Public Sector & Infrastructure — Investment Banking Mock Interview
Navigate SPV structures, concession-based cash flow modeling, DSCR/LLCR debt sizing, and advanced topics like RAB premiums, debt sculpting, and greenfield J-Curve dynamics.
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Key Topics Covered
SPV Structure, Non-Recourse Debt & Cash Flow Waterfall
Explains how infrastructure assets are ring-fenced in Special Purpose Vehicles with non-recourse project finance debt, covers the cash flow waterfall priority from operating expenses through senior debt service, maintenance reserves, and cash sweep mechanisms down to equity distributions, and contrasts CFADS with corporate EBITDA.
Concession Agreements: Availability vs. Demand Risk
Distinguishes availability-based concessions where the government pays a fixed amount for maintaining service standards from demand-risk concessions where revenue depends on actual usage like toll roads, and explains why availability payments produce lower but more predictable equity returns attractive to pension funds.
DSCR, LLCR & Debt Sizing/Sculpting
Covers DSCR as the period-by-period coverage test ensuring CFADS exceeds debt service obligations, LLCR as the loan-life coverage ratio measuring total present value of CFADS against outstanding debt, and how debt sculpting shapes the repayment profile to match the project's uneven cash flow pattern rather than using flat amortization.
RAB Regulation, Inflation Linkage & Refinancing Gains
Details the Regulated Asset Base framework where returns are earned on an inflation-indexed capital base, explains RAB premiums earned through totex efficiency and financing outperformance, covers CPI linkage as a natural inflation hedge, and walks through refinancing gain-sharing between the SPV and the government concession authority.
Greenfield J-Curve, IDC & Terminal Value Considerations
Explains the J-Curve where greenfield equity returns are negative during construction due to Interest During Construction capitalization and no revenue, then accelerate as the asset reaches operations, covers run-off DCF modeling to concession end with no terminal value, and discusses negative-tail handback obligations.
How to Prepare for Public Sector & Infrastructure Interviews
Understand the fundamental mindset shift from corporate finance: infrastructure analysis focuses on cash flow predictability and downside protection rather than growth potential. The basic session frames this clearly, and interviewers test whether you can articulate why CFADS matters more than EBITDA and why Equity IRR is the gold standard metric.
Be ready to explain the DSCR versus LLCR distinction. The basic session introduces DSCR as the period-by-period test and the advanced session adds LLCR as the cumulative test, and interviewers expect you to know that a project can pass its minimum DSCR covenant in every period but still breach the LLCR if the overall coverage is tight.
Know how debt sculpting works: the advanced session explains that sculpting shapes repayment to follow the project's CFADS profile rather than imposing flat amortization, which maximizes leverage capacity by ensuring the DSCR stays constant across periods rather than being constrained by the weakest year.
Prepare to discuss the J-Curve in greenfield infrastructure equity returns. The advanced session explains that Interest During Construction is capitalized into the project cost, equity cash flows are deeply negative during construction, and returns only materialize years later when the asset reaches full operations, which is why infrastructure funds have long fund lives.
More Industry Verticals Topics
View allConsumer/Retail (CRG)
Covers foundational concepts for the Consumer/Retail (CRG) industry vertical in investment banking. Discusses key industry metrics, valuation considerations, and sector-specific interview questions.
Energy, Power & Renewables
Covers foundational concepts for the Energy, Power & Renewables industry vertical in investment banking. Discusses key industry metrics, valuation considerations, and sector-specific interview questions.
Financial Institutions (FIG)
Covers foundational concepts for the Financial Institutions (FIG) industry vertical in investment banking. Discusses key industry metrics, valuation considerations, and sector-specific interview questions.
Financial Sponsors Group (FSG)
Covers foundational concepts for the Financial Sponsors Group (FSG) industry vertical in investment banking. Discusses key industry metrics, valuation considerations, and sector-specific interview questions.
Healthcare (HC)
Covers foundational concepts for the Healthcare (HC) industry vertical in investment banking. Discusses key industry metrics, valuation considerations, and sector-specific interview questions.
Industrials
Covers foundational concepts for the Industrials industry vertical in investment banking. Discusses key industry metrics, valuation considerations, and sector-specific interview questions.
About This Public Sector & Infrastructure Mock Interview
These sessions cover infrastructure finance from the fundamental mindset shift through advanced project finance mechanics. The basic session walks through the shift from growth-and-competition corporate analysis to stability-regulation-and-predictability infrastructure analysis, SPV non-recourse debt structures, 20-to-50-year modeling horizons, transportation, social, digital, and environmental infrastructure subsectors, availability payments versus demand risk, concession agreements, greenfield versus brownfield, CFADS versus EBITDA, DSCR mechanics, the cash flow waterfall from revenue through senior debt service to equity distributions, RAB-based regulation, infrastructure as an inflation hedge, PPAs in power, capacity factors, ramp-up risk, and the pension fund risk framework. The advanced session pushes into run-off DCF without terminal value and negative-tail handback scenarios, exit multiple compression due to remaining concession life, RAB premiums from totex and financing outperformance, regulatory reset risk, debt sizing and sculpting to match CFADS profiles, DSCR versus LLCR, the J-Curve in greenfield equity returns, Interest During Construction capitalization, circular reference resolution, CPI linkage and inflation beta, availability-based PPP versus demand-risk concessions, refinancing gain sharing, merchant versus contracted power risk, Equity IRR as the gold standard, and comparing greenfield data centers to brownfield water utilities.
This topic is part of the Industry Verticals section of our investment banking mock interview library. It includes 2 sessions covering both basic and advanced difficulty levels. Each session includes multi-speaker audio with realistic interviewer questions and candidate responses, plus a full interactive transcript you can follow along with or study independently.
Audio Recording
47 minutes of multi-speaker audio
Full Transcript
Interactive transcript with timestamps
1 Basic + 1 Advanced
Basic & Advanced
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Jefferies
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Morgan Stanley
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RBC
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Dragoneer
“IB Vine is such a great platform, really impressive. There is so much value in this. The audio podcasts / mock interview library are pretty incredible.”
Moelis & Co.
“I loved IB Vine. I’m going into Private Capital Advisory (PCA); you have the lessons on there for PCA and that was actually a game changer. I went into those interviews and knew about the core PCA concepts like net asset value, primary fundraising vs. secondary advisory, etc. I swear I was on IB Vine like a few hours a day. The opportunity to have that learning section and go through the questions people submit and everything — there’s no better tool out there. I loved the guides/lessons. The user interface is amazing. The way you’ve simplified it is so spectacular — it’s just so much easier to digest. It’s fun to use too; I’d rather use IB Vine than scroll through a guide. To be honest, I think the product is perfect. I genuinely owe you a big thanks.”
Moelis & Co.
“IB Vine is a tool we really love to use in the club I’m a part of, and there’s really no other resource like it. You guys do a phenomenal job with the question bank. I recruited specifically for Energy banking, and IB Vine was my most used resource for generalist questions (which were about 50% of my interview questions; the rest being Energy-specific); the majority of such questions I saw in interviews were at least similar (if not the same) to the ones on IB Vine.”
Perella Weinberg
“Once I read through the BIWS learning guides, I really didn’t refer to them again. I didn’t even really run through the 400 question guide once I found IB Vine, which I heard about through one of my classmates. We even get a free subscription (like most business schools) to Wall Street Prep, and if I’m being completely honest, I never even logged in to WSP. IB Vine is pretty much the only tool I used (along with our club question bank & mock interviews with peers) and it was invaluable for recruiting.”
Cantor Fitzgerald
“What a platform, made such a huge difference. I did superdays at Evercore, PJT, M. Klein and Barclays among others from a non-target school and did not miss a single technical in any interview process through prepping with IB Vine.”
Barclays
“Very accurate questions and all of the solutions are easy to follow. At least 10 of the questions I studied through this platform appeared in my Round 1 or Superday interviews.”
TD Securities
“THANK YOU SO MUCH IB VINE, I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT YOU, SERIOUSLY!!! IB Vine was the best website ever. I spent at least two hours on this daily (seriously) from October through I get my offer in February.”
Citadel
“I’m doing public equities this summer and next. I know the name is “IB Vine” but at the undergrad level a lot of the technicals across public equities are the same as investment banking. I recommend your software to all my friends!”
Piper Sandler
“I loved this site! 1000% this is the best resource I used in the process.”
Lazard
“This was the greatest tool ever. I genuinely enjoyed running through the technicals/behaviorals and it was very helpful!”
Houlihan Lokey
“IB Vine was the most helpful resource I had during recruiting. I will continue to promote it to other students at WashU and elsewhere.”
Jefferies
“Awesome product, helped me crush my technicals in my interviews and land a great role. Thank you, seriously was a huge help.”
Morgan Stanley
“Very helpful to get real-life questions unlike the 400 guide, especially for merger math. Built deeper understanding of key concepts.”
Houlihan Lokey
“Extremely helpful study tool that carried me through the recruitment process from start to end.”
Evercore
“You guys are doing great work over there with IB Vine. Absolute staple for interview prep.”
Rothschild
“IB Vine was incredibly helpful and I am forever thankful for all the help.”
RBC
“IB Mock was amazing - I used it for multiple hours. Also the flashcards and the lessons features on IB Vine were fantastic. Thank you!”
Dragoneer
“IB Vine is such a great platform, really impressive. There is so much value in this. The audio podcasts / mock interview library are pretty incredible.”
Moelis & Co.
“I loved IB Vine. I’m going into Private Capital Advisory (PCA); you have the lessons on there for PCA and that was actually a game changer. I went into those interviews and knew about the core PCA concepts like net asset value, primary fundraising vs. secondary advisory, etc. I swear I was on IB Vine like a few hours a day. The opportunity to have that learning section and go through the questions people submit and everything — there’s no better tool out there. I loved the guides/lessons. The user interface is amazing. The way you’ve simplified it is so spectacular — it’s just so much easier to digest. It’s fun to use too; I’d rather use IB Vine than scroll through a guide. To be honest, I think the product is perfect. I genuinely owe you a big thanks.”
Moelis & Co.
“IB Vine is a tool we really love to use in the club I’m a part of, and there’s really no other resource like it. You guys do a phenomenal job with the question bank. I recruited specifically for Energy banking, and IB Vine was my most used resource for generalist questions (which were about 50% of my interview questions; the rest being Energy-specific); the majority of such questions I saw in interviews were at least similar (if not the same) to the ones on IB Vine.”
Perella Weinberg
“Once I read through the BIWS learning guides, I really didn’t refer to them again. I didn’t even really run through the 400 question guide once I found IB Vine, which I heard about through one of my classmates. We even get a free subscription (like most business schools) to Wall Street Prep, and if I’m being completely honest, I never even logged in to WSP. IB Vine is pretty much the only tool I used (along with our club question bank & mock interviews with peers) and it was invaluable for recruiting.”
Cantor Fitzgerald
“What a platform, made such a huge difference. I did superdays at Evercore, PJT, M. Klein and Barclays among others from a non-target school and did not miss a single technical in any interview process through prepping with IB Vine.”
Barclays
“Very accurate questions and all of the solutions are easy to follow. At least 10 of the questions I studied through this platform appeared in my Round 1 or Superday interviews.”
TD Securities
“THANK YOU SO MUCH IB VINE, I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT YOU, SERIOUSLY!!! IB Vine was the best website ever. I spent at least two hours on this daily (seriously) from October through I get my offer in February.”
Citadel
“I’m doing public equities this summer and next. I know the name is “IB Vine” but at the undergrad level a lot of the technicals across public equities are the same as investment banking. I recommend your software to all my friends!”
Piper Sandler
“I loved this site! 1000% this is the best resource I used in the process.”
Lazard
“This was the greatest tool ever. I genuinely enjoyed running through the technicals/behaviorals and it was very helpful!”
Houlihan Lokey
“IB Vine was the most helpful resource I had during recruiting. I will continue to promote it to other students at WashU and elsewhere.”
Jefferies
“Awesome product, helped me crush my technicals in my interviews and land a great role. Thank you, seriously was a huge help.”
Morgan Stanley
“Very helpful to get real-life questions unlike the 400 guide, especially for merger math. Built deeper understanding of key concepts.”
Houlihan Lokey
“Extremely helpful study tool that carried me through the recruitment process from start to end.”
Evercore
“You guys are doing great work over there with IB Vine. Absolute staple for interview prep.”
Rothschild
“IB Vine was incredibly helpful and I am forever thankful for all the help.”
RBC
“IB Mock was amazing - I used it for multiple hours. Also the flashcards and the lessons features on IB Vine were fantastic. Thank you!”
Dragoneer
“IB Vine is such a great platform, really impressive. There is so much value in this. The audio podcasts / mock interview library are pretty incredible.”
Moelis & Co.
“I loved IB Vine. I’m going into Private Capital Advisory (PCA); you have the lessons on there for PCA and that was actually a game changer. I went into those interviews and knew about the core PCA concepts like net asset value, primary fundraising vs. secondary advisory, etc. I swear I was on IB Vine like a few hours a day. The opportunity to have that learning section and go through the questions people submit and everything — there’s no better tool out there. I loved the guides/lessons. The user interface is amazing. The way you’ve simplified it is so spectacular — it’s just so much easier to digest. It’s fun to use too; I’d rather use IB Vine than scroll through a guide. To be honest, I think the product is perfect. I genuinely owe you a big thanks.”
Moelis & Co.
“IB Vine is a tool we really love to use in the club I’m a part of, and there’s really no other resource like it. You guys do a phenomenal job with the question bank. I recruited specifically for Energy banking, and IB Vine was my most used resource for generalist questions (which were about 50% of my interview questions; the rest being Energy-specific); the majority of such questions I saw in interviews were at least similar (if not the same) to the ones on IB Vine.”
Perella Weinberg
“Once I read through the BIWS learning guides, I really didn’t refer to them again. I didn’t even really run through the 400 question guide once I found IB Vine, which I heard about through one of my classmates. We even get a free subscription (like most business schools) to Wall Street Prep, and if I’m being completely honest, I never even logged in to WSP. IB Vine is pretty much the only tool I used (along with our club question bank & mock interviews with peers) and it was invaluable for recruiting.”
Cantor Fitzgerald
“What a platform, made such a huge difference. I did superdays at Evercore, PJT, M. Klein and Barclays among others from a non-target school and did not miss a single technical in any interview process through prepping with IB Vine.”
Barclays
“Very accurate questions and all of the solutions are easy to follow. At least 10 of the questions I studied through this platform appeared in my Round 1 or Superday interviews.”
TD Securities
“THANK YOU SO MUCH IB VINE, I COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT YOU, SERIOUSLY!!! IB Vine was the best website ever. I spent at least two hours on this daily (seriously) from October through I get my offer in February.”
Citadel
“I’m doing public equities this summer and next. I know the name is “IB Vine” but at the undergrad level a lot of the technicals across public equities are the same as investment banking. I recommend your software to all my friends!”
Piper Sandler
“I loved this site! 1000% this is the best resource I used in the process.”
Lazard
“This was the greatest tool ever. I genuinely enjoyed running through the technicals/behaviorals and it was very helpful!”
Houlihan Lokey
“IB Vine was the most helpful resource I had during recruiting. I will continue to promote it to other students at WashU and elsewhere.”
Jefferies
“Awesome product, helped me crush my technicals in my interviews and land a great role. Thank you, seriously was a huge help.”
Morgan Stanley
“Very helpful to get real-life questions unlike the 400 guide, especially for merger math. Built deeper understanding of key concepts.”
Houlihan Lokey
“Extremely helpful study tool that carried me through the recruitment process from start to end.”
Evercore
“You guys are doing great work over there with IB Vine. Absolute staple for interview prep.”
Rothschild
“IB Vine was incredibly helpful and I am forever thankful for all the help.”
RBC
“IB Mock was amazing - I used it for multiple hours. Also the flashcards and the lessons features on IB Vine were fantastic. Thank you!”
Dragoneer
“IB Vine is such a great platform, really impressive. There is so much value in this. The audio podcasts / mock interview library are pretty incredible.”
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