how to do well in a case study interview

Secrets to a successful case-study interview

January 9, 2023

Prepping for (and maybe fretting) the case-study interview?

While this kind of interview may appear intimidating, consider this: The interviewer really wants you to do well.

So, shake off the nerves, relax and have fun.

Tips for standing out in the case-study interview: 

• Take your time; don't rush it.  Talk through the problem. If you can't make sense of it, take a moment and allow yourself some time to process what you've been missing. If you get stuck, get creative. Don't let yourself get bogged down; rely on your ingenuity. 
• Ask questions.  You can always ask your interviewer to define an acronym or to repeat or confirm details. If the interviewer asks, “How do we achieve success?”, don’t be afraid to ask, “What does ‘success’ mean to you? Is it turning a profit? Raising the company’s profile?” When you work on a client project, you need to ask questions to figure out what the problems might be, and the same applies here. The interviewer is your biggest asset in the room. They have the information you need to “solve the case” successfully. Use them wisely!
• Be flexible.  The focus of a case-study interview may vary. So, be prepared to participate in whatever discussion the interviewer has in mind. They may spend the first half of the interview asking about your previous experience, or they may dive right into the case study at the start. The bottom line: Be flexible, and be ready to discuss the work you do and how you do it.
• Use visual aids.  Don’t be afraid to use pen and paper, sketch out your thoughts, and talk through the problem at hand if it helps you get your ideas across. What matters most is demonstrating that you can solve problems.
• Focus on impact.  Inventory the information you have, and then dive in where you can have the most impact. Don’t forget to discuss your thought process and explain your assumptions.
• Tell a story.  Your experience has helped you progress in your career and education; use that experience. For example, in a business case study, you could bring your experience as a traveler to a case about a hypothetical airline. Your individuality is important. Your unique insights will serve you well when you’re interviewing.
• Pay attention to cues.  If the interviewer says something, it probably means something. Don’t dismiss seemingly extraneous details. For example, the interviewer might say, “The case is about a retailer who wants to increase the value of a company it purchased, and the owner loved the brand when growing up.” The purpose of that detail is to indicate that turning around and selling the asset is not an option for making it profitable, because the owner is attached to it.

Preparing for the job you want can take time, but it’s a worthwhile investment—especially when you receive an offer.

Your ideas, ingenuity and determination make a difference. 

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

1. The key to landing your consulting job.

A case interview is a core element of the consulting recruitment process at top firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG (the “MBB” firms). During a case interview, you will be asked to solve a business case study , which challenges you to think critically and strategically, just like a real consultant. Beyond MBB, firms like LEK, Kearney, Oliver Wyman, and the Big Four (PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG) also use case study interviews as a major component of their hiring process.

Why Case Interviews Are Essential

If your goal is to land a role at one of these prestigious consulting firms, you’ll need to master multiple case interviews . These interviews test your ability to think on your feet, structure complex problems, and provide actionable business solutions. Successfully cracking a consulting case interview is a critical step in consulting interview preparation .

The Rise of Online Case Interviews

In addition to traditional face-to-face case interviews , firms are increasingly adopting online case interview formats . Many candidates now face AI-driven case studies or cases delivered by chatbots. These assessments might occur before the actual interview or in tandem with first-round consulting interviews . Knowing how to approach these online assessments is key to staying competitive in today’s consulting interview process .

Why You Need to Prepare Thoroughly for Case Interviews

It’s important to note that case interviews are not something you can approach casually or "wing." Consulting firms explicitly expect candidates to be well-prepared , and many of your competitors will have been practicing for months. Lack of preparation is a major reason why candidates fail. That’s where MCC is here to guide you every step of the way !

What This Guide Will Cover

This guide provides a comprehensive overview of consulting case interviews . You’ll learn everything from how to approach case studies like a consultant to mastering the emerging online case formats . Along the way, we’ll direct you to more detailed articles and resources that let you dive deeper into key aspects of the consulting interview process .

If you prefer a video guide, you can watch the video below:

Key Topics Covered:

• What is the standard format of a case interview?
• What skills are firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG looking for?
• How are candidates assessed in case interviews?
• What strategies can you use to ace a consulting case study?

With these insights, you’ll have a clear understanding of what to expect and how to excel in your consulting case interviews . Let’s get started!

Professional help

Before we go any further, if this feels overwhelming, don’t worry — we’re here to help! Whether you need guidance to refine your preparation or prefer an experienced consultant to guide you through the entire selection process, we’ve got you covered. Explore our tailored coaching packages below.

2. What is a Case Interview?

A case interview simulates real consulting work by having you solve a business case study in conversation with your interviewer. You’ll be tasked with advising a client (an imaginary business or organization) on how to solve a problem or make a decision. Your job is to analyze the provided information and make a final recommendation.

While some business problems may seem straightforward, consulting firms focus on solving complex, unique issues that require creative, non-standard solutions.

Examples of case questions include:

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

Consulting firms seek bright minds to work on these challenging, real-world problems. You’ll need to think outside the box and be prepared for novel solutions during your interview.

2.1. Where Are Case Interviews in the Consulting Selection Process?

Not everyone who applies to a consulting firm will make it to a case interview. In fact, firms eliminate up to 80% of candidates before the interview stage. This is because case interviews are expensive and time-consuming, requiring firms to pull consultants from active projects.

Most candidates are cut based on their resumes and performance in aptitude tests. For example, McKinsey uses its Solve assessment and resumes to eliminate over 70% of applicants before interviews.

Getting to a case interview with a top firm is already an achievement. You’ll need to get through the resume screen, aptitude tests, and possibly other assessments to reach the interview stage.

Let’s take a closer look at the selection process, including application screens, aptitude tests, and interview rounds.

2.1.1. Application Screen

A large portion of candidates are eliminated at the application stage. Resumes and cover letters are often reviewed by a combination of AI tools, recruitment staff, and consulting staff.

To improve your chances, make sure your resume and cover letter are top-notch. Check out our free resume guide and cover letter guide , or consider getting help with editing .

2.1.2. Aptitude Tests and Online Cases

The selection process has been evolving quickly, with firms increasingly using sophisticated online case studies in addition to traditional aptitude tests.

McKinsey now uses an online case as part of its Solve assessment, while BCG’s Casey chatbot directly replaces a live first-round interview. We expect these online cases to become more prevalent in the future, but they are still just simulations of live case interviews.

Whether you’re dealing with an online case or a live interview, your preparation will remain the same. You’ll still need to learn how to solve cases effectively.

2.1.3. Rounds of Interviews

Despite the rise of AI and online cases, live case interviews are still central to consulting selection. Firms will always require live interviews due to the client-facing nature of consulting.

To secure an offer from McKinsey, Bain, BCG, or a similar firm, you’ll need to complete four to six case interviews , typically split across two rounds. Each interview will last approximately 50-60 minutes.

First-round interviews usually consist of two or three case interviews, sometimes accompanied by an online case. If you perform well in the first round, you’ll be invited to a second, more challenging round. After successfully completing up to six case interviews, you may receive an offer.

2.2. Differences between first and second round interviews

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

There are three key differences between the two rounds:

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

2.3. What skills do case interviews assess?

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

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

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

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

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

2.1.1.One: Probing mind

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

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

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

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

2.1.2. Structure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.1.3. Problem Solving

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

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

2.1.4. Numerical Agility

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

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

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

2.1.5. Communication

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prep the right way

3. types of case interview.

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

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

3.1. Different case objectives

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

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

3.2. How do interviewers craft cases

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

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

3.3. Candidate-led cases

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

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

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

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

3.4. Interviewer-led cases

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

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

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

3.5. Case and fit

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

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

To illustrate, here is the typical case interview timeline:

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

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

NB: No case without fit

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

3.5.2. The McKinsey PEI

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

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

3.6. What is different in 2024?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.6.1. Automated fit interviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.1. Identify the problem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is summarised here:

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

4.2. Build your problem driven structure

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

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

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

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

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

4.2.1 Issue trees

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

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

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

4.2.2 Hypothesis trees

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

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

4.2.3 Other structures:structured lists

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

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

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

4.2.4 Structures in practice

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

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

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

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

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

4.2. Lead the analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.4. Provide recommendations

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

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

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

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

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

So, how do we do it right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.5. What if I get stuck?

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

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

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

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

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

5. Inside the Consultant’s Mind: Tools to Crack Consulting Cases

If you’re new to case cracking, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when faced with a complex case question, unsure of where to begin.

Fortunately, like chess, the basic rules of solving cases are straightforward. Our problem-driven structure provides a clear, high-level framework to guide you. However, just like becoming a chess master, true proficiency in case interviews comes from understanding the nuances and building your skills through time and practice.

Beyond the approach, there are additional strategies and insights that consultants use, which can give you an edge. In this section, we’ll provide an overview of the core concepts you need to know, while linking to in-depth resources that will help you dive deeper into each topic.

5.1. An overall clear structure

Consultants thrive on structure, and this is one of the most important aspects to keep in mind during case interviews. Not only is it a key evaluation criterion, but it’s also the greatest tool at your disposal for tackling complex cases. Let’s break down the areas where a clear structure will make all the difference.

5.1.1 Structured notes

Every case interview begins with a prompt, and your ability to take clear, concise, and structured notes is crucial. These notes should help you repeat the case back to the interviewer, without including unnecessary information.

A good approach is to divide your notes into sections for:

• The case brief
• Follow-up questions and answers
• Numerical data
• Case structure (crucial for solving the case)
• Scrap work (usually for calculations)

As you work through the case, keep feeding and integrating your structure to maintain a high-level view of the case and avoid losing focus. This is especially important in interviewer-led cases, where you might want separate sheets for each question.

5.1.2 Structured communication

There are three main types of communication in case interviews:

• 1. Asking and answering questions
• 2. Walking the interviewer through your structure
• 3. Delivering your recommendation

When asking questions, always take a moment to organize your thoughts. Numbering your questions and answers helps ensure clarity. The same goes for walking the interviewer through your structure—use a numbering system to outline your approach clearly.

Finally, when delivering your recommendation, use a top-down approach. Circle or mark key facts throughout the case so they’re easily accessible when needed.

5.1.3 Structured framework

Having a systematic approach or framework for every case is essential. There’s a key difference between applying a problem-solving framework and forcing a case into a predetermined one. The former is necessary, while the latter can be harmful.

Whether using buckets or issue trees, ensure your framework is clearly outlined. Keeping it on a separate sheet or alongside the case prompt helps you stay organized and focused on the solution.

5.1.4 Structured calculations

When you encounter numerical data, take your time and plan your calculations before diving in. Interviewers value your logic and approach more than raw speed. Before starting, write down the steps you need to perform the calculation. Here’s an example:

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

Make sure to demonstrate a structured approach before executing the calculations on a scrap sheet, then fill in the final results.

5.2. Common business knowledge and formulas

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

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

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

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

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

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

5.2.1 Business sector concepts

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

5.2.1.1. Revenue

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

Revenue = Volume x Price

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

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

5.2.1.2. Costs

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

Costs = Fixed Costs + Variable Costs

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

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

5.2.1.3. Profit and profit margin

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

Profit = Revenue - Costs

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

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

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

Profit margin = Profit/Revenue x 100

5.2.1.4. Break-even point

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

Revenues = Costs (Fixed costs + Variable costs)

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

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

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

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

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

5.2.1.5. Market share and market size

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

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

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

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

5.3 Public sector and NGO concepts

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

5.3.1 Quantifiability

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5.3.1 Impact

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

5.4 Common consulting concepts

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

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

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

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

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

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

5.4.2 The Pareto Principle

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

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

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

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

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

5.4.3 The Pyramid Principle

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

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

6. Building blocks

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

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

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

Bain Case Study Example

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

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

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

McKinsey Case Study Example

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

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

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

6.1 Estimates and segmentation

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

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

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

6.2 Profitability

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

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

6.3 Pricing

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

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

6.4. Valuation

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

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

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

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

6.5. Competitive interaction

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

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

6.6. Special cases

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

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

The first question addressed to the candidate is the following:

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

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

7. How Do I prepare for case interviews

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

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

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

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

7.1. Solo practice

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

• Mental math

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

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

7.2. Preparation with a partner

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

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

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

7.2.1. Peer preparation

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

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

7.2.2. Preparation with a consultant

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

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

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

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

7.3. Practice for online interviews

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

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

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

7.4. Fit interviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Interview day - what to expect, with tips

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

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

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

8.1. Getting started

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

8.1.1. First impressions

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

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

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

8.1.2. Down to business

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

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

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

8.1.3. Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8.1.4. Recommendation

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

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

8.1.5. Wrapping up

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

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

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

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

8.2. Remote and one-way interview tips

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

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

8.2.1. Connection

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

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

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

8.2.2. Dress

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

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

8.2.3. Lighting

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

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

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

8.2.4. Clarity

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

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

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

9. How we can help

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

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

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

You can find out more on our coaching page:

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How To Prepare For A Case Study Interview

Following the recent success of our technical interview prep guide and one-way interview prep guide , I caught up with professional resume writer and interview coach Paula Christensen to learn how you can best prepare for a case study interview.

Here’s what she shared about case study interviews and how to succeed in them:

What Is A Case Study Interview?

For starters, what’s a case study interview? “A case study interview is a specific interview method in which applicants are given complex business problems to analyze and solve on the spot,” explains Christensen. “They assess a candidate’s analytical and critical thinking skills as well as personality traits such as adaptability and curiosity.”

According to her, employers use case study interviews to not only evaluate how applicants approach problems, but also the analytical frameworks they use, as well as their communication skills.

Now, how do you effectively prepare for a case study interview? Perhaps not surprisingly, preparing for a case study interview has a lot of similarities to preparing for a regular interview .

First, “To enhance any interviewing skills, especially case study interviewing skills, practice is essential,” argues Christensen. She recommends reviewing common case study interview frameworks, then practicing them with a mentor , partner, or interview coach .

Next, Christensen suggests that you “be prepared to ask clarifying questions, learn to structure your thoughts and communicate them clearly, and get in the habit of using data and facts to support your recommendations.”

You also want to be ready for follow-up questions from the interviewers. “Good follow-up questions dig beneath the surface, and by answering them well, you can demonstrate that you have done your due diligence,” adds Christensen.

Sample Case Study Interview Questions

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of practice case interview questions available online,” says Christensen. “Be selective about the cases you choose and practice situations that closely mimic scenarios you will encounter in your job function and industry.”

With these suggestions in mind, Christensen provided the following several sample case study interview questions along with explanations on how to approach answering them.

Sample Case Study Interview Question 1

“A company is considering entering a new market; what steps would you take to evaluate the potential success of the venture?”

Christensen explains that the interviewer might ask this question with the hope of learning how you evaluate potential business opportunities, including your strategies for collecting and assessing information, as well as your process for making conclusions about the probable success of the venture.

“They also want to understand your approach to assessing the risks and rewards of entering a new market and how you make data-driven decisions,” she says. “Can you demonstrate your understanding of what it takes to evaluate a market? Can you clearly explain your reasoning and rationale for your recommendations?”

Sample Case Study Interview Question 2

“How would you approach a restructuring plan for a struggling company?”

According to Christensen, “This question is designed to test your problem-solving and reasoning skills.” With this in mind, she recommends beginning by collecting information on the company’s current situation, which could include its industry, market, finances, and any recent events that might have contributed to its struggles.

Once you’ve gathered the relevant details, you can then take steps to begin to identify the root cause of the company’s struggles, explains Christensen. Examples of the root cause might include operational inefficiency, a lack of market share, or poor financial performance.

Next, based on the root cause, you’ll want to develop an action plan that addresses the issues you identified, says Christensen. Finally, she suggests communicating how you would execute the plan. “This includes identifying KPIs to measure success and regularly monitoring and adjusting the plan as needed,” she adds.

Final Case Study Interview Tips

Learning how to prepare for and succeed in a case study interview takes time. If you can, try to avoid cramming, and give yourself ample runway to learn the nuances of case study interview questions. Also, consider heeding Christensen’s advice and find someone to support you with the process. You’ve got this!

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Top 15 Mistakes in Case Interview Preparation

As someone who has personally helped over 100 candidates land offers at MBB ( McKinsey , BCG , Bain ), I’ve identified 15 common mistakes that hold people back from getting offers. By understanding and avoiding these pitfalls, you can set yourself up for a much smoother interview experience and greatly increase your chances of success.

Table of Contents

• Before the Application
• During the Application Phase
• During the Preparation Phase
• During the Interview
• About the Author

1. Lack of Clear Goals : Many candidates don't take the time to define their goals or understand why they want a career in consulting . This lack of clarity leads to a lack of focus during preparation and can hurt motivation in the long run.

1. Applying to Just One Company : One of the most common mistakes is focusing all efforts on one company rather than applying to multiple firms. This limits your chances of success and puts unnecessary pressure on a single application.

2. Not Using LinkedIn Networking : Many candidates don’t leverage LinkedIn networking to maximize interview invites. Building connections and getting referrals from consultants can significantly improve your chances of getting an interview.

3. Poorly Structured CV and Cover Letter : Not paying attention to the details of your CV and cover letter can lead to immediate rejection. It's crucial to tailor these documents to each firm and role, highlighting relevant experience and achievements clearly.

1. No Systematic Approach: Instead of following a structured preparation plan, candidates often read random books and solve cases from casebooks without clear progression or focus. This approach lacks direction and often leads to burnout or slow improvement.

2. Solving Each Case from Scratch: Many candidates try to approach each case individually without using proven case-solving frameworks or algorithms. This slows down progress and makes it harder to build confidence.

3. Treating All Cases the Same: Candidates often don’t differentiate between different types of cases (e.g., M&A , pricing , growth ) and fail to develop specific algorithms for each. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for all case types.

4. Ignoring Industry Knowledge: Failing to study different industries reduces your ability to contextualize cases. Having a basic understanding of industries like oil & gas, retail, or banking helps you approach cases more effectively and impress your interviewer.

5. Skipping Math and Graph Preparation: Overlooking the importance of practicing case math and graph interpretation is another common pitfall. Many candidates underestimate how frequently these skills are tested during interviews.

6. Not Preparing Fit Stories in Advance: Candidates often don’t pre-prepare their fit stories based on MBB criteria, leading to less compelling responses during the fit portion of the interview.

7. Solving Only Easy Cases: Many candidates practice only easy cases with partners, avoiding challenging MBB-level cases. This can lead to overconfidence and a rude awakening during actual interviews with top firms.

8. Not Tracking Feedback: Candidates frequently fail to collect and organize feedback from their case practice. Without a central place to track improvements and areas for growth, it’s hard to see consistent progress.

9. Ignoring the Differences Between Candidate-led and Interviewer-led Cases: Not understanding how to adapt your approach to both types of interviews (candidate-led vs interviewer-led) can cause issues during real interviews.

1. Overestimating the Importance of the Interview: Many candidates let nerves take over because they overvalue the significance of one particular interview. This heightened stress can lead to poor performance.

2. Failing to Build Rapport with the Interviewer: Establishing a connection with the interviewer is key to success. Many candidates focus so much on solving the case that they forget to engage with the interviewer on a personal level.

Avoiding these mistakes can make a significant difference in your preparation and interview performance. If you're ready to take your case prep seriously and want to ensure you’re on the right track, text me a message. We can discuss your situation and start building your tailored prep journey today!

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How to Succeed in a Case Study Interview

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Instructor: Jena Viviano

You’ve nailed the first few rounds of interviews, and now you’ve been invited to participate in a case study interview. Curious about what this next stage of the process looks like? In this course, Jena Viviano breaks it down for you, explaining the basic components of a case study interview, how to prepare, and what to do to project confidence and engage your interviewer. Learn how case study interview questions are used and why employers find them beneficial. Discover the key elements that interviewers use to evaluate your answers. Plus, learn how to formulate key questions to dig deeper into the case, develop your own framework for every case study answer, and craft a conclusion with supporting rationale that’s concise and clear. Jena also provides tips for quelling your performance anxiety, as well as sample case study questions that give you a better understanding of what to expect.

47 case interview examples (from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.)

One of the best ways to prepare for   case interviews  at firms like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, is by studying case interview examples. 

There are a lot of free sample cases out there, but it's really hard to know where to start. So in this article, we have listed all the best free case examples available, in one place.

The below list of resources includes interactive case interview samples provided by consulting firms, video case interview demonstrations, case books, and materials developed by the team here at IGotAnOffer. Let's continue to the list.

• McKinsey examples
• BCG examples
• Bain examples
• Deloitte examples
• Other firms' examples
• Case books from consulting clubs
• Case interview preparation

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

1. mckinsey case interview examples.

• Beautify case interview (McKinsey website)
• Diconsa case interview (McKinsey website)
• Electro-light case interview (McKinsey website)
• GlobaPharm case interview (McKinsey website)
• National Education case interview (McKinsey website)
• Talbot Trucks case interview (McKinsey website)
• Shops Corporation case interview (McKinsey website)
• Conservation Forever case interview (McKinsey website)
• McKinsey case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
• Profitability case with ex-McKinsey manager (by IGotAnOffer)
• McKinsey live case interview extract (by IGotAnOffer) - See below

2. BCG case interview examples

• Foods Inc and GenCo case samples  (BCG website)
• Chateau Boomerang written case interview  (BCG website)
• BCG case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
• Written cases guide (by IGotAnOffer)
• BCG live case interview with notes (by IGotAnOffer)
• BCG mock case interview with ex-BCG associate director - Public sector case (by IGotAnOffer)
• BCG mock case interview: Revenue problem case (by IGotAnOffer) - See below

3. Bain case interview examples

• CoffeeCo practice case (Bain website)
• FashionCo practice case (Bain website)
• Associate Consultant mock interview video (Bain website)
• Consultant mock interview video (Bain website)
• Written case interview tips (Bain website)
• Bain case interview guide   (by IGotAnOffer)
• Digital transformation case with ex-Bain consultant
• Bain case mock interview with ex-Bain manager (below)

4. Deloitte case interview examples

• Engagement Strategy practice case (Deloitte website)
• Recreation Unlimited practice case (Deloitte website)
• Strategic Vision practice case (Deloitte website)
• Retail Strategy practice case  (Deloitte website)
• Finance Strategy practice case  (Deloitte website)
• Talent Management practice case (Deloitte website)
• Enterprise Resource Management practice case (Deloitte website)
• Footloose written case  (by Deloitte)
• Deloitte case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

5. Accenture case interview examples

• Case interview workbook (by Accenture)
• Accenture case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

6. OC&C case interview examples

• Leisure Club case example (by OC&C)
• Imported Spirits case example (by OC&C)

7. Oliver Wyman case interview examples

• Wumbleworld case sample (Oliver Wyman website)
• Aqualine case sample (Oliver Wyman website)
• Oliver Wyman case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

8. A.T. Kearney case interview examples

• Promotion planning case question (A.T. Kearney website)
• Consulting case book and examples (by A.T. Kearney)
• AT Kearney case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

9. Strategy& / PWC case interview examples

• Presentation overview with sample questions (by Strategy& / PWC)
• Strategy& / PWC case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

10. L.E.K. Consulting case interview examples

• Case interview example video walkthrough   (L.E.K. website)
• Market sizing case example video walkthrough  (L.E.K. website)

11. Roland Berger case interview examples

• Transit oriented development case webinar part 1  (Roland Berger website)
• Transit oriented development case webinar part 2   (Roland Berger website)
• 3D printed hip implants case webinar part 1   (Roland Berger website)
• 3D printed hip implants case webinar part 2   (Roland Berger website)
• Roland Berger case interview guide   (by IGotAnOffer)

12. Capital One case interview examples

• Case interview example video walkthrough  (Capital One website)
• Capital One case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)

12. EY Parthenon case interview examples

• Candidate-led case example with feedback (by IGotAnOffer)

14. Consulting clubs case interview examples

• Berkeley case book (2006)
• Columbia case book (2006)
• Darden case book (2012)
• Darden case book (2018)
• Duke case book (2010)
• Duke case book (2014)
• ESADE case book (2011)
• Goizueta case book (2006)
• Illinois case book (2015)
• LBS case book (2006)
• MIT case book (2001)
• Notre Dame case book (2017)
• Ross case book (2010)
• Wharton case book (2010)

5. How to practise case interviews

We've coached more than 15,000 people for interviews since 2018. There are essentially three activities you can do to practice case interviews. Here’s what we've learned about each of them.

5.1 Practise by yourself

Learning by yourself is an essential first step. We recommend you make full use of the free prep resources on our consulting blog and also watch some mock case interviews on our YouTube channel . That way you can see what an excellent answer looks like.

Once you’re in command of the subject matter, you’ll want to practice answering cases. But by yourself, you can’t simulate thinking on your feet or the pressure of performing in front of a stranger. Plus, there are no unexpected follow-up questions and no feedback.

That’s why many candidates try to practice with friends or peers.

5.2 Practise with peers

If you have friends or peers who can do mock interviews with you, that's an option worth trying. It’s free, but be warned, you may come up against the following problems:

• It’s hard to know if the feedback you get is accurate
• They’re unlikely to have insider knowledge of interviews at your target company
• On peer platforms, people often waste your time by not showing up

For those reasons, many candidates skip peer mock interviews and go straight to mock interviews with an expert. 

5.3 Practise with experienced MBB interviewers

In our experience, practising real interviews with experts who can give you company-specific feedback makes a huge difference.

Find a consulting interview coach so you can:

• Test yourself under real interview conditions
• Get accurate feedback from a real expert
• Build your confidence
• Get company-specific insights
• Learn how to tell the right stories, better.
• Save time by focusing your preparation

Landing a job at a top consulting company often results in a $50,000 per year or more increase in total compensation. In our experience, three or four coaching sessions worth ~$500 will make a significant difference in your ability to land the job. That’s an ROI of 100x!

Click here to book case interview coaching with experienced MBB interviewers.

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How to Succeed in a Case Study Interview

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Instructor: Jena Viviano

You’ve nailed the first few rounds of interviews, and now you’ve been invited to participate in a case study interview. Curious about what this next stage of the process looks like? In this course, Jena Viviano breaks it down for you, explaining the basic components of a case study interview, how to prepare, and what to do to project confidence and engage your interviewer. Learn how case study interview questions are used and why employers find them beneficial. Discover the key elements that interviewers use to evaluate your answers. Plus, learn how to formulate key questions to dig deeper into the case, develop your own framework for every case study answer, and craft a conclusion with supporting rationale that’s concise and clear. Jena also provides tips for quelling your performance anxiety, as well as sample case study questions that give you a better understanding of what to expect.

• Hacking the Case Interview

This is a complete guide to case interviews for beginners. Whether you have no idea what a case interview is or have just started preparing for consulting interviews, we’ll walk you through the case interview fundamentals.

Case interviews can seem complicated, confusing, and difficult to learn. However, with the right knowledge and strategies, case interviews can be fairly straight forward and mastered by anyone.

In this complete guide to case interviews for beginners, we’ll cover:

Introduction to Case Interviews

Purpose of case interviews, key components of a case interview, types of case interviews, case interview preparation strategies for beginners, case interview practice cases for beginners, common case interview beginner mistakes to avoid, case interview beginner tips for success.

• Beginner Case Interview Resources for Further Learning

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.

What is a case interview?

Case interviews are a special type of interview that every single consulting firm uses. They are almost exclusively used by consulting firms, although some companies with ex- consultants may also use them.

A case interview, also known as a “case” for short, is a 30 to 60-minute exercise in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

These business problems can be anything that real companies face:

• How can Amazon increase its profitability?
• What can Apple do to increase customer retention?
• How should Tesla price its new electric vehicle?
• Where should Disney open another Disneyland theme park?

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

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

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

Unless you are interviewing for a consulting firm that specializes in a particular industry or function, cases are designed to be solved by someone that has general business knowledge.

Nailing your case interviews is critical to getting  into consulting . There is no way to get a consulting job offer without passing your case interviews.

What are examples of a case interview?

Here is an example of what a perfectly solved case interview looks like:

Here is another example of what a case interview looks like. This case interview is one where the interviewer leads most of the interview.

Here is a third example of a case interview. In this case interview, the candidate leads most of the interview. We’ll cover the difference between interviewer-led and candidate-led case interviews later in the article.

Finally, here is a fourth example of what a case interview looks like. This case is primarily focused on market sizing. We’ll cover what market sizing is and how to solve it later in the article.

Why are case interviews used?

Case interviews are the best way for consulting firms to predict which candidates will make the best consultants. Case interviews do not predict this perfectly, but they come quite close.

Since case interviews simulate the consulting job by placing you in a hypothetical business situation, 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 consulting case project.

Case interviews also give you a sense of whether you would like the consulting job. If you find case interviews interesting and exciting, you’ll likely enjoy consulting. If you find case interviews dull and boring, consulting may not be the best profession for you.

What do case interviews assess?

Case interviews assess five different qualities or characteristics: logical and structured thinking, analytical problem solving, business acumen, communication skills, and personality and cultural fit.

1. Logical and structured thinking : Consultants need to be organized and methodical in order to work efficiently.

• Can you structure complex problems in a clear, simple way?
• Can you take tremendous amounts of information and data and identify the most important points?
• Can you use logic and reason to make appropriate conclusions?

2. Analytical problem solving : Consultants work with a tremendous amount of data and information in order to develop recommendations to complex problems.

• Can you read and interpret data well?
• Can you perform math computations smoothly and accurately?
• Can you conduct the right analyses to draw the right conclusions?

3. Business acumen : A strong business instinct helps consultants make the right decisions and develop the right recommendations.

• Do you have a basic understanding of fundamental business concepts?
• Do your conclusions and recommendations make sense from a business perspective?

4. Communication skills : Consultants need strong communication skills to collaborate with teammates and clients effectively.

• Can you communicate in a clear, concise way?
• Are you articulate in what you are saying?

5. Personality and cultural fit : Consultants spend a lot of time working closely in small teams. Having a personality and attitude that fits with the team makes the whole team work better together.

• Are you coachable and easy to work with?
• Are you pleasant to be around?

All of these five qualities can be assessed in just a 30 to 60-minute case interview. This is what makes case interviews so effective in assessing consulting candidates.

What companies give case interviews?

Case interviews are primarily used by management consulting firms (e.g., McKinsey, BCG, and Bain), but they are also used by some technology companies (e.g., Meta, Google) and private equity firms (e.g., KKR, Blackstone) that have a lot of ex-consultants.

Management consulting firms that give case interviews

• EY-Parthenon
• PwC and Strategy&
• Roland Berger
• Oliver Wyman

Technology companies that give case interviews

• Microsoft (including LinkedIn)
• Capital One

Private equity firms that give case interviews

• The Blackstone Group
• Bain Capital

When are case interviews given?

Case interviews are given in nearly every single round of interviews. During first round consulting interviews expect 1-2 case interviews. During final round consulting interviews , expect another 2-4 case interviews.

The only round of interviews that will not have a case interview is the initial phone screen with a recruiter. They will ask primarily resume and behavioral interview questions.

First round interviews are heavily focused on case interviews. There will typically be few behavioral or fit interview questions asked. Each case interview is typically 30 to 40 minutes each. Behavioral or fit interview questions may take up less than 10 minutes.

Final round interviews have a bit more focus on behavioral and fit interview questions, but the vast majority of time is still spent on case interviews. Each case interview is typically 40 to 60 minutes each. Behavioral or fit interview questions may take up to 40 minutes.

As you can see, case interviews are the primary way that management consulting firms assess and select candidates.

There are seven key components or steps of a case interview: understanding the case background, asking clarifying questions, structuring a framework, kicking off the case, solving quantitative problems, answering qualitative questions, and delivering a recommendation.

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.

Types of questions you should ask:

• Asking for a definition of a term you’re unfamiliar with
• Asking for information that strengthens your understanding of the company or situation
• Asking questions that clarify the objective of the case
• Asking to repeat information you may have missed

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. You can write your framework in the first section of your paper:

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.

How do you come up with a framework so quickly?

Most candidates make the mistake of either using a single memorized framework for every case or memorizing multiple different frameworks for different cases.

The issue with memorized frameworks is that they aren’t tailored to the specific case you are solving for. When given an atypical business problem, your framework elements will not be entirely relevant.

Interviewers can easily tell that you are regurgitating memorized information and not thinking critically.

Instead of memorizing frameworks, I recommend memorizing a list of 8 - 10 broad business elements, such as the following:

When given a case, mentally run through this list and pick the 3-4 elements that are most relevant to the case. This will be your framework. If the list does not give you enough elements, brainstorm and add your own elements to your framework.

This strategy guarantees that your framework elements are relevant to the case. It also demonstrates that you can create unique, tailored frameworks for every business problem.

Using this strategy for this case, you would run through your list of memorized business elements and select the following:

This strategy is a shortcut for creating unique tailored frameworks for every business problem. You do not need to develop a framework entirely from scratch every time.

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.

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

4. Kicking off the case

If this is an interviewer-led case, 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.

If this is a candidate-led case, you will be expected to propose an area to look into. There is no right or wrong area to start first. Propose any area of your framework as long as you have a reason for it.

You could say something like:

You: To start, I’d like to look into the beer market attractiveness. I’d like to first understand the market size to determine if the beer market is an attractive market.

If you end up picking an area that the interviewer does not want you to explore, they will redirect you to an area that they do want you to explore.

The two styles of case interviews are nearly identical. The only difference is whether or not you have to proactively propose what area to explore first and what area you want to explore next.

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.

A second type of quantitative question you could be asked is to calculate profit or profitability. The interviewer may ask you:

Interviewer: Assume that a 12-ounce can of beer sells for $2 on average. To produce a keg of beer, it costs $100 for raw materials, $95 for labor, and $75 for storage. If a keg of beer holds 1,800 oz. of beer, what is the profit margin for beer?

Make sure you structure your approach and connect your answer to the case objective.

A sample answer could look like:

You: To calculate the profit margin for beer, I will first calculate the total costs to produce a keg of beer. Next, I will divide the volume of a keg by the volume of a can to determine how many cans a keg of beer produces.

Afterwards, I will divide the total cost of producing a keg of beer by the number of cans in a keg of beer to determine the cost per can.

Finally, I can use the price and cost per can of beer to calculate the margin of beer. Does this approach make sense to you?

You: Great. The total cost of a keg of beer is $100 plus $95 plus $75, or $270. The number of cans of beer in a keg is 1,800 oz. divided by 12 oz., or 150 cans.

Therefore, the cost per can of beer is $270 divided by 150 cans, or $1.80. Since the average price of beer is $2 per can, the profit is $0.20 per can. This makes the margin $0.20 divided by $2 or 10%.

Compared to Coca-Cola’s overall operating margin of 30%, the beer market profit margin of 10% is significantly lower. Although the market size for beer is large, the low margin makes the beer market less attractive.

A third type of quantitative question you could get asked is interpreting charts and graphs. The interviewer may show you the following:

A helpful strategy is to start your analysis by explaining what the axes of the chart show. This will help you understand the chart better.

Next, don’t just read what numbers the chart shows, but interpret what those numbers mean for the case objective.

A sample answer might look like the following:

You: For this chart, we have market share on the y-axis and different categories of beer on the x-axis. For each category, we see that market share is concentrated among a few large players. This implies a highly competitive market with high barriers to entry. Because of this, the beer market does not look attractive because it is so competitive.

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:

Have a simple structure when answering qualitative questions. Examples of other simple structures to use include the following:

Additionally, take your answer and connect it to the case objective. In this example, are these barriers to entry high or low? Do you think Coca-Cola can overcome these obstacles to enter the beer market?

You might answer this question in the following way:

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.

Another type of question you could get asked are business opinion questions, such as the following:

Interviewer: Do you think there are significant production synergies in producing non-alcoholic beverages and producing beer?

As always, structure your answer and connect your answer to the case objective.

Here is a sample answer:

You: Production involves equipment, raw materials, and labor. There is likely some overlap in equipment, such as using the same bottling machines, but Coca-Cola will likely need new equipment for brewing beer.

Raw materials, on the other hand, are completely different. Coca-Cola will need to source barley, hops, and yeast, which it currently does not use in its existing beverages.

Finally, the same labor can be used, but employees will need new training since producing beer is fairly different from producing a non-alcoholic drink.

Overall, I think there are only a few production synergies that Coca-Cola can leverage, which makes entering the market a bit more 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 the different types of case interviews?

Case interviews cover a wide variety of functions and business situations. However, there are six common case interview business situations that account for the majority of all case interviews: profitability, market entry, growth, pricing, merger and acquisition, and new product.

There is a very high chance that you’ll see these types of case interviews in your first-round and final-round consulting interviews.

1. Profitability case interviews

Profitability cases ask you to identify why a company is experiencing a decline in profitability and what they should do to address it. This is the most common business situation for case interviews.

To solve these types of cases, you’ll need to understand quantitatively, what is the driver causing the decline in profits? You will need to determine whether revenues have gone down, costs have gone up, or both have occurred.

Afterwards, you’ll need to understand why this is happening. Once you understand this, you can brainstorm potential ideas and prioritize the solutions that are the most impactful and feasible to implement.

2. Market entry case interviews

Market entry cases ask you to determine whether a company should enter a new market. This is the second most common business situation for case interviews.

To make this decision, you’ll need to assess whether the market is attractive, how strong competitors are, whether your company has the capabilities to enter, and what the expected profitability is.

3. Growth case interviews

Growth cases ask you to determine how a company can best increase its revenues.

To solve this case, you’ll need to identify all of the major ways the company can grow.

Should the company grow organically by targeting new geographies or customer segments?

Should they grow by launching new products and services?

Instead, should the company grow inorganically by acquiring or forming a partnership with another company?

Once you have identified all of the major opportunities for growth, you can prioritize the opportunities that are the most impactful and feasible.

4. Pricing case interviews

Pricing cases ask you to determine how to set the optimal price on a product or service. To do this, you’ll need to consider different factors.

How much does the product cost to produce? You don’t want to price the product too low such that you have a loss on each sale.

How much are customers willing to pay for the product? You don’t want to price the product too high such that no customer is willing to purchase your product.

How much are competitors setting prices for similar products? You don’t want to price the product too high such that customers choose to purchase competitor products.

Considering each of these points will help you determine the right price to set.

5. Merger and acquisition case interviews

Merger and acquisition cases ask you to determine whether a particular company should be acquired.

To solve this case, you’ll first need to understand what the reason is for the acquisition. In most cases, the company will be looking to grow its revenues and profits.

Then, you’ll need to assess whether the market that the acquisition target plays in is attractive, whether the acquisition target itself is attractive, whether there will be any meaningful synergies, and whether the financials of the acquisition make sense.

These considerations will help you determine whether the acquisition should be made.

6. New product case interviews

New product cases ask you to determine whether a company should create and launch a particular new product.

To solve this case, you’ll need to assess whether the product’s market is attractive, whether the product meets customer needs, whether the product is superior to competitor products, whether the company has the capabilities to create and launch the product, and what the expected profitability is.

These considerations will help you make a smart and informed decision.

W hat are the different formats of case interviews?

There are three major formats of case interviews: traditional case interviews, written case interviews which assess presentation and communication skills more heavily and group case interviews which assess teamwork and collaboration more heavily.

1. Traditional Case Interview

The traditional case interview is the format that accounts for 80 to 90 percent of all case interviews. It is the format we have covered so far in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

The traditional case interview starts with the interviewer explaining the case background information to you. The case interview ends after you have delivered your recommendation to the interviewer.

There are two styles of traditional case interviews, candidate-led case interviews and interviewer-led case interviews.

• Candidate-led case interviews : You will be driving the direction of the case. You will propose what area of your framework to start in, what questions you would want to answer, what analyses you would want to do, and what the next step is to solve the case. If you go down the wrong direction, the interviewer will steer you back on course, but you ultimately decide what to do next.
• Interviewer-led case interviews : The interviewer will be steering and controlling the direction of the case. The interviewer will point you to which questions to answer, what analyses to do, and what the next step is to solve the case.

2. Written Case Interview

Written case interviews are much less common than traditional case interviews.

For written case interviews, you will be given a packet of information at the beginning of the interview. This packet usually has between 20 to 40 pages of graphs, charts, tables, and notes. You’ll be given information on the case background and the objective of the case.

In some written case interviews, you may also be given a list of important questions to answer. In other written case interviews, you’ll only be given the primary business problem you are asked to answer.

You’ll then have 1 to 2 hours to analyze the information packet and then make 3 to 5 slides to present your analysis and recommendation to the interviewer.

In some written case interviews, you’ll have to create these slides completely from scratch. In other written case interviews, you’ll have pre-filled slide templates that you will fill out with your analysis and work.

For written case interviews, you’ll be working by yourself. The interviewer will leave the room to let you work and then return when time is up to hear your presentation. During the presentation, the interviewer may ask follow-up questions on your work and findings.

3. Group Case Interview

Group case interviews are also much less common than traditional case interviews.

For group case interviews, you’ll be put into a group of 3 to 6 people with other candidates that are also interviewing for the same consulting job you are interviewing for. The group will be given materials which contain the case background, objective, and all of the information needed to solve the case.

You’ll then have 1 to 2 hours to work together as a group to create a slide presentation that summarizes your work and recommendation.

During this time, the interviewer will be listening in on the discussions and conversations that the group will have, but they will not interfere or answer any questions.

Once the time is up, your group will deliver your presentation to the interviewer, who may also ask follow-up questions on the work and findings.

For group case interviews, there is a heavy emphasis on assessing how well you work in a team. Consultants spend almost all of their time working closely in small teams, so teamwork and collaboration are essential.

Interviewers will assess you on criteria such as the following:

• Can you make meaningful contributions while working in a group?
• Are you easy to work with?
• Can you handle conflict and disagreement with teammates?
• Do you bring out the best ideas and qualities in other people?

How long does it take to prepare for case interviews?

Candidates typically spend 60 to 80 hours preparing for case interviews, equivalent to 6 to 8 weeks of preparation. However, exceptional candidates with strong business and communication skills might need as little as 4 weeks. Those lacking a business background could require as long as 12 weeks.

We have seen exceptional candidates pass their consulting interviews and receive offers from McKinsey, BCG, or Bain in just one or two weeks. We have also heard of candidates spending more than 100 hours preparing for case interviews, but receiving no consulting offers.

There are four factors that impact how much time you’ll need to dedicate to preparing for case interviews. Assessing these factors will help you set expectations for the amount of time you should expect to spend.

1. Natural intuition and ability

Case interviews require a strong business intuition and excellent communication skills. Some people will have a higher baseline on these skills than others.

If you have studied business in school or have worked a job that does similar work to consulting, you’ll likely already have a good business intuition. If you give speeches, presentations, or participate in debates frequently, you’ll likely already have good communication skills.

Although these abilities can be learned by anyone, some people will naturally have strong abilities to start with. For these people, they will likely need to spend less time preparing for case interviews than the average person.

2. Learning speed

Some people are faster learners than others. There are many skills you’ll need to learn and develop to be proficient in case interviews, such as structuring a framework, developing a hypothesis, solving math problems , and delivering a recommendation.

These skills require no specialized knowledge or expertise. Anyone can learn and master these skills with enough practice. However, some people will pick up these skills faster than others.

3. Quality of practice

The quality of your practice determines how quickly you can learn and master case interviews.

If you practice with case interview partners that don’t know how to properly deliver a case interview and provide feedback, you’ll learn much more slowly than someone practicing with a consultant who has given interviews before.

Similarly, if the practice cases you use are not representative of an actual case interview or don’t have outstanding model answers, you’ll learn much more slowly than someone using high-quality practice cases.

4. Consulting firm requirements

The amount of time needed to prepare for case interviews also depends on the consulting firms that you are applying for.

The top three consulting firms, McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, have the highest standards and requirements when assessing a candidate’s case interview capabilities. Less prestigious consulting firms may have a lower bar that you need to pass.

If you are recruiting for McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, you’ll likely need to spend more time preparing for case interviews than someone recruiting for Deloitte or Accenture.

When should I begin preparing for case interviews?

Given that it takes candidates on average 60 to 80 hours to prepare for case interviews, you should begin preparing for case interviews at least 6 to 8 weeks in advance. To give yourself adequate time, you should ideally start preparing 16 to 24 weeks in advance.

Preparing 16 to 24 weeks in advance provides sufficient buffer time. You may find yourself too busy to prepare for case interviews during some weeks. You may also realize that you have significant skill or capability gaps as you start preparing, requiring more time to improve.

Preparing for case interviews more than 24 weeks in advance should not be necessary. 

Often times, candidates that start preparing too early will burn themselves out from having done too many practice cases. This often happens right before interviews begin, which leads to poor outcomes.

To avoid burning yourself out, start preparing for interviews ideally 16 to 24 weeks in advance and a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks in advance.

How do I prepare for case interviews?

There are seven steps to preparing for case interviews.

1. Understand what a case interview is

The first step in preparing for consulting case interviews is to understand exactly what case interviews are.

Case interviews are a special type of interview that every single consulting firm uses. They typically take 30 – 60 minutes and involve you working with the interviewer to solve a business problem and provide a recommendation.

When you are familiar with what case interviews are, it is important to know what a great case interview performance looks like.

Knowing what a great 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 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 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 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 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 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 resources should I use to prepare for case interviews?

Here are our three resources that we recommend for case interview prep.

These resources teach the best case interview strategies that you only need to learn once. These strategies are robust, effective, and will help you stand out from the hundreds or thousands of other candidates competing for a consulting job offer.

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.

If you’re looking for free resources, you can check out:

1. Learn case interviews in 30 minutes video (embedded below)

2. Other videos on the HackingTheCaseInterview YouTube channel

3. MBA casebooks with 700+ free practice cases

4. Free practice cases from consulting firm websites (see next section of article for links)

The best practice cases for beginners are those that will most closely resemble the actual case interview you’ll get on interview day.

Below, we’ve consolidated official practice cases from all of the top consulting firms:

• McKinsey Diconsa case interview :  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.
• McKinsey Electro-light case interview :  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.
• McKinsey GlobaPharm case interview :  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.
• McKinsey National Education case interview : 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.
• BCG airline case interview :  Profitability case focused on helping a low-cost carrier airline improve profitability. This was an interactive case that was previously on BCG's website, but they took it down. We've linked our YouTube video that walks through it though, for you to follow along.
• BCG drug case interview :  Pricing case focused on helping a pharmaceutical company determine the optimal price for a new drug. This was an interactive case that was previously on BCG's website, but they took it down. We've linked our YouTube video that walks through it though, for you to follow along.
• Bain PrintCo case interview : Market entry case focused on helping a restaurant menu printing company decide whether to enter the electronic restaurant menu market. This case is in a video format and is helpful in understanding what an associate consultant-level interview looks like (post-undergraduate role).
• Bain NextGen Tech case interview : Partnership case focused on helping a wearable computer device company determine which cellular network company to partner with in order to make $1B over the next two years. This case is in a video format and is helpful in understanding what a consultant-level interview looks like (post-MBA role).
• Bain CoffeeCo case interview :  Market entry case focused on helping a friend decide whether she should open a coffee shop in Cambridge, England. This case is on the simpler, more basic side.
• Bain FashionCo case interview :  Profitability case focused on identifying how a fashion retailer can increase revenues. This case is on the simpler, more basic side.
• Oliver Wyman Wumbleworld case interview practice :  Profitability case focused on helping a theme park operator in China improve profitability. This case is fairly basic, but provides great practice for interpreting charts and graphs and practicing case math.
• Oliver Wyman Aqualine case interview practice :  Revenue case focused on helping a small powerboat manufacturer identify sales growth opportunities. This case is fairly basic, but provides great practice for interpreting charts and graphs and practicing case math.
• LEK Theater Co. case interview example : Revenue growth case focused on helping a theater location increase revenues. This is a very short case in a video format.
• LEK Market sizing example : This video provides an example of how to estimate the market size for medical consumables by general practitioners in the United Kingdom. The video is short and provides a great example on how to structure an approach to market sizing.
• Roland Berger transit-oriented development case example : Profitability case focused on helping a local public transit operator improve its profits. This case is split into two videos, part one and part two .
• Roland Berger 3D printed hip implant case example : Market entry case focused on helping the client assess whether additive manufacturing and the selling of hip implants is an attractive business. This case is split into two videos, part one and part two .
• Deloitte Engagement Strategy: Federal Agency V : Strategy case focused on addressing the Agency’s employee engagement issues as the organization shifts to a customer service model
• Deloitte Recreation Unlimited : Strategy case focused on driving 40% annual growth in direct-to-consumer digital channels over the next five years
• Deloitte Strategic Vision: Federal Benefits Provider : Strategy case to develop a strategy to help the Agency institutionalize the goals of their 10-year vision within its work culture
• Deloitte MedX: The Smart Pill Bottle : Business technology case focused on rolling out a new patient portal
• Deloitte Architecture Strategy: Federal Finance Agency : Business technology case focused on developing an implementation plan for a new, shared enterprise architecture solution
• Deloitte Finance strategy: Federal Health Agency : Strategy case focused on identifying programs that will receive additional funding and ensuring accountable use of funds
• Deloitte Talent Management: Federal Civil Cargo Protection Bureau : Strategy case to review and revamp the current human capital operational practices of the agency
• Deloitte Footloose case interview practice : Strategy case focused on helping a footwear company decide whether to focus on growing in the work boot sector of the market or the casual boot sector of the market. This case provides great practice for interpreting multiple different pieces of data simultaneously.
• OC&C Hotel and Casino Co. case interview practice :  Business strategy case from OC&C Strategy Consultants focused on helping a hotel and casino operator decide what they should do with their health club business, whether they should divest it, grow it, or acquire another player in the market. This case helps illustrate the difference between good answers and excellent answers.
• OC&C Whisky Co. case interview practice :  Profitability case focused on helping a whiskey manufacturer and distributor determine how to increase profitability. This case helps illustrate the difference between good answers and excellent answers.

For even more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #1: Lack of Structure

Failing to establish a clear framework for approaching the problem can lead to a scattered and unorganized response. It's important to outline a structured approach to solving the case.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #2: Making Assumptions Without Clarification

Assuming information without seeking clarification can lead to incorrect conclusions. It's crucial to ask thoughtful questions to gather all necessary details.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #3: Ignoring the Importance of Communication

Effective communication is key. Failing to articulate your thought process clearly or not actively engaging with the interviewer can hinder your performance.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #4: Overlooking the Objective

Some candidates get so engrossed in solving the problem that they lose sight of the ultimate goal - providing actionable recommendations. Make sure your analysis leads to a clear conclusion.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #5: Rushing Through the Case

Time management is crucial. Rushing through the case without taking the time to think critically about the problem can result in incomplete or inaccurate solutions.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #6: Neglecting Quantitative Analysis

Many cases involve numerical data. Failing to perform thorough quantitative analysis or making calculation errors can be a significant setback.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #7: Ignoring Alternative Perspectives

Tunnel vision can be detrimental. Failing to consider alternative viewpoints or approaches to the problem may lead to overlooking valuable insights.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #8: Focusing Too Much on Memorized Frameworks

While frameworks are useful, relying too heavily on memorized approaches can lead to a superficial understanding of the case. It's important to adapt your framework to the specific context.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #9: Neglecting to Check Assumptions

Sometimes, candidates make assumptions that are later proven to be incorrect. It's important to periodically revisit and validate your assumptions as you gather more information.

Case Interview Beginner Mistake #10: Lack of Practice and Preparation

Insufficient practice and preparation can lead to nervousness and poor performance during the actual interview. It's important to simulate case interview scenarios to build confidence and proficiency.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #1: Understand the Business Objective

The quickest way to fail a case interview is to answer or address the wrong business problem. Therefore, when the interviewer starts the case by reading the case background information, it is imperative that you identify what is the business problem and what is the primary question you are trying to answer. You should always verify the objective of the case with the interviewer.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #2: Ask Clarifying Questions 

Don’t be afraid to ask clarifying questions. You will not be penalized for this. If there is a term that you are unfamiliar with, ask for the definition. If you don’t understand the objective of the case, ask questions to clarify this. If there is important information that you were not able to write down, ask the interviewer to repeat specific pieces of information.

All of these questions will help strengthen your understanding of the case situation and make it easier for you to solve the case.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #3: Don’t Use Memorized Frameworks

The issue with using memorized frameworks is that they aren’t tailored to the specific case that you are solving for. Many times, some of the elements of your memorized framework will not be relevant or important to the case. Additionally, interviewers can easily tell when you are regurgitating memorized information and not thinking critically.

Instead of memorizing frameworks, memorize a list of 8 – 10 broad business areas, such as the following:

• Competition
• Profitability
• Alternatives

When given a case, mentally run through this list and pick the 3 to 4 areas that are the most relevant to the case. If the list does not give you enough framework areas, brainstorm and add your own areas to your framework.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #4: Structure Your Math Approach 

Before doing any math calculations, lay out an upfront approach or structure to walk the interviewer through what you are about to do. Developing a structure will help you avoid making unnecessary calculations or reaching a dead-end. If the interviewer approves of your approach, then the rest of the math problem is simple arithmetic.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #5: Use Abbreviations for Large Numbers

If you are working with large numbers in the thousands, millions, billions, or trillions, use abbreviations rather than writing out all of the zeroes.

For example, 10,000 can be expressed as 10K, 200,000,000 can be expressed as 200M, and 300,000,000,000 can be expressed as 300B. This reduces the chances that you’ll accidentally add or drop a zero in your numbers.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #6: Talk Through Calculations Out Loud

Talking through your calculations out loud provides two benefits. One, it decreases the likelihood that you’ll make a mistake. Two, it makes it easier for the interviewer to follow what you are doing. If you happen to get stuck or make a mistake, the interviewer can jump in to offer suggestions or guidance. The interviewer cannot do this if you are not communicating exactly what you are doing.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #7: Sense Check Your Numbers

Accidentally missing zeroes or adding extra zeroes during your case interview calculations is the most common math mistake. To avoid this, you can do a quick sense check after each calculation to confirm that your answer is the right order of magnitude.

For example, if you are multiplying 115 million by 22, you should expect your answer to be in the billions because 100 million * 20 = 2 billion.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #8: Talk Through The Axes of Charts and Graphs

When given charts or graphs to interpret, the very first thing you should do is to look at the axes. This is the most effective way to understand what the chart or graph is showing. When you are given multiple charts or graphs, this will also help you understand how each chart or graph relates to each other.

Case Interview Beginner Tip #9: Answer “So What?” After Every Question

When the interviewer asks you a quantitative or qualitative question during a case interview, don’t just answer it and stop there. After answering the question, ask yourself: “so what?” How does your answer help you solve the overall business problem? What implications does your answer have for your potential recommendation? You should be tying each answer that you give back to the case objective.  

Case Interview Beginner Tip #10: Have a Firm Recommendation

You do not want to have a flimsy recommendation in which you switch back and forth between two different recommendations. Instead, have a recommendation that takes a firm stance. Remember that there is no right or wrong recommendation. As long as your recommendation is supported with data and evidence, your recommendation will be accepted.

To see our complete list of 40 case interview tips, check out our comprehensive case interview tips article.

Recommended Consulting Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to land your dream consulting job:

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

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

For help passing consulting behavioral & fit interviews

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How to Succeed in a Case Study Interview

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Instructor: Jena Viviano

You’ve nailed the first few rounds of interviews, and now you’ve been invited to participate in a case study interview. Curious about what this next stage of the process looks like? In this course, Jena Viviano breaks it down for you, explaining the basic components of a case study interview, how to prepare, and what to do to project confidence and engage your interviewer. Learn how case study interview questions are used and why employers find them beneficial. Discover the key elements that interviewers use to evaluate your answers. Plus, learn how to formulate key questions to dig deeper into the case, develop your own framework for every case study answer, and craft a conclusion with supporting rationale that’s concise and clear. Jena also provides tips for quelling your performance anxiety, as well as sample case study questions that give you a better understanding of what to expect.