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Case Interview:
Complete Prep Guide
Simple cursory research about the management consulting
industry and how to become a consultant will quickly reveal
that something called a “case interview” is an important part
of the process. It is not hard to find reasonable – but basic –
advice about how to approach management consulting case
interviews.
You should be structured and use frameworks, but not

overly structured.
You need to practice for case interviews in advance.
You must be comfortable with mental math.
True, true and true again. However, it’s really important to go

beyond the basics when preparing for case interviews,
because the reality is that during consulting recruiting, case
interview performance really drives the decision-making
process around hiring. In fact, I have been involved in hiring
decisions where some people had serious misgiving about
the “fit” of the candidate, but because they just did so well
on the case interview, the momentum swung toward giving
https://managementconsulted.com/case-interview/ Page 1 of 61
the applicant an offer.
In this article, we’ll cover the following critical points to put

you in the best position possible to excel in management
consulting case interviews: (Click to jump to section.)
1. What Is A Case Interview? A full understanding of the

case interview process provides the foundation for
excelling during it.
2. Case Interview Presentation Structure Here, you’ll learn
what to expect during the actual case interview process.
3. How Does the Case Interview Process at the “Big 3” or
“MBB” (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) Vary vs. at Other Con-
sulting Firms? These are the premier consulting firms,
so understanding the nuances and expectations of
these firms is important.
4. Case Interview Examples What have real consulting
applicants experienced during the case interview
process?
5. Case Interview Frameworks What are some common
ways to approach case interview questions?
6. What are Firms Looking for in Interviews? If you
practice for case interviews and become really good at
breaking down problems and solving the case, that’s an
excellent first step. But you need to also understand
what in your demeanor and thought process top
consulting firms are looking for in case interviews.
7. How to Crack the Case Like a Real Consultant How do
you bring it all together to deliver an excellent case

interview performance?
8. Case Interview Prep Be ready for your interview. Here
you’ll learn how best to prepare for a management
consulting case interview.
9. Case Interview Tips: Execution So the day of the case
interview has arrived. You’ve prepared well. What can
you do to optimize your performance during the
interview?
10. Case Interview Prep Wrap Up What we have learned
and what you should remember about management
consulting case interviews!
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What Is A Case Interview?

If you’ve already started doing research on a career in
management consulting, you’ve probably heard about a
supposedly daunting step in the interview process called
the case interview. Many people talk about the case
interview like it’s synonymous with the entire interview
process. But if you haven’t already started prepping for the
interview, you’re probably still wondering: what is a case
interview?
In short, the case interview is one of several stages of the

hiring process and it consists of applicants being assigned
test cases. These cases are designed to mimic the kinds of
scenarios consultants work with on a daily basis, and they
are often pulled directly from real-life client experiences.
The case typically consists of a single problem or situation
faced by a company (or sometimes a government
organization), with its own set of desired outcomes,
opportunities, obstacles, and risks. Applicants are given a
set of data and a certain amount of time to analyze the case,
to design a solution, and to deliver a presentation on that
solution.
While there are numerous other steps in the consultant

hiring process, it’s true that the case interview is the most
significant filtering mechanism. So we’ve compiled a
Complete Prep Guide in which we offer an in-depth preview
of what to expect from the case interview and how to
demonstrate you’re ready to be hired as a consultant.
Case Interview Presentation

Structure
Now you should have a basic sense of what the case
interview is and what function it serves, but that still doesn’t
tell you what to expect in a case study interview. There are
some variations between firms, but generally speaking, the
case interview portion of the hiring process is quite
consistent across the industry.
A typical new hire goes through four to six case interviews

in total, which are usually divided into two rounds occurring
on separate days. The interviews usually proceed in roughly
60-minute cycles. The first 15-30 minutes of each case
interview cycle will be spent on a “Fit Interview.” In this fit

interview, the firm’s screener/s—usually consultants
themselves—ask you a variety of questions to better
understand your sense of motivation, leadership, teamwork,
and your general fit for the company.
After the fit interview, the case interview itself takes place,
usually lasting 30-40 minutes. Note: there is some variation
between companies and at different stages of the hiring
process. Some fit interviews are totally separate from case
interviews, and are facilitated by different interviewers.
Some case interviews situate applicants in teams instead of
working independently. Some case interviews take several
hours. Some involve ongoing communication and feedback
with the interviewers while others don’t feature any such
communication until the actual delivery of the presentation.
After the case interview, there is usually a continuation of
the fit interview, in which applicants have the chance to
debrief the interviewers.
Important Sidenote:
It’s worth noting that there are some important differences
between the first and the second round of case interviews.
The first round tests you on a variety of general skills,
including time management. The material requires deeper
analysis in the second round, and applicants work with more
senior interviewers. Further, interviewers in the second
round sometimes play the role of “bad cop” or “devil’s
advocate” along the way, asking you to rethink your
methods and offering you potentially misleading information
to make your task more difficult. If you want more in depth
understanding of this, check out our article: “Structure of
Three Case Interview Rounds“.
McKinsey Case Interview,

BCG, Bain, vs Other
Consulting Firms
When it comes to management consulting, MBB will always
be the elephant in the room. If you’re new to this world, then
take note: MBB stands for McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Con-
sulting Group (BCG). MBB are the three top consulting firms
in the world. Each has a truly global footprint, clientele that
includes the world’s most powerful companies as well as
government partners, and a reputation for consulting
excellence. They are perpetually the most alluring
employers for aspiring consultants.
All three of the MBB firms make rigorous use of the case
interview as part of their hiring process, and for the most
part each MBB case interview is similar. (Yet, there are some
differences in focus and execution.) They tend to have
similar structures, case types, and degrees of difficulty. They
also tend to test for the same traits & skills. Your case
interview prep, therefore, does not necessarily need to be
customized depending on where you’re interviewing.
However, there are some differences between them that
you’ll want to be aware of.
McKinsey Case Interview

McKinsey—the largest of the MBB firms—prides itself
on being unique. They are known for putting their own
spin on industry-standard practices. This includes the
McKinsey case interview. The McKinsey cases follow
an interviewer-led” methodology, where the
interviewer leads the candidate through the case.
The McKinsey case interview begins, as all case

interviews do, with a broad problem or scenario. But
the McKinsey case interview includes a sequence of
smaller questions to be answered along the way to
solving the overarching problem. You can think of this
as a large case interview constructed of several
miniature cases.
McKinsey is also known for drilling down more on other

components of the interview process. The personal fit
portion is called the Personal Experience Interview at
McKinsey and usually takes longer & goes deeper than
at Bain or BCG. Likewise, there is a slightly unique
format to McKinsey’s Problem Solving Test, which
evaluates applicants’ fundamental problem-solving
skills and has a pass rate of just 33%.
McKinsey Case Interview Example
McKinsey Case Interview Example - Market Study
BCG Case Interview

The BCG case interview has a lot of similarities with its
MBB cousins and other large consulting firms across
the industry. But there are some features that make the
BCG case interview unique. Notably, BCG interviewers
are known for including “curveball questions,” which
require the applicant to improvise and suddenly pivot
to include new considerations. This tests an applicant’s
flexibility and creativity, as well as their speed, fluidity,
and accuracy when it comes to confronting new
challenges.
In addition, the BCG case interview is described as

“candidate-led,” allowing the candidate to control the
pace with which problems and the relevant
information/complications are considered.
Because case interviews are often adapted from real-

world projects, the kinds of case interviews BCG
conducts will reflect the company’s unique industry
profile. All three of the MBB firms work with all kinds of
companies, but BCG has a particular focus on strategic
innovation, business growth, and corporate
development.
BCG Case Interview Example
Market Entry Case Study Interview: BCG-Style
Bain Case Interview

The most unique component of the Bain case interview
process is the so-called “pressure test.” This subjects
interviewers to pressure in the form of time deficits,
strategic criticism, and other headwinds in order to test
the ability to maintain integrity and stability in the face
of adversity.
The other factor that makes the Bain case interview

slightly different from the other MBB firms is Bain’s
client portfolio. Bain works in virtually every industry
and region, but they work with private equity funds and
other principal investors more than other MBB firms do.
Bain Case Interview Example
Bain Full Case Interview Example (with future Bai…
Boutique Consulting Firms

Many aspiring consultants are not meant for one of the
MBB firms. There are disadvantages to working for one
of the big three, which include extremely long hours as
well as a kind of anonymity within the larger apparatus

of the company. There is often more flexibility and
variety to be found working at boutique consulting
firms, where every employee is a larger component of
the overall operation.
Because of the smaller feel of a boutique firm, as well

as the greater variety of tasks and communications to
be done by each employee, boutique consulting firms
rely a bit more heavily on the behavioral/fit component
of the interview process. At the same time, case
interviews for boutique consulting firms are certainly
common, and following the advice and preparation you
are reading about in this article for MBB will apply to
boutique consulting firms.
Finally, boutique consulting firms also tend to

specialize in one or a few industries. Being aware of
the company’s client portfolio before your interview is
much more important at a boutique consulting firm
than at an MBB firm.
Case Interview Examples

Broadly speaking, the case interviews you’re likely to
encounter at different firms will have a lot in common, and
they will demand largely similar things from you as an
applicant. For that reason, there’s really no benefit to
tailoring your case interview prep to one firm more than the
rest. Our curriculum is designed to prep you for any case
interview, from the MBB firms to boutique firms. Still, there
are some things that make every firm unique. In order to
help you get a sense of what you’ll encounter at some of the
consulting firms to which you’ll be applying, we’re providing
you with several case interview examples.
McKinsey Case Study Interview

Examples
You can find many real McKinsey case study interview
examples on the McKinsey website. Let’s take a look at
one, which they’ve called GlobaPharm. There is a
thorough description of a possible solution you can
find if you navigate to the McKinsey site, but the basic
case study is broken down into two components, the
“Description of situation” and the “McKinsey study.”
Description of Situation
“GlobaPharm has a long, successful tradition in
researching, developing, and selling “small
molecule” drugs. This class of drugs represents
the vast majority of drugs today, including aspirin
and most blood-pressure or cholesterol
medications. GlobaPharm is interested in entering
a new, rapidly growing segment of drugs called
“biologicals.” These are often proteins or other
large, complex molecules that can treat conditions
not addressable by traditional drugs.
“R&D for biologicals is vastly different from small-

molecule R&D. To gain these capabilities,
pharmacos have three options: they can build
them from scratch, partner with existing start-ups,
or acquire the start-ups. Since its competitors are
already several years ahead of GlobaPharm,
GlobaPharm wants to jumpstart its biologicals
program by acquiring BioFuture, a leading
biologicals start-up based in the San Francisco
area. BioFuture was founded 12 years ago by

several prominent scientists and now employs
200 people. It is publicly traded and at its current
share price the company is worth about $1 billion
in total.”
McKinsey Study
“GlobaPharm has engaged McKinsey to evaluate
the BioFuture acquisition and to advise on its
strategic fit with GlobaPharm’s biologicals
strategy. Our overall question today, therefore, is
“Should GlobaPharm acquire BioFuture?”
Questions:
1. What factors should be considered when
evaluating the acquisition?
2. The team wants to explore BioFuture’s current
drug pipeline. The team decides to focus first on
evaluating the value of BioFuture’s current drug
portfolio. What issues should the team consider
when evaluating the value of BioFuture’s
existing drug pipeline?
3. Question 3 is a math/probability/expected value
exercise around a drug pipeline. You can check
it out here.
BCG Case Interview Examples

Just like McKinsey, BCG also includes multiple real
BCG case interview examples on their website, which
contains an Interactive Case Library. Here’s the
overview of the “Airline Case” included in that library.
“Today, we’ll discuss the case of our client, a low-
cost carrier (LCC) airline that is among the largest

in Asia. After initial losses when it was
established, a few years ago, it has finally become
profitable. The company’s profitability is now
threatened, however, by a sharp increase in fuel
prices, to the tune of more than 50 percent.
“The client is therefore questioning its business

model and looking to develop an immediate
response to the situation that will ensure a return
to profitability. Your task is also to help develop a
strategy to ensure that the company remains
profitable for the years to come.”
Bain Case Interview Examples

As with its other MBB siblings, Bain includes a lot of
helpful interviews as well as real Bain case interview
examples on the company’s website. One of the
included case interviews, “FashionCo,” is defined as
follows:
“Our client is FashionCo, a player in the women’s

fashion market. It’s been in the industry for a long
time, but has experienced declining revenues
each year for the past five years. FashionCo wants
to understand: What might be causing this
decline?
“FashionCo will have a management meeting at

the end of the week, and the CEO wants a
recommendation from Bain on how to proceed.
“What can they do to drive revenue?”
Boutique Firms Case Interview

Compared to material from the megalithic MBB firms,

boutique consulting firms’ case interview examples can
be a little bit harder to come by. But if you’re willing to
do a little googling, the internet will provide. And
anyway, the basic concept of the case interview is not
very different at a boutique firm. Though some
boutique firms specialize in certain industries, and
these are likelier to be represented in boutique firms’
case interviews.
Here’s an example called “Promo-

tional Planning” from Kearney.
“Our client is a national grocery and drug store
chain, which has been steadily losing market
share to its competitors. Our client utilizes a high-
low pricing strategy, in which regular prices are
typically slightly higher than those of an everyday
low-price retailer. However, periodically high-low
retailers drop prices significantly. During the time
period in which a product’s price is decreased, the
product is also promoted through print and in-
store advertising. Our client expects a significant
lift in sales during the periods in which a product
is promoted. However, benchmarks against
industry averages indicate that our client does not
experience as large of a lift in sales as its
competitors do during promotions. What would be
your approach to increase sales lift when an item
is promoted?”
Case Interview Frameworks

One of the primary ways consulting applicants have
prepared for the case interview has been to study a wide

array of case interview frameworks. Many different case
interview frameworks have been developed to offer
systematic ways of understanding different kinds of cases,
each with their own type of problem or scenario. For
example, one general framework we will take a look at is the
“market entry framework,” which deals with companies who
are considering entry into new markets. Another example is
the Victor Cheng case interview framework—Cheng took
the well-known 3 C’s framework (which stands for Company,
Customers, and Competition) and added Products as a
fourth category of consideration.
Here we’ll give you an overview of some of the different

case interview frameworks you’ll want to learn/review
before your formal case interview. If you really want to drill
down on the different frameworks, consult our Ultimate
Guide to Frameworks.
Download our free Frameworks Guide
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Market Entry Framework

One of the most common things companies seek
outside consulting on is growing their business. In
order to do this, companies often need to enter new
markets to open up new opportunities. These new
opportunities inevitably emerge alongside new and
unfamiliar challenges, hence the need for the
consultant.
The market entry framework is the general framework

for dealing with this kind of scenario. Relevant factors
often include the situation of the market being entered,
the state of the competition, and the process &
strategy of making the first entrance into the market.
As you learn the market entry framework, you’ll also
learn how to drill down on more specific frameworks as
you identify the specifics of the problem.
Profitability Framework
Maximizing profits is often understood as the essential
purpose of any company or enterprise. Therefore most
consulting projects relate to profitability on some level,
and many case interview questions involve considering
ways to improve profitability. The profitability frame-
work is a simple but powerful method for analyzing
problems relating primarily to profit. There are always a
variety of factors at play, but the primary way to drill
down into profitability is by separating costs and
revenues.
The first thing to do in a profitability case is to look at

costs and revenues from a big picture level. (Note:
some case interview questions relate only to costs or
to revenues, though most involve both.) After
considering the overall revenue situation, you can drill
down by the main subcategories of price, quantity, and
strategies to increase sales. Costs can be drilled down
by the costs of producing each unit, quantity/rate of
production, and strategies for decreasing the costs of
production. A deeper look into the profitability frame-
work will familiarize you with many ways of increasing
profitability, such as the expansion into new markets,
more/smarter advertisement, increased efficiency, as
well as improvements in service and pricing.
You can also watch a profitability case interview in

action:
ProEtability Case Walkthrough: BCG Style - with e…
M&A Case Framework (Mergers

& Acquisitions)
One of the more infrequent situations most companies

face is one in which they are merging with, acquiring,
or being acquired by another company. This involves a
lot of granular financial and management work. Many
aspiring consultants overlook the possibility of being
assigned a mergers & acquisitions case and then are
surprised to be confronted with one during their case
interview. Avoid that mistake by getting comfortable
executing an M&A case framework.
In this framework, the question is simple should one

company invest in or buy another?
The primary directive in the M&A case framework is to

drill down on your understanding of the acquiring
company’s position. The acquiring company is
motivated by increasing cash flow, of course, but they
will have a specific timeline in which they want to see
returns on their investment. For example, hedge funds
will have a different time horizon for their investment
than multinational corporations.
After acquainting yourself with the goals and

circumstances of the acquiring company, the M&A case
framework has you consider the market, the company
up for sale, the post-acquisition strategy, and the
overall risks & benefits, such as unproven but
potentially valuable technology. M&A case frameworks
are often used in miniature as part of a larger scenario,
and they tend to produce binary responses: either a
merger/acquisition is advisable or it isn’t.
It is also advisable to remember that when engaging in

M&A, a company is literally buying another, and paying
a price. Generally, the higher the price, the less
advisable the acquisition is, because the increase in

future performance must be that much greater to justify
the price paid. Analysis of M&A situations can often be
communicated in these terms. Learn more about the
M&A consulting framework here.
Pricing Framework Model

Deciding how to price products & services may seem
like a relatively banal activity in comparison with
mergers & acquisitions. But in reality, pricing decisions
are some of the most influential decisions any
company makes, exerting a great influence on volume
and profitability. It’s no surprise that consulting
applicants often rely on the pricing framework model in
their case interviews.
Clients often hire consulting companies specifically for

their expertise on this aspect of business. After some
time working as a consultant, you’ll have developed a
deep array of experience on the ways different
companies have handled pricing in different industries.
But without that experience under your belt, you’ll have
to rely on the pricing framework model.
This framework asks you to break the situation down

into three main categories of consideration.
1. The Product/Service Being Sold

Here you will consider a great deal of information
about what goes into the product, how it is
expected to perform, and what changes in the
ways the product is offered will have an impact on
the proper price point. Is it differentiated? Is there
a patent? How big is the market for it?
2. Competition
Here you will try to understand what other
products/services your client’s will interact with in
the marketplace, and how the companies behind
those other products/services are thinking about
their pricing decisions. Are there many similar
products available? What is being charged?
3. Pricing Strategy
The final category is pricing strategy, which invites
you to consider certain zoomed-out questions
about what will determine the optimal price point
for the product or service under consideration.
Should you price based on the cost of the product
plus a margin? Should you price at the market
price plus or minus based on the value of your
product? Do you know the max price a customer
will pay or the value the product brings to them?
3 Cs Framework
Many times consulting firms are hired to help with an
overall business problem or concern, and the client
may not even know where the true locus of the
problem is. Situations like these are where the 3 Cs
framework can be very powerful, as it gives something
of a bird’s-view of a company’s overall situation.
Zooming out like this can help make certain
opportunities as well as inefficiencies clearer.
The 3 Cs themselves refer to the categories of
Company, Customers, and Competition. Separating

information and inquiries into these three categories
helps give a comprehensive sense of a company’s
operation in a given moment. One additional thing to
note about the 3 Cs Framework is that it has some
overlap with the Business Framework invented by
Victor Cheng. This business framework is essentially a
modification of the 3 Cs Framework, with the added
category of Products.
Porter’s 5 Forces Framework

Sometimes a particular case or client scenario requires
you to develop an understanding of a whole industry or
sector, as well as how a particular company fits into
that overall environment. This is what the Porter’s 5
Forces Framework is designed to help with. Invented
by Michael Porter, the 5 Forces break down the main
categories of dynamic factors at play in any market.
Drilling down on each of these will help give a better
picture as to how a company working in or entering
that market can be competitive and profitable. The 5
Forces to consider are: the threat of new entrants,
competitive dynamics, supplier power, buyer power,
and the threat of substitutes.
Case Frameworks Are Not a

“Silver Bullet”
If you’ve already started familiarizing yourself with the
different frameworks, we commend you—that’s an
excellent component of a prep strategy for the
consulting case interview. However, if you are devoting
100% of your prep resources to memorizing
frameworks, then you might need to take a step back.

Remember—frameworks exist to help you figure out an
approach to difficult problems, not as a pre-written
script for cramming difficult scenarios into. The
framework serves the problem, not the other way
around.
Some aspiring consultants look at frameworks as a

“silver bullet,” as if they provide a cure-all to any client
project or case interview. But in reality, case interviews
are seldom solved with the simple execution of a
framework. Much more often, you might be able to
adapt a framework to help think through one part of a
larger situation. You can think of a case interview more
like a chess game, in which each framework represents
one potential maneuver in a longer sequence of
moves.
Also, remember that the case interview is not just a

problem to be solved but an audition. You want to
demonstrate to your interviewers that you have the
ability to move fluidly between different frameworks as
necessary, independently responding to new inputs
and maintaining perspective as you think on your feet.
It’s less important to demonstrate a rote memorization
of the frameworks.
What Are Firms Looking For

In Interviews?
As we mention above, simply demonstrating that you’ve
memorized a few frameworks is not enough to impress at
your case interview. Interviewers are looking for a wide
range of problem-solving skills beyond just accumulated
business knowledge, as well as the communications skills

and character traits relevant to the job.
In this section, we’ll take you through everything

interviewers are looking for in your case interview
performance.
1. Structure
Consulting, like all of business, depends on being able
to understand and work with complex systems, with
large quantities of information. Not everyone naturally
operates this way, but for better or worse, it’s kind of a
prerequisite skill for being a successful consultant.
There are things you’ll want to be aware of as you
show off your systems-thinking capabilities. Primarily,
interviewers are on the lookout for your ability to
conduct a strategically structured approach to any
problem.
2. Segmenting Data
One of the frequent challenges consultants face is that
business situations involve not just large quantities of
data but a variety of kinds of data. Consider the
Profitability Framework described above. First it
separates profitability into revenues and costs, and the
kinds of data proliferate from there into increasing
levels of granularity.
One of the primary skills a consultant needs is the

ability to segment data into different categories, some
of which may need to be defined on the fly as you drill
down on a particular issue. Sometimes you can use
something like the ABC Analysis to help categorize
data. But the importance of segmenting data becomes

obvious when you imagine conducting a case interview
without any ability to segment data at all. All of the vast
number of figures a company deals with will be lumped
together—print advertising costs and first quarter
revenues and individual sales and TV advertising costs,
etc, etc. If you can’t organize data, you’ll never be able
to wrap your mind around a problem, let alone come
up with a solution.
3. MECE
One of the most powerful frameworks you can apply to
help organize data is the MECE framework. Usually
pronounced ME-see, this acronym stands for Mutually
Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive and it describes the
optimal conditions for any method of organizing
information.
The first principle is Mutually Exclusive. This means that

there should be no overlap between any of the
categories you use. To take an example, let’s say
Netflix is looking at subscriber data. If they have one
category for North American subscribers and another
category for English-Language subscribers, a vast
number of subscribers will be double-counted, once in
each category. Therefore it’s not Mutually Exclusive,
and doesn’t help us understand the data. It would be
better to have the categories filter either by language
or by region/continent.
The second principle is Collectively Exhaustive. This

means that all of the relevant data should fall within at
least one category, with nothing left out. So in the
example used above, if Netflix decided to organize

subscriber information by continent, but failed to
include Europe, they would not have an accurate
picture of their subscriber base because European
subscribers won’t be included anywhere.
4. Draw On Practical Experience

It’s important that you don’t simply sound like you’re
reciting memorized passages from a textbook as you
complete your case interview. One thing interviewers
love to see is a candidate drawing from practical
experience. One of the reasons many consultants rise
so fast is that firsthand knowledge is invaluable in this
industry. Even if you’re applying right out of college, it’s
still likely that you’ve had work and business
experiences that can inform your analysis within the
case interview. If the opportunity arises, it can be very
powerful to demonstrate your ability to incorporate
things you’ve learned firsthand.
5. Prioritization
As we’ve made clear, case interviews often involve not
just one problem but a cluster of interrelated problems.
One of the things you’ll have to demonstrate in your
thinking is an aptitude for prioritizing the different
issues in a coherent and logical fashion. This is
somewhat related to segmenting data but goes
beyond just information. Prioritization means creating a
hierarchy of information, problems, opportunities, and
responses.
To take a crude example, let’s say you are consulting

for an energy company that is earnestly trying to
transition to renewable energy production over the

next five years. The part of the company that remains
invested in fossil fuels is also dealing with an ongoing
oil leak at an extraction site. Without sacrificing the
five-year transition to renewables, you probably need
to prioritize stopping oil leaks and attending to any
harm to the environment, workers, and other
stakeholders.
When working through a case interview, you can

“score points” simply by engaging in some sort of
prioritization during the interview. Your logic and
criteria for the prioritization will probably not be
challenged. The fact that you attempted to prioritize in
the first place will be valued and noticed.
6. Ace the Math

It isn’t necessary to have a math degree to ace the
case interview, but you’ll still want to devote a
reasonable chunk of your prep time to shoring up any
vulnerabilities in your math skills. It will feel extremely
bad to have a math mistake corrected by an
interviewer during your case interview. It feels even
worse to have the interview not correct your mistake,
and to have your entire analysis thrown off.
Verbal Math
A lot of the math you’ll have to rely on during your
case interview won’t take the form of complex
formulas or pre-sorted spreadsheets. Instead,
you’ll need to be able to process numerical
information as it’s presented in normal speech
and writing in order to understand a broader
situation. Case interviews are in a sense like

longer word problems, with a continuously flowing
stream of verbal math. You’ll want to work on your
ability to extract numerical information from
verbally defined situations. You’ll also want to
work on your ability to express numerical
information in speech. Oftentimes, if you speak
out loud and talk the interviewer through your
calculations, you can make a mistake and still do
an above average job. The interviewer can see
you were on the right track and just slipped up in
one of the steps.
Chart and Graph Math

Consultants need to have total fluency working
with visual representations of data, since it’s
integral to so much of what they do. The dossier
you’re given and the presentation you’ll produce
are both likely to include heavy use of charts &
graphs to represent numerical data.
It may have been a while since you spent time

working with numbers in this way, so make sure
you practice working with problems that
incorporate a lot of charts. Reading charts &
graphs is its own kind of literacy and you’ll have to
demonstrate you’ve mastered it as you go
through the case interview. Be patient enough
that you can be sure you’ve accurately
understood the information—misreads can be
fatal! And make sure you’re communicative about
the way you’re processing the visual information.
Even if it seems obvious simply to point out what
the x and y axes of a chart represent, it’s

important to show you know how to synthesize
visual data into a deeper understanding.
Mental Math
Having a solid fluency in mental math is essential
to a good case interview performance—and to the
work of consulting in general. Ongoing mental
math is required as you engage with the problem,
for example as you move between different
frameworks. At a zoomed-out level, there will be
too many of these initial calculations to use a
calculator on all of them. Though a calculator may
become appropriate as you drill down on different
parts of your analysis.
Honing up your mental math skills is an important

part of your case interview prep. See our drills
here. And if you really want to sharpen your
abilities, we’ve designed an entire course on men-
tal math for consulting. One thing we highly
recommend is going off your calculator for six
months in advance of your case interview. Doing
things like calculating tips, analyzing your budget,
etc., can help you get comfortable working with
numbers in the way you’ll have to during the
interview process.
4 Steps for Case Math

Sometimes when you’re working on a
complex case, you can almost lose yourself
in the different considerations and
calculations. Thankfully, there’s a relatively
simple four-step approach you can fall back

on in order to guide your response.
1. Recap the Problem
The first step in solving a problem is in

articulating your understanding of just
what the problem is. Even if you don’t
have a clear approach in mind just yet,
getting yourself to recap the problem
out loud can help clarify an appropriate
response. The recap also gives the
interviewer a chance to see your effort
to take a clear and coherent approach.
And if you’ve misunderstood something
about the problem, recapping it gives
the interviewer the chance to intervene.
2. Structure Your Approach
Once you’ve recapped the problem, the

next step is to organize a systematic
approach. Solving a case interview
problem consists of many steps along
the way, from drilling down on a deeper
understanding of one factor at play to
conducting miniature test cases in order
to choose a strategy. It would be
extremely chaotic and inefficient to
consider every angle at once. Instead,
you’ll want to devise a logically
structured approach to help you arrive
at an efficient and thorough response.
But remember, you’re not just
structuring the approach for your own
sake—you’re also demonstrating to the

interviewer that there is logic and
methodology behind your work.
3. Run the Numbers
The third step is actually performing the

mathematical operations you laid out
when you came up with your approach
structure in step two. Think of this as
executing all the different steps you laid
out. This will involve gaining a better
understanding of some specific factors
as well as testing possible solutions.
4. Come Up with Insights
The first three steps amount to a

process for producing data, somewhat
similar to the scientific method. These
are all part of a sequence designed to
generate insights into what solutions
will work best. Don’t get so mired in
crunching numbers that you forget what
the calculation was supposed to figure
out in the first place!
7. Lead the Interview

A subtler thing that interviewers will be on the lookout
for is your ability to “lead the interview.” This doesn’t
mean dominating every moment. Rather, it means
demonstrating a synthesis of the skills listed above—
that you can organize problems and information in
such a way that you can guide yourself and your client
to a solution. Consultants are expected to be self-

guided and independent, especially as they
accumulate seniority. Showing that you have the
analytical and leadership skills necessary to execute an
operation you’ve been assigned to is a major
component of the case interview process. You can’t
just answer the questions and sit back. Use transition
phrases and prioritization to proactively attack the
case.
8. Problem Solving
The prevalence of frameworks can obscure the fact
that everyone’s problem-solving strategies are
somewhat unique, just as every problem is unique.
There is no one-size-fits-all formula for solving every
problem. Instead, there are some more general
problem-solving skills and tactics that you should work
on as you prep for your case interview.
9. Interpret Data
A lot of the consultant’s job relies on fluency with data.
This is not just carrying out formal calculations, but
understanding what figures mean within a specific
business context. Consultants also have to be able to
communicate a narrative about the meaning of certain
numbers to different stakeholders.
Communication is a big part of the case interview as

well. Make sure you don’t just carry out all your
thinking silently—communicate with your interviewer to
let them know what meaning you’re assigning to the
different data you’re working with.
10. Realize Your Mistakes

Of course you will want to be careful to be as accurate
as possible, but sometimes candidates do make
mistakes in case interviews. Mistakes can come in the
form of computation errors, or they can involve
misinterpreting data or choosing an inappropriate
framework.
It’s important to stay alert and self-critical, rethinking

decisions and strategies as you go. Using notes to
keep an organized track of your thinking can help.
Interviewers may also point out a mistake, though you
shouldn’t count on this as a failsafe. Whether it’s you
who catches a mistake or an interviewer, it’s important
to demonstrate flexibility and composure even as you
go back to the drawing board.
11. Understand the “So What”

One way to keep your footing, as you proceed through
the many different considerations required by a case
interview, is to keep the “so what” question at front of
mind. You can apply this to all the information you’re
given in order to understand the problem. Ask about all
of it: so what? What does this tell you, and how does it
inform your analysis of the broader situation? Then as
you proceed with possible solutions, keep asking, so
what? With each calculation or consideration you
make, ask what that tells you about the optimal
solution.
12. Stay Hypothesis Driven

Most of the steps detailed above mimic the scientific
method, shaped to fit a specific business-related

scenario. The scientific method is the foundation of
rational inquiry, which aspires to build evidence-driven
understanding and even to make reasonable
predictions. The scientific method is also built around
forming and testing hypotheses.
Structuring your analysis in terms of hypotheses helps

ensure the insights you derive are logically sound, and
it also makes them action-oriented. For example, it
doesn’t really get you anywhere to approach a case
interview by saying, “what effect does price have on
profitability?” or “how can we change the price to
increase profitability?” Instead, frame this line of
thinking in terms of a hypothesis, such as: “cutting
prices by 10% will increase profitability.” You can even
consider your choice of broader strategies to pursue or
frameworks to implement as being essentially
hypotheses that may be subject to revision.
13. Communication
If consulting were simply about mechanistically
carrying out one framework from a limited assortment
of frameworks, then the consultant industry would have
a lot less use for human beings. Instead, much of the
work is highly human-driven, depending on people
skills and communication abilities. Even when solutions
seem technically straightforward, they still need to be
delivered persuasively to clients. So of course,
demonstrating your ability to communicate will be a
huge part of any successful case interview.
Provide Concise and Well-Spoken
Answers
Efficiency is a core value in the consulting
industry, and it shapes not only business analysis
but also communication. Consultants are often
inundated with a seemingly endless stream of
challenges and obstacles, so the ability to
communicate in an efficient manner is a necessity
among new hires. In your case interview, make
sure you speak directly and move on afterward,
avoiding any redundancy.
Further, part of the job of a consultant is to convey

trustworthiness in the information they present to
clients. One of the ways to achieve this is to
always be well spoken in your communications.
Effective speaking relies not only on proper
grammar but appropriate word choice, confident
pronunciation, a positive tone, and even attentive
listening. This is another part of your performance
interviewers will be looking for, so use the months
in advance of your case interview to brush up on
your public speaking skills.
One helpful communications strategy is the

pyramid principle. This principle supplies a kind of
framework for answering questions and
presenting arguments. Imagine a single thought at
the top of a pyramid. Descending the pyramid
from there, that thought is represented by two
supporting thoughts or arguments, each of which
is supported by its own arguments and evidence.
Work Through Difficulty with a Positive
Attitude
A major component of your interview will be an
assessment of your response to difficulty. Being a
consultant is remarkably fast-paced and
demanding—difficulty as a constant, and if you
don’t have the skills to deal with it, you aren’t a
good fit for the position.
Remember in your case interview that it is meant

to be challenging. Avoid lapsing into anxiety,
insecurity, or incoherence. If you make a mistake,
instead of giving up hope or letting yourself be
overly affected by it, try to isolate the source of
the error, correct it, and move on.
14. Confidence
Confidence is one of the most important things
interviewers look for. This can catch younger applicants
off guard, as the college environment makes it easier
to succeed based on the accuracy of your work as
opposed to the confidence of your conclusions.
But consultants don’t simply look for the right answer—

they have to convince clients to believe them about
what the right answer is. An effective consultant isn’t
just confident in their work, but in themselves. And
that’s important—it’s harder to be confident in someone
who isn’t confident in themselves. If performing
confidence isn’t necessarily natural for you, you’ll want
to focus on ways to project self-confidence as part of
your case interview prep.
How To Crack The Case Like

A Real Consultant
There are as many possible case interview problems as
there are business scenarios. That is, the possibilities are
practically infinite. However, as we have been explaining,
there are certain strategies you can employ that will help
you diagnose many possible scenarios and come up with
new approaches to meet clients’ needs. Let’s take a walk
through of a sample case and some ways you might tackle
it.
Let’s imagine you are contracted to help San Zembla—a

fictional South American country—improve its educational
outcomes. San Zembla has a new democratic government
elected on a platform of using public education reform as a
strategy to give a long-term boost to the economy. Your firm
is being asked to diagnose existing problems & limitations
facing San Zembla’s education system and to help outline
new strategies for improvement.
The Problem Driven Structure

The problem driven structure is a kind of open-ended
framework for approaching a problem that does not
obviously fit into a predefined framework. To
implement this structure, you should begin trying to
isolate the most pressing problems or uncertainties
and to arrange them in a hierarchy—then you should
frame your solutions around these carefully articulated
problems.
The primary problem you might identify with the San

Zembla case is that it’s actually quite difficult to assess
educational outcomes in a vacuum and without any
context or comparison. Therefore you might decide
that coming up with a reliable metric for evaluating

educational outcomes and comparing them to other
contexts is necessary. In this case, a chart offers
additional information about some of San Zembla’s key
education metrics in comparison to other countries in
South America.
Describe your observations out loud as you begin to

make sense of the chart. Do you notice any meaningful
trends or lack thereof? Look closer and imagine
different questions you might ask of the data.
Remember you can ask the interviewer questions to
help clarify the data if need be.
Remember that your goal in comparing San Zembla in

neighboring countries is to decide how to improve
educational outcomes. It would make sense to ask
whether any of the included categories of data seem to
correlate with/predict the average standardized test
score.
Intuition might tell you that having a lower number of

students per teacher, or else a greater amount of
money spent per student, might correlate with average
standardized test score. However, the data doesn’t
support this. Developed economies have similar class
sizes but better test scores. Likewise, variations in
spending within regions don’t seem to dictate a
particular effect in test cores.
Changing budgets and class sizes are two rather

obvious strategies to improve educational outcomes,
so it’s very helpful to know that those solutions may not
make a difference in this context. But we still need to
drill down further if we want to find out what kinds of
changes would actually have an impact on outcomes
(as measured by standardized test scores).
The Issue Tree

If you’re having trouble identifying the problem/s you
should be prioritizing, one of the most powerful and
simple tools you can use is the issue tree. This is a
simple way of organizing related problems into
branches of causality.
In the San Zembla case, you might notice that obvious

quantitative measures such as school spending and
class sizes don’t seem to be the cause of the problem.
Therefore you might consider that the problem has
something to do with certain qualitative factors relating
to the educational system. As you continue teasing out
related issues, you might come up with an issue tree
like this.
If you want to make sure you’ve properly accounted for

all the relevant issues, you can conduct a MECE
analysis to make sure your categories are Mutually
Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive. A MECE analysis
of the different issues at play might look something like
this…
As you drill down on each of these categories, you

might notice one cluster of problems is implicated
across multiple categories. Alternatively, you might
notice one category in particular filling up with
interrelated and significant issues than the others. As
you conduct your analysis, remember to consider every
relevant angle on the information you’ve been
provided with. And don’t forget you can request more
information from your interviewer.
Provide Recommendations
Summarizing your recommendations is the final
assembly of all the work you’ve done so far. Remember
that how you present your recommendations is as
important as what solutions you actually recommend.
Also, make an effort to lead the analysis. This involves
working both with confidence and direction. Even if
you’re encountering uncertainty, then you should be
purposefully drilling down on that uncertainty in order
to better understand it. And as you start to derive
insights from the data, assemble them into an overall
argument in support of your recommendation.
It bears repeating that the simplest and most powerful

way to structure an argument is by following the
pyramid principle. You’ll remember that the pyramid
principle organizes an overall message into a hierarchy
of supporting arguments. Employing the pyramid
principle to the San Zembla case might look something
like this…
Building Blocks
If you’re having difficulty getting your footing in a
complex situation, it can help to remember the
fundamental building blocks of the consultant’s trade.
Remaining oriented to these building blocks will help
you generate meaningful insights even in moments of
uncertainty.
Estimation
Consultants are frequently sought for their abilities to
make strong predictions about hypothetical future
outcomes. This is an extremely complicated thing to
do, especially in highly volatile industries. It helps to
remember that, at a core level, strong estimation is
based as much in evidence and logical reasoning as
possible. Read the data to see what trends you can

observe over time. Of course, most estimation involves
some kind of intuitive leap—this is where firsthand
experience and familiarity really come into play. But
you can build some of that familiarity even as you use
your case interview prep to deepen your knowledge of
the ways various business scenarios play out.
Profitability
Profitability is always at front of mind for virtually all
parties involved in commercial interactions. Even if the
particularities of a given problem don’t obviously
center around profitability—as in our example of San
Zembla’s public education system—as a consultant you
will always at least have to consider cost sustainability,
the comparative margins of costs & revenues, etc.
Pricing & Valuation

Providing detailed analysis on issues of pricing and
valuation is central to any consultant’s work. Our San
Zembla case may not seem to include a conventional
product or service sold for profit, but issues of pricing
and valuation still come into play. For example, how
much will it cost to update San Zembla’s curriculum?
And is there any evidence from comparable situations
that give a hint as to what the value of an updated
curriculum will be? For example, have other countries
seen increases in educational outcomes, employment
figures, overall productivity, GDP?
Competitive Interactions
Studying cases at a remove can obscure the fact that
no company or entity operates in a vacuum. There are

always market issues at work, which express the
dynamics between competing and/or interdependent
organizations. One consideration that might bring up in
our current case is whether alternatives to San
Zembla’s public education—such as private or charter
schools—offer superior educational outcomes. Or even
if they don’t, is there reason to think the competition
itself will improve aggregate educational outcomes?
Case Interview Prep: Be

Ready for Your Interview
The case interview is one of the most influential single
events in an entire management consulting career. With that
in mind, the last thing you want is to end up disappointed
because you didn’t do enough preparation.
Timeline
You can and should start thinking about your prep
timeline up to a few years before you actually begin the
interview process. Based on our experience, we
recommend at least six months of prep. You’ll want to
make sure you leave enough room in your life that you
can really dive into studying and preparing. You should
also be looking ahead to the time you’ll want to start
the interview process and building your prep schedule
backward from there.
Of course, many people find themselves with less than

six months before their desired interview time. That
doesn’t disqualify you—it just means you’ll have to do
even more learning and prep in less time.
There are certain optimal times to apply depending on

what level of experience you’ll be starting with:
US Undergrads: The peak recruiting season for juniors
and seniors is in September of each year, so you
should aim to start prepping by March.
International Undergrads:
International undergrad recruiting follows US
recruiting and starts in October. Therefore, prep
work should start by April.
Advanced Degree Candidates

(ADCs):
Peak recruiting season begins in August, so
interview prep should start in February.
MBAs:
We recommend MBAs start their case interview
prep in June, before even coming to campus.
Everyone Else:
If you’re not applying out of school, peak hiring
season happens either in March or in July. That
would mean starting case interview prep in
September or January.
Audio Review
Coming out of a conventional university education, you
might be assuming your case interview prep will
consist primarily of texts, problems, and numbers.
However, an exclusively text-based interview prep
would be insufficient. The interview, of course, is an in-
person process, and your communication & people

skills are just as important as your technical know-how.
One frequently overlooked resource is Youtube videos

and podcasts. You can find a plethora of information
featuring current and former employees of the biggest
and most important consulting firms. You can also find
in-depth videos with consultants and former
consultants conducting mock interviews and giving
feedback. This is an extremely valuable resource.
Management Consulted, for instance, offers over 100
educational interviews on our own Youtube channel.
An excellent place to start is the Case Structure Walk-
through video.
You can also hire expert coaching. Our coaches can

watch or listen to you as you conduct a mock case
interview and offer feedback—this is one of the most
effective ways you can possibly ready yourself for the
case interview.
Practice Out Loud

Left to their own devices, many aspiring consultants
study as they would for any other test—that is, by
silently doing problems. This presents a huge problem
when they arrive on the day of their case interview and
discover how meaningful the difference is between
practicing cases silently and practicing out loud.
Even if you think you’re considering how to

communicate the work you’re doing as you do practice
cases, you’ll find that everything sounds very different
said out loud. Practicing working out loud will help you
communicate your thought process along the way—so
interviewers can see your problem-solving skills. It will

also help you develop more confidence and it will help
you identify mistakes & weak spots you might not
otherwise notice.
Structuring Process
As we mention above, developing an appropriate
structure for approaching each case interview will be
something interviewers are looking to see. As you
proceed through the various practice cases in your
case prep, try to start developing more strategic and
formalized procedures for solving each problem. As
you approach a problem, take a minute to talk out your
thinking—what you know, what you don’t know, what
you want to find out in order to proceed, and the order
in which you aim to figure that information out.
Taking on a more formal approach to the ways you

structure your responses will help you see cases more
clearly and will help make your analysis more accurate
& effective. Plus you’ll develop a comfort with talking
out your thought process, something you’ll want to do
in the actual case interview.
Do Your Homework
We’ve made a point here to express that doing practice
cases alone is not enough to help you prepare for the
case interview. But that shouldn’t obscure the fact that
you still do need to do a lot of practice cases as part of
your interview prep.
Most successful applicants do 30 to 50 practice cases.

However, completing a practice case doesn’t just mean
arriving at a solution. It means developing a deep

understanding of all the factors in play so you can
apply those insights to cases down the road.
We have also found that working with expert coaching

can help cut the necessary number practice cases in
half, putting them in the 15-20 case range. For most
applicants, we recommend the Black Belt Interviewer
package, which offers 8 hours of 1:1 coaching. A
staggering 60% of our “Black Belts” earn offers from
top 10 firms nationwide. Compare that to the industry
average acceptance rate of 3%.
Practice Alone
Coming out of school, many people have only learned
how to succeed in group settings and when they’re
working with a guided syllabus. One adjustment you
might have to make is learning to study alone.
Of course, this is an excellent reason to partner with an

expert coach as you prep for your case interview. Our
coaches offer real world skill as they help personalize
your journey through our carefully designed
curriculum. As mentioned above, people who complete
our Black Belt program get hired at top 10 firms at over
20x the rate of the industry average.
Practice with a Case Partner

If you’re not in the right situation to work with an expert
coach, or if you’re looking to supplement that work,
you should really consider practicing with another
aspiring consultant as you work your way through
practice cases. Partnering up with someone who
shares your ambition can help keep you accountable.

It’s also an excellent way to get firsthand feedback on
your performance. Not to mention the fact that
providing feedback to other people on their practice
cases will help sharpen your eye to your own
vulnerabilities.
The only thing to be careful about here is that, if you

decide NOT to hire an expert coach at any point, be
careful not to put too much weight on the feedback
you get from case partners, particularly ones who
aren’t experts. For example, a friend might implore you
to choose a framework and stick to it to provide
structure. That’s kind of right, but kind of not right. Take
feedback from unproven case partners in stride.
Get Expert Help

We’ve said it already but it bears repeating: working
with expert coaching is one of the best things you can
do to increase your chances of acing the case
interview. Our coaches have been through the process
themselves, and most have also administered
interviews for major consulting firms. Numbers like our
Black Belt program’s 60% hiring rate demonstrate that
there’s no substitute for one-on-one coaching.
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Case Interview Preparation

Tips: Execution
1. Start Every Case Strong
One really powerful thing to practice as you go about
your case interview prep is the principle of starting
every case strong. If you’re able to do this, you’ll enter
every scenario you see with a positive attitude and a
flexible mind. If you don’t cultivate this attitude, then
the actual day of your interview will feel like a grind.
You’ll take your eye off the ball between interviews,
and then next thing you know, you’ll find yourself
sounding totally unenergetic and possibly making
careless mistakes.
2. Ask Clarifying Questions

We often aren’t aware of this, but our natural problem-
solving skills typically involve isolating areas of
uncertainty and drilling down on them. You’ll do
yourself a big favor if you force yourself to start
articulating what those uncertainties are as you go
along. This will help you communicate your thinking
during your actual case interview.
Further, you can use the strategy of asking clarifying

questions if you’re ever unsure about how to proceed.
That uncertainty must be coming from somewhere.
What don’t you know that, if you did know, would tell
you how to proceed?
3. Stay Hypothesis-Driven Throughout

the Case
Maintaining a consistently hypothesis-driven approach
to each case is one of the best general strategies you

can implement. Case interviews are designed not to be
perfectly straightforward. There is something of a
maze-like quality to them, in that you can’t necessarily
see the whole path right away, but have to continue
making adjustments as you go.
Open vs. Defined Case Interview

Hypotheses
That said, there are different kinds of hypotheses.
One major way to categorize the kind of
hypothesis you’re working with is as either open
or defined. A defined hypothesis typically answers
a question whose answers are narrowly defined,
such as a yes or no question. A defined
hypothesis might sound like: “Our client wants to
know whether they should enter a particular new
market. Our hypothesis is that they should.” Then
you would begin testing that hypothesis to see
what the effects would be.
An open hypothesis, by contrast, pertains to a

more open-ended problem whose solutions are
not expressed as simple binaries. An example of
an open hypothesis related to the defined one
above might be: “Our client wants to know what
they can do to increase profitability. We believe
that entering a new market will increase
profitability.
Testing Your Hypothesis

You should always have an understanding of your
working hypothesis as you proceed through a
problem. By design, you will encounter new bits of

data that will tell you your hypothesis is wrong or
right. You should be consistently referring back to
your hypothesis to see whether it’s supported by
whatever new data emerges. As the data conflicts
with the hypothesis, you’ll want to revise the
hypothesis to fit the new data and to test with
whatever data emerges next.
4. Be Case-Specific
One of the easiest mistakes for an interviewer to spot
is a candidate who is over-relying on pre-scripted
frameworks. The frameworks are designed to give you
basic patterns to help you make sense of the unique
scenarios you encounter. But each of these scenarios
will require its own custom-tailored approach, shaped
by the specifics of the problem as it’s defined.
Interviewers will be paying attention to make sure you
are carefully considering the nuances that make each
case unique and customizing your tactics appropriately.
5. Ask About Trends

The interviewers working alongside you will have
access to hosts of potentially relevant data that is not
necessarily given to you at the
beginning of a case. This could
pertain to costs and revenues
with some degree of history and
granularity. But the interviewers
will only give you the
information you ask for. Be sure
to ask for data covering a wide enough time frame that
you can really develop a deeper sense of the situation

and the various trends at work. For instance, if you’re
provided with six months of advertising costs and
associated revenue gains, see whether your
interviewer has that same data going back even
further, which might tell a different story.
6. Analyze Case Charts and Graphs

We’ve already given some time to stressing the
importance of accurately reading charts and graphs
associated with your case interview. One of the primary
sources of mistakes in this realm is not an inability to
read charts but mistakes made by reading them too
quickly. You will probably have more time available
than you realize, including five minutes allotted for
every quantitative problem. Be sure to double-check
your understanding of a chart and to talk your way
through it as you go.
7. Round Your Case Math Numbers

Whenever Possible
Being able to think on your feet and quickly develop &
adapt different strategies is a huge part of the
consultant’s toolkit. A major component of this is being
able to accurately do mental math without needing to
stop for a calculator. One significant shortcut you can
take is to get good at rounding figures to workable
“wholes”.
Data is often given with a greater degree of specificity

than is really required to work through the problem. If
the figures in the thousands or millions are spelled out
down to two decimal places, then there is probably

room for you to round.
8. Think Out Loud As Much As You

Can
For all the technicality of the various frameworks, one
of the things aspiring consultants have the most
trouble with is learning to think out loud. Most
consultants were good students, but thinking out loud
isn’t really a skill you build in school.
Even though the kind of work a consultant does

resembles schoolwork on the level of content, the
performance is very different. Consultants have to deal
with clients directly, and as they do so consultants have
to convey a nuanced understanding of the client’s
perspective as well as a confident plan for responding
to the situation at hand. The case interview is, in part, a
test of your ability to communicate in this way. So as
you go about your case interview prepping, try to get in
the habit of thinking out loud.
9. Follow the Data, Not the Case

Framework
Another frequent mistake applicants make is getting so
attached to the first framework to occur to them that
they try to force the data to fit into it. But no case is
ever perfectly solved with a plug-and-play framework.
Each case has its own idiosyncrasies. It should be the
unique features of the data that drive your analysis—
not any effort to force the data to conform to the
framework you’ve decided to try.
10. Finish with a Strong

Recommendation
Remember that the consultant’s job, as far as the
consulting firm is concerned, is not simply to calculate
the “correct” solution to a problem. The consultant’s
job is also to sell that solution to the client, and to help
the client implement it. You’d be surprised how many
people do a reasonably good job on their cases, in that
they apply a framework flexibly, and do all the mental
math and analysis correctly. When they finish, the have
evaluated the qualitative benefits of the decision in the
case, and the math on profitability that they completed
clearly shows that the business decision makes sense.
But then the applicant stops and acts as if the case is
over. You need to summarize what you have learned
and said and bring the case over the goal line with a
recommendation. To provide a clear recommendation,
follow the Pyramid Principle. In a nutshell, give the
answer first, then the “why” or supporting data.
Many cases don’t have single right answers. So if you

fail to arrive at what seems like an open-and-shut
conclusion, don’t let uncertainty infect your conclusion.
You’ve arrived at one possible solution among many,
and whatever that solution is, your job now is to
convince the “client” (i.e. your interviewer) that you
believe in that solution completely.
11. Maintain a Positive Attitude and

Confident Persona
Confidence and positivity tend to be valued across the
entire consulting industry. This makes sense for a
variety of reasons. On some level, consultants are both

salespeople and therapists for their clients. Not to
mention, consultants tend to be self-motivated,
competitive people whose success goes hand in hand
with a confident demeanor. But also, insofar as
consultants at the same firm make up a team, they are
constantly being bombarded with new challenges and
demands. Remaining confident and positive is an
important part of a firm’s overall morale. Therefore
demonstrating your own positive attitude and confident
persona helps make the argument that you’re a good
fit for the firm you’re applying to.
Case Interview Complete Prep Guide
Conclusion
Management consulting has for decades been one of the
hottest career paths for ambitious young professionals. The

consultant path offers constant stimulation and novelty, as
well as lucrative material rewards. But in order to enter the
industry, you’re going to have to make it through the case
interview. The keys to successfully navigating the case
interview process are many, but they include fully
understanding what firms are looking for, understanding –
but not relying – on frameworks, doing a lot of practice
cases and potentially getting excerpt help, learning to talk
and do math out loud, and staying confident.
Hopefully this guide has given you a thorough overview of

just what it’ll take to fully prepare for this crucial step in your
career. Don’t forget, one of the most powerful things you
can do to boost your consulting interview prep is to work 1-
on-1 with an expert coach. Management Consulted’s crack
team of coaches will help you develop the necessary skills,
and they’ll also give you unparalleled expertise in just what
interviewers are looking for.
Additional Reading:
Case Interview Frameworks: Ultimate Guide
Case Interview Examples: Master List
Profitability Case Walkthrough- BCG Style
Consulting Resume: Complete Guide
Learn More
CAS E IN T E RVI EW C O NS ULT ING F IR M S
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C OV E R L E T T E RS C O NS ULT ING R E C RU I T I NG
C O NS U LTI NG S KILLS C O R PO R AT E T R A I NIN G
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Booz Allen Hamilton, Case Interview, Consulting Case
Interview, consulting interviews, deloitte consulting, KPMG,
McKinsey Case Interview, McKinsey Consulting
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You should be structured and use frameworks, but not

True, true and true again. However, it’s really important to go

the applicant an offer.

In this article, we’ll cover the following critical points to put

1. What Is A Case Interview? A full understanding of the

you bring it all together to deliver an excellent case

500 cases, drills, 8

$200 $700 $1400

What Is A Case Interview?

In short, the case interview is one of several stages of the

While there are numerous other steps in the consultant

Case Interview Presentation

A typical new hire goes through four to six case interviews

interview cycle will be spent on a “Fit Interview.” In this fit

McKinsey Case Interview,

McKinsey Case Interview

The McKinsey case interview begins, as all case

McKinsey is also known for drilling down more on other

McKinsey Case Interview Example

McKinsey Case Interview Example - Market Study

BCG Case Interview

In addition, the BCG case interview is described as

Because case interviews are often adapted from real-

BCG Case Interview Example

Market Entry Case Study Interview: BCG-Style

Bain Case Interview

The other factor that makes the Bain case interview

Bain Case Interview Example

Bain Full Case Interview Example (with future Bai…

Boutique Consulting Firms

well as a kind of anonymity within the larger apparatus

Because of the smaller feel of a boutique firm, as well

Finally, boutique consulting firms also tend to

Case Interview Examples

you with several case interview examples.

McKinsey Case Study Interview

“R&D for biologicals is vastly different from small-

area. BioFuture was founded 12 years ago by

BCG Case Interview Examples

“Today, we’ll discuss the case of our client, a low-

cost carrier (LCC) airline that is among the largest

“The client is therefore questioning its business

Bain Case Interview Examples

“Our client is FashionCo, a player in the women’s

“FashionCo will have a management meeting at

Boutique Firms Case Interview

Compared to material from the megalithic MBB firms,

Here’s an example called “Promo-

Case Interview Frameworks

prepared for the case interview has been to study a wide

Here we’ll give you an overview of some of the different

Download our free Frameworks Guide

GET FREE DOWNLOAD

Market Entry Framework

The market entry framework is the general framework

The first thing to do in a profitability case is to look at

You can also watch a profitability case interview in

ProEtability Case Walkthrough: BCG Style - with e…

M&A Case Framework (Mergers

One of the more infrequent situations most companies