A curated collection of free resources for learning about investment banking, preparing for interviews, and developing technical skills.
Breaking into investment banking is competitive. Between networking, recruiting, technical interviews, and financial modeling, there’s a tremendous amount to learn before ever stepping foot in a bank.
Fortunately, some of the best investment banking educational resources are available completely free.
Whether you’re an undergraduate pursuing a summer analyst position, an MBA student recruiting for an associate role, or a working professional considering a career change, there is a wealth of excellent material available online.
The resources below cover everything from understanding the investment banking career path to mastering financial modeling and analyzing actual M&A transactions.
Start with the fundamentals, focus on understanding rather than memorization, and practice applying what you’ve learned.
Some of the providers below also sell premium training courses or require free registration. However, the highlighted resources are available without purchasing a paid course.
1. Mergers & Inquisitions: The Essential Starting Point
Best for: Understanding investment banking, recruiting, networking, and technical interviews.
If there’s one website everyone interested in investment banking should become familiar with, it’s Mergers & Inquisitions (M&I).
Founded by Brian DeChesare, M&I offers one of the most comprehensive collections of free investment banking educational material available online.
What makes M&I particularly valuable is that it doesn’t just explain financial concepts. It also explores how recruiting actually works, what bankers do throughout their careers, and the decisions candidates need to make along the way.
Recommended M&I Reading
Investment Banking: The Ultimate Industry Overview
Start here. This comprehensive guide explains what investment banks do, how different groups operate, the industry’s major players, and how investment banking careers are structured.
How to Get Into Investment Banking
An excellent overview of the recruiting process, from developing relevant experience to building your network and preparing for interviews. Particularly useful for understanding the different paths into the industry.
Investment Banking Career Path
Learn how responsibilities, compensation, expectations, and career opportunities evolve from analyst to associate, vice president, director, and managing director.
Investment Banking Recruitment Guide
A detailed breakdown of recruiting timelines, internships, interviews, and the different approaches required for undergraduate, MBA, and lateral candidates.
Investment Banking Networking Guide
Networking is one of the most important—and frequently misunderstood—parts of investment banking recruiting. This guide discusses outreach strategies, informational interviews, and how to build relationships with bankers.
Investment Banking Resume Template
A practical guide to formatting and presenting your experience in a way that is appropriate for investment banking applications.
Investment Banking Interview Questions and Answers
An extensive introduction to the behavioral and technical questions that candidates should expect during investment banking interviews.
MBA Investment Banking Recruiting Guide
An especially useful resource for MBA students pursuing investment banking associate positions. It explains how recruiting differs from undergraduate analyst recruiting and what career changers should consider.
Why M&I Stands Out
Investment banking recruiting can feel intimidating, especially without an established network in finance.
M&I does an excellent job of demystifying the process and explaining what candidates actually need to accomplish.
Its industry overview, recruiting guides, and networking materials should be considered essential reading before beginning a serious investment banking recruiting process.
2. Free Investment Banking Interview Preparation
Best for: Preparing for technical questions, behavioral interviews, and Superdays.
Understanding the industry is only the beginning. Candidates also need to demonstrate that they understand fundamental accounting, valuation, and transaction concepts.
These resources provide an excellent foundation for interview preparation.
Wall Street Oasis — 101 Investment Banking Interview Questions
Read the 101 Investment Banking Interview Questions
Wall Street Oasis (WSO) is one of the best-known online communities for finance professionals and prospective investment bankers.
Its free 101-question interview guide covers technical questions, behavioral questions, logical puzzles, and questions specific to different banks and industry groups.
The guide is particularly useful for identifying gaps in your preparation.
Study tip: Don’t simply memorize the sample answers. Work through each question and make sure you understand the underlying concepts well enough to explain them in your own words.
WSO’s discussion forums can also provide perspectives on recruiting experiences and different firms, although anonymous commentary should always be approached critically.
Wall Street Prep — Investment Banking Interview Preparation
Explore Wall Street Prep’s Interview Resources
Wall Street Prep offers free educational guides covering accounting, financial statements, valuation, DCF analysis, and qualitative interview questions.
Its articles are especially useful for candidates who need more detailed explanations of technical topics.
Wall Street Prep also offers access to an introductory three-statement modeling course through a free registration form on its interview-preparation page.
Study tip: Use Wall Street Prep to strengthen your understanding of concepts you struggle to explain during mock interviews.
Peak Frameworks — Free Recruiting Resources
Explore Peak Frameworks’ Free Resources
Peak Frameworks provides a collection of practical recruiting materials, including investment banking coffee-chat questions, guides to target schools, and downloadable Excel resources.
Its networking materials are particularly relevant for candidates building relationships with investment bankers.
Some downloadable resources require an email address.
Study tip: The coffee-chat guide is a useful starting point when preparing for your first informational interviews.
3. Free Financial Modeling and Valuation Resources
Best for: Learning accounting, Excel, DCFs, merger models, and LBOs.
Financial modeling is one of the most important technical skills in investment banking.
Although many candidates focus almost exclusively on technical interview questions, understanding how financial models are built is valuable both during recruiting and once you’re on the job.
The following resources offer high-quality financial modeling education without requiring a paid training program.
Macabacus — Financial Modeling Tutorials and Excel Templates
Explore Macabacus’ Financial Modeling Resources
Macabacus offers an excellent collection of financial modeling tutorials covering some of the most important models used in investment banking.
Its free resources include operating-model, merger-model, and leveraged-buyout-model tutorials, along with downloadable Excel templates.
It also covers more advanced transaction topics, including M&A accounting, purchase price allocation, deal mechanics, and valuation.
Why it’s useful: Macabacus goes beyond explaining financial definitions. Its materials help readers understand how financial analyses are structured and constructed in Excel.
For candidates with a basic foundation in accounting and valuation, this is an excellent next step.
Wall Street Prep — Free Financial Modeling Resources
Browse Wall Street Prep’s Free Resources
Wall Street Prep maintains an extensive library of free tutorials covering financial modeling, accounting, valuation, and transaction analysis.
One particularly useful resource is its six-step guide to building a DCF model.
It walks readers through forecasting cash flows, calculating terminal value, determining the discount rate, and estimating enterprise value.
Why it’s useful: Wall Street Prep provides clear explanations of concepts that aspiring bankers will encounter in both interviews and real financial analysis.
NYU Stern — Aswath Damodaran’s Valuation Course
Explore Professor Damodaran’s Valuation Course
Professor Aswath Damodaran of NYU Stern is one of the most widely recognized educators in corporate valuation.
He makes extensive course materials publicly available, including lectures, presentations, financial data, exercises, and spreadsheets.
His resources explore valuation in substantially greater depth than most introductory investment banking guides.
You can also access his collection of valuation spreadsheets and analytical tools.
Why it’s useful: Damodaran’s materials are especially valuable for candidates who want to understand why companies are valued the way they are—not just how to calculate a valuation.
This is a particularly strong resource for MBA students, incoming associates, and anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of corporate finance.
Training The Street — Free Introduction to Financial Modeling
Explore Training The Street’s Self-Study Courses
Training The Street is an established provider of financial training programs.
While most of its courses are paid, it offers a free Introduction to Financial Modeling course designed to introduce fundamental modeling and valuation concepts.
Its website also includes a learning-resource library with articles and instructional videos.
Why it’s useful: The introductory course provides a structured entry point for candidates who prefer guided instruction over reading standalone articles.
Mergers & Inquisitions — Enterprise Value vs. Equity Value
Read the Enterprise Value vs. Equity Value Guide
This specific article deserves a place on any investment banking technical reading list.
Understanding the distinction between enterprise value and equity value is fundamental to valuation, comparable-company analysis, precedent transactions, and M&A modeling.
M&I walks through the concepts, calculations, and numerous practical nuances.
Study tip: Make sure you understand enterprise value and equity value before moving on to more advanced valuation and transaction modeling.
4. Free Excel Training and Templates
Best for: Building practical spreadsheet skills before starting the job.
Technical finance knowledge is only part of the skill set needed to succeed in investment banking.
Bankers also need to work quickly and accurately in Excel.
Exceljet — Excel Shortcuts
Explore Exceljet’s Excel Shortcut Library
Exceljet offers a comprehensive library of Excel keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Mac.
While the website isn’t specifically designed for investment bankers, it is an excellent reference for developing everyday Excel proficiency.
Study tip: Focus first on navigation, formatting, selecting cells and ranges, copying formulas, and managing worksheets. Practice using shortcuts until they become second nature.
Peak Frameworks — Excel Templates
Explore Peak Frameworks’ Free Excel Workbooks
Peak Frameworks provides free Excel resources, including formatting templates, networking trackers, and other practical tools.
These can help candidates become more comfortable with spreadsheet organization and presentation.
Study tip: Don’t just download templates. Open them, study their structure, and practice recreating elements yourself.
5. Free Investment Banking Job Simulations
Best for: Experiencing practical investment banking assignments.
Reading about investment banking is valuable, but applying your knowledge to realistic assignments can be even more useful.
Forage offers free virtual job simulations developed with major employers. These self-paced programs allow participants to complete exercises resembling real professional assignments.
Bank of America — Investment Banking Simulation
Start the Bank of America Investment Banking Simulation
Estimated time: 4–5 hours
This simulation introduces participants to investment banking activities including company analysis, M&A screening, valuation, financial modeling, and presentations.
Participants complete practical tasks and can compare their work with example solutions.
Why it’s useful: It provides a more tangible understanding of investment banking work than reading about the profession alone.
Citi — Investment Banking Simulation
Start the Citi Investment Banking Simulation
Estimated time: 5–6 hours
Citi’s simulation focuses on evaluating a potential acquisition target.
Exercises include company analysis, financial projections, comparable-company analysis, valuation, and preparing presentation materials.
Why it’s useful: It helps candidates understand how financial analysis supports investment banking advice and client presentations.
Important: These are educational simulations, not actual internships or employment experience. While participants may receive completion certificates, they should not represent the simulations as professional work experience.
6. Understanding Real M&A Transactions and Financial Markets
Best for: Developing commercial awareness and learning how actual deals work.
One of the best ways to become a more compelling investment banking candidate is to develop a genuine interest in transactions and the businesses behind them.
Being able to discuss a recent acquisition thoughtfully can be just as valuable as answering technical questions correctly.
These free resources can help.
SEC EDGAR — Public Company Filings
EDGAR is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s public database of corporate filings.
It provides access to annual reports, quarterly earnings filings, transaction announcements, merger proxy statements, registration statements, and other disclosures.
For aspiring investment bankers, EDGAR is one of the most valuable free research tools available.
Study tip: Find a recent public-company acquisition and read the transaction announcement and merger proxy statement, where available.
Focus on understanding the strategic rationale, purchase price, transaction structure, and the financial analysis supporting the deal.
PwC — M&A and Deals Insights
PwC regularly publishes research covering M&A activity, deal trends, and industry-specific developments.
These reports can help candidates understand which industries are experiencing acquisition activity and the factors influencing buyers and sellers.
Study tip: Read deal commentary relevant to the industry groups you’re interested in joining. It can provide useful context for networking conversations and interviews.
Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance
Visit the Harvard Law School Forum
The Harvard Law School Forum publishes commentary on corporate governance, M&A, shareholder activism, securities regulation, and transaction-related legal issues.
Its content is more advanced than most introductory recruiting material.
Why it’s useful: Investment banking transactions involve far more than financial modeling. The forum offers useful perspectives on the governance, regulatory, and legal considerations that can shape transactions.
7. Additional Resource: Corporate Finance Institute
Best for: Exploring finance career paths and learning fundamental concepts.
Explore CFI’s Free Careers in Finance Course
Corporate Finance Institute (CFI) is another established financial education provider.
Its free Careers in Finance course introduces learners to investment banking, capital markets, corporate finance, equity research, and other areas of the industry.
CFI also maintains a library of free finance articles, templates, and reference materials.
Most of its other training courses are paid, although free previews are available.
Why it’s useful: CFI is especially useful for people who are still deciding whether investment banking—or another finance career—is the right fit.
Where Should You Start?
With so many excellent free resources available, it’s easy to spend more time collecting study materials than actually learning.
A structured approach helps ensure that preparation builds logically from basic concepts to more advanced technical skills.
Step 1: Understand the industry.
Start with M&I’s investment banking overview and career path guide. Make sure you understand the different roles within investment banking and what the career involves.
Step 2: Learn how recruiting works.
Read M&I’s recruitment guide and networking guide. If you’re pursuing an associate position through business school, spend additional time on the MBA recruiting guide.
Step 3: Build your technical foundation.
Begin with fundamental accounting and valuation concepts using Wall Street Prep and M&I. Then move into Macabacus’ financial modeling tutorials.
Step 4: Test your interview readiness.
Work through Wall Street Oasis’ 101 interview questions. Practice explaining concepts aloud without relying on memorized definitions.
Step 5: Apply what you’ve learned.
Complete a Forage simulation, study a real company’s financial statements, and examine an actual M&A transaction using SEC EDGAR.
The goal isn’t to read every article on this page. It’s to build a foundation that allows you to think critically about companies, transactions, valuation, and the investment banking profession.
Final Thoughts
You do not need to spend hundreds—or thousands—of dollars to begin preparing for an investment banking career.
The resources above provide a substantial foundation for understanding the industry, navigating recruiting, preparing for interviews, and learning the technical skills that investment bankers use.
Paid preparation courses can still have a place, particularly for candidates who benefit from structured instruction, extensive practice materials, or individualized support. But it’s worth taking full advantage of the excellent free resources available before deciding whether additional training is necessary.
Most importantly, successful investment bankers need more than technical knowledge. Attention to detail, clear communication, sound judgment, curiosity about businesses, and the ability to work effectively with others are equally important.
Start with the fundamentals. Build a genuine understanding of the industry. And practice putting what you learn into action.
Editor’s note: The resources listed here were selected for their educational value and availability without purchasing a paid course. Some providers offer optional paid products or require free registration to access specific materials. Third-party offerings and access requirements may change.