TL;DR. Global M&A bounced back to $4.9T in 2025 (+40%), with +77% on Tech (Bain 2026). Rothschild, Lazard and GS Paris are hiring again — but the filter is harsher: 4-5 rounds, deal sheet required from the CV stage, LBO from scratch in 20 minutes. Here's the real curriculum.
You're targeting Rothschild, Lazard or GS Paris. You've grinded your DCF, your brain teasers, your WACC.
Except across 4-5 interview rounds, only one is pure technical.
The rest? Deal sheet, fit, mental math, bare-hands paper LBO. So what's the real curriculum?
Why the French IB market is reopening in 2026
The macro picture is clear. Global M&A is back above $4.9 trillion in 2025, up +40% in value versus 2024 (Bain & Company, Global M&A Report 2026).
Tech is even hotter: +77% deal value in the sector (Bain 2026). And 80% of M&A leaders plan to keep or grow their deal activity in 2026 (Bain Executive Survey).
Recruiting follows deal flow. More deals = more analysts. 2026 classes at Rothschild, Lazard and GS Paris are reloading.
One catch: capital allocated to M&A still sits at a 30-year low (7%) (Bain 2026). Banks are hiring — and over-filtering.
The market stays highly competitive on elite boutiques, and selectivity has only sharpened with the structural decline in M&A capital allocation (Bain 2026). A clean CV and three textbook answers won't land the seat anymore.
The 4-5 rounds of a French IB process, broken down
The 2026 Paris standard looks like this:
Round 1 — HR / fit screening (15-25 min). "Why banking? Why us? Walk me through your CV." The goal isn't to hire you, it's to filter heavily on motivation and project coherence. A bland answer = exit.
Round 2 — Technical 1 (45-60 min). DCF, trading and transaction comparables, accretion/dilution. The bar: you nail a WACC without hesitation, explain why we take the sector median on multiples, run an accretion on a deal financed 60% cash / 40% stock.
Round 3 — Deal walk-through. They open your deal sheet and ask you to pitch a deal for 5 minutes. Then 10 minutes of Q&A. Cite Alphabet/Wiz without knowing the EV/EBITDA or the strategic rationale and it's over.
Round 4 — Super-day. 4-5 interviews stacked over half a day. This is where the LBO from scratch, brain teasers and mental math land. You leave gutted. By design.
Round 5 — Final Partner / MD. More fit than technical. They check you won't break desk culture. One misfired answer on French financial news flips the seat.
Elimination criterion shifts each round. No room for a bad round unless you crush the next.
The expected deal sheet: which 2025 deals to cite
Standard format: 3 to 5 deals, one-line title + 3-4 lines (rationale, multiples, financing, your angle).
The 2025 deals to put first, because they loop in Paris interviews (Bain 2026):
- Alphabet / Wiz — $32B. The flagship Tech/Cyber deal of 2025. Recurring topic at GS and Lazard TMT.
- Union Pacific / Norfolk Southern — $88B. US rail megadeal. Excellent for "pitch a deal you've followed".
- Airbus / Leonardo / Thales. Major European space tie-up. Favorite question on the Rothschild Paris desk.
- Palo Alto / CyberArk — $25B. Cyber again. High multiples, fun to debate.
- Softbank / OpenAI ($40B) and Meta / Scale AI ($14.3B). Strategic minority investments — the new frontier of "minority stake" deals you need to model (cap table, dilution).
For every deal on your list, fit the brief into 5 lines:
- Deal & date: acquirer / target — month 2025
- EV / multiple: enterprise value and entry EV/EBITDA
- Financing: cash / stock / debt (leverage if LBO)
- Strategic rationale: one sentence (synergies, vertical, defensive)
- Key risk + your angle: antitrust, integration, dilution — and why you follow this deal
Fatal mistake: pitching a deal without knowing entry EV/EBITDA and financing structure. One follow-up and you're out.
LBO from scratch: the new benchmark (14x EBITDA, debt at 8-9%)
Paper LBO in under 20 minutes: sources & uses, debt schedule, exit multiple, IRR/MOIC. Paper, not Excel.
The 2025 market inputs have shifted. Entry multiples around 14x EBITDA versus 10x in 2015. Cost of debt at 8-9%. Average leverage down to ~36% versus ~50% in 2015 (Bain Global PE Report 2026).
- ✓Entry multiple ~10x EBITDA
- ✓Average leverage ~50%
- ✓Cost of debt 6-7%
- ✓IRR driven by leverage + multiple expansion
- ✓Operational sensitivity secondary
- ✗Entry multiple ~14x EBITDA
- ✗Average leverage ~36%
- ✗Cost of debt 8-9%
- ✗Compressed IRR — operational alpha mandatory
- ✗Margin/multiple sensitivities = eliminating questions
The direct implication: target IRRs are compressed. Funds can no longer ride leverage or multiple expansion. So in interviews, sensitivity questions have turned eliminating:
- "With zero margin expansion and zero multiple expansion, what 5-year IRR do you print?"
- "What share of your IRR comes from deleveraging versus operational alpha?"
- "If I cut leverage from 36% to 30%, what do you do to keep the IRR?"
Answer without a calculator, in orders of magnitude. That separates an analyst-ready candidate from someone who just "did Training the Street".
With $3.8 trillion of unrealized value in buyout funds (Bain 2026), the PE exit pipeline is massive — so PE questions in IB interviews are now systematic.
Brain teasers, mental math and French fit: the underrated traps
Mental math means three calculations per minute, no calculator. Typical examples:
- 17 × 23 (answer in < 5 sec)
- 8% × €1.4B
- EPS accretion on a deal financed 60% cash, 40% stock, target P/E 15x versus acquirer P/E 22x
Recurring brain teasers at Lazard and Rothschild: Fermi estimates ("how many gas stations in Paris?"), conditional probability, object valuation ("how much is the Eiffel Tower worth?").
Prompts actually used at Rothschild, Lazard and GS Paris — drill them before any super-day:
- 17 × 23 in under 5 seconds (mental math)
- How many gas stations in Paris? (Fermi)
- Test with 95% accuracy, disease prevalence 1/1,000 → P(sick | positive)? (Bayes)
- How much is the Eiffel Tower worth? (conceptual valuation)
- Two dice rolled → P(sum ≥ 10)?
- EPS accretion: 60% cash / 40% stock deal, target P/E 15x vs acquirer P/E 22x
- How many tennis balls fit in an A380? (Fermi volume)
- Monty Hall, banking-flavored (2 doors, 1 car, 1 goat)
- 8% × €1.4B in your head (financial mental math)
- How many M&A analysts in Paris? (Fermi market sizing)
French fit ≠ US fit. Fewer "tell me about a time" prompts, more questions on French financial news, the CAC 40 ecosystem, and AMF regulation. The mandatory tender offer threshold at 30% of capital or voting rights (AMF — French market regulator): know it cold the moment you pitch a deal on a French listed company.
A training reference to drop in your prep: the Lazard European Analyst Programme, six weeks in London with technical training plus banker masterclasses (Lazard Careers). It's the model you're projecting toward in interviews — naming it shows you've done your homework on the firm.
Tools: 45% of M&A practitioners use AI versus ~20% a year earlier (Bain). Common 2026 question: "how do you use AI in your prep?". Mentioning AI mock interviews is a positive signal now, not a weakness.
What you actually earn as a French analyst
The WSO numbers don't tell the full story. The 2025-2026 reality in Paris:
- Analyst 1, Paris elite boutique: base €65-75k + bonus 50-100% in year one.
- Analyst 1, bulge bracket Paris: base €60-70k + bonus 40-80%.
- London comparison: ~+20% in cash, but cost of living eats the gap.
- NY comparison: +30-40% in cash, but tax and housing shrink the net gap.
Why bonuses moved up in 2025? The deal rebound (+40% in value, Bain 2026) plus the fact that 75% of recurring acquirers meet or beat their synergy targets (Bain Executive Survey 2025) — driving recurring fees and bonus pools.
The 3-year arc (Analyst → Associate) stays standard at elite boutiques. Exit options at 2-3 years: PE, corporate development, growth equity. The pipeline is healthy: with $3.8T of unrealized value in buyout funds (Bain 2026), funds mechanically need senior associates in 24-36 months.
Frequently asked questions
How many deals on a French IB deal sheet?
3 to 5 deals, at least one recent French or European transaction. Three you own beat seven you recite.
Do you need a finance Master to target Rothschild or Lazard?
Not required. HEC, ESCP, X, Dauphine M203/M225 remain the royal route, but engineering profiles with a strong M&A internship break through. Filter = deal sheet and technicals, not the diploma.
Typical super-day LBO test format?
20-45 minutes, paper or empty Excel. EBITDA, entry multiple (10-14x in 2025), target leverage and exit year given. Return IRR and MOIC.
How many rounds at GS Paris?
Usually 4: HR, two technicals, final super-day with MDs. Super-day stacks 4-5 back-to-back interviews on half a day.
Which 2025 deals must you cite?
Alphabet/Wiz ($32B), Union Pacific/Norfolk Southern ($88B), Airbus/Leonardo/Thales, Palo Alto/CyberArk ($25B). The 2025 rebound (+40% per Bain) is itself a macro topic.
Do you need to know the AMF and tender offer thresholds?
Yes. Mandatory tender offer threshold at 30% of capital or voting rights (AMF). Recurring question the moment you pitch a French listed deal.
How do you prep for brain teasers?
Drill 30-50 classic prompts (Heard on the Street, Fermi, conditional probability). Verbalize out loud — interviewers score reasoning, not the answer.
Will AI replace analysts?
Not short term. 45% of practitioners use AI versus ~20% a year earlier (Bain 2025), but on modeling support and due diligence, not the analyst role itself.
Analyst 1 salary in a Paris M&A boutique?
Base €65-75k + bonus 50-100% year one. Elite boutiques (Rothschild, Lazard, Centerview) sit above bulge brackets on bonus.
How long to prep a French IB process?
3 to 6 months from zero on technicals. 6 to 8 intensive weeks if you already did an S&T or transaction services internship.
Key takeaways
- M&A is back at $4.9T in 2025 (+40%) — 2026 Analyst classes are hiring, but over-filtering.
- The real curriculum = 4-5 rounds, with only one purely technical.
- The deal sheet (3-5 deals, at least one EU) is filter number one, before the DCF.
- LBO from scratch in under 20 minutes with 2025 inputs (14x EBITDA, debt 8-9%) = the new bar.
- Brain teasers + mental math = eliminating in super-day, even with excellent technicals.
- Know the AMF (30% tender offer threshold) the moment you pitch a French listed deal.
- Analyst 1 Paris: €65-75k base + 50-100% bonus, PE exits fueled by $3.8T of unrealized value.
Want to test yourself under real conditions? Run a full IB super-day simulation with the Velyq AI — DCF, paper LBO, brain teasers, deal sheet defense, all timed.
Or start with a free deal sheet audit before sending it to Rothschild.
