The Superday Cheat Sheet: What to Have Cold Two Weeks Out

A superday is several back-to-back interviews compressed into one day, and the difference between candidates at that stage is rarely knowledge — it's delivery. This sheet is the compressed version of what to have cold before you walk in: eight technicals you should be able to say in one breath, three stories you should never have to improvise, and a two-week protocol for getting both there. It's deliberately short. Depth lives in the full superday guide and the free practice surfaces linked throughout.

The eight technicals to have cold — one breath each

"Cold" means you can say the whole answer out loud, in order, without a restart. One-breath versions below; if any of them makes you pause, that's the one to drill this week.

• The $10 depreciation walk: depreciation up $10 → pre-tax income down $10, net income down $7.50 at a 25% tax rate → on the cash flow statement, start at −$7.50 and add back the $10 non-cash charge for +$2.50 of cash → balance sheet: cash +$2.50, net PP&E −$10, so assets fall $7.50, matching retained earnings down $7.50. Both sides balance.
• Enterprise value vs. equity value: equity value is what the shareholders own; enterprise value is the value of the whole operating business regardless of who financed it — equity value plus debt (and other non-equity claims) minus cash.
• The three main valuation methodologies: comparable companies, precedent transactions, and a discounted cash flow — and be ready to say which usually comes out highest and why.
• WACC in one line: the blended, after-tax cost of the company's capital — E/V × cost of equity + D/V × cost of debt × (1 − tax rate).
• The paper LBO in five moves: entry EV from EBITDA × multiple, split into debt and sponsor equity; grow EBITDA over the hold; sweep free cash flow to pay down debt; mark the exit at the exit multiple and subtract the debt still outstanding to get equity out; equity out vs. equity in gives MOIC, then annualize to IRR.
• The MOIC-to-IRR anchors interviewers expect you to know: over five years, 2.0x is roughly 15% IRR and 3.0x is roughly 25%.
• Accretion/dilution intuition: in an all-stock deal, if the acquirer trades at a higher P/E than the target's effective purchase P/E, the deal is accretive to EPS — cheaper earnings bought with more expensive currency.
• The three levers of LBO returns: debt paydown, EBITDA growth, and multiple expansion — and know that underwriting a deal on multiple expansion alone is the answer interviewers push back on.

The three stories you should never improvise

Superday interviewers rotate through the same behavioral core. Write these three once, then rehearse them out loud like technicals:

• Your resume walkthrough — two minutes, chronological, each move framed as a decision that leads toward banking.
• "Why banking?" (and "why this bank?") — specific to the work, not the prestige; if you can name the group's actual deal type, better.
• One adversity or teamwork story with a real outcome — most fit questions are this story wearing different clothes.

The two-week protocol

• Every day: ten questions, answered out loud, full sentences, no restarts. Reading answers is recognition; saying them is the skill the room tests.
• Grade yourself honestly on each rep: Blank (froze), Survived (got there, ugly), or Banked (clean, in order, one breath). Re-drill anything below Banked.
• Put a clock on it: 40 seconds is the realistic answer window for a standard technical. The free drill timer runs exactly that.
• Last 48 hours: stop learning new material. Re-run your eight one-breath answers and three stories, check the news on your interviewing bank, and sleep. The full night-before rundown is in the superday guide.

Free places to actually do the reps

• Question of the day — one real question with a full model answer, every morning.
• The worked paper LBO — every line of a clean-number scenario, then a generator for fresh ones.
• The 5-question quiz — find out which topic to drill first.
• A free account adds the Daily 10 — ten questions a day from the full bank, no credit card.

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