mckinsey client case study

100+ Real Consulting Presentations from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and More

By Paul Moss

We’ve gathered presentations from top consulting firms that you can use to inspire your own slide making.

For this post we’ve gathered 100+ real presentations from top consulting firms around the internet for you to review, analyze, and learn from. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and each provides a different look into how top quality consulting presentations get created and delivered to clients. 

After finishing this article, make sure you check out our advanced courses to see how you can learn to build your own high-quality, consulting-style slides from scratch.

The Internet's Best Slides

Search through our curated library of REAL slides to find inspiration for your next presentation

• Reshaping NYCHA support functions   (BCG)
•   Loose dogs in Dallas: Strategic Recommendations to Improve Public Safety and Animal Welfare   (BCG)
•   Melbourne as a Global Cultural Destination   (BCG)
•   The Open Education Resources ecosystem   (BCG)
•   The True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight (7th Edition) (BCG)
•   Evaluating NYC media sector development and setting the stage for future growth   (BCG)
•   The Electric Car Tipping Point   (BCG)
•   Projecting US Mail volumes to 2020   (BCG)
•   Next Generation Manufacturing (2016)   (BCG)
•   Corporate Ventures in Sweden (2016)   (BCG)
•   Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program – March 2008   (BCG)
•   USPS Future Business Model   (McKinsey)
•   Investment and Industrial Policy: A Perspective on the Future   (McKinsey)
•   Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies and the companies that propel them   (McKinsey)
•   Technology’s role in mineral criticality (World Materials Forum)   (McKinsey)
•   Challenges in Mining: Scarcity or Opportunity?   (McKinsey)
•   Modelling the potential of digitally-enabled processes, transparency and participation in the NHS   (McKinsey)
•   Addressing the Global Affordable Housing Challenge (2016)   (McKinsey)
•   Capturing the Full Electrical Efficiency Potential of the UK (2012)   (McKinsey)
•   Digital Luxury Experience (2017)   (McKinsey)
•   Digitally-Enabled Processes in the NHS (2014)   (McKinsey)
•   How Companies can Capture the Veteran Opportunity (2012)   (McKinsey)
•   Insurance Trends and Growth Opportunities for Poland (2015)   (McKinsey)
•   Laying the Foundations for a Financially Sound Industry (2013)   (McKinsey)
•   From Poverty to Empowerment (2014)   (McKinsey)
•   Consumer privacy in retail   (Deloitte)
•   TMT Outlook 2017: A new wave of advances offer opportunities and challenges   (Deloitte)
• Deloitte SEA CFO Forum Southeast Asia Business Outlook   (Deloitte)
• Deloitte Kenya Budget 2022/23 Webinar   (Deloitte)
• The Shopping Centre Handbook 4.0   (Deloitte)

Bain & Co.

•   2011 China Luxury Market Study   (Bain)
•   Bain & UC Berkley Operational Excellence (2010)   (Bain)
•   Fintech New York: Partnerships, Platforms and Open Innovation   (Accenture)
•   Shaping the Sustainable Organization   (Accenture)
•   The Decade to Deliver: A Call to Business Action   (Accenture)
•   Fueling the Energy Future   (Accenture)
•   Cracking the Code on Consumer Fraud   (Accenture)
•   Right Cloud Mindset: Survey Results Hospitality   (Accenture)
•   Unleashing Competitiveness on the Cloud Continuum   (Accenture)
•   Whole Brain Leadership: New Rules of Engagement for the C-Suite   (Accenture)
•   Federal Technology Vision 2021: Full U.S. Federal Survey Findings   (Accenture)
•   Accenture Consumer Behavior Research: The value shake-up   (Accenture)
•   Tech Adoption and Strategy for Innovation & Growth   (Accenture)
•   Intelligent Operations for Future-Ready Businesses   (Accenture)
•   When, Where & How AI Will Boost Federal Workforce Productivity   (Accenture)
•   How fit is your allocation strategy?   (EY)
•   European Banking Barometer (2015)   (EY)
•   EY Price Point: global oil and gas market outlook, Q2 | April 2022   (EY)
•   IBOR transition: Opportunities and challenges for the asset management industry (EY)
•   Global Capital Confidence Barometer 21st edition   (EY)
•   Power transactions and trends Q2 2019   (EY)
•   MAPS2018 Keynote address on EY report: Life Sciences 4.0 – Securing value through data-driven platforms   (EY)
•   EY Germany FinTech Landscape   (EY)

PwC / Strategy&

•   Project Management: Improving performance, reducing risk   (PwC)
•   World Economic Forum: The power of analytics for better and faster decisions by Dan DiFilippo   (PwC)
•   Apache Hadoop Summit 2016: The Future of Apache Hadoop an Enterprise Architecture View   (PwC)
•   Turning big data into big revenue   (PwC)
•   Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers 2017   (PwC)
•   PwC’s new Golden Age Index – how well are countries harnessing the power of older workers?   (PwC)
•   PwC’s Global Technology IPO Review — Q1 2015   (PwC)
•   PwC Trends in the workforce   (PwC)
•   18th Annual Global CEO Survey – Technology industry key findings   (PwC)
•   The FDA and industry: A recipe for collaborating in the New Health Economy   (PwC)
•   Making zero-emission trucking a reality   (Strategy&)
•   Sustainability strategies for Oil and Gas   (Strategy&)
•   Driving the sustainability agenda on C-level   (Strategy&)
• The Diversity Imperative: 14th Annual Australian Chief Executive Study   (Strategy&)
•   Creating a Winning Recipe for a Meal Kits Program   (LEK)
•   The 4th Annual New Mobility Study 2019   (LEK)
•   2019 APAC Hospital Priority Study Overview    (LEK)
•   Rail industry cost and revenue sharing (2011)   (LEK)
•   2019 Media and Entertainment Study   (LEK)
•   Navigating a digital-first home furnishings market   (LEK)
•   5 Opportunities in the Nutritional Supplements Industry   (LEK)
•   Infrastructure Victoria – AZ/ZEV International Scan   (LEK)
•   The Rapidly Evolving Landscape of Meal Kits and E-commerce in Food & Beverage   (LEK)
•   Top 8 Insights From the 2018 Beauty, Health & Wellness Survey   (LEK)
•   2018 Brand Owner Packaging Survey   (LEK)
•   2016 Strategic Hospital Priorities Study   (LEK)
•   The Merchandising Evolution (and why NDC Matters)   (LEK)
•   Infrastructure beyond COVID-19   (LEK)
•   China Exit or Co-Investment Opportunities for German PE Investors   (LEK)
•   Strategy Study 2014   ( AT Kearney)
•   Australia: Taking Bigger Steps   ( AT Kearney)
•   Lifting the Barriers to Retail Innovation in ASEAN   ( AT Kearney)
•   The Future of Commercial Vehicle Powertrains (2012)   ( AT Kearney)
•   A.T. Kearney 2017 State of Logistics Report: Accelerating into Uncertainty   ( AT Kearney)
•   Pursuing Customer Inspired Growth   ( AT Kearney)
•   The Accelerating Growth of Frictionless Commerce   ( AT Kearney)
•   Consolidation of the US Banking Industry   ( AT Kearney)
• Covid-19 and Effects on Turkey   ( AT Kearney)

Booz Allen Hamilton, Alvarez & Marsal and others

•   European Distressed Credit Watch List   (Alvarez & Marsal)
•   Corporate Headquarters Study 2018   (Roland Berger)
• The Lithium-Ion (EV) battery market and supply chain   (Roland Berger)
•   IP Theft   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
•   Booz Allen Hamilton and Market Connections: C4ISR Survey Report   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
•   Joining Forces: Interagency Collaboration and “Smart Power”   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
• Booz Allen at a glance   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
• Investor Presentation Deck   (Booz Allen Hamilton)
•   Responding to Covid-19 (2021)   (Oliver Wyman)
•   C ovid-19 Special Primer (2020)   (Oliver Wyman)
• Building Up Immunity of the Financial Sector   (Oliver Wyman)
• Customer Experience: The 14BN Risk Noted for Discussion   (Oliver Wyman)

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Reshaping NYCHA support functions

Good:  Realistic client presentation, clear slide structure, complete storyline

Not Good:  Outdated, long and dense

Download this Presentation

Loose dogs in Dallas: Strategic Recommendations to Improve Public Safety and Animal Welfare

Good: Realistic client presentation, clear slide structure, insightful and clear charts

Not Good: Outdated, long and dense

Melbourne as a Global Cultural Destination

Good: Realistic client presentation, good structure, slides “guide” audience to insights

Not Good: Outdated design

The Open Education Resources ecosystem

Good: Clearly structured slides, good visuals, good illustrative charts

Not Good: Relatively short, slightly older, incomplete storyline

The True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight (7th Edition)

Good: Recent presentation, nice looking visuals, clear charts

Not Good: Not a client presentation, too much focus on design

Evaluating NYC media sector development and setting the stage for future growth

Good: Complete presentation (intro, exec. summary, etc.), good examples of subtitles

Not Good: Lacks clear recommendations

The Electric Car Tipping Point

Good: Clear and insightful charts, clutter-free slides, good titles

Not Good: Relatively short, not a client presentation

Projecting US Mail volumes to 2020

Good: Easy to understand, good insights and analysis, contrasts with McKinsey presentation on the same topic

Not Good: Old presentation

Next Generation Manufacturing (2016)

Good: Nice clean design, excellent visuals

Not Good: Not a client deliverable

Corporate Ventures in Sweden (2016)

Good: Strong overall flow, good visualization s

Not Good: Relatively short

Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program – March 2008

Good: Realistic slides and presentation, good structure

Not Good: Short

USPS Future Business Model

Good:  Clear structure and analysis, insightful charts

Not Good:  Outdated, lackluster design

Investment and Industrial Policy: A Perspective on the Future

Good: Variety of charts, good titles

Not Good: Over designed, not a client presentation

Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies and the companies that propel them

Good: Variety of charts, qualitative visuals, clear titles

Not Good: Poor use of color, minimal footnotes

Technology’s role in mineral criticality (World Materials Forum)

Good: Clear storyline, well-structured slides, good titles and subtitles

Not Good: Overuse of visuals, relatively short

Challenges in Mining: Scarcity or Opportunity?

Good: Complex explanations made simple, variety of visual types

Not Good: Inconsistent titles, some unprofessional visuals (clipart, etc.)

Modelling the potential of digitally-enabled processes, transparency and participation in the NHS

Good: Realistic client slides, data heavy

Not Good: Cluttered, incomplete storyline

Addressing the Global Affordable Housing Challenge (2016)

Good: Realistic slide structure, good charts, great slide titles

Not Good: Strange slide formatting, mediocre design

Capturing the Full Electrical Efficiency Potential of the UK (2012)

Good: Realistic client deliverable (full deck, dense slides, proper deck structure)

Digital Luxury Experience (2017)

Good: Variety of charts, good use of icons

Not Good: Short presentation, light on content, not a client deliverable

How Companies can Capture the Veteran Opportunity

Good: Examples of text-heavy slides, good action titles

Not Good: Minimal charts, unrealistic structure, repetitive slides

Insurance Trends and Growth Opportunities for Poland

Good: Well organized presentation, clear takeaways

Not Good: Old formatting, short presentation

Laying the Foundations for a Financially Sound Industry

Good: Multiple chart examples (waterfall, line, dot, column)

Not Good: Short presentation, “conference-style” presentation

From Poverty to Empowerment (2014)

Good: Good variety of data visualizations

Not Good: Unattractive formatting and style

Consumer privacy in retail

Good: Clear titles, good use of icons and color to show insights

Not Good: Short, not a client presentation

TMT Outlook 2017: A new wave of advances offer opportunities and challenges

Good: Survey insights highlighted well, good use of color, clear charts and visuals

Not Good: Not a client presentation, heavy focus on survey data

Deloitte SEA CFO Forum Southeast Asia Business Outlook

Good: Line chart examples

Not Good: Poor titles, strange use of black

Deloitte Kenya Budget 2022/23 Webinar

Good: Consistent design, good colors

Not Good: Simple titles, meant for live presentation

The Shopping Centre Handbook 4.0

Good: Some insights

Not Good: Too many graphics, strange design

2011 China Luxury Market Study

Good: Clear titles, good use of color to highlight insights

Not Good: Short presentation, marketing presentation

Bain & UC Berkley Operational Excellence (2010)

Good: Realistic presentation, lots of slides

Not Good: Outdated content, ugly design

Fintech New York: Partnerships, Platforms and Open Innovation

Good: Simple and clear slide design, good structure, insightful charts

Not Good: Short presentation, only a few “consulting style” slides

Shaping the Sustainable Organization

Good: Well structured slides, clear takeaways

Not Good: Rounded chart bars

The Decade to Deliver: A Call to Business Action

Good: Variety of charts, good design

Not Good: Not a client presentation

Fueling the Energy Future

Good: Illustrative charts and matrices

Not Good: Curved line charts

Cracking the Code on Consumer Fraud

Good: Mix of charts and numbers

Right Cloud Mindset: Survey Results Hospitality

Good: Nice slide titles and charts

Not Good: Text heavy sections

Unleashing Competitiveness on the Cloud Continuum

Good: Focus on takeaways, clear charts

Not Good: Ugly backgrounds, overuse of pictures

Whole Brain Leadership: New Rules of Engagement for the C-Suite

Good: Formatting, use of numbers

Not Good: Unnecessary graphics

Federal Technology Vision 2021: Full U.S. Federal Survey Findings

Good: Clear survey results, nice bar charts

Accenture Consumer Behavior Research: The value shake-up

Good: Color design, focus on insights

Not Good: Marketing focused

Tech Adoption and Strategy for Innovation & Growth

Good: Color contrast, text structure

Not Good: 3D charts

Intelligent Operations for Future-Ready Businesses

Good: Sankey chart, tables, presentation structure

When, Where & How AI Will Boost Federal Workforce Productivity

How fit is your allocation strategy?

Good: Some good charts, good use of color

Not Good: Light on content, short presentation, inconsistent slide structure

European Banking Barometer (2015)

Good: Nice titles and takeaways, good variety of charts

Not Good: Survey-focused presentation (i.e. not client deliverable)

EY Price Point: global oil and gas market outlook, Q2 | April 2022

Good: Insightful charts and tables

Not Good: Report style, text heavy

IBOR transition: Opportunities and challenges for the asset management industry

Good: Formatting

Not Good: Meant for live presentation

Global Capital Confidence Barometer 21st edition

Good: Formatting and structure, interesting charts

Power transactions and trends Q2 2019

Good: Insightful charts

Not Good: Meant as appendix or “leave behind”

MAPS2018 Keynote address on EY report: Life Sciences 4.0 – Securing value through data-driven platforms

Good: Realistic slides, clear titles, good formatting

EY Germany FinTech Landscape

Good: Formatting and structure, insightful charts

Not Good: Data heavy, appendix style slides

Project Management: Improving performance, reducing risk

Good: Variety of qualitative visuals, good use of icons, nice design

Not Good: B ad titles, light on content

World Economic Forum: The power of analytics for better and faster decisions by Dan DiFilippo

Good: Scatter plot examples

Apache Hadoop Summit 2016: The Future of Apache Hadoop an Enterprise Architecture View

Good: Qualtative visuals

Not Good: Short and marketing focused

Turning big data into big revenue

Good: Text heavy slide examples

Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers 2017

PwC’s new Golden Age Index – how well are countries harnessing the power of older workers?

Good: Mix of charts and tables, clean formatting

Not Good: Inconsistent titles

PwC’s Global Technology IPO Review — Q1 2015

Good: Combination and column charts

Not Good: Report style presentation

18th Annual Global CEO Survey – Technology industry key findings

Good: Visualized data

Not Good: Incomplete titles

The FDA and industry: A recipe for collaborating in the New Health Economy

Good: Simple and clear titles

Not Good: Inconsistent structure

Making zero-emission trucking a reality

Good: Very realistic slides, overall great presentation

Not Good: Text heavy transition slides

Driving the sustainability agenda on C-level

Not Good: Short, some cluttered slides

The Diversity Imperative: 14th Annual Australian Chief Executive Study

Good: Chart heavy, realistic slides

Not Good: Short presentation

Creating a Winning Recipe for a Meal Kits Program

Good: Clear titles, good charts

Not Good: Dense, too many pictures/logos

The 4th Annual New Mobility Study 2019

Good: Variety of charts, good amount of content

Not Good: Lots of filler slides, inconsistent titles

2019 APAC Hospital Priority Study Overview

Good: Very good (and realistic) design, clear slide takeaways

Not Good: Very short presentation

Rail industry cost and revenue sharing (2011)

Good: Good introduction and executive summary, realistic client presentation

Not Good: Outdated, boring design

2019 Media and Entertainment Study

Good: Clear charts, good titles

Not Good: Very short, too much text

Navigating a digital-first home furnishings market

Good: Infographic style slides

5 Opportunities in the Nutritional Supplements Industry

Good: Great charts, good deck structure

Not Good: Not a client presentation, text heavy

Infrastructure Victoria – AZ/ZEV International Scan

Good: Realistic client presentation, wide variety of slides

Not Good: Very long

The Rapidly Evolving Landscape of Meal Kits and E-commerce in Food & Beverage

Good: Variety of basic charts, realistic design

Top 8 Insights From the 2018 Beauty, Health & Wellness Survey

Good: Good column chart examples

Not Good: Report style

2018 Brand Owner Packaging Survey

Good: Good visuals, multiple charts

2016 Strategic Hospital Priorities Study

Good: Multiple charts, good qualitative visuals

The Merchandising Evolution (and why NDC Matters)

Good: Good storyline, clear charts

Not Good: Weak titles, outdated style

Infrastructure beyond COVID-19

Good: Wide variety of slide types, realistic presentation

China Exit or Co-Investment Opportunities for German PE Investors

Good: Multiple data heavy slides, good charts

Not Good: Slightly old

Strategy Study 2014

Good: Variety of charts

Not Good: Reads like an infographic, poor choice of color

Australia: Taking Bigger Steps

Good: Illustrative chart, use of icons

Not Good: D istracting backgrounds and colors

Lifting the Barriers to Retail Innovation in ASEAN

Good: Simple to follow

Not Good: Minimal analysis, questionable stacked column chart

The Future of Commercial Vehicle Powertrains (2012)

Good: Realistic slides, excellent takeaways, good overall structure

Not Good: Older presentation, simplistic design

Pursuing Customer Inspired Growth

Good:  Realistic client slides, multiple frameworks

Not Good: Short, outdated design

The Accelerating Growth of Frictionless Commerce

Good: Mix of charts, clear insights

Not Good: Distracting backgrounds, short presentation

Consolidation of the US Banking Industry

Good: A couple good titles

Not Good: Large text, minimal charts, distracting colors

Covid-19 and Effects on Turkey

Good: Consistent color, focus on insights

Not Good: Strange layout, marketing focused

Booz Allen Hamilton, Alvarez & Marsal and others

European Distressed Credit Watch List

Good: Simple charts

Not Good: Boring template, appendix heavy

Corporate Headquarters Study 2018

Good: Clear and simple slides, good variety of charts and visuals, not overly produced

Not Good: Not a typical client presentation, average slide titles

The Lithium-Ion (EV) battery market and supply chain

Good: Realistic titles and content-heavy slides

Not Good: Distracting background and colors

Good: Story flow, titles

Not Good: T itle page, overall design rs

Booz Allen Hamilton and Market Connections: C4ISR Survey Report

Good: Simple bar charts

Not Good: Titles, design

Joining Forces: Interagency Collaboration and “Smart Power”

Good: Slide consistency

Not Good: Chart design, outdated

Booz Allen at a glance

Good: Easy-to-read charts

Not Good: Meant for live presentation, minimal content

Responding to Covid-19 (2021)

Good: Excellent use of color, good overall design and visualizations

Not Good: “White Paper” style presentation (i.e. not client deliverable)

Covid-19 Special Primer (2020)

Good: Variety of data visualizations, nice color usage, clear takeaways

Building Up Immunity of the Financial Sector

Good: Clean design, interesting charts

Not Good: Some text heavy slides

Customer Experience: The 14BN Risk Noted for Discussion

Good: Simple design, good overall structure

Not Good: Inconsistent colors

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McKinsey Interview 2024 – Get Useful Advices from an Ex Consultant

The McKinsey Case Interview , called the 'Problem Solving Interview' by the firm, is arguable the hardest challenge for candidates in their recruiting process. Among all consulting firms , it is the most feared since McKinsey eliminates a significant proportion of candidates during the case interview .

The case plays a crucial role in the evaluation of candidates, besides the Personal Experience Interview (PEI) . In fact, performing well in the case interview does not guarantee an offer. Rather candidates need to show clear and consistent spikes in performance across all interviews . That is the reason why only a minute percentage of interviewees will receive their desired offer and Forbes has ranked McKinsey as the toughest firm to interview for .

Unfortunately, our coach Florian found that the information on the McKinsey application process and specifically the case interviews is often wrong, outdated, or assumed to be the same as for every other consulting firm.

Consequently, the advice given is detrimental to your recruiting success with the firm.

In this article, I want to shed some light on this mysterious, often-talked about, even more often misunderstood McKinsey interview by answering the following questions:

• What is the McKinsey Problem Solving Interview?
• What skills are assessed in a case interview?
• What is the format of a McKinsey case?
• What questions are typical in a McKinsey case interview?
• How is the McKinsey case interview different from other consulting firms?
• How should you prepare for a McKinsey interview?

Table of Contents

• What Is the McKinsey Problem Solving Interview?
• What Skills Are Assessed by McKinsey?
• What Is the Format of the McKinsey Case Study?
• What Are the Main McKinsey Interview Questions?
• Structuring/Exhibit Interpretation
• Importance of the Overall Picture
• McKinsey Case Examples
• How Is the McKinsey Case Interview Different from Other Consulting Case Interviews?
• Interviewer-led vs. Candidate-led Case Interview
• Structuring the Case
• How Should I Prepare for a McKinsey Case Interview?
• Tailored Case Frameworks
• Math And Chart Reading
• About the Author

At the core, the McKinsey Problem Solving Interview is a case interview as it is employed by most consulting firms to test the analytical capabilities and communication skills of applicants . The interview simulates a client situation, where you are tasked to solve a specific problem that they are facing.

However, it comes with a twist. You will have to answer a succession of several questions rather than driving the case yourself as would be the case in other consulting firms. Within the interview, which is a dialogue between you and the interviewer, you need to iteratively

• structure problems
• propose concrete ideas
• gather information
• spot insights in data tables and charts
• solve quantitative problems
• deliver insights, implications, and test hypotheses
• communicate in a professional and calm manner

The case is the hardest part for most candidates since it involves a number of different skills that need to be demonstrated consistently across all questions and multiple cases in succession. Depending on the office, applicants need to go through four to six case interviews before receiving an offer.

You need to convince the interviewers about your performance in all cases.

Let’s have a brief look at the different skills and the format of the interview.

Broadly, there are six skills that are assessed in a case interview and that you need to demonstrate consistently:

• Structure: Are you able to derive a MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) framework, breaking a problem down into smaller problems, accurately covering all aspects of the problem?
• Creativity: Do you think about a problem holistically, offering broad, deep, and insightful perspectives. Are you able to come up with different angles to the problem (breadth) and draft rich descriptions that qualify why these areas are important to investigate (depth)?
• Analytical rigor and logical thinking : Can you link the structure to creative thinking? Are you using a hypothesis-driven approach to your problem solving , i.e. have a clear picture of where you think the solution of the case is buried most likely or where you want to go next? Do you qualify your thinking, follow your structure, tackle (likely) high-impact issues first and lead the interviewer?
• Mental math and basic calculus : Are you able to structure quantitative problems and comfortably perform calculations ? Can you derive the correct approach to calculate the desired outcome variable? Can you plug in the numbers and perform the calculations, relying on basic pen-and-paper math, shortcuts, and mental math ?
• Business sense and intuition : Are you able to quickly understand the business and the situation of the client? Can you swiftly interpret data, charts, exhibits, and statements made by the interview? Are you asking the right questions? Are you able to make sense of new information quickly and interpret it properly in the context of the case?
• Communication and maturity. Are you able to communicate like a consultant ? Are you following a top-down communication approach similar to the Pyramid Principle taught by Minto? Do all of your statements add value, and do you guide the interviewer through your thinking with numbering and signposting? Are you leading the conversation or are merely getting dragged along by the interviewer? Are you confident and mature? Are you comfortable with silence while taking time to structure your thinking?

Now, these skills are assessed in a very specific interviewing format , which is not natural for most applicants and needs significant practice to become second nature.

A typical McKinsey case follows the PEI in a one-hour interview session. It lasts for 25 to 30 minutes in an interviewer-led format , meaning that the interviewer takes the lead and guides you through the case. Your role as the interviewee is to answer the questions asked by the interviewer before they will move on to the next question.

That means that you should not be worried if the interviewer asks a question that goes in a different direction than what you recommended or proposed.

While it is the interviewer’s responsibility to provide hints and move you through the different questions, you should take the lead within each question and almost treat every question like a mini case within itself.

Depending on your performance and speed, you will be asked three or more questions . Only receiving three questions is actually a positive sign since the interviewer was happy with your answers to each question. Going above three questions usually happens when the interviewer wants to dig deeper into a specific question type to see if your performance is consistent or was just an outlier.

Most candidates need more than three questions to convince the interviewer, so don’t be scared when your case gets a little bit longer and consists of more than three questions.

Some offices also offer a phone case interview as a first screening device, which follows the same structure as the in-person interview.

What questions are asked in a McKinsey interview? Let’s have a look!

In a McKinsey case interview, you will have to answer three different question types – broadly speaking:

• Structuring/ idea generation
• Exhibit Interpretation

A case interview structure is used to break the problem you are trying to solve for the client down into smaller problems or components. It is the roadmap you establish at the beginning of the interview that will guide your problem-solving approach throughout the case. Idea generation on the other hand is a structured brainstorming exercise that should generate a variety of concrete ideas with a specific goal in mind.

For chart or data interpretation , you are tasked to find the key insights of 1-2 Powerpoint slides and relate them back to the case question and the client situation at hand.

Case math questions have you analyze a problem mathematically before qualitatively investigating the particular reason for the numerical result or deriving specific recommendations from the outcome.

Now for structure and exhibit interpretation , there is no right or wrong. Some answers are better than others because they are

• hypothesis-driven, implications-oriented, and forward-thinking
• well communicated (top-down, numbered & signposted)

That being said, there is no 100% that you can reach or single correct answers. It is important that your answers display the characteristics specified above and are supported well with strong arguments.

As for math questions , usually, there are answers which are objectively correct (not always 100% the same since some candidates simplify or round differently – which is ok), and others that are wrong, due to issues with the

• calculation approach
• calculation itself

Now, for the interviewer, the overall picture counts. Small mistakes or ‘just-good’ performance in one area need to be balanced by a strong performance in other areas . Bigger mistakes must be avoided at all costs (e.g., answering the wrong question, completely wrong calculation approach, several calculation errors, or taking 3x longer than needed in math).

McKinsey wants to see spikes in performance in certain areas and a good enough performance in other areas. Just performing well in all questions is not enough .

Be aware that in 99% of McKinsey cases, there is no recommendation question in the end. The case just ends with the last case question. This is something many candidates are surprised by when they get out of their McKinsey interviews since they specifically practice for this.

If you answer each case question properly, you could almost say that the recommendation is included in each individually.

Lastly, be aware that for generalist consulting roles you do not have to expect any technical interview questions and you are not expected to have any relevant domain knowledge.

Have a look at some of our interviewer-led cases from our Case Library !

Baby Clothing Market Entry

While there are many similarities in McKinsey interviews and interviews with other firms, McKinsey interviews are interviewer-led, while other firms employ a candidate-led format .

McKinsey, BCG , Bain, and others’ cases have certain things in common:

• The individual elements of the cases are the same . You will have to structure problems, interpret exhibits, and work through some calculations, come up with hypotheses, recommendations, implications, next steps, etc.
• The skills that are assessed are the same . You need to exhibit strong problem-solving skills, creativity, ability to work under pressure, top-down communication, etc.

However, there is one key difference:

• In interviewer-led cases, you take ownership of every question and go into greater detail here, while the interviewer guides you from question to question. In the interviewee-led case, you drive the whole case to ask for the correct information to work with, analyze the problem to then deduct a recommendation in the end

In a McKinsey case , the interviewer will guide you through a series of connected questions that you need to answer, synthesize, and develop recommendations from, within each individual question. There are clear directions and a flow of questions, which you need to answer with a hypothesis-driven mindset (prioritization, implications, next steps) . These are arguably easier to prepare for and to go through since the flow and types of questions will always be the same.

In a candidate-led case interview , due to the nature of your role as an investigator, it is much easier to get lost , walk down the wrong branch of the issue tree , and waste a ton of time. While the interviewers will try to influence you to move in the right direction (pay attention to their hints), it is still up to you what elements of the problem you would like to analyze first . Each answer should lead to a new question (hypothesis-driven) on your quest to find the root cause of the problem to come up with a recommendation on how to overcome it.

Another common misconception between McKinsey and other interviews relates to the structuring part of the case. The framework derived for McKinsey vs. a framework created for other consulting firms is usually quite different.

At the core, McKinsey wants to see creative ideas communicated in a structured manner, the more exhaustive the better.

Your goal should be to come up with a tailored and creative answer that fits the question. The framework should - broadly speaking - follow these three characteristics:

• insightful / creative

At the lowest level of your structure, you need to showcase concrete ideas , qualify your answer with practical examples and more details.

While for BCG, Bain , etc. you need to present your framework relatively swiftly within 1-3 minutes, to then dive deeper into the buckets where you think the solution of the case is buried, for McKinsey, there is no single solution (as discussed above).

In a McKinsey interview, you can take up to 5-8 minutes to present your structure , your qualification, and hypotheses. This is due to the interviewer-led format that McKinsey employs. The interviewer will only ask 'what else' if you

• haven't gone broad or deep enough
• did not explain your ideas well enough for them to stand out (again, you have time here)

The firm wants to see exhaustive and creative approaches to specific problems, which more often than not do not fit into the classic case interview frameworks that were en vogue 10 years ago...

Again, this only applies if everything you say

• adds value to the problem analysis
• is well qualified
• includes a detailed discussion of your hypotheses at the end

The difference in format and way of answering a question is the reason why I recommend preparing very differently for McKinsey interviews vs. other consultancies , which brings us to the last point.

Most candidates prepare by learning generic frameworks.

Do not learn case-specific frameworks by heart , expecting them to work for every case you will encounter. There are no specific frameworks that will always work in a McKinsey Problem Solving Interview.

It is much more important to learn the right approach that will help you tackle all types of cases. While in 2024 this applies to all consulting firms, this is even more relevant for McKinsey interviews and the interviewer-led format.

What you need to do is to study each individual question type , the associated skills in a case interview and learn how to approach it , regardless of the client situation, the context of the case, the industry , or function.

Many candidates ask if there are specific cases for specific practices (e.g., operations) and then tailor their preparation for that practice, i.e. just practicing operations cases and learning operations frameworks by heart. The reality is that you will usually face a mix of cases in a domain-relevant context as well as cases set in a completely different context from the role you are applying for.

Be aware that frameworks were applicable in the 2000 years , the era of Victor Cheng. McKinsey has long caught up on this and the cases you will get during the interviews are tailored in a way to test your creativity and ability to generate insights on the spot, not remember specific frameworks.

In fact, it will hurt you when you try to use a framework on a case that calls for a completely different approach and fail to come up with creative and concrete ideas that are relevant, tailored, and actionable. Also, it gives a false sense of security that will translate to stress once you figure out how your approach won’t work during the real interview – I have seen this way too often…

Similarly, there is no math problem or type of chart that is typical for a McKinsey interview. As with the structure, learn to deal with any math or chart problem that is thrown at you.

Your goal should be - no matter the context, industry, or function of the case - to learn how to

• build issue trees for structure and idea generation
• interpret charts, derive the key insights, implications and relate them back to the case
• set-up approaches for quantitative problems, swiftly and accurately calculate with pen and paper, and interpret the results, derive implications, and relate it back to the case

That is all there is, really.

Once you have learned an approach that works from a coach that is experienced with McKinsey interviews, internalize the habits by practicing drills and live interviews with case partners and your chances of belonging to the minute percentage of candidates that receive an offer will significantly increase.

Now that you have reached the end of this article and have collected a lot of valuable information on how to crack the McKinsey Interview which allows you to further tackle your case interview preparation.

As Florian explained in his article, it is important to internalize the habits that are needed to ace the McKinsey interview process by practicing with peers. On PrepLounge, you have the opportunity to schedule meetings with peers and coaches at any time! Just accept a meeting on our Meeting Board or propose one yourself! Alternatively, you can browse through the vast Candidate Listing to find a suitable meeting partner according to your needs and wishes! If you feel like you need some more support during your case interview preparation, there are a lot of ex-management consultants in our Coach Listing who are happy to share their knowledge with you. So, make sure to schedule your meetings as soon as possible!

Of course, your preparation for mathematical tasks should not be neglected! Use our Mental Math Tool to train your case interview math with respect to all basic operations. You can even compare yourself to the performance of the whole PrepLounge community. This will help you to be prepared for any calculation in your consulting interview. Lastly, make sure to practice your chart-reading skills by solving our Quizzes! The sooner you develop this useful skill, the better!

If you still have questions after that, feel free to ask them in our Consulting Q&A . Our experienced coaches are happy to share their personal experiences and have valuable tips for you at hand!

#1 rated McKinsey Case and PEI Coach | 5 years at McKinsey | Interviewer Experience | Imbellus Expert

• Professional Experience: Bitpanda, StrategyCase, McKinsey & Company, Kearney , Lufthansa
• Languages: English, German
• Location: Austria

Florian became the #1 McKinsey coach (based on recommendation rate) within the first month of starting on PrepLounge. With 5 years at McKinsey , he knows the recruiting process inside out. He can help you ace the case interview and the PEI exactly like McKinsey wants you to succeed. His coachees continuously receive feedback from McKinsey interviewers that they seem to be much better prepared than other candidates . Interviewing and coaching 100s of candidates, he has developed a system to tackle every McKinsey case and question type successfully, regardless of the context, industry, or functional expertise. You will learn how to think like a McKinsey consultant and not rely on pre-learned frameworks that would only hurt your performance in the real case.

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A Comprehensive Guide to McKinsey Case Interview Preparation

Looking to ace your McKinsey case interview? Our comprehensive guide has got you covered! From understanding the interview process to mastering case frameworks, we provide expert tips and strategies to help you prepare and succeed.

Posted June 8, 2023

Featuring Nick V.

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Starting thursday, september 12.

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Table of Contents

Preparing for a McKinsey case interview can be a daunting task, especially if you’re not sure where to start. As one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world, McKinsey & Company is known for its rigorous interview process, which involves a unique problem-solving approach and an emphasis on communication skills. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll take you through all the steps you need to take to prepare for the McKinsey case interview and give you the best chance of success.

Understanding the McKinsey Case Interview Process

The McKinsey case interview is a simulation of a real-world business problem. The interviewer will present you with a hypothetical scenario based on a real-life company, and ask you to analyze the situation, identify the key issues, and provide a recommendation for how the company should proceed. The objective of the case interview is to test your analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as your ability to communicate your ideas in a clear and concise manner.

It is important to note that the McKinsey case interview is not just about getting the right answer. The interviewer is also evaluating your thought process, creativity, and ability to think on your feet. Therefore, it is important to approach the case interview with an open mind and be willing to explore different solutions and perspectives.

One way to prepare for the McKinsey case interview is to practice with case studies. There are many resources available online, including sample cases and practice questions. It is also helpful to work with a partner or mentor who can provide feedback on your approach and communication skills.

Key Skills Required for a Successful McKinsey Case Interview

To succeed in a McKinsey case interview, you need to possess several key skills. First and foremost, you need to be able to think critically and strategically. You must also be able to communicate your ideas in a clear and concise manner, and be comfortable with numbers and data analysis. Additionally, you need to demonstrate the ability to manage your time effectively, remain calm under pressure, and work collaboratively with others.

Another important skill to have for a successful McKinsey case interview is the ability to ask insightful questions. You should be able to identify the key issues and ask relevant questions that will help you understand the problem at hand. This will also demonstrate your curiosity and eagerness to learn.

Lastly, it is important to have a strong business acumen. You should have a good understanding of the industry and market trends, as well as the company's goals and objectives. This will help you provide relevant and practical solutions to the case problem, and showcase your ability to think like a business leader.

For more tips on how to maximize your chances of landing a management consulting position that's right for you, check out these resources:

• Mastering Case Interview Math: Essential Formulas
• Writing a Winning Consulting Cover Letter: A Comprehensive Guide
• Understanding the Salary Structure in Management Consulting

Mastering Consulting Case Frameworks: A Comprehensive Guide

• Five Tips for Breaking Into Management Consulting

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Tips to Ace McKinsey Case Interview

Preparation is key when it comes to acing a McKinsey case interview. Here are some tips to help you succeed:

• Be well-prepared: Research the firm and the industry you are interested in and practice case studies.
• Be analytical: Use a structured framework to analyze the case and identify the key issues.
• Be confident: Always articulate your thoughts and recommendations with clarity and confidence.
• Be concise: Communication is key, so make sure you get to the point and avoid unnecessary information.
• Practice: Mock interviews are essential to improving your skills and getting used to the interview process.

It's also important to remember that the interviewer is not looking for a perfect solution, but rather how you approach the problem and your ability to think critically. Don't be afraid to ask clarifying questions and take time to gather your thoughts before answering. Additionally, be sure to listen actively to the interviewer and incorporate their feedback into your analysis. By following these tips and staying calm under pressure, you can increase your chances of acing the McKinsey case interview.

The Importance of Researching the Company and Industry before the Interview

Before the interview, it’s crucial to research the company and the industry you are interested in. Knowing the company's history, values, and key clients will help you demonstrate your interest and knowledge during the interview. Additionally, understanding the industry trends, challenges, and opportunities can help you come up with more insightful and strategic recommendations.

Another reason why researching the company and industry is important is that it can help you tailor your responses to the interviewer's questions. By understanding the company's goals and challenges, you can highlight your skills and experiences that align with their needs. Moreover, knowing the industry trends and best practices can help you provide relevant examples and insights that showcase your expertise.

Furthermore, researching the company and industry can also help you assess whether the company is a good fit for you. By learning about the company culture, work environment, and values, you can determine whether they align with your own goals and values. This can help you make an informed decision about whether to accept a job offer if one is extended to you.

How to Structure Your Responses in a McKinsey Case Interview

Structuring your responses is essential to communicating your ideas effectively and showing your analytical skills. Use a structured framework such as MECE (Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive) to break down the problem and identify the key issues. Once you have identified the issues, prioritize them and develop recommendations based on your analysis. Make sure to articulate your thought process clearly and concisely throughout the exercise.

It is also important to actively listen to the interviewer and ask clarifying questions to ensure you fully understand the problem at hand. This will help you tailor your response to the specific needs of the client and demonstrate your ability to work collaboratively. Additionally, be prepared to adapt your approach if new information is presented during the interview. Flexibility and agility are highly valued qualities in a consultant and can set you apart from other candidates.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in a McKinsey Case Interview

Common mistakes that applicants make in McKinsey case interviews include:

• Jumping to conclusions without sufficient analysis.
• Overcomplicating the problem.
• Providing vague or incomplete recommendations.
• Getting frazzled under pressure.

Avoiding these pitfalls can help you stand out and demonstrate your problem-solving skills effectively.

Another common mistake that applicants make in McKinsey case interviews is not asking enough clarifying questions. It is important to fully understand the problem and the context before jumping into analysis and recommendations. Additionally, not asking questions can make it seem like you are not engaged or interested in the problem at hand. Therefore, make sure to ask thoughtful and relevant questions throughout the interview to demonstrate your curiosity and analytical skills.

Sample McKinsey Case Interview Questions and Answers

Sample McKinsey case interview questions can range from market sizing to competitive strategies. Here are some examples:

• How would you estimate the size of the global coffee market?
• How would you advise a chain of retail stores facing declining sales?
• How would you help a software company develop a new product?
• How would you advise a hospital facing budget constraints?

Answers to these questions require a structured approach, including the identification of key issues, relevant analysis, and well-supported recommendations.

It is important to note that McKinsey case interviews are not just about finding the right answer, but also about demonstrating strong problem-solving skills and the ability to communicate effectively. Candidates are expected to ask clarifying questions, think critically, and present their ideas in a clear and concise manner.

In addition to the case interview questions, candidates may also be asked behavioral questions to assess their fit with the company culture and values. These questions may focus on leadership, teamwork, and communication skills, among others.

The Role of Creativity in Solving McKinsey Case Study Problems

Creativity is just as important as analytical skills in the McKinsey case interview. You must demonstrate creativity in identifying potential solutions and making recommendations that are both innovative and realistic. Creative problem-solvers are valued in the consulting industry, as they can offer fresh ideas and perspectives that can benefit their clients.

How to Develop a Personalized Strategy for McKinsey Case Interviews

Developing a personalized strategy for McKinsey case interviews is crucial to success. Understand your strengths and weaknesses and focus on improving your weaknesses. You should also participate in mock interviews and receive feedback from others to help you improve your performance. Consider working with a coach or mentor who can provide you with additional guidance and advice.

The Benefits of Mock Interviews in Preparing for a McKinsey Case Interview

Mock interviews are an essential tool in preparing for a McKinsey case interview. Mock interviews help you get used to the format of the interview, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and receive feedback on your performance. Practicing with different problems and cases also helps you become more comfortable with the analytical process and develop creative problem-solving skills.

The Importance of Confidence and Communication Skills in a McKinsey Case Interview

Confidence and communication skills are equally essential in a McKinsey case interview as analytical skills. You must be able to articulate your ideas in a clear and concise manner and demonstrate your confidence in your recommendations. Additionally, being comfortable with numbers and data analysis is essential in communicating your insights effectively. Practice your communication skills and prepare accordingly to increase your confidence and show your potential.

How to Follow Up After a Successful McKinsey Case Interview

Following up after a successful McKinsey case interview is an essential step that many candidates overlook. Send a thank-you note or email expressing your appreciation for the opportunity, and reiterate your interest in the position. Keep the communication positive, professional, and timely. This follow-up can help set you apart from other candidates and demonstrate your attention to detail and enthusiasm for the company.

Resources for Further Practice and Preparation for a McKinsey Case Interview

There are plenty of resources available online and offline to help you prepare for a McKinsey case interview. Some of the popular ones include:

• Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation by Marc P. Cosentino
• McKinsey & Company interview preparation resources
• Victor Cheng’s Case Interview Videos

Make use of these resources, attend networking events, and seek out advice from professionals in the consulting industry to help you prepare for the interview.

Preparing for a McKinsey case interview can be challenging, but with practice and preparation, you can increase your chances of success. Keep in mind the key skills required for success and practice your communication skills, and make use of the resources available to you. Follow the tips mentioned in this guide, and put in the effort required to succeed. With hard work and dedication, you can ace your McKinsey case interview and start your career in consulting.

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McKinsey Case Interview & PEI - 6 Things You Need to Know

• Last Updated January, 2024

Rebecca Smith-Allen

Former McKinsey Engagement Manager

If you’re interested in a career in management consulting, McKinsey & Company is probably on your list of firms to apply to. It’s the oldest consulting firm, established in 1926 by James McKinsey, a University of Chicago professor and expert in management accounting.

Today, the firm employs 30 thousand professionals working in 130 cities around the world. McKinsey regularly ranks at the top of lists of strategy consulting firms and is hired by businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations to help solve their toughest problems.

It’s difficult to get a job offer from McKinsey.

Like its top management consulting competitors, Bain and BCG, McKinsey typically hires only 1% of candidates who apply. In particular, McKinsey case interviews are tough to crack…but not impossible.

If you’re interested in trying to beat the odds, this article will tell you what you need to know to succeed. We’ll tell you:

What’s different about McKinsey,

6 things candidates recruiting with McKinsey should know,

We’ll provide a mock McKinsey case interview video, and

Provide tips on acing your McKinsey interview.

Let’s get started!

What’s Different About McKinsey? 6 Things Candidates Should Know

1. consultants are hired for either the generalist track or a specialist track.

Generalists at McKinsey are consultants who could be staffed to help clients in any industry and dealing with any type of business problem. Specialists are consultants with a particular area of expertise.

Areas of specialization within McKinsey  include digital and advanced analytics, marketing and sales, business turn around, operations,  software development and design, and implementation.

2. Consultants Work On-Site At The Client 4 Days A Week.

Most consultants travel a lot and at McKinsey, this is definitely the case. Consider whether regular plane flights and hotel stays are right for you.

3. McKinsey Cases Are Interviewer-Led Rather Than Candidate-Led.

Candidates are still expected to identify key issues to be addressed to solve the business problem presented by their interviewer and outline a plan to explore these issues. After they do that, their McKinsey interviewer is likely to tell the candidate which issue they’d like to discuss first. Other management consulting firms, like Bain and BCG typically let candidates steer their case interview.

4. Interviewers Assess Fit As Part Of Every Interview With Personal Experience Interview (PEI) Questions.

While all strategy firms ask candidates Consulting Behavioral Interview Questions  to assess their fit with their firm, many have one interviewer focus entirely on fit while others focus entirely on a case study question. 

McKinsey interviewers split their interview time between the case and PEI in every interview.

5. McKinsey Looks For Personal Impact And Entrepreneurial Drive In Candidates.

This is in addition to the structured problem solving and leadership skills that McKinsey, as well as other top consulting firms, look for in candidates.

6. Mckinsey Recruiting Uses Solve - a Gamified Digital Assessment.

McKinsey’s Solve Game was launched to broaden the firm’s reach to find the best talent regardless of geography as well as provide deeper insight into candidates’ problem-solving skills.

Keep reading for a deeper dive into these topics.

Generalist versus Specialist Track Roles

When the management consulting industry was first founded, simply having an MBA and expertise in solving business problems was enough to set a consultant apart. Consultants hired by McKinsey could expect to be staffed on a case in any industry and solving any type of problem.

To help clients solve these types of business problems effectively, McKinsey hires people with years of experience in functional specialties. These include advanced analytics, marketing and sales, business turn around, operations, software development and design, and implementation.

Specialists work alongside generalists on projects to leverage their functional expertise across the work of the team. The specialist practices are growing faster than generalist roles and get fewer applications, so if you have the right kind of expertise and apply to the practice, you may have a better chance of landing an interview.

How McKinsey Interviews Differ from Bain and BC

There are two main ways that McKinsey’s interviews differ from those of other top management consulting firms. McKinsey uses interviewer-led case interviews while other firms use candidate-led case interviews.

In the “fit” portion of the interview, McKinsey uses the personal experience interview and each interviewer you meet with in all rounds will assess fit.

Interviewer-led Cases

At the start of any McKinsey case study, candidates need to go through 4 phases to solve the business problem the interviewer has given them in a structured manner: the opening, structure, analysis, and closing. 

In a candidate-led case interview, candidates will pick which part of the problem they want to dive into first and proceed with it. In McKinsey’s interviewer-led cases, the interviewer will pick the first part of the business problem they want the candidate to address.

Is the interviewer-led case interview easier or harder than the candidate-led one?

If you’ve structured the business problem well, breaking the problem down into the MECE  issues that require further analysis, it should not matter who picks which aspect of the problem to address first. What is helpful is knowing what to expect in your case interview so that you don’t start down one path just to be redirected by your McKinsey interviewer.  You don’t want anything to throw you in the middle of your case!

For more information on these 4 phases of answering a case interview question, see  Case Interview Prep .

Behavioral Interview Questions - The McKinsey PEI

As mentioned above, fit or personal experience interview (PEI) questions are part of every McKinsey interview. 

How else is the PEI different?

While other top management consulting firms focus on bringing the best creative problem-solving to their clients’ problems (BCG is notable here), McKinsey is interested in candidates’ personal impact and entrepreneurial spirit.

McKinsey interviewers look for these characteristics in answers to PEI questions. Because of this, it’s good to have some insight into why the firm thinks these characteristics are important.

Personal Impact

McKinsey says this about personal impact on its career website:

McKinsey does not want to create PowerPoint presentations with elegant solutions that sit on an executive’s shelf, not implemented.

Personal impact means that McKinsey consultants work shoulder-to-shoulder, on-site with client executives, developing solutions that don’t just solve a business problem in theory but also do it in practice. This can require facing resistance to change in the client’s organization head-on and persuading people to reassess long-held beliefs.

During the PEI, questions like the following will be asked to assess personal impact:

•   Tell me about a team you worked on when you needed to change someone’s mind on a topic that was important to them, or
•   Tell me about a time when you needed to rely on your communication skills to solve a difficult interpersonal situation.

This belief that personal impact is key to developing an implementable solution is what drives McKinsey consultants to spend 4 days a week on client site.

Entrepreneurial Drive

McKinsey says this about entrepreneurial drive on its career website:

McKinsey doesn’t hire consultants who can only implement solutions they’ve seen in previous businesses. They want people who are willing to try new things, take solutions to new industries or new types of problems.

The McKinsey problem solving approach treats each client problem as unique. Each solution should push thinking about best-practices.

In addition to personal impact and entrepreneurial drive, McKinsey also assesses leadership using the PEI. We won’t address this in detail because this is similar to other consulting firms, but you can find more about how McKinsey assesses leadership in our page on  McKinsey PEI Questions.

It also includes What McKinsey Is Looking For and provides a list of 11 Common PEI Questions.

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

The McKinsey Interview Process - Traditional and Recent Changes

The traditional recruiting process.

For years, McKinsey focused on a group of core schools to find new analyst (undergraduate hires) and associate (MBA hires) candidates. 

While the firm now recruits from a broader set of schools as well as more diverse candidates, recruiting at these core schools still starts in much the same way. McKinsey consultants conduct on-campus presentations and coffee chats to talk to potential candidates about what it’s like to work in the management consulting industry and at McKinsey, in particular.

If the firm hosts an event at your campus, you should attend to make personal connections and to find out first-hand if a career at McKinsey is right for you. If there are no events at your school or if you’re already employed, check out the company’s career site for articles and videos that will tell you what it’s like to work at McKinsey and what it takes to get an offer.

Candidates submit their resumes (and optional cover letters) to the firm’s recruiting department via their school’s department of career services and on the firm website. Candidates who are invited to interview typically have their first round interviews on campus.

During first round interviews, candidates meet with 2 interviewers back-to-back. Candidates who pass first round interviews are invited to a McKinsey office for second round interviews.

In second round interviews, candidates meet with 3 interviewers. Unless a candidate’s interviewers are split in their decision, second round interviews are also final round interviews.

In each round of interviews, McKinsey interviewers walk candidates through a business problem and asks a series of  McKinsey PEI Questions , aimed at evaluating their potential fit with the organization. 

The Recruiting Process for Candidates at Non-core School and Experienced Hires

Candidates from non-core schools submit their resumes (and optional cover letters) directly to the recruiting department of the 3 offices they’d like to work in.

If they are invited to interview, candidates who live relatively close to a McKinsey office will be invited for in-person first round interviews. Others will be asked to do their first round McKinsey interviews via video conference.

Candidates already working in another industry or those working at another consulting firm submit their resumes (and optional cover letters) directly to the recruiting department of the three offices they’d like to work in. They will typically have a phone interview before the “first round” of in-person interviews.

In both cases, once candidates are passed to second round interviews the recruiting process is the same as for core school candidates.

Solve, The McKinsey Problem Solving Game

McKinsey is reaching out to more candidates outside of their traditional core schools to diversify its recruiting. As part of that, it’s launched  Solve , an online game  that assesses candidates’ problem-solving skills.  Solve is both more fun and gives candidates from non-core schools a better shot at getting a McKinsey interview than they’ve had in the past.

Example McKinsey Case Interview - Video

Below, we have 4 videos in which My Consulting Offer founder, Davis Nguyen, walks you  through each segment of a McKinsey case interview from beginning to end. 

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - Opening the Case

The key thing to do in the opening of a McKinsey case study is to repeat back the question so you’re sure you understand the problem you are solving. Then, ask questions to begin to get more information.

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - Structuring the Case

In the structure section of McKinsey Case Interviews, create a MECE list of important issues you will analyze to solve the client’s problem.

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - The Case Analysis

In the analysis section of a McKinsey case study, you’ll need to do analysis to evaluate the best option for your client. This may require interpreting data from charts or graphs provided by your interviewer or doing calculations based on numbers you’re given.

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - Concluding the Case

In the conclusion of McKinsey case interviews, you’ll need to pull your analysis together into a persuasive recommendation for the client. Restate the question you were asked to solve, lay out key findings from each section of your case structure, and show how your analysis points to the course of action the client should take.

Now that you’ve watched our sample McKinsey case interview, you should be ready to start practicing for your own interviews. 

Here are 5 tips on making the most of your preparation time:

5 Tips on Acing Your McKinsey Interview

• Practice casing with another person. Answering case interview questions does not come naturally and it is not enough to practice on your own since casing requires having a dialogue. Give yourself as much time to practice mock interviews as possible by starting early.
• Record yourself during mock interviews  using your computer or phone. Study these videos to see how you can improve your performance in each phase of the case interview. Aim to make your answers more fluent and conversational.
• Practice sample McKinsey interview-led case interviews. Use  McKinsey-specific case interview examples  below to make sure you’re not just familiar with cases, but with McKinsey cases. Make sure you are comfortable with being redirected at times. 
• Brainstorm several  stories to answer common personal experience interview questions. You can find a list of these common questions here .
• Find out more about the  McKinsey Solve Game  before you take it. 

After reading this article, you should have a good understanding of what McKinsey’s recruiting process looks like and how McKinsey case interviews are different from other management consulting firms. 

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about McKinsey case interviews, the PEI, or working at McKinsey, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

People interested in this topic have also found the following pages helpful:

• Why McKinsey?
• McKinsey PEI Questions
• McKinsey Problem Solving Game
• Case Interview Examples

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3 Top Strategies to Master the Case Interview in Under a Week

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• Hacking the Case Interview

McKinsey case interviews are the most difficult part of the McKinsey interview process. If you have an upcoming McKinsey case interview and are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or unsure what to do, we have you covered.

While McKinsey case interviews can seem complicated and challenging, they can be relatively straight forward with enough practice.

In this article, we’ll walk you through a McKinsey case interview step-by-step to give you an overview of what to expect and what you should be doing every step of the way.

We’ll cover in detail:

• McKinsey interview process
• What is a McKinsey case interview?
• Why does McKinsey use case interviews?
• What do McKinsey case interviews assess?
• What is the format of a McKinsey case interview?
• How do I solve a McKinsey case interview?
• What are examples of McKinsey case interviews?
• McKinsey phone case interview differences
• How to prepare for McKinsey case interviews?
• What are recommended resources for McKinsey case interviews?

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.

McKinsey Interview Process

The timeline and dates in the McKinsey interview process may slightly differ depending on whether you are applying as an undergraduate student, MBA student, advanced degree student, or working professional.

However, the overall components in the process are roughly the same. The McKinsey interview process has five major steps:

1. Attend McKinsey networking events

McKinsey typically hosts several networking events before the McKinsey application is due.

Attending these events is not required. If you have a strong resume and background, you can still receive a McKinsey interview even if you did not attend any events.

If you attend a top-tier undergraduate or MBA school, these networking events are less important. McKinsey has relationships with these schools and consistently hires students from these schools every year for consulting internship and full-time opportunities. Your resume will get reviewed regardless of whether you attend a networking event or not.

If you do not attend a top-tier undergraduate or MBA school, these networking events will be much more important. Since your school is not a school that McKinsey targets, McKinsey recruiters spend much less time looking at applications from your school. Networking is crucial to giving your resume an opportunity to be reviewed.

Similarly, if you are applying to McKinsey as a working professional, networking events are much more important. Although McKinsey hires people from nontraditional backgrounds, you will need to do the work needed to get your name and resume in front of recruiters through networking or referrals.

2. Submit your McKinsey application

After all of the networking events are over, McKinsey will have a deadline for submitting your application, which typically consists of four components: McKinsey application questions, resume, cover letter, and referrals.

3. Pass your first round McKinsey interview

A few weeks after the application deadline, you will receive an invitation from McKinsey for the first of two rounds of interviews.

If you are applying as a student, interviews will take place on your school’s campus. If you are applying as a working professional, interviews will take place at the McKinsey office that you are applying for.

Your McKinsey first round interview consists of two separate 40- to 60-minute interviews. The majority of the time will be focused on case interviews, but you will also get a few other types of questions.

4. Pass your second or final round McKinsey interview

Your  McKinsey final round interview will typically consist of two to three separate 40- to 60-minute interviews. You’ll see the same four types of McKinsey interview questions that you saw in your first round interviews.

• McKinsey case interview
• McKinsey Personal Experience Interview (PEI)
• “Why McKinsey?” question
• “Why Consulting?” question

There are three important distinctions between your first round McKinsey interview and your final round McKinsey interview.

One, your interviewers will likely be more senior people at McKinsey. 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 McKinsey 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.

5. Receive your McKinsey Offer

After finishing your final round interview, all you have left to do is to wait for your McKinsey offer. McKinsey typically calls candidates to tell them that they are being extended a job offer before emailing them.

Some candidates receive a phone call with good news on the same day of their final round interview. Most candidates receive their call within a few days.

If you have not heard back from McKinsey after a few days, that does not necessarily mean that you did not receive a McKinsey offer. Sometimes, you may be on the borderline of receiving an offer and McKinsey would like to finish interviewing other people before deciding whether or not to give you an offer.

Be patient on waiting for McKinsey to get back to you. If you have not heard back in a week, you can send a follow-up email with the recruiter to ask if there are any updates.

When you finally get your call and offer letter, all that is left to do is sign to secure your job at McKinsey!

What is a McKinsey Case Interview?

A McKinsey case interview , also known as a “case” for short, is a 30 to 45-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 Uber increase its profitability?
• What can Netflix do to increase customer retention?
• How should Tesla price its new electric vehicle?
• Where should Disney open another Disneyland theme park?

McKinsey 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 McKinsey case interviews are based on actual projects that interviewers have worked on.

While McKinsey consulting projects typically last between 3 to 9 months, McKinsey case interviews condense solving the business problem into just 30 to 45 minutes.

McKinsey 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 McKinsey case interviews cover a wide range of industries and business situations, no technical or specialized knowledge is needed.

Why Does McKinsey Use Case Interviews?

McKinsey uses case interviews because they are the best way for McKinsey to predict which candidates will make the best consultants. McKinsey case interviews do not predict this perfectly, but they come quite close. Assessing candidates based only on their McKinsey resume is not sufficient. 

Since McKinsey case interviews simulate the consulting job by placing you in a hypothetical business situation, McKinsey interviewers use case interviews to see how you would perform as a hypothetical consultant.

Many of the skills and qualities needed to successfully complete a case interview are the same skills and qualities needed to successfully finish a McKinsey consulting case project.

Case interviews also give you a sense of whether you would like the consulting job at McKinsey.

If you find case interviews interesting and exciting, you’ll likely enjoy consulting and working at McKinsey . If you find case interviews dull and boring, consulting may not be the best profession for you.

What Do McKinsey Case Interviews Assess?

McKinsey case interviews assess five different qualities or characteristics.

All of these five qualities can be assessed in just a 30 to 45-minute McKinsey case interview. This is what makes case interviews so effective in assessing consulting candidates.

1. Logical, 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?

What is the Format of a McKinsey Case Interview?

Although there is a wide range of different cases you could be asked to solve, all McKinsey case interviews follow the same progression.

• Understanding the case background : the interviewer will provide you information on who the company or client is, what their business problem is, and any other relevant context needed for the case
• Asking clarifying questions : you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions to confirm your understanding of the case
• Structuring a framework : you’ll create and present a framework to the interviewer that organizes your thoughts and identifies the different areas or key questions you’d like to further investigate
• Starting the case : the interviewer will ask either a quantitative or qualitative question for you to answer
• Solving quantitative problems : the interviewer may ask you to perform math calculations, such as calculating profit, breakeven , or analyzing charts and graphs 
• Answering qualitative questions : the interviewer may ask business judgment questions to assess your business acumen and intuition
• Delivering a recommendation : the interviewer will ask you for your final overall recommendation for the case.

It is worth noting that while most consulting firms opt for a candidate-led interview approach, where the interviewee takes the lead in navigating a case, McKinsey stands out with its interviewer-led format .

In McKinsey's interviewer-led approach, the interviewer plays a more active role in guiding the conversation. 

Rather than the candidate taking charge of the case, the interviewer presents the business problem and directs the discussion. 

This approach aligns with McKinsey's emphasis on teamwork, collaboration, and adaptability, skills crucial in the world of consulting. By simulating the client-consultant interaction, this approach helps assess how candidates handle challenges in real-time discussions.

How Do I Solve a McKinsey Case Interview?

Below, we’ll walk through the seven steps of a McKinsey case interview that was presented in the previous section to show you how you should solve a McKinsey case interview.

1. Understanding the case background

The case interview will begin with the interviewer giving you the case background information. Let’s say that the interviewer reads you the following: 

Interviewer : Our client, Coca-Cola, is a large manufacturer and retailer of non-alcoholic beverages, such as sodas, juices, sports drinks, and teas. They have annual revenues of roughly $30 billion and an operating margin of roughly 30%. Coca-Cola is looking to grow and is considering entering the beer market in the United States. Should they enter?

As the interviewer reads this, take notes. It is important to understand what the objective of the case is and keep track of information.

One strategy for taking notes effectively is to turn your paper landscape and draw a vertical line to divide your paper into two sections. The first section should be roughly two-thirds of the page while the second section will be one-third of the page.

Take notes in the second section of your page.

After the interviewer finishes giving the case background information, confirm that you understand the situation and objective. Provide a concise synthesis like the following:

You : To make sure I understand correctly, our client, Coca-Cola, is a large manufacturer and retailer of non-alcoholic beverages. They are looking to grow and our objective is to determine whether or not they should enter the U.S. beer market.

Interviewer : That sounds right.

Make sure your synthesis is concise. You do not want to regurgitate verbatim everything that the interviewer has said. Only mention the most important pieces of information.

You should also make sure you verify the objective of the case. Answering or solving the wrong case objective is the quickest way to fail a case interview.

2. Asking clarifying questions

Next in the case interview, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions before you begin thinking about how to solve the case.

At this point, only ask questions that are critical for you to fully understand the case background and objective. You’ll be able to ask more questions later.

You might ask a few questions like the following:

You : Is Coca-Cola looking to specifically grow revenues or profits?

Interviewer : Coca-Cola wants to grow profits.

You : Is there a particular financial goal or metric Coca-Cola is trying to reach within a certain time frame?

Interviewer : They are looking to grow annual profits by $2 billion within 5 years.

You : Great. Those are all the immediate questions I have for now.

3. Structuring a framework

After you understand the case background and objective of the case interview, lay out a framework of what areas you want to look into in order to answer or solve the case.

A case interview framework is simply a tool that helps you structure and break down complex problems into simpler, smaller components. Think of a framework as brainstorming different ideas and organizing them into different categories.

When creating a framework, it is completely acceptable to ask the interviewer for a few minutes of silence to write out a framework.

You : Would you mind if I take a few minutes to structure my thoughts and develop a framework to tackle this case?

Interviewer : Of course, go ahead.

For this case example, what do you need to know in order to help Coca-Cola decide whether or not they should enter the beer market?

You might brainstorm the following questions:

• Does Coca-Cola know how to produce beer?
• Would people buy beer made by Coca-Cola?
• Where would Coca Cola sell its beer?
• How much would it cost to enter the beer market?
• Will Coca-Cola be profitable from doing this?
• How can Coca-Cola outcompete competitors?
• What is the market size of the beer market?

This is not a very structured way of tackling the case, so organize these ideas into a framework that has 3 – 4 broad areas, also called “buckets”, that you want to investigate.

An easy way to develop these buckets is to ask yourself, what 3 – 4 things must be true for you to 100% recommend that Coca-Cola should enter the beer market.

In an ideal world. These four things would need to be true:

• The beer market is an attractive market with high profit margins
• Competitors are weak and Coca-Cola will be able to capture significant market share
• Coca-Cola has the capabilities to produce an outstanding beer product
• Coca-Cola will be extremely profitable

You can rephrase these points to be the broad categories in your framework.

Next, let’s add a few bullets under each category to give more detail on exactly what information we need to know to decide whether Coca-Cola should enter the beer market.

This entire process of brainstorming ideas and developing a structured framework should only take a few minutes.

For a complete guide on how to create tailored and unique frameworks for each case, check out our article on case interview frameworks .

Now that you have your framework, turn your paper to face the interviewer and walk them through it.

You : To decide whether or not Coca-Cola should enter the market, I want to look into four main areas.

One, I want to look into the beer market attractiveness. Is this an attractive market to enter? I’d want to look into areas such as the market size, growth rate, and profit margins.

Two, I want to look into the beer competitive landscape. Is this market competitive, and will Coca-Cola be able to capture meaningful market share? I want to look into questions such as the number of competitors, how much market share each competitor has, and whether competitors have any competitive advantages.

Three, I want to look into Coca-Cola’s capabilities. Do they have the capabilities to succeed in the beer market? I want to look into things such as whether they have the expertise to produce beer, whether they have the distribution channels to sell beer, and whether there are any existing synergies they can leverage.

Four, I want to look into expected profitability. Will Coca-Cola be profitable from entering the beer market? I want to look into areas such as expected revenues, expected costs, and how long it would take to break even.

The interviewer might ask a few questions on your framework, but will otherwise indicate whether they agree or disagree with your approach.

4. Starting the case

McKinsey case interviews are interviewer-led. So, the interviewer will propose which area of your framework they would like to dive deeper into. They might say something like the following:

Interviewer : Your framework makes sense to me. Why don’t we start by estimating the size of the U.S. beer market.

5. Solving quantitative problems

Expect to perform calculations and analyze charts and graphs during your case interview.

Market sizing questions are one type of quantitative question you may get asked. Let’s say the interviewer asks you:

Interviewer : What is the market size of beer in the U.S.?

Most candidates jump right into the math, stating the U.S. population and then performing various calculations. Doing math without laying out a structure often leads to making unnecessary calculations or reaching a dead-end.

Laying out an upfront approach helps avoid these mistakes and demonstrates that you are a logical, structured thinker.

For this market sizing problem, you could structure your approach in the following way:

• Start with the U.S. population
• Estimate the percentage that are legally allowed to drink alcohol
• Estimate the percentage that drink beer
• Estimate the frequency in which people drink beer
• Estimate the average price per can or bottle of beer

Multiplying these steps together gives you the answer. By laying out an approach up front, the interviewer can easily understand how you are thinking about the problem. With the right structure, the rest of the problem is simple arithmetic.

Sometimes the interviewer will give you numbers to use for these calculations. Other times, you’ll be expected to make assumptions or estimates.

When performing your calculations, make sure to do them on a separate sheet of paper. Calculations often get messy and you want to keep your original paper clean and organized.

A sample answer to this question could look like this:

You : To estimate the market size of beer in the U.S., I’m going to start with the U.S. population. Then, I’ll estimate the percentage that are eligible to drink alcohol. I’ll then estimate the percentage of the remaining population that drinks beer.

If we take this and multiply it by the frequency in which people drink beer and the average price per can or bottle of beer, we will find an estimate for the market size. 

Does this approach make sense to you?

Interviewer : Makes sense to me.

You : Great. I’ll assume the U.S. population is 320M people. Assuming the average life expectancy is 80 years old and an even distribution of ages, roughly 75% of the population can legally drink alcohol.

This gives us 240M people. Of these, let’s assume 75% of people drink beer. That gives us 180M beer drinkers.

Let’s say on average, a person drinks five beers a week, or roughly 250 beers per year, assuming roughly 50 weeks per year.

This gives us 180M * 250 = 45B cans or bottles of beer.

Assuming the average can or bottle of beer costs $2, this gives a market size of $90B.

You should not only answer the question, but tie the answer to the case objective.

In other words, how does knowing the U.S. market size of beer help you decide whether or not Coca-Cola should enter the market?

You could say something like the following:

You : Given that Coca-Cola has annual revenues of $30B, a $90B beer market represents a massive opportunity. The market size makes the beer market look attractive, but I’d like to understand if beer margins are typically high and determine how much market share Coca-Cola could realistically capture.

6. Answering qualitative questions

In addition to asking quantitative questions during the case interview, the interviewer will also ask qualitative questions.

One type of qualitative question you could get asked are brainstorming questions. For example, the interviewer might ask:

Interviewer : What are the barriers to entry in the beer market?

Most candidates answer by listing ideas that immediately come to mind:

• Brewing equipment
• Beer production expertise
• Distribution channels

This is a highly unstructured way of answering the question. Make sure to use a simple structure to organize your thoughts.

A simple structure, such as thinking about barriers to entry as either economic barriers or non-economic barriers, helps facilitate brainstorming and demonstrates logic and structure.

With this structure, you might come up with the following answer:

You : I’m thinking of barriers to entry as economic barriers and non-economic barriers. Economic barriers include things such as equipment, raw material, and other capital. Non-economic barriers include: beer brewing expertise, brand name, and distribution channels.

Looking at these barriers, I think it will take Coca-Cola a lot of work to overcome these barriers. While Coca-Cola does have a brand name and distribution channels, they lack beer brewing expertise and would have to buy a lot of expensive equipment and machinery. These barriers make entering the beer market difficult.

7. Delivering a recommendation

You’ve done a ton of work so far in the case interview and now it is time to put everything together into a recommendation.

Throughout the interview, you should have been making notes of key takeaways after each question you answer.

Take a look at the key takeaways you’ve accumulated so far and decide whether you want to recommend entering the beer market or not entering the beer market:

• The U.S. beer market size is $90B compared to Coca-Cola’s annual revenue of $30B
• The beer market profit margins are 10% compared to Coca-Cola’s average margin of 30%
• The beer market is highly concentrated across all categories
• Barriers to entry are moderate
• There are some synergies with existing production

There is no right or wrong recommendation, as long as you support your recommendation with reasons and evidence.

Regardless of what stance you take, make sure you have a firm recommendation. You do not want to be flimsy and switch back and forth between recommending entering the market and not entering the market.

Secondly, make sure your recommendation is clear and concise. Use the following structure:

• Clearly state what your recommendation is
• Follow that with the 2 - 3 reasons that support your recommendation
• State what potential next steps would be to further validate your recommendation

The conclusion of the case might look like the following:

Interviewer : Let’s say that you bump into the CEO of Coca-Cola in the elevator. He asks you what your preliminary recommendation is. What do you say?

You : I recommend that Coca-Cola should not enter the U.S. beer market for the following three reasons.

One, although the market size is fairly large at $90B, the margins for beer are just 10%, significantly less than Coca-Cola’s overall operating margin of 30%.

Two, the beer market is very competitive. In all beer segments, market share is concentrated among a few players, which implies high barriers to entry. Coca-Cola lacks beer brewing expertise to produce a great product that existing incumbents have.

Three, there are not that many production synergies that Coca-Cola can leverage with its existing products. Coca-Cola would need to buy new equipment, source new raw materials, and provide new training to employees, which will be time-consuming and costly.

For next steps, I want to look into Coca-Cola’s annual expected profits if they were to enter the U.S. beer market. I hypothesize that they will be unable to achieve an increase in annual profits of $2B within five years, but I’d like to confirm this through further analysis.

What are Examples of McKinsey Case Interviews?

The best place to find examples of McKinsey case interviews is on their official website. There, they have provided four case interview examples that you can practice along with:

• Diconsa case interview practice :   Non-profit case focused on deciding whether to leverage a chain of convenience stores to deliver basic financial services to inhabitants of rural Mexico. Great practice case for the non-profit sector.
• GlobaPharm case interview practice :  Acquisition case focused on deciding whether a large pharmaceutical company should acquire a smaller startup. This case has very difficult math calculations that you can practice.
• Electro-light case interview practice :  New product launch case focused on deciding whether a beverage company should launch a new sports drink. Outstanding case to practice interpreting various charts and graphs.
• National Education case interview practice : Non-profit case focused on helping an Eastern European country’s Department of Education improve their school system. Another great practice case for the non-profit sector.
• Beautify case interview practice : Evaluate whether a beauty products company should be training in-store beauty consultants in the use of virtual channels to connect with customers
• Talbot trucks case interview practice : Determine whether to invest in the production and sale of electric trucks
• Shops corporation case interview practice : Improve internal diversity, equity, and inclusion for a retail company
• Conservation forever case interview practice : Prioritize large-scale biodiversity protection projects for a conservation NGO

We have videos that walk through the first two McKinsey case examples.

For more McKinsey case interview examples and practice cases, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

Many of the casebooks that MBA consulting clubs put together compile previous cases given by consulting firms, including McKinsey.

McKinsey Phone Case Interview Differences

The McKinsey phone interview consists primarily of a slightly shorter, 30-minute case interview. 

The major differences between a McKinsey phone interview and in-person interview are that the phone interview is shorter, has an easier case interview with less depth, does not have complicated exhibits, and lacks qualitative discussion.

  1. Shorter interview length

The case interview in a McKinsey phone interview is roughly 30 minutes, shorter than the typical 40- to 60-minute McKinsey case interview.

2. Easier case interview with less depth

The case interview in a McKinsey phone interview will be a more straight-forward business problem, such as:

• Why is profitability declining?
• Should we enter this new market?
• Should we acquire this company?

It is unlikely that you’ll get an unusual or atypical business situation.

Additionally, because the McKinsey phone interview is only 30 minutes, the case will be covered in less depth. There will either be fewer questions asked during the case or the questions asked will be very surface-level, not requiring deeper dives.

3. Does not have complicated exhibits

Given that the McKinsey phone interview is only 30 minutes, there will likely not be time for the interviewer to hand you several different exhibits with complicated charts and graphs. You’ll likely be given a simpler quantitative problem to solve.

4. Lacks qualitative discussion

In a typical case interview, the interviewer will ask a few qualitative questions to start a discussion to assess your business acumen.

Given that the McKinsey phone interview is only 30 minutes, there will likely only be enough time for you to solve the main quantitative problem and perhaps briefly answer one qualitative question.

Therefore, you’ll be less tested on business knowledge and principles during the McKinsey phone interview.

How to Prepare for McKinsey Case Interviews

There are seven steps to preparing for McKinsey case interviews.

1. Understand what a case interview is

The first step in preparing for McKinsey 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 McKinsey case interview performance looks like.

Knowing what a great McKinsey 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 McKinsey 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 McKinsey 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 McKinsey 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 McKinsey 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 McKinsey 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.

What are Recommended Resources for McKinsey Case Interviews?

To prepare for McKinsey 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.

McKinsey 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.

McKinsey 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 McKinsey 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 McKinsey case interview.

We’ve had students pass their McKinsey 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.

McKinsey 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 McKinsey Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to land a McKinsey consulting offer:

For help landing consulting interviews

• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple consulting interviews

For help passing case interviews

• 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.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with a former Bain interviewer.
• 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.

For help passing consulting behavioral & fit interviews

• 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.

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

Complete, step-by-step case interview course. 30,000+ happy customers.

35 Case Interviews Examples from MBB / Big Four Firms

Studying case interview examples is one of the first steps in preparing for the  management consulting  recruitment process. If you don’t want to spend hours searching the web, this article presents a comprehensive and convenient list for you – with 35 example cases, 16 case books, along with a case video accompanied by detailed feedback on tips and techniques.

A clear understanding of “what is a case interview” is essential for effective use of these examples. I suggest reading our  Case Interview 101  guide, if you haven’t done so.

McKinsey case interview examples

Mckinsey practice cases.

• Diconsa Case
• Electro-Light Case
• GlobaPharm Case
• National Education Case

What should I know about McKinsey Case interviews?

At McKinsey, case interviews often follow the interviewer-led format , where the interviewer asks you multiple questions for you to answer with short pitches.

How do you nail these cases? Since the questions can be grouped into predictable types, an efficient approach is to master each question type. However, do that after you’ve mastered the case interview fundamentals!

For a detailed guide on interviewer-led cases, check out our article on McKinsey Case Interview .

BCG & Bain case interview examples

Bcg practice cases.

• BCG – Written Case – Chateau Boomerang

Bain practice cases

• Bain – Coffee Shop Co.
• Bain – Fashion Co.
• Bain – Mock Interview – Associate Consultant
• Bain – Mock Interview – Consultant

What should I know about BCG & Bain case interviews?

Unlike McKinsey, BCG and Bain case interviews typically follow the candidate-led format – which is the opposite of interviewer-led, with the candidate driving the case progress by actively breaking down problems in their own way.

The key to acing candidate-led cases is to master the case interview fundamental concepts as well as the frameworks.

Some BCG and Bain offices also utilize written case interviews – you have to go through a pile of data slides, select the most relevant ones to answer a set of interviewer questions, then deliver those answers in a presentation.

For a detailed guide on candidate-led cases, check out our article on BCG & Bain Case Interview .

Deloitte case interview examples

Deloitte practice cases.

Undergrad Cases

• Human Capital – Technology Institute
• Human Capital – Agency V
• Strategy – Federal Benefits Provider
• Strategy – Extreme Athletes
• Technology – Green Apron
• Technology – Big Bucks Bank
• Technology – Top Engine
• Technology – Finance Agency

Advanced Cases

• Human Capital – Civil Cargo Bureau
• Human Capital – Capital Airlines
• Strategy – Club Co
• Strategy – Health Agency
• Technology – Waste Management
• Technology – Bank of Zurich
• Technology – Galaxy Fitness

What should I know about Deloitte case interviews?

Case interviews at Deloitte also lean towards the candidate-led format like BCG and Bain.

The Deloitte consultant recruitment process also features group case interviews , which not only test analytical skills but also place a great deal on interpersonal handling.

Accenture case interview examples

Accenture divides its cases into three types with very cool-sounding names.

Sorted in descending order of popularity, they are:

These are similar to candidate-led cases at Bain and BCG. albeit shorter – the key is to develop a suitable framework and ask the right questions to extract data from the interviewer.

These are similar to the market-sizing and guesstimate questions asked in interviewer-led cases – demonstrate your calculations in structured, clear-cut, logical steps and you’ll nail the case.

These cases have you sort through a deluge of data to draw solutions; however, this type of case is rare.

Capital One case interview examples

Capital One is the odd one on this list – it is a bank-holding company. Nonetheless, this being one of the biggest banks in America, it’s interesting to see how its cases differ from the consulting ones.

Having gone through Capital One’s guide to its cases, I can’t help but notice the less-MECE structure of the sample answers. Additionally, there seems to be a greater focus on the numbers.

Nonetheless, having a solid knowledge of the basics of case interviews will not hurt you – if anything, your presentation will be much more in-depth, comprehensive, and understandable!

See Capital One Business Analyst Case Interview for an example case and answers.

Other firms case interview examples

Besides the leading ones, we have some examples from other major consulting firms as well.

• Oliver Wyman – Wumbleworld
• Oliver Wyman – Aqualine
• LEK – Cinema
• LEK – Market Sizing
• Kearney – Promotional Planning
• OC&C – Imported Spirits
• OC&C – Leisure Clubs

Consulting clubs case books

In addition to official cases, here are a few case books you can use as learning materials.

Do keep in mind: don’t base your study on frameworks and individual case types, but master the fundamentals so you can tackle any kind of case.

• Wharton Consulting Club Case Book
• Tuck Consulting Club Case Book
• MIT Sloan Consulting Club Case Book
• LBS Consulting Club Case Book
• Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book
• INSEAD Consulting Club Case Book
• Harvard Consulting Club Case Book
• ESADE Consulting Club Case Book
• Darden Consulting Club Case Book
• Berkeley Consulting Club Case Book
• Notre-Dame Consulting Club Case Book
• Illinois Consulting Club Case Book
• Columbia Consulting Club Case Book
• Duke Consulting Club Case Book
• Ross Consulting Club Case Book
• Kearney Case Book

Case interview example – Case video

The limitation of most official case interview examples is that they are either too short and vague, or in text format, or both.

To solve that problem for you, we’ve extracted a 30-minute-long, feedback-rich case sample from our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program .

This is a candidate-led, profitability case on an internet music broadcasting company called Pandora.

In 30 minutes, this candidate demonstrates the exact kind of shortcoming that most candidates suffer during real case interviews – they come in with sharp business senses, then hurt their own chances with inadequate techniques.

Here are seven notable areas where the candidate (and you) can improve:

Thanking Throughout the case, as especially in the opening, he should have shown more appreciation for the time the interviewer spent with him.

Structured opening The candidate’s opening of the case feels unstructured. He could have improved it by not mixing the playback and clarification parts. You can learn to nail the case in a 3-minute start through this video on How to Open Any Case Perfectly .

Explicitness A lot of the candidate’s thought process remains in his head; in a case interview, it’s better to be as explicit as possible – draw your issue tree out and point to it as you speak; state your hypothesis when you move into a branch; when you receive data, acknowledge it out loud.

Avoiding silence The silence in his case performance is too long, including his timeout and various gaps in his speech; either ask for timeout (and keep it as short as possible) or think out loud to fill those gaps.

Proactivity The candidate relies too much on the interviewer (e.g: asking for data when it can easily be calculated); you don’t want to appear lazy before your interviewer, so avoid this.

Avoiding repeating mistakes Making one mistake twice is a big no-no in consulting interviews; one key part of the consulting skill set is the ability to learn, and repeating your mistakes (especially if the interviewer has pointed it out) makes you look like someone who doesn’t learn.

Note-taking Given the mistakes this candidate makes, he’s probably not taking his notes well. I can show you how to get it right if you watch this video on Case Interview Note-Taking .

Nonetheless, there are three good points you can learn from the candidate:

The candidate sums up what he’s covered and announces his upcoming approach at the start and at key points in the case – this is a very good habit that gives you a sense of direction and shows that you’re an organized person.

The candidate performs a “reality check” on whether his actions match the issue tree; in a case interview it’s easy to lose track of what you’re doing, so remember to do this every once in a while.

The candidate prompts the interviewer to give out more data than he asked for; if anything, this actually matches a habit of real consultants, and if you’re lucky, your interviewer may actually give out important pieces you haven’t thought of.

These are only part of the “ninja tips” taught In our Case Interview E2E Secrets Program – besides the math and business intuition for long-term development, a key feature is the instant-result tips and techniques for case interviews.

Once you’ve mastered them, you can nail any case they throw at you!

For more “quality” practice, let’s have a mock case interview with former consultants from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, Strategy& and many other consulting firms. They will help you identify your problem areas and give you actionable feedback, making your preparation much easier and faster.

Hi! This is Kim and welcome to another performance in the Tips & Techniques part of our amazing End-to-end program. You are about to hear a really interesting performance.

There is a common Myth that Profitability cases are easier. Well, for beginners, that’s may make sense, but I would argue that Profitability cases can be really tricky and candidates without good foundation will make about the same level of mistakes regardless of type of cases given.

The profitability case we are about to watch will show that. It’s a very unconventional

Profitability. It started out like a typical one but getting more and more tricky toward the end.

The candidate is fairly good in term of business intuition, but the Tips & Techniques aspect needs a lot of fine tune! Now let’s go ahead and get started! 

It’s actually a little better to playback the case information and ask clarifications. The candidate does not distinguish between the two and do both at a same time. Also, the candidate was asking these clarifications in an unorganized and unstructured fashion. This is not something terrible, but could have been better, especially when this is the very first part of the case, where the crucial first impression is being formed.

My pitch would sound like this:

“That’s a very interesting problem and I am happy to get the chance to solve it. First of all let me tell you my understanding of the case context and key objectives. Then I would like to ask a few clarifying questions regarding a few terminology and concepts. Both of these are to make sure that I will be solving the right problem.

So here is my understanding of the case: The client is ABC. Here are some DEF facts about the situation we just talked about. And the key case question is XYZ.

Does that correctly and adequately summarize the case?”

Once the interviewer confirms, I would move to the clarification part as follows: “Now I would like to ask a few clarification questions. There are three of them: No 1, … No 2, … and No 3, …”

You may see above pitch as obvious but that’s a perfect example of how you should open any cases. Every details matters. We will point out those details in just a second. But before we do that, it’s actually very helpful if you can go back, listen carefully to the above pitch, and try to point out the great components yourselves. Only after that, go back to this point and learn it all together.

Alright, let’s break down the perfect opening.

First of all, you hear me say: “That’s a very interesting problem and I am happy to get a chance to solve it”. This seems trivial but very beneficial in multiple ways:

1. I bought myself a couple of seconds to calm down and get focused. 2. By nature, we as human unconsciously like those who give us compliments. Nothing better than opening the case with a modest compliment to the interviewer.

And (c) I showed my great attitude towards the case, which the interviewer would assume is the same for real future consulting business problems.

You should do that in your interviews too. Say it and accompany it with the best smile you can give. It shows that you are not afraid of any problems. In fact, you love them and you are always ready for them.

Secondly, I did what I refer to as the “map habit”, which is to always say what you are about to do and then do it. Just like somebody in the car showing the drivers the route before cruising on the road. The driver would love it. This is where I said: “Let me tell you my understanding of the case context and key objectives. Then ABC…”.

Third, right at the beginning of the case, I try to be crystal clear and easy to follow. I don’t let the interviewer confused between playing the case vs. asking clarification questions. I distinguish between the two really carefully. This habit probably doesn’t change the outcome of how the case goes that much, but it certainly significantly changes the impression the interviewer has of me.

Fourth, in playing back the case, each person would have a different way to re-phrase. But there are three buckets to always include:

1. Who is the client 2. The facts regarding the client and the situation and (c) The key question and the objective of the case.

Fifth, after playing the case context and objectives, I pause for a second and ALIGN with the interviewer: “Does it correctly and adequately summarize the case?”. This is a habit that every consulting manager loves for young consultants to do. Nobody wants first-year folks to spend weeks of passion and hard-work building an excel model that the team can’t use. This habit is extensively taught at McKinsey, Bain and BCG, so therefore interviewers would love somebody that exhibits this habit often in case interview.

Lastly, when asking clarification questions, you hear me number them very carefully to create the strong impression that I am very organized and structured. I said I have three clarifying questions. Then I number them as I go through each. No.1, No.2, and No.3.

Sometimes, during interviews it’s hard to know exactly how many items you are going to get. One way is to take timeout often to carefully plan your pitch. If this is not possible in certain situations, you may skip telling how many items you have; but you should definitely still number your question: No.1, No.2; and so on. 

Just a moment ago, the candidate actually exhibited a good habit. After going through his clarification questions, the candidate ended by asking the “is there anything else” question. In this case, I actually give out an important piece of data.

Though this is not very common as not every interviewer is that generous in giving out data. But this is a habit management consultants have to have every day when talking to experts, clients, or key stakeholders. The key is to get the most data and insights out of every interview and this is the type of open-ended question every consultant asks several times a day.

To show of this habit in a case interview is very good!

There are three things I would like you to pay attention to:

First, it took the candidate up to 72 seconds to “gather his thoughts”. This is a little too long in a case interview. I intentionally leave the 72 seconds of silence in the recording so you get an idea of how long that is in real situations. But it’s worth-noting here is not only that. While in some very complicated and weird cases, it’s ok to take that long to really think and gather ideas. In this case, the approach as proposed by the candidate is very simple. For this very approach, I think no more than 15 to 20 seconds should be used.

No.2, with that said, I have told I really like the fact that this candidate exhibits the “map” habit. Before going straight to the approach he draws the overall approach first.

No.3. You also see here that the candidate tried to align the approach with me by asking my thoughts on it. As I just said on the previous comment, this is a great habit to have. Not only does it help reduce chance of going into the wrong direction in case interviews, but it also creates a good impression. Consulting interviewers love people doing it often!

Here we see a not-really-bad response that for sure could be much better. The candidate was going into the first branch of the analysis which is Revenue. I would fix this in 3 aspects:

First, even though we just talked about the overall approach, it’s still better to briefly set up the issue tree first then clearly note that you are going into one branch.

Second, this is not a must, but I always try to make my hypothesis as explicitly clear as possible. Here the candidate just implicitly made a hypothesis that the problem is on the revenue side. The best way to show our hypothesis-driven mindset is to explicitly say it.

Third, you hear this a ton of times in our End-to-End program but I am going to repeat it again and again. It is better to show the habit of aligning here too. Don’t just go into revenue, before doing that, give the interviewer a chance to agree or to actually guide you to Cost.

So, summarizing the above insights, my pitch would sound something like this:

“So as we just discussed, a profit problem is either caused by revenue or by cost. Unless you would like to go into cost first, let’s hypothesize that the problem is on revenue side. I would like to look deeper into Revenue. Do we have any data on the revenue?”

And while saying this, you should literally draw an issue tree and point to each as you speak.

There is an interesting case interview tip I want to point out here. Notice how the candidate responds after receiving two data points from me. He went straight into the next question without at least acknowledging the data received and also without briefly analyzing it.

I am glad that the candidate makes this mistakes… well, not glad for him but for the greater audience of this program. I would like to introduce to you the perfect habit of what you should react and do every time you have any piece of data during case interviews. So three things you need to do:

Step 1: Say … that’s an interesting piece of data. This helps the interviewer acknowledge that you have received and understand the data. This also buys you a little time. And furthermore, it’s always a good thing to give out modest compliments to the interviewer.

Step 2: Describe the data, how it looks, is there any special noteworthy trend? In this case, we should point out that revenue actually grew by more than 50%.

Also notice here that I immediately quantified the difference in specific quantitative measurement (in this case, percentage). Saying revenue went up is good, but it’s great to be able to say revenue went up by more than 50%.

Step 3: Link the trend identified back to the original case question and the hypothesis you have. Does it prove, disprove, or open up new investigation to really test the hypothesis? In this case, this data piece actually opened up new investigating areas to test the hypothesis that the bottleneck is within revenue.

My sample pitch for this step 3 would sound like this: “It’s interesting that revenue went up quite a bit. However, to be able to fully reject our hypothesis on the revenue, I would like to compare our revenue to that of the competitors as well.”

Then only at this point, after going through 3 steps above, I ask for the competitors’ revenue like the candidate did.

Notice here that I ended up asking the same question the candidate did. This shows that the candidate does have a good intuition and thought process. It’s just that he did all of these implicitly on his head.

In consulting case interview, it’s always good to do everything as explicitly as possible. Not only is it easier to follow but it helps show your great thought process.

… the rest of the transcript is available in our End To End Case Interview

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Case interview in consulting is difficult with the passing rate is around 10%. This is because big consulting firms keep an extremely high recruitment standard

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

15 case interviews tips for McKinsey, BCG and Bain

If you are targeting a job in consulting, you probably already know what type of interviews to expect: a case.

In a case interview, your interviewer will ask you to solve a business problem. For instance, they might ask you how Coca-Cola could double their profit margin next year. Cases have got the reputation to be amongst the most challenging types of interviews and candidates tend to fear them. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Over the past few years, we've helped more than 20,000 candidates prepare for consulting interviews. We've learned about what works and what doesn't. We have also analysed all the case interview advice from McKinsey , BCG , Bain , Deloitte and other sources.

In this article we summarise the most important tips we have learned along the way. So let's get started!

Click here to practise 1-on-1 with MBB ex-interviewers

1. preparation tips.

It all starts with a good preparation. Here are a few tips you should follow to structure your consulting interview practice.

Tip #1: Start early

This might sound obvious, but case interviews can be challenging, so you should start preparing early. Some of the people we work with start studying up to 6 months before their interview. Starting that much in advance is not necessary to get an offer, but the earlier you start the higher your chances of getting an offer are.

Tip #2: Learn the fundamentals

The first thing you should do is learning the key concepts and core skills you need to get an offer in consulting. In other words, you need to learn the fundamentals. This website has many free resources you can use to do this. We recommend starting with our free case interview guide and our list of free case interview examples .

Tip #3: Practice with peers

Practicing with peers is useful to get live interview practice. This is something that is common on university campuses and is often organised by consulting societies.

If you are not already doing so, we definitely encourage you to find one or a couple of friends who are also preparing for consulting interviews and with whom you can practice. You will learn a lot both by playing the role of the interviewer and the candidate. Here's a list of consulting interview questions you can practice with.

Tip #4: Practice with experts

Practicing with peers will only get you so far. I f you really want the best possible preparation for your case interview, you'll also want to get feedback from ex-consultants who have experience running interviews at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc.

If you know anyone who fits that description, fantastic! But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen. And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well.

Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. We’ve created a coaching service where you can do mock interviews 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from MBB firms. Learn more and start scheduling sessions today.

Tip #5: Keep it up

Learning any new skill has got its ups and downs. Mastering case interviews is no different. Your performance probably won't be amazing on your first few cases. You will probably make mistakes even after you have practiced 15+ cases. Keep it up. It might take a while but everyone can make it to consulting by following the right step-by-step preparation plan.

2. Case interview tips

Now that you know how to approach your preparation, let's focus on a few tips that you should use during your actual case interview.

Tip #6: Listen carefully and ask clarification questions

At the beginning of the case, your interviewer will layout the situation of the company you are trying to help (e.g.: Coca-Cola's profits have decreased by 10% over the past 12 months). Your job in that part of the interview is to make sure that you understand the situation correctly by asking the right clarification questions (e.g.: in which countries have profits declined? And for which products?).

This is what partners at McKinsey and other firms do with clients. They sit down with them, listen carefully to the problem they have, and ask clarification questions before trying to solve the problem. They do this because it's impossible to solve a business problem you don't understand in details. And you should therefore follow a similar approach in your cases.

Tip #7: Structure, structure, structure

Once you understand the situation in detail, your interviewer will expect you to put together a framework that you will use to solve the problem your client is facing. For instance, if your client is facing a profits' issue, your interviewer will expect you to look into 1) potential revenue issues and 2) potential cost issues because profits issues can be due to one or both of these factors.

Consultants use frameworks and structure their thinking all the time because it's client-friendly. If you don't solve the problem in a structured way, your client will probably lose track of what you are doing and be unhappy. If you solve it in a structured way, they will know what you are working on at all times and feel that you have things under control. Interviews are the same. If you structure your approach and communicate in a structured way, you'll have a happy interviewer!

Tip #8: Don't reuse frameworks

One trap many candidates fall into is to reuse pre-existing frameworks in their interviews. As we explain in our case frameworks guide , interviewers will immediately notice if you do this and you will get penalised. Each case is unique, and you should therefore create a custom framework for every case you do. This might sound difficult but it actually isn't if you take the right approach.

Tip #9: Think before speaking

Consultants sell advice. Once you have said something it's hard to take it back. One of the things you learn as a junior consultant is to think first, decide how you are going to say what you want to say, and then finally say it. If you can do that well in your interviews it will truly set you apart. In practice, it means that you should take some time to organise your thoughts before speaking and that you should avoid jumping to conclusions.

Tip #10: Brush up your maths

Virtually all case interviews involve doing maths computations without a calculator. Having rusty maths at the beginning of your preparation is normal. But in our experience successful candidates take some time to brush up their maths when they start practicing. You should take the time to refresh your memory and be 100% comfortable doing basic additions, subtractions, divisions, multiplications and growth rate calculations mentally. We really encourage you to take the time to do this. Trust us, it's really worth it!

Tip #11: Draw conclusions

As we mentioned above, consultants get paid for their advice. One of the things clients hate is to pay a large sum of money and not get a clear answer about their problem. Even if they are halfway through the project, consultants avoid telling their clients: "We don't know yet." What they say instead is: "Based on what we have seen so far, our current hypothesis is that the profit decline you are experiencing is mainly driven by the Chinese market. We think this is the case for 3 reasons. Reason #1 is etc."

You need to do the same thing in your cases. At the end of the interview, your interviewer will ask for your conclusion. You can't dodge the question. You've got to give a clear answer with supporting arguments based on what you have learned doing the analysis. The trick is to caveat your answer with a sentence such as "Based on this initial analysis, etc." And to also highlight additional areas to explore to confirm that your current understanding is the right one.

Tip #12: Catch the hints

Finally, 99% of interviewers have good intentions. They're here to help you perform at your best. During your interviews they will give you hints about whether you are doing well or not. If they try to steer you in a direction, follow them, they're trying to help you. This might sound obvious but candidates sometimes get so stressed out that they don't pick up on the hints interviewers give them.

3. Fit / PEI questions tips

In addition to a case, your interviewer will also ask you one or two behavioural questions. Let's turn our attention to those and go through a few tips that you can use to impress your interviewer.

Tip #13: Research consulting / the company

The two most frequently asked fit questions you will come across are " Why consulting? " and " Why McKinsey?  / Why BCG? / Why Bain? " You therefore need to do your research about consulting as well as the company and office your are interviewing for. Try to really understand whether consulting is a job you will enjoy doing. Try to meet consultants from the firm and office you are interviewing for. This will help you give genuine answers to these fit questions and will set you apart from other candidates.

Tip #14: Prepare for PEI questions

In addition to typical CV questions, consulting firms also ask personal experience interview questions . These questions are easy to recognise, they always start with: "Tell me about a time when..." They aim to test your soft skills such as your leadership or your ability to work in a team. A lot of candidates underestimate their importance and end up not preparing sufficiently for them. We recommend setting about 25% of your time to prepare for fit and PEI questions.

Tip #15: Try to convey confidence

We know this one is hard, but conveying confidence can make a big difference in your interviews. We all have doubts, and we are all stressed when we interview. It's perfectly normal. But you should try to keep these doubts and stress to yourself. You should try to look your interviewer in the eye and speak as confidently as possible. Conveying confidence is a core consulting skill and if you can do it in your interviews it will really take you a long way!

4. Conclusion

When it comes to preparing case interviews, it can seem like there's a lot to take in. Even when you've covered everything mentioned above, it's still hard to gauge your level and to be sure whether or not you're really ready to ace your interview.

That's one reason why mock interviews are so helpful. If you're interested, click below to browse from our many ex-interviewers from MBB firms, and book your mock interview at a time to suit you.   Learn more and start scheduling sessions today.

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Electro-Light

Client goal.

Our client is SuperSoda, a top-three beverage producer in the United States that has approached McKinsey for help designing its product launch strategy.

Situation description

As an integrated beverage company, SuperSoda leads its own brand design, marketing, and sales efforts. The company also owns its entire beverage supply chain, including production of concentrates, bottling and packaging, and distribution to retail outlets. SuperSoda has a considerable number of brands across carbonated and noncarbonated drinks, five large bottling plants throughout the country, and distribution agreements with most major retailers.

SuperSoda is evaluating the launch of a new product, a flavored sports drink called “Electro-Light.” Sports drinks are usually designed to replenish energy, with sugars, and electrolytes, or salts, in the body. However, Electro-Light has been formulated to focus more on the replenishment of electrolytes and has a lower sugar content compared to most other sports drinks. The company expects this new beverage to capitalize on the recent trend away from high-sugar products.

McKinsey study

SuperSoda’s vice president of marketing has asked McKinsey to help analyze key factors surrounding the launch of Electro-Light and its own internal capabilities to support that effort.

Helpful hints

• Write down important information.
• Feel free to ask the interviewer to explain anything that is not clear to you.

Question 1:

What key factors should SuperSoda consider when deciding whether or not to launch Electro-Light?

• Take time to organize your thoughts before answering. This tells the interviewer that you think about the problem in a logical way.
• Develop overall approach before diving into details.

Reveal Answer

Question 2:.

After reviewing the key factors that SuperSoda should consider when deciding whether to launch Electro-Light, your team wants to understand the beverage market and consumer preferences to gauge the potential success of Electro-Light.

Your team has gathered the following information about the US sports drink market. The information shows an estimated share of electrolyte drinks, as well as the current share for the two main electrolyte products: CoolSweat and RecoverPlus.

Based on the target price and upfront fixed costs, what share of the electrolyte drink market would Electro-Light need to capture to break even? Here is some additional information for you to consider as you form your response:

• Electro-Light would launch in a 16-ounce format—or one-eighth of a gallon—at a price of $2 to retailers
• To be able to launch Electro-Light, SuperSoda needs to bear $40 million in total fixed costs, including marketing expenses and increased costs across its production and distribution network
• The vice president of operations estimates that each bottle would cost $1.90 to produce and deliver in the new process
• Don’t feel rushed into performing calculations. Take your time.
• Remember that calculators are not allowed—you may want to write out your calculations on paper during the interview.
• Talk your interviewer through your steps so that you can demonstrate an organized approach; the more you talk the easier it will be for your interviewer to help you.

Question 3:

SuperSoda executives believe that the company's position as a top-three beverage company gives it strategic impetus toward achieving the desired market share. However, they ask the team to outline what would be needed to achieve the target 12.5 percent share of the electrolyte-drinks market. What would SuperSoda need to do to gain the required market share for Electro- Light following its launch?

Helpful hint

Consider the issues raised in the question and group your thoughts around them. This will ensure that you are giving the most relevant answers.