OctoFin makes finance accessible to everyone.
The French-first interview prep platform for corporate finance: M&A, Private Equity, Leveraged Finance, DCM, ECM and sovereign advisory.
Preparing for a career in finance shouldn’t depend on your school or your network.
Finance shouldn’t be reserved for people who already know the codes.
Corporate finance roles hire through demanding interviews: accounting, valuation, LBOs, fit questions, case studies. What you need to know to pass them is often scattered across forums, PDFs passed around among insiders and expensive courses.
OctoFin was born from a simple conviction: democratize finance. Bring lessons, practice and real interview reports together in one place, so any student can prepare seriously, whatever their school and whether or not they know someone in the industry.
Complete prep, in four steps
Everything a technical and fit interview takes, organized in the order you need it.
Learn
Lessons written for interviews, from accounting and valuation to DCF, LBO and merger models.
Practice
A bank of answered questions, as multiple choice, flashcards or open answers, where the next session adapts to your results.
Prepare for each bank
Real interview reports, filterable by bank, team and round, so you know what to expect.
Track your progress
A dashboard that spots your weak points, and Octo, an AI tutor built on the lessons and reports.
Democratizing finance, one interview question at a time.
Give every student the same chance to land an internship or a first job in finance: demanding content, free whenever possible, and a platform that says honestly what it does and what it doesn’t.
Join OctoFinWhat OctoFin doesn’t do
- No one-on-one coaching and no mock interviews with a professional
- No promise of an internship, a placement rate or an interview result
- No prep for markets roles (Sales & Trading) or strategy consulting
What the platform contains
- 11chapters of lessons, from accounting to merger models
- 900+answered questions to practice with
- 500+real interview reports
Who’s behind OctoFin
Shadi El Hamalawi
Founder of OctoFin
Shadi El Hamalawi founded OctoFin after going through investment banking recruiting himself, as a student candidate, at Greenhill & Co. and Nomura. Educated at HEC Paris (Grande École program) and Sciences Po Paris (master’s in public administration), he also founded Breaking Into Sovereign, an interview prep platform for sovereign advisory. He writes OctoFin’s articles.
- Investment Banking analyst internship at Greenhill & Co., Paris (2024)
- Spring Internship at Nomura, London (2024)
- Sovereign advisory internship at Global Sovereign Advisory (2025)
- Infrastructure debt internship at Rivage Investment, Paris (2023)
Follow OctoFin
Interview tips, breakdowns and behind-the-scenes of finance recruiting.
Your questions about OctoFin
Who is behind OctoFin?
OctoFin was founded by Shadi El Hamalawi, who studied at HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris, with internships in investment banking (Greenhill & Co., Nomura), sovereign advisory and infrastructure debt.
How are OctoFin’s articles written?
Each article answers a question candidates really ask. Every calculation is redone by a program before publication, every figure and every fact about another firm links to a dated source, and every article is reviewed before it goes live. Articles are written by Shadi El Hamalawi.
Is OctoFin affiliated with the banks it mentions?
No. OctoFin is not affiliated with, associated with or endorsed by any of the institutions mentioned. Their names refer to the recruiting processes OctoFin prepares for, and to the interviews behind the reports shared by candidates.
I spotted a mistake in an article: what should I do?
Write to us at the contact address below: we’ll check it and fix the article.
A question, a mistake: support@octofin.io
Prepare your interviews with OctoFin.
Lessons, answered questions, real interview reports and progress tracking, all in one place.
Join OctoFin