mckinsey case study interviews

Getting ready for your interviews

Interviewing is a two-way process—it helps us learn about you as a potential colleague, and helps you learn about McKinsey and what you could do here. Overall, we look for personal impact, entrepreneurial drive, inclusive leadership, and problem solving, and we recognize there are many ways to acquire those skills.

If you are interested in McKinsey careers beyond consulting, you can learn more about the assessment process for our internal roles here .

At McKinsey, we strive to create an unrivalled environment for exceptional people. During many of our interviews, you will learn more about what this value  means in practice at McKinsey. Your assessor  may share details of how McKinsey is a non-hierarchical, diverse, inclusive meritocracy. They may touch on our formal and informal apprenticeship and mentor programs. Or they may share examples of how we use the obligation to dissent.

After hearing from your assessor on what people related value means the most to them, you may be asked to share an experience that speaks to the McKinsey people value that is most meaningful to you.

Your recruiter will inform you on what questions you will be asked so you can best prepare. We want you to succeed and feel confident entering our process.

Practice cases

Electro-Light

Transforming a national education system

Talbot Trucks

Shops Corporation

Conservation Forever

Testing your skills.

Test your skills

Solve - gamified assessment, coding skills tests.

We want you to succeed

More resources.

Virtual Interview Zoom Guide

Important fraud alert

McKinsey has become aware of scams involving false offers of McKinsey employment. The scams and false offers use imposter websites, email addresses, and text messages. None of these offers are legitimate, and McKinsey’s recruiting process never involves interviewing via instant message, nor requires candidates to purchase products or services, or process payments on our behalf.

• The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview
• Consulting Career Secrets
• Cover Letter & Resume
• McKinsey Solve Game (Imbellus)
• BCG Online Case (+ Pymetrics, Spark Hire)
• Bain Aptitude Tests (SOVA, Pymetrics, HireVue)
• Kearney Recruitment Test
• All-in-One Case Interview Preparation
• Industry Cheat Sheets
• Structuring & Brainstorming
• Data & Chart Interpretation
• Case Math Mastery
• McKinsey Interview Academy
• Brainteasers

McKinsey Case Interview Guide 2024 (by former Interviewers)

Last Updated on March 27, 2024

The McKinsey case interview, also called the Problem-Solving Interview by the firm, is a crucial and defining element of the consulting recruitment process for one of the world’s most prestigious management consulting firms. This unique type of interview assesses a candidate’s analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, as well as their ability to think critically under pressure.

With a reputation for being challenging and rigorous, the McKinsey case interview is often seen as a significant hurdle for aspiring consultants to overcome. Forbes ranked McKinsey’s interview process as the most difficult across all firms globally and the case plays a crucial role in that evaluation, besides the Personal Experience Interview .

Recognizing the importance of thorough preparation, this article aims to become the go-to resource for candidates worldwide who are seeking to excel in the McKinsey case interview and want to kickstart their McKinsey careers. By providing comprehensive insights, practical tips, and concrete examples, our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and confidence required to stand out in the competitive world of management consulting.

As former McKinsey consultants and interview experts, we have specialized in helping our candidates to effectively tackle this part of the McKinsey assessment. We found that the information on the McKinsey application process and specifically the case interviews is often wrong, outdated, or assumed to be the same as for every other consulting firm, and written by ‘experts’, who have never conducted an interview at McKinsey or even seen a McKinsey office from the inside.

As a consequence, the advice given can be detrimental to your recruiting success with the firm.

In this article, we want to shed some light on this mysterious, often-talked-about, even more often misunderstood interview. For those overcoming McKinsey case interview challenges, our article serves as a comprehensive guide, infused with McKinsey interview tips and tailored strategies that resonate with interviewers.

McKinsey’s Interview Process

Overview of the recruitment process.

Discover advanced techniques for McKinsey case studies and understand the McKinsey interview process, setting a solid foundation for your case interview preparation. The McKinsey recruitment process typically consists of the following stages:

• Application submission: Candidates submit their resume , cover letter , and academic transcripts online.
• Online assessments: Selected candidates may be invited to complete an online assessment, the McKinsey Solve Game (previously known as the Imbellus test, or Problem Solving Game/PSG)
• First-round interviews: Successful candidates progress to first-round interviews, which typically involve two separate interviews, each consisting of a Personal Experience Interview (PEI) and a case interview.
• Final-round interviews: Candidates who excel in the first round are invited to final-round interviews, which usually consist of two to three separate interviews with more senior McKinsey consultants or partners, again featuring a PEI and a case interview in each session.
• Offer decision: Following the final round, the interviewers of the firm decide on whether to extend an offer to the candidate.

The Personal Experience Interview (PEI)

The Personal Experience Interview (PEI) is a critical component of McKinsey’s interview process. During the PEI, the interviewer will ask the candidate to share a specific example from their past experiences that demonstrates one of McKinsey’s core values, such as leadership, personal impact, or the ability to deal with change. Candidates should prepare concise and compelling stories that highlight their achievements, challenges faced, and the lessons learned. The PEI aims to assess the candidate’s interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and overall fit with McKinsey’s culture.

To read more on this part of the interview, follow these links:

McKinsey Personal Experience Interview

McKinsey PEI: Courageous Change

McKinsey PEI: Inclusive Leadership

McKinsey PEI: Personal Impact

The Case Interview (Problem-Solving Interview)

The case interview is the centerpiece of McKinsey’s interview process. In this interview, the candidate is presented with a real-life or hypothetical business problem, which they must analyze and solve. The interviewer will assess the candidate’s ability to structure the problem, analyze data, generate insights, and communicate recommendations effectively.

During the case interview, candidates should exhibit strong problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills, as well as the ability to think critically under pressure. Preparing for the case interview involves practicing a variety of cases, developing essential skills, and understanding the McKinsey case interview framework (more on that below).

How to prepare for McKinsey case interviews encompasses more than just understanding consulting case frameworks; it involves a deep dive into McKinsey case interview examples and solutions.

McKinsey Interview Video Academy

Look behind the curtains and understand how to ace McKinsey Case and Personal Experience Interviews with our 40-part video academy. Curated by former McKinsey consultants and interviewers with the best track record in the industry.

Understanding the McKinsey Case Interview

What is a case interview.

A case interview is a unique type of job interview that tests a candidate’s ability to analyze, solve, and communicate complex business problems. During a case interview, the interviewer presents a real-life or hypothetical business scenario, and the candidate is expected to analyze the situation, identify the key issues, and propose a strategic solution. The case interview format allows the interviewer to evaluate a candidate’s problem-solving, analytical, and interpersonal skills, which are essential for a successful career in management consulting.

Why does McKinsey use case interviews?

McKinsey & Company uses case interviews as a key component of its recruitment process for several reasons. First, the case interview format closely simulates the work environment and tasks that consultants face daily, providing the firm with a more accurate assessment of a candidate’s potential performance. Second, case interviews allow McKinsey to evaluate a candidate’s ability to think critically, structure complex problems, and communicate effectively under pressure – skills that are crucial for consultants who must deliver high-quality solutions to clients. Lastly, case interviews serve as a consistent and objective measure of a candidate’s capabilities, enabling the firm to compare candidates from diverse backgrounds fairly and accurately.

Regarding the last point, McKinsey invests significantly into creating an objective recruitment procedure with the cases. Interviewers are selected from the top performers of the firm, go through rigorous interviewer training, and shadow other interviewers in live interviews before being allowed to conduct interviews themselves.

Cases are created in a thorough training seminar based on stringent criteria that standardize difficulty levels across the globe. Also, the interviewer-led format allows for a more objective evaluation compared to the candidate-led format employed by most other firms. More on that next.

What is different in McKinsey’s interview format?

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

You will have to answer a succession of several questions rather than driving the case yourself as would be the case in other consulting firms. Within the interview, which is a dialogue between you and the interviewer, you need to structure problems, propose concrete ideas, gather information, spot insights in data and charts, solve quantitative problems, and communicate professionally and calmly.

The case is the hardest part for most candidates since it involves several different skills that need to be demonstrated consistently across all questions and multiple cases in succession. Depending on the office, applicants need to go through four to six case interviews before receiving an offer. They need to convince the interviewers in all cases to start their McKinsey careers.

Types of cases you may encounter

During a McKinsey case interview, candidates may encounter a variety of case types that cover different industries, functions, and challenges. The following is just a selection of potential case problems that you would need to solve.

• Market entry: Evaluating the attractiveness of entering a new market or launching a new product or service.
• Growth strategy: Identifying opportunities for a company to grow its revenue, market share, or profitability.
• Mergers and acquisitions: Assessing the feasibility and potential value of merging with or acquiring another company.
• Cost reduction: Identifying areas for cost savings and efficiency improvements in a company’s operations or supply chain.
• Pricing strategy: Determining the optimal pricing structure for a product or service to maximize revenue or profit.
• Organizational restructuring: Evaluating changes to a company’s organizational structure or management processes to improve performance.
• Operational improvements: Figure out and improve operational issues.

While the specifics of each case may differ, the core skills required to tackle these cases – such as structuring, data analysis, and problem-solving – remain consistent across all case types.

On top of that, McKinsey cases have become much more creative over the last couple of years, hence, using memorized and established frameworks will never serve you well . Rather it is important to approach every McKinsey case from a first-principles approach. While you might expect a case in a market entry context, it is almost guaranteed that you will have to create a non-standard case framework.

Consider as a case context an EV manufacturer that wants to enter the Chinese market.

What most candidates expect the framework question to look like: What factors would you look at when deciding whether to enter the Chinese EV market?

How an actual McKinsey framework question could look like: What key product characteristics would you consider and analyze when looking at the Chinese EV market?

No standardized framework would help you in this situation.

For instance, consider another real McKinsey case example.

You are working with an operator of a specific type of machines. They break down at different rates at different locations. What factors can you think of why that would happen? Example of a McKinsey Case Interview Structure Questions

There is not a single memorized framework bucket that would work here.

Let us look at an example answer for this prompt.

Less than 1% of candidates make it through the recruiting filters of McKinsey. You want to provide insights that the interviewer has not heard before and not be just like the other 99% that fail to impress.

Learning how to deconstruct problems is the key to success, not memorizing outdated approaches and frameworks of yesteryear.

What is the Format of the McKinsey Case?

A typical McKinsey case follows the PEI in a one-hour interview session. It lasts for 25 to 30 minutes in an interviewer-led format , meaning that the interviewer takes the lead and guides you through the case. Your role as the interviewee is to answer the questions asked by the interviewer before they move on to the next question. While it is the interviewer’s responsibility to provide hints and move you through the different questions, you should take the lead with each question.

Depending on your performance and speed, you will be asked three to six questions . Question types are:

• Structuring / Initial Case Framework
• Data and Chart Analysis
• Structuring / Brainstorming

Recommendations are usually not part of the evaluation, though they might come up now and then.

Only receiving three questions is a positive sign since the interviewer was happy with your answers to each question. Going above three questions usually happens when the interviewer wants to dig deeper into a specific question type to see if the quality of a previous answer to a similar question was just an outlier or can be confirmed with a second question.

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

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

Is the McKinsey Case Interview Different From a BCG or Bain Interview?

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

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

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

However, there is one key difference:

• In interviewer-led cases, you take ownership of every question and go into greater detail here, while the interviewer guides you from question to question. In the interviewee-led case, you drive the whole case and have to move along, get the correct information to work with by asking the right questions, and analyze the problem to then deduct a recommendation

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

For McKinsey case interview examples, check the available interviewer-led cases  here .

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

Nonetheless, it is not necessarily easier to convince a McKinsey interviewer, since your answers need to stand out in terms of breadth, depth, and insightfulness. You have more time to develop and discuss each answer but expectations about the quality of your answers are also heightened significantly.

For instance, in an interviewer-led case, candidates are afforded more time to elaborate on their frameworks. This demands not only a comprehensive framework but also one that delves deeper, aiming for three levels of insightful analysis. This depth showcases the candidate’s ability to think critically and provide nuanced insights. The discussion of this framework typically spans 5 to 8 minutes.

Conversely, in candidate-led cases, the strategy shifts. Here, the emphasis is on swiftly identifying and articulating the most critical areas for examination. Candidates must quickly prioritize these areas and then delve into a detailed analysis of the selected issues. This requires a concise yet targeted approach, with the initial framework discussion taking about 2 to 3 minutes. This format tests the candidate’s ability to quickly discern key areas and efficiently manage their analysis under tighter time constraints.

Questions of a McKinsey Case Interview

In the McKinsey interview you will have to answer  three different questions types  – broadly speaking:

• Structuring (includes creating frameworks and brainstorming questions)
• Exhibit Interpretation

Structuring

Structuring includes both the framework creation at the beginning of a case as well as answering brainstorming questions (usually at a later stage of the case).

A case interview structure is used to break the problem you are trying to solve for the client down into smaller problems or components. It is the roadmap you establish at the beginning of the interview that will guide your problem-solving approach throughout the case. A strong initial structure should cover all elements of the situation AND allow you to understand where the problem is coming from. Read more about case interview structure and frameworks here .

A common question would be:

What factors would you look at to understand the problem better? McKinsey framework question

Brainstorming has you come up with specific ideas around a certain topic (in a structured manner). Read more about brainstorming here .

What ideas can you think of that could decrease customer check-out time? McKinsey brainstorming question

Data interpretation

For chart or data interpretation , you are tasked to find the key insights of 1-2 PowerPoint slides and relate them to the case question and the client situation at hand. Read more about exhibit interpretation here .

Case math questions have you analyze a problem mathematically before qualitatively investigating the particular reason for the numerical result or deriving specific recommendations from the outcome. Read more on how to ace case math here .

How to Think About McKinsey Case Questions

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

• hypothesis-driven
• follow strong communication (MECE, top-down, signposted)

That being said, there is no 100% that you can reach or a one-and-only solution/ answer. Your answers must display the characteristics specified above and are supported well with arguments.

Though numerous strategies exist for tackling a problem, it’s crucial to understand that while there aren’t strictly right or wrong answers, not all approaches are equally effective. The misconception often lies in the belief that there’s a singular correct method, especially when constructing a framework.

In reality, you could employ over ten different strategies to analyze a case or break down a problem, potentially leading to the same analytical results. This versatility and ability to think through various lenses are precisely what McKinsey interviews aim to evaluate.

However, it’s also important to recognize that there are countless ways to miss the mark. This typically happens when your framework is either too narrow or excessively broad, lacks depth, or fails to offer meaningful insights.

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

• calculation approach
• calculation itself

Now, for the interviewer, the overall picture counts. Mistakes in one area need to be balanced by a strong performance in other areas. McKinsey wants to see spikes in performance in certain areas and a good enough performance in other areas.

The most common example we see almost every day: You can be strong in structure and exhibit, yet make a small mistake in the math section – overall as you might consider 80% – and still pass on to the next round.

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

Mastering the McKinsey Case Interview Framework

In the sequence of questions that you receive, you need to demonstrate that you can

• identify the ask;
• structure the problem to investigate it;
• analyze data related to it;
• generate insight and recommendations;
• communicate effectively.

Problem identification

The first step in tackling a McKinsey case interview is to identify the core problem or question that needs to be addressed. Carefully listen to the case prompt and take notes, ensuring that you understand the client’s objectives, the scope of the problem, and any constraints. Clarify any uncertainties with the interviewer before moving forward.

Structuring the problem

Once you have identified the problem, develop a structured approach to address it. Break down the problem into smaller, more manageable components using logical frameworks. Tailor the chosen framework to the specific case, incorporating any unique factors or considerations. Present your structure to the interviewer, explaining your rationale and seeking their input or approval.

Data analysis and interpretation

As you proceed with your structured approach, you may be provided with additional data or information by the interviewer. Analyze the data, using quantitative techniques, such as calculating growth rates, market shares, or breakeven points, to draw meaningful insights. Be prepared to make assumptions or estimates if necessary but ensure they are reasonable and well-justified.

Generating insights and recommendations

Based on your data analysis, develop actionable insights and recommendations that address the client’s objectives. Consider the potential impact, feasibility, and risks associated with each recommendation. Think creatively and strategically, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative factors into your decision-making process.

Synthesis and communication

Finally, synthesize your findings and recommendations into a clear and concise conclusion. Use the “top-down” communication style, starting with your main recommendation, followed by the supporting evidence and insights. Demonstrate strong communication skills by articulating your thought process and recommendations persuasively and confidently. Be prepared to answer any follow-up questions from the interviewer and engage in a discussion to defend or refine your conclusions.

• Pyramid principle communication
• How to communicate in a case interview

In this format, McKinsey assesses in a case interview six skills that you need to demonstrate consistently in every case interview.

Skills Assessed by McKinsey

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

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

You can download this scoring sheet for your case practice here .

Key Strategies to Excel in a McKinsey Case Interview

Using the mece principle.

MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) is a problem-solving principle that helps ensure your analysis is both comprehensive and well-organized. Apply the MECE principle when structuring your approach to a case by breaking down the problem into distinct, non-overlapping components while ensuring that all relevant aspects are covered. This method allows you to maintain a clear and logical structure throughout the case and reduces the likelihood of overlooking critical factors.

Applying the 80/20 rule

The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle , suggests that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In the context of a case interview, this means focusing on the most critical issues or factors that will have the most significant impact on the client’s objectives. By prioritizing your analysis and recommendations, you can work more efficiently and effectively, demonstrating your ability to identify and address the most pressing concerns for the client.

Hypothesis-driven approach

Using a hypothesis-driven approach means forming an initial hypothesis or educated guess about the potential solution to the problem and then testing it using data and analysis. By starting with a hypothesis, you can guide your problem-solving process more efficiently, focusing your efforts on collecting evidence that supports or refutes your hypothesis. Throughout the case, be prepared to revise or refine your hypothesis as new information emerges.

Incorporating creativity and business intuition

While frameworks and structured approaches are essential, it’s also crucial to demonstrate creativity and business intuition during a McKinsey case interview. This means thinking beyond the standard frameworks and considering innovative solutions or unique factors that may be relevant to the specific case. Use your knowledge of industry trends, best practices, and real-world business challenges to inform your analysis and recommendations. By combining structured thinking with creative problem-solving, you can showcase your ability to deliver well-rounded, impactful solutions for clients.

Preparing for the McKinsey Case Interview

Most candidates prepare using generic frameworks. Alternatively, they are looking for a McKinsey case book PDF or a case study interview questions and answers PDF with the hope that the cases will be the same across interviewers and interviews.

Do not learn case-specific frameworks by heart , expecting them to work for every case you encounter. There is no specific McKinsey case study framework or McKinsey case study book. It is much more important to learn the right approach that will help you tackle all types of cases. This is even more relevant for McKinsey interviews.

What you need to do is to study each question type and the associated skills in a case interview and learn how to approach it, regardless of the client situation, the context of the case, the industry, or the function. Your goal should be to learn how to build issue trees, interpret charts, and perform math no matter the context, industry, or function of the case, and follow our McKinsey case interview tips.

Similarly to the case types and frameworks, many candidates ask if there is a specific McKinsey implementation case interview, McKinsey operation case interview, or McKinsey digital case interview. In fact, the cases are usually a mix of cases in a domain-relevant context as well as cases set in a completely different context to the role you are applying for.

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

In fact, it will hurt you when you try to use a framework on a case that calls for a completely different approach. Also, it gives a false sense of security that will translate to stress once you figure out how your approach won’t work during the real interview – We have seen this way too often…

Rather, focus on the following:

Developing the right mindset

Success in the McKinsey case interview starts with cultivating the right mindset. Being mentally prepared involves:

• Embracing a growth mindset: Recognize that your skills can improve with consistent practice and effort. Stay open to feedback from coaches and peers and learn from your mistakes.
• Building resilience: Understand that case interviews are challenging, and you may face setbacks during your preparation. Stay persistent and maintain a positive attitude. Use a proper case interview preparation plan .
• Adopting a client-first perspective: Approach each case as if you were a consultant working on a real client engagement, focusing on delivering value and actionable insights.

Learning the essential skills

To excel in the McKinsey case interview, it’s crucial to develop the following skills:

• Problem structuring: Break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable components using frameworks and logical structures.
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis: Interpret and analyze data to draw meaningful insights and make informed decisions.
• Hypothesis-driven thinking: Develop and test hypotheses to guide your problem-solving approach efficiently.
• Communication: Clearly articulate your thought process, insights, and recommendations concisely and persuasively.

Our courses and drills are designed to provide you with the precise knowledge you need. Drawing on our experience as former McKinsey interviewers, we understand what matters most and how to ensure you can leverage that to your advantage.

More on that next.

Studying relevant materials and resources

Leverage various resources to enhance your understanding of case interviews and management consulting:

• Books: The most effective and exhaustive case interview preparation book is The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview (shameless plug). It goes much deeper than the usual suspects which are outdated and provide faulty advice on case interviews.
• Websites and blogs : Websites like StrategyCase.com offer the latest case interview tips, practice cases, and industry insights. You can check out more free articles covering consulting applications and interviews here .
• Online courses: Enroll in case interview preparation courses to gain structured guidance and access to a wealth of practice materials. We have created several high-quality courses for all elements of the McKinsey interview (see below)

We are the highest ranked and most successful case coaches on the web and have helped 100s of candidates break into McKinsey. As former McKinsey consultants and interview experts, we have specialized in getting our candidates into the firm. We can help you by

• tailoring your resume and cover letter to meet McKinsey’s standards
• showing you how to pass the McKinsey Imbellus Solve Game
• showing you how to ace McKinsey interviews and the PEI with our video academy
• coaching you in our 1-on-1 sessions to become an excellent case solver and impress with your fit answers (90% success rate after 5 sessions)
• preparing your math to be bulletproof for every McKinsey case interview
• helping you structure creative and complex McKinsey cases
• teaching you how to interpret McKinsey charts and exhibits
• providing you with cheat sheets and overviews for 27 industries .

Reach out to us if you have any questions! We are happy to help and offer a tailored program.

Practicing with case partners

Regular practice with case partners is essential for honing your case interview skills:

• Find practice partners: Connect with fellow candidates through online forums, social media groups, or local consulting clubs.
• Set a practice schedule: Aim to practice at least a few cases per week, gradually increasing the difficulty and variety of cases.
• Seek feedback: After each practice case, discuss your performance with your partner, and identify areas for improvement.
• Alternate roles: Take turns playing the role of the interviewer and the interviewee to develop a deeper understanding of the case interview process.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Common mistakes.

• Insufficient structure: Failing to break down the problem into manageable components can lead to a disorganized analysis and an inability to identify key issues.
• Overlooking the big picture: Becoming too focused on the details and losing sight of the overall objective or client’s needs can hinder the development of effective recommendations.
• Ignoring qualitative factors: Relying solely on quantitative data without considering qualitative aspects may result in an incomplete understanding of the problem.
• Ineffective communication: Struggling to articulate your thought process, insights, or recommendations clearly and persuasively can undermine the value of your analysis.
• Failing to adapt: Sticking to a preconceived framework or hypothesis despite conflicting evidence may indicate a lack of flexibility and critical thinking.

Tips to prevent these mistakes

• Practice structuring: Develop your ability to structure problems effectively by practicing with a wide range of cases and familiarizing yourself with common frameworks.
• Stay focused on the objective: Periodically remind yourself of the client’s goals and priorities, ensuring that your analysis remains aligned with their needs.
• Balance quantitative and qualitative factors: Recognize the importance of both quantitative data and qualitative insights in forming a well-rounded understanding of the problem.
• Hone your communication skills: Practice speaking clearly, concisely, and persuasively, ensuring that your message is easily understood and well-received.
• Embrace adaptability: Be open to revising your approach, framework, or hypothesis in response to new information or feedback, demonstrating your ability to think critically and flexibly.

McKinsey Interview Course

Unlock the Secrets to Acing McKinsey Interviews with Our Comprehensive Training Program

Are you eager to dive deep into mastering the McKinsey interviews? Look no further than our extensive 40-part Ready-for-McKinsey Interview Academy . This exceptional video program features simulated McKinsey-specific case studies and in-depth coverage of all Personal Experience Interview (PEI) dimensions and stories. Our Interview Academy is the ultimate resource to prepare you for success in your McKinsey case interviews.

We take pride in our results: an impressive 9 out of 10 candidates who complete our one-on-one Ready-for-McKinsey Interview Coaching program receive an offer. This track record has earned us consistent recognition as the best McKinsey and MBB coaches on several platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions McKinsey Case Interview

How can candidates best manage their time during the case interview to ensure they cover all necessary aspects of the case without running out of time? Candidates can manage their time effectively by quickly understanding the case prompt, structuring their approach clearly, prioritizing key analyses, staying focused on the most critical issues, and keeping an eye on the time to ensure they cover all necessary aspects without running out of time​ ​. However, keep in mind that it is also the McKinsey interviewer’s responsibility to go through all necessary elements of the case within the allotted time. If you are too slow (problematic) or too exhaustive yet add value to the question (not problematic), they might move the case forward on their own.

What are the most common reasons candidates fail in McKinsey case interviews, and how can these pitfalls be avoided? Common reasons for failure include lack of structure in problem-solving, missing key insights by not delving deep enough into the data, poor communication of thought process, and inability to adapt to new information. These pitfalls can be avoided by practicing structured problem-solving, actively engaging with the data, clearly articulating thought processes, and being flexible to pivot as needed​ ​.

Can you provide examples of unexpected or unconventional case types that have appeared in McKinsey interviews in recent years? Recent McKinsey interviews have featured cases beyond traditional business scenarios, such as identifying the right stakeholders to talk to in a situation or identifying reasons why an app has a low customer retention rate.

How does McKinsey adjust its case interview process for candidates with non-business backgrounds, such as those from engineering or humanities? McKinsey’s case interview process for candidates with non-business backgrounds is the same as for candidates with a business background. All cases focus on problem-solving skills and potential rather than specific business knowledge. Candidates are evaluated on their ability to structure problems, analyze data, and think critically, with the understanding that business-specific knowledge can be learned​ ​. This article not only outlines tips for passing McKinsey consulting interviews but also addresses preparing for McKinsey interviews without a business background, ensuring a holistic approach to your consulting journey.

What specific aspects of a candidate’s performance are McKinsey interviewers most focused on during the case interview? McKinsey interviewers focus on problem-solving skills, the ability to structure and analyze complex issues, creativity in developing solutions, clear and concise communication, and the potential for leadership and impact​ ​. They are looking for candidates with a well-rounded profile that have performance spikes in some areas and a robust performance in others (without clear weaknesses).

How does the difficulty level of McKinsey’s case interviews compare to real consulting projects at McKinsey? The difficulty level of McKinsey’s case interviews is designed to be comparable to the challenges faced in real consulting projects. They simulate the complex, ambiguous problems consultants tackle, testing candidates’ ability to navigate similar challenges effectively​ ​. The main difference is that they are simplified to the extent that it is feasible to go through them in 25 minutes.

Are there any particular industries or business functions that McKinsey is focusing on in its current case interviews due to market trends or strategic priorities of the firm? While McKinsey’s case interviews cover a wide range of industries and functions, there may be a focus on emerging areas of strategic importance such as digital transformation, sustainability, healthcare innovation, and analytics, reflecting broader market trends and the firm’s current priorities​ ​.

How has the transition to more virtual interviews affected the case interview process and candidates’ performance from McKinsey’s perspective? The transition to more virtual interviews has required adjustments in how cases are presented and how candidates engage with the material. While the core evaluation criteria remain unchanged, McKinsey has adapted to ensure a fair assessment, paying close attention to communication and problem-solving skills in a virtual format​ ​.

What advice do former candidates who successfully passed the McKinsey case interview have for future applicants? Former candidates advise practicing as much as possible, understanding the case interview format, focusing on structured problem-solving, developing clear and concise communication skills, being prepared to think on one’s feet, and demonstrating leadership potential and personal impact​ ​.

How can candidates incorporate feedback from practice sessions into improving their performance for the actual McKinsey case interview? Candidates can improve their performance by actively seeking feedback from practice sessions, identifying areas for improvement, working on specific skills such as structuring or analysis, practicing under realistic conditions (e.g., timed), and continuously refining their approach based on feedback​ ​.

In summary, acing the McKinsey case interview requires a deep understanding of the interview process, mastery of essential skills, and the ability to apply effective problem-solving strategies. In this article, we highlighted the key strategies for McKinsey problem-solving interviews, ensuring your preparation aligns with the best practices for McKinsey interview preparation. By embracing the MECE principle, applying the 80/20 rule, adopting a hypothesis-driven approach, and incorporating creativity and business intuition, you will be well-equipped to tackle any case interview challenge.

Remember to invest time in preparing for both the Personal Experience Interview and the case interview itself, using the wealth of resources and practice materials available. Focus on developing a structured approach, honing your analytical and communication skills, and staying adaptable throughout the interview process.

As you embark on your McKinsey case interview journey, stay confident and persistent in your efforts. By applying the tips and strategies shared in this article, you will be one step closer to achieving your consulting career aspirations. We wish you the best of luck in your journey toward success at McKinsey.

We Want to Hear from You!

Your journey to mastering the McKinsey case interview is unique, and you might have lingering questions or insights you’d like to share. Whether you’re curious about specific parts of the McKinsey interview process, seeking further clarification on case interview preparation strategies, or have your own tips for navigating the challenges of consulting interviews, we’re here to engage and assist.

Drop your questions, experiences, or advice in the comments below.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Florian spent 5 years with McKinsey as a senior consultant. He is an experienced consulting interviewer and problem-solving coach, having interviewed 100s of candidates in real and mock interviews. He started StrategyCase.com to make top-tier consulting firms more accessible for top talent, using tailored and up-to-date know-how about their recruiting. He ranks as the most successful consulting case and fit interview coach, generating more than 500 offers with MBB, tier-2 firms, Big 4 consulting divisions, in-house consultancies, and boutique firms through direct coaching of his clients over the last 3.5 years. His books “The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview” and “Consulting Career Secrets” are available via Amazon.

Most Popular Products

Search website

Strategycase.com.

© 2024 | Contact: +43 6706059449 | Mattiellistrasse 3/28, 1040 Vienna, Austria

• Terms & Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Universities & consulting clubs
• American Express

Click on the image to learn more.

A Comprehensive Guide to McKinsey Case Interview Preparation

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

Posted June 8, 2023

Consulting Week (Apr 15-18)

Monday, april 15.

10:00 PM UTC · 60 minutes

Table of Contents

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

Understanding the McKinsey Case Interview Process

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

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

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

Key Skills Required for a Successful McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

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

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

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

Mastering Consulting Case Frameworks: A Comprehensive Guide

• Five Tips for Breaking Into Management Consulting

Free trial!

From 91 top coaches

Access a library of videos, templates, and examples curated by Leland's top coaches.

Example resumes.

Example Cases

Casing Drills

Mock Interviews

Tips to Ace McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

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

The Importance of Researching the Company and Industry before the Interview

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

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

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

How to Structure Your Responses in a McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

Common Mistakes to Avoid in a McKinsey Case Interview

Common mistakes that applicants make in McKinsey case interviews include:

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

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

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

Sample McKinsey Case Interview Questions and Answers

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

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

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

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

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

The Role of Creativity in Solving McKinsey Case Study Problems

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

How to Develop a Personalized Strategy for McKinsey Case Interviews

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

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

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

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

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

How to Follow Up After a Successful McKinsey Case Interview

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

Resources for Further Practice and Preparation for a McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

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

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

Browse hundreds of expert coaches

Leland coaches have helped thousands of people achieve their goals. A dedicated mentor can make all the difference.

Browse Related Articles

May 18, 2023

McKinsey Bonus Structure: Understanding the Reward System

Discover how the McKinsey bonus structure works and gain a deeper understanding of the reward system in this comprehensive guide.

June 12, 2023

Bain Case Interviews: A Comprehensive Preparation Guide

Are you preparing for a Bain case interview? Look no further! Our comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know to ace your interview and land your dream job at Bain.

March 12, 2024

The Ultimate Guide to the Consulting Case Interview – With Examples

This guide, written by a former McKinsey consultant and Wharton MBA, breaks down the management consulting case interview into comprehensible parts with relevant, realistic examples at every turn.

May 11, 2023

How to Prepare for McKinsey Management Consulting Behavioral Interviews?

If you're preparing for a McKinsey management consulting behavioral interview, this article is a must-read.

How to Prepare for McKinsey Management Consulting Networking Calls?

Learn how to ace your McKinsey management consulting networking calls with these expert tips and strategies.

July 31, 2023

Looking to excel in consulting case interviews? Our comprehensive guide to mastering consulting case frameworks is here to help! Learn the essential skills and strategies needed to ace your next case interview and land your dream consulting job.

IQVIA Case Study Interview: A Comprehensive Preparation Guide

If you're preparing for an IQVIA case study interview, this comprehensive guide is a must-read.

McKinsey First Year Salary: What to Expect and How to Negotiate

Are you curious about what your first year salary at McKinsey might be? This article provides insights on what to expect and tips on how to negotiate your salary.

Mckinsey Consulting Salary: A Comprehensive Overview

Discover everything you need to know about McKinsey consulting salaries in this comprehensive overview.

Business Analyst McKinsey: A Comprehensive Career Guide

Discover the ins and outs of a career as a Business Analyst at McKinsey with our comprehensive guide.

IQVIA Interview Process: A Comprehensive Guide for Success

Looking to ace your IQVIA interview? Our comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know to succeed, from the application process to common interview questions and tips for impressing your interviewer.

Navigating the Shift from Energy Sector to Management Consulting: An Insider's Guide

Are you considering a career shift from the energy sector to management consulting? Look no further than our insider's guide, filled with tips and insights to help you navigate this exciting transition.

Hacking the Case Interview

It can be challenging to determine which resources are the best to use to prepare for your McKinsey case interview . There are a countless number of case interview articles, videos, prep books, courses, and coaching services.

So, which resources teach case interviews the quickest, most efficient way? Which resources teach the best McKinsey case interview strategies and techniques? What are the best free resources available?

If you have an upcoming McKinsey case interview, we have you covered. In this article, we’ll cover the best resources to prepare for your McKinsey case interview given your needs and budget.

We categorize these McKinsey case interview prep resources into the following categories:

• Free resources to prepare for your McKinsey case interview
• McKinsey case interview prep books
• McKinsey case interview courses
• McKinsey case interview coaching

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.

Free Resources to Prepare for Your McKinsey Case Interview

Case Interview Videos

If you are completely new to McKinsey case interviews, you can watch our 80-minute complete guide to case interviews. This is the perfect introductory video for beginners because you’ll get an overview on:

• What is a case interview
• The eight parts of a case interview
• The six common types of cases
• Written case interviews and group case interviews
• 25 of the best case interview tips

Make sure to check out our YouTube channel and subscribe for free case interview lessons, tips, and practice cases.

McKinsey’s Website

You should also check out McKinsey’s interview preparation website because they provide four practice cases that you can work on without having to rely on a case partner.

The four cases are:

Diconsa case : Non-profit case focused on deciding whether to leverage a chain of convenience stores to deliver basic financial services to inhabitants of rural Mexico. You can watch a video walkthrough of how to solve the case below.

GlobaPharm case : Acquisition case focused on deciding whether a large pharmaceutical company should acquire a smaller startup. You can watch a video walkthrough of how to solve the case below.

Electro-light case : New product launch case focused on deciding whether a beverage company should launch a new sports drink.

National Education case : Non-profit case focused on helping an Eastern European country’s Department of Education improve their school system.

MBA Consulting Casebooks

Consulting casebooks are documents that MBA consulting clubs put together to help their members prepare for consulting case interviews. Consulting casebooks provide some case interview strategies and tips, but they mostly contain case interview practice cases.

You can download 23 MBA consulting casebooks with over 700+ free practice cases in our MBA casebook compilation .

Many of these cases come from previous McKinsey interviews, so they can be a great resource to get McKinsey case interview practice. We’ve included a few of our recommended consulting casebooks below:  

• Wharton (2017)
• Darden (2019)
• Kellogg (2012)
• Fuqua (2018)
• Sloan (2015)

You should know that a major caveat of using these consulting casebooks is that the quality of cases varies significantly. Some practice cases may not be representative of what an actual case interview is like. Other cases may provide poor explanations of the sample answers.

McKinsey Case Interview Prep Books

In the next section of this article, we’ll move onto the best paid resources to use to prepare for your McKinsey case interview. We’ll start by covering the best case interview prep books.

Case interview prep books are great resources to use because they are fairly inexpensive, only costing $20 to $30. They contain a tremendous amount of information that you can read, digest, and re-read at your own pace.

Based on our comprehensive review of the 12 popular case interview prep books , we ranked nearly all of the case prep books in the market.

The three case interview prep books we recommend using are:

• Hacking the Case Interview : In this book, learn exactly what to do and what to say in every step of the case interview. This is the perfect book for beginners that are looking to learn the basics of case interviews quickly.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook : In this book, hone your case interview skills through 65+ problems tailored towards each type of question asked in case interviews and 15 full-length practice cases. This book is great for intermediates looking to get quality practice.
• Case Interview Secrets : This book provides great explanations of essential case interview concepts and fundamentals. The stories and anecdotes that the author provides are entertaining and help paint a clear picture of what to expect in a case interview, what interviewers are looking for, and how to solve a case interview.

McKinsey Case Interview Courses

Case interview courses are more expensive to use than case interview prep books, but offer more efficient and effective learning. You’ll learn much more quickly from watching someone teach you the material, provide examples, and then walk through practice problems than from reading a book by yourself.

Courses typically cost anywhere between $200 to $400.

If you are looking for a single resource to learn the best McKinsey case interview strategies in the most efficient way possible, enroll in our comprehensive case interview course .

Through 70+ concise video lessons and 20 full-length practice cases based on real interviews from top-tier consulting firms, you’ll learn step-by-step how to crush your McKinsey case interview.

We’ve had students pass their McKinsey first round interview with just a week of preparation, but know that your success depends on the amount of effort you put in and your starting capabilities.

McKinsey Case Interview Coaching

With case interview coaching, you’ll pay anywhere between $100 to $300 for a 40- to 60-minute mock case interview session with a case coach. Typically, case coaches are former consultants or interviewers that have worked at top-tier consulting firms.

Although very expensive, case interview coaching can provide you with high quality feedback that can significantly improve your case interview performance. By working with a case coach, you will be practicing high quality cases with an expert. You’ll get detailed feedback that ordinary case interview partners are not able to provide.

Know that you do not need to purchase case interview coaching to receive a consulting job offer. The vast majority of candidates that receive offers from top firms did not purchase case interview coaching. By purchasing case interview coaching, you are essentially purchasing convenience and learning efficiency.

Case interview coaching is best for those that have already learned as much as they can about case interviews on their own and feel that they have reached a plateau in their learning. For case interview beginners and intermediates, it may be a better use of their money to first purchase a case interview course or case interview prep book before purchasing expensive coaching sessions.

If you do decide to eventually use a case interview coach, consider using our personalized, one-on-one case interview coaching service .

There is a wide range of quality among coaches, so ensure that you are working with someone that is invested in your development and success. If possible, ask for reviews from previous candidates that your coach has worked with.

Final Thoughts on Preparing for McKinsey Case Interviews

We hope that you’ve found this article helpful in narrowing down which resources to use to prepare for your McKinsey case interviews.

Whether you choose to exclusively use free resources or purchase case interview prep books, courses, or coaching, we want to offer you these five critical McKinsey case interview preparation tips. Lastly, make sure that you perfect your McKinsey resume to ensure that you even get an interview.

1. Learn the right strategies the first time

It is very important to learn the right case interview strategies the first time. If you learn poor case interview strategies and then practice solving cases using these strategies, you’ll develop bad case interview habits. These habits will be difficult to correct later on when you decide to switch to using more effective case interview strategies.

If you learn the effective and robust strategies in the beginning, you’ll save yourself many hours of preparation time.

2. Practice with high-quality practice cases

When practicing cases, try to use the highest quality practice cases you can find. Ideally, these cases will come directly from McKinsey and be representative of an actual case interview in terms of difficulty and length.

You’ll find yourself improving much more quickly if you use high-quality practice cases versus low-quality cases.

3. Practice with a case partner whenever possible

While it may be helpful to practice solving cases by yourself in the beginning, you should practice with a case partner when you feel comfortable solving cases. Practicing with a case partner is the best way to simulate a real case interview.

4. Keep a list of improvement areas

Don’t just work through practice cases and stop once you have answered all of the questions. Take the time to go through exactly what you did to solve the case and identify areas you could have done better. Keep a list of everything you could have improved on after each case.

After doing a few practice cases, you’ll likely notice patterns on things that you consistently don’t do well. This is a great way to identify your weaknesses so that you can work on improving them.

5. Work on improving one thing at a time

Finally, focus on improving one thing at a time. Trying to work on all of your improvement areas at once is difficult to do and will likely be unproductive. Before each practice case interview, pick one thing that you want to work on. When you have mastered that one thing, move onto the next improvement area.  

Get 3x Better at McKinsey Case Interviews

Here are the resources we recommend to learn the most robust, effective McKinsey case interview strategies in the least time-consuming way:

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with former consulting interviewers
• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

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

Golden Ticket Challenge: Win a FREE seat to master MBB Interviews at our Consulting Bootcamp. 🎫 Learn More

How Do I Ace a McKinsey Case Interview? A Detailed Guide

Published on December 29, 2023 | by - High Bridge Academy

Want to break into the world of consulting? Think of acing the McKinsey case interview as your key step. It’s not just about impressing; it’s about proving you’ve got what it takes in analytical thinking and smart problem-solving. 

Luckily, you don’t have to go at it alone. We’ve got insider tips and guidance that’ll help you stand out from the crowd. You’ll learn to offer the kind of solutions that firms like McKinsey are on the lookout for. So, let’s strip down the complexity and get you fully prepped. 

Understanding the McKinsey Case Interview Format

The first round tends to focus on smaller, less complex business problems, giving you a sense of the type of logical thinking McKinsey values. You’ll find yourself handling a variety of questions designed to assess your analytical abilities, your approach to solving problems, and how well you communicate your thoughts.

As you progress to the second round , expect the complexity to increase, along with the need for deeper insights and more structured problem-solving strategies. This stage often involves senior partners, who will be keen to understand your thought processes and how you handle more elaborate business cases.

To set yourself apart, it’s key to not only grasp the nuances of McKinsey’s case interview format but also to demonstrate your ability to excel in it. 

Related reading: How hard are McKinsey case interviews?

Remember, McKinsey’s team is searching for candidates who display confidence and sharp thinking, even under pressure. 

Your objective is to persuade them that you’re not just capable of keeping up but can genuinely excel in the evolving world of consulting.

The Importance of Structured Thinking in Case Interviews

When you’re faced with a challenging scenario in a McKinsey case interview, your ability to apply structured thinking is critical. It’s not only about finding the right solution but also about presenting your thought process in a way that’s logical and well-organized. 

Structured thinking allows you to approach consulting questions methodically, breaking down complex problems into manageable parts, and leading to a clear, concise, and focused response. 

This approach highlights your problem-solving skills , enabling you to articulate a step-by-step strategy conducive to the fast-paced and demanding nature of consulting work.

Related reading: How do you structure a consulting case interview?

To excel in structured thinking during your case interview, here are strategies that can give your thoughts the clarity and direction needed for a persuasive presentation:

• Start with an initial hypothesis based on the information provided, setting a clear direction for your analysis.
• Breakdown the case into several key components or segments, which allows for a more manageable approach to tackling the problem.
• Prioritize the most relevant information and organize your data effectively, dismissing the noise that can derail your thought process.
• Develop a measurable plan to validate or invalidate your hypothesis, leading to a strong conclusion backed by evidence.

Strategically employing structured thinking can transform an overwhelming case into an opportunity to showcase your consulting proficiency. It demonstrates to your interviewer that you can dissect problems, prioritize tasks, and most importantly, devise a solution with precision and depth that’s expected at McKinsey.

Remember, it’s not just about the solution but how you reached it. Integrate these strategies into your preparation for a powerful impact in your McKinsey case interview . Below is an example of how you can visually organize your approach using a simple table:

As you refine your structured thinking abilities, you’ll not only improve your chances in the interview process but also set a solid foundation for your potential role in the consulting industry. Start practicing these skills now, and watch your problem-solving capabilities grow exponentially.

How to Effectively Practice for Your McKinsey Interview

Getting ready for your McKinsey interview is a lot more than just a quick peek at their website. Think of it as a marathon where you need a clever prep plan, a well-thought-out study strategy, and a mix of practice techniques to confidently make it to the end.

Identifying the Right Resources for Preparation

There’s tons of info out there, but remember, quality matters. When prepping for your McKinsey interview, look for free resources that give you a good mix of the basics, practical case studies, and a sneak peek into the company’s culture. 

Places like McKinsey’s website, the High Bridge Academy’s roadmap to MBB , various business forums, and blogs by consultants are goldmines. They’re packed with tips and real-case examples that really reflect what you’ll face in the actual interviews.

Developing a Study Schedule That Works for You

Steady and focused study sessions are key to nailing your interview prep. Create a schedule that fits your life and learning speed, giving yourself enough time to cover all parts of the McKinsey case study format. 

Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl, pick the times when you’re most focused. Mix up your study routine with learning new concepts, working through practice cases, and going over solutions. 

This balanced approach will help you get a solid handle on the skills you need.

Engaging in Mock Interviews With Peers

Think of mock interviews as your dress rehearsal for the real McKinsey interview. Team up with friends or peers and set up practice sessions that feel like the real deal. 

These practice runs are super important—they throw different viewpoints at you, give you on-the-spot feedback, and help you get better at expressing your ideas clearly and effectively. 

Playing both the interviewee and interviewer roles will really deepen your understanding of what McKinsey is looking for and the ins and outs of their case interviews.

As you dive into this intense interview prep, keep in mind that it’s not just about surviving the interview. You’re aiming to stand out as a top-notch problem solver, ready to contribute to McKinsey’s world-class consulting team. 

Leveraging free resources , organizing your prep work, and doing plenty of mock interviews are your secret weapons to build the confidence and readiness you need to ace it

How do I ace a McKinsey case interview?

When tackling the McKinsey case interview, it’s essential to stand out with your problem-solving and analytical skills. Acing this interview requires you to not only possess the knowledge but also to exhibit it through a structured and impactful approach to case questions. 

Here are actionable tips that can guide you through the process and increase your chances of success.

Structure your responses with clarity and logic. Before you delve into answering, take a moment to outline your approach. Start with identifying and understanding the problem at hand, and then proceed logically through potential solutions.

• Begin by restating the question to show understanding and buy yourself some thinking time.
• Break down the case into component parts and tackle each segment methodically. Use business frameworks like the MECE principle (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) to ensure comprehensive analysis.
• Draw on quantitative data to support your hypothesis, but don’t overlook qualitative information.
• Communicate your thought process clearly, step by step, so the interviewer can follow your reasoning.
• Conclude with a strong, actionable solution and be prepared to discuss its implications or potential follow-up steps.

Acing a McKinsey case interview is not just about what you say but how you say it . Your communication skills are as vital as your analytical abilities. Practice articulating your thoughts concisely and confidently to convey your insights effectively.

You are essentially demonstrating how you would deal with real consulting work, so your ability to ace the McKinsey case interview is fundamentally tied to showcasing your potential as a consultant . Approach every practice session and the actual interview with this mindset.

Remember, each case interview is an opportunity to exhibit how your unique blend of skills and experiences would make you a valuable addition to the McKinsey team. 

Analyzing the Case Study: Tips on Approaching Business Problems

When tackling a case study, how clearly you think things through is just as important as how much you know about business. To really get a handle on case study analysis, especially with tricky business problems, you need a strategy that’s both well-organized and flexible. Let’s break down how you can unpack complex business situations and find your way to smart solutions.

Case studies often reflect the complex challenges you’d encounter in the real business world. The trick is to sort through all the data, pinpoint the main issues, and come up with a solid plan. Here’s how you can turn a jumble of facts into a clear set of insights:

• Begin with the Goal in Mind: Know exactly what problem you’re trying to crack or the question you need to answer. This guides your research and thinking.
• Use Proven Business Tools: Frameworks like PESTEL for checking out external factors, or Value Chain analysis for a look inside a company, can really structure your analysis.
• Mix Qualitative and Quantitative Data: Stories and numbers need to work together. Qualitative info gives you the context, while quantitative facts back it up. Balancing these gives you a complete picture.
• Play Out Different Scenarios: Try out various solutions in your mind. Scenario planning lets you see how different strategies might unfold, prepping you for various possible outcomes.

Here’s a table that outlines some common frameworks and how they can be applied to case study analysis:

Using these analytical tools in your case study analysis helps you address business problems with the expertise of a skilled consultant. Keep in mind, though, that these frameworks aren’t one-size-fits-all. They’re just the beginning. The key lies in how you adapt and apply them to each specific situation.

As you work through each case, approach it with a keen eye for detail and a practical mindset. Sharpen your skills with these tools regularly—they’re vital in helping you solve complex business issues and create real value.

Understanding What Interviewers Look For: PEI & Problem-Solving Skills

In the consulting industry, it’s not enough to just show off your analytic skills. McKinsey interviewers are known for their thorough approach, and they’re really interested in seeing all aspects of what you can do. 

This means they’ll dig into your personal stories with the Personal Experience Interview (PEI) and seriously evaluate your problem-solving abilities. But that’s not all. 

Demonstrating your entrepreneurial spirit and leadership skills can really boost your chances of making your mark in the consulting field. Let’s dive into what really grabs an interviewer’s attention at McKinsey.

Personal Experience Interview (PEI) Insights

The PEI at McKinsey is your moment to shine by conveying compelling stories from your past experiences that highlight your character, decision-making processes, and ability to overcome challenges. 

McKinsey’s PEI is a distinctive facet of their interviewing process, designed to glean insights into your personal attributes and behavioral tendencies. 

Interviews of this sort seek evidence of leadership , personal impact , and entrepreneurial drive —traits that are invaluable in consulting scenarios.

Exhibiting Your Problem-Solving Abilities

When dealing with problem-solving, it’s super important to show that you’ve got an analytical brain ready to tackle complicated and unclear situations. 

Consultants often run into complex problems that need more than just smarts—they require a bit of creative thinking too. 

In your case interviews, be sure to explain your thought process clearly. This shows how you work through different layers of a tough business problem to find logical solutions.

Developing Entrepreneurial Drive and Leadership Qualities

Being entrepreneurial isn’t just about wanting to succeed. It’s really about stepping up, staying strong under pressure, and being able to get your team on board with shared goals. 

When it comes to leadership, what McKinsey interviewers are after are people who don’t just make plans but also motivate and take charge, creating a positive impact.

Giving real-life examples that highlight these qualities is a smart way to show you’ve got what it takes to tackle the consulting industry’s challenges. 

Below, we’ve got a table that sums up the three main areas McKinsey interviewers focus on. Make sure your stories and skills match up with these points to demonstrate you’re a good fit for the demands of a consulting career.

Overcoming Nerves: Strategies for Maintaining Composure

Walking into an interview can be intimidating, especially when it’s for a position at a prestigious firm like McKinsey. However, the key to success is not just what you know; it’s also how calmly and effectively you can present under pressure.

Here are some proven strategies to help you overcome interview nerves and remain composed throughout your McKinsey case interview.

Pre-Interview Relaxation Techniques

Pre-interview anxiety is a common hurdle, but with the right techniques, you can transform nervous energy into a focused calm. 

Start by engaging in deep breathing exercises to reduce physiological symptoms of stress. 

Visualization can also be a powerful tool; imagine yourself confidently answering questions and navigate the interview with grace. 

Ensure that the night before, you get ample sleep to recharge and enter the interview with mental clarity.

• Practice deep breathing to lower stress levels.
• Visualize success to build confidence.
• Get a good night’s sleep to be well-rested for the day ahead.

Handling Unexpected Questions With Grace

It’s inevitable – during interviews, you’ll be confronted with unexpected questions that aim to test your adaptability. 

The trick is not to rush your response. Take a moment to pause, compose your thoughts, and then construct an answer. 

Remember, interviewers appreciate a thought-out response more than a rushed one. If necessary, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for clarification or a moment to think before replying.

• Pause and take a deep breath to gather your thoughts.
• Think through a structured response that addresses the question thoroughly.
• It’s okay to ask for clarification when needed to ensure a precise answer.

Mindfulness Practices Beneficial for Interview Settings

Mindfulness can be a game-changer when it comes to maintaining composure. 

Practicing mindfulness techniques such as meditation can increase your emotional regulation, allowing you to remain calm and present during the interview. 

Mindful listening ensures you fully comprehend each question, and a mindful approach to speaking helps in delivering clear, concise, and considered answers.

• Incorporate meditation into your preparation to enhance focus.
• Employ mindful listening to ensure you understand the interviewers’ questions.
• Speak mindfully, ensuring your responses are purposeful and relevant.

By employing these calming techniques and facing your McKinsey case interview with a balanced mindset, you’ll be in an optimal position to showcase your abilities. 

Nervous feelings are perfectly normal, but with these strategies in hand, you can master the art of maintaining composure, allowing your true potential to shine through.

Digital Case Study Preparation: A New Trend in Consulting Interviews

The consulting world is always on the move, especially with tech changing how businesses work. This shift includes how interviews are done too. Nowadays, digital case study prep is a big deal, totally changing how aspiring consultants get ready for tough interviews at top firms.

Using online resources and platforms gives you endless chances to up your interview game. These tools are designed to mirror real business situations, offering a wealth of interactive, tech-based practice options. 

Gone are the days of just paper cases and face-to-face mock interviews. Today, digital platforms bring a whole new dynamic, much like the fast-paced, tech-savvy world of modern consultants. 

You’ve got everything from interactive simulations to AI feedback tools at your fingertips, all crucial for making your mark in consulting. 

Smart candidates are making the most of these digital perks to break past old barriers and get fully prepped for the tech-heavy reality of today’s consulting work. 

As interviews start to focus more on tech skills, being good with these digital tools can really give you an edge. Some of the coolest digital tools include:

• Virtual case rooms for real-time, boardroom-like case solving.
• Online libraries with cases from different industries and places for a wider view.
• Interactive modules that turn interview practice into a fun, competitive game.
• Tools for remote, real-time practice sessions with people worldwide.
• Tutorials on data analysis software to boost your number-crunching skills.

Having this digital toolkit not only means smarter practice but also shows interviewers you’re up to speed with the digital shift in consulting. 

Since you’ll be working with data and tech platforms all the time, being a digital pro can really strengthen your story in an interview.

As you prepare for your McKinsey interview, keep in mind that it’s more than mastering frameworks and problem-solving techniques. It’s about comprehensive preparation, strategic practice, and a strong commitment to succeed.

Your performance in the case interview will hinge on your ability to combine incisive analysis with clear and confident communication. Approach the consulting world with assurance, knowing that each step of your preparation has been gearing you up for this critical point in your career. 

The guidance provided here is designed to reinforce your confidence and illuminate your path, equipping you with everything necessary to not just compete but stand out.

The time and effort you invest in enhancing your skills reflect your dedication, distinguishing you as a serious contender. 

Remember, this isn’t merely interview preparation; it’s about crafting your future in the consulting sector. Proceed with determination, showcasing your diligence, and seize the opportunity to make a significant impact.

What should I expect in the first and second rounds of McKinsey interviews?

In the first round, expect a combination of personal experience questions and a case interview. The second round will typically involve more case interviews and may include a higher level of difficulty, as well as discussions with more senior members of the firm.

Why is structured thinking important in case interviews?

Structured thinking allows you to break down complex problems into manageable parts, presenting your solution in a clear, logical, and impactful way. This is crucial in demonstrating your problem-solving skills to the interviewer.

How can I effectively practice for my McKinsey interview?

Target your practice by identifying reliable preparation resources, setting up a study schedule, and conducting mock interviews. Free resources online, mentors, and peers can all be part of your preparation strategy.

How do I showcase my problem-solving abilities in the interview?

To exhibit your problem-solving skills, present clear frameworks for tackling case questions, perform quick and accurate calculations when needed, and articulate your insights effectively. Engage with the interviewer to demonstrate your thought process and adaptability.

What are some strategies for dealing with nerves during the interview?

Practice relaxation techniques prior to the interview, such as deep breathing or meditation. Stay prepared for unexpected questions by simulating such scenarios in mock interviews, and remain mindful and present during the interview itself to maintain composure.

What personal qualities do McKinsey interviewers look for besides analytical skills?

McKinsey interviewers are also looking for candidates with strong personal qualities such as leadership, entrepreneurial drive, and the ability to work well with teams. Showcasing your achievements and experiences that reflect these qualities can be crucial in the PEI (Personal Experience Interview) portion.

What’s the significance of digital case study preparation in today’s consulting interviews?

Digital case studies are increasingly common due to technological advancements and offer a more interactive approach to problem-solving. Being proficient with digital tools and familiar with virtual formats can give you an edge in the consulting interview landscape.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

#ezw_tco-2 .ez-toc-widget-container ul.ez-toc-list li.active:before{background-color:#b5b5b5} Main Topic

Management consulting.

Prepare for your consulting interviews. Work on the world’s most challenging problems. Deliver transformation and craft a powerful story.

TECHNOLOGY FOR MANAGERS

Not everyone needs to write code. But you should be on top of the latest technology trends.

Start with an idea. Leave with a validated roadmap to build your company.

Request Pricing

Error: Contact form not found.

Busy Now? Send this page to your email for later.

[dynamichidden emailsubmit "Email Submit"]

What else would you like to see in the High Bridge Program?

We are building it for you. what you tell us has true impact..

[dynamichidden feedbackform "Feedback Form"]

Tuition Fee at High Bridge is payable only if you successfully land a job. Check current conditions in our brochure.

Total fees for 2020 including courses, mentorship and accommodation, for summer 2020 high bridge is offering 20 to 80% scholarships to high potential students..

Have you heard about our Ambassadors Program? You can event attend High Bridge for free.

Join our next free online workshop by Flavio Soriano, ex-McKinsey consultant and Founder at High Bridge.

Free Live Workshop

In the 1%: unveiling who succeeds at mbb and why.

In English Oct. 21, 3 PM CEST

In Portuguese Oct. 21, 3 PM BRT

Give Your Feedback

McKinsey recruiters reveal exactly how to nail the interview and case study to land a 6-figure job at the consulting firm

• The latest salaries report from Management Consulted, a consulting careers resource website, showed that McKinsey's hires with MBAs and PhDs make a base salary of $165,000.  
• The consulting firm is working to diversify their applicant pool and bring in more hires from non-Ivy League schools. 
• Business Insider spoke with two McKinsey recruitment directors on how to nail the interview and score a spot at the company. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Top management consulting firm McKinsey & Company offers some of the highest-paying salaries for recent grads. But it's hard to land a coveted six-figure role at the firm. 

According to the latest salaries report from Management Consulted , a careers resource website catered to job seekers in the consulting field, McKinsey's MBA and PhD hires make a base salary of $165,000 — and that's not including the $35,000 performance bonus for all employees, and the 50% MBA tuition reimbursement for returning interns. 

It's no surprise that management consultants are getting paid six figures from get-go. It's been that way for years. However, the report noted an emerging trend that serves as good news for those who might not have an Ivy League degree : Consulting firms are increasing recruitment from non-target schools — this means they're steering away from relying on Ivy League universities like Harvard for hires. In fact, these companies are holding up to 20% of their recruitment slots for those with non-target backgrounds, according to the report.

McKinsey, for example, hired about 8,000 people out of an applicant pool of 800,000 in 2018. Those employees were recruited from 325 different schools around the world, the company shared. 

Business Insider recently spoke with Kerry Casey , McKinsey's director of recruitment in the North American region and Caitlin Storhaug , McKinsey's global director of recruitment marketing and communications. 

The two experts shared insights on how to nail an interview with the company. 

When it comes to the case exercise: Don't wing it

Every McKinsey interview follows a standardized process that is broken down into two components. Prospective candidates are asked to complete a personal experience interview and a case study exercise.

" It doesn't matter if you're interviewing from San Francisco, New York City, or Shanghai — the interview process is standard," Storhaug said. "There aren't harder or easier countries for you to get in." 

Every business school graduate is probably familiar with case studies. Harvard Business School (HBS) developed the case method teaching practice , where students are required to read up to 500 cases during their two-year program. Other MBA schools also adopted this strategy to prepare students for tackling real-world businesses problems.

McKinsey's case interviews, in particular, take about 25 to 30 minutes, and it's an opportunity for candidates to showcase how they approach problem solving and think on their feet, Casey explained. When you're tackling a case exercise, focus on how you would go about solving the client problem and not what you think the recruiters want to see in your responses. 

The company provided a case exercise sample and encouraged applicants to practice so that they know the exact format and the type of answers the recruiters look for. 

When you're prepping for an interview with the firm, keep those samples in mind, Storhaug added. 

Emphasize on your soft skills

One of the most common mistakes that McKinsey's applicants make is that they focus too much on acing case exercises that they fail to really prepare for the personal interview, Casey explained in an email to Business Insider. 

"I encourage them to focus also on what are often referred to as soft skills — their aptitude for collaboration, team work, empathy, and leading others," she wrote. "In the long run, those are the qualities that make for success." 

Apart from those technical skills, a management consulting job requires collaborative and relationship-building skills. Ultimately, you can't get to the problem-solving component if you don't have a track record of working well with others. 

Additionally, Casey added that the personal experience interview doesn't have to be as formal as one might expect. In fact, she wrote that the best interviews are actually conversations rather than strictly planned questions.  

This second round is your opportunity to show your attributes beyond your résumé. What are some skills you're hoping to develop with this job? What are your own professional goals in five years? 

Casey recommends sharing your own career aspirations. That way, it shows that you know what you want.

Talk about your technical skills if you have them

Technical skills are in high demand, and it's beneficial to have employees who understand how tech can impact clients. 

"While not everyone is a tech-focused consultant, of course, we see tech and digital skills being more necessary as we grow and expand into new areas," Casey wrote. "We appreciate candidates who may have expanded their knowledge to include coding, programming and other tech aspects." 

Some other top tech skills that employers want are program languages like Python, C++, and JavaScript, Business Insider previously reported.

• Main content

Overall of McKinsey Case Interview: Insight You Must Know!

Case interviews at McKinsey & Company are among the most challenging job interviews; they not only ask for your personal experience, but also put you in a strenuous simulation of consulting problem-solving, designed to lay bare your management consulting traits (or, the lack thereof).

Fortunately, although challenging, these interviews are also predictable. Follow me through this article – I’ll show you how to nail each of them, and land an offer at McKinsey – the world’s most prestigious  management consulting firm.

Table of Contents

McKinsey interview process & requirements

Mckinsey recruitment process.

There are three phases in the McKinsey recruitment process –  resume screening , PST test , and case interview . The whole process usually takes 2-3 months to complete, for a job starting about 6-12 months after application. New offices with higher HR demands and staffing shortages can be less clear-cut, but generally faster.

I’ve written other artcles to cover the first two phases, so I won’t go through them here. Rest assured – with practice, you’ll utterly conquer them. So that leaves us with the last, most exciting part of the game: case interviews .

If you haven’t grasped the basics of case interview, I advice you to go and read this Case Interview 101 crashcourse – a “guidebook” written for both beginners and experienced case interviewees. Link is on the right.

Now, let us continue with McKinsey case interviews.

McKinsey interview process

Each McKinsey candidate will have to undergo 4-6 interviews during 4-8 weeks. The first 2-3 interviews are often conducted by Engagement Managers; later interviews are conducted by the more senior Partners or Directors. McKinsey interviews usually consist of two parts: The PEI/Personal Experience Interview (10 minutes) and the case interview (30-45 minutes).

Consistently high performance is a must.

Your performance in each interview will be graded on three levels: Strongly Hire, Hire, Fail (they could have cooler names, IMO). One “Fail” means you’re out of the game, and there’s no “Try Again” button for the next two years; you must be consistently “Hire” or more in all interviews.

Luckily, McKinsey case interviews are quite predictable, so if you use my systematic approach and practice diligently, I’m sure you’ll do well.

What does McKinsey look for?

As with other MBB firms, McKinsey looks for the three core skills and qualifications in potential employees: problem-solving skills , leadership ability and achieving mentality . Prior business background is highly advantageous although not a requirement, and technical/industry knowledge is required for certain career tracks – such as McKinsey Digital, or jobs at support centers.

Since the terms are quite ambiguous, I’ll explain them here:

• Problem-solving skills: I’m talking about the analytical aspect of problem-solving – the whole consulting industry exists on the basis that consultants can break down business problems better than anyone else.
• Leadership ability: Getting a bunch of experienced people to do something they don’t want to is never easy; additionally, consultants usually work in teams. Keep in mind, “leadership” is about influencing people, not about getting nominated as the class monitor.
• Achieving mentality: The problems are always big and difficult, while deadlines are tight; don’t even think about work-life balance here, you have to go all-out. People unwilling to work that hard are never kicked out of the industry, because they never get in!
• Business intuition: Business background isn’t a requirement for prospective consultants ; however, business knowledge is essential to excellent performance in case interviews. Luckily, it’s something you can learn, and most concepts used in consulting interviews are on basic to intermediate levels.
• Technical skills: Technical skills are indeed required for specialist positions, such as at McKinsey Digital. Precisely what kind of expertise or technical knowledge is tested will be informed to you by McKinsey, so don’t worry too much.

In McKinsey case interviews, each candidate must successfully display the following five attributes – among which the first three are crucial to consulting . In the Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , I’ll teach you how to demonstrate all of these attributes effectively, both in the case interview and the PEI.

McKinsey case interview format

What is a case interview.

A case interview is an interview with a business context.

In a case interview, you are given a business problem and asked to solve it – that problem, together with the whole surrounding business context, is called a case.

“The Pirate Company, based in the Caribbeans, offering assets removal services to ships in the area, is suffering from negative profits. They want you to look into the cause and solve it.”

In this case, the problem is decreasing profits. If you are the candidate, you’re supposed to find out what’s causing it, and most of the time, also how to fix it.

What are McKinsey case interviews like?

McKinsey case interviews are often interviewer-led. At the most extreme of this format, the interviewer “leads” the problem-solving process by asking separate questions related to the case context. The candidate cannot decide how to approach the problem. In actual cases, however, the candidate may be given some autonomy depending on the interviewer.

There are two extremes in terms of the autonomy you’d have in a case interview. On one end of the spectrum, in a  candidate-led case , you lead the problem-solving process. On the other end, in an interviewer-led case, the interviewer tells you what to do.

If the Pirate case above were candidate-led, you’d actively break down the big profit problem and look for the root cause.

This time, however, it’s an interviewer-led case, so you’ll instead answer a series of questions coming from the interviewer.

• Interviewer-led cases consist of multiple mini-cases

In an interviewer-led case interview, the case is split into multiple small questions. Treat these questions as mini-cases, and take a structured approach to these questions, just like with a larger case. Avoid bottom-up answers as much as possible – “top-down” is still the name of the game.

Engagement Managers often decide on somewhat-structured question lists in advance, while Partners – being more senior – are more likely to make up questions on the fly.

• What factors would you consider in assessing The Pirate Company’s decreasing profits?
• The Company’s ship and crew costs have been rising due to competition with the British Royal Navy. What solutions do you suggest?
• How much additional revenue is necessary for The Pirate Company to break-even, in the face of the rising costs?
• Interviewer-led cases are more rigid

Expect to feel disconnected navigating through a predetermined set of questions.

Even if you come up with a fully-working approach, be prepared to be “dragged” back to the line if it differs from what the interviewer has in mind.

In answering the first question, you divided the costs into daily operations costs and battle costs, reasoning that battles don’t occur everyday, and their costs vary a lot. 

While this may be a valid segmentation of pirate costs, the interviewer will likely redirect you to the predetermined course and have you work on ship and crew costs.

• Interviewer-led cases place more emphasis on being right

You must nail every question if you want to pass interviewer-led cases.

This difference is because in interviewer-led cases, the problem has been broken down for you through the predetermined set of questions (so you have more brainpower to focus on getting the “correct” answers). This stands in contrast to candidate-led cases where you break down the problem by yourself.

Nonetheless, never jump straight to the answer in interviewer-led cases – they still look for an “analytical mindset”, so the right result without a structured, logical approach will amount to nothing.Interested in learning about the candidate-led side of the spectrum? Wanting to know about the mechanisms of case interviews at BCG and Bain? See this extensive guide on candidate-led case interviews at BCG and Bain!

McKinsey case interview questions

McKinsey case interviews can be methodically prepared for by arranging the possible questions into the following 8 predictable categories .

• Framework/issue tree questions
• Market-sizing and guesstimate questions
• Brain teasers
• Chart insight questions
• Value proposition questions
• Information questions
• Math problems
• Solution-finding questions

I have written a detailed guide on these question types – you may want to check out that article for more insights. For each type of question, there is one example – suggestions and answers are at the end of this section, but try to answer them on your own first !

These questions apply not only to McKinsey cases, but also other interviewer-led case interviews !

Type 1 – Framework / issue tree

The issue tree is at the heart of consulting problem-solving, you cannot avoid it.

These questions are often worded as follows: “What factors would you consider in tackling this problem”, or “What are the possible factors leading to this problem?”. Don’t be tricked by listing out the factors immediately – they are in fact expecting an issue tree.

And to draw a spot-on issue tree, you need to master consulting problem-solving fundamentals , the MECE principle , and common consulting frameworks . Solid business intuition is also highly beneficial for these questions.

Gastronomia – a gourmet restaurant chain has found the turnover rate among its highly-skilled chefs increasing dramatically for the last 3 years; this has led to a noticeable decline in food quality and increased training costs, among other negative effects.

Which factors would you consider when tackling this turnover problem?

Type 2 – Market-sizing & guesstimate

These are on top of the list among popular interviewer-led case questions!

Market-sizing and guesstimate questions ask you to estimate vague (sometimes even silly) numbers such as the number of pickup trucks in the US, or how many ping pong balls you can fit into a Boeing 747.

What’s being tested here is whether you approach the question in a structured manner; the ideal way to tackle these questions is to divide the figure into small pieces, estimate each piece, then combine for a final result.

The interviewer doesn’t usually have a number in mind, so the margin of error can be quite large.

This question type is so common, we devote a whole article to it. Check out our comprehensive guide on Market-Sizing & Guesstimate Questions for more details!

E.g.: How many smartphones are sold each year, globally?

Type 3 – Brain teasers

Most people think solving brain teasers relies on “innate intelligence”, but in fact, even these questions can be trained!

Some brain teasers ask you to explain impossible situations or perform impossible tasks – the key here is to doubt your initial assumptions and challenge common sense.

Others focus on your ability to notice subtle details, so beware that your first impression is almost always inadequate – keep diving and switching angles for unobvious patterns, or pay close attention to every word.

Still others test your logical thinking with complex riddles; for these questions, visualizing the given information on scratch paper significantly eases up the process.

Read our article about Case Interview Brain Teasers for more insights on all of these exciting brain teasers!

Type 4 – Chart insights

Charts are powerful data visualization tools. Consultants love them, so if you’re a prospective consultant, mastering charts is a must – that’s why in my Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , the Math package includes an extensive section dedicated to chart exercises!

You can find a more detailed guide in the Charts section in our article about Consulting Math . I’ll keep it short here: the key to nailing chart questions is to examine all the labels before diving in, and when looking for insights, consider (1) the chart’s purpose, (2) your objectives, and (3) trends and abnormalities in the data.

Type 5 – Value proposition

No business can succeed without understanding what their customers want, so no candidate gets a consulting offer without fully mastering these questions!

“What will our customers like?” Business intuition is required to deliver a good answer. Again, as with the Solution-Finding questions, you should structure your analysis and presentation (for instance, “High Priority”, “Medium Priority”, and “Low Priority”).

E.g.: What will a customer consider when buying a Toyota sedan?

Type 6 – Information questions

In any problem-solving process, information is one of the overarching concerns!

You do need some business and consulting knowledge to answer these questions to know where to fetch a given piece of data from, and how to do it (e.g.: survey, financial reports, client interview, etc.).

Is there any other tip to improve your performance ? Well, do your interviewer a favor, say in advance how you can acquire necessary data, and say it in a structured manner .

E.g.: How do you assess your target customer’s preferences for sports cars?

Type 7 – Math problems

A lot of information in case interviews and consulting work comes in the quantitative form, so you won’t escape Math by joining the consulting industry!

When you have to do math, perform back-of-the-envelope calculations in a structured fashion, and say out loud what you’re writing. For one thing, it’s safe; for another, you show that you’re careful, organized, and reliable – just like actual consultants.

We have a dedicated article on Consulting Math , which you should definitely read.

Type 8 – Solution-finding

What’s the point of analyzing a problem, if not to solve it?!

These questions rely mostly on your business intuition, however, some tips can still be applied: (1) segment the solutions based on their characteristics, and (2) give at least two solutions, preferably three to five.

E.g.: A restaurant that relies solely on on-premise dining found the loss of adjacent parking space (due to termination of contract) harming their revenue. How can they fix that?

Are 8 question types enough?

Well yes, but actually no. If you study those eight question types , rest assured that you’ve covered the majority of questions in interviewer-led cases.

However, I haven’t touched the most advanced questions – combinations or variants of the basic types, or even completely unpredictable ones.

How do you tackle these harder questions?

• Master the Basics: If you’re still a beginner, don’t bother about the advanced exercises. Focus your efforts on the basics, once you’ve mastered them it’d be comfortable to move on to higher, more sophisticated levels.
• Business Intuition: You need business intuition for a business-related job, it’s simple as that. Nearly every case concerns business in one way or another – even public sector cases. This is why we also teach business intuition in our Case Interview E2E Secret Program .

McKinsey case interview tips

In an interviewer-led case, there is (1) less of a natural flow, (2) more emphasis on correctness, and (3) less time to develop an answer. How do you adapt to these challenges?

These are the seven tips I used to crack case interviews at McKinsey. In the Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , you can find countless such tips throughout the 10 case videos of the Tips and Techniques package.

Tip #1: Actively try to take control of the case

In the beginning, try to control the case as if it’s candidate-led .

Playback the case, clarify and break down the problem immediately at the start – most likely, the interviewer will stop you if he/she intends on the interviewer-led route. However, by that time, you’ve already scored some points.

I can give you three benefits for acting as such:

• The interviewer will acknowledge your leading and proactive personality – these characteristics are very important for a consultant-to-be .
• If the interviewer slips towards the candidate-led sides (yes, McKinsey cases can be candidate-led to a degree), you will not appear lazy and passive.
• You might actually exert influence on the case flow and drive it towards your preferred direction.

Tip #2: Ask for data as much as possible

Ask for data from the interviewer as much as you can !

The more abundant and relevant your information is, the more effective you can solve problems. It’s better to ask a little too much and deliver a good answer than to ask nothing and ruin your chances.

However, in an interviewer-led case, you’re supposed to deliver your answers in one pitch and otherwise limit interactions with the interviewer. Then, how do you convince the interviewer to give you data?

Every request you make must be purposeful , i.e. it serves the problem-solving efforts; and you have to make those purposes absolutely clear . Say these lines before you ask:

• When you receive the question, say that you need to “clarify a few key points”, so that you can be “on the same page” with the interviewer.
• If the need for additional information arises, say that you need some “background information”, in order to grasp the overall context and “deliver the best answer”.

If successful, the interviewer may even give you some leeway to be unstructured, which is very convenient for brainstorming!

Tip #3: Use insights from previous questions to answer the next

Always keep in mind the insights from previous questions.

I’ve seen quite a few candidates diverting so much attention to one question, they forget the insights from others – why waste such a useful data source?

Although questions in an interviewer-led case may feel disconnected, they are often still inter-related in some ways, belonging to the same “case universe”. That means you can use insights from the previous questions to answer the current one.

Additionally, this technique shows you are capable of seeing the big picture while working on the details. That’s an essential ability in consulting work , the interviewer will no doubt be pleased if you can demonstrate it.

Tip #4: Analyze as deep and comprehensive as possible

Try as hard as you can to be in-depth and comprehensive with your analyses.

For your answers to NOT be generic and lackluster, you must go wide and go deep with your analyses in the first place; so always ask yourself “Am I overlooking something?” and “Can I drill down further?”.

Suppose you’re tasked to evaluate the customer preferences for ASUS gaming laptops – one bad way to answer that question is to list these factors: “low price, high performance, good design” – this answer generalizes all of ASUS’s customers while leaving out a crucial aspect – customer service.

For the ASUS example, a better way to respond is to first segment the customers based on their budget (Entry-level, Mid-range, High-end), then evaluate price, performance, design and customer service for each segment. The resulting answer will be much more specific, all-round and actionable.

Be careful not to spend too much time drilling and expanding though – if you take too long, the interviewer will force you to the next question and you lose one chance to prove yourself.

Tip #5: Always follow up answers with takeaways

End your answers with takeaways, even if they’re not asked for.

To a management consultant , everything must serve a purpose – “So what?” is the question that follows any piece of data.

You demonstrate that consulting mentality in a case interview by following up each and every answer with that so-what – if ASUS entry-level customers like low price and decent performance for their gaming laptops, how can the company use that to their advantage? Spot-on takeaways also demonstrate excellent business intuition.

However, if you trip up and make bad conclusions, it will hurt your chances. Don’t go spewing out anything that comes across your mind for the sake of “So what?”.

Tip #6: Deliver concise and insightful answer pitch

Present your answer in one perfect, insightful, top-down, concise, captivating final pitch .

As I said just earlier, in an interviewer-led case, delivering answers in one pitch is important. However, I’ve seen candidates taking this too far and ended up hurting their own analysis by not asking for necessary information – this is a pitfall you should look out for.

Anyhow, content-wise, the pitch must be short, but still containing all the important points from your analysis. The contents must also be arranged in a structured fashion , or you’ll look unorganized in the interviewer’s eyes.

When making the pitch, use all available means of communication – speech, body language, even pen-and-paper to visualize the contents. Maintain eye contact, speak concretely and confidently, avoid fidgeting, or raising the tone at the end (suggesting that you’re unsure).

Tip #7: Make a personal script

Script what you intend to say in the interview, and practice a hundred times.

You have to sound professional in a case interview, the words you speak must be structured and formal. How do you do that without feeling forced and awkward? How to avoid making presentation mistakes? How do you maintain charisma in that situation?

Unless you’re a witch (in which case, use magic to charm the interviewer), I recommend practicing all the formulaic lines, such as the opening or data requests, using an interview script. With enough training, those lines will feel natural to you.

Additionally, using scripts also saves brainpower, which you’ll definitely need a lot in case interviews. Think about when you learn to drive a car – once the shift stick, the brake and the gas pedal become so natural to you they feel like parts of your body, you can focus your whole brain on the road!

How to prepare for McKinsey case interview

Step 1: familiarize with interviewer-led case examples.

I encourage you to go out there and find as many examples of interviewer-led cases as possible, to grasp how such cases “flow”. There are four such examples on the McKinsey website with suggested answers.

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

Here at MConsultingPrep, we also have a few interviewer-led case examples in our Case Interview E2E Secret Program Case Interview E2E Secret Program , complete with detailed feedback on every aspect from content to presentation, all in video format.

Step 2: Practice consulting math

Like it or not, you must practice math – especially mental math. Case interviews and the consulting world are riddled with calculations.

In the beginning, consulting math can be difficult for some; nonetheless, I have a few tips for you to ease the process and still practice effectively: 

• Use Your Head: Do all your daily calculations mentally unless an EXACT answer is required.
• Flatten the Learning Curve: At the start, a piece of scratch paper and a 5% margin of error really help; once you are confident, discard the paper and narrow down the margin.
• Establish a Routine: Allocate some time for daily practice this may seem hard at first, but once you’ve overcome the inertia, you can literally feel the improvement.

Step 3: Develop business intuition

Business intuition forms from your knowledge and experience of the field, and they are crucial for case interview success. You can improve your business intuition in two ways:

• Written Sources: I suggest reading business papers daily; you can also visit McKinsey , Bain and BCG websites for their excellent articles. Beware though – it’s not the pages you read that count, but the insights you draw from them.
• First-hand Experience and Observations: Don’t just come to your workplace to work; try to examine what senior managers are doing – what’s the rationale for their decision, and how has it impacted the organization?

Step 4: Learn the case interview question types

The key to conquering interviewer-led cases is in methodically mastering each and every basic question type; then you will be ready to tackle the more complex and less predictable ones.

For each type, there are always tips and techniques to deliver an ideal answer; you can refer to the previous section, or check out an even more comprehensive guide in our Case Interview Questions .

The key takeaway is to treat interviewer-led questions like mini-cases, and take a structured, MECE approach to each.

Step 5: Perform mock interviews

The best way to train on something is to do it.

Well, you CAN’T simply come to McKinsey and ask them for a case interview, but you CAN find a partner to conduct mock interviews for you. It’s better if you can find a former consultant to do it – they’ve been through countless case interviews, both mock and real.

Fortunately, MConsultingPrep’s coaching service helps you practice mock interviews with highly experienced coaches. Our coaches have tremendous consulting experiences in Mckinsey, who can draw you a comprehensive preparation plan for McKinsey case interviews. Let’s find out who your personal coach is!

Make the best of every mock interview you do by recording them, then replay again, and again, and again. You’ll realize a lot of mistakes you made, and how you can fix them.

McKinsey PEI – How to prepare

Back when I first joined McKinsey, fit interviews played a much smaller role in the consulting recruitment process. Some consultants even regarded them as “just procedure”. Now the game has changed – even though case interviews are still the key to an offer, you must also excel in PEIs, to show that you’re a good fit.

What do they ask in the McKinsey PEI?

PEI stands for Personal Experience Interview , which as you may have guessed, is about “that one time in your life” when you did something extraordinary.

In the 10-minute PEI, the interviewer will ask you to tell one story, then drill down to extract insights about your soft skills and personal traits.

• Tell me about a time when you overcame a significant challenge
• Tell me about a time when you convinced people to change their viewpoints
• Tell me about a time when you resolved an important disagreement with your teammates
• Tell me about a time when you lead your team through extraordinary hardship
• Tell me about a time when you successfully handled conflict within your team

Besides these stories, the interview might also ask you the “Why consulting/Why McKinsey?” questions. You don’t need a story for these, just give them a valid and authentic reason; do research, understand the industry, the company, and how they fit with your own values and capabilities – that’s how you get the best answers for these questions.

How to prepare for the McKinsey PEI?

Preparing on a question-answer basis means drafting 10-12 stories, 2-3 for each question type; for all that effort, you might still run into trouble if you’re asked 3-4 times for the same kind of story. Many of us don’t have THAT many stories to tell anyway.

Is it possible to use less effort to deliver even more impressive stories? Here’s my advice: Focus on the stories, not the questions My take on the PEIs is to prepare three to five stories, and make them as detailed, all-round, well-presented as possible. View them from every possible angle, each corresponding to a trait required by McKinsey , or to one of your personal values.

With such an approach, you also gain flexibility – with well-developed stories, you can respond to ANY kind of questions, even the unexpected ones, and you’ll have more stories per question type (3-5).

How can you prepare such stories? Spend your efforts on three layers of a story – the content base, the plot, and the style.

1. Lay Down the Content Base Compare your past experiences with consulting traits (leadership, achieving, problem-solving skills) as well as personal values you’re most proud of, and select the stories best reflecting those traits and values. List down as many details of your stories as possible, make sure they follow this structure: Problem, Actions, Result, Lesson.

2. Form the Story Plot  Trim the unnecessary details, simplify the technical parts to help the listeners understand, then rearrange and dramatize the rest to make your accomplishments really stand out. Add the consulting spirit into the mix by emphasizing the relevant traits, telling your stories in a structured way, explaining all your actions, etc.

3. Refine Your Style Your style of story-telling should be entertaining for both you and your audience. Take time to practice and find your style – and remember, it should be natural, otherwise you won’t be able to use it in a high-stress, high-stake interview. Keep in mind that your style should be formal, because it’s a job interview we’re talking about. Don’t do your trademark sarcasms there, it’s not a stand-up comedy session.

Besides all of this information, to have a successful fit interview you need to know how to develop and deliver your story in accordance with different cultures. You can take a look at the " Mastering the McKinsey PEI by Coach Cristian Leata " course to learn more about these skills, as well as having a better view of an actual MBB firm's fit interview.

Four common mistakes in the McKinsey PEI

• Faking stories: This is the biggest one. Fake stories have no depth and many plot holes, once the interviewer drills down you’ll be dead; so please, be as authentic as possible – you should add some spices to your stories, but don’t pour a truckload of salt and pepper into it.
• Wasting time on context: Move quickly to the results. Time is short, so is the interviewer’s attention span; you should use just enough context to build tension and make your actions and results stand out.
• Repeating stories: Vary your stories as much as possible. Giving interviewers one story five times tells them you’re inexperienced and prevents them from seeing the best of you.
• Not focusing on oneself: The story is not about the team, it’s about YOU within the team. Not attending enough to your own accomplishments will diminish your chance of getting hired.

Want to learn more about interviewer-led cases and other secrets to smash through any case interview? Check out our Case Interview E2E Secret Program – Intuition, math, tips and techniques for consulting case interviews, all in one comprehensive package!

Learn the Secrets to Case Interview!

Join countless other successful candidates around the world with our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program !

10 example cases with 100+ real-time feedbacks on tips and techniques, 50+ exercises on business intuition and 1300+ questions for math practice!

Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

The scoring mechanism in the McKinsey Digital Assessment

Related product

McKinsey Comprehensive Package

Unlock all materials helping you land the next job in McKinsey!

Case interview is the last round of Bain hiring process with 3 stages: application, online tests & interviews. This entire process takes from 4 to 6 weeks

A case interview is where candidates is asked to solve a business problem. They are used by consulting firms to evaluate problem-solving skill & soft skills

Case interview is the last round of BCG hiring process with 3 phases: resume, online tests and interviews. Candidates will have 4-6 interviews in 4-8 weeks.

McKinsey Phone Case Interview – What to Expect & How to Pass

• Last Updated August, 2021

Former McKinsey

Beginning in 2021, many experienced hire and Ph.D. prospects have been invited to a 30-minute “McKinsey Phone Case Interview” at the beginning of the recruiting process. 

The McKinsey phone case interview is a 30-minute case interview conducted over the phone. It’s similar to a first-round case interview but requires slightly less depth in the case structure. Its purpose is to weed out candidates who are unlikely to pass first-round case interviews.

So if you’re considering a career in consulting as an experienced hire or a Ph.D., you’ll want to know what these interviews are like and how to put your best put forward.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Why is McKinsey doing phone case interviews?
• What the McKinsey phone case interview looks like.
• 8 tips for passing the McKinsey phone assessment.
• What the McKinsey recruiting process looks like after the phone case interview.

Let’s get started!

Why Is McKinsey Doing Phone Case Interviews?

The McKinsey phone case interview is a new form of candidate screening. This interview is meant to identify the candidates who are less likely to make it past the first round of interviews. 

In other words, McKinsey is using the phone assessment to weed out candidates who do not meet “the bar.” 

But what is “the bar?” 

While not an official term, if someone doesn’t meet the bar, it generally means they are not likely to be a valuable consulting team member. In the reality of consulting case interviews, it really means that someone crashed and burned. Or maybe they couldn’t even figure out how to find the cockpit. 

As hard as you all work to prepare for consulting interviews, it shouldn’t surprise you that there are some candidates who just simply can’t get over their nerves or have not practiced case interviews enough to feel confident during the first rounds. 

And sometimes those people have the worst 2 hours of their lives during their first-round interviews. (You may be dodging a bullet if consulting was not really a good fit!) The McKinsey phone case interview is partly intended to save both the interviewer and the interviewee from that misery. 

So don’t panic! If you’re preparing for interviews and working on case structures, you’re going to do fine on the McKinsey phone assessment. 

You may not even have a phone assessment as the practice varies by region and by the office. Certain offices in Asia have been using the McKinsey phone assessment for a while. In the past, it has been less common in other regions, but it is starting to gain traction. 

In North America, we have only seen McKinsey phone assessments for Ph.D.’s and experienced hires. As recruiting ramps to back up later this year, it’s unclear whether MBAs and undergraduates will be required to pass a McKinsey phone case interview before the first rounds.

What Does the McKinsey Phone Case Interview Look Like?

The McKinsey phone case interview is actually fairly similar to what you’d expect in a Round 1 case interview. It’s a bit simpler and focused on assessing a few basic skills.

The McKinsey phone assessment typically is:

• A 30-minute call with a consultant. 
• An “easy case.” There is less depth required in the case structure.
• An evaluation that is focused on screening out candidates who can’t structure a case question or do consulting math.

Generally speaking, you can prepare for the McKinsey phone case interview similarly to how you prepare for other case interviews. However, there are a few nuances of the McKinsey phone assessment: 

• The McKinsey phone case interview is interviewer-led. All McKinsey interviews are interviewer-led, but these phone assessments are even more so. The interviewers really drive these interviews to make sure they can “tick all the boxes” in 30 minutes. Do not worry about driving this case, and let the McKinsey interviewer drive.
• It is designed to evaluate you quickly on your ability to structure a case.  In the McKinsey phone assessment, structures should only be two levels deep and you should incorporate a small number of broad hypotheses. Be prepared to communicate your structure in just 2-3 minutes. Your structure should still be logical, MECE , and customized (e.g., not something pulled straight out of a textbook). Note: It’s not unusual for McKinsey interviewers to cut off interviewees who go on for too long or were too detailed. 
• You may need to do some brainstorming. Be prepared to outline some basic conceptual ideas and tack on 4+ ideas per bucket. This could be a list of analyses to perform or the list of options for your recommendations for the client. 
• There will be McKinsey case math. All of these interviews have a math component, and it is typically the same depth and difficulty as a Round 1 interview. You should over-prepare for math because you will be expected to get it right quickly. If you miss this portion of the assessment, it does not bode well for your progress. For more on this, see our article on case interview math .
• There will be no exhibit reading or market sizing . 
• You still need to provide a recommendation: You’ll have to move at a fast clip, so keep track of time and make sure you have time to get to your recommendation. Note: It’s not a dealbreaker if you aced your structure and the math but don’t get enough time to thoroughly cover your recommendation. 
• There is rarely time to discuss your personal experience. So you will be scored in the McKinsey phone assessment on how well you do on the case. 

Now that we’ve covered some of the differences of the McKinsey phone assessment, let’s talk tips!

8 Tips for Passing the McKinsey Phone Assessment

Here are some tips to ace the McKinsey phone case interview, including some general basics for making a good impression over the phone and some specifics for the McKinsey phone assessment. 

1. Listen intently and don’t interrupt.

It is hard to do an interview over the phone. Err on the side of giving your interviewer an extra 2 seconds before you start speaking.

2. Communicate clearly.

You don’t have the benefit of reading visual cues, so make sure you focus on clear and organized language. 

3. Make lists!

Because you’re on the phone, you won’t be able to impress your interviewer with a neatly drawn line down the left side of the page or how symmetrical your boxes are. Use numbers and letters in your conversation to help your interviewer follow along with your structure. Remember: lists are your friend.

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

4. Find ways to help your interviewer engage with you in the process.

It’s difficult to build rapport during such a quick interview, but use tactics like asking clarifying questions, or confirming that you have all the information for the next step to show your interviewer that you are in a dialogue with them. 

5. Nail your structure.

Unfortunately, this can be a dealbreaker for you. The good news is, the case should be pretty straightforward and you should not encounter really difficult concepts that you may come across during your first round interviews.  

6. Nail the math.

This is another possible dealbreaker. Do your case prep so you are really solid on McKinsey math. It’s trickier than other firms’ and you don’t want to blow your chances with McKinsey if this is one of your early interviews. (See our article on interviewer vs. interviewee-led case interviews for more info on this.)

7. Keep an eye on the clock.

Remember, you only have about 25 minutes for this case, so keep some kind of clock or timer handy. You should not spend more than 2-3 minutes on your structure and should get to the recommendations between 20-25 minutes into the case. 

8. Try to make it fun.

You want to come across as a good team member. So even though this is a quick sprint, make it seem like you’re enjoying the challenge. 

The McKinsey Recruiting Process After the Phone Case Interview

Once you’ve made it through the McKinsey phone case interview, you may have options for how to proceed with additional case interviews. 

Certain McKinsey offices are offering a “single round” option to candidates which is a single round of 4-5 interviews. Some offices are just mandating this, while others are giving candidates the choice between the traditional two rounds and the single round. 

If you have the choice, we recommend taking the traditional option with 2 rounds of interviews. This option allows you to get feedback from your first-round interviews and practice any areas of weakness before you get to the more challenging final-round interviews. It also gives you time to reach out to anyone in the office you’ve been networking with. This could push them to champion for you with the recruiting team, giving you that extra boost toward getting an offer.

Of course, if you have outstanding offers, you may need to choose the single-round option to get your decision from McKinsey faster.

You may also have to take the McKinsey Digital Assessment . The firm seems to be experimenting with different configurations to figure out the best screening steps.

In this article, we’ve covered:

• Why McKinsey has phone case interviews. 
• What the McKinsey phone case interview is all about.
• 8 tips for passing the McKinsey phone case interview.
• What the recruiting process is like once you pass the phone case interview.

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about the McKinsey phone case interview, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

Other people prepping for McKinsey phone assessment found the following pages helpful:

• Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep .
• Pyramid Principle .
• MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhausting) .
• Transitioning from a Ph.D. Program to Consulting .

Help with Consulting Interview Prep

Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on the McKinsey phone case interview. My Consulting Offer has helped almost 85% of the people we’ve worked with to get a job in management consulting. We want you to be successful in your consulting interviews too. For example, here is how Tanya was able to get her offer from McKinsey.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

© My CONSULTING Offer

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

We are sharing our powerful strategies to pass the case interview even if you have no business background, zero casing experience, or only have a week to prepare.​

No thanks, I don't want free strategies to get into consulting.

We are excited to invite you to the online event., where should we send you the calendar invite and login information.

Case interview maths (formulas, practice problems, and tips)

Today we’re going to give you everything you need in order to breeze through maths calculations during your case interviews. 

Becoming confident with maths skills is THE first step that we recommend to candidates like Karthik , who got an offer from McKinsey. 

And one of the first things you’ll need to know are the 6 core maths formulas that are used extensively in case interviews. 

Let’s dive in!

• Case interview maths formulas
• Must-know formulas
• Optional formulas
• Cheat sheet
• Practice questions
• Case maths apps and tools
• Tips and tricks
• Practice with experts

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

1. case interview maths formulas, 1.1. must-know maths formulas.

Here’s a summarised list of the most important maths formulas that you should really master for your case interviews:

If you want to take a moment to learn more about these topics, you can read our in-depth article about  finance concepts for case interviews .

1.2. Optional maths formulas

In addition to the above, you may also want to learn the formulas below. 

Having an in-depth understanding of the business terms below and their corresponding formulas is NOT required to get offers at McKinsey, BCG, Bain and other firms. But having a rough idea of what they are can be handy.

EBITDA = Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation

EBIDTA is essentially profits with interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation added back to it.

It's useful for comparing companies across industries as it takes out the accounting effects of debt and taxes which vary widely between, say, Meta (little to no debt) and ExxonMobil (tons of debt to finance infrastructure projects). More  here .

NPV = Net Present Value

NPV tells you the current value of one or more future cashflows. 

For example, if you have the option to receive one of the two following options, then you could use NPV to choose the more profitable option:

• Option 1 : receive $100 in 1 year and $100 in 2 years
• Option 2 : receive $175 in 1 year

If we assume that the interest rate is 5% then option 1 turns out to be slightly better. You can learn more about the formula and how it works  here .

Return on equity = Profits / Shareholder equity

Return on equity (ROE) is a measure of financial performance similar to ROI. ROI is usually used for standalone projects while ROE is used for companies. More  here .

Return on assets = Profits / Total assets

Return on assets (ROA) is an alternative measure to ROE and a good indicator of how profitable a company is compared to its total assets. More  here .

1.3 Case interview maths cheat sheet

If you’d like to get a free PDF cheat sheet that summarises the most important formulas and tips from this case interview maths guide, just click on the link below.

Download free pdf case interview maths cheat sheet

2. Case interview maths practice questions

If you’d like some examples of case interview maths questions, then this is the section for you!

Doing maths calculations is typically just one step in a broader case, and so the most realistic practice is to solve problems within the context of a full case.

So, below we’ve compiled a set of maths questions that come directly from  case interview examples  published by McKinsey and Bain. 

We recommend that you try solving each problem yourself before looking at the solution. 

Now here’s the first question!

2.1 Payback period - McKinsey case example

This is a paraphrased version of question 3 on  McKinsey’s Beautify practice case :

How long will it take for your client to make back its original investment, given the following data?

• After the investment, you’ll get 10% incremental revenue
• You’ll have to invest €50m in IT, €25m in training, €50m in remodeling, and €25m in inventory
• Annual costs after the initial investment will be €10m 
• The client’s annual revenues are €1.3b

Note: take a moment to try solving this problem yourself, then you can get the answer under  question 3 on McKinsey’s website . 

2.2 Cost reduction - McKinsey case example

This is a paraphrased version of question 2 on  McKinsey’s Diconsa practice case :

How much money in total would families in rural Mexico save per year if they could pick up benefits payments from Diconsa stores?

• Pick up currently costs 50 pesos per month for each family
• If pick up were available at Diconsa stores, the cost would be reduced by 30%
• Assume that the population of Mexico is 100m 
• 20% of Mexico’s population is in rural areas, and half of these people receive benefits
• Assume that all families in Mexico have 4 members

Note: take a moment to try solving this problem yourself, then you can get the answer under  question 2 on McKinsey’s website . 

2.3 Product launch - McKinsey case maths example

This is a paraphrased version of question 2 on  McKinsey’s Electro-Light practice case :

What share of the total electrolyte drink market would the client need in order to break even on their new Electro-Light drink product?

• The target price for Electro-Light is $2 for each 16 oz (1/8th gallon) bottle
• Electro-Light would require $40m in fixed costs
• Each bottle of Electro-Light costs $1.90 to produce and deliver
• The electrolyte drink market makes up 5% of the US sports-drink market
• The US sports-drink market sells 8b gallons of beverages per year

2.4 Pricing strategy - McKinsey case maths example

This is a paraphrased version of question 3 on  McKinsey’s Talbot Trucks practice case :

What is the highest price Talbot Trucks can charge for their new electric truck, such that the total cost of ownership is equal to diesel trucks? 

• Assume the total cost of ownership for all trucks consists of these 5 components: driver, depreciation, fuel, maintenance, other. 
• A driver costs €3k/month for diesel and electric trucks
• Diesel trucks and electric trucks have a lifetime of 4 years, and a €0 residual value
• Diesel trucks use 30 liters of diesel per 100km, and diesel fuel costs €1/liter
• Electric trucks use 100kWh of energy per 100km, and energy costs €0.15/kWh
• Annual maintenance is €5k for diesel trucks and €3k for electric trucks
• Other costs (e.g. insurance, taxes, and tolls) is €10k for diesel trucks and €5k for electric trucks
• Diesel trucks cost €100k

2.5 Inclusive hiring - McKinsey case maths example

This is a paraphrased version of question 3 on  McKinsey’s  Shops Corporation practice case :

How many female managers should be hired next year to reach the goal of 40% women executives in 10 years? 

• There are 300 executives now, and that number will be the same in 10 years
• 25% of the executives are currently women
• The career levels at the company (from junior to senior) are as follows: professional, manager, director, executive
• In the next 5 years, ⅔ of the managers that are hired will become directors. And in years 6-10, ⅓ of those directors will become executives. 
• Assume 50% of the hired managers will leave the company
• Assume that everything else in the company’s pipeline stays the same after hiring the new managers

2.6 Breakeven point - Bain case maths example

This is a paraphrased version of the calculation portion of  Bain’s Coffee Shop Co. practice case : 

How many cups of coffee does a newly opened coffee shop need to sell in the first year in order to break even?

• The price of coffee will be £3/cup
• Each cup of coffee costs £1/cup to produce 
• It will cost £245,610 to open the coffee shop
• It will cost £163,740/year to run the coffee shop

Note: take a moment to try solving this problem yourself, then you can get the answer  on Bain’s website .

2.7 Driving revenue - Bain case maths example

This is a paraphrased version of the calculation part of  Bain’s FashionCo practice case : 

Which option (A or B) will drive the most revenue this year?

Option A: Rewards program

• There are 10m total customers
• The avg. annual spend per person is $100 before any sale (assume sales are evenly distributed throughout the year)
• Customers will pay a $50 one-time activation fee to join the program
• 25% of customers will join the rewards program this year
• Customers who join the rewards program always get 20% off

Option B: Intermittent sales

• For 3 months of the year, all products are discounted by 20%
• During the 3 months of discounts, purchases will increase by 100%

3. Case maths apps and tools

In the case maths problems in the previous section, there were essentially 2 broad steps: 

• Set up the equation
• Perform the calculations

After learning the formulas earlier in this guide, you should be able to manage the first step. But performing the mental maths calculations will probably take some more practice. 

Mental maths is a muscle. But for most of us, it’s a muscle you haven’t exercised since high school. As a result, your  case interview preparation  should include some maths training.

If you don't remember how to calculate basic additions, substractions, divisions and multiplications without a calculator, that's what you should focus on first.

In addition, Khan Academy has also put together some helpful resources. Here are the ones we recommend if you need an in-depth arithmetic refresher:

• Additions and subtractions
• Multiplications and divisions
• Percentages

Scientific notation

Once you're feeling comfortable with the basics you'll need to regularly exercise your mental maths muscle in order to become as fast and accurate as possible.

• Preplounge's maths tool . This web tool is very helpful to practice additions, subtractions, multiplications, divisions and percentages. You can both sharpen your precise and estimation maths with it.
• Victor Cheng's maths tool . This tool is similar to the Preplounge one, but the user experience is less smooth in our opinion.
• Mental math cards challenge app  (iOS). This mobile app lets you work on your mental maths easily on your phone. Don't let the old school graphics deter you from using it. The app itself is actually very good.
• Mental math games  (Android). If you're an Android user this one is a good substitute to the mental math cards challenge one on iOS.

4. Case interview maths tips and tricks

4.1. calculators are not allowed in case interviews.

If you weren’t aware of this rule already, then you’ll need to know this: 

Calculators are not allowed in case interviews. This applies to both in-person and virtual case interviews. And that’s why it’s crucial for candidates to practice doing mental maths quickly and accurately before attending a case interview. 

And unfortunately, doing calculations without a calculator can be really slow if you use standard long divisions and multiplications. 

But there are some tricks and techniques that you can use to simplify calculations and make them easier and faster to solve in your head. That’s what we’re going to cover in the rest of this section. 

Let’s begin with rounding numbers.

4.2. Round numbers for speed and accuracy

The next 5 subsections all cover tips that will help you do mental calculations faster. Here’s an overview of each of these tips: 

And the first one that we’ll cover here is rounding numbers. 

The tricky thing about rounding numbers is that if you round them too much you risk:

• Distorting the final result
• Or your interviewer telling you to round the numbers less

Rounding numbers is more of an art than a science, but in our experience, the following two tips tend to work well:

• We usually recommend that you avoid rounding numbers by more than +/- 10%. This is a rough rule of thumb but gives good results based on conversations with past candidates.
• You also need to alternate between rounding up and rounding down so the effects cancel out. For instance, if you're calculating A x B, we would recommend rounding A UP, and rounding B DOWN so the rounding balances out.

Note that you won't always be able to round numbers. In addition, even after you round numbers the calculations could still be difficult. So let's go through a few other tips that can help in these situations.

4.3. Abbreviate large numbers

Large numbers are difficult to deal with because of all the 0s. To be faster you need to use notations that enable you to get rid of these annoying 0s. We recommend you use labels and the scientific notation if you aren't already doing so.

Labels (k, m, b)

Use labels for thousand (k), million (m), and billion (b). You'll write numbers faster and it will force you to simplify calculations. Let's use 20,000 x 6,000,000 as an example.

• No labels: 20,000 x 6,000,000 = ... ???
• Labels: 20k x 6m = 120k x m = 120b

This approach also works for divisions. Let's try 480,000,000,000 divided by 240,000,000.

• No labels: 480,000,000,000 / 240,000,000 = ... ???
• Labels: 480b / 240m = 480k / 240 = 2k

When you can't use labels, the scientific notation is a good alternative. If you're not sure what this is, you're really missing out. But fortunately, Khan Academy has put together a good primer on that topic  here .

• Multiplication example: 600 x 500 = 6 x 5 x 102 X 102 = 30 x 104 = 300,000 = 300k
• Division example: (720,000 / 1,200) / 30 = (72 / (12 x 3)) x (104 / (102 x 10)) = (72 / 36) x (10) = 20

When you're comfortable with labels and the scientific notation you can even start mixing them:

• Mixed notation example: 200k x 600k = 2 x 6 x 104 x m = 2 x 6 x 10 x b = 120b

4.4. Use factoring to make calculations simpler

To be fast at maths, you need to avoid writing down long divisions and multiplications because they take a LOT of time. In our experience, doing multiple easy calculations is faster and leads to less errors than doing one big long calculation.

A great way to achieve this is to factor and expand expressions to create simpler calculations. If you're not sure what the basics of factoring and expanding are, you can use Khan Academy again  here  and  here . Let's start with factoring.

Simple numbers: 5, 15, 25, 50, 75, etc.

In case interviews some numbers come up very frequently, and it's useful to know shortcuts to handle them. Here are some of these numbers: 5, 15, 25, 50, 75, etc. 

These numbers are common, but not particularly easy to handle.

For instance, consider 36 x 25. It's not obvious what the result is. And a lot of people would need to write down the multiplication on paper to find the answer. However there's a MUCH faster way based on the fact that 25 = 100 / 4. Here's the fast way to get to the answer:

• 36 x 25 = (36 / 4) x 100 = 9 x 100 = 900

Here's another example: 68 x 25. Again, the answer is not immediately obvious. Unless you use the shortcut we just talked about; divide by 4 first and then multiply by 100:

• 68 x 25 = (68 / 4) x 100 = 17 x 100 = 1,700

Factoring works both for multiplications and divisions. When dividing by 25, you just need to divide by 100 first, and then multiply by 4. In many situations this will save you wasting time on a long division. Here are a couple of examples:

• 2,600 / 25 = (2,600 / 100) x 4 = 26 x 4 = 104
• 1,625 / 25 = (1,625 / 100) x 4 = 16.25 x 4 = 65

The great thing about this factoring approach is that you can actually use it for other numbers than 25. Here is a list to get you started:

• 2.5 = 10 / 4
• 7.5 = 10 x 3 / 4
• 15 = 10 x 3 / 2
• 25 = 100 / 4
• 50 = 100 / 2
• 75 = 100 x 3 / 4

Once you're comfortable using this approach you can also mix it with the scientific notation on numbers such as 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, etc.

Factoring the numerator / denominator

For divisions, if there are no simple numbers (e.g. 5, 25, 50, etc.), the next best thing you can do is to try to factor the numerator and / or denominator to simplify the calculations. Here are a few examples:

• Factoring the numerator: 300 / 4 = 3 x 100 / 4 = 3 x 25 = 75
• Factoring the denominator: 432 / 12 = (432 / 4) / 3 = 108 / 3 = 36
• Looking for common factors: 90 / 42 = 6 x 15 / 6 x 7 = 15 / 7

4.5. Expand numbers to make calculations easier

Another easy way to avoid writing down long divisions and multiplications is to expand calculations into simple expressions.

Expanding with additions

Expanding with additions is intuitive to most people. The idea is to break down one of the terms into two simpler numbers (e.g. 5; 10; 25; etc.) so the calculations become easier. Here are a couple of examples:

• Multiplication: 68 x 35 = 68 x (10 + 25) = 680 + 68 x 100 / 4 = 680 + 1,700 = 2,380
• Division: 705 / 15 = (600 + 105) / 15 = (15 x 40) / 15 + 105 / 15 = 40 + 7 = 47

Notice that when expanding 35 we've carefully chosen to expand to 25 so that we could use the helpful tip we learned in the factoring section. You should keep that in mind when expanding expressions.

Expanding with subtractions

Expanding with subtractions is less intuitive to most people. But it's actually extremely effective, especially if one of the terms you are dealing with ends with a high digit like 7, 8 or 9. Here are a couple of examples:

• Multiplication: 68 x 35 = (70 - 2) x 35 = 70 x 35 - 70 = 70 x 100 / 4 + 700 - 70 = 1,750 + 630 = 2,380
• Division: 570 / 30 = (600 - 30) / 30 = 20 - 1= 19

4.6. Simplify growth rate calculations

You will also often have to deal with growth rates in case interviews. These can lead to extremely time-consuming calculations, so it's important that you learn how to deal with them efficiently.

Multiply growth rates together

Let's imagine your client's revenue is $100m. You estimate it will grow by 20% next year and 10% the year after that. In that situation, the revenues in two years will be equal to:

• Revenue in two years = $100m x (1 + 20%) x (1 + 10%) = $100m x 1.2 x 1.1 = $100m x (1.2 + 0.12) = $100m x 1.32 = $132m

Growing at 20% for one year followed by 10% for another year therefore corresponds to growing by 32% overall.

To find the compound growth you simply need to multiply them together and subtract one: (1.1 x 1.2) - 1= 1.32 - 1 = 0.32 = 32%. This is the quickest way to calculate compound growth rates precisely.

Note that this approach also works perfectly with negative growth rates. Let's imagine for instance that sales grow by 20% next year, and then decrease by 20% the following year. Here's the corresponding compound growth rate:

• Compound growth rate = (1.2 x 0.8) - 1 = 0.96 - 1 = -0.04 = -4%

See how growing by 20% and then shrinking by 20% is not equal to flat growth (0%). This is an important result to keep in mind.

Estimate compound growth rates

Multiplying growth rates is a really efficient approach when calculating compound growth over a short period of time (e.g. 2 or 3 years).

But let's imagine you want to calculate the effect of 7% growth over five years. The precise calculation you would need to do is:

• Precise growth rate: 1.07 x 1.07 x 1.07 x 1.07 x 1.07 - 1 = ... ???

Doing this calculation would take a lot of time. Fortunately, there's a useful estimation method you can use. You can approximate the compound growth using the following formula:

• Estimate growth rate = Growth rate x Number of years

In our example:

• Estimate growth rate: 7% x 5 years = 35%

In reality if you do the precise calculation (1.075 - 1) you will find that the actual growth rate is 40%. The estimation method therefore gives a result that's actually quite close. In case interviews your interviewer will always be happy with you taking that shortcut as doing the precise calculation takes too much time.

4.7. Memorise key statistics

In addition to the tricks and shortcuts we’ve just covered, it can also help to memorise some common statistics. 

For example, it would be good to know the population of the city and country where your target office is located. 

In general, this type of data is useful to know, but it's particularly important when you face  market sizing questions . 

So, to help you learn (or refresh on) some important numbers, here is a short summary:

Of course this is not a comprehensive set of numbers, so you may need to tailor it to your own location or situation.   

5. Practice with experts

Sitting down and working through the maths formulas we've gone through in this article is a key part of your case interview preparation. But it isn’t enough.

At some point you’ll want to practise making calculations under interview conditions.

You can try to do this with friends or family. However, if you really want the best possible preparation for your case interview, you'll also want to work with ex-consultants who have experience running interviews at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc.

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

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

• The Magazine
• City Journal
• Contributors
• Manhattan Institute
• Email Alerts

McKinsey’s Diversity Fog

The consulting giant touts its studies purporting to show that race- and gender-conscious hiring leads to greater profits—but it likely has the causation backward.

Last year, McKinsey & Company released a study purporting to demonstrate that corporations with more diverse leadership—more women and racial minorities in executive positions—were also more profitable. The consulting behemoth’s findings were consistent with those of its previous three diversity studies, in 2015, 2018, and 2020, each of which had been cited across industries and government institutions as proof of the supposed financial benefits of race- and gender-conscious hiring policies. Now, a new paper raises questions about McKinsey’s methodology and suggests that its advertised findings may have gotten the causation backward: financial success may lead corporations to embrace diversity efforts, rather than the other way around.

Earlier this week, journalist Christopher Brunet flagged a paper in the March 2024 issue of Econ Journal Watch , a biannual publication edited by George Mason economist Daniel Klein that publishes article-length responses to other economists’ errors. The paper , written by accounting professors Jeremiah Green, of Texas A&M, and John R. M. Hand, of the University of North Carolina, addressed the first three of McKinsey’s four-installment series of diversity studies.

Green and Hand sought to test the replicability of McKinsey’s findings. Could another set of researchers, using the same data, come to the same conclusions? Since McKinsey refused to turn over its numbers, Green and Hand had to reverse-engineer the firm’s 2015, 2018, and 2020 datasets. The results were startling: Green and Hand couldn’t replicate the results of McKinsey’s first three studies, which monitored the profitability and executive demographics of an undisclosed group of S&P 500 firms and claimed to have found a positive correlation between diverse leadership and firms’ performance. “We do not find a statistically significant positive correlation between McKinsey’s measures of the racial/ethnic diversity of the executive teams of firms” as measured in December 2019, Green and Hand reported, “and either the likelihood of financial outperformance over 2015–2019 or financial outperformance per se over 2015–2019.”

Green and Hand not only were unable to replicate the studies’ findings; they also found that each of the three studies had analyzed the data backward. Instead of looking at a firm’s diversity policies in the years leading up to a given year’s financial performance, McKinsey had reviewed each firm’s financial performance in the four or five years leading up to the year in which its researchers snapshotted their executive demographics. In other words, according to Green and Hand, the positive correlations that McKinsey researchers observed may have reflected “better firm financial performance causing companies to diversify the racial/ethnic composition of their executives, not the reverse.”

Wouldn’t this methodological problem have been obvious to McKinsey researchers? Apparently, it was. Buried in the firm’s 2018 study, its researchers concede the possibility that “better financial outperformance enables companies to achieve greater levels of diversity”—in other words, that more profitable firms may pursue diversity-hiring policies as a result of their profitability. McKinsey’s public presentation of its results, however, has not been so nuanced. As Green and Hand record, Dame Vivian Hunt, a McKinsey managing partner and a coauthor on each of the firm’s diversity studies, claimed in 2018 that “the leading companies in our datasets are pursuing diversity because it’s a business imperative and driving real business results” (emphasis added).

Despite these methodological concerns, major corporations and government entities have cited the McKinsey studies to justify antimeritocratic hiring practices. A series of posts from the think tank America2100 lists several entities, including Raytheon, JP Morgan, and even the U.S. Navy, that referenced the studies in their DEI materials. Intel Corporation executive Jackie Sturn, for example, cited McKinsey’s research as evidence that “diversity is pivotal for long-term economic growth.”

The hyping of these McKinsey studies reflects progressives’ inability to grapple with or even admit the existence of tradeoffs. They do not consider their preferred programs to be the best of a set of imperfect options; rather, their policies represent definitive advances that come with no corresponding downsides. They don’t see the debate over diversity-hiring programs, for instance, as being between inclusion, on the one hand, and meritocracy, on the other. They think that firms can hire candidates at least partially for reasons having nothing to do with those candidates’ qualifications and not suffer any corresponding drag in performance. It can’t be that diversity-hiring programs correct for past injustices and are worth their inherent costs—a straightforward and honest (if misguided) argument—it has to be that diversity programs actually make corporations richer .

Progressive proponents of decarceration do the same thing. They may want to make the normative case that America’s legal system is wholly unjust and ought totally to be torn down, but they feel compelled to make an instrumental case as well, one that denies the most obvious tradeoffs of their preferred policy—that it would free murderers and other dangerous criminals. So they insist instead that arresting and incarcerating criminals actually “ makes us less safe .”

It’s entirely possible that McKinsey will address Green and Hand’s methodological objections and claim vindication for the firm’s original findings. It’s also possible that Green and Hand’s objections are sound, and that McKinsey’s studies are bunk. But if firms are hiring people for important positions at least partially based on irrelevant criteria like race and sex, it doesn’t take a social scientist to deduce that some corresponding decline in performance will result. You don’t need a multimillion-dollar study to tell you what common sense makes obvious.

John Hirschauer  is an associate editor at  City Journal .

Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images

City Journal is a publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a leading free-market think tank. Are you interested in supporting the magazine? As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of MI and City Journal are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (EIN #13-2912529).

Further Reading

Copyright © 2024 Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

• Eye on the News
• From the Magazine
• Books and Culture
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

EIN #13-2912529