A credit interview asks one question in many forms: would you lend to this business, and on what terms? The Interview Guide answers eighty of them the way a lender would, in the order the interview runs, with threecases and ten cheat sheets.
Refund if a file is defective or not as described. Or start free: a 17-page sample or the credit memo template.
A good business is not always a good credit.
The test is what cash flow and debt service look like in the downside case. Growth matters only as far as it survives that case.
Documentation moves value before the numbers do.
Leakage, permissive baskets and loose covenants can shift value away from the lender long before a ratio looks broken.
A wider spread is compensation, and it has to be earned.
Extra coupon helps only if coverage still holds and the borrower can refinance from a position of strength.
Scroll through it: the usual candidate answer is struck out and the lender's answer goes in, with the reviewer's notes in the margin. Every one of the 80 questions carries why it is asked, the answer and the common mistake.
Deleted: It's a strong business with good growth and solid margins, so broadly yes, but I'd want to do more work on the numbers before taking a firm view.
Memory hook: Decision first, reasons second, condition third.
The guide runs in the order of a real interview: fit, statements, cash generation, LBO logic, debt products, documentation, downside, case work, market overlay. Open any line for its objective and the questions to know cold.
Start like a real candidate, not a CV recital. Sound intentional, specific and already oriented toward credit before the technicals start.
The basic mechanics still eliminate candidates. Show you understand how cash moves through the statements, not just the vocabulary.
Lenders are paid in cash, not in EBITDA. Explain where cash gets trapped and what that does to repayment capacity.
Know the LBO, answer it like a lender. Connect leverage, cash generation and downside: can the structure survive and repay?
Where private credit stops sounding generic. Rank the stack, explain why each layer exists and connect yield to risk.
Monitor the risk before the payment default. Show how a lender keeps control after closing and sees trouble early.
Take a view. Defend it. Protect the downside. Take a lending view early and justify it with what breaks first.
The formats candidates are asked to produce. Synthesize into a recommendation, in the format a credit team reads.
Short, current and team-specific. Sound current without a market lecture, and tie it back to underwriting.
Nine sections, in interview order80 questions · 86 pages
The author is a private credit analyst on a direct lending deal team and stays anonymous, so the work has to carry the weight. 26 free articles cite Federal Reserve, Financial Stability Board and OCC publications, with the URL and the as-of date next to each number. How the material is sourced.
The structure a lender uses to write up a credit, blank and filled in on a fictional buyout. Two Word files, sent to your inbox.
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