consulting case interview questions and answers

• Case Interview: A comprehensive guide
• Pyramid Principle
• Hypothesis driven structure
• Fit Interview
• Consulting math
• The key to landing your consulting job
• What is a case interview?
• Types of case interview
• How to solve cases with the Problem-Driven Structure?
• What to remember in case interviews
• Case examples or building blocks?
• How do I prepare for case interviews
• Interview day tips
• How we can help

1. The key to landing your consulting job.

Case interviews - where you are asked to solve a business case study under scrutiny - are the core of the selection process right across McKinsey, Bain and BCG (the “MBB” firms). This interview format is also used pretty much universally across other high-end consultancies; including LEK, Kearney, Oliver Wyman and the consulting wings of the “Big Four”.

If you want to land a job at any of these firms, you will have to ace multiple case interviews.

It is increasingly likely that you will also have to solve online cases given by chatbots. You might need to pass these either before making it to interview or be asked to sit them alongside first round interviews.

Importantly, case studies aren’t something you can just wing . Firms explicitly expect you to have thoroughly prepared and many of your competitors on interview day will have been prepping for months.

Don’t worry though - MCC is here to help!

This article will take you through a full overview of everything you’ll need to know to do well, linking to more detailed articles and resources at each stage to let you really drill down into the details.

As well as traditional case interviews, we’ll also attend to the new formats in which cases are being delivered and otherwise make sure you’re up to speed with recent trends in this overall part of consulting recruitment.

Before we can figure out how to prepare for a case interview, though, we will first have to properly understand in detail what exactly you are up against. What format does a standard consulting case interview take? What is expected of you? How will you be assessed?

Let's dive right in and find out!

Professional help

Before going further, if this sounds like a lot to get your head around on your own, don't worry - help is available!

Our Case Academy course gives you everything you need to know to crack cases like a pro:

Case Academy Course

To put what you learn into practice (and secure some savings in the process) you can add mock interview coaching sessions with expereinced MBB consultants:

Coaching options

And, if you just want an experienced consultant to take charge of the whole selection process for you, you can check out our comprehensive mentoring programmes:

Explore mentoring

Now, back to the article!

2. What is a case interview?

Before we can hope to tackle a case interview, we have to understand what one is.

In short, a case interview simulates real consulting work by having you solve a business case study in conversation with your interviewer.

This case study will be a business problem where you have to advise a client - that is, an imaginary business or similar organisation in need of guidance.

You must help this client solve a problem and/or make a decision. This requires you to analyse the information you are given about that client organisation and figure out a final recommendation for what they should do next.

Business problems in general obviously vary in difficulty. Some are quite straightforward and can be addressed with fairly standard solutions. However, consulting firms exist precisely to solve the tough issues that businesses have failed to deal with internally - and so consultants will typically work on complex, idiosyncratic problems requiring novel solutions.

Some examples of case study questions might be:

• How much would you pay for a banking licence in Ghana?
• Estimate the potential value of the electric vehicle market in Germany
• How much gas storage capacity should a UK domestic energy supplier build?

Consulting firms need the brightest minds they can find to put to work on these important, difficult projects. You can expect the case studies you have to solve in interview, then, to echo the unique, complicated problems consultancies deal with every day. As we’ll explain here, this means that you need to be ready to think outside the box to figure out genuinely novel solutions.

2.1. Where are case interviews in the consulting selection process?

Not everyone who applies to a consulting firm will have a case interview - far from it!

In fact, case interviews are pretty expensive and inconvenient for firms to host, requiring them to take consultants off active projects and even fly them back to the office from location for in-person interviews (although this happens less frequently now). Ideally, firms want to cut costs and save time by narrowing down the candidate pool as much as possible before any live interviews.

As such, there are some hoops to jump through before you make it to interview rounds.

Firms will typically eliminate as much as 80% of the applicant pool before interviews start . For most firms, 50%+ of applicants might be cut based on resumes, before a similar cut is made on those remaining based on aptitude tests. McKinsey currently gives their Solve assessment to most applicants, but will use their resulting test scores alongside resumes to cut 70%+ of the candidate pool before interviews.

You'll need to be on top of your game to get as far as an interview with a top firm. Getting through the resume screen and any aptitude tests is an achievement in itself! Also we need to note that the general timeline of an application can differ depending on a series of factors, including which position you apply, your background, and the office you are applying to. For example, an undergraduate applying for a Business Analyst position (the entry level job at McKinsey) will most likely be part of a recruitment cycle and as such have pretty fixed dates when they need to sit the pre-screening test, and have the first and second round interviews (see more on those below). Conversely, an experienced hire will most likely have a much greater choice of test and interview dates as well as more time at their disposal to prepare.

For readers not yet embroiled in the selection process themselves, let’s put case interviews in context and take a quick look at each stage in turn. Importantly, note that you might also be asked to solve case studies outside interviews as well…

2.1.1. Application screen

It’s sometimes easy to forget that such a large cut is made at the application stage. At larger firms, this will mean your resume and cover letter is looked at by some combination of AI tools, recruitment staff and junior consulting staff (often someone from your own university).

Only the best applications will be passed to later stages, so make sure to check out our free resume and cover letter guides, and potentially get help with editing , to give yourself the best chance possible.

2.1.2. Aptitude tests and online cases

This part of the selection process has been changing quickly in recent years and is increasingly beginning to blur into the traditionally separate case interview rounds.

In the past, GMAT or PST style tests were the norm. Firms then used increasingly sophisticated and often gamified aptitude tests, like the Pymetrics test currently used by several firms, including BCG and Bain, and the original version of McKinsey’s Solve assessment (then branded as the Problem Solving Game).

Now, though, there is a move towards delivering relatively sophisticated case studies online. For example, McKinsey has replaced half the old Solve assessment with an online case. BCG’s Casey chatbot case now directly replaces a live first round case interview, and in the new era of AI chatbots, we expect these online cases to quickly become more realistic and increasingly start to relieve firms of some of the costs of live interviews.

Our consultants collectively reckon that, over time, 50% of case interviews are likely to be replaced with these kinds of cases . We give some specific advice for online cases in section six. However, the important thing to note is that these are still just simulations of traditional case interviews - you still need to learn how to solve cases in precisely the same way, and your prep will largely remain the same.

2.1.3. Rounds of Interviews

Now, let’s not go overboard with talk of AI. Even in the long term, the client facing nature of consulting means that firms will have live case interviews for as long as they are hiring anyone. And in the immediate term, case interviews are still absolutely the core of consulting selection.

Before landing an offer at McKinsey, Bain, BCG or any similar firm, you won’t just have one case interview, but will have to complete four to six case interviews, usually divided into two rounds, with each interview lasting approximately 50-60 minutes .

Being invited to first round usually means two or three case interviews. As noted above, you might also be asked to complete an online case or similar alongside your first round interviews.

If you ace first round, you will be invited to second round to face the same again, but more gruelling. Only then - after up to six case interviews in total, can you hope to receive an offer.

2.2. Differences between first and second round interviews

Despite interviews in the first and second round following the same format, second/final round interviews will be significantly more intense . The seniority of the interviewer, time pressure (with up to three interviews back-to-back), and the sheer value of the job at stake will likely make a second round consulting case interview one of the most challenging moments of your professional life.

There are three key differences between the two rounds:

• Time Pressure : Final round case interviews test your ability to perform under pressure, with as many as three interviews in a row and often only very small breaks between them.
• Focus : Since second round interviewers tend to be more senior (usually partners with 12+ years experience) and will be more interested in your personality and ability to handle challenges independently. Some partners will drill down into your experiences and achievements to the extreme. They want to understand how you react to challenges and your ability to identify and learn from past mistakes.
• Psychological Pressure: While case interviews in the first round are usually more focused on you simply cracking the case, second round interviewers often employ a "bad cop" strategy to test the way you react to challenges and uncertainty.

2.3. What skills do case interviews assess?

Reliably impressing your interviewers means knowing what they are looking for. This means understanding the skills you are being assessed against in some detail.

Overall, it’s important always to remember that, with case studies, there are no strict right or wrong answers. What really matters is how you think problems through, how confident you are with your conclusions and how quick you are with the back of the envelope arithmetic.

The objective of this kind of interview isn’t to get to one particular solution, but to assess your skillset. This is even true of modern online cases, where sophisticated AI algorithms score how you work as well as the solutions you generate.

If you visit McKinsey , Bain and BCG web pages on case interviews, you will find that the three firms look for very similar traits, and the same will be true of other top consultancies.

Broadly speaking, your interviewer will be evaluating you across five key areas:

2.1.1.One: Probing mind

Showing intellectual curiosity by asking relevant and insightful questions that demonstrate critical thinking and a proactive nature. For instance, if we are told that revenues for a leading supermarket chain have been declining over the last ten years, a successful candidate would ask:

“ We know revenues have declined. This could be due to price or volume. Do we know how they changed over the same period? ”

This is as opposed to a laundry list of questions like:

• Did customers change their preferences?
• Which segment has shown the decline in volume?
• Is there a price war in the industry?

2.1.2. Structure

Structure in this context means structuring a problem. This, in turn, means creating a framework - that is, a series of clear, sequential steps in order to get to a solution.

As with the case interview in general, the focus with case study structures isn’t on reaching a solution, but on how you get there.

This is the trickiest part of the case interview and the single most common reason candidates fail.

We discuss how to properly structure a case in more detail in section three. In terms of what your interviewer is looking for at high level, though, key pieces of your structure should be:

• Proper understanding of the objective of the case - Ask yourself: "What is the single crucial piece of advice that the client absolutely needs?"
• Identification of the drivers - Ask yourself: "What are the key forces that play a role in defining the outcome?"

Our Problem Driven Structure method, discussed in section three, bakes this approach in at a fundamental level. This is as opposed to the framework-based approach you will find in older case-solving

Focus on going through memorised sequences of steps too-often means failing to develop a full understanding of the case and the real key drivers.

At this link, we run through a case to illustrate the difference between a standard framework-based approach and our Problem Driven Structure method.

2.1.3. Problem Solving

You’ll be tested on your ability to identify problems and drivers, isolate causes and effects, demonstrate creativity and prioritise issues. In particular, the interviewer will look for the following skills:

• Prioritisation - Can you distinguish relevant and irrelevant facts?
• Connecting the dots - Can you connect new facts and evidence to the big picture?
• Establishing conclusions - Can you establish correct conclusions without rushing to inferences not supported by evidence?

2.1.4. Numerical Agility

In case interviews, you are expected to be quick and confident with both precise and approximated numbers. This translates to:

• Performing simple calculations quickly - Essential to solve cases quickly and impress clients with quick estimates and preliminary conclusions.
• Analysing data - Extract data from graphs and charts, elaborate and draw insightful conclusions.
• Solving business problems - Translate a real world case to a mathematical problem and solve it.

Our article on consulting math is a great resource here, though the extensive math content in our MCC Academy is the best and most comprehensive material available.

2.1.5. Communication

Real consulting work isn’t just about the raw analysis to come up with a recommendation - this then needs to be sold to the client as the right course of action.

Similarly, in a case interview, you must be able to turn your answer into a compelling recommendation. This is just as essential to impressing your interviewer as your structure and analysis.

Consultants already comment on how difficult it is to find candidates with the right communication skills. Add to this the current direction of travel, where AI will be able to automate more and more of the routine analytic side of consulting, and communication becomes a bigger and bigger part of what consultants are being paid for.

So, how do you make sure that your recommendations are relevant, smart, and engaging? The answer is to master what is known as CEO-level communication .

This art of speaking like a CEO can be quite challenging, as it often involves presenting information in effectively the opposite way to how you might normally.

To get it right, there are three key areas to focus on in your communications:

• Top down : A CEO wants to hear the key message first. They will only ask for more details if they think that will actually be useful. Always consider what is absolutely critical for the CEO to know, and start with that. You can read more in our article on the Pyramid Principle .
• Concise : This is not the time for "boiling the ocean" or listing an endless number possible solutions. CEOs, and thus consultants, want a structured, quick and concise recommendation for their business problem, that they can implement immediately.
• Fact-based : Consultants share CEOs' hatred of opinions based on gut feel rather than facts. They want recommendations based on facts to make sure they are actually in control. Always go on to back up your conclusions with the relevant facts.

Being concise and to the point is key in many areas, networking being one for them. For more detail on all this, check out our full article on delivering recommendations .

Prep the right way

3. types of case interview.

While most case interviews share a similar structure, firms will have some differences in the particular ways they like to do things in terms of both the case study and the fit component.

As we’ll see, these differences aren’t hugely impactful in terms of how you prepare. That said, it's always good to know as much as possible about what you will be going up against.

3.1. Different case objectives

A guiding thread throughout this article and our approach in general will be to treat each case as a self-contained problem and not try to pigeonhole it into a certain category. Having said that, there are of course similarities between cases and we can identify certain parameters and objectives.

Broadly speaking, cases can be divided into issue-based cases and strategic decision cases. In the former you will be asked to solve a certain issue, such as declining profits, or low productivity whereas in the latter you will be ask whether your client should or should not do something, such as enter a specific market or acquire another company. The chart below is a good breakdown of these different objectives:

3.2. How do interviewers craft cases

While interviewers will very likely be given a case bank to choose from by their company, a good number of them will also choose to adapt the cases they would currently be working on to an interview setting. The difference is that the latter cases will be harder to pigeonhole and apply standard frameworks to, so a tailored approach will be paramount.

If you’ve applied for a specific practice or type of consulting - such as operational consulting, for example - it’s very likely that you will receive a case geared towards that particular area alongside a ‘generalist’ consulting case (however, if that’s the case, you will generally be notified). The other main distinction when it comes to case interviews is between interviewer-led and candidate-led.

3.3. Candidate-led cases

Most consulting case interview questions test your ability to crack a broad problem, with a case prompt often going something like:

" How much would you pay to secure the rights to run a restaurant in the British Museum? "

You, as a candidate, are then expected to identify your path to solve the case (that is, provide a structure), leveraging your interviewer to collect the data and test your assumptions.

This is known as a “candidate-led” case interview and is used by Bain, BCG and other firms. From a structuring perspective, it’s easier to lose direction in a candidate-led case as there are no sign-posts along the way. As such, you need to come up with an approach that is both broad enough to cover all of the potential drivers in a case but also tailored enough to the problem you are asked to solve. It’s also up to you to figure out when you need to delve deeper into a certain branch of the case, brainstorm or ask for data. The following case from Bain is an excellent example on how to navigate a candidate-led case.

3.4. Interviewer-led cases

This type of case - employed most famously by McKinsey - is slightly different, with the interviewer controlling the pace and direction of the conversation much more than with other case interviews.

At McKinsey, your interviewer will ask you a set of pre-determined questions, regardless of your initial structure. For each question, you will have to understand the problem, come up with a mini structure, ask for additional data (if necessary) and come to the conclusion that answers the question. This more structured format of case also shows up in online cases by other firms - notably including BCG’s Casey chatbot (with the amusing result that practising McKinsey-style cases can be a great addition when prepping for BCG).

Essentially, these interviewer-led case studies are large cases made up of lots of mini-cases. You still use basically the same method as you would for standard (or candidate-led) cases - the main difference is simply that, instead of using that method to solve one big case, you are solving several mini-cases sequentially. These cases are easier to follow as the interviewer will guide you in the right direction. However, this doesn’t mean you should pay less attention to structure and deliver a generic framework! Also, usually (but not always!) the first question will ask you to map your approach and is the equivalent of the structuring question in candidate-led cases. Sometimes, if you’re missing key elements, the interviewer might prompt you in the right direction - so make sure to take those prompts seriously as they are there to help you get back on track (ask for 30 seconds to think on the prompt and structure your approach). Other times - and this is a less fortunate scenario - the interviewer might say nothing and simply move on to the next question. This is why you should put just as much thought (if not more) into the framework you build for interviewer-led cases , as you may be penalized if you produce something too generic or that doesn’t encompass all the issues of the case.

3.5. Case and fit

The standard case interview can be thought of as splitting into two standalone sub-interviews. Thus “case interviews” can be divided into the case study itself and a “fit interview” section, where culture fit questions are asked.

This can lead to a bit of confusion, as the actual case interview component might take up as little as half of your scheduled “case interview”. You need to make sure you are ready for both aspects.

To illustrate, here is the typical case interview timeline:

• First 15-30 minutes: Fit Interview - with questions assessing your motivation to be a consultant in that specific firm and your traits around leadership and teamwork. Learn more about the fit interview in our in-depth article here .
• Next 30-40 minutes: Case Interview - solving a case study
• Last 5 minutes: Fit Interview again - this time focussing on your questions for your interviewer.

Both the Case and Fit interviews play crucial roles in the finial hiring decision. There is no “average” taken between case and fit interviews: if your performance is not up to scratch in either of the two, you will not be able to move on to the next interview round or get an offer.

NB: No case without fit

Note that, even if you have only been told you are having a case interview or otherwise are just doing a case study, always be prepared to answer fit questions. At most firms, it is standard practice to include some fit questions in all case interviews, even if there are also separate explicit fit interviews, and interviewers will almost invariably include some of these questions around your case. This is perfectly natural - imagine how odd and artificial it would be to show up to an interview, simply do a case and leave again, without talking about anything else with the interviewer before or after.

3.5.1 Differences between firms

For the most part, a case interview is a case interview. However, firms will have some differences in the particular ways they like to do things in terms of both the case study and the fit component.

3.5.2. The McKinsey PEI

McKinsey brands its fit aspect of interviews as the Personal Experience Interview or PEI. Despite the different name, this is really much the same interview you will be going up against in Bain, BCG and any similar firms.

McKinsey does have a reputation for pushing candidates a little harder with fit or PEI questions , focusing on one story per interview and drilling down further into the specific details each time. We discuss this tendency more in our fit interview article . However, no top end firm is going to go easy on you and you should absolutely be ready for the same level of grilling at Bain, BCG and others. Thus any difference isn’t hugely salient in terms of prep.

3.6. What is different in 2023?

For the foreseeable future, you are going to have to go through multiple live case interviews to secure any decent consulting job. These might increasingly happen via Zoom rather than in person, but they should remain largely the same otherwise.

However, things are changing and the rise of AI in recent months seems pretty much guaranteed to accelerate existing trends.

Even before the explosive development of AI chatbots like ChatGPT we have seen in recent months, automation was already starting to change the recruitment process.

As we mentioned, case interviews are expensive and inconvenient for firms to run . Ideally, then, firms will try to reduce the number of interviews required for recruitment as far as possible. For many years, tests of various kinds served to cut down the applicant pool and thus the number of interviews. However, these tests had a limited capacity to assess candidates against the full consulting skillset in the way that case interviews do so well.

More recently, though, the development of online testing has allowed for more and more advanced assessments. Top consulting firms have been leveraging screening tests that better and better capture the same skillset as case interviews. Eventually this is converging on automated case studies. We see this very clearly with the addition of the Redrock case to McKinsey’s Solve assessment.

As these digital cases become closer to the real thing, the line between test and interview blurs. Online cases don’t just reduce the number of candidates to interview, but start directly replacing interviews.

Case in point here is BCG’s Casey chatbot . Previously, BCG had deployed less advanced online cases and similar tests to weed out some candidates before live case interviews began. Now, though, Casey actually replaces one first round case interview.

Casey, at time of writing, is still a relatively “basic” chatbot, basically running through a pre-set script. The Whatsapp-like interface does a lot of work to make it feel like one is chatting to a “real person” - the chatbot itself, though, cannot provide feedback or nudges to candidates as would a human interviewer.

We fully expect that, as soon as BCG and other firms can train a truer AI, these online cases will become more widespread and start replacing more live interviews.

We discuss the likely impacts of advanced AI on consulting recruitment and the industry more broadly in our blog.

Here, though, the real message is that you should expect to run into digital cases as well as traditional case interviews.

Luckily, despite any changes in specific format, you will still need to master the same fundamental skills and prepare in much the same way.

We’ll cover a few ways to help prepare for chatbot cases in section four. Ultimately, though, firms are looking for the same problem solving ability and mindset as a real interviewer. Especially as chatbots get better at mimicking a real interviewer, candidates who are well prepared for case cracking in general should have no problem with AI administered cases.

3.6.1. Automated fit interviews

Analogous to online cases, in recent years there has been a trend towards automated, “one way” fit interviews, with these typically being administered for consultancies by specialist contractors like HireVue or SparkHire.

These are kind of like Zoom interviews, but if the interviewer didn’t show up. Instead you will be given fit questions to answer and must record your answer in your computer webcam. Your response will then go on to be assessed by an algorithm, scoring both what you say and how you say it.

Again, with advances in AI, it is easy to imagine these automated interviews going from fully scripted interactions, where all candidates are asked the same list of questions, to a more interactive experience. Thus, we might soon arrive at a point where you are being grilled on the details of your stories - McKinsey PEI style - but by a bot rather than a human.

We include some tips on this kind of “one way” fit interview in section six here.

4. How to solve cases with the Problem-Driven Structure?

If you look around online for material on how to solve case studies, a lot of what you find will set out framework-based approaches. However, as we have mentioned, these frameworks tend to break down with more complex, unique cases - with these being exactly the kind of tough case studies you can expect to be given in your interviews.

To address this problem, the MyConsultingCoach team has synthesized a new approach to case cracking that replicates how top management consultants approach actual engagements.

MyConsultingCoach’s Problem Driven Structure approach is a universal problem solving method that can be applied to any business problem , irrespective of its nature.

As opposed to just selecting a generic framework for each case, the Problem Driven Structure approach works by generating a bespoke structure for each individual question and is a simplified version of the roadmap McKinsey consultants use when working on engagements.

The canonical seven steps from McKinsey on real projects are simplified to four for case interview questions, as the analysis required for a six-month engagement is somewhat less than that needed for a 45-minute case study. However, the underlying flow is the same (see the method in action in the video below)

Let's zoom in to see how our method actually works in more detail:

4.1. Identify the problem

Identifying the problem means properly understanding the prompt/question you are given, so you get to the actual point of the case.

This might sound simple, but cases are often very tricky, and many candidates irretrievably mess things up within the first few minutes of starting. Often, they won’t notice this has happened until they are getting to the end of their analysis. Then, they suddenly realise that they have misunderstood the case prompt - and have effectively been answering the wrong question all along!

With no time to go back and start again, there is nothing to do. Even if there were time, making such a silly mistake early on will make a terrible impression on their interviewer, who might well have written them off already. The interview is scuppered and all the candidate’s preparation has been for nothing.

This error is so galling as it is so readily avoidable.

Our method prevents this problem by placing huge emphasis on a full understanding of the case prompt. This lays the foundations for success as, once we have identified the fundamental, underlying problem our client is facing, we focus our whole analysis around finding solutions to this specific issue.

Now, some case interview prompts are easy to digest. For example, “Our client, a supermarket, has seen a decline in profits. How can we bring them up?”. However, many of the prompts given in interviews for top firms are much more difficult and might refer to unfamiliar business areas or industries. For example, “How much would you pay for a banking license in Ghana?” or “What would be your key areas of concern be when setting up an NGO?”

Don’t worry if you have no idea how you might go about tackling some of these prompts!

In our article on identifying the problem and in our full lesson on the subject in our MCC Academy course, we teach a systematic, four step approach to identifying the problem , as well as running through common errors to ensure you start off on the right foot every time!

This is summarised here:

Following this method lets you excel where your competitors mess up and get off to a great start in impressing your interviewer!

4.2. Build your problem driven structure

After you have properly understood the problem, the next step is to successfully crack a case is to draw up a bespoke structure that captures all the unique features of the case.

This is what will guide your analysis through the rest of the case study and is precisely the same method used by real consultants working on real engagements.

Of course, it might be easier here to simply roll out one an old-fashioned framework, and a lot of candidates will do so. This is likely to be faster at this stage and requires a lot less thought than our problem-driven structure approach.

However, whilst our problem driven structure approach requires more work from you, our method has the advantage of actually working in the kind of complex case studies where generic frameworks fail - that is exactly the kind of cases you can expect at an MBB interview .

Since we effectively start from first principles every time, we can tackle any case with the same overarching method. Simple or complex, every case is the same to you and you don’t have to gamble a job on whether a framework will actually work

4.2.1 Issue trees

Issue trees break down the overall problem into a set of smaller problems that you can then solve individually. Representing this on a diagram also makes it easy for both you and your interviewer to keep track of your analysis.

To see how this is done, let’s look at the issue tree below breaking down the revenues of an airline:

These revenues can be segmented as the number of customers multiplied by the average ticket price. The number of customers can be further broken down into a number of flights multiplied by the number of seats, times average occupancy rate. The node corresponding to the average ticket price can then be segmented further.

4.2.2 Hypothesis trees

Hypothesis trees are similar, the only difference being that rather than just trying to break up the issue into smaller issues you are assuming that the problem can be solved and you are formulating solutions.

In the example above, you would assume revenues can be increased by either increasing the average ticket price or the number of customers . You can then hypothesize that you can increase the average occupancy rate in three ways: align the schedule of short and long haul flights, run a promotion to boost occupancy in off-peak times, or offer early bird discounts.

4.2.3 Other structures:structured lists

Structured lists are simply subcategories of a problem into which you can fit similar elements. This McKinsey case answer starts off by identifying several buckets such as retailer response, competitor response, current capabilities and brand image and then proceeds to consider what could fit into these categories.

Buckets can be a good way to start the structure of a complex case but when using them it can be very difficult to be MECE and consistent, so you should always aim to then re-organize them into either an issue or a hypothesis tree.

It is worth noting that the same problem can be structured in multiple valid ways by choosing different means to segment the key issues. Ultimately all these lists are methods to set out a logical hierachy among elements.

4.2.4 Structures in practice

That said, not all valid structures are equally useful in solving the underlying problem. A good structure fulfils several requirements - including MECE-ness , level consistency, materiality, simplicity, and actionability. It’s important to put in the time to master segmentation, so you can choose a scheme isn’t only valid, but actually useful in addressing the problem.

After taking the effort to identify the problem properly, an advantage of our method is that it will help ensure you stay focused on that same fundamental problem throughout. This might not sound like much, but many candidates end up getting lost in their own analysis, veering off on huge tangents and returning with an answer to a question they weren’t asked.

Another frequent issue - particularly with certain frameworks - is that candidates finish their analysis and, even if they have successfully stuck to the initial question, they have not actually reached a definite solution. Instead, they might simply have generated a laundry list of pros and cons, with no clear single recommendation for action.

Clients employ consultants for actionable answers, and this is what is expected in the case interview. The problem driven structure excels in ensuring that everything you do is clearly related back to the key question in a way that will generate a definitive answer. Thus, the problem driven structure builds in the hypothesis driven approach so characteristic of real consulting practice.

You can learn how to set out your own problem driven structures in our article here and in our full lesson in the MCC Academy course.

4.2. Lead the analysis

A problem driven structure might ensure we reach a proper solution eventually, but how do we actually get there?

We call this step " leading the analysis ", and it is the process whereby you systematically navigate through your structure, identifying the key factors driving the issue you are addressing.

Generally, this will mean continuing to grow your tree diagram, further segmenting what you identify as the most salient end nodes and thus drilling down into the most crucial factors causing the client’s central problem.

Once you have gotten right down into the detail of what is actually causing the company’s issues, solutions can then be generated quite straightforwardly.

To see this process in action, we can return to our airline revenue example:

Let’s say we discover the average ticket price to be a key issue in the airline’s problems. Looking closer at the drivers of average ticket price, we find that the problem lies with economy class ticket prices. We can then further segment that price into the base fare and additional items such as food.

Having broken down the issue to such a fine-grained level and considering the 80/20 rule(see below), solutions occur quite naturally. In this case, we can suggest incentivising the crew to increase onboard sales, improving assortment in the plane, or offering discounts for online purchases.

Our article on leading the analysis is a great primer on the subject, with our video lesson in the MCC Academy providing the most comprehensive guide available.

4.4. Provide recommendations

So you have a solution - but you aren’t finished yet!

Now, you need to deliver your solution as a final recommendation.

This should be done as if you are briefing a busy CEO and thus should be a one minute, top-down, concise, structured, clear, and fact-based account of your findings.

The brevity of the final recommendation belies its importance. In real life consulting, the recommendation is what the client has potentially paid millions for - from their point of view, it is the only thing that matters.

In an interview, your performance in this final summing up of your case is going to significantly colour your interviewer’s parting impression of you - and thus your chances of getting hired!

So, how do we do it right?

Barbara Minto's Pyramid Principle elegantly sums up almost everything required for a perfect recommendation. The answer comes first , as this is what is most important. This is then supported by a few key arguments , which are in turn buttressed by supporting facts .

Across the whole recommendation, the goal isn’t to just summarise what you have done. Instead, you are aiming to synthesize your findings to extract the key "so what?" insight that is useful to the client going forward.

All this might seem like common sense, but it is actually the opposite of how we relay results in academia and other fields. There, we typically move from data, through arguments and eventually to conclusions. As such, making good recommendations is a skill that takes practice to master.

We can see the Pyramid Principle illustrated in the diagram below:

To supplement the basic Pyramid Principle scheme, we suggest candidates add a few brief remarks on potential risks and suggested next steps . This helps demonstrate the ability for critical self-reflection and lets your interviewer see you going the extra mile.

The combination of logical rigour and communication skills that is so definitive of consulting is particularly on display in the final recommendation.

Despite it only lasting 60 seconds, you will need to leverage a full set of key consulting skills to deliver a really excellent recommendation and leave your interviewer with a good final impression of your case solving abilities.

Our specific article on final recommendations and the specific video lesson on the same topic within our MCC Academy are great, comprehensive resources. Beyond those, our lesson on consulting thinking and our articles on MECE and the Pyramid Principle are also very useful.

4.5. What if I get stuck?

Naturally with case interviews being difficult problems there may be times where you’re unsure what to do or which direction to take. The most common scenario is that you will get stuck midway through the case and there are essentially two things that you should do:

• 1. Go back to your structure
• 2. Ask the interviewer for clarification

Your structure should always be your best friend - after all, this is why you put so much thought and effort into it: if it’s MECE it will point you in the right direction. This may seem abstract but let’s take the very simple example of a profitability issue: if you’ve started your analysis by segmenting profit into revenue minus costs and you’ve seen that the cost side of the analysis is leading you nowhere, you can be certain that the declining profit is due to a decline in revenue.

Similarly, when you’re stuck on the quantitative section, make sure that your framework for calculations is set up correctly (you can confirm this with the interviewer) and see what it is you’re trying to solve for: for example if you’re trying to find what price the client should sell their new t-shirt in order to break even on their investment, you should realize that what you’re trying to find is the break even point, so you can start by calculating either the costs or the revenues. You have all the data for the costs side and you know they’re trying to sell 10.000 pairs so you can simply set up the equation with x being the price.

As we’ve emphasised on several occasions, your consulting interview will be a dialogue. As such, if you don’t know what to do next or don’t understand something, make sure to ask the interviewer (and as a general rule always follow their prompts as they are trying to help, not trick you). This is especially true for the quantitative questions, where you should really understand what data you’re looking at before you jump into any calculations. Ideally you should ask your questions before you take time to formulate your approach but don’t be afraid to ask for further clarification if you really can’t make sense of what’s going on. It’s always good to walk your interviewer through your approach before you start doing the calculations and it’s no mistake to make sure that you both have the same understanding of the data. For example when confronted with the chart below, you might ask what GW (in this case gigawatt) means from the get-go and ask to confirm the different metrics (i.e. whether 1 GW = 1000 megawatts). You will never be penalised for asking a question like that.

5. What to remember in case interviews

If you’re new to case cracking you might feel a bit hopeless when you see a difficult case question, not having any idea where to start.

In fact though, cracking cases is much like playing chess. The rules you need to know to get started are actually pretty simple. What will make you really proficient is time and practice.

In this section, we’ll run through a high level overview of everything you need to know, linking to more detailed resources at every step.

5.1. An overall clear structure

You will probably hear this more than you care for but it is the most important thing to keep in mind as you start solving cases, as not only it is a key evaluation criterion but the greatest tool you will have at your disposal. The ability to build a clear structure in all aspects of the case will be the difference between breezing through a complicated case and struggling at its every step. Let’s look a bit closer at the key areas where you should be structured!

5.1.1 Structured notes

Every case interview starts with a prompt, usually verbal, and as such you will have to take some notes. And here is where your foray into structure begins, as the notes you take should be clear, concise and structured in a way that will allow you to repeat the case back to the interviewer without writing down any unnecessary information.

This may sound very basic but you should absolutely not be dismissive about it: taking clear and organized notes will allow you to navigate a case just like you would a powerpoint! While you should obviously adopt a system that you are comfortable with, what we found helps is to have separate sections for:

• The case brief
• Follow-up questions and answers
• Numerical data
• Case structure (the most crucial part when solving the case)
• Any scrap work during the case (usually calculations)

When solving the case - or, as we call it here, in the Lead the analysis step, it is highly recommended to keep on feeding and integrating your structure, so that you never get lost. Maintaining a clear high level view is one of the most critical skills in consulting: by constantly keeping track of where you are following your structure, you’ll never lose your focus on the end goal.

In the case of an interviewer-led case, you can also have separate sheets for each question (e.g. Question 1. What factors can we look at that drive profitability?). If you develop a system like this you’ll know exactly where to look for each point of data rather than rummage around in untidy notes. There are a couple more sections that you may have, depending on preference - we’ll get to these in the next sections.

5.1.2 Structured communication

There will be three main types of communication in cases:

• 1. Asking and answering questions
• 2. Walking the interviewer through your structure (either the case or calculation framework - we’ll get to that in a bit!)
• 3. Delivering your recommendation

Asking and answering questions will be the most common of these and the key thing to do before you speak is ask for some time to collect your thoughts and get organised. What you want to avoid is a ‘laundry list’ of questions or anything that sounds too much like a stream of consciousness.

Different systems work for different candidates but a sure-fire way of being organised is numbering your questions and answers. So rather than saying something like ‘I would like to ask about the business model, operational capacity and customer personas’ it’s much better to break it down and say something along the lines of ‘I’ve got three key questions. Firstly I would like to inquire into the business model of our client. Secondly I would like to ask about their operational capacity. Thirdly I would like to know more about the different customer personas they are serving’.

A similar principle should be applied when walking the interview through your structure, and this is especially true of online interviews (more and more frequent now) when the interviewer can’t see your notes. Even if you have your branches or buckets clearly defined, you should still use a numbering system to make it obvious to the interviewer. So, for example, when asked to identify whether a company should make an acquisition, you might say ‘I would like to examine the following key areas. Firstly the financial aspects of this issue, secondly the synergies and thirdly the client’s expertise’

The recommendation should be delivered top-down (see section 4.4 for specifics) and should employ the same numbering principle. To do so in a speedy manner, you should circle or mark the key facts that you encounter throughout the case so you can easily pull them out at the end.

5.1.3 Structured framework

It’s very important that you have a systematic approach - or framework - for every case. Let’s get one thing straight: there is a difference between having a problem-solving framework for your case and trying to force a case into a predetermined framework. Doing the former is an absolute must , whilst doing the latter will most likely have you unceremoniously dismissed.

We have seen there are several ways of building a framework, from identifying several categories of issues (or ‘buckets’) to building an issue or hypothesis tree (which is the most efficient type of framework). For the purpose of organization, we recommend having a separate sheet for the framework of the case, or, if it’s too much to manage, you can have it on the same sheet as the initial case prompt. That way you’ll have all the details as well as your proposed solution in one place.

5.1.4 Structured calculations

Whether it’s interviewer or candidate-led, at some point in the case you will get a bunch of numerical data and you will have to perform some calculations (for the specifics of the math you’ll need on consulting interviews, have a look at our Consulting Math Guide ). Here’s where we urge you to take your time and not dive straight into calculating! And here’s why: while your numerical agility is sure to impress interviewers, what they’re actually looking for is your logic and the calculations you need to perform in order to solve the problem . So it’s ok if you make a small mistake, as long as you’re solving for the right thing.

As such, make it easy for them - and yourself. Before you start, write down in steps the calculations you need to perform. Here’s an example: let’s say you need to find out by how much profits will change if variable costs are reduced by 10%. Your approach should look something like:

• 1. Calculate current profits: Profits = Revenues - (Variable costs + Fixed costs)
• 2. Calculate the reduction in variable costs: Variable costs x 0.9
• 3. Calculate new profits: New profits = Revenues - (New variable costs + Fixed costs)

Of course, there may be more efficient ways to do that calculation, but what’s important - much like in the framework section - is to show your interviewer that you have a plan, in the form of a structured approach. You can write your plan on the sheet containing the data, then perform the calculations on a scrap sheet and fill in the results afterward.

5.2. Common business knowledge and formulas

Although some consulting firms claim they don’t evaluate candidates based on their business knowledge, familiarity with basic business concepts and formulae is very useful in terms of understanding the case studies you are given in the first instance and drawing inspiration for structuring and brainstorming.

If you are coming from a business undergrad, an MBA or are an experienced hire, you might well have this covered already. For those coming from a different background, it may be useful to cover some.

Luckily, you don’t need a degree-level understanding of business to crack interview cases , and a lot of the information you will pick up by osmosis as you read through articles like this and go through cases.

However, some things you will just need to sit down and learn. We cover everything you need to know in some detail in our Case Academy Course course. However, some examples here of things you need to learn are:

• Basic accounting (particularly how to understand all the elements of a balance sheet)
• Basic economics
• Basic marketing
• Basic strategy

Below we include a few elementary concepts and formulae so you can hit the ground running in solving cases. We should note that you should not memorise these and indeed a good portion of them can be worked out logically, but you should have at least some idea of what to expect as this will make you faster and will free up much of your mental computing power. In what follows we’ll tackle concepts that you will encounter in the private business sector as well as some situations that come up in cases that feature clients from the NGO or governmental sector.

5.2.1 Business sector concepts

These concepts are the bread and butter of almost any business case so you need to make sure you have them down. Naturally, there will be specificities and differences between cases but for the most part here is a breakdown of each of them.

5.2.1.1. Revenue

The revenue is the money that the company brings in and is usually equal to the number of products they sell multiplied to the price per item and can be expressed with the following equation:

Revenue = Volume x Price

Companies may have various sources of revenue or indeed multiple types of products, all priced differently which is something you will need to account for. Let’s consider some situations. A clothing company such as Nike will derive most of their revenue from the number of products they sell times the average price per item. Conversely, for a retail bank revenue is measured as the volume of loans multiplied by the interest rate at which the loans are given out. As we’ll see below, we might consider primary revenues and ancillary revenues: in the case of a football club, we might calculate primary revenues by multiplying the number of tickets sold by the average ticket price, and ancillary revenues those coming from sales of merchandise (similarly, let’s say average t-shirt price times the number of t-shirts sold), tv rights and sponsorships.

These are but a few examples and another reminder that you should always aim to ask questions and understand the precise revenue structure of the companies you encounter in cases.

5.2.1.2. Costs

The costs are the expenses that a company incurs during its operations. Generally, they can be broken down into fixed and variable costs :

Costs = Fixed Costs + Variable Costs

As their name implies, fixed costs do not change based on the number of units produced or sold. For example, if you produce shoes and are renting the space for your factory, you will have to pay the rent regardless of whether you produce one pair or 100. On the other hand, variable costs depend on the level of activity, so in our shoe factory example they would be equivalent to the materials used to produce each pair of shoes and would increase the more we produce.

These concepts are of course guidelines used in order to simplify the analysis in cases, and you should be aware that in reality often the situation can be more complicated. Costs can also be quasi-fixed, in that they increase marginally with volume. Take the example of a restaurant which has a regular staff, incurring a fixed cost but during very busy hours or periods they also employ some part-time workers. This cost is not exactly variable (as it doesn’t increase with the quantity of food produced) but also not entirely fixed, as the number of extra hands will depend on how busy the restaurant is. Fixed costs can also be non-linear in nature. Let’s consider the rent in the same restaurant: we would normally pay a fixed amount every month, but if the restaurant becomes very popular we might need to rent out some extra space so the cost will increase.

5.2.1.3. Profit and profit margin

The profit is the amount of money a company is left with after it has paid all of its expenses and can be expressed as follows:

Profit = Revenue - Costs

It’s very likely that you will encounter a profitability issue in one of your cases, namely you will be asked to increase a company’s profit. There are two main ways of doing this: increasing revenues and reducing costs , so these will be the two main areas you will have to investigate. This may seem simple but what you will really need to understand in a case are the key drivers of a business (and this should be done through clarifying questions to the interviewer - just as a real consultant would question their client).

For example, if your client is an airline you can assume that the main source of revenue is sales of tickets, but you should inquire how many types of ticket the specific airline sells. You may naturally consider economy and business class tickets, but you may find out that there is a more premium option - such as first class - and several in-between options. Similarly to our football club example, there may be ancillary revenues from selling of food and beverage as well as advertising certain products or services on flights.

You may also come across the profit margin in cases. This is simply the percentage of profit compared to the revenue and can be expressed as follows:

Profit margin = Profit/Revenue x 100

5.2.1.4. Break-even point

An ancillary concept to profit, the break-even point is the moment where revenues equal costs making the profit zero and can be expressed as the following equation:

Revenues = Costs (Fixed costs + Variable costs)

This formula will be useful when you are asked questions such as ‘What is the minimum price I should sell product X?’ or ‘What quantity do I need to sell in order to recoup my investment?’. Let’s say an owner of a sandwich store asks us to figure out how many salami and cheese salami sandwiches she needs to sell in order to break even. She’s spending $4 on salami and $2 for cheese and lettuce per sandwich, and believes she can sell the sandwiches at around $7. The cost of utilities and personnel is around $5000 per month. We could lay this all out in the break-even equation:

7 x Q ( quantity ) = (4+2) x Q + 5000 ( variable + fixed costs )

In a different scenario, we may be asked to calculate the break-even price . Let’s consider our sandwich example and say our owner knows she has enough ingredients for about 5000 sandwiches per month but is not sure how much to sell them for. In that case, if we know our break-even equation, we can simply make the following changes:

P ( price ) x 5000 = (4+2) x 5000 + 5000

By solving the equation we get to the price of $7 per sandwich.

5.2.1.5. Market share and market size

We can also consider the market closely with profit, as in fact the company’s performance in the market is what drives profits. The market size is the total number of potential customers for a certain business or product, whereas the market share is the percentage of that market that your business controls (or could control, depending on the case).

There is a good chance you will have to estimate the market size in one of your case interviews and we get into more details on how to do that below. You may be asked to estimate this in either number of potential customers or total value . The latter simply refers to the number of customers multiplied by the average value of the product or service.

To calculate the market share you will have to divide the company’s share by the total market size and multiply by 100:

Note, though, that learning the very basics of business is the beginning rather than the end of your journey. Once you are able to “speak business” at a rudimentary level, you should try to “become fluent” and immerse yourself in reading/viewing/listening to as wide a variety of business material as possible, getting a feel for all kinds of companies and industries - and especially the kinds of problems that can come up in each context and how they are solved. The material put out by the consulting firms themselves is a great place to start, but you should also follow the business news and find out about different companies and sectors as much as possible between now and interviews. Remember, if you’re going to be a consultant, this should be fun rather than a chore!

5.3 Public sector and NGO concepts

As we mentioned, there will be some cases (see section 6.6 for a more detailed example) where the key performance indicators (or KPIs in short) will not be connected to profit. The most common ones will involve the government of a country or an NGO, but they can be way more diverse and require more thought and application of first principles. We have laid out a couple of the key concepts or KPIs that come up below

5.3.1 Quantifiability

In many such scenarios you will be asked to make an important strategic decision of some kind or to optimise a process. Of course these are not restricted to non-private sector cases but this is where they really come into their own as there can be great variation in the type of decision and the types of field.

While there may be no familiar business concepts to anchor yourself onto, a concept that is essential is quantifiability . This means, however qualitative the decision might seem, consultants rely on data so you should always aim to have aspects of a decision that can be quantified, even if the data doesn’t present itself in a straightforward manner.

Let’s take a practical example. Your younger sibling asks you to help them decide which university they should choose if they want to study engineering. One way to structure your approach would be to segment the problem into factors affecting your sibling’s experience at university and experience post-university. Within the ‘at uni’ category you might think about the following:

• Financials : How much are tuition costs and accommodation costs?
• Quality of teaching and research : How are possible universities ranked in the QS guide based on teaching and research?
• Quality of resources : How well stocked is their library, are the labs well equipped etc.?
• Subject ranking : How is engineering at different unis ranked?
• Life on campus and the city : What are the living costs in the city where the university is based? What are the extracurricular opportunities and would your sibling like to live in that specific city based on them?

Within the ‘out of uni’ category you might think about:

• Exit options : What are the fields in which your sibling could be employed and how long does it take the average student of that university to find a job?
• Alumni network : What percentage of alumni are employed by major companies?
• Signal : What percentage of applicants from the university get an interview in major engineering companies and related technical fields?

You will perhaps notice that all the buckets discussed pose quantifiable questions meant to provide us with data necessary to make a decision. It’s no point to ask ‘Which university has the nicest teaching staff?’ as that can be a very subjective metric.

5.3.1 Impact

Another key concept to consider when dealing with sectors other than the private one is how impactful a decision or a line of inquiry is on the overarching issue , or whether all our branches in our issue tree have a similar impact. This can often come in the form of impact on lives, such as in McKinsey’s conservation case discussed below, namely how many species can we save with our choice of habitat.

5.4 Common consulting concepts

Consultants use basic business concepts on an every day basis, as they help them articulate their frameworks to problems. However, they also use some consulting specific tools to quality check their analysis and perform in the most efficient way possible. These principles can be applied to all aspects of a consultant’s work, but for brevity we can say they mostly impact a consultant’s systematic approach and communication - two very important things that are also tested in case interviews. Therefore, it’s imperative that you not only get to know them, but learn how and when to use them as they are at the very core of good casing. They are MECE-ness, the Pareto Principle and the Pyramid principle and are explained briefly below - you should, however, go on to study them in-depth in their respective articles.

Perhaps the central pillar of all consulting work and an invaluable tool to solve cases, MECE stands for Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive . It can refer to any and every aspect in a case but is most often used when talking about structure. We have a detailed article explaining the concept here , but the short version is that MECE-ness ensures that there is no overlap between elements of a structure (i.e. the Mutually Exclusive component) and that it covers all the drivers or areas of a problem (Collectively Exhaustive). It is a concept that can be applied to any segmentation when dividing a set into subsets that include it wholly but do not overlap.

Let’s take a simple example and then a case framework example. In simple terms, when we are asked to break down the set ‘cars’ into subsets, dividing cars into ‘red cars’ and ‘sports cars’ is neither mutually exclusive (as there are indeed red sports cars) nor exhaustive of the whole set (i.e. there are also yellow non-sports cars that are not covered by this segmentation). A MECE way to segment would be ‘cars produced before 2000’ and ‘cars produced after 2000’ as this segmentation allows for no overlap and covers all the cars in existence.

Dividing cars can be simple, but how can we ensure MECEness in a case-interview a.k.a. a business situation. While the same principles apply, a good tip to ensure that your structure is MECE is to think about all the stakeholders - i.e. those whom a specific venture involves.

Let’s consider that our client is a soda manufacturer who wants to move from a business-to-business strategy, i.e. selling to large chains of stores and supermarkets, to a business-to-consumer strategy where it sells directly to consumers. In doing so they would like to retrain part of their account managers as direct salespeople and need to know what factors to consider.

A stakeholder-driven approach would be to consider the workforce and customers and move further down the issue tree, thinking about individual issues that might affect them. In the case of the workforce, we might consider how the shift would affect their workload and whether it takes their skillset into account. As for the customers, we might wonder whether existing customers would be satisfied with this move: will the remaining B2B account managers be able to provide for the needs of all their clients and will the fact that the company is selling directly to consumers now not cannibalise their businesses? We see how by taking a stakeholder-centred approach we can ensure that every single perspective and potential issue arising from it is fully covered.

5.4.2 The Pareto Principle

Also known as the 80/20 rule, this principle is important when gauging the impact of a decision or a factor in your analysis. It simply states that in business (but not only) 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. What this means is you can make a few significant changes that will impact most of your business organisation, sales model, cost structure etc.

Let’s have a look at 3 quick examples to illustrate this:

• 80% of all accidents are caused by 20% of drivers
• 20% of a company’s products account for 80% of the sales
• 80% of all results in a company are driven by 20% of its employees

The 80/20 rule will be a very good guide line in real engagements as well as case interviews, as it will essentially point to the easiest and most straightforward way of doing things. Let’s say one of the questions in a case is asking you to come up with an approach to understand the appeal of a new beard trimmer. Obviously you can’t interview the whole male population so you might think about setting up a webpage and asking people to comment their thoughts. But what you would get would be a laundry list of difficult to sift through data.

Using an 80/20 approach you would segment the population based on critical factors (age groups, grooming habits etc.) and then approach a significant sample size of each (e.g. 20), analysing the data and reaching a conclusion.

5.4.3 The Pyramid Principle

This principle refers to organising your communication in a top-down , efficient manner. While this is generally applicable, the pyramid principle will most often be employed when delivering the final recommendation to your client. This means - as is implicit in the name - that you would organise your recommendation (and communication in general) as a pyramid, stating the conclusion or most important element at the top then go down the pyramid listing 3 supporting arguments and then further (ideally also 3) supporting arguments for those supporting arguments.

Let’s look at this in practice: your client is a German air-conditioning unit manufacturer who was looking to expand into the French market. However, after your analysis you’ve determined that the market share they were looking to capture would not be feasible. A final recommendation using the Pyramid Principle would sound something like this: ‘I recommend that we do not enter the German market for the following three reasons. Firstly, the market is too small for our ambitions of $50 million. Secondly the market is heavily concentrated, being controlled by three major players and our 5 year goal would amount to controlling 25% of the market, a share larger than that of any of the players. Thirdly, the alternative of going into the corporate market would not be feasible, as it has high barriers to entry.Then, if needed, we could delve deeper into each of our categories

6. Case examples or building blocks?

As we mentioned before, in your preparation you will undoubtedly find preparation resources that claim that there are several standard types of cases and that there is a general framework that can be applied to each type of case. While there are indeed cases that are straightforward at least in appearance and seemingly invite the application of such frameworks, the reality is never that simple and cases often involve multiple or more complicated components that cannot be fitted into a simple framework.

At MCC we don’t want you to get into the habit of trying to identify which case type you’re dealing with and pull out a framework, but we do recognize that there are recurring elements in frameworks that are useful - such as the profitability of a venture (with its revenues and costs), the valuation of a business, estimating and segmenting a market and pricing a product.

We call these building blocks because they can be used to build case frameworks but are not a framework in and of themselves, and they can be shuffled around and rearranged in any way necessary to be tailored to our case. Hence, our approach is not to make you think in terms of case types but work from first principles and use these building blocks to build your own framework. Let’s take two case prompts to illustrate our point.

The first is from the Bain website, where the candidate is asked whether they think it’s a good idea for their friend to open a coffee shop in Cambridge UK (see the case here ). The answer framework provided here is a very straightforward profitability analysis framework, examining the potential revenues and potential costs of the venture:

While this is a good point to start (especially taken together with the clarifying questions), we will notice that this approach will need more tailoring to the case - for example the quantity of coffee will be determined by the market for coffee drinkers in Cambridge, which we have to determine based on preference. We are in England so a lot of people will be drinking tea but we are in a university town so perhaps more people than average are drinking coffee as it provides a better boost when studying. All these are some much needed case-tailored hypotheses that we can make based on the initial approach.

Just by looking at this case we might be tempted to say that we can just take a profitability case and apply it without any issues. However, this generic framework is just a starting point and in reality we would need to tailor it much further in the way we had started to do in order to get to a satisfactory answer. For example, the framework itself doesn’t cover aspects such as the customer’s expertise: does the friend have any knowledge of the coffee business, such as where to source coffee and how to prepare it? Also, we could argue there may be some legal factors to consider here, such as any approvals that they might need from the city council to run a coffee shop on site, or some specific trade licences that are not really covered in the basic profitability framework.

Let’s take a different case , however, from the McKinsey website. In this scenario, the candidate is being asked to identify some factors in order to choose where to focus the client’s conservation efforts. Immediately we can realise that this case doesn’t lend itself to any pre-packaged framework and we will need to come up with something from scratch - and take a look at McKinsey’s answer of the areas to focus on:

We notice immediately that this framework is 100% tailored to the case - of course there are elements which we encounter in other cases, such as costs and risks but again these are applied in an organic way. It’s pretty clear that while no standard framework would work in this case, the aforementioned concepts - costs and risks - and the way to approach them (a.k.a building blocks ) are fundamentally similar throughout cases (with the obvious specificities of each case).

In what follows, we’ll give a brief description of each building block starting from the Bain example discussed previously, in order to give you a general idea of what they are and their adaptability, but you should make sure to follow the link to the in-depth articles to learn all their ins and outs.

6.1 Estimates and segmentation

This building block will come into play mostly when you’re thinking about the market for a certain product (but make sure to read the full article for more details). Let’s take our Bain Cambridge coffee example. As we mentioned under the quantity bucket we need to understand what the market size for coffee in Cambridge would be - so we can make an estimation based on segmentation .

The key to a good estimation is the ability to logically break down the problem into more manageable pieces. This will generally mean segmenting a wider population to find a particular target group. We can start off with the population of Cambridge - which we estimate at 100.000. In reality the population is closer to 150.000 but that doesn’t matter - the estimation has to be reasonable and not accurate , so unless the interviewer gives you a reason to reconsider you can follow your instinct. We can divide that into people who do and don’t drink coffee. Given our arguments before, we can conclude that 80% of those, so 80.000 drink coffee. Then we can further segment into those who drink regularly - let’s say every day - and those who drink occasionally - let’s say once a week. Based on the assumptions before about the student population needing coffee to function, and with Cambridge having a high student population, we can assume that 80% of those drinking coffee are regular drinkers, so that would be 64.000 regular drinkers and 16.000 occasional drinkers. We can then decide whom we want to target what our strategy needs to be:

This type of estimation and segmentation can be applied to any case specifics - hence why it is a building block.

6.2 Profitability

We had several looks at this building block so far (see an in-depth look here ) as it will show up in most scenarios, since profit is a key element in any company’s strategy. As we have seen, the starting point to this analysis is to consider both the costs and revenues of a company, and try to determine whether revenues need to be improved or whether costs need to be lowered. In the coffee example, the revenues are dictated by the average price per coffe x the number of coffees sold , whereas costs can be split into fixed and variable .

Some examples of fixed costs would be the rent for the stores and the cost of the personnel and utilities, while the most obvious variable costs would be the coffee beans used and the takeaway containers (when needed). We may further split revenues in this case into Main revenues - i.e. the sales of coffee - and Ancillary revenues , which can be divided into Sales of food products (sales of pastries, sandwiches etc., each with the same price x quantity schema) and Revenues from events - i.e renting out the coffee shop to events and catering for the events themselves. Bear in mind that revenues will be heavily influenced by the penetration rate , i.e. the share of the market which we can capture.

6.3 Pricing

Helping a company determine how much they should charge for their goods or services is another theme that comes up frequently in cases. While it may seem less complicated than the other building blocks, we assure you it’s not - you will have to understand and consider several factors, such as the costs a company is incurring, their general strategic positioning, availability, market trends as well as the customers’ willingness to pay (or WTP in short) - so make sure to check out our in-depth guide here .

In our example, we may determine that the cost per cup (coffee beans, staff, rent) is £1. We want to be student friendly so we should consider how much students would want to pay for a coffee as well as how much are competitors are charging. Based on those factors, it would be reasonable to charge on average £2 per cup of coffee. It’s true that our competitors are charging £3 but they are targeting mostly the adult market, whose willingness to pay is higher, so their pricing model takes that into account as well as the lower volume of customers in that demographic.

6.4. Valuation

A variant of the pricing building block, a valuation problem generally asks the candidate to determine how much a client should pay for a specific company (the target of an acquisition) as well as what other factors to consider. The two most important factors (but not the only ones - for a comprehensive review see our Valuation article ) to consider are the net present value (in consulting interviews usually in perpetuity) and the synergies .

In short, the net present value of a company is how much profit it currently brings in, divided by how much that cash flow will depreciate in the future and can be represented with the equation below:

The synergies refer to what could be achieved should the companies operate as one, and can be divided into cost and revenue synergies .

Let’s expand our coffee example a bit to understand these. Imagine that our friend manages to open a chain of coffee shops in Cambridge and in the future considers acquiring a chain of take-out restaurants. The most straightforward example of revenue synergies would be cross-selling, in this case selling coffee in the restaurants as well as in the dedicated stores, and thus getting an immediate boost in market share by using the existing customers of the restaurant chain. A cost synergy would be merging the delivery services of the two businesses to deliver both food and coffee, thus avoiding redundancies and reducing costs associated with twice the number of drivers and vehicles.

6.5. Competitive interaction

This component of cases deals with situations where the market in which a company is operating changes and the company must decide what to do. These changes often have to do with a new player entering the market (again for more details make sure to dive into the Competitive Interaction article ).

Let’s assume that our Cambridge coffee shop has now become a chain and has flagged up to other competitors that Cambridge is a blooming market for coffee. As such, Starbucks has decided to open a few stores in Cambridge themselves, to test this market. The question which might be posed to a candidate is what should our coffee chain do. One way (and a MECE one) to approach the problem is to decide between doing something and doing nothing . We might consider merging with another coffee chain and pooling our resources or playing to our strengths and repositioning ourselves as ‘your student-friendly, shop around the corner’. Just as easily we may just wait the situation out and see whether indeed Starbucks is cutting into our market share - after all, the advantages of our product and services might speak for themselves and Starbucks might end up tanking. Both of these are viable options if argued right and depending on the further specifics of the case.

6.6. Special cases

Most cases deal with private sectors, where the overarching objective entails profit in some form. However, as hinted before, there are cases which deal with other sectors where there are other KPIs in place . The former will usually contain one or several of these building blocks whereas the latter will very likely have neither. This latter category is arguably the one that will stretch your analytical and organisational skills to the limit, since there will be very little familiarity that you can fall back on (McKinsey famously employs such cases in their interview process).

So how do we tackle the structure for such cases? The short answer would be starting from first principles and using the problem driven structure outlined above, but let’s look at a quick example in the form of a McKinsey case :

The first question addressed to the candidate is the following:

This is in fact asking us to build a structure for the case. So what should we have in mind here? Most importantly, we should start with a structure that is MECE and we should remember to do that by considering all the stakeholders . They are on the one hand the government and affiliated institutions and on the other the population. We might then consider which issues might arise for each shareholder and what the benefits for them would be, as well as the risks. This approach is illustrated in the answer McKinsey provides as well:

More than anything, this type of case shows us how important it is to practise and build different types of structures, and think about MECE ways of segmenting the problem.

7. How Do I prepare for case interviews

In consulting fashion, the overall preparation can be structured into theoretical preparation and practical preparation , with each category then being subdivided into individual prep and prep with a partner .

As a general rule, the level and intensity of the preparation will differ based on your background - naturally if you have a business background (and have been part of a consulting club or something similar) your preparation will be less intensive than if you’re starting from scratch. The way we suggest you go about it is to start with theoretical preparation , which means learning about case interviews, business and basic consulting concepts (you can do this using free resources - such as the ones we provide - or if you want a more through preparation you can consider joining our Case Academy as well).

You can then move on to the practical preparation which should start with doing solo cases and focusing on areas of improvement, and then move on to preparation with a partner , which should be another candidate or - ideally - an ex-consultant.

Let’s go into more details with respect to each type of preparation.

7.1. Solo practice

The two most important areas of focus in sole preparation are:

• Mental math

As we mentioned briefly, the best use of your time is to focus on solving cases. You can start with cases listed on MBB sites since they are clearly stated and have worked solutions as well (e.g. Bain is a good place to start) and then move to more complex cases (our Case Library also offers a range of cases of different complexities). To build your confidence, start out on easier case questions, work through with the solutions, and don't worry about time. As you get better, you can move on to more difficult cases and try to get through them more quickly. You should practice around eight case studies on your own to build your confidence.

Another important area of practice is your mental mathematics as this skill will considerably increase your confidence and is neglected by many applicants - much to their immediate regret in the case interview. Find our mental math tool here or in our course, and practice at least ten minutes per day, from day one until the day before the interview.

7.2. Preparation with a partner

There are aspects of an interview - such as asking clarifying questions - which you cannot do alone and this is why, after you feel comfortable, you should move on to practice with another person. There are two options here:

• Practicing with a peer
• Practicing with an ex-consultant

In theory they can be complementary - especially if you’re peer is also preparing for consulting interviews - and each have advantages and disadvantages. A peer is likely to practice with you for free for longer, however you may end up reinforcing some bad habits or unable to get actionable feedback. A consultant will be able to provide you the latter but having their help for the same number of hours as a peer will come at a higher cost. Let’s look at each option in more detail.

7.2.1. Peer preparation

Once you have worked through eight cases solo, you should be ready to simulate the interview more closely and start working with another person.

Here, many candidates turn to peer practice - that is, doing mock case interviews with friends, classmates or others also applying to consulting. If you’re in university, and especially in business school, there will very likely be a consulting club for you to join and do lots of case practice with. If you don’t have anyone to practice, though, or if you just want to get a bit more volume in with others, our free meeting board lets you find fellow applicants from around the world with whom to practice. We recommend practicing around 10 to 15 ‘live’ cases to really get to a point where you feel comfortable.

7.2.2. Preparation with a consultant

You can do a lot practising by yourself and with peers. However, nothing will bring up your skills so quickly and profoundly as working with a real consultant.

Perhaps think about it like boxing. You can practice drills and work on punch bags all you want, but at some point you need to get into the ring and do some actual sparring if you ever want to be ready to fight.

Practicing with an ex consultant is essentialy a simulation of an interview. Of course, it isn’t possible to secure the time of experienced top-tier consultants for free. However, when considering whether you should invest to boost your chances of success, it is worth considering the difference in your salary over even just a few years between getting into a top-tier firm versus a second-tier one. In the light of thousands in increased annual earnings (easily accumulating into millions over multiple years), it becomes clear that getting expert interview help really is one of the best investments you can make in your own future.

Should you decide to make this step, MyConsultingCoach can help, offering bespoke mentoring programmes , where you are paired with a 5+ year experienced, ex-MBB mentor of your choosing, who will then oversee your whole case interview preparation from start to finish - giving you your best possible chance of landing a job!

7.3. Practice for online interviews

Standard preparation for interview case studies will carry directly over to online cases.

However, if you want to do some more specific prep, you can work through cases solo to a timer and using a calculator and/or Excel (online cases generally allow calculators and second computers to help you, whilst these are banned in live case interviews).

Older PST-style questions also make great prep, but a particularly good simulation is the self-assessment tests included in our Case Academy course . These multiple choice business questions conducted with a strict time limit are great preparation for the current crop of online cases.

7.4. Fit interviews

As we’ve noted, even something billed as a case interview is very likely to contain a fit interview as a subset.

We have an article on fit interviews and also include a full set of lessons on how to answer fit questions properly as a subset of our comprehensive Case Academy course .

Here though, the important thing to convey is that you take preparing for fit questions every bit as seriously as you do case prep.

Since they sound the same as you might encounter when interviewing for other industries, the temptation is to regard these as “just normal interview questions”.

However, consulting firms take your answers to these questions a good deal more seriously than elsewhere.

This isn’t just for fluffy “corporate culture” reasons. The long hours and close teamwork, as well as the client-facing nature of management consulting, mean that your personality and ability to get on with others is going to be a big part of making you a tolerable and effective co-worker.

If you know you’ll have to spend 14+ hour working days with someone you hire and that your annual bonus depends on them not alienating clients, you better believe you’ll pay attention to their character in interview.

There are also hard-nosed financial reasons for the likes of McKinsey, Bain and BCG to drill down so hard on your answers.

In particular, top consultancies have huge issues with staff retention. The average management consultant only stays with these firms for around two years before they have moved on to a new industry.

In some cases, consultants bail out because they can’t keep up with the arduous consulting lifestyle of long hours and endless travel. In many instances, though, departing consultants are lured away by exit opportunities - such as the well trodden paths towards internal strategy roles, private equity or becoming a start-up founder.

Indeed, many individuals will intentionally use a two year stint in consulting as something like an MBA they are getting paid for - giving them accelerated exposure to the business world and letting them pivot into something new.

Consulting firms want to get a decent return on investment for training new recruits. Thus, they want hires who not only intend to stick with consulting longer-term, but also have a temperament that makes this feasible and an overall career trajectory where it just makes sense for them to stay put.

This should hammer home the point that, if you want to get an offer, you need to be fully prepared to answer fit questions - and to do so excellently - any time you have a case interview.

8. Interview day - what to expect, with tips

Of course, all this theory is well and good, but a lot of readers might be concerned about what exactly to expect in real life . It’s perfectly reasonable to want to get as clear a picture as possible here - we all want to know what we are going up against when we face a new challenge!

Indeed, it is important to think about your interview in more holistic terms, rather than just focusing on small aspects of analysis. Getting everything exactly correct is less important than the overall approach you take to reasoning and how you communicate - and candidates often lose sight of this fact.

In this section, then, we’ll run through the case interview experience from start to finish, directing you to resources with more details where appropriate. As a supplement to this, the following video from Bain is excellent. It portrays an abridged version of a case interview, but is very useful as a guide to what to expect - not just from Bain, but from McKinsey, BCG and any other high-level consulting firm.

8.1. Getting started

Though you might be shown through to the office by a staff member, usually your interviewer will come and collect you from a waiting area. Either way, when you first encounter them, you should greet your interviewer with a warm smile and a handshake (unless they do not offer their hand). Be confident without verging into arrogance. You will be asked to take a seat in the interviewer’s office, where the interview can then begin.

8.1.1. First impressions

In reality, your assessment begins before you even sit down at your interviewer’s desk. Whether at a conscious level or not, the impression you make within the first few seconds of meeting your interviewer is likely to significantly inform the final hiring decision (again, whether consciously or not).

Your presentation and how you hold yourself and behave are all important . If this seems strange, consider that, if hired, you will be personally responsible for many clients’ impressions of the firm. These things are part of the job! Much of material on the fit interview is useful here, whilst we also cover first impressions and presentation generally in our article on what to wear to interview .

As we have noted above, your interview might start with a fit segment - that is, with the interviewer asking questions about your experiences, your soft skills, and motivation to want to join consulting generally and that firm in particular. In short, the kinds of things a case study can’t tell them about you. We have a fit interview article and course to get you up to speed here.

8.1.2. Down to business

Following an initial conversation, your interviewer will introduce your case study , providing a prompt for the question you have to answer. You will have a pen and paper in front of you and should (neatly) note down the salient pieces of information (keep this up throughout the interview).

It is crucial here that you don’t delve into analysis or calculations straight away . Case prompts can be tricky and easy to misunderstand, especially when you are under pressure. Rather, ask any questions you need to fully understand the case question and then validate that understanding with the interviewer before you kick off any analysis. Better to eliminate mistakes now than experience that sinking feeling of realising you have gotten the whole thing wrong halfway through your case!

This process is covered in our article on identifying the problem and in greater detail in our Case Academy lesson on that subject.

8.1.3. Analysis

Once you understand the problem, you should take a few seconds to set your thoughts in order and draw up an initial structure for how you want to proceed. You might benefit from utilising one or more of our building blocks here to make a strong start. Present this to your interviewer and get their approval before you get into the nuts and bolts of analysis.

We cover the mechanics of how to structure your problem and lead the analysis in our articles here and here and more thoroughly in the MCC Case Academy . What it is important to convey here, though, is that your case interview is supposed to be a conversation rather than a written exam . Your interviewer takes a role closer to a co-worker than an invigilator and you should be conversing with them throughout.

Indeed, how you communicate with your interviewer and explain your rationale is a crucial element of how you will be assessed. Case questions in general, are not posed to see if you can produce the correct answer, but rather to see how you think . Your interviewer wants to see you approach the case in a structured, rational fashion. The only way they are going to know your thought processes, though, is if you tell them!

To demonstrate this point, here is another excellent video from Bain, where candidates are compared.

Note that multiple different answers to each question are considered acceptable and that Bain is primarily concerned with the thought processes of the candidate’s exhibit .

Another reason why communication is absolutely essential to case interview success is the simple reason that you will not have all the facts you need to complete your analysis at the outset. Rather, you will usually have to ask the interviewer for additional data throughout the case to allow you to proceed .

NB: Don't be let down by your math!

Your ability to quickly and accurately interpret these charts and other figures under pressure is one of the skills that is being assessed. You will also need to make any calculations with the same speed and accuracy (without a calculator!). As such, be sure that you are up to speed on your consulting math .

8.1.4. Recommendation

Finally, you will be asked to present a recommendation. This should be delivered in a brief, top-down "elevator pitch" format , as if you are speaking to a time-pressured CEO. Again here, how you communicate will be just as important as the details of what you say, and you should aim to speak clearly and with confidence.

For more detail on how to give the perfect recommendation, take a look at our articles on the Pyramid Principle and providing recommendations , as well the relevant lesson within MCC Academy .

8.1.5. Wrapping up

After your case is complete, there might be a few more fit questions - including a chance for you to ask some questions of the interviewer . This is your opportunity to make a good parting impression.

We deal with the details in our fit interview resources. However, it is always worth bearing in mind just how many candidates your interviewers are going to see giving similar answers to the same questions in the same office. A pretty obvious pre-requisite to being considered for a job is that your interviewer remembers you in the first place. Whilst you shouldn't do something stupid just to be noticed, asking interesting parting questions is a good way to be remembered.

Now, with the interview wrapped up, it’s time to shake hands, thank the interviewer for their time and leave the room .

You might have other interviews or tests that day or you might be heading home. Either way, if know that you did all you could to prepare, you can leave content in the knowledge that you have the best possible chance of receiving an email with a job offer. This is our mission at MCC - to provide all the resources you need to realise your full potential and land your dream consulting job!

8.2. Remote and one-way interview tips

Zoom case interviews and “one-way” automated fit interviews are becoming more common as selection processes are increasingly remote, with these new formats being accompanied by their own unique challenges.

Obviously you won’t have to worry about lobbies and shaking hands for a video interview. However, a lot remains the same. You still need to do the same prep in terms of getting good at case cracking and expressing your fit answers. The specific considerations around remote interviews are, in effect, around making sure you come across as effectively as you would in person.

8.2.1. Connection

It sounds trivial, but a successful video interview of any kind presupposes a functioning computer with a stable and sufficient internet connection.

Absolutely don’t forget to have your laptop plugged in, as your battery will definitely let you down mid-interview. Similarly, make sure any housemates or family know not to use the microwave, vacuum cleaner or anything else that makes wifi cut out (or makes a lot of noise, obviously)

If you have to connect on a platform you don’t use much (for example, if it’s on Teams and you’re used to Zoom), make sure you have the up to date version of the app in advance, rather than having to wait for an obligatory download and end up late to join. Whilst you’re at it, make sure you’re familiar with the controls etc. At the risk of being made fun of, don’t be afraid to have a practice call with a friend.

8.2.2. Dress

You might get guidance on a slightly more relaxed dress code for a Zoom interview. However, if in doubt, dress as you would for the real thing (see our article here ).

Either way, always remember that presentation is part of what you are being assessed on - the firm needs to know you can be presentable for clients. Taking this stuff seriously also shows respect for your interviewer and their time in interviewing you.

8.2.3. Lighting

An aspect of presentation that you have to devote some thought to for a Zoom interview is your lighting.

Hopefully, you long ago nailed a lighting set-up during the Covid lockdowns. However, make sure to check your lighting in advance with your webcam - bearing in mind what time if day your interview actually is. If your interview is late afternoon, don’t just check in the morning. Make sure you aren’t going to be blinded from light coming in a window behind your screen, or that you end up with the weird shadow stripes from blinds all over your face.

Natural light is always best, but if there won’t be much of that during your interview, you’ll likely want to experiment with moving some lamps around.

8.2.4. Clarity

The actual stories you tell in an automated “one-way” fit interview will be the same as for a live equivalent. If anything, things should be easier, as you can rattle off a practised monologue without an interviewer interrupting you to ask for clarifications.

You can probably also assume that the algorithm assessing your performance is sufficiently capable that it will be observing you at much the same level as a human interviewer. However, it is probably still worth speaking as clearly as possible with these kinds of interviews and paying extra attention to your lighting to ensure that your face is clearly visible.

No doubt the AIs scoring these interviews are improving all the time, but you still want to make their job as easy as possible. Just think about the same things as you would with a live Zoom interview, but more so.

9. How we can help

There are lots of great free resources on this site to get you started with preparation, from all our articles on case solving and consulting skills to our free case library and peer practice meeting board .

To step your preparation up a notch, though, our Case Academy course will give you everything you need to know to solve the most complex of cases - whether those are in live interviews, with chatbots, written tests or any other format.

Whatever kind of case you end up facing, nothing will bring up your skillset faster than the kind of acute, actionable feedback you can get from a mock case interview a real, MBB consultant. Whilst it's possible to get by without this kind of coaching, it does tend to be the biggest single difference maker for successful candidates.

You can find out more on our coaching page:

Explore Coaching

Of course, for those looking for a truly comprehensive programme, with a 5+ year experienced MBB consultant overseeing their entire prep personally, from networking and applications right through to your offer, we have our mentoring programmes.

You can read more here:

Comprehensive Mentoring

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Consulting Case Interview Questions

Cracking the Case Interview: Your Guide to Sample Questions and Answers

Matthew started his finance career working as an investment banking analyst for Falcon Capital Partners, a healthcare IT boutique, before moving on to  work for Raymond James  Financial, Inc in their specialty finance coverage group in Atlanta. Matthew then started in a role in corporate development at Babcock & Wilcox before moving to a corporate development associate role with Caesars Entertainment Corporation where he currently is. Matthew provides support to Caesars'  M&A  processes including evaluating inbound teasers/ CIMs  to identify possible acquisition targets, due diligence, constructing  financial models , corporate valuation, and interacting with potential acquisition targets.

Matthew has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in German from University of North Carolina.

Austin has been working with Ernst & Young for over four years, starting as a senior consultant before being promoted to a manager. At EY, he focuses on strategy, process and operations improvement, and business transformation consulting services focused on health provider, payer, and public health organizations. Austin specializes in the health industry but supports clients across multiple industries.

Austin has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration in Strategy, Management and Organization, both from the University of Michigan.

Consulting Case Interview Example

• How Are Management Consulting Case Interviews Graded?

Full WSO Consulting Case Interview Prep Guide & Additional Resources

Consulting is among the most sought profession by business management graduates. The top three consulting firms are abbreviated as MBB ( McKinsey , Boston Consulting Group , and Bain ), also known as the Big Three .

Since most consultancy firms work on various kinds of problems, they look to hire people with the best critical thinking abilities who can tackle challenges faced by their clients by applying well-known frameworks for problem-solving.

Hence, most consulting firms rely on case studies as a crucial part of the interview process. Nailing these case studies can be the difference between landing a role as a consultant or leaving empty-handed from an interview.

However, most case studies can be solved with existing frameworks like Porter’s five forces, SWOT analysis , and the 4 Ps. Learning these frameworks and walking through them during the interview helps differentiate yourself as a star candidate.

We strongly believe it’s a great place to start your preparation before investing in our more comprehensive Consulting Case Interview Course, which features more than 2,000 questions.

Consulting Case Interview Tips

• Prepare to be assessed on your thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Familiarize yourself with frameworks like Porter's five forces and SWOT analysis.
• Note essential information and critical relationships in the case study.
• Use proven approaches and frameworks to analyze and answer questions during the interview.
• Candidates are evaluated on demeanor, structure, communication, math proficiency, and creativity.

Everything You Need To Break into the Top Consulting Firms

Land at an Elite Consulting Firm with the Most Comprehensive Case Interview Prep Course in the World.

Every case study interview starts by providing some background information on the case, which helps you understand the problem you are tasked with finding a solution to. It is essential to separate the necessary information from the useless ones, as this skill is highly sought after. 

Also, make sure to note down all the critical relationships between the date provided. For example, suppose the case first mentions that profits have been declining, and later mentions something about reducing marketing costs.

In that case, it’s a good idea to jot down that it might be a factor in lowering profits (reduction in marketing costs means lower revenue, which in turn means lower yields).

For this sample case, we will use the example of Cali Cable and present it just like how an interviewer would.

Sample Case Prep: Cali Cable

Cali Cable is a small business that operates in northern California. Their core business is installing cable infrastructure in residential neighborhoods so that the homes have access to cable television. Cali Cable has manufactured its own cable since it has been in existence. 

However, the factory is out of date and must be shut down. The CEO does not want to open a new factory because it will be expensive, costing as much as $15 per foot of cable. Therefore, he is considering outsourcing cable manufacturing from either a local supplier, an Asian supplier, or an Eastern European supplier. 

He is experiencing problems with the local supplier, so he asked the COO to find the most cost-effective way to find a reliable cable supplier elsewhere. You are assigned to work with the COO to find the best course of action.

Sample Consulting Interview Questions and Frameworks

Based on the case study above, the interviewer will proceed to ask you questions that test your critical thinking and analysis skills. Hence, it is very important to properly understand the case first, ask the right questions, and follow a proven approach.

1. How should the COO approach outsourcing?

Framework:  A 2x2 for an outsourcing case is a valuable framework.

• For the x-axis competitiveness, the candidate should consider Cali Cable’s effectiveness in terms of costs. 
• For strategic importance, the candidate should think about how the cable is important to the company’s overall goals. For example, how is the quality of an outsourced line going to threaten customer satisfaction?

The candidate should also consider the costs and risks of outsourcing. The tree below could be useful.

2. The COO approaches you. She has collected some data and wants you to analyze it and prepare a PowerPoint presentation slide for a meeting with the CEO. The template for the slide is as follows.

The COO has found that the Asian supplier will charge $7 per foot of cable with a fixed payment of $600,000 per year. The Eastern European supplier will charge $6 per foot of cable and $800,000 in fixed costs. Complete the blank slide for the COO plotting the total cost per foot for the two different options for 100K, 200K, 300K, and 400K feet.

Answer:  The candidate is instructed to create her own slide on her scratch paper.

You should immediately recognize the economies of scale resulting from the fixed  cost structure of the two outsourcing options. If not, try to explain the graph. All three plants cost $10 per foot at 200,000 units, but the Asian and Eastern European plants enjoy the benefits of scale beyond this point.

The Eastern European plant becomes the clear cost leader past 200,000 units.

3. The COO thinks she has a good feel for demand based on historical data. She calls you and says, ‘for the past few years, Cali Cable has used about 50 miles of cable per year, so we’ll order 50 miles of cable from our new supplier for next year.’ What should you tell her?

Considering the standard deviation and service level, how much cable should be ordered annually how much will cali cable save compared to the local supplier if it goes with the eastern european option.

Answer:  Because the COO wants to satisfy demand 98% of the time, the 400,000 feet of cable is the relevant footage on the x-axis of the cost graph. With the Eastern European plant costing $8 per foot for 400,000 units, Cali Cable will save $800,000 per year ($2 times 400K feet).

4. What else should the COO consider to reduce costs?

Answer:  Consider at least four different options. We have highlighted the four below:

• Warehouse: store any excess supply in a warehouse and adjust order levels for the next year. Inventory carrying costs should be compared to the costs of mismatching supply and demand. 
• Increase the number of orders: annual orders result in costs from stock-outs or excess supply. If Cali Cable can order throughout the year, it can better match supply and demand. 
• Shorten lead times: this could also fall under increasing the number of orders. Shorter lead times from the supplier to Cali Cable will allow them to postpone ordering and have more information about demand forecasts. 
• Explore other options and suppliers: for example, when demand exceeds supply, locate excess capacity at other cable operations or use the local supplier at $10 per foot when the cable is needed. This allows Cali Cable to order less.
• Better forecasting: find a more accurate way to forecast demand or have customers commit to quantities in advance.

5. What are some of the risks to outsourcing to Asia or Eastern Europe?

Answer:  There are many different risks to consider. We have named a few below under the relevant bucket.

• Product Risks: Will the cable be compatible with American cables and televisions? Are there any risks to the cable becoming obsolete? With the growth in high definition, 3D, and internet television, the supplier needs to be able to stay up to date with technology. 
• Company Risks: Is the Eastern European or Asia supplier a sustainable company that will be able to deliver into the future? If Cali Cable sources exclusively from a new supplier, their fortunes are tied.
• Operational Risks: Will the new supplier be successfully integrated with the supply chain logistics at Cali Cable? Are there any risks to shipping cable from Europe or Asia? Will it be shipped via boat or plane? What are the lead times? How reliable is this company in delivering on time? 
• Customer Service Risks: Will the quality of the cable meet the customer’s expectations? What are the risks to over or under-ordering cable?

6. Using the PowerPoint slide you prepared with the COO, present your recommendation to the CEO.

Recommendation:  The CEO wants the most cost-effective supplier, but the candidate should also mention the reasons behind the decision and the risks involved. A possible recommendation: 

“For our cost structure to remain competitive, it looks like outsourcing is the best option. As long as the outsourced cable meets our quality standards, it appears to align with our corporate strategy . Cali Cable should consider outsourcing its cable from Eastern Europe because it is a low-cost option. 

Show the PowerPoint slide. Due to the fixed cost structure, Cali Cable will enjoy economies of scale with both offshore options, but Eastern Europe appears to be the most attractive. Cali Cable will save $800,000 per year compared to the local supplier and $200,000 per year compared to the Asian supplier. 

Before proceeding, I’d like to find out more about the risks associated with the Eastern European supplier, such as their reliability, quality, ordering processes, and ability to integrate with our supply chain.”

This free guide covers one whole case study question from start to finish and will drastically improve your chances of securing an offer with your dream job.  You can find more tips, tricks, and examples in the free Case Interview Guide created by our friends at Management Consulted.  

How are management consulting case interviews graded?

Interviewers usually grade the candidates over a variety of qualities using a scale ranging from 1 to 10, with one meaning poor and ten meaning star.

We look into the various qualities that are evaluated, as well as questions used to measure them. These questions should give you a good feel for what you need to focus on to ace these consulting interview cases.

• Did she maintain eye contact?
• Did she fidget during the interview?
• Did she appear nervous?
• Did she smile and appear relaxed?
• Was the framework clearly presented on the page?
• Was the math organized and easy to follow on the page?
• Did she keep track of key findings?
• Did the framework provide a road map to solve the case?
• Did she “bucket” or categorize any lists or ideas?
• Did she follow the cadence of clarify, structure, solve, and recommend?

Communication

• Did she speak clearly throughout the interview?
• Was it easy or difficult to follow her ideas?
• Did she try to work with you as a partner in solving the case?

Math Proficiency

• Did she correctly complete all math problems?
• Did she use appropriate assumptions or clarify any ambiguity?
• Did she think out loud so that you could follow the calculations?
• Did she think outside the box?
• Did she mention any current events or recent trends affecting the industry?

Recommendation

• Did she answer the question?
• Was the conclusion clear, confident, and to the point?
• Did she justify the conclusion with the key findings?
• Did she include “next steps” as though she would finish the case?

The case study covered in this free guide was obtained directly from WSO’s very own Consulting Case Interview Guide, which features:

• 2,037 questions across 209 consulting firms
• 11 challenging cases authored by McKinsey Associate
• Five critical frameworks for case interview success

Think about it - if this page alone can set you miles ahead of the competition, imagine what our complete course can do for you.

The WSO Case Interview Course will guide you through each step of the interview process and ensure you’re in the strongest position to land the job at a top-tier consulting firm. Check it out below!

Free Resources

To learn more about interviews and the questions asked, please check out the additional interview resources below:

• Accounting Interview Questions and Answers
• Finance Interview Questions and Answers
• Hedge Funds Interview Questions and Answers
• Investment Banking Interview Questions and Answers
• Private Equity Interview Questions and Answers

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Case Interview 2024 – Guide for Your Consulting Case Interview

A case interview is a type of job interview in which the candidate must analyze and solve a problematic business scenario (“ case study ”). It is used to simulate the situation on-the-job and to find out if the respective candidate meets the necessary analytical and communications skills required for the profession. Case interviews are commonly and globally used during the selection processes at  management consulting firms such as McKinsey , Boston Consulting Group (BCG), or Bain & Company . It is the most relevant part of the process for consulting jobs, and they are usually based on projects that the hiring firm has delivered for a client. It is an exercise that requires a logical approach to finding the problem and an appropriate solution.

• 1. Case Interview Questions and Answers
• 1.1 What Is a Case Interview?
• 1.2 Who Uses Case Interviews and Why?
• 1.3 What Are the Skills Required in a Case Interview?
• 1.4 What Are the Differences Between …?
• 2. Case Interview Examples from Top Consulting Firms
• 3. Case Interview Frameworks
• 3.1 The Best Frameworks for Solving Cases
• 3.2 How to Develop Your Own Framework in 4 Steps
• 4. Case Interview Preparation: 9 Tips for Successful Case Preparation
• 5. How to Solve a Case Study in 10 Steps
• 6. Case Interview Secrets: 13 Final Tips for Your Actual Case Interview 
• 7. PrepLounge: The Key to Your Success 
• 8. Get Started Right Away and Practice Your First Cases

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A  case interview  is part of the job interview process in which you as the candidate have to analyze and solve a problematic business scenario while interacting with the interviewer. The case study is often based on a problem the interviewer has worked on in real life. This part of the interview is intended to be more of a dialogue. You will need to be proactive and ask questions when attempting to close in on the correct conclusion. Oftentimes, the consultant will attempt to guide you in the correct direction by asking questions himself.

An example question might be :​ The CEO of Deutsche Bank has become increasingly concerned about their declining profitability over the last 36 months and has asked you to determine the factors causing the decline as well as recommend a strategy to reverse this trend.

During the entire application process, you will partake in  up to six case interviews  in two rounds or more. This is dependent on the position you are applying for. Most case interviews have the same underlying structure. An individual case interview may take up to an hour and usually consists of four parts:

Case interviews have always been a part of management consulting interviews. Nowadays, also marketing, strategy, operations, or retail positions tend to use similar formats because they are a great tool to probe the quantitative and qualitative skills of an applicant . It allows interviewers to get a deeper insight into how you present yourself as a candidate and apply the limited amount of information given to you.

The reason for the prevalence of the case interview format in management consulting is that the topics and themes handled in most cases reflect conditions close to the reality of the day-to-day activities of a consultancy. It requires the applicant to  ask the right questions , apply  structured frameworks,  and think outside the box . As a consultant, you will spend a lot of time client-facing, and so soft skills are just as important as hard skills to the interviewer. The case interview allows hiring companies to ask the question "Would I be happy to put this candidate in front of a client?".​

Due to the scenario set up in a case interview, it is also a test of general business acumen. Many consultant projects will be in industries where the consultants aren't experts, especially junior consultants. This is normal, but to be effective as a consultant business acumen is an important foundation for consultants to maintain effective strategy recommendations. Companies pay consultants for their minds rather than their industry expertise.

A case interview has no “correct” or “standard” answer. There are often many solutions to a single case and in the end, what counts is your train of thought and how you got to your solution. The interviewer will evaluate you across five main areas:

1)  Problem-Solving Skills 

The interviewer will analyze your ability to identify problems , isolate causes, and prioritize issues. During a case interview, you will be presented with a wide range of relevant and irrelevant data pieces. You must know how to use this data to make your recommendations and you have to prove that you are able to construct a logical argumentation without rushing to conclusions based on insufficient evidence.

2)  Creativity and Business Sense Skills 

As a consulting candidate, you should know the basic business concepts as well as show a certain amount of business sense and creativity. If the interviewer asks you to find innovative ideas to increase the profitability of a hotel chain, you will have to come up with a range of ideas that make business sense. You are not expected to have deep knowledge of the hospitality industry, but to be able to ask relevant and insightful questions on the aspects important for you to solve the client’s issue at hand.

3)  Structure 

Maintaining a structure means that you solve the question with a clear step-by-step approach that you communicate actively with your interviewer. A good structure is the most important part of a case interview, as it is the underlying base of your whole approach and argumentation. It is also the main reason why candidates fail their case interviews. A common mistake that candidates make is that they try to apply standardized frameworks to any case they are given. Instead, you should solve each case by creating a framework specifically tailored to its needs – as you would do as a consultant on the job. Practice your structure with our Structuring Drills .

4)  Math Skills 

As a consultant, part of your job is number-crunching and interpreting data. Therefore, it is important that you have a good feeling for numbers and have great mental math skills. You should be able to perform simple calculations in your sleep. You can practice your math skills with our Mental Math Tool .

5)  Communication Skills 

In times of digitalization, soft skills become more and more important for management consultants. On the job, you will be in contact with high-level CEOs, clients, partners, and colleagues. Strong communication is crucial for you to get your work done efficiently. Thus, your interviewer will pay close attention to the way you communicate and present yourself during your conversation. Always be professional, answer concisely, and communicate the key message first (see Pyramid Principle ).

First and Second-Round Interviews 

While the format of the first and second-round interviews stays the same, the seniority level of the interviewer differs . The person interviewing you in the first round is usually more junior, having up to four years of consulting experience (Associates or Engagement Managers). The second round is led by Partners who have more than ten years of experience and tend to drill you to understand how you cope with challenges. Therefore, second rounds are perceived as more difficult by candidates. Since partners have a stronger voice when discussing an applicant, your performance during the second round of case interviews carries also more weight. For more information on the different positions, please read McKinsey Hierarchy: The Different Position Levels .

Candidate- and Interviewer-Led Case Interviews

In candidate-led cases, the interviewer expects the candidate to lead him/her through the case. As a candidate, you can do so by asking relevant questions, and by developing and testing your hypotheses. Candidate-led cases are the most common  types of cases . You will encounter them at the majority of the big consulting firms such as BCG, Bain, and occasionally at McKinsey.

Interviewer-led cases are most frequently used at McKinsey. As the title suggests, the interviewer’s guidance through the case interview is firmer.

You can find more information on the two different interview styles in our BootCamp article: Interviewer-Led vs. Candidate-Led .

In the following, you can find some examples of initial case interview questions :

Bain Case: Old Winery You inherit an old winery, the Old Winery, from your grandfather. Since you have little knowledge about wine cultivation, you don't want to run the winery operationally, but you find the idea of owning a winery exciting. However, your plan is to breathe new life into the winery. Read the entire case .

Deloitte Case: Footloose Duraflex is a German shoe manufacturer with an annual turnover of approximately €1 billion. Your largest sales market has always been the boot market. In this market, you compete with three other main competitors. Management is asking you for advice. Read the entire case .

Roland Berger Case: Onlinestar Onlinestar, an online retailer specializing in furniture and garden products (core business), has experienced significant growth in recent years due to an expansion of its product portfolio. The board of Onlinestar is asking you for an analysis of the reasons for the negative results, as well as recommendations derived from it. Read the entire case .

Practice More Cases Now!

You can find 200​ case studies, including cases from real companies and our consulting coaches, in our Case Library !

Case interview frameworks are the perfect tool to structure your thoughts during the interview. They help you break down a problem into its components so that you can systematically and methodically navigate through the case and the business problem. This approach will convince your interviewer that you can apply your skills from the case interview to the job as well.

A framework can help you solve a business problem in a case interview in a structured and organized manner. To determine which framework is most suitable for the given case, you should be familiar with the most common case types. Our coaches Guennael and Vlad explain their approaches:

What does a framework really need to accomplish? Essentially, three things:

First , it must be MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive); second , it must help you systematically and methodically approach the case so that you not only find the best answer; third , it must convince your interlocutor that your success is repeatable and that you will solve this case and the next and the one after that.

When preparing for my BCG interview, I ultimately relied on just two framework concepts, which I then adapted to the respective case: First, a version of the profitability case (Profit = Revenue - Costs and Revenue = Price x Quantity) ; second, a basic version of: Product, Price, Customer, Competition, Company).

Are these two framework models optimal in every case? No, they are not. Did they serve their purpose? I used them in more than 10 practice cases with former BCG employees as well as in my 5 BCG cases... and I succeeded, that's for sure :) I would even argue that every case can be solved using one or both of these methods . Learn them, keep them in your pocket, and be ready to use them. If you find something better, great! But I'd prefer you start with an "okay" framework and focus on solving the problem , rather than spending the first 30 seconds of the case trying to find the "perfect" framework, failing, and feeling forced to think on the fly at the beginning of the solution process.

There is no universally applicable structure . You should have some patterns in mind for specific types of cases, but you should adjust them depending on the case:

Additional details of the case

Below you'll find a list of the most common case types and some general recommendations for structuring :

Market Sizing - Structuring from the supply or demand side. Structuring based on a formula or a issue tree .

Profitability - Basic profitability framework. Consider different revenue streams and the product mix.

Market Context (market entry, new product, acquisition, etc.). Always start with the big picture "market". Conclude with a specific strategy to achieve the case objective (e.g., "market entry strategy" - for market entry. "Exit strategy" for the PE case. "Go-to-market strategy" for a new product). Structure it as if you were defining the workflows for the real project.

Operational Mathematical Problem (e.g., Should we increase the speed of an elevator or simply buy a second one? How should we reduce queues? Etc.) - Structuring as a process/value chain, with inputs, processes, and outputs.

Cost Reduction - here are some recommendations for structuring:

Structuring:

How do the costs break down and what are the largest costs?

Benchmarking the largest costs to identify improvement potential

Process improvements to achieve the benchmarks

Costs and benefits of the proposed initiatives

The key concepts you must learn:

Internal/external benchmarking

Core processes (usually optimized) and supporting processes (usually trimmed)

Mathematical structures (frequency of operations * time per operation)

Other useful structures (e.g., People - Process - Technology)

Evaluation - Pure financial structure with cash flows, growth rate, WACC / Hurdle Rate, etc.

Synergies - Revenue synergies (price, quantity, mix) and cost synergies (value chain).

Social/economic cases (e.g., How can the quality of life in the city be improved? How can museum revenue be increased?) - significant variability.

Practice 3-5 social cases before the interview. Additionally, there are s everal useful framework concepts that you can apply in the middle of the case to find the cause of a problem. For example:

People - Processes - Technologies

Capacity - Utilization - Production rate

Product - Distribution - Marketing - Price

Value-based pricing - competition-based pricing - cost-based pricing

You will learn these frameworks while solving cases. It is useful to have a set of them in mind to quickly identify the root cause .

To be able to address specific questions in case interviews, it is important to develop your own frameworks . Our expert Benjamin has valuable tips on this.

(Almost) Never use a standard framework from the books . In strategy consulting, the goal is to assist clients facing unique problems with a customized solution. It's unlikely that you can force your approach into a standard framework.

Put yourself in your client's shoes and show empathy for the issues. This way, it becomes much easier for you to understand what the key issues are that you need to consider when formulating a recommendation, and you can ensure that you don't forget anything. I always ask myself, "What would I do if this were my company and my own problem? What do I need to know/understand to make a decision?"

Ensure that every topic you want to address is relevant to the final recommendation. A simple check is to ask yourself, "If I spend time on this specific topic and get some answers to my questions (e.g., market size, competition, etc.), will this provide useful elements for the final recommendation given my client's issues ?" If the answer is no, then you should skip this subtopic.

Practice a lot! The above tips come from my own experience with building MECE structures , but keep in mind that it takes a lot of practice to achieve satisfactory performance here.

1. Learn the Theory By reading this article, you've already taken the first step to understanding what case interviews are all about. Well done! You can now take it a step further by learning the theory you need to solve the cases. In general, you should learn how to :

Identify your case type (e.g., market sizing , market entry , profitability , growth )

Structure your thoughts (e.g., issue tree , MECE , pyramid principle )

Use business analysis tools (e.g., ABC analysis , break-even analysis , benchmarking )

Define common business terms (e.g., NPV , CAGR , fixed and variable costs )

In our Case Interview Basics, you'll find all the necessary fundamentals.

2. Develop Your Business Intuition Step by Step

Since you need to have a good business sense to successfully complete your case interview, you should invest some time beforehand to gradually build up your business intuition. The earlier you start, the easier it will become. Make it a habit to regularly read business publications and magazines. You can read new releases from McKinsey, Bain, and BCG, or find other sources that appeal to you. Try to acquire a basic understanding of economics, strategy, and industries, such as retail, airlines, telecommunications, banking, natural resources, and technology.

3. Update Your Math Skills

For all case interviews, you must calculate without a calculator. Therefore, refreshing your mental math skills should be a regular part of your daily preparation plan. Practice until you feel one hundred percent comfortable with the basic skills of addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and growth rate calculations in your head. Read our article on Fast Math and use our mental math tool to train your performance. When confronted with a math problem in your case interview, this will significantly reduce the pressure.

Knowing shortcuts for a variety of calculations can simplify mathematical problems. For example, break down complex mathematical problems into several small operations:

97 x 53 = (100 - 3) x (50 + 3) = 5000 + 300 - 150 - 9 = 5141

4. Practice Makes Perfect

Take a look at our extensive case library , which prepares you for all possible case types. Our case library includes cases that have been used in past case interviews. Solving cases on your own can give you a first sense of what to expect in the case interview. However, the only way to improve your skills to successfully pass the interview is to put yourself in a case interview situation. Find candidates to practice with and practice regularly. The more feedback you can get, the better. This will help you improve.

PrepLounge offers the world's largest case interview community. Simply schedule or accept a practice interview with other candidates on our meeting board .

Here's how it works:

Schedule: Once you and your case partner confirm the practice interview on the meeting board, the meeting is set and will be visible on your dashboard.

Communication: We recommend contacting your case partner directly to discuss communication methods and case preferences during the interview.

Interview: During the back-to-back meeting, you and your case partner take turns playing the roles of both interviewer and interviewee. Don't neglect the part of the session where you play the role of the interviewer. This allows you to identify important points and adjust your approach accordingly.

Case: By default, two PrepLounge cases are randomly selected. However, you can exchange them and choose one of our over 180 cases or use your own case.

Feedback: This is the most important part of your practice interview as it helps improve your case performance. Please provide your interview partner with constructive feedback, just as you would expect from them.

5. Seek Support from Coaches

To make your case interview preparation as effective as possible, we also recommend investing in coaching sessions with experienced top consultants. Our experience shows that this investment pays off, as it significantly increases your chances of receiving an offer for your dream job (by four times, to be exact). Our coachesknow exactly what interviewers want and can work with you on every aspect of your case performance, whether it's structuring, personal suitability, confidence, or communication. Furthermore, they can provide you with valuable networking tips and help you get a referral.

We provide you with a transparent list of all case interview coaches , including their professional and educational background, top skills, individual approaches, ratings, and recommendation rates. This way, you can individually select the perfect expert for your coaching sessions . Additionally, you can benefit from CoachingPlus , which includes a premium membership and a generous discount (compared to individual coaching sessions).

6. Learn and Track Your Progress

You can do as many cases as you want. If you don't learn from them, you won't improve your case performance. That's why you should do the following: At the end of each case you complete, whether on your own, with a case partner, or with an expert, write down in your own words what mistakes you made and what you learned. Repeat the case after a few days and apply what you've learned to ensure you're making progress. Tracking your progress motivates you and ensures you don't repeat the same mistakes.

7. Don't Forget the Personal Fit

No matter how well you master the case, if you don't personally fit into the company, you won't get the job offer. Ultimately, consulting is a "people's business" that involves teamwork and a lot of time with your colleagues. To master the part of the interview that focuses on personal suitability, it's important to understand what an interviewer is looking for in a candidate to decide if they fit into the company personally. Typically, the interviewer has three primary questions in mind.

Next, you should learn how to convey to your interviewer that you fit what they're looking for. Practice your answers to the personal fit with other candidates or experts:

Why consulting?

Why company X?

Why should we hire you?

Tell me about yourself!

Give me an example of when you led a group to achieve a difficult goal!

Find more frequently asked questions in stress question mode.

8. Train Confidence

The more you practice, the more confident you will feel. However, feeling confident isn't the same as appearing confident. Sometimes you can come across as insecure without realizing it. This can be due to small habits in your communication style. Therefore, ask your PrepLounge case partner or expert to consider your verbal and non-verbal communication and provide feedback on your confidence or insecurity . Focus on the following aspects during practice:

• The tone of your voice. A monotone voice or speaking too quickly gives an impression of insecurity and poor communication style. To avoid this, it's helpful to listen to podcasts of great speakers for 30-60 minutes a day. After a few days, you'll start speaking in a similar manner as you adopt their communication style.
• Smile. A smile can be a powerful way to show that you're enjoying the conversation and not afraid. You can also force a smile (naturally, not too much) if you get feedback that you appear too serious.
• Eye contact. You don't need to continuously stare into the interviewer's eyes during the conversation, but you shouldn't look away when they ask you something.
• Ability to break the ice. Confident people aren't afraid to engage in small talk with interviewers. Silence creates less connection and can be seen as a sign of lack of confidence.
• Posture. You should try to sit upright most of the time on your chair. Leaning too much towards your interviewer can be interpreted as lack of confidence.

9. Take Breaks

Overall, based on our experience with other case partners, you should prepare for an average of 50 hours over a period of up to 6 weeks and practice daily. This can be exhausting, and we know that many candidates struggle with motivation and concentration, especially after an intense case preparation period. This is usually because they forget to incorporate regular breaks into their preparation plan. Professional athletes, for example, always take time to rest and allow their muscles to regenerate. You should treat your brain muscles the same way. A good strategy is to develop an evening and morning routine that allows you to relax and increase your energy level for the preparation period during the day. Here are some examples of what you can do:

15-20 minutes of exercise in the evening or morning

A cold shower in the morning

Meditation or journal writing

Define three important things for the next day and allocate time for all activities, prioritizing the most important ones first

No social media for an hour after waking up and before going to bed

Get enough sleep (at least 7 hours)

Take breaks between each case or intensive case practice and do something completely different (e.g., workout, play video games)

Step 1: Listen actively and take notes. Write down every piece of information, especially numerical data .

Step 2: Restate the question. Pause, paraphrase, and make sure you understand the problem statement by confirming with the interviewer.

Step 3: Clarify the objectives and identify the problem. Ask specific questions and double-check on objectives. Make sure you completely understand the problem.

Step 4: Write out your structure. Ask your interviewer for a minute to prepare your structure and organize your notes. Identify your case type and use an issue tree to customize your structure. The branches of your issue tree should be MECE.

Step 5: State your hypothesis. Now that you have set up the issue tree, your task is to test each branch to see if it is the root cause of the problem. Where to begin? A hypothesis based on an educated guess helps here.  (e.g. "Since you have mentioned that revenues are more or less flat, my hypothesis is that the problem is mostly driven by the cost side of the business. If it is okay with you, I will start by […]")

Step 6: Think out loud. Sharing your thoughts allows the interviewer to interact. Refine or rebuild your hypothesis as you find out more.

Step 7: Gather more data in order to test your hypothesis. Proactively ask for relevant data and always segment it (e.g. using the ABC analysis ). Try to evaluate whether trends have been company-specific or industry-wide.

Step 8: Dig deeper while staying structured (MECE!) throughout the case. Always refer to the structure you have set up at the beginning of the case, but be flexible as the case evolves. If you conclude that your hypothesis is false, eliminate that branch and go to the next one. Summarize findings when switching major branches. If your test confirms your hypothesis, go deeper into that branch, and drill down to the lower levels until you identify all proven root-causes.

Step 9: Choose a recommendation and use the Pyramid Principle to structure your conclusion. Ask for a minute to gather your thoughts and then state your recommendation. You need to deliver a one minute, top-down, concise, structured, clear, and fact-based summary of your findings.

Step 10: Stand by your conclusion. Your interviewer will likely challenge your recommendation (either to see if you can handle pressure or to assess if you really believe in what you are saying).

1. Focus on the task at hand 

Don’t think too much about the approach your interviewer is taking. It should not matter much if the conversation is interviewer- or candidate-led. If you go into your interview with a profound understanding of how to handle even a difficult case, the format of the interview should not be an issue. Keep a cool head and structure your thoughts.

2. Ask the right questions 

At the beginning of the case, your interviewer will present you with the situation of the client. Don’t rush into the analysis without developing a deep understanding of the problem first. Ask your interviewer questions to clarify the case. This is expected behavior that also takes place later with the client. Make sure you understand what the  business model  and your  objective  in the respective case are (regarding both money and the timeline). If there are any other possible limitations you are unsure about, ask your interviewer in a concise way. Asking unnecessary questions will raise doubts about your ability to work efficiently under pressure.

3. Buy time with repetitions 

A common trick consultants use is the  repeating of facts or overall goals . By doing this, you are showing a fundamental comprehension of the case and are emitting an aura of control, gradually heading towards a solution. This technique can give you more time to think. Articulating the facts of the case can also be a source of clarity and allow you to form solutions more quickly.

4. Only form a hypothesis with sufficient information 

Do not state a hypothesis at the beginning, a stage in which you may still have incomplete information. Get a good sense of the case’s environment and ask sensible follow-up questions . Only then frame a structure and formulate a hypothesis.

5. Utilize data for your analysis 

Taking wild guesses is a death sentence for your case interview. Make sure your claims are backed up by the facts, and remain calm when presented with new information. Consultancies will closely observe how you  make use of new data and incorporate it into your hypothesis .

6. Take clear notes 

Taking  structured notes  is a highly underrated skill when dealing with a case. Making sure your notes are coherent and clear will make your thoughts easy to navigate and ensure you do not lose your footing during the interview.

• Place your sheet horizontally to maximize your space, and jot down the case’s  key question on the left side of the page. This way you will never lose sight of the main objective . The remaining portion will be dedicated to the issue tree, with your hypothesis included above the issue tree.
• Make sure that you highlight key pieces of information that add substance to your hypothesis.
• When it comes to calculations , use a separate page, but practice having it organized in case you need to go back through your assumptions or calculations.
• Try to limit the number of pages you use to a  maximum of three sheets . Otherwise, you will stress yourself out while trying to find what you are looking for.

7. Structure is key 

The most important aspect of a case interview is having a good structure. You can structure your case by following these four steps:

• Craft an issue tree as the overall foundation for your structure. This is a customizable framework used to analyze the root causes of problems in a case. It helps you to break a complex problem down into its components.
• Make sure that your issue tree is MECE to avoid inefficient dependencies between branches that will slow down your analysis. MECE is a way of segmenting information into sub-elements that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. 
• Prioritize and concentrate on high impact issues of your issue tree that will create value for your client. Always make sure you explain the reasons behind your choices to the interviewer.
• Use the Pyramid Principle to structure your conclusion , a three-step structure to present your synthesis in an effective and convincing manner. First, state the recommendation (What?). Second, provide three reasons supported by data (Why?). Third, provide information on how to implement the recommendation (How?). 

To practice your structure, you can use our Structuring Drills.

8. Don't force-fit frameworks

Standard frameworks can be a source of inspiration, but should never be force-fitted to a case. They are very stiff and do not allow room for customization . If you use pre-defined frameworks, you run the risk of missing important elements of the specific problem you are trying to solve. A consultant would not just force-fit frameworks to their specific client’s problem, so you should not do this in your case interview, either. Each case is unique and requires an individually customized framework that is MECE as well as adapted to the problem you are trying to solve, the company, and the industry.

9. Don’t panic if you get stuck 

If you ever get stuck, don’t freak out – it happens. What counts is how you deal with the situation. Here is what you can do:

• Take a deep breath  or a sip of water if you have a glass of water nearby.
• Take a moment to grasp the big picture , to recap what you have learned so far and what you still need to find out to address the main question at hand.
• Outline how these sub-questions can be answered , and what kind of data or information you will need to do that.
• Double-check whether data or information provided by the interviewer at an earlier stage is now getting new relevance.
• Think out loud and take the interviewer along with your thinking process. If you are puzzled by some obvious contradiction, actively discuss this with your interviewer. Oftentimes, an interviewer will wait for you to explicitly verbalize your confusion before gently guiding you.

10. Sometimes there is no clear answer 

Oftentimes, a case interview has no “correct” or “standard” answer. The case may encompass you  exploring the issues and walking down several paths . There are often many solutions to a single case that may differ from the interviewer’s expectations. In the end, what counts is your  train of thought and how you got to your solution . You are not expected to know everything about business, but demonstrate a logical judgment and a good approach to solve problems.

Nevertheless, you should always give a clear recommendation at the end of the interview, when the interviewer will ask for your conclusion. The trick is to use supporting arguments based on what you have learned during the analysis, to point out limitations, and to also highlight additional areas to explore to confirm that your current understanding is the right one.

11. Engage the interviewer 

The interview should be a dialogue, so make sure to engage the interviewer and demonstrate not only your business judgment, but also your communication and people skills . This gives the first insight into how you might interact with future clients and colleagues. How can you do that?

• Explain. Share your thought process with the interviewer, and always let them know what your next steps are.
• Listen. During your case interview, the interviewer will usually give you hints and steer you in a direction. Notice that! If they ask a specific question, e.g. “Name three points about…”, answering in two or five points will mean that you didn’t pay attention.
• Ask questions. Create a discussion, initiate small talk, and use your chance to make a positive connection with the interviewer, especially at the end of every interview when you get to ask final questions. Find a point in common and try to stand out. Here is a list of the best questions to ask at the end of an interview .  

12. Be confident 

You don’t necessarily need to be extroverted to be a top management consultant, but you need to be confident. Consulting is a people job as much as it is an analytical job. It is important for the client to feel that you know what you are doing. Thus, this is something the interviewer will take into consideration. Here are five things you can do during the interview to come across as more confident:

• Try to enjoy the interview by focusing on the challenge, the satisfaction it brings you when you solve the case, and the joy of sharing your life experiences with someone else. If you have fun, chances are high that the interviewer has fun, as well.
• Find your own style and don’t try to pretend to be someone that you are not. It is fine if you are not the most outgoing person. Just be genuine!
• Sit up straight , but don’t be too stiff. Push your back against the back of the seat and don’t just sit on the edge of the chair.
• Make eye contact , but don’t stare, either.
• Speak in a clear , calm, and unrushed manner. Don't mumble or whisper, but equally don't shout. Think before you speak!

13. When in doubt, reschedule 

If you’re not feeling confident about your chances, don’t hesitate to reschedule. If you take this course of action, take a few things into consideration. Make sure to suggest an alternative day and avoid rescheduling multiple times at all costs. The consultancy will be grateful for you to suggest an immediate alternative. Try to be transparent as to why you are rescheduling without going too deeply into details. However, rescheduling should only be used as a last resort.

To become the best, you must learn from the best. That is exactly what PrepLounge can offer you. The vast  PrepLounge community  makes it easy to  find case partners with the same ambitions and goals as you. Whether you are looking for a  professional case coach  or other aspiring consultants, you will have no problem finding case partners in the build-up to your interview. Our PrepLounge coaches – from Bain to McKinsey – are uniquely qualified to provide you with insights into the mastery of a case interview.

Apart from case partners from every imaginable background, PrepLounge provides a colossal collection of online resources to give you the best preparation leading up to your case interview. We will provide you with questions and answers to the most important consulting case types and share in-depth knowledge for the best possible case interview preparation. You will be able to find case partners to practice online and always be on top of the latest insights and news regarding consulting jobs and top consulting firms.

As a PrepLounge member, you will receive access to all these perks. PrepLounge will accompany you all the way from your application through to your contract negotiation. You strongly diminish your chance of success without sufficient preparation. Invest in your future and give yourself the best chance at acing your case interview! Exchange your experience with peers from all around the world in our  Consulting Q&A . Join our case interview community today and embark on your journey into consulting!

Oliver Wyman Case: Full Electrons Ahead

Simon-Kucher Case: GST Cruise Company

Deloitte Case: Footloose

Oliver wyman case: setting up a wine cellar.

zeb case: Quo vadis, customer?

Continue to learn.

The Most Common Pitfalls in Case Interview Preparation

Get insider tips from a top consultant!

Consulting Interview Questions

Practice your consulting interview questions now!

McKinsey PEI (Personal Experience Interview)

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• Case Interview Preparation
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10 Consulting Interview Questions & ANSWERS You Need to Know

• Last Updated March, 2024

Most consulting recruits stress out about the dreaded case interview. But you also need to be ready to show your personality, motivation, and cultural fit in fit or behavioral interviews.

By practicing your answers to common questions before your interview, you’ll recall key details, sound more confident, and improve your chances of landing your dream job. We’ll help by providing a list of  common consulting interview questions you should be ready for, along with sample answers.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• 4 types of consulting interview questions
• Why fit questions matter to consulting companies
• How to answer interview questions like a pro
• The top 10 consulting interview questions to practice WITH SAMPLE ANSWERS!

Let’s get started!

The 4 Types of Consulting Interview Questions

Top 10 consulting interview questions, importance of consulting fit interview questions.

Tips to Ace Consulting Fit Questions

When to Expect a Fit or Behavioral Question

Tips to ace the consulting fit and behavioral questions.

Top 10 Consulting Fit Interview Questions

1. Consulting Fit Questions

Consulting fit questions are all about getting to know you better. The interviewer wants to know why you’re interested in consulting, what drives you, and how you’ll fit in with their company culture and values. Some common questions include “Tell me about yourself.” and “Why do you want to work in consulting?” 

While consulting fit interview questions might touch on some examples from your work experience, they’re more high-level than behavioral questions.

2. Consulting Behavioral Questions

Consulting behavioral interview questions evaluate your ability to succeed in consulting based on your past experiences. 

The interviewer wants specific examples from previous work, volunteer, extracurricular, or school experiences. Tell a good story to keep them engaged.

Think of these questions as an opportunity to expand on a bullet point on your resume rather than giving an overview of everything you did in that role. For example, one common consulting behavioral interview question is, “Tell me about a time you solved a tough problem.”

3. Consulting Case Interview Questions

The case is the main part of most consulting interviews. Here the interviewer will assess your problem-solving ability and analytical skills by asking you to solve a business problem. Types of case questions vary from market sizing, to profitability analysis or cost-benefit analysis.

Example: PhoneCo manufactures cell phones and is experiencing declining sales. The company wants to know why sales are declining and what it can do to improve its results. How can we help PhoneCo?

Check out Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep to learn how to solve a case!

4. Brainteasers Questions

Most consulting firms have moved away from using traditional brain teasers and, instead, focus on market sizing questions during the case interview, especially MBB firms (McKinsey, BCG, or Bain). You’ll need to estimate the size of a particular market in terms of volume or revenue. 

For example, in the PhoneCo case interview, you might need to estimate how many cell phones are sold annually in North America to understand the company’s competitiveness.

If you want to learn how to tackle these , see our 7 Steps to Answer Market Sizing Questions .

In a first-round interview, most of the time is spent on a case study, with only a few minutes for a fit or behavioral question. In the decision round, you will meet multiple interviewers, one of whom may focus exclusively on fit or behavioral questions.

It’s worth noting McKinsey asks these questions in every interview. They call it the personal experience interview (PEI). The McKinsey PEI interview question is “a mile deep and an inch wide.” They look at one story from your resume or one personal characteristic (inch wide) and ask multiple questions about it (mile deep). For more information on McKinsey’s process, we outline the 11 McKinsey PEI Questions You Need to Be Able to Answer .

A consulting firm won’t hire you just because you’re a case interview whiz. Most candidates prepare heavily for the case interview. However, it’s just as important to practice for other types of questions. 

The interviewer is looking to understand:

• Are you someone they want to work with (or be stuck with at an airport)?
• Are you someone they feel comfortable putting in front of a client?
• Are you a team player?
• Are you someone they want to mentor?

Also, interviews are a two-way street! Use this opportunity to evaluate if the consulting firm is a good fit for your personality and career goals.

Nail the case & fit interview with strategies from former MBB Interviewers that have helped 89.6% of our clients pass the case interview.

Tell a Story Using the ‘A STAR(E)’ Method

You may have heard of the STAR method as a way to answer behavioral questions. The STAR method stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

However, we believe the ‘A STAR(E)’ method is more impactful and memorable. It stands for:

• Answer: Start with a 1-sentence answer to the interviewer’s question. 
• Situation: Describe what happened. When and where did it happen? Who was involved?
• Tension: What was the conflict?
• Action: What did you do to resolve it?
• Result: What happened because of your action(s)?
• Effect: What did you learn?

Starting with the Answer immediately hooks the interviewer’s attention. And by ending with the Effect , you demonstrate your ability to connect your actions and learnings to the larger picture.

When preparing, write out your stories using this framework, and then practice out loud without explicitly stating the framework. For example, avoid saying: “The Answer was that I led a campaign to reduce plastic on campus by 20%. The Situation was that our campus recycling program was not effective.”

Check out our article on how to Upgrade your STAR Method to Ace Consulting Fit Interviews .

Let Your Personality Shine

These stories are about you, so add your personal touch. It’s easy to sound robotic because you’ve rehearsed your answers. 

Take a deep breath, smile, and pause before speaking. This will help you to stay calm and convey your responses more naturally.

Demonstrate Breadth of Experiences

Avoid talking about the same experience multiple times, even if it highlights distinct skills. Show your breadth of experiences by discussing different roles including school projects, leadership roles in extracurricular activities, and internships.

Get Inspiration from Others

Do mock consulting interviews with friends or mentors to get feedback and practice your skills. It’s also helpful to hear other people’s answers.

Networking events can provide valuable insights that you can incorporate into your answers.

After you review our sample questions and answers, give these questions a try yourself!

Examples of Consulting Fit Questions

1. tell me about yourself..

This is often the first question in an interview, so make a good impression! Be confident, engaging, and personable, but avoid rambling through all your experiences. Another variation of this question is “Walk me through your resume.”

Structure your answer with a strong opening statement summarizing yourself, followed by your most relevant experiences, starting with the most recent. Mention past experiences that support your fit as a strong consulting candidate. 

Let’s look at an example:

Candidate : I’m graduating this June with a degree in business and a focus on marketing. Through my internships and extracurricular activities, I’ve honed strong leadership, data analysis, and problem-solving skills that set me up for a consulting career. 

For example, I served as the President of my college’s Consulting Club, where I organized events to help students gain exposure to the consulting industry. This experience taught me how to effectively communicate with others and lead a team.

Last summer, I completed a marketing internship at a tech startup where I developed their social media strategy and analyzed user engagement data. This experience taught me the importance of data-driven decision-making and how to effectively communicate insights to my managers.

In addition, I’ve also served as a Residence Advisor for my college’s dorm program. Through this role, I honed my problem-solving skills and learned how to resolve conflicts effectively.

Overall, I’m excited about the opportunity to bring my skills to consulting, where I can continue to learn and grow while making a meaningful impact.

Remember: Keep your answer concise and focused on the most relevant experiences and skills. You will give detailed examples when answering specific behavioral questions later in the interview.

2. Why do you want to work in consulting?

The “Why consulting?” question allows the interviewer to gauge your interest and understanding of the consulting industry. 

You should demonstrate this through a structured approach rather than listing all the reasons you want to be a consultant. Start with a brief introduction of why consulting is your top career choice. To support your answer, provide 2 to 3 compelling reasons why you are interested in consulting.

Here’s an example:

Candidate : I’m excited to pursue consulting for its diverse projects, the opportunity to work with talented colleagues, and problem-solving opportunities. 

As President of the Consulting Club, I’ve gained exposure to different industries and learned about the exciting projects firms work on, like mining or private equity. 

Working in a team environment is exciting to me, as I believe diverse perspectives lead to better results. In my past marketing internship, I worked cross-functionally with data scientists and learned a lot from them. 

Consulting is a good way to hone my problem-solving skills across many industries. Growing up, I played chess competitively and enjoyed the strategy behind the game.

3. Why are you interested in our specific firm?

Consulting companies want to ensure that their job offer won’t be wasted on a candidate with no real interest in the firm.

To impress the interviewer, explain compelling reasons why their firm is your top choice. Some examples include:

• Why do you want to join that particular office (e.g., the Houston office focuses on mining projects and you want exposure to that industry)?
• Why do you believe you fit in with the culture?
• Who have you met that left a positive impression? Name people who you connected with at the firm.
• Are there any specific thought leadership or types of consulting projects that interest you (e.g., artificial intelligence research, social impact work)?

Make it specific. If your answer can apply to another consulting firm, change the messaging to make it more personal.

Candidate : I’ve talked with several Bain consultants and know it’s the firm that best aligns with my career aspirations and where I can contribute meaningfully.

One of the main reasons why I’m drawn to Bain is its dominance in private equity consulting. During my conversation with Alex, a consultant in the London office, he shared his experience of working in the private equity group for 6 months, where he worked analyzing survey data and conducting market research.

Moreover, I’m impressed by Bain’s local staffing model that fosters strong bonds and mentorship opportunities with people in my home office.

Additionally, the culture at Bain is unparalleled. I’m particularly inspired by the philosophy of “A Bainie never lets another Bainie fail,” which assures me that I will thrive in this environment and have ample opportunities to grow.

4. What do you like to do outside of work or school?

Highlight something that you’ve devoted more time to than the average person. Choose a genuine interest that showcases your drive and enthusiasm, and be ready to share how this activity has influenced your personal and professional growth.

For instance, you could talk about a volunteering position where you made a meaningful impact or a unique hobby.

5. Tell me something that is not on your resume.

This is your chance to share something unique about yourself that isn’t on your one-page resume. Your interviewer wants to know that you’re not just a hard worker, but also someone easy to talk to and build a rapport with.

It could be a topic you are passionate about or an experience from your childhood that has had a lasting impact on your life. For instance, maybe you practiced karate from the ages of 7 to 15, and that experience shaped your dedication, perseverance, and teamwork skills.

Examples of Consulting Behavioral Questions

Let’s look at how to tell a story using the ‘A STAR(E)’ method. 

6. Tell me about a time you failed.

Answer: During my marketing internship, my launch campaign initially failed and I learned the importance of understanding the target audience.

Situation: I was tasked with developing a new social media campaign to promote the latest product launch.

Tension: We had a small budget for digital ads, so I needed to design a campaign that was low-cost, yet creative. 

Action: I spent time analyzing the competitors’ social media, brainstorming ideas, and planning a content calendar. However, when we launched the campaign, it didn’t perform as well as expected. We didn’t reach our estimated metrics.

Result: This was a clear failure, and it was frustrating for me. I analyzed the metrics, identified the weaknesses, and reworked the campaign strategy.

For example, I discovered that the content was not tailored enough to our target audience, and the call-to-action was not clear. I adjusted our content strategy and simplified the messaging. 

After 2 weeks of running the update campaign, there was an increase in engagement rates of 15%.

Effect: I learned a valuable lesson about the importance of understanding the target audience, optimizing for key metrics, and iterating on live feedback.

7. Tell me about a project you led.

Answer: As President of the Consulting Club, I led a team of 5 in organizing a full-day conference for 150 students, including a case competition, speakers, and networking.

Situation: We wanted let students meet many firms at once while showcasing their skills through a case competition. Also, we wanted the firms to be able to scope talent.

Tension: We were a team of 5 and needed to manage many external stakeholders, including 12 consulting firms, caterers, judges, and facility logistics. 

Action: I delegated tasks to my executive team based on their strengths and interests, ensuring everyone understood their responsibilities and deadlines. I also held regular meetings to troubleshoot any issues and provide support.

Result: The conference was a success, with over 150 attendees and positive feedback from both firms and students. The case competition ran smoothly and provided valuable networking.

Effect: I learned that collaboration is key to success. The whole team needs to work towards the same goal and support each other.

Try the following questions yourself, using the ‘A STAR(E)’ method.

8. Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate.

Show that you can relate to differing points of view, build a case for your point of view, and be persuasive. Do not sound dictatorial or difficult to work with. 

9. Tell me about a challenging situation with a tight deadline.

Demonstrate that you can work well under pressure with successful results.

10. Tell me about a time you worked on a team and not as the leader.

Talk about a project where you played an important role as a teammate.

Bonus: Examples of Questions to Ask the Interviewer

The interviewer usually leaves 2 to 3 minutes to ask if you have any questions for them. Have some meaningful and insightful questions that you cannot Google easily, such as:

• What would you have done differently during your first year in consulting?
• What was your most challenging consulting project and why?
• Can you share more about the culture of this particular office and how it compares to other locations?

– – – – –

In this article, we’ve covered:

• 4 types of consulting questions to know
• Pro tips for answering interview questions
• What to anticipate in a fit or behavioral question
• Top 10 consulting questions to practice

Still have questions?

If you want to know more about common consulting interview questions, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

Other people prepping on common consulting questions found the following pages helpful:

• Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep
• Market Sizing Questions
• Consulting Behavioral Interviews  
• Upgrade Your STAR Method to Ace Consulting Fit Interviews
• Consulting Cover Letters

Help with Case Study Interview Prep

Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on consulting interviews. My Consulting Offer has helped almost 89.6% of the people we’ve worked with to get a job in management consulting. We want you to be successful in your consulting interviews too. For example, here is how Parth   was able to get his offer from BCG.

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280 Free Case Interview Examples

Do you want to get access to over 280 free case interview examples (with answers)?

If you have interviews planned at McKinsey ,  The Boston Consulting Group , or any other consulting firm, you are probably looking for case interview examples.

So, to help you prepare, I have compiled a list of 280 free case interview examples:

• Over 30 free case interview examples (+ interview prep tips) from the websites of top consulting firms
• More than 250 free case interview examples from top business school case books

Moreover, you’ll get  my take on which case studies you will likely have in interviews.

In short, the resources listed hereafter will be very helpful if you are starting out or have already made good progress in preparing for your case interviews.

One last word : check out this free case-cracking course to learn how to crack the most recent types of case questions consulting firms use in actual interviews.

Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Get the latest data about salaries in consulting, mckinsey: tips and case interview examples.

McKinsey & Company’s website is definitely one of my favorites.

Because this gives so much insightful information about the role of a consultant and what the hiring process looks like.

Therefore, I highly recommend spending time on their website, even if you are not targeting McKinsey.

In the meantime, here are 8 McKinsey case interview examples

• Electro-light
• GlobaPharma
• National Education
• Talbot trucks
• Shops corporation
• Conservation forever

Check out the McKinsey Hub : A library of 20+ free resources that cover everything you need to secure a job offer at McKinsey.

Besides, here is another McKinsey case interview example.

This case interview question has been recently asked in a real interview:

𝘦𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘊𝘰, 𝘢 𝘑𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉2𝘉 𝘴𝘦𝘨𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉2𝘊 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵. 𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘦𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘊𝘰’𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘴𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘌𝘖 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘵.

How would you approach this business problem?

When ready, check this video below where I present how to approach this problem.

BCG: Tips And Case Interview Examples

The Boston Consulting Group website  states something very important: the goal of the hiring process is to get to know you better, which means, in the context of Consulting interviews, understanding how you solve problems .

Remember this: in case interviews,  to show how you think is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than to find an answer to the case .

As a result, you will have case study questions to showcase your problem-solving skills. Likewise, fit interviews have the same purpose: to show what problems you faced and how you resolved them.

• BCG interview prep tips
• BCG’s interactive case tool
• BCG case interview example: climate change challenge
• BCG case interview example: GenCo
• BCG case interview example: FoodCo

Check out the BCG Hub : A library of 20+ free resources that cover everything you need to secure a job offer at BCG.

Bain: Tips And Case Interview Examples

Bain & Company’s website highlights something very important: successful applicants manage to turn a case interview into a conversation between two consultants .

In other words, you don’t want to appear as a candidate but as a consultant !

To do this, you need to master the main problem-solving techniques that consulting firms want to see.

• Bain interview prep tips here and here
• Bain case interview examples: coffee , fashioco
• Bain case interview sample videos: a first video , a second video

Check out the Bain Hub : A library of 20+ free resources that cover everything you need to secure a job offer at Bain & Company.

Deloitte: Tips And Case Interview Examples

As for the BCG’s section above, the Deloitte website clearly states that in case interviews , it is much more important to show how you think and interact with your interviewer than to find the right answer to the case.

• Deloitte interview prep tips
• Deloitte case interview examples: here (more than 15 case interview examples)
• Deloitte case interview example: Federal Agency
• Deloitte case interview example: Recreation Unlimited
• Deloitte case interview example: Federal benefits Provider
• Deloitte case interview example: Federal Civil Cargo protection Bureau

Get 4 Complete Case Interview Courses For Free

You need 4 skills to be successful in all case interviews: Case Structuring, Case Leadership, Case Analytics, and Communication. Join this free training and learn how to ace ANY case questions.

Oliver Wyman: Tips And Case Interview Examples

Like the Deloitte website, Oliver Wyman’s website points out that, above all,  you must demonstrate your ability to think in a structured, analytical, and creative way.

In other words, there are no right or wrong answers, but only showing how you solve problems matters.

• Oliver Wyman interview prep tips
• Oliver Wyman case interview examples: here (Aqualine) and here (Wumbleworld)

Kearney: Tips And Case Interview Examples

Now it’s time to tell you something you could have heard a hundred times.

Yet too many candidates do it.

Do NOT force your solution to adapt to a standard framework . As a result, this will only take you to a place you don’t want to go: the pool of rejected candidates .

To learn more about this, check the “What Not To Do” section on the AT Kearney website .

• Kearney interview prep tips
• Kearney case interview examples: here and here
• Kearney case book: here

Strategy&: Interview Prep Tips

Strategy& doesn’t provide case study examples on its website, but it shares insights on career progression, which I recommend reading when you prepare for your fit interviews.

• Strategy& interview prep tips

Roland Berger: Tips And Case Interview Examples

I like the examples of case studies presented on the Roland Berger website .

Because the two examples of case studies are very detailed and illustrate the kind of solutions your interviewers expect during case discussions.

• Roland Berger interview prep tips
• A first Roland Berger case interview example: part 1 and part 2
• A second Roland Berger case interview example: part 1 and part 2

Alix Partners: Interview Prep Tips

Like Strategy&, Alix Partners doesn’t provide case study examples on its website.

However, they give an overview of what they are looking for: they want entrepreneurial, self-starter, and analytical candidates, which are skills that all consulting firms highly appreciate .

• Alix Partners interview prep tips

OC&C: Interview Prep Tips

Here are two case study examples from OC&C:

• Imported spirit
• Leisure clubs

253 Case Studies From Business School Case Books

Most of these 253 case study examples are based on case interviews used by consulting firms in real job interviews .

As a result, you can have a good idea of the case study questions you can have when interviewing at these firms .

The Full List Of 253 Free Case Study Examples

• Chicago business school
• Australian Graduate School of Management
• Columbia business school
• Harvard business school
• Wharton business school (2009)
• Wharton busines school (2017)
• Darden business school

Do you want to practice a specific type of case study? Now you can…

I have sorted this list of 253 case studies by type:  profitability, market expansion, industry analysis, pricing, investment or acquisition,  and guesstimates (also known as market sizing questions).

Bonus #1: Know The Types Of Cases You Are Likely To have During Your Interviews

• Profitability cases (29% of cases from that list)
• Investment cases (19% of cases from that list)
• Market sizing questions (15% of cases from that list)

As a result, assuming you’ll have 6 interviews (and therefore 6 case interviews) during the recruitment process:

• “Profitability cases are 29%”  means that chances to have 2 profitability case studies during your recruitment process are very high
• “Investment cases are 19%”  means that chances to have 1 investment case study during your recruitment process are very high.
• “ Guesstimates are 15%”  means that chances of having  1 market sizing question during your recruitment process are high.

Bonus #2: The 10 Cases I Recommend You Doing Now

Over 250 examples of case interviews are a great list, and you may not know where to start.

So, I’ve compiled a list of my 10 favorite case studies.

The 5 case studies I recommend doing if you are a BEGINNER

1. stern case book: drinks gone flat (starting at page 24).

This is a good introduction to a common type of case (declining sales here). I liked the solution presented for this case, particularly how it started by isolating declining sales (what range of products? Volumes or prices, or both?).

2. Stern case book: Sport bar (starting at page 46)

This is an investment case (should you invest in a new bar). Even if the solution presented in this case book is not MECE , it covers the most common quantitative questions you might have in such a case. I recommend doing this case.

3. Stern case book: MJ Wineries (starting at page 85)

This is a profitability case. I liked the solution presented in this case because it illustrates how specific good candidates should be. The case concerns wine, so a good candidate should mention the quality of lands and grapes as important factors.

4. AGSM case book: Piano tuners (starting at page 57)

This is a typical market sizing question. How to answer this type of question is a must-know before going to your interviews.

5. Darden case book: National Logistics (starting at page 49)

Again, this is a very common case (how to reduce costs). I liked the broad range of questions asked in this case, covering key skills assessed by consulting firms during case interviews: brainstorming skills (or creativity), quantitative skills, and business sense.

The 5 case studies I recommend if you are more ADVANCED in your preparation

1. stern: the pricing games (starting at page 55).

This case study asks you to help your client assess different business models. I liked this case because the range of issues to tackle is quite broad.

2. Wharton 2017: Engineer attrition at SLS Oil & Gas Services (starting at page 55)

I liked this case study because the case prompt is uncommon: your client has been facing a very high attrition rate among its population of Engineers. As a result, it’s very unlikely that your solution fits a well-known framework, and you’ll have to demonstrate your problem-solving skills by developing a specific solution.

3. Wharton 2017: Pharma Company Goes International, Outsources Benefits, Integrates New Technology (starting at page 95)

This case is about a client considering outsourcing a part of their activity. Even though I don’t know if this type of case study is very common, I had many case studies like this when I passed my interviews a few years ago. And I always found them difficult!

4. Insead: Gas retail case (starting at page 73)

The question in the problem statement is very broad, making this case difficult. So, only good candidates can have a structured case discussion here.

5. Darden: Fire Proof (starting at page 84)

This is a market entry case. Try to solve it by developing a structure as MECE as possible.

CareerInConsulting.com's Free Resources

Access my exclusive free training to help you prepare for your case interviews .

Besides, you can learn my step-by-step guide to answering market sizing questions .

You’ll get my formula to solve all market sizing questions.

Moreover, if you are a beginner, you can read my article on how to solve business cases (+ a 4-week prep plan to get case interview ready).

Also, check these 11 must-know frameworks to ace your case interviews.

Finally, you can read the articles in the blog section of my website.

That’s quite a list.

To complete this list, check this free case interview course , where you’ll find case questions recently asked in actual interviews.

Now, I’d like to hear from you.

Which key insights were new to you?

Or maybe I have missed something.

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below.

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Consulting Interview Questions: 17 Detailed Examples

You are contacted for an interview at a top consulting firm – or more ideally for a consulting candidate, you are in the months-long preparation stage, looking for a way to nail every possible question the interviewer might throw at you.

Your best solution is to follow the true consulting spirit – break the questions down into a few manageable types, and one-by-one learn how to handle all of them. 

Table of Contents

What are the consulting interview questions?

Questions in a consulting interview come from both candidates and interviewers, which aim to assess an aspiring consultant's capability and simulate actual social situations a consultant may meet in real consulting work.

However, while we can generalize and categorize some of the most encountered questions, there are so many things that an interviewer or even a candidate can ask in the interview. To ask and answer all those questions, you must do more than just stick to some frameworks - You must think, speak, and act like a real consultant in the interview.

Four common types of questions in consulting interviews

In case interviews, there are four common types of questions:

Ice-breaker questions

Fit/behavioral interview questions

Case interview questions

End-of-interview questions

Keep in mind that these cannot cover all possible questions in consulting interviews. Some of these questions are quite generic (such as the ice-breaker questions), and senior/experienced consultants are more likely to ask unpredictable questions. A candidate has to think, speak, and act like a consultant to score good points with interviewers.

What interviewers look for in interviews

While different firms and consultants have different questions and wordings, in general, they will try to find five core attributes of a potential consultant in a candidate: Problem-solving skills, Leadership ability, Achieving mentality, Business/Industry background, and Technical skills. 

Problem-solving skills, Leadership ability, and Achieving mentality are usually more valued. Every word you say must reflect at least one of these three attributes, while the whole interview must showcase that you have all of them.

Problem-solving skills: The whole consulting industry exists because consultants can break down business problems better than anyone else, so this one is a must-have. 

Leadership skills: Getting a bunch of experienced people (your clients) to do something they do not want to do is never easy. Additionally, consultants usually work in teams - leadership here is about influencing people rather than getting nominated as the class monitor.

Achieving mentality: The problems are always big and challenging with tight deadlines. Do not even think about work-life balance here; you have to go all out. 

Meanwhile, Business background and Technical skills are less required but would be very good for a candidate to possess. These two gives great bonus point, so show them as much as possible. 

Business background: This is not required for prospective consultants; however, business knowledge is essential to excellent performance in case interviews . Luckily, it’s something you can learn, and most concepts used in consulting interviews are only at basic or intermediate levels.

Technical skills: These skills are required for specialist positions, such as at McKinsey Digital. However, the required expertise or technical knowledge will be informed before the interview, so do not worry too much.

Part 1: Ice-breaking questions

At the beginning of a case interview, three common ice-breaking questions are “How are you doing”, “What do you think about the office?”, and “Tell me about yourself”. Those are the classic ice-breaking questions, basic social interactions, something people do everyday. Yet, countless candidates messed this part up. 

The biggest problem here is anxiety – when under stress, even the most basic actions may become very challenging. Below, we will dive deeper into those three questions and some tips to overcome them. 

“How are you doing?”

“How are you doing?” - A typical question, but under the stress of a case interview, many candidates can only respond with a dry and nervous “I’m fine”. 

Just a “I’m fine” is a conversation-stopper here. Some interviewers only ask this question as a courtesy, but other experienced interviewers can use this to assess your client interaction – which is essential in consulting.

Ideally, your answer should be detailed, positive, and reciprocal (the last one means you should ask them back). This is how you make a good first impression and keep the conversation going - a consultant is expected to perfect everything from the start to the end. 

This is how you could answer it:

“I’ve had a nice breakfast just outside this office, so today has been a great start. What about you – how are you today?”

“What do you think about the office?”

Answers to this question should follow the same rules as the previous one. Remember to be sincere - blatant flattering does not make good impressions.

Preparation is simple – pay attention to your surroundings when you enter their office. Consulting firms appreciate people who can notice the small but important details.

Here is an example answer:

“I like the way this building uses glass to maximize natural lighting. It must really be easing on the eyes, I prefer that to artificial lights. Is it the same for you?”

“Tell me about yourself”/”Walk me through your resume”

Here’s when things start to get serious – a slow transition to the fit interview part.

The most common mistake for candidates in consulting and in general is to ramble without any focus. Interviewers want answers relevant to the job and the firm in particular, not a 10-minute recital of everything you’ve done since high school.

And because this is a consulting interview, you should organize your answer clearly and make it MECE – use a Present-Past-Future structure can help a great deal. Focus on only 2-3 key points in your resume, and try to have a “so what” strongly connecting your profile with the firm – in this case, showing that you have the three necessary attributes, and that consulting aligns well with your future plans.

“Surely. To introduce myself, I’d like to talk about 3 things: 1. my current job, 2. my past working experiences, and 3. my plans for the future. Is that okay for you?”

[the interviewer nods]

“Thank you. So for my current job, I am […] In the past, I also worked as […] As for my future career, I plan to […] which leads me to apply for the position of Business Analyst at your firm. As being a good analyst requires […] I believe my experience in […] would make a great addition to the projects.”

Part 2: Fit/Behavioral interview questions

Read more: Consulting Fit Interview/ McKinsey PEI

Fit/Behavioral interview questions check whether your qualities, motivations, and personality fit the firm’s culture by assessing the necessary skills and personality traits based on your behavior in past situations, along with other questions on your motivations or personal side.

Motivation question

Interviewers ask these questions to help them rule out lazy candidates who can’t bother to research about a firm/a job, or people who jump ship at the slightest chance. Therefore, your reasons must be unique, specific, authentic, and appropriate. 

Unique means the answer is unique to your plans and preferences, while specific means it’s only applicable to the firm you’re interviewing for. Authentic means it should be factual, and you back it up with a source - for instance, you said you asked a few consultants, and they said the same thing, not something you’ve just made up.

And lastly, be appropriate - not every reason is suitable for an interview – for example, everyone wants a high salary and good exit options, but do not suggest you are “just in for the money then bail out in two years”.

Additionally, it must be structured – and preferably MECE . A simple trick to structuring your reasons is to number them, for example: “I decided to apply to join McKinsey because of three reasons: 1. […] 2. […] 3. […]”

Experience question

This is a behavioral question, and it appears in every consulting fit interview. Interviewers ask for your experience in a situation you have encountered to assess the qualities, motivations, and personality traits to see whether the candidate can fit in with the firm. Therefore, this question gets the highest priority in fit interview.

The key to nailing experience questions lies in powerful and convincing story-telling, which consists of three steps:

Lay down the content base: Select 3-5 “extraordinary” stories in your personal and professional life, then gather all related details.

Form the story plot: For each story, remove the unimportant and technical details; enhance the rest to reflect the qualities most important to consulting (leadership, achieving, and problem-solving).

Refine your style: Practice telling those stories until you see people listening to you attentively; the point is to create a charming, unique and natural style for yourself – good storytellers always have their styles.

Everyone has their own stories, and considering the time and space constraints of this article I won’t post a detailed story here. However, in my Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , I discussed in great length about how to craft a powerful PEI story, using my own example.

Hypothetical situation question

A hypothetical situation question asks for a situation you might encounter in a real working day. Together with the experience question, an interviewer uses this question to assess the qualities, motivations, and personality traits to see whether the candidate can fit in with the firm. 

However, this type of question is not very popular in fit interviews, even though it appears a lot in online screening aptitude test . 

Below is an example for this kind of question.

“You are a supervising manager. You want to profile the performance of your workers based on certain criteria. Which of the following criteria would you consider as best and worst to choose for the task?”.

1. Amount of paperwork processed per week.

2. Socializing habits.

3. Rate of compliance with administrative decisions.

4. Level of participation in non-formal corporate activities.

Personality question

Unlike the experience question or hypothetical situation question, the personality question is far from tricky. Interviewers usually ask this question to explore who you are as a person. The most important tip for this kind of question is: 

Be yourself.

This is an opportunity for you to show that you’re an interesting person (in a positive way), and that you demonstrate consulting attributes (achieving/leadership/problem-solving) in everything you do. For example, if you have a passion for paragliding and have some excellent achievements with it, then you can answer the question like this:

“I love paragliding. It’s not just the joys of flying that get me – but also the research and strategy involved before and during every flight. I believe analytics is one of my strengths as a pilot – which helped me win a SEA championship in 2019.”

Beware of follow-up questions.

Whether you are introducing yourself, explaining your application, or showing your extraordinary achievements, the interviewer will always have follow-up questions to determine the authenticity of your story. Consulting interviewers are highly skeptical and fact-based.

That means you have to know your stories/resume inside-out and outside-in. Predict the possible weak points and the likely follow-up questions and prepare your answers in advance.

Do not freeze and panic if you encounter an unexpected question –  real management consultants must always remain calm in front of their clients.

Part 3: Case interview questions

Case interview questions ask the candidate to solve a business problem. Those questions are the most challenging part of a consulting interview, testing problem-solving and other “soft” skills required for a successful consultant. They include: 

Conventional case questions: Common questions that appear in every case interview

Assisting questions: Answers for those questions can become useful add-ins for candidates to explore the case. Only for a few candidates that the interviewer is interested in investing more.

Curveball questions: Hard questions. Only for a few candidates that the interviewer is interested in investing more.

In a candidate-led case interviews , where the candidate moves through the problem-solving process with the interviewer only as the “case operator”, the questions are seamlessly integrated into a gradual flow. 

However, in interviewer-led cases where the interviewer commands the problem-solving process, the questions are more disconnected but usually belong to the same case. You might have to use the insights from one question to answer another.

Read more: Case Interview 101

Conventional case questions

Conventional case questions aim to assess the critical skills of a consultant: clarify, structure, estimate, analyze, and synthesize. They appear in every consulting case interview. Candidates should expect to encounter many question types, including:

Framework/Issue tree question

Market-Sizing question

Guesstimate question

Business valuation question

Chart-insights question

Value proposition question

Information question

Business math question

Solution-finding question

Elevator pitch: Usually asked at the end of the case interview part, this means you have impressed the interviewer enough to get this far.

Brain teaser: This was once very popular in case interviews but is now gradually fading from its fame.

The question and answer examples are streamlined for demonstration purposes. A real case interview has a much smoother transition and requires more complex issue trees/calculations.

Type 1 - Framework/Issue tree question

Read more: Issue Tree / Case Interview Frameworks / MECE Principle

To answer the framework/issue tree question effectively, you need to understand the consulting problem-solving fundamentals, master some important case interview frameworks, and thoroughly grasp the MECE principle.

For example, you encounter a hypothetical case of a fictional firm called “Eagle Aviation”. 

Eagle Aviation produces manned airplanes for military and civilian use. Although the firm remains a major player in the market, it has seen some serious decline in revenue in the last five years, leading to profit loss, so they called in your team to address the problem.

And the question is, “What factors would you consider to address our client’s problem?”

Here is one way to answer the question. Remember to draw out an issue tree and point to it as you speak, as it gives a better presentation effect. 

“To address the root cause of Eagle Aviation’s declining revenue, I would break the revenue down according to their market segments and use data to pinpoint where the problem is coming from.

For Eagle Aviation, there are two main segments: ‘military’, and ‘civilian’. The military often buys two types of airplanes – “combat”, such as fighters, and “non-combat”, such as cargo planes. On the civilian side, there are also two types: “commercial”, like large airliners, and “non-commercial”, for personal use.

Type 2 - Guesstimate questions

Read more: Market-Sizing & Guesstimate Questions

A guesstimate question requires you to make an educated estimate of a vague and obscure number. It aims to see if you have a structured approach to solving problems. Accuracy is appreciated but not crucial for the answer.

To make such an estimate, follow these four steps:

Step 1: Clarify all unclear terms in the question

Step 2: Break the number down into 3-5 small, easy-to-estimate pieces

Step 3: Estimate each piece using math and background knowledge

Step 4: Consolidate the pieces to arrive at the final result

Example: “How many tennis balls can you stuff inside an airplane?”

A good answer should be like this:

“Thank you for the interesting question. Before I can answer it, I would clarify three points to make sure that we are on the same page:

The tennis ball is of the normal size.

The airplane is a small commercial airplane, like a Boeing 737

“Stuff inside the airplane” means inside the main tubular frame or the fuselage – spaces in other parts such as the wings do not count, and the frame is completely empty, without any equipment or furniture. 

Does these sound good to you?”

<the interviewer agrees>

“It’s great to see that we can agree on the important details. To answer your question, I would need to break it down into small components for easier estimations, so can I have a minute?”

<the interviewer agrees, and the candidate uses the timeout to draw the issue tree>

“To know how many tennis balls we can stuff inside an airplane, we would need to estimate the volume of the tennis ball, and the volume of the fuselage.

The average tennis ball is about 130cm3 or 0.00013m3

The typical small commercial airplane will have a tube-shaped fuselage about 40m in length and 2m in radius, which makes about 250m3 of volume.

Combining these figures, we can conclude that we can stuff roughly 1,900,000 tennis balls in a typical small commercial airplane."

As you can see, the candidate in the above example always uses round numbers and tries to structure the answer as much as possible . The former will help your brain process calculations faster, while the latter will help the interviewer follow your answer and make a good impression that you have a “structured” mindset. 

Also, remember to perform your calculations quickly and mentally (you do not want to bore the interviewer to death while you do the math).

Type 3 - Market-sizing questions

A “market-sizing question” is a subtype of a guesstimate question. Hence, the approach is the same – structure gets the priority, not accuracy – except here, you need more business intuition.

Again, you use the same four steps as with guesstimate questions: (1) clarify, (2) break the problem down, (3) estimate each piece, and (4) consolidate. 

Example: How much Earl Grey is drunk in Britain each year?

“Thank you for this very interesting question.

Before diving into the estimations, I would like to first clarify a few terms to make sure we are both on the same page regarding the important details. There are three points I would like to clarify:

Earl Grey tea is any tea marketed as such, regardless of the ingredients.

British people consist of inhabitants of the UK.

The consumption is measured in tea cups.

Do you agree with me on these assumptions?”

“It’s great to see we understand the question the same way. I’d like to take a few moments to gather my thoughts and draw up my issue tree – so may I take a timeout?”

<candidate draws this issue tree>

<start presenting>

“Thanks for your patience.

Now, to estimate the consumption of Earl Grey tea by British people on a typical afternoon, I’d like to break it down into three determinants – the population of the UK, the number of tea cups each UK resident drinks in an afternoon, and the chance of those cups being Earl Grey.

For the population of the UK, I’d take a rounded number of 65 million. Considering that UK people are very famous for their love of tea, I assume about 80% of the UK population drinks tea, which means there is 52 million tea drinkers in UK. Each of these 52 million people drinks one cup of tea in their afternoon tea meal. 

Earl Grey is among the top five popular teas in the UK, and I estimate this group to take up 50% of all UK tea, considering so many other types in the market. The chance of an afternoon tea cup being Earl Grey is 10% - this number is taken to simplify the calculations.

Combining these numbers, I estimate that on a typical afternoon, British people consume 5.2 million cups of Earl Grey tea – quite an attractive number for any business operating in the tea industry.”

Type 4 - Business valuation question

A business valuation question requires you to estimate the monetary value of a business. This is a blend of guesstimation/market-sizing, math, business, coupled with some basic finance knowledge.

There are three ways to estimate the value of a business:

The NPV Method: Take the net cash flow generated by the business, and discount it to the present to account for time value of money. Basically “this company is worth X dollars because it gives me Y dollars over Z years”.

The Net Assets Method: Take the total assets of the business and minus its liabilities. In essence, “this company is worth X-Y dollars because it owns X dollars and owes Y   dollars”.

The Market Method: Take one index of the firm (which can be stocks or anything depending on the industry)and multiply it with an industry multiple (the value of one unit of the said index). In other words, “this company is worth AxB dollars because it has A traffic and each traffic is worth B dollars”.

Example: How much is MConsultingPrep worth?

“Thank you for the interesting question. Since MConsultingPrep is an established firm within the consulting prep niche, providing stable income for its shareholders, the NPV method should be the most suitable for this website.

For this I would like to know the expected cash flow from MConsultingPrep, and the market interest rate – if this was a real project I would interview the client CFO and perform press search for these insights […]” 

Type 5 - Chart-insights question

Read more: Consulting & Case Interview Math

These chart-insights questions are among the most popular questions in case interviews because consultants run through mountains of charts and tables daily. Chart-reading is covered in our Comprehensive Math Drills along with mental calculations and case math.

One key note here: always add at least one “so-what” to your answer – to a consultant, data means nothing without implications. 

Example: What do you see from the following chart?

“Thank you for this very interesting piece of data. From this chart I can see a very steep rise around March 11 in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases – from a negligible number to about 2,800 per million in just 5 months, along with a steady rise in the number of confirmed deaths to about 70-80 per million; both changes started around March 10-11. 

There are two implications from these data: (1)These sudden rises can be explained by events occurring in early March, and (2) if we can keep the number of cases low, the threat from COVID-19 will remain minimal, considering a mortality rate of only 2%.”

Type 6 - Value proposition question

A value proposition question requires a candidate to propose values that the client can use to sell their products.

The most common mistake for this question type is to list out values straight away – it makes you sound less structured and less insightful. For this question type, you can use a “double issue-tree” – essentially a table with customer segments on one axis and proposed values on the other.

Example: “What will a customer consider when buying a high-performance laptop?”

“Thank you for the interesting question. To answer this question in the most MECE and insightful way, I would first segment the customers into High-End, Mid-Range, and Entry-Level according to their budget, then assess their preferences on three proposed values: Performance, Design, and Build Quality […]”

Type 7 - Information question

An information question asks if the piece of data you use is obtainable in the first place. In real consulting work , data is not always available – client team members may refuse to cooperate, or there’s simply no data on the subject.

There are many kinds of information sources in case interviews/consulting works, but I’ll divide them into primary and secondary sources. 

Primary source: You must research yourself (or pay someone to do it for you), such as customer surveys or mystery shopping. 

Secondary source: You use the results of others' research. You can get these from the client, your consulting firm, or third parties such as market research firms or external industry experts.

For these questions, you need to structure your answer as much as possible and explain why you choose certain information sources over others.

You can find out more about these sources and how to cite them in real case interviews through this free Prospective Candidate Starter Pack , which contains a glossary of data sources in consulting. 

Below is an information question example.

Example: “How do you find out a local customer’s preferences when buying a laptop?”

“If this was a real project, I would find industry reports to gain an initial understanding of the market trends, and in case I needed more and deeper insights, I would try to contact a local industry expert.

The former method is quick and widely available but everyone can gain access to industry reports – including the competitors – and the information is not too insightful. Industry experts, on the other hand, can give unique insights that are not always accessible.”

Type 8 - Business math question

While math questions in business are not as complicated as the math back in school, they require you to be quick and accurate with mental math, familiar with large numbers, and basic business concepts. You also have the pressure of a high-stake interview, and it is easy to make mistakes when under stress.

Try to “calculate out-loud” – these math questions can take quite a while, and it is bad to leave long periods of silence.

Type 9 - Solution-finding question

To answer a solution-finding question, you need to structure the answer and deliver it top-down. Yet, many candidates still make the mistake of delivering solutions bottom-up without structuring them first.

If you can’t think of a more relevant way to segment your solutions, group them into short-term and long-term ones. It helps you brainstorm more thoroughly and makes a good impression on the interviewer.

Example: “What solutions do you suggest to our client to recover the lost revenue?”

“To address the root cause of our client’s revenue problem, I suggest 2 long-term and 3 short-term solutions. The long-term solutions are 1 […] and 2 […]. The short-term ones are 1 […], 2 […], and 3 […]”

Type 10 - The “elevator pitch”

An “elevator pitch” question simulates a hypothetical situation where you must deliver the most important answer within an elevator ride to the client.

For your pitch to “pass”, it must be solution-oriented – the client CEO is busy, so they have no time for a full presentation. Just throw out the most critical conclusions first, any questions can wait.

So how do you present your solution to the client CEO in 30 seconds? Below is a good example:

“Mr CEO, it’s been a pleasure to work with you on this interesting project of […]. Through rigorous research, we have identified the root causes of [problem] to be: 1 […], 2 […]; here are the solutions we recommend to address that problem: 1 […], 2 […]. We would be more than happy to continue with you in future projects to implement those solutions.”

Type 11 - Brain teaser question

Read more: Brain Teasers

Brain teaser question is invented by Google. This question type used to be popular in interviews at consulting and tech firms, until Google themselves found out brain teasers were only effective for confusing the candidate and making the interviewer feel smart. Nonetheless, brain teasers might still appear in your consulting interviews.

Most brain teasers are trick questions (excluding one type – logical brain teasers) – and while people say answering these questions depend on pure luck and innate skills, they can be categorized and prepared for in a systematic way – as laid out in this article. Brain teasers do not take much effort to learn, so spend some time to prepare for them – just in case.

Example: “How do you put a giraffe inside a fridge?”

Answer: “Open the fridge, put the giraffe in, close the fridge. Nobody says how big the giraffe or the fridge is.”

Assisting questions 

The interviewer asks assisting questions to suggest possible approaches, data and insights, or to stop the candidates from going the wrong way. This is similar to suggestions from clients or superiors in an actual project. Answers for assisting questions can become useful add-ins for candidates to explore the case. 

Those questions usually come to a few candidates that the interviewer is interested in investing more, so this might be a good sign that the interviewer is interested in you. Therefore, if you encounter an assisting question in the case interview, you are expected to make a good answer and use the new information effectively. 

Curveball questions

A curveball question, as the name suggests, is a tricky question where the interviewer aims to see how a candidate can handle this stress test and come out successfully. This question is similar to real-life situations where a consultant encounters complicated problems, pushy bosses, unfriendly clients, etc. 

Those questions usually come to a few candidates that the interviewer is interested in investing more, so this might be a good sign that the interviewer is interested in you. A good handle of this curveball can help you score a homerun - a total success in the interview. 

Part 4: End-of-interview questions (to ask the interviewer)

You are now the interviewer. And the interviewer has become the interviewee. It’s your turn to ask them about their job, and their firm.

You SHOULD ask well-thought questions informed by prior research , presented in a structured manner, and supported by equally poise follow-up questions. It shows that you really care about the job, that you did your homework, and you have the necessary mindset for the management consulting job.

Below is a good example:

“Before I applied, I talked to [name of consultant] who used to work at [name of office]. He told me that consulting requires two main skill sets, which he calls “substance” – basically the research and analysis work – and “people skills”. I believe these two skills sets do not contribute equally in one’s performance, so I have two questions:

In this particular office, how much each of these skill sets contributes to high performance? Please quantify it into rough percentages if possible.

In the case I get the offer, which skill can I focus on beforehand and during the first project? I am a fan of the 80-20 principle, so I want to identify the best leverage to improve my performance at the job.”

Then here is how NOT to do it.

“Would you mind telling me what skills are important for this job?”

This  sounds like you’ve done no research and just asked the question for the sake of not staying silent.

The further you advance in the lengthy interview process (with higher-level consultants), the more unpredictable the situation can be. To prepare for such situations, you need to master the fundamentals of the case interview. Such fundamentals are covered in our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , as well as this free comprehensive guide .

Once you master the principles of the case interview, it’s time to practice a real-life case interview! Schedule a meeting with former consultants who have interviewed thousands of candidates. They have the insider knowledge to help you ace an interview.

Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

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A case interview is where candidates is asked to solve a business problem. They are used by consulting firms to evaluate problem-solving skill & soft skills

Case interview frameworks are methods for addressing and solving business cases.  A framework can be extensively customized or off-the-shelf for specific cases.

There are some questions or rather some principles about what candidates should and should not ask in an case interview to gain interviewer's approval

31 consulting interview questions (from McKinsey, BCG, etc.)

Today we’re going to show you the types of consulting interview questions that you’d typically face at companies like McKinsey , BCG , Bain , etc.

These are the same types of practice questions used by the 7,700+ candidates whom we’ve helped to get offers from consulting companies.

And here’s one of the first things you’ll want to know:

Consulting firms ask four broad categories of interview questions, and you’ll need to be ready to answer questions from each of them. 

Let's jump right into the following:

• Fit questions
• Behavioural (PEI) questions
• Market sizing questions
• Case interview questions
• How to prepare for consulting interviews

Click here to practise 1-on-1 with MBB ex-interviewers

1. fit questions.

Fit questions are used to evaluate whether a candidate will thrive within a specific consulting firm. Interviewers know that the candidates who are most likely to be their top performers will be the people who love the company’s culture, people, and projects.  You can learn more about fit questions, and how to answer them, in our case interview guide .

Below are several typical questions used to test a candidate’s company “fit.” It's worth mentioning that these are REAL interview questions that were originally reported by candidates on Glassdoor.com. We've just rephrased the questions in some places for better readability. 

Example fit questions

• Why firm X?  
• Why consulting?
• Walk me through your resume
• Tell me something not on your resume 
• Tell me about your greatest accomplishment
• Why choose location X?
• What’s your 5-year plan?

2. Behavioural (PEI) questions

Behavioural questions, which are sometimes also called Personal Experience Interview (PEI) questions, are used to assess candidates on three primary skills: leadership, entrepreneurial drive, and personal impact.  You can learn more about these questions, and how to answer them, in our PEI interview guide .

Below are several typical  behavioural / PEI questions. Again, these are real interview questions that were originally reported by candidates on Glassdoor.com. We've just rephrased the questions in some places for better readability.

Example behavioural (PEI) questions

• Tell me about a situation when you had to change someone’s opinion
• Tell me about a situation in which you disagreed with someone
• Tell me about a time you had to resolve a conflict in a team setting
• Tell me about a challenging situation with a tight deadline
• Give me an example of how you handled a crisis
• Name the biggest obstacle you’ve had in your career, and how you overcame it
• Tell me about a time when you influenced without authority
• Tell me about a project that you have led

3. Market sizing questions

Market sizing questions are used to assess a candidate’s maths skills, and their ability to logically solve problems without any provided data. Market sizing questions are often asked at the beginning of consulting case interviews (more on those later). 

Below are several typical market sizing  questions. T o learn more about market sizing questions, and to see the original sources and solutions for each of the below questions, visit our market sizing questions guide . 

Example market sizing questions

• How many t-shirts are purchased in New York City in a given year? 
• Provide an estimate for the number of dentists currently working in the UK 
• What is the yearly market size for smartphones in the USA?
• Estimate the market size for televisions in Poland
• Calculate the market size for weddings in the UK
• Calculate the market size for medical consumables in GP practices 
• Estimate how many women in the USA play golf 
• What is the size of the sandwich market in India?

4. Case interview questions

A case interview simulates the conditions of a real consulting project, so that your interviewer can evaluate how you would perform on the job. Case interviews usually start with a broad question or statement that provides context on the business, then the case will evolve with a series of additional questions or considerations.

Below are paraphrased versions of the opening questions for several case interviews. Each of the cases below are from McKinsey, BCG, and other leading firms. Click the corresponding link to see the full case. And for a larger list of example case interviews, check out our case interview examples article .

Example case interview questions

• Should the Diconsa network be used to provide financial services? (See the full McKinsey case )
• Should SuperSoda launch a new sports drink product? And how? (See the full McKinsey case )
• How should Foods Inc. approach its distribution strategy for cereal? (See the full BCG case )
• How should GenCo increase revenues? (See the full BCG case )
• Should your friend open a coffee shop in Cambridge? (See the full Bain case )
• Why have FashionCo’s revenues declined over the past 5 years? And what should they do about it? (See the full Bain case )
• How should Duraflex change its strategy for their work boot products? (See the full Deloitte case )

Why Are WumbleWorld’s theme park profits declining? And how should they turn the situation around? (See the full Oliver Wyman case )

5. How to prepare for consulting interviews

Most people won’t be ready to flawlessly solve any of the above consulting interview questions without preparing first. 

To make the most of your practise time and to maximise your chances of landing a consulting offer, we’d recommend you take the following preparation steps:

Learn a consistent method

Having a framework will help you structure your answers logically and minimise your potential for mistakes. For each category of questions above, we have a separate free guide that will help you develop a consistent approach for answering questions successfully. 

Here’s a quick list of those resources:

• For fit questions , study the fit / PEI section of our case interview guide .
• For behavioural / PEI questions , you can dig deeper with our McKinsey PEI guide .
• For market sizing questions , check out our in-depth market sizing guide .
• For case interview questions , review our guide on case interview frameworks .

Practise on your own

Once you’ve learned a repeatable approach for a given category of questions, we recommend answering lots of questions until it starts to come naturally. The question list above provides an excellent starting point. 

And once you’ve used all the questions above, here’s where you can find even more:

• For fit questions , you can find a few under “other” in our case interview guide .
• For PEI questions , you can find several more examples in our McKinsey PEI guide .
• For market sizing questions , look in our separate market sizing questions guide . 
• For case interview questions , check out our case interview examples article . 

We also recommend interviewing yourself out loud, by asking yourself questions and responding to them. This may sound strange, but it will dramatically improve the way you communicate your answers during interviews.

Practise with others

Practising by yourself is a great way to get started, and can help you get more comfortable with the flow of a case interview. However, this type of practice won’t prepare you for realistic interview conditions.

After getting some practice on your own, you should find someone who can do a mock interview with you, like a friend or family member.

We’d also recommend that you practise 1-1 with ex-interviewers from a top consulting firm. This is the best way to replicate the conditions of a real case interview, and to get feedback from someone who understands the process extremely well. Meet our MBB ex-interviewers who’d love to work with you.

Related articles:

Consulting Career Academy

The Complete Guide to a Management Consulting Case Study Interview

Candidates attempting to launch a career in management consulting by applying for positions with firms like McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Deloitte are waiting nervously for that invitation to interview. And, increasingly, management consulting position interviews with employers like these include a case study component. Adequately preparing for these case study interviews is a key step in the recruitment process.

This introduction to and overview of the case interview process from the experts at The MBA Exchange can help you nail your management consulting case interview. We’ve got all the examples, samples, explainers and tips you need to answer case interview questions with confidence and land your targeted management consulting position.

Serious management consulting candidates need to prepare with care for case interviews, ideally working with a partner or other consulting field expert. 

What is a Case Interview?

Case study interviews provide recruiters from consulting companies with a window into your analytical problem-solving capabilities. These skills that key for any management consulting career . And it’s difficult to show your ability to work on dynamic issues without a “live test,” so to speak. That’s what case study questions are for!

Case study questions ask you to come up with practical solutions to real-world business problems, grounding your answer in hard data, logical reasoning and effective communication. Case interviews are less about demonstrating correct knowledge, or your ability to hit to a “right” answer, than showing off your ability to reason on the fly.

What is the focus and format of the case interview?

The form of case interviews can vary. You might face a stand-alone interview with a partner, or case study questions may be part of an interview that also includes more traditional interview questions designed to gauge “fit.” Case interview questions can vary dramatically from applicant to applicant, so it’s not worth much of your time to try to guess or anticipate them. 

How long is a case interview? Case study interviews usually last about 45 minutes. Some companies may send you the case question and some data 24 hours in advance for you to study. Others will present the case at the start of the interview. You will be expected to ask questions to elicit more information during the interview, and use that information to resolve the problem with specific recommendations.

What is a quantitative case interview?

If you plan to apply for positions with firms like McKinsey, Bain or BCG , you should be prepared for quantitative case study questions and answers. 

Quantitative case interviews focus on your mathematical and logical problem-solving capabilities, a must for our data-driven reality. Often, quantitative case interviews form a core element of the management consulting recruitment process. You might also encounter quantitative case study interview questions in interviews for positions in general management, marketing or even engineering.

Quantitative interview questions reveal the key strengths that you as a candidate will need to become a successful consultant. Here are some examples of questions from different case interview question categories:

• Market sizing: “Estimate the total industry-wide sales of bicycles in the US”
• Revenue estimate: “Estimate annual sales for Starbucks retail stores in the US”
• Breakeven: “A running shoe manufacturer sells shoes for $100 a pair. To produce each pair, the company spends $10 in material and $5 in labor. They have $1M in monthly operating costs. If they sell 30,000 pairs a month, what is their monthly profit?”
• Price elasticity: “The price of a one-way ticket from Seattle to New York is $400. Should JetBlue raise their price to $450?”
• Lifetime value: “What is the customer lifetime value of a Visa card holder over the next three years?”

You need to be prepared to field questions like these, no matter the twists and turns your interview takes! Remember to demonstrate mathematical dexterity: We’re used to doing math with calculators and designing and running complex data analysis algorithms. As a result, we don’t have as much experience doing math by hand. Often, a quick back-of-the-envelope analysis is needed to test that you are on the right path. Quantitative interviews test your ability to manipulate numbers manually at speed. 

What Are Top Consulting Companies Really Looking for?

The case study is not meant to test your domain knowledge or your ability to get to a “right” answer. Instead, what companies will look for is:

• Problem-solving abilities – what approach you take to start addressing the question presented in the case study. Today’s business world has many new and ambiguous problems. Consultants need to be able to tackle unfamiliar challenges with incomplete information and devise a logical framework for setting a course of action. Can you?
• Analytical and creative thinking: What role does creativity play? It informs how you attack the problem, the kinds of probing questions that you ask, the connection you forge with the interviewer and the conclusions you present at the close of the case. Your creativity will certainly set you apart from the rest.
• Presentation of qualitative and/or quantitative data or evidence and logic to support your analysis and recommendations
• Communication skills: Work gets done by teams. To persuade team members and leaders to your point of view as a consultant, you must be able to convince others with logical, objective arguments backed by numbers. Ability to ask insightful questions as well as answer follow-up questions
• Demeanor and poise: Good consultants are calm and inspire confidence. Poised individuals communicate with an approach that is balanced, not emotional. That balanced approach is based on a strategy of sound logic and hard numbers. If you can show these key qualities during your case interview, you’ll be well on your way to management consulting success.

In a case interview, the consultant is looking to see how the candidate will attack the problem. Will they grasp the main question that needs to be solved? Will they ask the pertinent questions to get the relevant information needed to come up with an answer? Will they develop a logical solution based on the evidence? 

In addition to solving the problem, or “cracking the case,” the intangibles in the situation also matter. Does the candidate walk through their logic clearly? Are they comfortable doing calculations in their head? How do they present themself? Are they confident and positive? Are they building rapport with the consultant? 

Case Study Interview Examples

Check out these examples of the types of case interview questions you can expect from major management consulting firms. How well would you do, if you had to craft a response on the spot?

“You are a product manager at a well-established ride-sharing company operating in a highly competitive market. Recently, you read an article in the “Weekend Journal” section of the Wall Street Journal that examines how senior citizens engage with the digital economy. The article describes how a team of researchers from a reputable US university conducted focus groups with senior citizens who frequently use ride-sharing apps because they are no longer able to drive. One of the findings was that seniors are frustrated by how quickly their cars arrived – often in under five minutes – after the ride was booked. With this information in mind, describe what recommendations you would make to your ride-sharing company (if any).”

“The Weston Group is a Canadian retailer that is facing limited growth. The CEO has proposed creating a new tablet, the ‘Hudl’, that will be affordable and target the 75% market in Canada that does not have tablets. Do you think that this is an innovative idea? Should Weston Group pursue this venture?”

“Assume you have taken over Nokia as CEO. Following the major sale to Microsoft, what steps would you take to ensure the company’s profitability and future survival?”

Case interviews are not a cause for panic or concern: you should welcome them as an open-ended opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of, and comfort with, analytical problem-solving. Rather than a “correct” answer, the interviewer is seeking to understand how you think and communicate.

How to Answer Consulting Case Interview Questions

The key to success in case interviews is to think logically and follow a linear thought process, while still leaving space for creativity in your final response. Here is a general format for you to follow:

• Listen very carefully and take notes on the case as presented by your interviewer. Pay attention to subtle cues and guidance that could help you justify your proposed solution.
• Ask for clarification if you don’t understand something significant. Your questions will be “on the record” so be articulate and thoughtful. Pose a “framing” question to elicit more information than you were given upfront. For instance, if you are given a case about a venture capital firm considering an investment in a startup, you can ask: “Does this VC have other portfolio companies in the same industry and therefore might be planning a roll-up of multiple companies?”
• Paraphrase the situation and the key issues/problems/opportunities. For instance, “Company X is losing market share despite a growing market for its products. The CEO must decide whether to reduce price to increase demand, differentiate the offerings to justify a higher price or seek a merger partner to add scale and reduce manufacturing cost.”
• Walk through the steps of your analysis clearly. Make simplifying assumptions as necessary. You can use paper and pencil to do your calculations, and you can share any simple illustrations, like a 2×2 matrix, that illustrates your problem-solving process.
• Develop your potential solution and test your answer to make sure it is achievable. For example, are your sales projections reasonable given the size of the total market and current growth rates? Are there additional criteria that need to be checked to reach success? For example, does the company have an adequate supply chain to sustain its projected growth? Look for disconfirming evidence to ensure your solution is robust.
• Confidently summarize the problem that was posed and your hypothetical solution, identifying three convincing support points for your solution. For instance, if you think Company X should seek a merger partner, your support would be: the market is already price sensitive, there is excessive supply available, and other companies with more efficient factories are also feeling pain.” Three points of convincing support should shore up your suggested solution, giving you a solid tripod of elegant evidentiary reasoning.

Case Interview Prep for Consulting

You don’t need to panic when it comes to case interview preparation. You can’t control when you’ll be invited to consulting interviews with companies like BCG and McKinsey, or who you’ll interview with when the time comes. You can’t even control what the subject matter of the case will be. But you can control your ability to perform well during the case with your prep for case interviews.

Preparing on your own

Candidates who are serious about pursuing a career in consulting should set aside a significant portion of their time to practice their case interviewing skills. Did you know that the best practice case interview questions actually often come from business news articles in major publications like the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times? Find an article about a company that is facing a difficult business decision, and describe for yourself what and how you would address it as the CEO. There you go, that’s case interview prep!

At a minimum, you should prepare yourself for success by committing to practicing your case techniques for several weeks before your interview. Doing 50–70 cases is common. However, it is just as important to practice the right way if you want to achieve your management consulting career goals .

Welcome these open-ended opportunities to demonstrate your understanding of, and comfort with, analytical problem-solving. Solving cases is a skill that can be learned and developed. Just as you would have better chances of scoring well on the SAT, GRE or GMAT by studying the format of the test, doing practice tests and developing a strategic approach, you can improve your case-solving skills during your consulting case prep.

Preparing with others

The best practice is doing cases with someone who can give you targeted feedback not only on the obvious factors such as correct case math, appropriate frameworks, and logical structure, but also on the intangible components of the evaluation, such as your communication skills and client-facing presence.

It’s a good idea to look for some guidance and support from people familiar with the industry as you build your business case prep plan. Practicing written cases with your peers helps you internalize the logic for cracking cases. However, a peer will not know what the evaluation criteria are for top tier firms and won’t be able to evaluate how you are performing versus your competition. 

For a realistic assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, you should do some case interview practice with someone from the industry — either an industry contact who is willing to practice with you, or a firm like the Career Consulting Academy.

The more you practice, the more comfortable you will feel and the better you will do on interview day. In addition to the guidance provided above, top management consulting firms such as McKinsey, Bain and BCG feature valuable suggestions and sample case interviews that you can use to prepare. In order to ensure that you are practicing the right skills, look for some guidance and support from people familiar with the industry.

Strategic preparation for consulting case interviews

A strategic approach to preparing for case interviews involves:

• Working through cases out loud with an expert coach
• Receiving constructive feedback on your strengths and weaknesses
• Developing a plan on how to improve your case interview skills
• Building skills and confidence in the case interview process

Understand and internalize key frameworks, don’t try to memorize them. A common mistake is the desire to remember the solution to every single case in every single industry. Clearly, that’s impossible. Understanding how case solutions are structured and internalizing the key logical steps to take to solving a case is much more effective than memorizing fifteen frameworks and trying to think through what framework matches the problem you’ve been presented with during the interview.

Get comfortable with oral math. Nothing is more off-putting than someone who cannot perform simple multiplication, division, taking percentages, etc. out loud. Wean yourself off of your calculator and learn how to make meaningful estimates that simplify your calculations.

Remember that half of the evaluation will be on intangibles — your executive presence, your skill at building rapport with the interviewer, and your oral communication skills. If you think it’s all about the “right answer,” you’re wrong!

With these steps, you can step into case interview or qualitative case interview situations with confidence and mental clarity, providing instant evidence of how competently you can handle the challenges of a top-tier management consulting career at your consulting interviews and impressing potential employers when it matters most. 

Who is The Career Consulting Academy?

We’re a team of 20 former management consultants with extensive experience from working in worldwide offices of 11 leading management consulting firms. We know what this industry is about and what it values most in new hires. We’re also skilled advisors from The MBA Exchange who have helped more than 5,000 applicants gain admission to highly selective business schools worldwide. We have a CPA-verified track record for helping individuals compete and win against all odds.

As consultants, we are reviewing resumes and giving fit and case interviews regularly, and making hiring decisions. We have a grounded understanding of what separates those who get offers and those who don’t. These experiences allow us to give targeted feedback on your strengths and weaknesses, which help our clients develop focused prep plans. Consulting Career Academy would love to have a conversation with you to answer any questions and propose the best approach for your management consulting career plans.

Ready to start your journey to a career in management consulting? With our decades of experience, we can help! Have a 15-minute chat with a former McKinsey, BCG or Bain consultant to discuss your career interests, needs and priorities – there’s no cost or obligation!

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• Hacking the Case Interview

Deloitte case interviews are the most difficult part of the interview process. Deloitte interviews are comprised of case interviews, a group case interview, and behavioral or fit interview questions. You will need to pass every single Deloitte case interview in order to land a job offer.

In this comprehensive article, we’ll cover exactly what to expect in your upcoming Deloitte interview and how to best answer all of the different types of questions, including Deloitte case interviews. We’ll cover in detail:

• Deloitte interview process
• What is a Deloitte case interview?
• What does a Deloitte case interview assess?
• How to solve Deloitte case interviews
• The different types of Deloitte case interviews
• Examples of Deloitte case interviews
• Deloitte case interview tips
• How to prepare for Deloitte case interviews
• How to solve the Deloitte group case interview
• Deloitte behavioral and fit interview questions
• Recommended Deloitte case interview resources

If you’re looking for a step-by-step shortcut to learn case interviews quickly, enroll in our case interview course . These insider strategies from a former Bain interviewer helped 30,000+ land consulting offers while saving hundreds of hours of prep time.

Deloitte Interview Process

The Deloitte interview process typically consists of two rounds of interview that include case interviews, a group case interview, and behavioral or fit interview questions. The entire interview process can take anywhere from one week to a few months.

Given its size, Deloitte may have a different interview process depending on the country or the office that you are interviewing for. However, the most common interview process consists of two rounds of interviews following the submission of your Deloitte resume .

• First round interviews : you will have one 30 to 45-minute behavioral interview and one or two 30 to 45-minute case interviews.
• Final round interviews : you will have a 30 to 45-minute behavioral interview, a 30 to 45-minute case interview, and a one hour group case interview

There are three important distinctions between your first round Deloitte interview and your final round Deloitte interview.

One, your interviewers will likely be more senior people at Deloitte. This means that the case interviews you receive may be a bit less structured and more qualitative in nature. The case interview may feel more like a discussion where you and the interviewer are discussing your opinions and ideas on a business problem.

Two, there will be more of an emphasis on assessing your fit with the firm. The first round interview is primarily used as a screener to determine whether or not you can solve case interviews effectively and whether or not you have the potential to be a great consultant.

Final round interviews will also continue to assess this, but interviewers will also be determining whether or not you would be a great fit with the office. Are you coachable and easy to work with? Are you collaborative? These are a few of the qualities that interviewers want to see.

Three, your interviewers may read the notes that your interviewers wrote during your Deloitte first round interview. If there was a particular area of the case interview that you struggled with, interviewers may want to test you again on it to make sure that it is not a significant weakness.

What is a Deloitte Case Interview?

A Deloitte case interview, also known as a “case” for short, is a 30 to 60-minute exercise in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

These business problems can be anything that real companies face:

• How can Amazon increase its profitability?
• What can Apple do to increase customer retention?
• How should Tesla price its new electric vehicle?
• Where should Disney open another Disneyland theme park?

Deloitte case interviews simulate what the consulting job will be like by placing you in a hypothetical business situation. Cases simulate real business problems that consulting firms solve for their clients. Many Deloitte case interviews are based on actual projects that interviewers have worked on.

While consulting projects typically last between 3 to 9 months, case interviews condense solving the business problem into just 30 to 45 minutes.

Deloitte case interviews can cover any industry, including retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, energy, education, healthcare, government, and technology.

They can also cover a wide range of business situations, including entering a new market, launching a new product, acquiring a company, improving profitability, and growing revenues.

Although Deloitte case interviews cover a wide range of industries and business situations, no technical or specialized knowledge is needed. Unless you are interviewing for a consulting firm that specializes in a particular industry or function, cases are designed to be solved by someone that has general business knowledge.

Nailing your Deloitte case interviews is critical to get a job at Deloitte. There is no way to get a Deloitte job offer without passing your case interviews.

What Does a Deloitte Case Interview Assess?

Deloitte case interviews assess five different qualities or characteristics: logical and structured thinking, analytical problem solving, business acumen, communication skills, and personality and cultural fit.

1. Logical and structured thinking : Consultants need to be organized and methodical in order to work efficiently.

• Can you structure complex problems in a clear, simple way?
• Can you take tremendous amounts of information and data and identify the most important points?
• Can you use logic and reason to make appropriate conclusions?

2. Analytical problem solving : Consultants work with a tremendous amount of data and information in order to develop recommendations to complex problems.

• Can you read and interpret data well?
• Can you perform math computations smoothly and accurately?
• Can you conduct the right analyses to draw the right conclusions?

3. Business acumen : A strong business instinct helps consultants make the right decisions and develop the right recommendations.

• Do you have a basic understanding of fundamental business concepts?
• Do your conclusions and recommendations make sense from a business perspective?

4. Communication skills : Consultants need strong communication skills to collaborate with teammates and clients effectively.

• Can you communicate in a clear, concise way?
• Are you articulate in what you are saying?

5. Personality and cultural fit : Consultants spend a lot of time working closely in small teams. Having a personality and attitude that fits with the team makes the whole team work better together.

• Are you coachable and easy to work with?
• Are you pleasant to be around?

All of these five qualities can be assessed in just a 30 to 60-minute Deloitte case interview. This is what makes case interviews so effective in assessing consulting candidates.

How to Solve Deloitte Case Interviews

Deloitte case interviews are candidate-led. You will be in the driver’s seat of the case interview and will be expected to ask the right questions, probe for data, and propose each next step to solve the case.

In a Deloitte case interview, you are not assessed on whether or not you have the correct answer. Instead, Deloitte uses case interviews to assess six different qualities:

• Problem solving : Can you decompose a problem into smaller, more manageable questions?
• Analytical ability : Can you draw the right insights from data and information?
• Strategic thinking : Do you have a sharp business acumen and practical business judgment?
• Logical thinking : Are you structured, organized, and rational in the way that you think?
• Creativity : Can you generate interesting or unique ideas and solutions?
• Professional demeanor : Are you calm, confident, and articulate?

Our step-by-step guide to case interviews is presented in the video below. We highly recommend watching that video in its entirety. 

On Deloitte's case interview website , they recommend taking five   steps to solve a case interview:

1. Understand the issue and ask clarifying questions

The most important part of the case interview is to make sure you understand the business issue and the objective of the case. The quickest way to fail a case interview is to answer or address the wrong business problem. 

Therefore, if either the business issue or objective of the case is unclear, make sure to ask clarifying questions.

2. Identify the underlying assumptions

Next, you’ll need to decompose the overall business problem into smaller, more manageable issues. Identify what would need to be true in order for you to recommend a particular course of action.

To do this, it will be helpful to put together a framework, which is a tool that helps you organize your ideas and thoughts into different categories. For a complete guide on how to create tailored and unique frameworks for each case, check out our article on case interview frameworks .

3. Summarize specific issues and findings

Afterwards, you’ll begin investigating different issues or areas of your framework. After investigating each one, it is important that you summarize the key takeaways or insights that you uncovered.

Connect these findings back to the overall business problem and explain how your findings impact your potential recommendation.

4. State your recommendations

Once you have gathered enough evidence and support for your recommendation, you will need to present your recommendation in a clear and concise way.

Start by giving a firm recommendation. Then, provide the three major reasons that support your recommendation. This should summarize most of the important findings from the case.

5. Outline next steps and the expected results or impact

After delivering a recommendation, you should propose potential next steps that you would take if you had more time or data. What would you need to know to further strengthen your recommendation or make you more confident in your answer?

You can also talk about the expected results or impact of your recommendation. This may also have implications on potential next steps, such as analyzing the risks or quantifying the financial benefits. 

The Different Types of Deloitte Case Interviews

There are three different types of Deloitte case interviews, one type for each of Deloitte's consulting groups:  

• Strategy & Operations : primarily focused on corporate strategy, supply-chain improvement, business model transformation, and process improvements. The work that this group does is most similar to the work that McKinsey, BCG, and Bain do
• Business Technology : primarily focused on digital strategy, delivery of information technology programs, and building tech-based solutions for clients
• Human Capital : primarily focused on organization transformation, change management, corporate learning and development, and diversity and inclusion

The type of case that you get depends on what group you are interviewing with. 

For example, If you are interviewing with the Strategy & Operations group, you’ll get a strategy or operations case . You may be asked to determine whether to enter a new market, launch a new product, or make an acquisition.

If you are interviewing with the Technology group, you’ll get a technology or IT case. You may be asked to determine whether to roll out a new IT system, how to assess different technologies, or how to best coordinate an IT transformation.

If you are interviewing with the Human Capital group, you may be asked to determine the optimal organization structure, how to better incentivize employees to perform better, or how to save payroll costs.

Examples of Deloitte Case Interviews

Below are practice cases created by Deloitte. We recommend working through these so that you know exactly what to expect in your Deloitte case interview.

For undergraduates:

• Engagement Strategy: Federal Agency V (strategy case)
• Recreation Unlimited (strategy case)
• Strategic Vision: Federal Benefits Provider (strategy case)
• MedX: The Smart Pill Bottle (business technology case)
• Architecture Strategy: Federal Finance Agency (business technology case)

For advanced degree students:

• Finance strategy: Federal Health Agency (strategy case)
• Talent Management: Federal Civil Cargo Protection Bureau (strategy case)

For more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

  Deloitte Case Interview Tips

Below are eight of Deloitte's case interview tips to help you improve your case interview performance.

Tip #1: Take notes

While the interviewer is providing you with the case background information, take notes on the most important pieces of information. Pay particularly close attention to the context, company, and case objective.

Tip #2: Make sure you understand the case question

Answering or addressing the wrong business problem is the quickest way to fail a case interview. The most important thing is understanding what the business issue is and what overall question you’ll be expected to answer at the end of the case. 

Tip #3: Ask questions

Do not be afraid to ask questions. You will not be penalized for asking questions that are important and relevant to the case. 

Great questions to ask include asking for the definition of an unfamiliar term, asking questions that clarify the objective of the issue, and asking questions to strengthen your understanding of the context or company.

Tip #4: After you develop a framework, develop an initial hypothesis

A hypothesis is an educated guess on the answer based on the data and information that you have so far. It helps guide your analysis and keeps you on the right track.

After developing a framework, try to develop a hypothesis to help you decide what area of your framework you should explore first.

Tip #5: Take time to structure your thoughts

When asked a question in a case interview, don’t always start answering immediately. Instead, take the time to process the question and develop an organized and structured way to answer it. It is acceptable to ask the interview for a brief moment to collect your thoughts.

Your answer will likely be much stronger if you give yourself time to think. 

Tip #6: Present a clear, logical story for your recommendation

Remember that consultants need to convince clients to follow their proposed recommendations. Being articulate and persuasive are necessary skills for management consultants .

When you deliver your recommendation, try to make it a coherent story. This will make your recommendation easier to follow and more compelling.

Tip #7: Walk the interviewer through your thinking and explain assumptions

You do not get any points for the ideas and thinking that you do not communicate. Therefore, you should make every effort to talk through your thoughts out loud.

Walk the interviewer through what you are thinking. Explain why you have made particular decisions. State your assumptions. This makes it easier for the interviewer to provide feedback or hints to help you out.

Tip #8: Engage the interviewer in a business conversation

Remember that a case interview is a collaborative exercise. You should not be dismissing the feedback and suggestions that the interviewer provides you. They may be trying to help steer the case in the right direction or provide you with hints when you get stuck.

Treat the interviewer as your teammate and turn the case interview into a business conversation.

How to Prepare for Deloitte Case Interviews

There are seven steps to preparing for Deloitte case interviews.

1. Understand what a case interview is

The first step in preparing for Deloitte case interviews is to understand exactly what case interviews are.

When you are familiar with what case interviews are, it is important to know what a great Deloitte case interview performance looks like.

Knowing what a great Deloitte case interview performance looks like will facilitate how quickly you learn case interview strategies in the next step.

Before continuing onto the next step, you should be familiar with:

• The overall objective of a case interview
• The structure and flow of a case interview
• The types of questions you could get asked
• What a great case interview performance looks like

2. Learn the right strategies

Now that you have sufficient background knowledge, the next step in preparing for Deloitte case interviews is to learn the right strategies to build good case interview habits.

It is much more effective to learn the right case strategies the first time than to learn poor strategies and try to correct them later.

The quickest, most efficient way to learn these strategies is to go through our Comprehensive Case Interview Course .

If you prefer reading case interview prep books instead, the three I recommend are:

• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook
• Case Interview Secrets

Hacking the Case Interview provides strategies on exactly what to do and what to say in every step of the case interview. It is a concise and straight to the point guide. I recommend this book as the first book to read for beginners.

Case Interview Secrets teaches core concepts such as the issue tree , drill-down analysis, and a hypothesis driven approach. It illustrates these concepts through stories and anecdotes. If you have read Hacking the Case Interview, I recommend also reading this book to get perspectives from a second author. Check out our full review of Case Interview Secrets .

Case in Point provides a ton of specific and complex frameworks. However, you likely won’t be using many of these in an actual case interview because many of them are overly complex and specific. If you have time, it may be useful to skim through this book. Check out our full review of Case in Point .

At the bare minimum, read either the first or second book. If you have the time, read the first two books so that you can get strategies from two different authors.

Make sure to spend sufficient time learning the right strategies before starting to practice cases. It is ineffective to practice cases if you have no idea what strategies to practice and refine.

Before moving onto the next step, you should at least have strategies for the following parts of a case interview:

• Developing unique and tailored frameworks
• Solving quantitative problems
• Answering qualitative questions
• Delivering a recommendation

3. Practice 3-5 cases by yourself

Once you have learned the right strategies, the next step in Deloitte case interview prep is to practice.

When practicing case interviews, it is usually better to practice with a case interview partner than to practice by yourself . Casing with a partner better simulates the real case interview experience.

However, when you are just starting to practice, I recommend doing the first 3 – 5 cases by yourself.

There are three reasons for this:

• You can get the hang of the case interview structure and format much more quickly working by yourself rather than having to wait to schedule a time with a partner
• There are many aspects of case interviews that you can practice without a partner, such as structuring a framework and solving quantitative problems. You can get much more practice working through these parts by yourself
• You may have difficulty finding a case interview partner if you are a complete beginner. Without having done any cases, you likely won’t know how to properly give a case or provide good feedback

4. Practice 5-10 cases with a partner

The next step in preparing for Deloitte case interviews is to case with a partner.

Casing with a partner is the best way to simulate a real case interview. There are many aspects of case interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner.

When practicing cases with a partner, ensure you are spending enough time after cases to deliver feedback.

For a case that takes around 30 – 40 minutes, spend at least 15 – 20 minutes for feedback. Much of your learning and improvement will come from these feedback sessions.

Do not move onto the next step until you have done at least 5 – 10 cases and are beginning to feel comfortable with case interviews.

5. Practice with a former or current consultant

At this point, I highly recommend asking former or current consultants to give you a practice case. This will significantly help you prepare for case interviews.

Doing a mock case with a former or current consultant is highly advantageous because they know exactly how to run cases and give feedback. You’ll receive incredibly helpful feedback that your previous case partners likely missed.

If you feel that you are plateauing with your case partner, that is a sign you should do a mock case interview with a former or current consultant.

You can find former or current consultants among:

• People you met during the consulting recruiting process
• Your broader LinkedIn network

I would not ask a consultant that is involved with the consulting recruiting process for a case too prematurely. Although these practice cases are not evaluative, some firms will actually make note of how well you perform during the practice case.

At this point, you will have accumulated a long list of improvement areas from all of the different people you have cased with.

6. Work on your improvement areas

In this step of preparing for Deloitte case interviews, you will work on strengthening and fine-tuning your improvement areas. Examples of common improvement areas include:

• Creating a more complete and mutually exclusive framework
• Performing math calculations quicker or more smoothly
• Providing more structure to your qualitative answers
• Leading the case more proactively
• Delivering a more succinct recommendation

Try to focus on improving one thing at a time. This is much more effective than trying to improve everything at once.

For some areas, such as math, it will be better to work independently. For other areas, such as learning to proactively lead the case, it will be better to work with a case partner.

If you are looking for more cases, look at the resources listed in step four. If you are looking for specific drills or practice problems for a particular part of a case interview, check out The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook .

Do not move onto the next step until you have finished working on all of your improvement areas.

7. Stay sharp

If you have progressed this far, congratulations! You have almost finished preparing for Deloitte case interviews.

Once you feel that you have no more improvement areas to work on, the key is to not burn yourself out by doing too many unnecessary cases.

While each case that you do makes you slightly better, there is a point when doing too many cases can create case fatigue right before your interview. Case fatigue can negatively impact your interview performance.

On the other hand, you also don’t want to go weeks without having done a case. You may end up forgetting strategies or become rusty and slow.

Once you have achieved case mastery, I recommend doing no more than 2 cases per week in the weeks leading up to your interview. This ensures that you remain sharp for case interviews, but don’t have case fatigue.

How to Solve the Deloitte Group Case Interview

Deloitte is one of the few consulting firms that uses group case interviews in their final round of interviews. They conduct group case interviews because Deloitte’s work culture has a huge emphasis on teamwork and culture fit.

Here’s what to expect:

• You’ll be put into a group with 3 to 5 other candidates
• The interviewer will hand out case materials
• You’ll be given 10 minutes to review the case materials and prepare
• The group will have a discussion for 20 minutes
• During this discussion, interviewers will be observing candidates and will not interfere
• Afterwards, the interviewer will ask the group specific questions for another 20 minutes

Group case interviews can be challenging to prepare for because it is difficult to replicate the exact conditions to practice them. However, if you prepare for case interviews well, you will be in a great position to succeed in group case interviews.

Your goal in a group case interview is to add value to the group. There are six different ways that you can add value:

• Lead or facilitate the discussion : You can propose what topics to discuss, the order they should be discussed in, and how much time should be allocated towards each topic. If the group gets off track, you can bring the group’s focus back together.
• Expand upon other people’s ideas : If a group member suggests a great idea or raises a good point, build upon it and make it even better.
• Synthesize information : You can summarize information that other people have said and reconcile different viewpoints and ideas together.
• Keep track of time : You can volunteer to keep track of time and make sure that the group is on track.
• Play devil’s advocate : You can help your group develop strong ideas by testing the team’s thinking by considering potential risks or downsides of their ideas.
• Take notes:  You can keep track of what other people are saying so that you can recall what has been discussed if any group members have questions.

Follow these five tips to shine during your Deloitte group case interview.

Tip #1: Treat your group members as teammates, not competition

The group case interview is not an exercise in which you are competing with others. Interviewers are trying to assess whether you would be a great teammate. Multiple people or even all people in your group can receive job offers.

Therefore, focus on adding value to the group rather than making yourself look better than your teammates.

Tip #2: Don’t speak too much, but don’t speak too little

If you speak too much, this may be seen as being too aggressive or controlling. If you speak too little, you may come off as shy or timid.

If you were to rank all of the members in your group by how much each person spoke, you would want to be roughly in the middle. This would be the perfect balance of speaking and listening.

Tip #3: Don’t interrupt or talk over your group members

Interrupting others when they are speaking is rude and disrespectful. You do not want to be inconsiderate or a jerk. Be nice and respectful to your group members.

Tip #4: Involve other people

If you observe that someone has not spoken much, ask them for their thoughts or opinions. If you notice that someone has been cut off when they were speaking, ask them to finish their thoughts after the person interrupting them has finished what they have to say.

These are easy ways to show interviewers that you are a considerate and helpful teammate.

Tip #5: Speak only if you are adding value to the group

Just because you are speaking a lot during the group case interview does not mean that you are doing well. Interviewers are not assessing you purely on the quantity of what you say. They care more about the quality.

Great teammates know when to speak and when to listen. Therefore, you should speak only if you are adding some kind of value to the group. Interviewers can tell when people are speaking for the sake of getting air time.

For a full guide on group case interviews, check out our consulting group case interview step-by-step guide .

Deloitte Behavioral and Fit Interview Questions

In addition to case interviews, you will likely be asked a few behavioral or fit interview questions. There are ten questions that are most commonly asked.

1.  Why Deloitte?

How to answer: Provide your three biggest reasons why you’re interested in working at Deloitte. You could mention that you loved the people that you have met from Deloitte so far. You can talk about Deloitte’s massive global presence, their expertise in nearly any industry or function, or their professional development opportunities.

2. Why consulting?

How to answer: Again, provide three reasons for why you’re interested in consulting. You could mention the fast career progression opportunities, the learning opportunities to develop soft and hard skills, or the level of impact that you can make right away in consulting.

3. Walk me through your resume.

How to answer: Provide a concise summary of your work experience, starting with the most recent. Focus on emphasizing your most impressive and unique accomplishments. At the end, tie your experiences to why you are interested in consulting and why you would be a great fit for Deloitte.

4. What accomplishment are you most proud of? 

How to answer: Choose your most impressive, unique, or memorable accomplishment. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work. Explain why the accomplishment is so meaningful to you and what qualities that reveals about you as a person.

5. Tell me about something that is not on your resume.

How to answer: This is a great opportunity to highlight an accomplishment that is not related to your professional work experience. Perhaps there is a non-profit that you volunteer at, a side project or business that you work on, or a hobby that you have won awards or recognition for. Select an accomplishment that is impressive and interesting.

6. Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team.

How to answer: If possible, choose a time when you directly managed a person or a team. For this question and the following similar questions, make sure that you structure your answer. Provide information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work. This is known as the STAR method and is the most common way of answering behavioral or fit interview questions. 

7. Describe a time when you faced conflict or disagreement.

How to answer: When answering this question, focus on emphasizing the steps you took to resolve the conflict or disagreement. Speak about the interpersonal skills you had to use in order to mediate the situation. Interviewers want to know that you can handle conflict in a constructive way.

8. Give an example of a time when you successfully persuaded someone.

How to answer: Choose a time when you were able to change someone’s mind who originally disagreed with you. Focus on emphasizing the steps that you took to persuade that person and what impact this had on the organization. Interviewers want to know that you are a great communicator and have strong people skills.

9. Tell me about a time when you failed.

How to answer: Choose a time when you failed to meet a deadline or did not meet expectations. You do not want to pick a failure that is too big or embarrassing. Focus on emphasizing what you learned from the experience and how you used that experience to deliver even better results in the next opportunity that you got. Interviewers want to see that you strive to learn from your past failures and are always working to get better.

10. Are there any questions that you have for me?

How to answer: This is a fantastic opportunity to get to know the interviewer on a more personal level. Ask them questions about their experience in consulting. Ask what their favorite case was or what they are looking to do next in their career. The more you can get the interviewer talking about themself, the more likely they will be to have a positive impression of you. People love talking about themselves, so make sure to listen attentively and ask follow-up questions.

For a step-by-step guide on how to best answer all of these questions and more, check out our complete guide on consulting behavioral interview questions .

Recommended Deloitte Case Interview Resources

To prepare for Deloitte case interviews, you can use a variety of different case interview prep books, online courses, and coaching. We'll cover each of these different categories of resources in more detail.

Deloitte Case Interview Prep Books

Case interview prep books are great resources to use because they are fairly inexpensive, only costing $20 to $30. They contain a tremendous amount of information that you can read, digest, and re-read at your own pace.

Based on our comprehensive review of the 12 popular case interview prep books , we ranked nearly all of the case prep books in the market.

The three case interview prep books we recommend using are:  

• Hacking the Case Interview : In this book, learn exactly what to do and what to say in every step of the case interview. This is the perfect book for beginners that are looking to learn the basics of case interviews quickly.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook : In this book, hone your case interview skills through 65+ problems tailored towards each type of question asked in case interviews and 15 full-length practice cases. This book is great for intermediates looking to get quality practice.
• Case Interview Secrets : This book provides great explanations of essential case interview concepts and fundamentals. The stories and anecdotes that the author provides are entertaining and help paint a clear picture of what to expect in a case interview, what interviewers are looking for, and how to solve a case interview.

Deloitte Case Interview Courses

Case interview courses are more expensive to use than case interview prep books, but offer more efficient and effective learning. You’ll learn much more quickly from watching someone teach you the material, provide examples, and then walk through practice problems than from reading a book by yourself.

Courses typically cost anywhere between $200 to $400.

If you are looking for a single resource to learn the best Deloitte case interview strategies in the most efficient way possible, enroll in our comprehensive case interview course .

Through 70+ concise video lessons and 20 full-length practice cases based on real interviews from top-tier consulting firms, you’ll learn step-by-step how to crush your Deloitte case interview.

We’ve had students pass their Deloitte first round interview with just a week of preparation, but know that your success depends on the amount of effort you put in and your starting capabilities.

Deloitte Case Interview Coaching

With case interview coaching, you’ll pay anywhere between $100 to $300 for a 40- to 60-minute mock case interview session with a case coach. Typically, case coaches are former consultants or interviewers that have worked at top-tier consulting firms.

Although very expensive, case interview coaching can provide you with high quality feedback that can significantly improve your case interview performance. By working with a case coach, you will be practicing high quality cases with an expert. You’ll get detailed feedback that ordinary case interview partners are not able to provide.

Know that you do not need to purchase case interview coaching to receive a consulting job offer. The vast majority of candidates that receive offers from top firms did not purchase case interview coaching. By purchasing case interview coaching, you are essentially purchasing convenience and learning efficiency.

Case interview coaching is best for those that have already learned as much as they can about case interviews on their own and feel that they have reached a plateau in their learning. For case interview beginners and intermediates, it may be a better use of their money to first purchase a case interview course or case interview prep book before purchasing expensive coaching sessions.

If you do decide to eventually use a case interview coach, consider using our case coaching service .

There is a wide range of quality among coaches, so ensure that you are working with someone that is invested in your development and success. If possible, ask for reviews from previous candidates that your coach has worked with.

Summary of the Best Deloitte Case Interview Resources

To prepare for Deloitte case interviews as well as case interviews from other consulting firms, we recommend the following resources:

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with former consulting interviewers
• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

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Crafting Cases

Consulting Interview Questions: The Complete List

August 1, 2019 By Bruno Nogueira

What if there was a COMPLETE LIST of all the possible questions interviewers can ask you in a consulting interview?

That would make things a lot simpler, wouldn’t it?

Well, that’s what you’re gonna find in this guide.

If you’ve had any contact with consulting interviews before, I know what you’re thinking: “That’s impossible, consulting interviews are too complex for a complete list to exist!”

Here’s the thing: I can’t predict which specific questions your interviewer is going to ask. That would indeed be impossible.

However, I can predict with 99% certainty which TYPES of questions they’re going to ask. And then, I’ll give examples to each of them.

How can I do that?

Pretty easy: I’ve personally done dozens of consulting interviews in multiple firms.

More importantly, I’ve also personally done long-term coaching with hundreds of candidates so they could excel in their own interviews. This means I’ve been in touch with every single question asked in 3000+ interviews in all continents.

Then I’ve categorized those questions and put them together into this guide for you.

Here's what you'll get:

Think of this guide as a useful high-level roadmap of what you need to be able to answer in order to get a dream job at McKinsey, BCG, Bain and other top consulting firms.

In case you’re wondering, yes, these same questions will also help you go through interviews at smaller consulting firms, such as Roland Berger, AT Kearney and Oliver Wyman.

AND, they will help you with interviews in the consulting practice of the Big 4 (Deloitte, KPMG, etc.) and Accenture.

Here’s what I won’t do in this list, though:

• I won’t go into the specifics of how to learn and practice (though I will point you towards the resources to learn just that).
• I won’t usually go into the specifics of which firms use each question the most (as I’d have to write a whole book to cover that).

However, if your plan is to have a 99%-complete list of the types of questions your interviewer might ask you and how to prepare for each, you’re in the right place!

Table of contents:

1. Interview warm-up questions 2. Regular Fit interview questions 3. PEI Fit Interview questions 4. Case interview questions 5. End of interview questions 6. Uncommon types of questions

Interview warm-up questions

You get into the room…

And you’re NERVOUS.

“Is the interview gonna go well?”, you ask yourself.

“What does this interviewer think of me? Will it be tough?”. Your mind just can’t stop.

And guess what? Your interviewer is a little nervous too. Everyone is a little bit nervous when they meet someone new.

So what do they do?

They’ll ask you some warm-up questions.

I honestly don’t think you need to prepare for these, but it’s useful to see what are some of them, for two reasons:

Reason #1:  It helps you prepare your mind for what to expect. It’s much easier to remain calm as you enter the room if you know the ritual.

Reason #2: Interviewers often use these questions as transitions to either the fit interview or the case interview. This flowing transition happens especially with partners.

There is also a hidden goal with these questions, which is why partners use it so often: to understand if you’re going to make a nice first impression with clients.

Here are some of the most common interview warm-up questions:

“How are you doing?” type of questions

Frequency: 70-80% of interviews.

Time to Master: You learned it as a child 😉

Common phrasing:

• “How was your day so far?”
• “How was your flight here?”
• “How do you like this city?”

Purpose: No tricks here. This question is here purely for social interaction.

How to answer: Answer the question politely and as you’d answer it to someone slightly older than you. Needless to say, don’t call them “dude” or anything like that.

If you feel like it, you can add some insightful observation. Example: “I noticed there are some great places for lunch around the office – must be nice to get lunch with colleagues on Fridays”.

Then, ask them a similar question back (“How are you doing?”).

“What do you think of X?” type of questions

Frequency: 5-10% of interviews.

Time to Master: Zero.

• “What do you think of our office?”
• “What do you think of our firm?”
• “What do you think is going to happen today?”

Purpose: To break the silence and also see how observant/aware you are of what you’re doing at the interview.

How to answer: Answer sincerely and positively. 

Here, the insightful observation (that was optional in the last question) becomes important. They’re asking you what you think about something, might as well show you can notice things.

Then ask something related to them (to show curiosity and humbleness).

Of course, there can be other specific “ice breaker” questions and it’s not my plan to cover them all as they can all be answered with common sense.

HOWEVER, one important thing to notice: it’s fairly common for interviewers to ask a follow-up question on top of your answer that already is either a more formal, evaluative fit question or case question. 

(More on that in the next sections of this list.)

These fluid transitions can be sneaky and many candidates don’t notice them, so pay attention to it or you’ll risk answering these more important types of questions without any sort of structure. 

(Consulting firms require that for you to do well.)

In other words: answer these warm-up questions in a relaxed way, but don’t let your guard down.

Regular Fit interview questions

Consultants use fit interviews to assess three things, in order of importance:

• Your soft skills to present yourself, deal with clients and other human interactions.
• Your personal fit with the consulting profession.
• Your personal fit with the firm’s culture and values.

Most people don’t get this.

Candidates think interviewers are primarily concerned with their fit with the firm.

While this is important, most people would agree that the vast majority of McKinsey, BCG or Bain consultants would do well regardless of which firm they worked at.

Professional fit, however, is more important.

Few people have the interpersonal skills to be advisors, the industriousness to work long hours and achieve a lot in a short period of time (when the stakes are high), the intellectual curiosity to question everything, and the discipline to answer those questions in an analytical way.

And then there are the soft skills required in the job…

Can you communicate a past event clearly?

Can you persuade people to take action?

Can you sell yourself to fulfill a role?

Are you pleasant to talk to?

Without the skills, the fit with the profession is almost meaningless. And without professional fit, a fit with a firm’s culture would be irrelevant.

Interviewers use these “fit interview questions” to test those three things.

Here are the most common:

Tell me about yourself

Frequency: 60-70% of interviews.

Time to Master: 2-10 hours (to craft and practice a good story).

• “Tell me about yourself”
• “Why don’t you tell me who you are and why you’re here?”
• “What brings you to this interview?”

Purpose: This question has three different functions. 

First, it’s the perfect ice breaker.

Second, it’s a GREAT way to test your storytelling skills: since the question is so broad, how you choose what you talk about and how you organize those topics into a story tells a lot about how you think.

Finally, it serves as a great lead for the interviewer to know what’s the best question to ask you in term of fit after this one.

How to answer: Everyone’s story is different, so there’s obviously not a one-size-fits-all approach to answering this question. 

However, I do have two main principles that you should follow.

Principle #1 is to say only relevant stuff about yourself. You don’t want to start with your childhood, and probably not with your high school years.

The best way to guarantee you’re covering just the relevant things is to suppose you were asked “tell me the most concise story you can so I can understand why you’re applying for this role today”.

Principle #2 is to have a tight narrative thread to your story. Humans are complex, and so are you. You probably have a thousand reasons why you want and are perfect for that job. You don’t want to tell them all. Pick 1-2 overarching themes and create a cohesive story around those.

Additional resources:  This video  breaks down a great way to tell stories in your consulting interviews. 

(And by the way, once you’re on Youtube,  subscribe to our Youtube channel! )

Walk me through your resume

Frequency: 40-50% of interviews.

Time to Master: Resume-building time + 2-3 hours thinking through possible follow-up questions

• “Walk me through your resume”
• “Why don’t you walk me through some of the critical experiences in your resume?”

Purpose: Much of the purpose of this question is similar to the “Tell me about yourself” question: it serves as an ice breaker, as a way to see your storytelling skills and as a lead to other questions.

Most interviewers will either ask this question or “tell me about yourself”, few will do both.

Because there are specific items, however, some interviewers may use the opportunity to deep dive into a specific part of the resume and ask PEI-style questions (more on this later).

How to answer: Have an outline of your resume in your head and give them a little bit of detail where you would like them to deep dive.

That’s right: you can (somewhat) control where they’ll ask you further questions by giving more exciting details there.

Also, be prepared to give them a lot of detail wherever they want (see PEI Questions). You should have prepared for follow up questions beforehand.

Finally, just as in the “tell me about yourself” question, have a tight narrative thread to focus your answer on the specific story you want to tell about yourself.

Additional resources: A good, detailed view on the key mistakes candidates tend to  can be found in this video.

Why consulting?

Time to Master: 3-5 hours

• “Why consulting?”
• “Why do you want to be a consultant?”
• “Why are you leaving X to become a consultant?”

Purpose: They want to know three things from this question.

Number 1: Do you WANT the job? Are you excited to become a professional in this field? Why?

Number 2: Do you KNOW the job? Are you excited for the right reasons or is your excitement grounded in false premises?

Number 3: To get an initial first impression of your persuasion, communication and other soft skills. As with most fit questions, the way you answer it is very telling of how you perform in this areas.

How to answer: First of all, your answer should be structured.

If you can’t communicate reasons to do something in a structured way you can’t be a consultant. Period.

Second, you should have specific reasons for wanting to join consulting. This is quite obvious, but you’d be shocked of how many answers I’ve heard where the reasons weren’t clear or contradicted each other.

Third, you must be able to provide anecdotical evidence for each of your reasons. If you say you want to join consulting because you want predictable professional growth, you better have at least a story where you’ve verified that actually happens in consulting. Maybe a friend who’s a consultant told you, or you’ve asked a few people in that firm and they all confirmed that’s true. Real consultants are a bit skeptical about everything, so this shows you’re like them.

Finally, be able to connect the reasons to yourself. Consultants are skeptical and if you say you want predictable professional growth, but you’ve switched jobs a couple times per year for the past few years, I can’t trust you’re telling me the truth unless you give me more data to work with. If you tell me that you want to be a consultant because you’re always on for a new challenge, that’s more believable.

Additional resources:  We’ve written a comprehensive article on how to answer this question at  “Why Consulting?”: Anatomy of the Perfect Interview Answer.

Why this firm?

Time to Master: 1-2 hours

• “Why do you want to join our firm?”
• “Why McKinsey/Bain/BCG/Accenture?”
• “What attracts you to this firm more than others?”

Purpose: When asking this questions, interviewers want to see two main things.

The first of them is to see if you did your homework and understand the firm’s culture. They tend to prefer candidates who have investigated what their firm is all about and have concluded that it’s a right fit for them.

The second reason (which is related to the first one) is to see if you’re highly interested in their specific firm (compared to their competitors). When interviewers ask “Why BCG?”, what they’re essentially asking is “Why BCG, and not McKinsey or Bain”.

How to answer: The structure to answer this question is exactly the same as the structure to answer “Why Consulting?”.

What is different is of course, the arguments. You should have arguments that wouldn’t fully apply to their direct competitors. If you say you want to join BCG for reasons that would perfectly apply to McKinsey or Bain, your interviewer will not be convinced that you want to specifically be a BCG consultant.

Additional resources: The perfect structure to answer this question is the same to answer the “Why Consulting?” question, which you can find in this article we wrote.

To find specific reasons for each firm: look at their website and see how they describe themselves, then go talk to people and find anecdotal evidence for those reasons (don’t use their marketing-speak).

Why should we hire you?

• “Why should we hire you?”
• “Give me three reasons why we should hire you over all other candidates.”
• “Why do you think you’ll be a great consultant working in here?”

Purpose: They want to see if you can “sell yourself” with confidence and assertiveness.

Many people get irritated by this question because they think interviewers should figure out by themselves why they should hire them.

Interviewers aren’t dumb. They know THEY must get to the answer to that question themselves through the rest of the interviews. Their goal is not to get you to answer that question for them. Instead, it is to see if you’re self-aware and confident enough to give them a credible answer.

How to answer: There are many ways to answer this question. My favorite? To use the classical sales formula: show them you understand their problem first, then show you’re a perfect solution.

That means briefly acknowledging you understand what makes a great consultant for the level/position you’re interviewing for and then showing you have what it takes.

For example, you might say you understand that they’re dealing with super senior clients on multimillion dollar problems, and so they need someone reliable that can be trustworthy to senior people. Then, you show you had experience dealing with high-stakes problems and senior people in the past.

It’s a simple sales/persuasion formula that works. Even though it’s simple, most people skip step #1 (defining the problem) and jump straight to step #2 (showing they’re the solution).

That’s a sure way to leave your interviewers skeptical.

What are your main weaknesses?

Frequency: 15-30% of interviews.

Time to Master: 2-3 hours

• “What are your main weaknesses?”
• “What’s a weakness you think would negatively affect you on the job?”
• “What’s a characteristic of yours that you think need improvement?”

Purpose: Better the devil you know than the one you don’t know. 

That’s what interviewer’s think, at least.

There are a few things interviewers expect to get from this question.

First, it’s a great one to see how you deal with nervousness and pressure. I don’t think it’s the main reason why most people ask it, but it’s something that does impress upon them.

Second, they want to see if your weaknesses are not deal breakers. If you’re joining a strategy consulting firm and you have a tremendous weakness in being taken seriously by people older than you, that’s a huge red flag that you won’t be able to do your job there.

Most people aren’t naïve enough to share a weakness of this kind, though, which leads us to the final reason interviewers ask this question: owning your weaknesses.

They know you have weaknesses. Everyone they’ve ever recruited has them. What’s important to them is not to hire flawless candidates, but to see if you “own” your weaknesses. This means taking charge of them and mitigating their consequences.

How to answer: The first thing is that you have to say a REAL weakness. 

If you say you’re a perfectionist who works too hard, interviewers will think to themselves “yeah, yeah…”, and then mentally ding you.

You need a real weakness that isn’t a deal breaker for the job at the level you’re in.

This means if you make spreadsheet mistakes all the time, that’s terrible for an analyst role, but not a deal breaker if you’re interviewing for a partnership role.

If you have trouble managing people but you’re being hired as an analyst, that’s not a huge deal… But it would be if you were interviewing for a manager role that’d be the end of the process..

Second thing: tell a short story about a situation when that weakness showed up and caused some trouble. This shows you’re fully aware of the weakness and how it manifests in real life.

Interviewers love self-aware candidates, as this is a strong indication they’re willing to improve. Recognizing your weaknesses is the first step in fixing them or making them irrelevant.

Finally, say how you dealt with it in the situation you just told them about and how you made sure to prevent the same to happen in the future. This is the last step in showing them you “own” your weaknesses and is a responsible professional when dealing with them.

PEI Fit interview questions

Not all Fit Interviews are created equal.

On top of “regular fit interviews”, which are there to test your fit with the consulting profession, the firm’s culture and basic soft skills, consulting firms also have the PEI.

So, what is the PEI?

Well, it stands for Personal Experience Interview. It is basically an in-depth exploration of a personal story (or experience) you had in the past.

The PEI was popularized at McKinsey and you’ll have one such question in every McKinsey interview you have. Other firms have started using this format more often in recent years.

Here’s the deal: consultants know you can bullshit interview questions all day long if you’re prepared for it..

This is the exact reason why they’ve created the case interview to test your problem-solving skills (more on this later). Instead of asking your strengths and weaknesses and technical skills, they can give you a problem and see how you solve it.

Case interviews are almost bullshit-proof – if you can’t solve problems, you’ll do very poorly in them even if you know the case beforehand.

But how can you do the same for soft skills? How can you bullshit-proof a test on a candidate’s ability to get work done, influence other people and lead teams to achieve a goal?

One way would be to actually watch them work over several weeks, which is what summer internships are for.

But that’s costly and time consuming…

Another way is to ask the candidate to tell a story about a specific soft skill you’re interested in, and then stress-test their story using some of the same methods used by legal investigators to check if a suspect/witness says the truth.

Enter the Personal Experience Interview (or the McKinsey PEI, as it’s more widely known).

The PEI is a super-intense 10 to 15-minute cross-questioning of a story you have about a skill.

For example, your interviewer might ask you to tell her about a situation where you led a team and achieve a challenging result.

Then as you’re telling her your story (which you’re supposed to have prepared upfront if you want to have any chances), she might interrupt you with a bunch of questions:

• Why did you do that?
• What did you think as you were saying that?
• What would you have done had the other person said this to you?
• Why do you think this was going to work given that the other person didn’t have this type of behavior in the first meeting you told me about?

Then as you answer those questions your interviewer might probe you even further, or let you free to keep telling the rest of the story.

This is so much different than most job interviews!

In most job interviews in other fields, interviewers ask you about situational questions (such as about a time where you led a team), and then let you tell the best version of yourself uninterrupted (which may or may not be pure bullshit).

Not in a proper PEI question.

In a PEI, your interviewer will let you tell your best story, but they will also ask you questions. Pointed, assertive, tough questions. It will feel like you’re being interrogated.

If your story is good, you have what they’re looking for and you were well prepared, your story will shine even brighter after those questions.

If your story was pure golden-coated bullshit, those questions will not be so great for you, though…

The key reason why interviewers do all this questioning is that when it comes to soft skills, past performance is not indicative of future performance (so just having a story where you achieved something isn’t enough). 

But past performance PLUS a well-thought out rationale when the situation happened is  indicative of future performance (because it shows you pull the feat off again and again).

To do well in a PEI question, you’ll need:

• A well-structured story for the specific type of question you’re asked (so your interviewer can follow along and you can fluently go into interrogation-mode and back to storytelling-mode)
• Evidence of competence within the story in the soft-skill being tested (so your interviewer knows there was a rationale in your actions and words and that you have and are aware of a repeatable process to achieve that kind of thing).
• Answers to the most likely tough questions you’ll be asked (so you don’t freeze and panic when they happen

Anyway, enough with theory… Let’s jump into the questions!

The Entrepreneurial Drive / Drive and Achieving Question

Frequency: 20-30% of McKinsey interviews (5-10% in other firms)

Time to Master: 5-10 hours

Brief Description: They want to know about a challenging “project” you’ve completed in the past. At the minimum, this “project”, which could be personal, academic or professional, must have a deliverable or explicit goal.

They’ll want to know how you worked in it and what were the steps you took to achieve your goal.

Also, as important as what you did to achieve that goal is the why… In other words, your interviewer will want to know your thought process along the “project” and how you made decisions as you went through your work.

• Tell me about a time when you had to achieve a challenging objective.
• Think of a situation where you had to work hard to accomplish a goal that was out of your comfort zone and that you set up for yourself
• I want you to tell me a story about when you had to deal with a challenging, individual goal at [instance X from your resume].

Purpose: I’ll be blunt… Your interviewers want to know if you can get shit done.

More specifically, difficult shit done on time.

While the case interview is a great test of your problem-solving skills, the world is full of intelligent people who are lazy and get nothing done.

One specific thing they’ll be looking for in your answer is your work process/style. Are you organized? Are you efficient? Can you focus on what really matters given your own objective?

Another critical thing: how do you deal with the unexpected?

Some people have a flawless work process but aren’t flexible enough to deal with the situation when it changes. In consulting, goals are challenging AND they change all the time.

Your interviewer wants to see how you work in steady situations and in situations that have changed. Both are essential to get stuff done in a consulting project.

How to answer: PEI questions in general have a lot of nuance, but here’s a rough guideline:

1) Say what was your challenging goal.  

Also, say how it was set-up and by whom. If the question is on entrepreneurial drive, the goal must be set-up by yourself, not someone else. Entrepreneurship in consulting has nothing to do with start-ups, and everything to do with setting new goals and making them happen.

2) Say what was your initial plan to achieve the goal.  

This is where you show the expectations you had upfront. Describe it in a step-by-step way to show structure!

3) Say what happened in reality.  

Then, most importantly, say how you dealt with the unexpected along the way. If your story doesn’t have anything unexpected (and everything happened according to your initial plan), it’s gonna sound like the situation was too easy.

4) Say the results of your actions.

Also, mention if the goal was achieved or not and why do you think that was. It’s not a problem if the end result wasn’t ideal, as long as you did everything you could to make the situation go well.

In general, blending in your rationale in each step of the way is a good practice as your interviewer is more interested in why you did things than what exactly happened in that specific situation. (This is true for every PEI question).

Additional resources: I recommend the PARADE Method to structure your story. (It’s similar but better than the well-known STAR method, as it focuses on the rationale of every action.)

The Personal Impact / Persuasion / Conflict Resolution Question

Frequency: 30-40% of McKinsey interviews (5-10% in other firms)

Time to Master: 7-15 hours

Brief Description: This question gets people confused because of the generic name McKinsey uses to describe it: Personal Impact.

Personal Impact is all about influencing other people, which is why I put this question in the same bucket as Persuasion and Conflict Resolution.

This may sound a bit counterintuitive, but to persuade or influence someone and to solve a conflict you need the same skillset.

In all these types of situations, you need to change someone’s mind to be successful. Your interviewers will want to know about a time you did that and how you did it.

• Tell me about a time where you convinced someone to change their mind.
• Think of a situation where you had a conflict with a difficult person and successfully solved it for the better
• Tell me about a time where you resolved tensions between two people in [Company X from your resume]

Purpose: In essence they want to know if you’re able to change people’s minds. Needless to say, this is essential to drive change in organizations. Even more so as a consultant, as you don’t have any hierarchical power over anyone.

Specifically, they want to know if you can understand other people’s motives in a conflict or reasons to have a different point of view from yours.

Then they want to know what specific steps you took to convince these people to do/think something different. Ideally you were well aware of your approach to do that and in the end the other person was glad you convinced them otherwise.

How to answer: Again, there’s a ton of nuance to have a great answer, but this rough guideline will help you build a superior answer than most candidates:

1) Describe the situation and your goal.  

This is basic context so the interviewer understands the conflict or disagreement and why it happened.

2) Describe the other person.

This story is about people. Describe what they thought and why you think they thought it. You want to be very specific in their rationale and show you can think from their point of view.

3) Describe what you did to persuade them.  

As always, include the why you did it.  You want to show a balanced persuasion approach that is thoughtful but not manipulative. Ideally, your solution made everyone in the situation better off (even the “opposite” side of the argument).

Additional resources:  As with other PEI stories, I recommend the PARADE Method to structure your story. (It’s similar but better than the well-known STAR method, as it focuses on the rationale of every action.)

The Leadership / Teamwork Question

Brief Description: The Leadership and Teamwork questions are similar in the sense that both are about how you work with others.

A Leadership question is different than a Teamwork question in the sense that it has a “Leading” component. This doesn’t mean you had to be the formal/hierarchical leader in the situation… Consultants care more about the ability to lead than the formal role of being the boss

When interviewers ask you a question of this kind (leadership or teamwork), they want to know about a situation where you’ve worked with other people to accomplish a goal.

• Tell me about a time when you led a group of people to achieve a challenging objective.
• Can you remember a situation when you had to work in a group and you had to overcome difficulties to achieve a goal?
• What was your greatest leadership challenge at [place X from your resume]?

Purpose: As a consultant you’ll be working with other people all the time.

Sometimes you’ll be the formal leader (of a project or workstream), other times you’ll be collaborating. In both situations, consulting firms will expect you to take the lead if needed.

Now, allow me to state the obvious: working with other people is HARD.

But you know what’s harder? Working with people who don’t know how to work with other people.

And so it is only natural that top consulting firms will want to make sure you have that ability before they hire you.

By asking this question, they’ll be able to know if you can understand other people’s goals and ways of working.

They’ll also learn if you have the ability to influence these people as you work together

Finally, they’ll learn about your ability to get things done as a group of people (not only as an individual). This includes dividing the work, setting up incentives, processes, accountability, etc.

How to answer: This question is kind of a mix between the “Achievement” question and the “Personal Impact” question. Here’s a simple template you can follow:

1) Describe the situation, challenge and your goal.  

This will give them basic context of what was going on and what you were trying to achieve and why.

2) Describe the other people you had to work with.  

Emphasize roles , including your role in the group. This will give the interviewer social context: who was who and who were you in that group of people.

3) Describe what you did to work with/lead the group towards success.  

Here you’ll get more tactical and explain exactly what happened step-by-step. Include your rationale along the way.

As for other PEI questions, never forget to explain your rationale as you tell your story.

The Biggest Mistake Question

Frequency: 10-20% of all interviews (McKinsey or otherwise)

Brief Description: While not a formal McKinsey PEI question, this is a question you’ll get asked in a fair share of your interviews.

Your interviewer will approach it with a PEI-like mindset. They’ll use the interrogation-style to probe into your story and rationale.

It is basically the opposite of the achievement question.

They will ask you about one of the biggest mistakes you’ve ever made and how you dealt with it.

• What’s the biggest mistake you’ve done in your career so far?
• What’s a mistake you did recently that critically affected other people and how did you deal with its consequences?
• I see from your resume you worked at [X Company], can you walk me through something you did there that wasn’t optimal?

Purpose: Interviewers ask this question for a similar to the Weakness question (which we put into the Regular Fit Interview Questions section).

The difference is that it’s targeted at a specific situation you’ve lived.

They want to see you’re sincere, thoughtful and that you own and learn from your mistakes.

Because everyone makes mistakes! The difference between a great professional and a shady one is how you deal with them.

How to answer: There are three key guidelines when answering this question:

1) Show a real mistake with real consequences to other people.

Most people try to hide from this question by talking the interviewer through a mistake that isn’t too serious or relevant. If you do this, your answer won’t be relevant and the interviewer will be left wondering why you haven’t shown them a real mistake… Have you never done any mistakes in your life? Unlikely…

2) Talk through what caused you to make that mistake.

Interviewers love candidates who own their responsibility. Even if you were not fully responsible for the mistake, you have to recognize as much of the responsibility as possible. This will let them assured that’s what you’re gonna do next time you screw something up.

3) Show how you fixed it and what you did/are doing not to make it again.

Show me someone who’s made a mistake once and you’re showing me a human being… Show me someone who makes the same mistake all the time and you’re showing me a fool. Signaling to your interviewer that you’re the type of person who learns from your mistakes is an amazing way to finish your story at a high tone.

Case interview questions

Management consultants are hired at expensive rates to solve the most challenging problems of large organizations.

That’s pretty much the job description…

And top firms will bill you at 1000s of dollars per day even if you’re fresh out of college.

No need to say you’re expected to be solving problems from day 1…

Which is why the Case Interview is so critical in the recruiting process: 

Interviewers, who are always real consultants who do real project work, will go through a simulation of a real or fictional problem with you. They’ll expect you to be able to solve it as well as they would.

They want to test you in a made up scenario before throwing you into a real one (with real clients real stakes).

Think of it as a flight simulator used to train and test pilots. But instead of you having to take off, fly and land an airplane, you’re expected to structure a client’s problem, drive towards a solution and finish with a recommendation of what they should do.

And let me tell you: every respectable management consulting firm will do case interviews with you. The top firms will go as far as doing 5+ case interviews before they give you an offer.

There are many formats to these cases: they might give you a slide deck and ask you to come up with conclusions to the client based on that (or even give a presentation), they might do it in a group format…

But the two most common formats are the candidate-led case and the interviewer-led case.

Both are individual: you’ll solve the case in 30-40 minutes alone with the interviewer.

In the candidate-led case, you’re supposed to “guide” the case… You’ll ask any questions you want and in whichever order you want and if you’re good, you’ll eventually reach solution.

In the interviewer-led case, the interviewer leads. They’re gonna ask you a question and you’re expected to answer that question. Then they’re gonna ask you another. Then another… Until the case is over.

To be frank with you, the format doesn’t matter as much as candidates think.  

If you’re able to do really well in the candidate-led format, you’re probably gonna be able to do well in the interviewer-led format  with just a little bit of extra practice .

The reason why Case Interviews are so powerful is that the interviewer can ask you to solve ANY type of situation in ANY type of industry .

One interviewer will expect you to come up with a practical approach to increase a supermarket average sale value, another will think it’s reasonable to expect you to figure out how should a pension fund allocate its portfolio.

This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to prepare for a Case Interview through pure knowledge… Which in turn, across many cases, isolates the test to seeing how you think, not what you know.

Needless to say this makes candidates anxious and agitated, which is why many candidates invest 100s of hours preparing for their cases .

And yet, there IS a way out of this infinite universe of possibilities…

Yes, your interviewer can ask you about ANY type of problem. And yes, they can ask you about ANY type of industry…

But they only ask about those things with 6 types of questions (+1, which I’ll show you in the end of this section).

We call these questions the 6 Building Blocks, and  they’re the foundation of our free course Case Interview Fundamentals.

I’ll walk you through each of these questions below, but I highly recommend you  join our free course  and watch the video called “The 6 Building Blocks”. That video shows the different ways the questions described below tie together to form a whole case interview.

The Framework Question

Frequency: 70-80% of case interviews

Time to Master: 30-60 hours of practice

Brief Description: Every consulting firm’s client has a tough, complex goal to reach or decision to make.

That’s why they’re calling the consultants in!

The first thing your clients (and the project’s partner) want is a plan to solve that problem. A cohesive, structured plan that one can look at it from the outset and be confident that whoever’s going to do the work will be able to achieve the desirable results.

The Framework question is the question where the interviewer gives you a problem as large and complex as a whole project and asks you to break it down into a plan to solve it.

Contrary to what many people think, not every case interview starts with a framework. It’s common for interviewers to start the case giving you a chart to interpret, an estimation to solve or a brainstorming question. These types of cases feel more like you’re starting out from somewhere in the middle of a project.

Also, I’ve seen a few cases where the Framework question comes at the end of the case. In these situations, the role of the beginning and middle of the case is for you to find enough information and context to build a decision-making plan (or framework) as well as possible at the end of your 30-40 minutes with the interviewer.

Common phrasing / Examples:

• Your client is an e-commerce store that sells furniture. Their clients say that they wish they could see and touch the items before they bought and that they’d buy more of it if they could do that. Your client is considering to open demo retail stores in selected cities for that purpose. Should they do it?
• How would you help a pizza restaurant recover from a sharp profitability decline?
• A government of an Asian country is scared of an outbreak of an aggressive flu strain in a neighboring country. What should they do about it?
• Help a local school increase math scores of its students in standardized tests.
• What steps would you take to set up the strategic plan of a company like Apple?

Purpose: Breaking down complex business and public sector problems is the hallmark of management consulting.

Interviewers want to test your ability to break down a big, complex problem into manageable steps that would achieve the objective.

Within the plan, they want to see your ability to foresee what are the main issues regarding the problem and hypothesize the answers.

They also want to check your ability to organize your ideas in a clear, concise, prioritized way (check out the MECE principle).

How to answer: The first thing to realize when answering this questions is that you CAN’T USE A PRE-MADE FRAMEWORK.

You need to build your own or you’ll pass the impression that you’re someone who can’t think for yourself and relies on memorization instead.

Let me emphasize this point one more time:

Your interviewers have likely given the specific case they’re giving you 100+ times. They’ve seen every framework you can conceive. And because most candidates memorize frameworks from well-known books and sources, they know what are the memorized ones… They all look the same.

There are 4 steps to create a winning framework on your own:

1) Define the problem clearly.  

Interviewers will often give you an ill-defined problem just to see if you’re able to ask the right questions upfront in order to really understand it. Can’t solve a problem you can’t understand.

2) Create MECE categories of analyses.  

MECE stands for “Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive”. In simpler terms: no gaps in your analyses (categories cover the whole problem) and no overlaps (each category is fully distinct from the others). Easier said than done, but I’ll give you a bunch of resources in a couple minutes.

3) Show what you would analyze in each category.  

Think of this as key questions… If one of your categories of analyses is the “size and quality of demand”, what are the specific questions you want to answer to be fully satisfied that demand is good enough for your client to go through with the decision? The best way to do it is using hypotheses.

4) Define next steps.  

After you finish presenting your plan, you ought to mention how to start using it. Select a high priority area of your Framework and say you’ll start from there by testing hypothesis X.

In 99% of interviews you can ask for a couple minutes to build your framework after defining the problem clearly. And you should. I don’t know of any candidate, no matter how brilliant, that can pull off a great framework in no time at all.

Additional resources:   The Framework Module in our free course, Case Interview Fundamentals , is considered by most students the best source to learn how to create framework from scratch properly.

There, I’ll show you exactly how to define the problem, I’ll teach you the Landscape Technique to create conceptual frameworks from scratch to any problem (even Public Sector cases) and I’ll show you how to present your framework and manage time.

There are a few Framework video drills there as well, so you can put your knowledge you learn into practice and compare your Frameworks to mine.

Another key resource is our  comprehensive guide to Issue Trees . Ask any consultant what’s the #1 thing to learn before your interviews and you’re sure to hear about Issue Trees.

As you will learn in the Framework module in Case Interview Fundamentals, when building a Framework you can always choose between using a Conceptual Framework or a customized Issue Tree. There are specific situations for each, so you need to learn both.

Finally,  our Youtube channel  has a few insightful videos on Frameworks, including techniques to improve them and examples of great Frameworks.

The Brainstorming Question

Frequency: 2-4 times per case

Time to Master: 10-20 hours of practice

Brief Description: At the start of AND throughout every single project, consultants (or any problem-solver) will have to (1) generate ideas to solve problems and (2) come up with hypotheses of why problems are happening.

The brainstorming question is a test of this critical skill of coming up with good ideas and hypotheses.

Don’t think it’s all about throwing ideas without judgement in a whiteboard and feeling good about them, though. Consultants are only recognized for good ideas that solve the actual problem . To ensure that, you’ll need learn to generate these ideas and hypotheses in a structured way .

• A furniture e-commerce’s clients want to see and touch the products before they buy, but the store doesn’t want to open physical stores… What are some alternatives?
• What do you think might be potential causes for a pizza restaurant to lose 30% of its clients in the past year?
• If you have a neighboring country with an aggressive flu outbreak going on, what are the main paths this disease could enter your country?
• What are the 3 best ideas you have to get a school’s high school students to spend more hours per week studying for math?
• What do you think are Apple’s major competitive advantages?

Purpose: There are four main things interviewers are generally testing when they ask you a Brainstorming questions:

First, they’re testing your understanding of the problem. This is what many people in the industry call business sense. It’s hard to generate hypotheses about why the clients of a pizzeria aren’t coming back if you don’t have a basic understanding of how customers behave and how they interact with a pizza restaurant.

Second, they’re testing your ability to STRUCTURE the problem before coming up with ideas. This is the KEY MISTAKE most candidates make: they start listing ideas in random order, without finding an organizing pattern that ensures they’ll capture all key types of ideas. The MECE principle helps tremendously here.

Third, they’re testing your creativity to come up with novel yet feasible hypotheses or solutions. Because they’ve seen hundreds of candidates answering the same question, they know which ideas/hypotheses are common and which ones are mentioned less frequently. They also understand the problem they’re giving well enough to know which ideas are better.

Finally, they’re testing your ability to prioritize. Great candidates generate more ideas in the buckets (parts of their structure) that matter the most, and they intuitively know which ideas are best and which hypotheses are more likely.

How to answer: Here are three simple steps that will guarantee an answer 10X better than that of other candidates (who’ll only do step #2):

1) Create a MECE structure before you list any ideas/hypotheses.  

DON’T COME UP WITH AN UNSTRUCTURED LIST OF IDEAS. This is a mistake that will cost you your offer.

2) Generate ideas/hypotheses for each bucket of your structure.  

If there’s a bucket that’s more relevant than the other, focus on that one, but generate at least one idea/hypothesis for each bucket.

3) Prioritize which ideas/hypotheses are most likely to work out.  

Interviewers want to see you have the ability to select which ones to test first. In real projects, this will save weeks of a consultants time.

Additional resources:   The Brainstorming Module in Case Interview Fundamentals  (our free course) is an excellent primer to Brainstorming questions.

In that module, I’ll show exactly how to solve a Brainstorming question effectively and go into the specifics of each step. There are also a few drills you can take to see it in practice and compare your answer to mine.

Another good resource is  the 5 Ways to be MECE , a guide that’ll show you the five core techniques to structure your Brainstorming questions effectively.

The Hypothesis Testing Question

Frequency: 1-2 times per case

Time to Master: 5-10 hours of practice

Brief Description: Every time you build a framework or brainstorm ideas/hypotheses, you have created a ton of new hypotheses about what’s going on with your client or how to solve their problems. Even when you finish charts or analyses about your client’s problems… New answers always generate new questions (which are in fact hypotheses).

And there’s no reason to generate hypotheses you can’t test!

The essential workflow of a consultant is to structure the problem, generate hypotheses for each part of the problem and then TEST those hypotheses.

The Hypothesis Testing question bridges hypothesis generation with gathering data and analyzing.

It is basically the interviewer’s way to say “if someone told you that X might be true, how would you go about proving or disproving that X is true?”.

They’re looking for the steps you’d follow to answer that question.

Usually hypothesis testing questions come up naturally, as you answer other types of questions, so they tend to be much shorter than the ones I’ll show. But here are a few examples of questions with the whole context included:

• How would you find out if having free, no-hassle returns would help a furniture e-commerce store increase its conversion rates as much as opening retail demo shops, but at a lower cost?
• Your pizza restaurant client has lost 30% of its clientele roughly at the same time a new competitor opened across the street… Is this the cause of clientele loss?
• The minister of health of your client’s country wants to close all borders due to a flu outbreak in the neighboring country. How would you find out if this measure is likely to be effective?
• Your client’s a high school principal who thinks kids who do poorly in math do so because their parents don’t value studying math well enough. He wants to educate parents on the importance of studying math as a kid. Is this likely to work?
• Some people have been saying there’s little upside for Apple to grow in the smartphone category. Does that make sense?

Purpose: Your interviewer’s looking for a rare ability: to see if you can find truths in a precise AND practical way given stated hypotheses.

In a real project, a partner, a manager or even a client might come up with a hypothesis. They’ll expect you to independently test that hypothesis and come to them with a definitive answer.

Because of that, your interviewer needs to see your ability to do that.

How to answer: There are three key steps in solving a Hypothesis Testing question:

1) Define the hypothesis REALLY well so it’s testable.  

Many hypotheses, even those stated by the interviewer aren’t testable. More often your interviewer will ask you to test your own hypotheses. You need to define and rephrase your hypothesis very precisely, optimizing for testability.

2) Create your Hypo Testing logic.  

This is a basic logic statement, for example: the hypothesis is true only if A, B and C are true. Easier said than done.

3) Say what data (quantitative or qualitative) you need.  

You should be able to tell your interviewer how would you gather this data and how would you process it to find the final answer.

Additional resources: There aren’t many resources online on how to test hypotheses, especially in a consulting-specific scenario. 

Consulting is different from other situations where hypothesis testing is used because consultants need to test hypotheses very quickly, and accept a less than perfect test if it’s quick enough (compared to, say, scientific research, which needs to be precise yet takes years and decades).

Because of this lack of resources, we’ve included a Hypotheses Testing Module in our free course,  Case Interview Fundamentals .

The Estimation Question

Brief Description: Consultants love numbers, because you can build strong logic that’s easy to communicate with the organization as a whole by using them. The right data, however, is not always available.

For example, you might need to forecast data about the future, which can’t be available because it didn’t happen yet.

One important reason why consultants need to quantify things for which full data is not available is so they can compare different hypotheses or solutions against each other.

For those reasons, consultants do estimations day in and day out.

Estimations can range from a simple back-of-the-napkin calculation done in 5 minutes to estimate a market size to a complex financial model forecasting the valuation of a company given certain changes (that could take weeks of multiple people working on it).

• Estimate how much of an uptick in conversion rates would justify an e-commerce store build a demo retail shop for its products.
• Estimate the value of each customer that your pizzeria client lost.
• The government of a country wants to plan an emergency plan in case the flu outbreak from the neighboring country reaches it. They’re thinking one part of the plan is to suspend activity in all work and schools to prevent spread. What would be the economic cost of this?
• Estimate the cost of teaching math to each student, from kindergarten through high school.
• Apple’s thinking of entering the wearables market. What’s the potential market size of that?

Purpose: The interviewer doesn’t care too much about the number you reach. It’s all about the process.

First and foremost, they want to see if you can find the numerical drivers of a problem and create a formula out of them. If you want more insight on how to mathematize a problem, check out the Fermi Equation.

After you’ve built the formula, interviewer’s want to see if you have a good intuition with how small or large certain numbers should be. You don’t need to pick the right assumptions with a huge level of precision, but you must be close and be able to justify your numbers.

They also want to see if you’re “numerically comfortable”. That is, that you don’t shy away from math, or that you don’t make too many mistakes with simple arithmetic.

How to answer: There are 4 key steps to solve this type of question:

1) Create a formula to estimate the number.  

It all starts with the formula. This is the one key thing you should do before everything else. This is the greatest test of your quantitative modeling skills interviewers have throughout your process. I always recommend you use a “tree” format for your formula.

2) Plug-in assumptions with a rationale to back them up.  

After you have developed your formula, you need numbers for its variables. Go through each one, plug in a number and justify it.

3) Calculate based on those assumptions.  

The next step is to calculate. You have the formula and the assumptions. All you need is math now. Realize everything is done in a very structured, systematic process.

4) Reality check the results.  

Do your results make sense? Most people don’t check their work after doing it, but it’s really important to triangulate your answer against some “real-world benchmark”. You’re estimating, after all… If you’ve found your end result to be a bit “off”, adjust the assumptions as needed.

Additional resources: Even though Estimations are one type of question that can appear within a regular case interview, some interviewers like to have the whole interview be an estimation question. To see some video examples of this, check out our article on Market Sizing Case Examples.

To learn the proper technique to estimate things in a case interview, check out the  Estimations Module in Case Interview Fundamentals .

The Quantitative Analysis Question

Frequency: 80-90% of case interviews

Brief Description: One of the core tenets of management consulting is to be data-driven. What does this even mean? That you make recommendations based on real data!

You may have noticed this from the last question in this list… Even when data is not fully available, consultants make estimation models to see what the recommendation should be if the data were a certain way.

But in many situations, data is available, and in those situations, you don’t have to estimate anything, you’ll just need to run the numbers.

That’s the essence of the quantitative analysis question. To “run the numbers” in order to answer the hypothesis .

The last piece of the last phrase is essential: no consultant worth its dime does math for math’s sake. Whenever you’re doing an analysis you’re trying to prove/disprove/verify the strength of a hypothesis.

• In a recent test on our furniture e-commerce client, we found out that offering free, no-hassle returns on every product increases conversion rates by 15%. How will that increase affect profitability?
• Your pizzeria client is thinking about dropping its prices by 10% to regain some of the customers lost to competitors. How many of its lost customers must go back to dining with them in order for the initiative to break even?
• Given this table of data, how much would it cost for the government to treat each flu patient? [Consider you’re given a table full of data in an interview question like this].
• Our high school client wants to offer free math tutoring to all students getting scores lower than 60% in mid-term exams so they don’t fail classes as often. Is this feasible given current student scores and the school’s financials?
• Apple wants to figure out which type of wearables market would make the most difference in their bottom line 5 years from now. Assume I have any data you want. How would you come up with an answer to them?

Purpose: Consultants do quantitative analyses in real projects all the time. In fact, this is the kind activity they expect you to be able to do pretty much independently from day 1.

So they need to make sure you can do it. A few specific things they’re looking for:

First, they want to see if you can work with data in a structured way to find a result. There’s two main reasons for this… One, it’s easier to communicate your thoughts and results when the data is well-structured. Two, if you structure the analysis upfront, you know exactly what type of data to look for (which means you won’t waste any time inefficiently).

Another core skill they’re looking for is your ability to see all the major factors that’d be needed for a precise result. In practice, this means they might not give you all the data you need upfront… They expect you to and ask for extra data so you can find a reliable answer.

Finally, they want to see if you can understand what the results mean to your client. They’re not in the business of hiring human calculators (they could hire these for much cheaper). They’re in the business of finding people who can find key INSIGHTS that are derived from the DATA.

How to answer: A simple step-by-step plan to answer this type of question:

1) Create a formula that answers the question.  

Do so, you’ll need to define where you want to get and create a formula that works with the data you were given.

2) Ask for any additional data.  

Your interviewer will likely withhold some necessary data. They want to see if you can see that you don’t have all the data you need yet. Having to ask for 2-3 pieces of missing data is fairly common.

3) Do the math.  

While most interviewers don’t really care for you to be super-fast with your math, they want to see you’re numerically comfortable, as you’ll be working with numbers all day.

4) Say the implications of your results.  

You need to go from “analytical” mode to “insight” mode. Clients care about what they should do, not what the precise numbers are. Notice that when consultants say they do “data-driven recommendations”, they need both the data AND the recommendations.

Additional resources: Our  Quantitative Analysis Module from our free course, Case Interview Fundamentals  is a great resource to show exactly how to answer these questions in a step-by-step manner, with examples applied so you can see this method in action.

The Chart Interpretation Question

Frequency: 80-90% of case interviews (some will have several charts).

Brief Description: Whenever consultants analyze data or create estimation models, the output is ALWAYS a chart.

By chart, I mean a table, a graph or a combination of multiple tables and graphs.

Consultants need to be visual and show just the required information for their clients to make decisions. Their clients wouldn’t have the time (or patience) to analyze a whole model.

Charts are the answer to save your client’s time by just giving them the key message, as well as being much more persuasive as the key pieces of information are shown in a decluttered and meaningful way.

In general, consulting firms don’t test your ability to create such charts. Most firms figure they can teach you this skill later.

What they do test, though, is your ability to read, interpret and communicate the insights in a chart.

It sounds simple, but you’d be amazed at how many people can’t grasp the key message from a simple graph or table, getting lost in a sea of noise and even coming up with wrong conclusions!

• What are your key insights from this chart?
• Take a look at these tables, what do you think is happening?
• What would you recommend to your client given this data?

PS: Differently from the other Building Blocks, I’ve reduced the chart questions and phrasing to generic examples… And the reason is that interviewers often ask these questions this way – what changes from case to case is the chart itself.

Purpose: The main thing they want to see is if you can understand charts and if you ask for more information/clarification in the cases you can’t. Most candidates assume they have to understand everything upfront, without asking clarifying questions. Deadly mistake!

To a consultant, the core of understanding a chart is to find the nuggets of insight from the chart data. They’re not looking for people who can read numbers. Instead they’re looking for people who can separate the relevant data from the noise.

Finally, they want to see if you can use/synthesize those insights to drive next steps to the project and recommendations to clients. Just like in the Quantitative Analysis question, they want you to transform facts (data) into actions (recommendations).

How to answer: Here are three key steps you can’t miss when answering a chart question:

1) Explicitly say what you understand from the chart structure.  

Before saying anything about the data, show you understand how the chart was build. What do the columns and rows in a table mean? What about the variables and axis in a chart? Clarify what you don’t understand.

2) Point out insights from the data you see.  

Don’t read the whole dataset! A high-schooler can do that. They’re looking for people who can instantly spot the important nuggets of wisdom.

3) Derive project next steps and/or recommendations.  

The insights you found are just worth anything if they’re actionable. Find the actions that derive from those insights and got through them with your interviewer!

Additional resources: To see our step-by-step process in more depth, as well as real charts being “read” by ourselves, check out the  Chart Interpretation Module in Case Interview Fundamentals.

The Recommendation/Next Steps Question

Frequency: ~50% of case interviews.

Time to Master: 2-5 hours of practice (usually within full cases).

Brief Description: While we don’t consider the “recommendation question” one of the 6 Building Blocks, it is a 7th type of question that interviewers often use to finish the case.

Why is it not a Building Block? Because it isn’t a “task” per se. It is just a way to communicate/synthesize everything you found in the case so far.

Consulting projects usually involve multiple people (clients, partners, experts), some of which are not involved with the project every day.

These people need updates. Lots of updates. What this means is that consultants need to have the skill to quickly synthesize and summarize weeks of work into a few minutes…

Or 30 minutes of a case in just 30 seconds!

• Imagine the CEO of your client just entered the room and wants a quick update of the project. How would you tell him your recommendations in less than a minute?
• Given all that we’ve gone through today, what would you recommend to your client?
• Why don’t you wrap up everything you’ve learned into a recommendation the project’s partner could give to our client?

Purpose: The interviewer wants to see if you can communicate the essential of a half-hour long discussion of a complex topic in a structured way in 30 seconds to a minute.

Not many people have this skill, though it is possible to practice and improve.

Also, they want to see if you can quickly delineate next steps to a problem that isn’t fully solved yet.

(And they want to see if you can see the difference between a problem that is solve and one that isn’t yet),

How to answer: Here are four things you can include, in order, in your recommendation:

1) Your recommendation to the client’s key question.  

Your client’s key question is usually the first question in the case. You’ll usually not have everything you need to give your recommendation, so make it as strong as you can, but not stronger.

2) 2-3 key supporting points for your recommendation.  

These should better explain the essence of the problem and provide rationale to your recommendation that someone who hasn’t seen the whole interview would be able to understand.

3) 1-3 next steps (optional).  

Only include these if the case question isn’t 100% answered by the data yet. Your next steps should be ordered by priority or appropriate sequence.

4) 1-3 risks/points of attention (optional).  

It usually just makes sense to include these in case the case question IS fully answered and your recommendation is final (i.e. you have no next steps).

End of interview questions

At the end of almost every consulting interview, your interviewer will ask you if you have any questions to ask them.

Yes, the tables are turned… Now it’s your turn to interview them!

So, what’s the catch?

None, really. The essence of this last part of the interview is to actually have a conversation and let you satiate your curiosity by asking them questions.

But while there is no catch, there is an opportunity.

An opportunity to show your insight, to show your ability to listen and to ask great follow-up questions.

In essence, your ability to be a great consultant and create a connection with the person at the other side of the table.

Think about it… Which candidate is more likely to leave a good impression, Candidate 1 or Candidate 2?

Candidate 1: “Hmm, good question… Do I have any questions? Oh yeah, there’s one thing that’s not quite clear to me… How fast do people advance here? And how does the job change in each position?”

Candidate 2:  

“Yes, I do have a question…  

I was talking to [Consultant’s Name] and she mentioned that you measure performance in 5 dimensions here. She used examples such as problem solving, teamwork, etc.

I was wondering… Is any of those dimensions more important than others in my first year or my first few projects? I was also wondering how am I actually evaluated in that dimension.

The reason I want to know that is so I can come prepared to do well in it in case I get the job”.

Yet, most people don’t give much thought to these questions they’re supposed to ask at the end of a consulting interview.

Which turns them into the easiest part of the interview you can use to differentiate yourself and be remarkable.

I’ve written a whole article on how to ask great questions to your interviewer at the end of an interview.

In that article you’ll find not only examples of great questions to ask, but also your interviewer’s mindset in asking that question.

Most importantly, you’ll find out why having great follow-up questions is even MORE CRITICAL than asking a good question in the first place.

Uncommon types of consulting interview questions

This guide wouldn’t be a complete list if I didn’t include uncommon question types.

99% of the interviews at McKinsey, Bain and BCG will be composed by the 5 categories of questions I’ve shown you up until here.

Smaller firms, however, may use these uncommon types of questions more regularly, depending on office and the firm itself.

How to know if you may get one of these?

Simple: ask someone who interviewed in the same office you’re going to interview what types of questions they got. Then ask them if they got an especially weird question.

But even at MBB there’s the rare case of uncommon question types… And it’s better to be aware (and even prepared) for these questions than to be caught in surprise.

I wouldn’t spend much time preparing for these as they’re rare and mostly don’t depend on heavy preparation. Still, it doesn’t hurt to know what could happen so you’re never caught off-guard.

So, here’s the best list of types of uncommon questions I could create:

Brainteasers

Brainteasers used to be a staple in consulting interviews back then…

Luckily, they’re pretty rare nowadays.

(Probably because they suck at testing a candidate’s skills.)

Essentially, Brainteasers are questions that have a “clever” way to answering them, but with no-to-little systematic way to find the answer. Essentially, you’re relying on luck.

Here are a few examples of Brainteasers:

• Why are manholes round?
• What’s the next number in this series? [Suppose interviewer presents you with a series of numbers]
• In a tiny cabin in the woods, two men lay dead. The cabin is not burned, but the woods around it burned. How did the men die?

I suggest you to be skeptical of any firm that uses Brainteasers to test you.

Because of the “luck” component and the impossibility of interviewers to “see through” your thought process and know if you’re brilliant or just got lucky, firms that use this type of testing aren’t really systematic in testing their candidates.

Two ways to improve your chances of doing well in Brainteasers:

1) Go through lists of Brainteaser examples with answers (most interviewers who are lazy enough to use Brainteasers are also so lazy that they’ll just get one from Google’s first page).

2)  Watch this video  if you think there are high chances you’ll get a Brainteaser in your interview.

Meta Questions

Meta questions are questions your interviewers should answer themselves, through their evaluation process, and yet they ask you the answer for it.

Some examples:

• How do you solve complex problems?
• What’s your leadership style/How do you lead teams?
• What should I ask you to understand if you’re the right candidate for this job?

Clearly, they should be the ones determining what types of questions they should ask you. They should be the ones seeing how you solve complex problems by the way you do your cases. They should be the ones assessing your leadership style…

So, why do they ask you these questions? Are they being lazy?

Not really.

What they’re looking for is self-awareness.

Rest assured they’ll compare your answer with their perception of you through the rest of the interview.

So, how do you answer these questions? Here are a few tips:

1) Be thoughtful.  

As you go through the preparation process and notice how you solve problems, how you persuade people, etc. (all dimensions consulting firms care about).

2) Start your answer with a clear message/process.  

For example, when answering “How do you solve complex problems”, I might answer: 

“Usually I reach out to people who have solved a similar problem before to get ideas on how to solve that specific problem, then I structure the problem to pinpoint what are the leverage points or parts of the problem that might make the most difference, then I look for the best practices to solve that specific problem. ”  

Phrase it like a process you understand well.

3) Finish your answer with an example of a situation you’ve dealt with by using the exact process you’ve just laid out.  

This brings the answer from theoretical into the realm of practice, which makes it more believable and easier for the interviewer to ask good follow-up questions.

Client Situation “Cases”

Consulting is half problem-solving, half being a trusted advisor to a client.

Needless to say, there’s a HUGE relationship component to the second part.

“Client Situation Cases” are hypothetical scenarios where you have a “relationship” or “interpersonal” situation with some client.

While these are very rare (I’ve only heard of these in a few final rounds at MBB), I expect consulting firms to do more of these over the years. As people prepare more and more for the problem-solving-based case interviews, it only makes sense to test candidates in a broader way.

Here are some examples of this type of question:

• You were having dinner with a client and they said: “I was expecting the project to be much smoother than it actually is”. What would you say to them?
• What would you do if you asked data to a client in a project and they said you’d need to wait for 3 months to have the data?
• A senior client has told you her son is soon joining the same school you went to, and asked for some tips. What would you tell her?

So, how would you answer these types of questions?

A few tips:

1) You don’t have to dive right into the actual answer.  

In a real scenario, you’d have more context than a simple interview question. That means it’s fair game to ask a few contextual questions, such as “how senior is this client”, or “should I suppose this client just met me or that he knows and trusts me?”

2) If the situation is tense, ALWAYS react by showing the interviewer that the first thing you’d do is to understand the root of your client’s concerns.

Then explain how would you do it.

Interviewers are looking for people with good social skills, not clever lines to deliver in moments of tension.

3) Always explain your rationale.

While saying exactly what you would do is important, it is as important to explain your rationale to the interviewer of why would you do it. 

They’re looking for interpersonal intelligence, not “the right answer”.

“Real Life Interviews”

I’ve only heard of these in BCG’s German offices, which means you’re likely not get them unless you’re going to interview in those offices (though they might spread to other offices and/or firms, who knows…)

The format is pretty clever. They put you in real life situations and see how you react.

For example:

• They might give you some data and ask you to draft a 3-slide presentation (on paper) and to present it to the interviewer.
• They might play the role of a desperate client employee and give you a specific goal or desired outcome for that interaction.
• They might show you a client’s e-mail and ask you to draft a response.

In essence, these are things that have more to do with the day-to-day life of a consultant than with “underlying skills”.

Knowledge interviews

These types of questions are exclusive to candidates who are coming with strong industry/functional expertise.

For example…

• If you’re a data scientist, they might ask you how would you develop a tool to get and organize a client’s competitors public information to generate insights for strategy projects.
• If you’re an experienced professional from an airline background, they might ask you what do you think about the major trends in that industry, and which ones are more relevant for a company trying to be a leader in a third world country.
• If you’re a risk specialist, they might ask you what unusual sources of risk would you consider to a typical manufacturing company.

So, what do they want from these answers?

In one word: perspective .

They want much more about insights than hard facts. However, to be credible and authoritative in your answer, you’ll want some critical hard facts interweaved into your answer.

Lifestyle/Hobby questions

Some interviewers like to ask fun, lifestyle questions, such as:

• What’s the book you’ve liked the most ever?
• What’s something you do every day that most people don’t?
• What’s your favorite travel destination?

My guess is that most people who ask this are just curious about who you are as a person besides the anxious face in formal attire that’s sitting in front of them.

If you want to optimize this answer, my best tip is to show you’re actually interested in whatever answer you give. If you don’t care about your favorite book or hobby or travel destination, it doesn’t leave the best impression.

Interested people make interesting consultants.

Now it's your turn...

Throughout this article, I’ve shown you the 26 types of questions you’ll get asked in consulting interviews.

These are the questions that firms like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Roland Berger, Monitor Deloitte, Strategy&, Accenture and all other consulting firms you can think of regularly ask in their job interviews.

Is it a bit overwhelming? Yes. No one said it was easy.

But now that you have the complete list, it’s a bit more manageable!

So, where are you going to start?

Are you gonna start preparing for the case interview questions, which are the hardest or the ones that take most time to master?

Or are you gonna start with the fit questions and the PEI questions, to take those out of your way?

(And if you’re concerned with the case interview questions,  don’t forget to go through our free course, Case Interview Fundamentals.  It’s our best content on how to master these types of questions in a short amount of time).

At home, abroad, working, interning?  Wherever you are this summer, contact OCS or make an appointment for a virtual advising session. We are available all summer! 

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Top 15 Azure Data Factory Interview Questions & Answers

If you’re aspiring to become a data integration specialist or enhance your skills in cloud-based ETL solutions , mastering Azure Data Factory is essential. Azure Data Factory is a powerful data integration service that allows you to create, schedule, and orchestrate data workflows across various data sources and destinations.

Pursuing the DP-203 certification can significantly boost your credibility and showcase your expertise in data engineering on Microsoft Azure.

However, cracking the Azure Data Factory interview can be challenging even for skilled professionals. Fear not!

In this blog, we’ll explore some commonly asked Azure Data Factory interview questions and answers to help you approach the interview process with confidence.

Let’s dive in!

1. What is Azure Data Factory?

  Azure Data Factory provides a solution for managing complex data scenarios. This cloud-based ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and data integration service enables users to create data-driven workflows for orchestrating large-scale data movement and transformation tasks.

With Azure Data Factory, users can effortlessly design and schedule data-driven workflows, known as pipelines, to ingest data from various data sources. Additionally, users can construct intricate ETL processes to visually transform data using data flows, or leverage compute services like Azure HDInsight Hadoop, Azure Databricks, and Azure SQL Database.

Read More : What is Azure Data Factory?

2. What are the key components of Azure Data Factory?

The key components of Azure Data Factory include:

• Pipelines : Pipelines are the core building blocks of Azure Data Factory. They define the workflow for orchestrating data movement and transformation tasks. Pipelines consist of activities that represent individual tasks such as data ingestion, transformation, and loading.
• Activities : Activities are the units of work within pipelines. There are various types of activities, including data movement activities for copying data between different data stores, data transformation activities for processing and transforming data, control activities for branching and looping, and more.
• Datasets : Datasets represent the data structures and formats used by activities within pipelines. They define the schema and location of the data, including details such as file formats, paths, and connection information to the underlying data stores.
• Linked Services : Linked Services define the connection information and credentials required to connect to external data sources and destinations. They encapsulate the details of authentication, endpoint URLs, and other configuration settings needed to establish a connection.
• Triggers : Triggers are used to automatically execute pipelines on a predefined schedule or in response to events such as data arrival or system alerts. There are different types of triggers, including schedule triggers, tumbling window triggers, and event-based triggers.
• Integration Runtimes : Integration Runtimes provide the execution environment for activities within pipelines. They can be deployed in different environments such as Azure, on-premises, or in virtual networks to facilitate data movement and processing across diverse data sources and destinations.
• Data Flows : Data Flows provide a visual interface for designing and implementing data transformation logic within pipelines. They allow users to visually construct data transformation pipelines using a drag-and-drop interface, making it easier to build and manage complex ETL processes.
• Monitoring and Management Tools : Azure Data Factory provides built-in monitoring and management tools for tracking the execution of pipelines, monitoring data movement, and troubleshooting errors. Users can view pipeline execution logs, monitor performance metrics, and set up alerts for proactive monitoring and management.

3. When should you choose Azure Data Factory? 

You should choose Azure Data Factory when you need a robust and scalable data integration service for orchestrating data workflows and performing ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) operations across various data sources and destinations. Specifically, Azure Data Factory is ideal for:

• Hybrid Data Integration: Integrating data from on-premises and cloud sources, supporting both structured and unstructured data.
• ETL and Data Transformation: Performing complex data transformations and moving data between different storage systems efficiently.
• Big Data Integration: Processing large volumes of data using Azure HDInsight, Azure Databricks, or Azure Synapse Analytics.
• Data Orchestration: Automating and scheduling workflows, ensuring reliable and repeatable data processing.
• Scalability and Flexibility: Leveraging its scalable architecture to handle increasing data volumes and diverse data processing requirements.
• Data Movement and Copying: Seamlessly moving data between various Azure services and external data sources.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Utilizing a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which can be more cost-effective compared to setting up and maintaining on-premises ETL solutions.
• Integration with Azure Ecosystem: Taking advantage of its seamless integration with other Azure services, such as Azure Storage, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Data Lake.

4. Is ADF an ETL or ELT tool?

Azure Data Factory (ADF) is both an ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) tool, depending on the specific use case and configuration.

ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

In traditional ETL processes, data is first extracted from the source systems, then transformed according to the desired schema or structure, and finally loaded into the target destination. Azure Data Factory supports ETL workflows by providing capabilities for data extraction from various sources, transformation using data flows or compute services like Azure Databricks, and loading data into targeted places such as data warehouses or data lakes.

ELT (Extract, Load, Transform)

ELT processes involve extracting data from source systems, loading it directly into the target destination without significant transformation, and then performing transformations within the target environment. Azure Data Factory also supports ELT workflows by enabling users to ingest data from source systems and load it directly into target destinations. Users can then perform transformations on the loaded data using compute services like Azure SQL Database, Azure Databricks, or other data processing engines within the target environment.

5. How many activities are in Azure Data Factory?

Azure Data Factory provides a wide range of activities to support different data integration and transformation tasks. While the exact number of activities may vary over time as Microsoft continues to update and enhance the service, here are some common categories of activities available in Azure Data Factory.

• Data Movement Activities: These activities are used to copy data between different data stores, such as Azure Blob Storage, Azure SQL Database, Azure Data Lake Storage, on-premises SQL Server, and more. Examples include Copy Data, Azure Blob Storage, Azure SQL Database, and Data Lake Storage.
• Data Transformation Activities: These activities are used to process and transform data within pipelines. They include transformations such as mapping, filtering, aggregating, and joining data. Examples include Data Flow, Join, Filter, and Aggregate.
• Control Activities: Control activities are used to manage the flow of execution within pipelines. They include activities for branching, looping, conditional execution, and error handling. Examples include If Condition, For Each, Execute Pipeline, and Wait.
• Databricks Activities: These activities enable integration with Azure Databricks, allowing users to execute Databricks notebooks and run Spark jobs as part of their data workflows. Examples include Databricks Notebooks and Databricks Jar.
• Stored Procedure Activities: Stored Procedure activities are used to invoke stored procedures in relational databases such as Azure SQL Database or SQL Server. They allow users to execute custom logic and operations within the database environment.
• Web Activities: Web activities enable interaction with external web services and APIs as part of data workflows. They can be used to make HTTP requests, call REST APIs, or interact with web endpoints for data exchange.
• Custom Activities: Custom activities allow users to execute custom code or scripts within pipelines. They provide flexibility for integrating with external systems, performing specialized data processing tasks, or implementing custom business logic.

6. List some five types of data sources supported by Azure Data Factory.

Here are five types of data sources supported by Azure Data Factory:

• Relational databases (e.g., Azure SQL Database, SQL Server)
• Cloud storage services (e.g., Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Storage)
• On-premises data sources (e.g., SQL Server on-premises, file servers)
• SaaS applications (e.g., Salesforce, Dynamics 365)
• NoSQL databases (e.g., Azure Cosmos DB, MongoDB)

7. How many trigger types does Azure Data Factory support?

There are three types of triggers supported by Azure Data Factory.

• Schedule Triggers : These triggers execute pipelines on a predefined schedule, such as hourly, daily, or weekly intervals. They enable you to automate data integration workflows based on time-based schedules.
• Tumbling Window Triggers : Tumbling window triggers enable you to define recurring time intervals (e.g., every hour, day, week) during which pipelines are executed. They are useful for processing data in batches or windows of time.
• Event-Based Triggers : Event-based triggers execute pipelines in response to specific events, such as the arrival of new data, the completion of a data processing task, or an external trigger from another Azure service. They enable you to trigger data integration workflows dynamically based on real-time events.

8. Can Azure Data Factory process multiple pipelines?

Yes, Azure Data Factory can process multiple pipelines concurrently or sequentially, depending on your requirements and configuration. Here’s how Azure Data Factory supports processing multiple pipelines:

• Concurrent Execution : Azure Data Factory allows you to define and schedule multiple pipelines within a data factory instance. These pipelines can run concurrently, meaning that multiple pipelines can execute simultaneously, leveraging the available compute resources and maximizing throughput. Concurrent execution is beneficial for scenarios where you need to process multiple data workflows concurrently to meet SLAs or handle high-volume data processing tasks efficiently.
• Sequential Execution : Alternatively, you can configure pipelines to execute sequentially, where one pipeline starts only after the completion of the previous pipeline. Sequential execution ensures that dependencies between pipelines are honored, and data processing tasks are executed in a predefined order. Sequential execution is useful for scenarios where you have dependencies between data workflows or where you need to orchestrate complex data processing pipelines with dependencies or preconditions.
• Trigger-based Execution : Azure Data Factory supports various trigger types, including schedule triggers, tumbling window triggers, and event-based triggers. You can define triggers to automatically start and execute pipelines based on predefined schedules, time intervals, or external events. By configuring triggers for multiple pipelines, you can automate the execution of data workflows and ensure timely processing of data based on your business requirements.
• Monitoring and Management : Azure Data Factory provides built-in monitoring and management tools for tracking the execution of pipelines, monitoring performance metrics, and troubleshooting errors. You can monitor the execution status of individual pipelines, view execution logs, track performance metrics such as execution duration and data volumes processed, and set up alerts for proactive monitoring and management.

9. What is Datediff in Azure Data Factory?

In Azure Data Factory, DATEDIFF is a function used to calculate the difference between two dates or times and return the result in the specified date part (e.g., days, hours, minutes). The DATEDIFF function takes three arguments:

• Start Date: The date or time value representing the start of the time interval.
• End Date : The date or time value representing the end of the time interval.
• Date Part : The unit of time in which to return the difference between the two dates. This can be specified using predefined keywords such as “day,” “hour,” “minute,” “second,” etc.

The syntax for the DATEDIFF function in Azure Data Factory is as follows:

DATEDIFF(start_date, end_date, date_part)

10. How to set alerts in Azure Data Factory?

In Azure Data Factory, you can set alerts to monitor the health, performance, and status of your data integration pipelines and data factories. Alerts can notify you of critical issues, such as pipeline failures, high resource utilization, or data processing delays, enabling you to take timely action to address potential issues. 

11. What is the distinction between Azure Data Lake and Azure Data Warehouse?

Azure Data Lake and Azure Data Warehouse are both cloud-based data storage and analytics services offered by Microsoft Azure, but they serve different purposes and are designed for different types of data workloads. 

Here are the key distinctions between Azure Data Lake and Azure Data Warehouse:

12. What are the types of integration runtime?

There are three types of integration runtimes in Azure Data Factory:

• Azure Integration Runtime : This runtime is fully managed by Azure Data Factory and is used to perform data movement and transformation activities within the Azure cloud environment. It is optimized for transferring data between Azure services and can scale dynamically based on workload demands.
• Self-hosted Integration Runtime : This runtime is installed on your on-premises network or virtual machines (VMs) and enables Azure Data Factory to interact with on-premises data sources and destinations. It provides secure connectivity to on-premises systems without exposing them to the internet and supports data movement between on-premises and cloud environments.
• Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime : This runtime is used specifically for executing SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages within Azure Data Factory. It allows you to lift and shift existing SSIS workloads to the cloud and provides native support for running SSIS packages in Azure with scalability and flexibility.

13. List out some useful constructs in Data Factory.

Here are some useful constructs in Azure Data Factory:

Parameter: Every activity within the pipeline can consume tparameter values passed to the pipeline and run using the @parameter construct.

Coalesce: You can use the @coalesce construct in expressions to handle null values gracefully.

14. What is the purpose of Linked services

Linked services in Azure Data Factory serve as connections to external data sources and destinations. They provide the necessary connection information and credentials required for Azure Data Factory to interact with data sources and destinations during data integration and transformation tasks. The primary purpose of linked services is to enable Azure Data Factory to:

• Ingest Data : Linked services allow Azure Data Factory to extract data from various source systems, such as databases, files, APIs, and cloud services. By defining linked services for source systems, you can specify the connection details (e.g., server address, authentication method, credentials) needed to establish a connection and retrieve data from those sources.
• Transform Data : Linked services facilitate data transformation by providing connectivity to compute services and data processing engines. For example, you can define linked services for Azure Databricks, Azure HDInsight, Azure SQL Database, or Azure Synapse Analytics, allowing Azure Data Factory to invoke data transformation activities and execute data processing logic within these compute environments.
• Load Data : Linked services enable Azure Data Factory to load transformed data into target destinations, such as data warehouses, data lakes, databases, or cloud storage services. By defining linked services for target destinations, you can specify the connection details and authentication credentials required to write data to those destinations.
• Orchestrate Workflows : Linked services are essential for orchestrating end-to-end data workflows in Azure Data Factory. They provide the foundation for defining data pipelines, which consist of activities that interact with linked services to perform data integration and transformation tasks. By configuring linked services within pipeline activities, you can seamlessly move data between source systems, compute services, and target destinations as part of your data workflows.

15. What are ARM Templates in Azure Data Factory? 

ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates in Azure Data Factory are declarative JSON files that define the infrastructure and configuration of Azure Data Factory resources within an Azure environment. These templates follow the ARM template syntax and structure, allowing you to define and deploy Azure Data Factory resources in a consistent and repeatable manner using infrastructure as code (IaC) principles.

Explore hands-on practice for Understanding Azure Data Factory

I hope this blog post on “Top Azure Data Factory Interview Questions & Answers” has provided you with valuable insights and a solid understanding of the key concepts and practical aspects of working with Azure Data Factory.

Whether you are preparing for an interview or looking to enhance your knowledge, these questions and answers will help you confidently navigate the complexities of data integration and orchestration in Azure.

Best of luck with your interview and your journey in mastering Azure Data Factory !

• About the Author
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'Heavily edited' Trump interview on Fox has internet 'very curious what they edited out'

David McAfee

Senior editor, david joined raw story in 2023 after nearly a decade of writing about the legal industry for bloomberg law. he is also a co-founder and a commissioning editor at hypatia press, a publisher that specializes in philosophical works that challenge religion or spirituality..

Donald Trump was featured in an interview published by Fox News on Sunday, but the video seems to be raising more questions than it answers.

Trump was accused of promoting domestic terrorism with one of his answers in the interview with the friendly group from the conservative network. Another answer caused the internet to call the former president out for a lie , and an attorney and radio host to question whether it was a clue to Trump's diminishing mental health.

Independent journalist Aaron Rupar flagged the edits on Sunday.

ALSO READ: Trump just endorsed this Virginia congressional candidate whose social media isn’t so MAGA

"Check out the cut here," he wrote on X, former known as Twitter. " Trump 's interview on Fox & Friends was clearly heavily edited."

@Acyn also chimed in, saying that "Trump’s interview with Fox and Friends is heavily edited for some reason."

"Abrupt cuts while he’s still talking," the user added. "Very curious what they edited out."

Bad Fox Graphics , which purports to provide a "collection of awkward images, clumsy captions, flawed headlines, & memorable moments as seen on the Fox networks," also weighed in.

"W hen you fail to mic the interviewers, this is the crappy audio you get," the account wrote. " Trump should be LIVID about the poor production value of this heavily edited [FOX & Friends Weekend] interview."

Former prosecutor Ron Filipkowski had this to say:

"F ox and Friends has to tape and edit the hell out of Trump ’s interview as usual," he said. "They can’t go live with him anymore because he’s a deranged rambling mess, so they have to clean everything up as best they can with edits."

Watch the video below or click the link right here.

Stories Chosen For You

Should trump be allowed to run for office, 'with all my heart': mtg pens fawning love letter to convicted felon donald trump.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene avows she does not worship former President and convicted felon Donald Trump , but a new social media homage suggests she's got a lot of love to give him.

Greene posted to X Tuesday evening a 300-word X post fawning over Trump and the qualities she said she truly loves.

"What’s your favorite thing about President Trump?" Greene asks her followers. "I have several."

As the poets would have us do, Greene proceeds to count the ways.

"One is how nice he is. Genuinely kind hearted and caring about everyone," Greene writes. "Every time I call him or see him, he always ask me how I’m doing in the most sincere way. And I love that he treats everyone that way."

Greene wrote this missive hours before Trump would phone into Newsmax to rail against Hillary Clinton, President Joe Biden, the jurors in his criminal hush money trial, immigrants and writer E. Jean Carroll.

"I also love to talk with him about construction and renovation projects," Greene admits. "I have a unique eye for capturing those special people who truly have mastered the craft of running a good business from top to bottom and bottom to top. President Trump is one of the best I’ve observed."

The CEO of Trump's eponymous media company was reported Tuesday to flag "severe" anomalies he believes warrant an official probe .

Failed business ventures of the former president include Trump University, Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Magazine and Trump Steaks.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene: Ilhan Omar is ‘lucky’ to be in America

"President Trump is so smart and has so many exciting ideas for American greatness that benefit EVERY American," wrote Greene. "I hope with all my heart we get the opportunity to bring the ideas we have discussed to fruition for America. I also truly appreciate how much he loves his family. Every single one of them, and they love him."

Melania Trump was notably absent from her husband's criminal hush money trial in which he was found guilty of falsifying business records to silence an adult film star who said she had an affair with the then-mogul while his wife was pregnant with their son.

Trump denies the affair and plans to appeal the conviction.

"But perhaps one of the most admirable traits is how dedicated he is to putting America first. He is literally giving up living a self centered life enjoying his success and hard earned wealth to fight the corrupt and evil people in our government in order to Make America Great Again, not for himself, but for everyday ordinary American citizens," Greene concluded.

"It deeply saddens me that he has been vilified all for the disgusting business of politics. He is the most attacked and lied about man living on planet Earth. And he takes all of the unfair cruel attacks with strength and grace and unwavering hope that through it all people will wake up and see what is happening and join in the fight to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

Greene's followers then shared what they loved about Trump.

StrictlyChristo replied, " I think my favorite thing about Trump is that he’s a felon and he’s about to be sentenced to spending many, many months in jail for his crimes."

"I love that he looks like Tupperware after you put spaghetti in it," wrote Brown eyed Susan . " I love the way he aced every single one of those charge against him!"

'Spectacular': Report reveals Comer mistakenly imported 'Chinese pot' instead of hemp

A hemp deal that Rep. James Comer (R-KY) could hail as a win for Kentucky ended in a swiftly buried Chinese pot bust, according to a new report.

The Daily Beast Tuesday revealed a sweeping expose about the House Oversight Committee chair — known for lobbing accusations against President Joe Biden's son Hunter over ties to a Chinese energy company — and his snafus importing Chinese hemp while running for the governorship of his state.

Citing emails pulled from official state documents, the Daily Beast reveals the legal hemp Comer tried to import the country was "essentially Chinese pot, containing illegally high levels of THC."

On Sept. 30, 2014, an email shared with Comer and others involved in the hemp efforts paints the picture a nervous driver freaking over the payload that "reeked of pot," the Beast reports.

“FYI—your eyes only,” the email reads, according to The Beast. “The driver who picked up the hemp seed was scared all the way back from Murray. He stated the odor was very strong and he observed a few truckers pass his truck and snicker.

"I was told the smell is identical to what maryj [marijuana] smells like...I personally have to take their word for it."

The driver was described as being "terrified of the potential of being pulled over and having to explain his way out of the delema [sic].”

The timeline of the efforts to secure the hemp from a company known as Caudill Seed overlapped Comer's 2015 unsuccessful run for governor , The Beast reports.

And from the outset, Comer considered their efforts to be on the up and up.

“There is nothing criminal occurring with the projects,” according to a memo cited by the Beast. “The program is in compliance with both state and federal regulations; there is nothing to hide.”

And Comer himself has lauded the hemp sourcing efforts when he attempted to sponsor "Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2017" in Congress.

Only when he advertised his past experience, the Beast notes the "Chinese hemp imports—potentially mislabeled 'as a decoy' for customs inspection and eventually found to contain quantities of THC nearly ten times the legal limit—were never made public."

GOP hardliners pressure Johnson on vote that would seal 'their allegiance to' Trump

Five days after a Manhattan jury convicted former President Donald Trump on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents, House Republicans are determined to defend their 2024 GOP nominee.

CNN reported Tuesday that during a private meeting with House Republican members, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told his colleagues that he'll "do everything he can to go after the Department of Justice," adding that "the verdict has ignited support for the former president," according to two sources close to the matter.

Now, according to a new Axios report , GOP hardliners "are pressuring" the speaker "for a vote on legislation aimed at showing their allegiance to" the former president.

READ MORE: GOP will defund DOJ in retaliation for Trump conviction: Johnson

Per Axios, the right-wing lawmakers "want a floor vote on a bill that would allow current or former presidents to move any state case brought against them — such as the one in New York that resulted in Trump's conviction — to federal court, according to multiple House Republican sources."

However, one GOPer told the news outlet that the legislation is "unlikely" for now, considering the fact that "a floor vote on the measure could put moderate Republicans in a jam," the report notes.

Republicans would have to determine whether they want to defy Trumpworld or make a decision that could hinder their success in their respective districts.

Axios also notes that, additionally, some GOP senators " signed onto a pledge to seek to block floor action in response to the conviction."

READ MORE: 'Republicans are circling the wagons': GOP strategist busts claim verdict helps Trump

The news outlet reports: "Theoretically, if the bill House conservatives are pushing were signed into law, Trump would be allowed to move the Georgia case from state to federal court. If he was convicted and got elected president again, he could try to pardon himself. Presidents can't pardon state convictions."

Texas AG Ken Paxton campaign ad mistakenly implicates Donald Trump

Why is everyone so grumpy about the economy, stop wondering if trump’s felony convictions will hurt his campaign — just listen to him.

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