Company interview guide
EY interview process and practice questions
EY's interviews lean on behavioural questions, which EY says on its careers site it relies on heavily, alongside technical questions for the service line you've applied to, such as assurance, tax, consulting or strategy and transactions. For campus roles, including at EY Global Delivery Services (GDS), candidates commonly report an aptitude or written test followed by one or more interviews; the steps vary by country, service line and role.
As candidates commonly report it; it varies by team, level and year. Last reviewed 18 October 2026.
The interview process
- 1Online application, with an aptitude or written assessment for many roles
- 2Technical interview for the service line: accounting, tax, technology or analytics
- 3Behavioural interview with a manager, often built on 'give an example of' questions
- 4Final discussion with a senior manager, director or partner (for many roles)
- 5HR conversation on fit, preferences and start date (for some roles)
What interviewers listen for
- People who demonstrate integrity, respect, teaming and inclusiveness
- People with energy, enthusiasm and the courage to lead
- People who build relationships based on doing the right thing
- Mindset as much as skill set: how you approach challenges and learning
- Strong communication and teamwork
- Specific examples: the situation, the action you took and the result
Behavioral questions
Give an example of a time you worked in a team that disagreed on the approach. What did you do?
A good answer covers
- The disagreement and what each side wanted
- Your part in getting the team to a decision, in the first person
- The result and how the team worked together afterwards
Describe a situation when you took the lead without being asked.
A good answer covers
- What needed doing and why nobody had picked it up
- What you did first and how you brought others along
- The outcome, with something concrete
Tell me about a time you had to produce accurate work against a tight deadline.
A good answer covers
- The deadline and why accuracy mattered
- How you planned, checked your work and asked for help where needed
- What you delivered, and anything you'd do differently
Describe a time you pushed back because something wasn't right.
A good answer covers
- What was wrong and how you were sure
- How you raised it respectfully and with evidence
- What changed, and how the relationship held up
Role and technical questions
What is the purpose of an external audit, and what does an auditor's opinion tell an investor?
A good answer covers
- An independent check that financial statements are free of material misstatement
- What a clean opinion means, and what a qualified or adverse one signals
- That an audit gives reasonable, not absolute, assurance
How would you check whether a company's reported revenue is genuine? Name a few tests you'd do.
A good answer covers
- Matching sales to orders, delivery records and cash received
- Cut-off testing around the year end, and confirmations from customers
- Looking for unusual patterns such as big sales just before year end or many credit notes after
Walk me through how depreciation affects the three financial statements.
A good answer covers
- It's an expense that lowers profit, and so tax
- It reduces the asset's value on the balance sheet
- It's added back in the cash flow statement because no cash leaves
Explain the difference between direct and indirect taxes, with an example of each from a country you know.
A good answer covers
- Direct taxes are paid by the person or company taxed, such as income tax
- Indirect taxes are collected through prices, such as GST or VAT
- Why a business cares about both: cost, compliance and cash flow
A client's month-end financial close takes too long. How would you find out what's slowing it down?
A good answer covers
- Mapping the steps, owners and hand-offs in the close
- Finding delays with data: late inputs, manual reconciliations, rework
- Quick fixes and longer-term automation, with how you'd measure the gain
How would you explain the benefits and risks of moving to the cloud to a client's finance head?
A good answer covers
- Benefits in their terms: cost, flexibility, faster reporting
- Risks: data security, migration effort, ongoing costs, depending on one provider
- A sensible first step, such as a small pilot with clear success measures
Tell me about a project where you used data to find something others had missed.
A good answer covers
- The question and the data you worked with
- The tools and methods you used (Excel, SQL, Python or others)
- What you found and what changed because of it
Why EY? Fit and HR questions
Why EY, and why this service line?
A good answer covers
- What the service line does and who its clients are
- Why the work fits your studies, skills or experience
- Something specific about EY you learnt from its people or work
EY's purpose is 'Building a better working world'. What could that mean in the role you've applied for?
A good answer covers
- A plain reading of the purpose, linked to the role
- An example: trustworthy numbers, a fairer tax process, or a client system that works better
- Why that kind of impact matters to you
What questions do you have for us?
A good answer covers
- Specific questions about the team's clients, the first year or training
- A question that shows you've thought about the role
- Nothing you could have found on the careers site in a minute
Tips
- EY's careers pages describe behavioural interviewing: prepare stories on teamwork, deadlines, conflict, a mistake and leadership, and end each on the result.
- Revise your service line's basics: audit and accounting for assurance, tax principles for tax, a tool or process for technology consulting.
- Match one example to each skill listed in the role description before the interview.
- EY describes interviews as two-way; prepare two specific questions about the team's clients or the work you'd do in your first year.
- For GDS and other campus roles, be ready to talk in detail about your projects, internships and the tools you list, such as Excel, SQL or a programming language.
Practise it out loud
A mock interview asks the way EY's interviewers are known to, follows up on your answers and gives you a report. The warm-up is free, needs no account and checks five of these questions as you answer.
About this guide
Written by Orbit from EY's own public pages and what candidates commonly report. Orbit isn't affiliated with EY. The questions are practice questions in the style of its interviews, not questions taken from them. Processes change, so check the job post and what your recruiter tells you.