60 min
60-Minute Live LBO
A one-hour LBO on the firm's template, taken live on Zoom. The whole case is free, with no signup.
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Take it freePractice Tests / 60-Minute Clean-Sheet Three-Statement LBO
- 60 minutes
- Excel model
- Blank workbook
- Private equity
60-Minute Clean-Sheet Three-Statement LBO
Build a five-year, three-statement LBO from a blank workbook, with a base case and a recession case you underwrite yourself.
You get the test, a worked answer key, the files I sent on the day and a two-page debrief.
Juniper Trace Technology Services, a fictional company · Recreated from a test I took in April 2026
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What you are given
A one-page exercise and a blank workbook.
This is a page from the test. Select it to read it at full size.
What the test asks
- Build a five-year, three-statement LBO in a blank Excel workbook: sources and uses, income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, a senior loan with a cash sweep, and sponsor returns after a management option pool.
- Run two cases: the numbers on the page, and a recession in year 2 that you have to underwrite yourself.
- Hand in one workbook that reads on screen and on paper.
- Stop at 60 minutes.
What the answer looks like
The answer key is a complete model you can check yours against line by line, with a note wherever it differs from what I sent. This example is from the free test, so nothing here gives this case away.
The note on the Taxes row
<- Got this wrong on the day: in the 60-minute file (row 27) this was EBT x (1 - tax rate), which is after-tax income, and cash taxes read it. Tax is EBT x the tax rate.
Take the free 60-minute test to see a full answer key and debrief
What you get
Start here.pdf1 page
1 - The test
Juniper Trace - LBO exercise.pdf1 page
2 - My answer
1 - Answer key (corrected model).xlsxcheck yours against this
2 - What I sent after 60 minutes.xlsx
3 - Debrief
Debrief.pdf2 pages
Who it is for
- Anyone with a timed modeling test coming up where no template is provided.
- You should already be able to build an LBO in a template. This tests whether you can lay one out from nothing against a clock.
- 60 minutes for the attempt and about 30 more to compare and read the debrief.
The story
In April 2026, after two interviews, I took a private equity firm's modeling test. A recruiter sent it on a Saturday morning. The email carried a one-page document and one instruction: one hour to complete it and send it back.
The page described a founder-owned IT services company. It asked for a three-statement LBO built in a blank workbook, with a base case and a recession case. It said models built from a shell or a template would not be reviewed.
I started a new workbook and sent it back at the end of the hour. That workbook is in the download, next to the answer key and a debrief that goes through it the way a reviewer would.
Before you start
Is this the real test?
It is recreated from the test I took. The format, the task and the time limit are the same. The company is fictional, its figures are changed and the page is reworded.
How do I know the answer is right?
The base case follows from the page, and the answer key returns what my 60-minute file returns. The key adds what a reviewer would have marked down: a goodwill line, a balance check, an opening PP&E balance, fixed labels and a print setup. The recession case is a judgment, and yours will differ.
Why include the file you sent?
Because it is what one hour produced. It shows what a complete answer looks like at the deadline, and the debrief says what I would fix.
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