one-way, pre-recorded video interview: you read a question on screen, get a short prep window, then record your answer with no interviewer present. Banks use it because it lets a small recruiting team screen thousands of applicants without scheduling live calls for each one. Responses go to a mix of human reviewers and, at some banks, automated scoring before the strongest candidates move to superdays or partner calls. It's an entry-level and internship tool almost exclusively; senior lateral hires rarely see it, and elite boutiques use it far less often than bulge brackets.

Which Banks Use HireVue for Investment Banking?

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley are the three banks most consistently cited using HireVue for IB recruiting, and Citigroup, Barclays, UBS, and Deutsche Bank also run candidates through it during peak cycles, according to question banks compiled from recent recruiting seasons. The mix of question types varies by bank: Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan lean more on economy and market-awareness prompts, while Morgan Stanley uses a more even split of behavioral, markets, and light-technical questions and explicitly skips the situational-judgment and brainteaser formats that show up at Goldman. If you're prepping for multiple banks, build one flexible answer bank rather than memorizing bank-specific scripts, since the underlying story material (your background, your "why banking" answer, your deal or market talking points) carries across firms.

What Format Do HireVue Questions Follow?

A typical HireVue round is 3 to 5 questions, each with 30 seconds to prepare and roughly 90 seconds to record your answer, for a total session of about 10 to 30 minutes depending on the bank. Morgan Stanley's version runs about 30 minutes for a 3-to-5-question set and gives one re-record per question, but re-recording deletes your original take permanently, so you don't get to compare both versions before submitting. Some firms allow a few retakes per question rather than one; check the platform instructions before you start, since the retake count is the one mechanic that differs most between banks. Because you can't pause mid-answer or go back to a previous question, the format punishes rambling: a tight 60-second answer that hits the point beats a 90-second answer that trails off looking for a conclusion.

What Question Types Show Up in Investment Banking HireVue Interviews?

HireVue questions fall into three buckets: generic behavioral/fit, markets and deals, and simple technicals, with behavioral questions making up the clear majority at most banks. The behavioral bucket includes prompts like "why our bank," "why is investment banking right for your skills," and "describe a team conflict and how you resolved it." For these, lean on the same structured story you'd use for the investment banking behavioral interview question hub and your "why this bank" answer, since the underlying material doesn't change just because a camera replaced a human interviewer. IB Offer's deep dive on how to answer "tell me about yourself" in IB interviews and how to answer "why this bank/firm fit" both go further into the exact structure than this guide does.

The markets and deals bucket asks you to show you're paying attention to the industry: "describe a current event that's interested you," "what's a recent deal you've followed," or "what geopolitical event could move the markets right now." Have one deal and one macro story ready, each under 60 seconds, with a specific number or company name attached so the answer doesn't sound generic.

The light-technical bucket covers fundamentals: the three financial statements, walking through a DCF, or defining WACC and how to calculate it. These aren't meant to test depth, they're meant to confirm you did the reading before applying, so a clean, confident 45-second definition beats an over-engineered answer that eats your response window.

How Should You Prep for HireVue Format Mechanics?

Prep by simulating the exact constraints, not just the content: set a stopwatch for 30 seconds of silent prep, then record a 90-second answer, for at least 5 practice questions before your real interview. Delivery matters as much as content on a one-way camera, since there's no interviewer nodding along to confirm you're on track. Aim for roughly 100 to 125 words per minute, keep eye contact with the webcam lens (not the screen), dress business professional even though no one's live on the other end, and cut filler words like "um" and "like," which read louder on recorded video than in person. Record in a locked, quiet room with your camera at eye level, and watch your own playback at least once so you catch habits (looking down, trailing off, fidgeting) you wouldn't notice live. This is the same prep discipline that pays off at the superday stage, just compressed into a 90-second window with no follow-up questions to recover on.

Layer your HireVue prep into your broader recruiting timeline rather than cramming it the night before an invite lands, since invites often arrive with a 48-to-72-hour deadline and little warning. If your fit answers still feel shaky, work through the investment banking behavioral interview question hub first so your stories are locked before you're on a recorded clock.

Sources

• Mergers & Inquisitions, "HireVue Interview: Exciting Prep Guide for Investment Banking" (checked July 2026)
• Leland, "Morgan Stanley HireVue Questions (and How to Answer Them)" (checked July 2026)
• Mergers & Inquisitions, "Investment Banking Fit Questions: Quick and Efficient Prep" (checked July 2026)
• DrillCore.ai (checked July 2026)