types of case study interviews

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

1. The key to landing your consulting job.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's dive right in and find out!

Professional help

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

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

Case Academy Course

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

Coaching options

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

Explore mentoring

Now, back to the article!

2. What is a case interview?

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

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

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

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

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

Some examples of case study questions might be:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.1.1. Application screen

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

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

2.1.2. Aptitude tests and online cases

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

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

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

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

2.1.3. Rounds of Interviews

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

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

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

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

2.2. Differences between first and second round interviews

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

There are three key differences between the two rounds:

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

2.3. What skills do case interviews assess?

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

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

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

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

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

2.1.1.One: Probing mind

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

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

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

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

2.1.2. Structure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.1.3. Problem Solving

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

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

2.1.4. Numerical Agility

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

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

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

2.1.5. Communication

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prep the right way

3. types of case interview.

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

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

3.1. Different case objectives

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

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

3.2. How do interviewers craft cases

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

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

3.3. Candidate-led cases

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

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

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

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

3.4. Interviewer-led cases

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

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

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

3.5. Case and fit

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

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

To illustrate, here is the typical case interview timeline:

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

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

NB: No case without fit

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

3.5.1 Differences between firms

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

3.5.2. The McKinsey PEI

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

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

3.6. What is different in 2023?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.6.1. Automated fit interviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.1. Identify the problem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is summarised here:

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

4.2. Build your problem driven structure

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

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

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

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

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

4.2.1 Issue trees

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

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

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

4.2.2 Hypothesis trees

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

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

4.2.3 Other structures:structured lists

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

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

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

4.2.4 Structures in practice

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

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

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

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

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

4.2. Lead the analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.4. Provide recommendations

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

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

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

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

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

So, how do we do it right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.5. What if I get stuck?

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

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

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

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

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

5. What to remember in case interviews

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

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

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

5.1. An overall clear structure

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

5.1.1 Structured notes

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

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

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

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

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

5.1.2 Structured communication

There will be three main types of communication in cases:

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

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

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

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

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

5.1.3 Structured framework

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

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

5.1.4 Structured calculations

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

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

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

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

5.2. Common business knowledge and formulas

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

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

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

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

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

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

5.2.1 Business sector concepts

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

5.2.1.1. Revenue

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

Revenue = Volume x Price

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

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

5.2.1.2. Costs

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

Costs = Fixed Costs + Variable Costs

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

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

5.2.1.3. Profit and profit margin

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

Profit = Revenue - Costs

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

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

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

Profit margin = Profit/Revenue x 100

5.2.1.4. Break-even point

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

Revenues = Costs (Fixed costs + Variable costs)

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

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

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

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

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

5.2.1.5. Market share and market size

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

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

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

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

5.3 Public sector and NGO concepts

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

5.3.1 Quantifiability

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5.3.1 Impact

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

5.4 Common consulting concepts

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

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

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

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

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

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

5.4.2 The Pareto Principle

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

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

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

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

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

5.4.3 The Pyramid Principle

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

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

6. Case examples or building blocks?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6.1 Estimates and segmentation

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

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

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

6.2 Profitability

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

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

6.3 Pricing

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

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

6.4. Valuation

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

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

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

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

6.5. Competitive interaction

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

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

6.6. Special cases

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

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

The first question addressed to the candidate is the following:

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

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

7. How Do I prepare for case interviews

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

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

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

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

7.1. Solo practice

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

• Mental math

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

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

7.2. Preparation with a partner

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

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

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

7.2.1. Peer preparation

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

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

7.2.2. Preparation with a consultant

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

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

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

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

7.3. Practice for online interviews

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

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

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

7.4. Fit interviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Interview day - what to expect, with tips

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

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

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

8.1. Getting started

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

8.1.1. First impressions

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

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

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

8.1.2. Down to business

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

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

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

8.1.3. Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8.1.4. Recommendation

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

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

8.1.5. Wrapping up

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

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

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

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

8.2. Remote and one-way interview tips

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

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

8.2.1. Connection

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

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

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

8.2.2. Dress

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

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

8.2.3. Lighting

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

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

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

8.2.4. Clarity

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

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

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

9. How we can help

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

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

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

You can find out more on our coaching page:

Explore Coaching

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

You can read more here:

Comprehensive Mentoring

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A Comprehensive Guide to Case Interview Prep [tips updated 2024]

• Last Updated March, 2024

Rebecca Smith-Allen

Former McKinsey Engagement Manager

What Are the Best Ways to Prepare for Interviews with Management Consulting Firms?

Congratulations!

If you’re on this page, you’re probably considering a career in management consulting or are already in the middle of the interview process.

We’re here to help.

We’re a team of more than 20 former McKinsey, Bain, and BCG consultants and recruiters (our average time in consulting is 13 years each) and we put together this guide to help you prepare for getting your consulting offer.

After reading this, we hope “congratulations” is also what you’ll hear when you leave your final interviews.

Management Consulting Jobs Are in High Demand

Management consulting jobs are among the most sought-after positions in on-campus recruiting, whether you’re applying as an undergraduate or from a business school. 

Consulting firm recruits also include law school students, Ph.D. program candidates and people who’ve already started their professional careers in other industries.

Management consulting firms are filled with smart, driven people working to solve hard business problems. 

This work is a great launching pad for your career. 

Top consultancies offer competitive salaries and also invest significantly in employee development. A job at a management consulting firm will expose you to multiple different industries and types of business problems. 

There’s a lot to like about a career in consulting!

Competition for Jobs with Top Consulting Firms Is Fierce, so Preparation Is Essential.

But attractive jobs are usually highly competitive, and that’s definitely the case in management consulting. 

Top firms typically make offers to only about 1% of the people who apply. It’s not impossible to get a job with firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG (also known as the MBB firms), but it requires preparation.

In particular, successful candidates know that consulting firms use a particular type of interview question — the case study interview — and they know what recruiters are looking for in answers. 

In this article, we’ll help you prepare for management consulting interviews by answering the following questions:

• What is a case interview?
• How do I answer a case question?
• What is the best approach for case interview prep?

We’ll also provide tips and tricks that will help you to ace your case.  

Whether you’re aiming for a job at one of the MBB firms (McKinsey, Bain, or BCG), with other consultancies such as AT Kearney, L.E.K. or Oliver Wyman, or with the consulting arms of the large accounting firms such as Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, Ernst & Young, or KPMG, we can help you get there.  

What Is a Consulting Case Study Interview (also known as the “Case Interview”)?

A Case Study Interview is a real-time problem-solving test used to screen candidates for their ability to succeed in consulting. 

The case is presented as an open-ended question, often a problem that a specific type of business is facing, that an interviewer asks a candidate to solve.

Sample Case Interview Questions

Sales of drinks in Coffee Bean cafes are decreasing. What is causing the sales decrease?

Turnover of store employees at Burgers R’ Us restaurants has increased over prior years. What would you advise the company to do?

Donations to Caring Hands are decreasing, straining the non-profit’s ability to help the families it targets. What should the organization do to turn this around?

Case Interview 101 – The Basics for Beginners

You don’t need an MBA or an undergraduate degree in economics to land a job in consulting. But you will need to learn some business basics to be able to crack case interviews.

This section covers the concepts non-business students need to become familiar with, such as:

• The income statement – an overview
• Common formulas used in case interviews
• Business concepts you need to know
• Common types of case interviews

Case Interview 101, Part 1: The Income Statement

To solve cases, you first need to understand broadly how companies make money. For any specific case, you’ll want to make sure you understand how that company makes money. 

The most common way companies make money is by selling a product or service for more than it costs to produce, thereby earning a profit . 

Companies use three major financial statements to monitor and report their financial performance: 

(1) The income statement (2) The balance sheet (3) The cash flow statement 

An income statement (or profit and loss statement or statement of revenue and expenses) is a record of a company’s profit or loss over a specific period of time . The profit or loss is calculated by taking the revenues generated and subtracting the expenses incurred over the same period of time. The income statement has 3 major categories: Revenue, Expenses, and Profit or Loss .

Revenue is the total amount of money generated by a company from selling its products or services. It is also referred to as gross sales or “top line” as it sits at the top of the income statement. 

Costs are expenses incurred by a company to make its products or services. In the income statement there are three types of costs: 

• Costs of goods sold (COGS) or cost of sales are the direct costs of making products or providing a service. For a burger restaurant, for example, the COGS would include things like the meat, bun, and hourly labor of cooks, cashiers, and shift supervisors.
• Operating expenses are costs that are indirectly tied to the making of products or services. These include selling, general, and administrative (SGA) expenses, management salaries, depreciation, and amortization. Depreciation and amortization are non-cash expenses that reflect the value of big assets like machinery or buildings going down over time. For example, if our burger restaurant buys a grill to cook burgers on for $1,000 and expects it to last for 10 years, it would spread out the cost over that period, $100 per year. Other operating expenses for our burger restaurant would include things like advertising, the rent on the company’s headquarters, and the salary of the CEO.
• Costs incurred from non-operating activities such as interest paid on loans. These costs are rarely part of case interviews.

Profit or Loss :

Income statements generally show 3 levels of profit (loss) or earnings: Gross Profit; Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA); and Net Profit.

Gross profit or loss

This is calculated by subtracting COGS or the cost of sales from the total revenue generated. If the costs are higher than the revenue generated, then the company has made a loss.

EBITDA and EBIT

EBITDA is calculated by subtracting operating expenses from the gross profit. EBIT is calculated by subtracting depreciation and amortization from EBITDA. 

As mentioned above, depreciation and amortization are non-cash expenses. So if the amount of cash generated by selling a product or service is important to your analysis, you should look at EBITDA. If looking at a more fully loaded cost is the focus of your analysis, use EBIT.

Net Profit or Loss

This is calculated by subtracting interest and tax from EBIT. It is also known as Net Income and refers to the profit (or loss) for the period. This is also known as the “bottom line” as it sits at the bottom of the income statement. This is the ultimate measure of whether a company’s activities are profitable during a certain time period when all costs are considered.  

Case Interview 101, Part 2: Common Formulas Used in Case Interviews

Here is a look at common formulas used in case interviews.

Profitability formula:

The profitability formula is used in profit (or loss) related cases. The profit or loss can be calculated using the following formula:

             Profit (or Loss) = Revenue – Costs

As mentioned above:

• Revenue is the money generated from selling a product or service. It can be broken down into price per unit and number of units sold . 
• Costs are the expenses incurred to make the product or service and can be broken down into cost per unit and number of units sold . 

The formula can further be broken down into:

            Profit (or Loss) = (price per unit x number of units sold) – (cost per unit x number of units sold)

There are other ways to break down revenue and cost depending on the case question.

• Revenue can be broken down by product or service line, customer type, or geographic region (e.g., North American, Europe, Asia)
• Costs can be broken into fixed costs and variable costs, or components such as overhead, salary, etc.

It is often helpful to break costs down into fixed and variable to solve consulting cases, and understanding the difference is important. Fixed costs, like rent for a store or the cost of equipment, are incurred regardless of how many units a company sells; whereas variable costs are only incurred with the production of each additional unit. Because of this, it can be helpful to sell incremental units even at a loss for a short period of time if it helps cover fixed costs.

So the profitability formula can also be written as:

            Profit (or Loss) = (price per unit x number of units sold) – (fixed + variable costs)

P rofitability example:

Your client, a manufacturer, is facing a decline in profits. Your client wants your help solving this problem. We’ll use this example to demonstrate all the formulas in this section.

The first step you could take is to calculate the past year’s profit given the following information:

• Number of units sold = 1 million
• Price per unit = $10
• Cost per unit = $8

          Profit (or Loss) = ($10 x 1 million) – ($8 x 1 million)

          Profit = $2 million

Profit margin formula:

Profit margin indicates how many cents of profit the company generated for each dollar of sale. It’s typically used to measure the financial health of a company . You can compare the profit margin of a company against its historical margins to evaluate whether its current performance is better or worse than past performance. You can also compare it against companies in the same industry to evaluate whether its financial performance is stronger or weaker.

Profit margin can be calculated using the formula:

          Profit margin = (Profit / Revenue ) *100%

Profit margin example:

To calculate the profit margin, first, you need to calculate company revenues as follows:

            Revenue = 1 million x $10

           Revenue = $ 10 million

You can now calculate the profit margin as follows:

            Profit margin = ($2 million / $10 million) x 100%

           Profit margin = 20%

Note you can combine both the formulas for faster calculation.

Market share formula:

Market share is the size of the company in relation to the size of the industry in which it operates, where size is typically measured in annual revenues. It is used to compare the size of a company to its competitors and the industry as a whole. It can be used in market entry cases because industries with a lot of small competitors are generally easier to enter than ones with only a few big competitors. It’s also used in profitability cases because, in general, companies with a large market share also have more market power to do things like set prices.

Market share can be calculated using the following formula:

            Market share (%) =total company revenue / total industry revenue  

Market share example:

Using the example from above, say you decide to determine the company’s market share as part of your analysis. In this example, the industry has annual revenues of $ 200 million.

            Market share (%) = $ 10 million / $ 200 million

           Market share = 5%

Growth Rate Formula:

This refers to the specific change of a variable within a specific period of time. Growth rates can be used in assessing the financial performance of a company over time. For example, high revenue growth rates would likely be a sign of strong financial performance. High cost growth rates may be a sign that a company is having financial trouble.

The growth rate is calculated using the formula:

            Growth rate (%) = (New – Old) / Old

Growth rate example:

To calculate the manufacturer’s revenue growth rate. Last year’s revenue was $ 9.5 million therefore the revenue growth rate is:

            Revenue growth rate = ($10 million – $9.5 million) / $9.5 million

            Revenue growth rate =5%

You can assess whether a company’s growth rate is strong by comparing it to other growth rates such as:

• The company’s growth in the prior year.
• The growth of the market or of competitors.
• The rate of inflation.

Mature companies are likely to see single-digit growth rates unless they launch a very successful new product or they acquire a company. On the other hand, startup investors typically expect double- or triple-digit annual growth during a company’s early years.

Return on investment formula:

Return on investment (ROI) is a profitability metric that indicates how well an investment performed (or will perform). It can be used to compare the profitability or efficiency of an investment or decide which of alternative investments to make. 

ROI is calculated using the following formula:

            ROI (%) = Profit / Cost of investment

ROI example:

Suppose our manufacturer mentions that they purchased state-of-the-art machinery to make their product. It cost $8 million. You decide to calculate the ROI on this investment. 

            ROI  = $2 million / $8 million

           ROI=25%

Break-even formula:

Break-even is the point at which the total revenue and total costs are equal, meaning there is no loss or profit at that point. Break-even is typically used to help companies determine the minimum number of units that need to be sold to cover all the costs used to produce those units. 

An executive might want to know that they could break even at 100,000 units sold because if she thought they could sell more than that, it would be profitable to enter the market. If she thought they’d sell less, they wouldn’t enter the market.

Break-even can be calculated using the following formula:

              Breakeven (units) = Fixed costs  / (sales price – variable cost per unit)

Break-even example:

If a product required a $50,000 investment in equipment (a fixed cost), sold for $5, and cost $4 per unit in variable costs, its breakeven would be: 

              Breakeven (units) = $50,000  / ($5 – $4)

              Breakeven= 50,000 units

Payback period formula:

Managers may also look at the payback period on an investment or, in other words, how long it would take to earn back the cash required to enter a new business. This investment could be a new piece of equipment or a marketing campaign needed to create customer awareness of a new product. This is a different way of looking at the same question that the breakeven formula asks: is it worth my while to make this investment?

The payback period can be calculated using the following formula:

              Payback (years) = Investment cost / annual profit

Payback years example:

Using the same example, you decided to calculate the payback years of the new state-of-art machinery

            Payback (years)= $8 million / $2 million

           Payback = 4 years

Capacity of equipment:

The capacity of equipment is the maximum output or units a piece of equipment can produce with the available resources over a set period of time.

Capacity can be calculated using the following formula:

            Capacity (units) =Total capacity / Capacity required to make one unit

Capacity example:

To calculate the capacity of our manufacturer’s machinery, we’d need to know that it can produce a unit every 10 minutes and that the client operates 12-hour shifts.

              Capacity (units) = 12 hours x (60 minutes per hour) / 10 minutes

             Capacity = 72 units / day

The utilization rate of equipment:

Utilization rate is the percent of available time the equipment or machinery is actually used. It measures efficiency and can be used by companies to make informed decisions on timelines and inventory, or whether additional equipment is needed.

The utilization rate of equipment can be calculated by the following formula:

              Utilization rate (%) =Actual output / Maximum output

Utilization rate example:

Using the same example, imagine that the management tells you that in a 12-hour shift, the machine produces 50 units and there are two 45-minute breaks.

First, you would need to calculate the potential output.

               Actual hours of operation = 12 hours – 1.5 hours = 10.5 hours

               Potential output = (10.5 hours / 12 hours) x 72 units

               Potential output = 63 units

Then, calculate the utilization rate.

                Utilization rate = 50 units / 63 units

                Utilization rate = 79%

Utilization rates raise interesting issues in a case. It raises questions such as:

• If potential output is 63 units, why are only 50 being produced (e.g., machine downtime, worker errors), and what can be done to solve these problems?
• Could the company stagger employee breaks to get potential output up to 72 units from 63?

Case Interview 101, Part 3: Business Concepts You Need to Know

Here are some common business concepts that you need to know as you prepare for your interview.

Process : This is a set of actions or operations that lead to results (products or services). This typically describes how a company makes its products or services. The steps can be performed by workers, equipment, or computers. In a case, this is mostly used in situations where a client would like to make their processes more efficient. For example, a client who is in logistics would like to reduce the cost of its operations by improving the efficiency of its processes, such as by reducing equipment downtime or scheduling deliveries according to time-saving routes. 

Best practices: Best practices are methods or techniques that are considered to be the working standards and guides in a given situation . In a business situation, best practices are used to benchmark companies against the standard and can serve as a roadmap on how to improve the efficiency of their operations.

Hypotheses: Tentative answers to a problem or an assumption based on some evidence. The hypothesis-driven approach is a common approach to solving problems in the consulting world because consultants don’t want to waste time fully researching all possible solutions. They want to move quickly to the most likely answer and then test whether it is or is not the best answer. This approach can be used to solve case interview questions where you first assume an answer to the case problem and check whether this is true or not through analysis. If it is not true, you revise your hypothesis.

Issue tree: This is a common approach in consulting used to solve complex problems . An issue tree is used to break down complex problems into key components in a structured manner. In a case interview, you can use the issue tree to break down the client’s problem into manageable chunks or to break down a formula such as the profitability formula into key components.

Read our article for more information on Issue Trees .

MECE: MECE stands for mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive . It is a way of bucketing problems, ideas, or solutions with no overlapping between the buckets and with each item having a place in one bucket only (mutually exclusive), and with the buckets including all possible items relevant to the context (collectively exhaustive). In a case interview, you can use MECE with the issue tree when breaking down problems or when identifying solutions for the client. MECE issue trees are considered the gold standard for problem-solving so this concept is very good to know. 

You can also use the concept of MECE when segmenting a market – for example, if you are sizing a market and intend to lay out different purchasing behavior assumptions for different customer segments. For example:

Customer segment                         Purchase frequency for items from coffee shops

Women under 30                             4 times per week, purchase includes food item plus beverage Men under 30                                     2 times per week, purchase includes only beverage Women 31 and over                         4 times per month, purchase includes only beverage Men 31 and over                                 3 times per month, purchase includes only beverage

Note how in this example, everyone would fall into one customer segment and only one customer segment. Read our article for more about MECE problem-solving .

Root causes: This is the core issue or main reason for a problem . It is used in problem-solving to identify solutions that appropriately address the problem. The term root cause is used to distinguish between symptoms of a problem, which may be obvious, and the underlying issue that needs to be solved, which may not be obvious. For example, a decline in sales volume is a symptom. The root cause could be high prices, poor product quality, product unavailability, or any number of other issues. You can’t fix the symptom of declining sales volume until you identify the root cause behind the problem. 

In a case interview, you’ll need to identify possible causes of the client’s problem and then ask questions and do analysis to identify the root cause. Once you do, you can make the most appropriate recommendations for the client.

Break-even analysis: This is the calculation used to determine the point at which the total revenue and total costs are equal meaning there is no loss or profit. In business situations, it helps determine at which point the business, investment, or new product or service will become profitable. In case interviews, you can use the break-even analysis to determine whether a client should make a certain investment, say in machinery or a new product line, based on how likely it is that they’ll exceed the break-even threshold.

Case Interview 101, Part 4: Common Types of Case Interviews

In this section, we will review 4 common types of case interviews.

Market-sizing Questions

Market-sizing questions typically appear in cases where clients want to grow or expand their business such as market entry or profitability cases. The client either wants to understand the market size of the current business or of a potential new product line or geography or customer group to understand whether it is big enough to be interesting. 

Sample case questions

“How many cups of coffee does Starbucks sell in a day?” “Estimate the fleet size of Delta Airlines.” “Estimate market size for air-conditioners in New York.”  “Estimate market size for an anti-smoking pill in the U.S.”

You are not expected to know the exact answer to market-sizing questions. Instead, the interviewer wants to see that you can use simple math and logical deduction to build out an answer. For these questions, it is good to memorize a few facts that will help you make assumptions. For example, a good place to start is the population of the U.S. or the population of a U.S. city (or country and city that you live in). 

For more information and examples, read our article on Market-sizing Cases .

Revenue Growth Case Interviews

In revenue growth cases, the client typically wants to grow their business. This can be done by increasing revenue of the current product/service line, by adding a new product/service line, or by selling to a new type of customer or in a new geography. 

They could do this by building a new offering, buying another company, or partnering (joint venture) with another company that already offers what they want to sell. 

“A manufacturer sees its revenue stagnating. It wants to know whether raising price or selling more units is a better path to growing revenue, and how to pursue it.”

“A local theater house thinks there is an opportunity to expand their current offerings to the very loyal client base. What new product or service could they offer their customers? What would be the impact on revenue from expanding their offerings?”

“A regional fast-food chain, serving hamburgers and fries, is experiencing increasing demand outside of its main regions of operation and wants to expand. What regions would have the biggest impact on its revenue?”

You should remember that there are multiple ways to achieve revenue growth. One thing to consider is the client and industry context when tackling revenue growth questions. For example, does the client have a good market size in the industry? Does the client have the capability to offer new products/services? Is the industry highly competitive?

For more information, read our article on Revenue Growth Cases .

Market Entry Case Interviews

In market entry cases, the client wants to know if they can enter a market and be profitable. For example, entering a different geography, new demography, or new product/service line. (Note, there can be overlap between revenue growth cases and market entry cases.)

“A U.S.-based consumer electronics manufacturer is thinking of expanding into emerging markets. What is the potential revenue growth if they choose to expand into India?”

“A telecom operator is looking to diversify their presence in the U.S. and wants to enter the video streaming market. How can they capture a significant market share?”

“A renewable energy company that specializes in large equipment such as windmills wants to enter the retail market and sell smaller equipment directly to individual homes. They would like to know if this is a good idea.”

There are a number of frameworks you can build off of to tackle a market-entry case. For example, Porter’s Five Forces, Business Situation Framework or 3C&P (customer, competition, company, and product), and Supply & Demand among others. It is key to consider the “new” market context as well as the client context to enter this market. 

To find out more on this, read our article on The Market Entry Framework .

Cost Optimization Case Interviews

Cost optimization cases or questions can be part of a profitability case where a client is experiencing declining profitability or when a client wants to improve efficiency.

“A national hotel chain has seen its operational costs significantly increase over the last year and would like you to figure out why.”

“A juice manufacturer has been experiencing a steady increase in revenue over the past 5 years however their cost has been increasing at a faster rate, meaning the profits have not grown as expected. What is the root cause of the significant increase in cost?”

“A tour company would like to reduce their costs due to the falling number of tourists over the past few years. What ways would you recommend for them to reduce their costs?’

For cost optimization cases, remember to break down the cost components. For example, you can break them down into fixed and variable costs or cost of goods sold and operational costs and then brainstorm the categories of each that will likely apply to the company at hand. This will make it easier to identify what costs should be reduced or eliminated.

Check out Types of Case Interviews article for more detail on these types of cases and more.

Why Do Top Consulting Firms Use Case Interview Questions?

Management consultancies are not the only types of firms that use case interview questions to evaluate candidates. 

Investment banks, consumer marketing companies, and others use the case interview structure in their interview process.

Because case interviews show how a candidate would problem solve in real time. 

Solving complex, ambiguous problems is at the heart at what consultants do every day.

This type of interview question mimics the analytic process a consultant might go through in a 3-month project, but it does it in 30 minutes, the time allowed in a typical interview. 

The interviewer can probe whether a candidate’s approach is well-structured, creative, and displays good business sense.

How Do Consulting Recruiters Evaluate Candidates?

The main thing that recruiters are looking for in case study interviews is whether or not they’d feel comfortable putting a candidate in front of a client. To assess that, they ask themselves these questions:

• Is this person able to do the job? Do they have the analytic skills to solve tough business problems?
• Is this person client-ready? Are they knowledgeable, professional, and confident enough to work effectively with client staff and leaders?
• Is this someone I’d want to work with? This interview question is sometimes referred to as the airport test. It comes down to, “Would I want to be stuck in an airport with this person if the weather was bad and our flight was delayed?” It assesses whether an individual is smart, fun and passionate about the projects they take on.
• Is this person coachable? No one expects a recruit to know the answer to every thorny business issue right out of undergrad, or even right out of business school, but they do want someone who is willing and able to take suggestions and improve their analysis. Show you are coachable by listening for feedback as you answer a case study interview question and using suggestions to steer you toward the right solution.

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

Consulting Case Prep Takes Time – So Start Early

If you walk into your first consulting interview without having practiced case study interviews beforehand, you’re in for a painful experience. Case questions can cover any industry and multiple different types of business problems, so you’re unlikely to get lucky and know the answer.

We suggest your start your consulting case prep a few weeks before your interview. Starting with more lead time is even better. This will allow you to watch/read through a few consulting cases to get a sense for what to expect (continue to our case videos below for one example!) It will also give you time to find a couple friends or classmates who are also applying to consulting firms. You can give each other mock case interviews and be even more prepared.

Learn How to Case Quickly by Mastering Each of the 4 Parts of the Case

When you’re starting your consulting interview prep, it’s important to remember that the “right answer” is not simply a conclusion, but the methodical, the well-structured process used to reach the conclusion. 

To answer a case question correctly, you must:

Step 1: Understand the question you are being asked.

After your interviewer describes the client this case interview will involve and the problem they face, you should repeat this information back to them in your own words. 

This can feel awkward when you practice your first case, but it will help you in the long run.

If you don’t have the client and their problem straight, you could spend a lot of time answering the wrong question. If that happens you will not be moving forward to second round interviews no matter how elegant your analysis is.

Example: Our client is a fast-food retailer that has seen decreasing sales revenue over the past couple of years. They want your help in understanding what they can do to improve sales.

Step 2: Take time to think through all the key aspects of the problem.

Ask for a moment to consider your approach to solving the client’s problem. During this time, write down what you want to learn about the client’s situation before you answer the interview question.

Your approach can lean on business frameworks you’re familiar with during your case interview preparation. 

For instance, in the example of a fast-food chain with declining sales, you should break sales down into price and unit volume to understand whether the client is not selling enough units of their products or whether prices have fallen (or both!)

But you don’t need to use familiar frameworks. In fact, it’s best to develop your own structure for breaking down the problem as it shows you can solve a case without forcing a standard framework on the problem.

For more information on business frameworks, you might want to become familiar with during your case study preparation, see  Case Interview Frameworks .

Step 3: Ask pertinent questions and use information from the interviewer to form hypotheses about the problem and explore potential options.

After you brainstorm key aspects of the case problem and structure your approach to solving it, share your approach with your interviewer.

If the interviewer suggests a place to start your analysis, follow their lead.

Otherwise, suggest the best place to start digging into the case.

Make sure the questions you ask the interviewer touch on all the key aspects of the problem you identified including the client’s internal organization, the market for their product, and their competition.

Step 4: Summarize your case interview conclusion in a persuasive manner. 

Once you’re confident you have enough information to understand the case and what needs to be done to solve the client’s business problem, you’ll conclude the interview with a logical summary outlining the problem, key conclusions you’ve reached, and providing a persuasive recommendation on how you’d help the client resolve it.

Below, we’ll go into more depth on how to address each of these 4 points in a case.

Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Diving Deeper into Case Interview Preparation

Right now, you may be thinking to yourself that consulting interviews sound impossibly difficult. Or you may think that they sound like interesting business problems that you’d enjoy solving. 

Perhaps you’re not sure.

If you think that answering case interviews is not something that would come naturally to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone! 

Getting good at consulting interviews requires a lot of preparation.

Before you commit to putting in the time required to prepare for the management consulting interview process, you should ask yourself if a career in management consulting is right for you.

Key Questions to Ask Yourself Before Pursuing a Career in Consulting

• Do you enjoy solving the types of business problems asked in case interviews?
• Do you have a background in business principles or are you willing to invest the time it will take to develop one?
• Are you passionate about pursuing consulting as a career?

Management consulting jobs might pay well and provide the opportunity to pursue attractive careers, but if you don’t like solving business problems, you probably won’t like the work you’ll do as a consultant. If you don’t enjoy analyzing business cases, save yourself a lot of preparation time and frustration. 

Focus on career options that better meet your interests.

Or, perhaps solving business problems with smart, driven professionals sounds like it’s your dream job. 

If so, move onto the deeper dive into case interview prep below! 

Case Interview Prep – Diving Deeper

If you’re here, we’re assuming you’re serious about investing time in preparing for a career in management consulting. 

The best way to get smarter about  answering case interview questions is to master this four-part approach.

How to Answer a Consulting Case Interview –  a 4 Part Approach to Practice During Interview Prep

The 4 parts to answering a consulting case interview are:

• Opening  – This is where you make sure you understand the client’s problem.
• Structure  – This is where you brainstorm all factors relevant to the problem and organize them to ensure you address them in a complete and logical manner.
• Analysis  – This is where you gather data to identify which of the factors related to the business case are the most important. You’ll use this data to create a recommendation for your client.
• Conclusion  – Here, you present your recommendation to “the client” (your interviewer), in a well-structured and persuasive manner.

Case Interview Prep Part 1: The Opening

As we saw in the video above, the opening of a case question is a description of a client and the problem they’re facing. Davis repeated back to the interviewer the type of business the client was in and and their business problem.

Remember, this clarification is an important step in the process.

If you did not remember that the client was a top-three beverage producer and answered the question as if the client was a start-up, your answer would ignore the manufacturing and distribution infrastructure the company already had in place to launch its new product.

That would make your answer completely wrong.

During this portion of the interview, you can ask any clarifying questions you need to. If something is not clear—the client’s product or industry, or the problem they want to solve —ask !

Nailing the opening is probably the easiest part of case interview preparation. Get this right, and you’ll start each case off strong.

Case Interview Prep Part 2: Structure

Once Davis clarified the problem, he asked for a moment to prepare her response. In the structure phase of the case interview, there’s silence for several moments.

As with clarifying the question, this can feel awkward.

But asking for this time will show the interviewer that you’re carefully structuring your problem-solving approach.

It will also ensure that you are not quickly addressing a couple of aspects of the business problem but ignoring others, potentially ones that are critical to solving the client’s problem.

Some quick brainstorming is useful here, but also take a step back to maker sure you consider all aspects of the client’s business, its customer demand, and the competition. 

Organize your questions into a comprehensive approach to address all key aspects of the problem.

Mastering the structure phase of the interview is not as easy as the opening, but it’s critical to ensure you have the structured problem-solving approach that will lead you to the right answer to the case.

Focus on this aspect of case interview preparation until you can structure almost every case right.

Case Interview Prep Part 3: Analysis

In the third part of the case study interview, you’ll dig in and analyze the problem.

After Davis outlined his problem-solving approach, the interviewer told him that the client wanted to understand the beverage market and customer preferences to assess the potential success of the product launch.

The interviewer then provided a chart with helpful data.

This part of the interview is important because gives you the data that will help you close down aspects of the case that aren’t at the heart of the problem you need to solve and to better understand key drivers that will point to the solution.

But you’ll also need to do some consulting math .

You should also refer back to the problem-solving structure you laid-out earlier in the interview to make sure your analysis is comprehensive. You don’t want to get lost down one rabbit hole and ignore other important aspects of the problem.

During this portion of the interview, you’ll be assessed on whether you asked relevant questions, have well-reasoned insights into the client problem, and whether you could lead a case like this if you were hired by the firm.

Many consulting candidates find that the analysis phase of the interview is the toughest of the 4 parts.

You need to balance doing consulting math calculations with interpreting data and make sure you cover all aspects of the problem you identified in the structure phase of the case. 

Stick with this aspect of case interview preparation until you’re an expert at it–it will pay off in your interviews. 

Case Interview Prep Part 4: Conclusion

Davis concluded the case with a direct answer to the case study interview question as it was initially asked.

This answer should be both persuasive and logical based on all the information gathered over the course of the interview. Your answer should also include the next steps your client should undertake.

During the conclusion, you’ll be assessed on whether you present a well thought-out solution based on the relevant facts of the case.

Like the opening, mastering the conclusion is not difficult. Take you time to nail this aspect of case interview preparation anyway as leaving your interviewer with a strong impression of your casing capabilities is important.

The Bottom Line for Effective Case Interview Prep

The case study interview is not as complex as it seems if you break it into 4 parts.

Practicing each part of the case on its own will make your consulting interview preparation both more efficient and more effective.

Now that you’re familiar with the 4-part approach to a case interview, the next thing to learn is the 4 different formats case interviews can take.

4 Formats for Case Interviews

There are four formats a consulting case interview can take:

• Candidate-led – This is the most typical case study interview format. A candidate is given an open-ended business problem to solve by an interviewer. The candidate will break down the question into key parts and decide which part to probe first. The interviewer is looking to see that you know how to drive the analysis of a problem. This case format is typically used at firms like Bain, BCG and Oliver Wyman.
• Interviewer-led – In this case interview format, a candidate will still be expected to identify and structure the key elements of  a thorny business issue, and then present them to the interviewer. But after they do, the interviewer will direct them to first address a particular aspect of the case. This interview format is typically used in McKinsey cases.
• Written interview – This is not a common interview format but can be common for particular companies and offices. You will be given a packet of PowerPoint slides and time to review them. During this time, you’ll prepare a presentation using the slides you choose from the ones provided as well as others you create, and you’ll then present it to a panel of interviewers. Written interviews are frequently used by boutique consulting firms and regional offices of larger firms such as Bain’s China offices. For more information, see this article on written case interview.
• Group interview – Multiple candidates are brought in to discuss a case together and then present their solution to an interviewer. The group case is also not a frequently used interview format. For more information, see this article on group case interview.

While the candidate-led consulting interview is the most frequently used format, you’ll probably see more of the interview-led interview format in McKinsey interviews.

You should also be aware of the written and group interview formats so that if you get one during the interview process, you’re not caught by surprise. But don’t spend a lot of time on preparation for that type of interview unless you’re informed you’ll have one.

Congratulations! 

You’ve made it to the end of our crash course on case interview prep. By reading this article, you now have a strong understanding of:

• What a consulting case interview is,
• How to answer case studies using the 4-part approach, and
• What the 4 different formats for case interviews are.

You are well on your way toward preparing for your first case interview and entering the exciting field of management consulting. 

Still have questions?

If you still have questions on case interview prep, leave them in the comments below. We’ll ask our My Consulting Offer coaches and get back to you with answers.

Also, we have tons of other resources to ensure you get an offer from a top management consulting firm. Check out these topics:

• Case Interview Workshop Video,
• Case Interview Examples , and
• Case Interview Practice .

Help with Case Prep

Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on case interview prep. My Consulting Offer has helped almost 89.6% of the people we’ve worked with get a job in management consulting. For example, here is how Brenda was able to get a BCG offer when she only had 1 week to prepare…

8 thoughts on “A Comprehensive Guide to Case Interview Prep [updated 2024]”

In the math calculations of the analysis portion, why was it that there were 8 cans per gallon? Where did that number come from?

Hey, Tonia! Thanks for your question.

In the case, we’re given that the size of the market for US sports drinks is 8 billion gallons. Electrolyte drinks are 5% of this total or .4 billion gallons which equals 400 million gallons.

We’re also given that the product size for drinks in this market are 16 ounces. And in our breakeven analysis, we find out we need to sell 400 million bottles (or cans) to break even. We need to do a conversion to compare our breakeven point of 400 million bottles to the 400 million gallon market size to see what market share we would have to achieve to break even.

Conversion: 1 US gallon = 128 ounces. 128 ounces/ gallon divided by 16 ounces/ bottle = 8. We can fill 8 bottles for each gallon of electrolyte drink we produce. So 1 gallon is 8 bottles (or cans) manufactured by our client.

We divide the 400 million bottle (or can) breakeven point by 8 to get to 50 million gallons. We compare the 50 million gallon breakeven point to the 400 million gallon market size to see that we need to capture 12.5% market share.

Note: In answering this question, I noticed that a UK gallon = 160 ounces, so if you are using UK gallons you will get a different answer!

I hope that helps! Sorry about the confusion between US ounces/gallon and UK ounces/gallon!

Hi, what resources are you typically allowed to use during (virtual) case interviews? Such as a pen, paper, calculator etc.

You’re typically allowed a pen and paper in a virtual case interview but NOT a calculator. Part of what your interviewer is testing for is your quantitative skills, so they want to see that you can do calculations in your head or on paper. See our article on virtual case interviews , for more info. Also, we have an article on practicing your case interview math .

Best of luck!

Can you please explain the ROI formula? I do not understand why (2m-8m)/8m = 25%. That calculation gets a result of -75%

Shouldn’t the formula just be (net profit)/(cost of investment)?

George, thanks for pointing this out! The formula was incorrect, and should be Profit/cost of investment. The correct answer is 25%.

All the best, MCO

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Case Interview 2024 – Guide for Your Consulting Case Interview

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1)  Problem-Solving Skills 

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

2)  Creativity and Business Sense Skills 

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

3)  Structure 

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

4)  Math Skills 

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

5)  Communication Skills 

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

First and Second-Round Interviews 

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

Candidate- and Interviewer-Led Case Interviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Practice More Cases Now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional details of the case

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

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

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

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

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

Cost Reduction - here are some recommendations for structuring:

Structuring:

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

Benchmarking the largest costs to identify improvement potential

Process improvements to achieve the benchmarks

Costs and benefits of the proposed initiatives

The key concepts you must learn:

Internal/external benchmarking

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

Mathematical structures (frequency of operations * time per operation)

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

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

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

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

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

People - Processes - Technologies

Capacity - Utilization - Production rate

Product - Distribution - Marketing - Price

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Develop Your Business Intuition Step by Step

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

3. Update Your Math Skills

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

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

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

4. Practice Makes Perfect

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

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

Here's how it works:

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

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

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

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

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

5. Seek Support from Coaches

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

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

6. Learn and Track Your Progress

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

7. Don't Forget the Personal Fit

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

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

Why consulting?

Why company X?

Why should we hire you?

Tell me about yourself!

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

Find more frequently asked questions in stress question mode.

8. Train Confidence

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

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

9. Take Breaks

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

15-20 minutes of exercise in the evening or morning

A cold shower in the morning

Meditation or journal writing

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

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

Get enough sleep (at least 7 hours)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Focus on the task at hand 

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

2. Ask the right questions 

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

3. Buy time with repetitions 

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

4. Only form a hypothesis with sufficient information 

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

5. Utilize data for your analysis 

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

6. Take clear notes 

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

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

7. Structure is key 

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

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

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

8. Don't force-fit frameworks

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

9. Don’t panic if you get stuck 

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

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

10. Sometimes there is no clear answer 

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

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

11. Engage the interviewer 

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

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

12. Be confident 

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

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

13. When in doubt, reschedule 

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

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

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

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

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Deloitte Case: Footloose

Oliver wyman case: setting up a wine cellar.

zeb case: Quo vadis, customer?

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Hacking the Case Interview

Looking for a case interview cheat sheet or study guide to help you prepare for your upcoming consulting interviews?

Download our Case Interview Cheat Sheet and Study Guide , which covers all of the most important things you need to know. If you are looking to read the case interview cheat sheet in plain text, we’ve included all of the text below.

This case interview cheat sheet covers:  

What is a case interview?

What do case interviews assess?

What is the structure of a case interview?

What are the common types of cases?

What formulas do you need to know for case interviews?

What numbers do you need to know for case interviews?

What are some case interview tips?

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.

A case interview is a 30- to 45-minute exercise that places you in a hypothetical business situation in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

• How can Walmart increase its profitability?
• How can Nike increase customer retention?
• How should Apple price its new smartphone?

A case interview assesses five criteria:

1.   Logical, structured thinking : Can you structure complex problems and ideas in a clear and organized way?

2.  Analytical problem solving: Can you analyze and interpret data to draw the right conclusions?

3.  Business acumen : Do you have a strong understanding of business fundamentals and good business judgment?

4.  Communication skills : Can you communicate clearly, concisely, and articulately?

5.  Personality and cultural fit : Are you a good fit for the work culture of the firm you are interviewing with?

All case interviews follow seven major steps:

1.  Understand the case background : Take notes while the interviewer reads you the case information. Pay particularly close attention to the context, company, and objective.

2.  Ask  clarifying questions : If necessary, ask 1 – 3 questions to clarify the objective of the case, understand the company better, or understand an unfamiliar term.

3.  Structure a framework : Structure a framework to break down the complex business problem into simpler, smaller components. A framework is a tool that organizes different ideas into major categories. Present your framework to the interviewer. Make sure that your framework is MECE .

M utually E xclusive: None of the parts of your framework overlap with each other

C ollectively E xhaustive: All of the parts of the framework account for everything you need to know to solve the case with no major areas missing.

4.  Start the case : How the case will start depends on whether the case is an interviewer-led case or a candidate-led case .

Interviewer-led case : The interviewer will be steering and controlling the direction of the case. They will explicitly point you to which questions to answer.

Candidate-led case : You will be driving the direction of the case. You will propose what area of your framework to start in, what questions you want to answer, what analyses you want to do, and what the next step of the case is.

5.  Solve quantitative problems : There are three major types of quantitative problems you could be asked in case interviews.

Market sizing or estimation questions : You will be asked to calculate the size of a particular market or estimate a particular figure. You may need to make your own assumptions on what number to use or the interviewer may provide you with the data.

Profitability or breakeven questions : You will be asked to calculate the expected profitability of a company or investment decision. You could also be asked to calculate the conditions necessary for a company to break even .

Charts and graphs questions : You will be asked to interpret data from various charts or graphs . These can include bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, scatterplots, bubble charts, and waterfall charts.

6.  Answer qualitative questions : There are two major types of qualitative questions you could be asked in case interviews.

Brainstorming questions : You will be asked to brainstorm a list of ideas for a particular problem or question.

Business judgment questions : You will be asked for your opinion on a business issue or a strategic decision.

7. Deliver a recommendation : Present your recommendation and provide the major reasons that support it. Then, propose potential next steps that you would take if you had more time.

Profitability case : A company is experiencing a decline in profits or profitability and is trying to identify what is causing the decline and what they should do about it.

How to solve:  

• Identify the driver behind the decline in profitability, whether it is from a decline in revenue, increase in costs, or both
• Understand what is causing this by looking at customer needs, competitor moves, and market trends
• Identify ways to improve profitability

Growth strategy case : A company is trying to decide how to best grow its business.

• Determine whether the company is looking to grow organically or inorganically
• For organic growth, consider growth through existing revenue sources and new revenue sources
• For inorganic growth, consider potential acquisitions and partnerships

Market entry case : A company is trying to decide whether they should enter a particular new market.

• Determine whether the market is attractive
• Assess the competitive landscape
• Determine if the company has the capabilities to enter
• Estimate the expected profitability from entering

Merger & acquisition case : A company is trying to decide whether or not they should acquire or merge with a particular company.

• Determine whether the company is attractive
• Assess potential synergies and risks
• Estimate the financial implications

New product case : A company is trying to decide whether or not they should develop and launch a particular new product.

How to solve:

• Determine whether the market that the product targets is attractive
• Assess whether the product meets customer needs and is superior to competitor products
• Determine whether the company has the capabilities to successfully develop and launch the product
• Estimate the expected profitability from launching the product

Pricing case : A company is trying to decide the best way to price a particular product or service.

• Determine the cost to produce the product. This is your minimum price.
• Estimate the customer’s maximum willingness to pay by quantifying the value the product provides. This is your maximum price.
• Investigate the price that competitors are setting for similar products. This will help you determine the optimal price between your minimum and maximum price.

Profit Formulas

• Profit = Revenue – Costs
• Revenue = Quantity * Price
• Costs = Total Variable Costs + Total Fixed Costs
• Total Variable Costs = Quantity * Variable Costs
• Profit = (Price – Variable Costs) * Quantity – Total Fixed Costs

Investment Formulas

• Return on Investment = Profit / Investment Cost
• Payback Period = Investment Cost / Profit per Year

Operations Formulas

• Output = Rate * Time
• Utilization = Output / Maximum Output

Market Share Formulas

• Market Share = Company Revenue in the Market / Total Market Revenue
• Relative Market Share = Company Market Share / Largest Competitor’s Market Share

General Statistics

• Global population: 8 billion
• Average household size: 2.5 people per household
• Average life expectancy: 80 years

Country Population Statistics  

• United States: 320 million
• Canada: 40 million
• Mexico: 125 million
• Brazil: 200 million
• United Kingdom: 60 million
• Germany: 80 million
• France: 60 million
• China: 1.4 billion
• India: 1.4 billion
• Russia: 150 million
• Japan: 125 million
• Australia: 25 million

Tip #1 - Make sure you understand the business problem and objective : Answering or addressing the wrong business problem is the quickest way to fail a case interview.

Tip #2 - Don’t rely on using memorized frameworks : Interviewers can tell when you are regurgitating memorized information and not thinking critically.

Tip #3 - Structure your approach before doing any math calculations : This helps you avoid making unnecessary calculations or reaching a dead-end.

Tip #4 - Talk through your calculations out loud : This decreases the likelihood of making a mistake and helps the interviewer follow what you are doing

Tip #5 - Structure your answer to qualitative questions : Use a simple two-part framework such as internal/external, short-term/long-term, or economic/non-economic.

Tip #6 - Answer “so what?” after every question : Throughout the case, connect each of your answers back to the case objective. What implications does your answer have on the overall business problem?

Tip #7 - Have a firm recommendation : Do not have a flimsy recommendation that switches back and forth between two different recommendations. Pick one and provide support.

Tip #8 - Be 80/20 : You will not have time to answer every single question. Focus on the most important questions that have the greatest impact on your answer. This is the 80/20 principle which states that 80% of the outcome comes from 20% of your effort.

Tip #9 - Be coachable and easy to work with : Interviewers look for people that they would personally want to have on their team. Demonstrate that you would be a great teammate.

Tip #10 - Be enthusiastic : Interviewers want to hire candidates that love their job and will work hard. Displaying enthusiasm shows you are passionate about consulting and working at the firm.

Check out our complete list of case interview tips .

Learn Case Interviews 10x Faster

Here are the resources we recommend to learn the most robust, effective 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

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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.

By  Tracy V.

Posted March 12, 2024

Featuring Alex S.

De-Mystifying the McKinsey Interview

Wednesday, may 15.

10:00 PM UTC · 45 minutes

Table of Contents

While the consulting case study interview may seem daunting at first, most cases follow a typical song-and-dance. Once you get a hang of it, prepping feels much more manageable. The first part of this guide will give a broad overview of the case interview. The second part will break out the typical structure of an interviewee-led case. The last part will dive into each component, with tips and suggestions for preparing. Note that some firms may have their own specific case interview style. Be sure to familiarize yourself with your target firms’ interview processes before the time comes to recruit.

Case interviews involve tackling a business issue or problem faced by a company (the client). These interviews allow consulting firms to gauge candidates’ ability to perform the job. Specifically, firms are testing whether candidates can:

• Think in a structured and creative way
• Analyze and interpret new information
• Communicate persuasively and succinctly

Most firms conduct interviewee-led cases, as outlined in the guide below. In these cases, the candidate is expected to drive the case forward by asking the interviewer for data or information relevant to forming the recommendation. A few firms, most notably McKinsey, are interviewer-led, meaning that the interviewer will be the one guiding the discussion.

Below are a few common types of cases that you can expect to receive. Some cases can be several types all in one (lucky you!):

• Profitability - Determine cause for profit decline and / or ideas for increasing profit; you will rarely get a standalone profitability case – It will usually be rolled up in another case type
• Growth - consider strategies for company growth; could be through sales or market share
• Market Entry / New Business - Assess attractiveness of entering new geography / business / sector and method for entering
• Due Diligence / M&A - Assess attractiveness of purchasing / acquiring a company or business; client can be another company or a financial sponsor
• Competitive Response - Address a competitor’s recent action (e.g., new acquisition, change in pricing strategy)
• Non-Traditional - Similar to the other cases but the client (non-profit, NGO, education-focused entity) has different objectives than a typical corporate company

Case Interview Components

• Prompt: Interviewer reads aloud the case while the interviewee takes notes
• Recap: Interviewee provides a high-level summary of the case and confirms accuracy of information written
• Clarifying Questions: Interviewee asks 2-3 high-level questions
• Structuring (<2 minutes): Interviewee takes a few minutes create a roadmap for approaching the case
• Framework Presentation (2-3 minutes): Interviewee reviews the structure with the interviewer, who may have follow-up questions. Interviewee then moves the case forward by asking for additional information
• Brainstorming: Interviewee is expected to list out several solutions or ideas (e.g., cost drivers for an industry, ways to increase sales)
• Exhibits: Interviewee will be given data in forms such as graphs or charts and expected to provide high-level insights
• Math: Interviewee will be asked to perform a calculation with the new information or using data from the exhibits. Oftentimes, interviewee is not given enough information and must ask for the relevant data
• Synthesis and Recommendation (2-3 minutes) : Interviewee provides the answer first, then supporting facts from the case, and finally risks and next steps

Setup (2-3 minutes)

Prompt : The interviewer may be giving you A LOT of information - don’t write down everything verbatim. Jot down facts and figures, the client name, and the objective(s). If you miss something or don’t remember what a number means, you can ask after your recap.

• Prep: Have a friend read you several different case interview prompts and practice taking down notes. Create your own shorthand and learn how to recognize extraneous pieces of information

Recap : I always reference the client by name and start my recap with the objective(s) first, since this is the most important part of the case. The recap should be summarized, not verbatim, and you should be checking that the figures you wrote down are correct.

• Prep: Practice summarizing your notes out loud instead of repeating the case verbatim. Time yourself to make sure it’s <1 minute.

Clarifying Questions : Very detailed questions should be saved for the case. Clarifying questions are meant to help you with your structure or alleviate any confusion. Keep these at 2-3 questions. I usually ask questions pertaining to:

• Language/terminology - The interviewer won’t expect you to know the nuances of every industry or practice area. It is better you start off the case on the right footing by asking for clarifying definitions
• Goals/objectives - I always ask if there are other goals the company has in mind and, if relevant, specific financial targets or timeframe. Sometimes, the objective given is vague, so I will ask the interviewer to be more specific.
• Business model or geography - Very helpful for cases in niche industries; understanding geography can also prompt you to think about factors like labor cost or global competition
• Scope - To save you time from considering every possibility, you can ask whether the company is leaning towards one option or excluding a set of options completely
• Prep: Have a friend read you case prompts and then practice asking 2-3 clarifying questions on the fly. Try to think of them as you’re taking down notes and giving the recap. Are they helping you with your structuring or are you asking the first thing that pops into your head? Are they broad enough or overly detailed? Are there types of questions you should be asking but keep forgetting?

Framework (4-5 minutes)

Structuring (<2 minutes) : Do not use the word “framework” during the interview. I ask if I could have time to “gather my thoughts” when I am structuring. In your structure, you should have at least three but no more than five “buckets.” These are areas that you want to explore in order to solve the case. In each bucket, there should be at least three sub-bullets. Make sure there is no overlap between the buckets.

• Prep: Time yourself structuring your roadmaps. Be comfortable with recalling the different buckets you should be considering for each type of case and brainstorming sub-bullets for those buckets. It’s okay to go over two minutes when you first start, but as you get comfortable, make sure you are becoming more efficient. For example, as you become more familiar with the buckets, you don’t need to write down every example for the sub-bullets, they will become muscle memory as you recite them out loud. Review the suggested frameworks for the case and take note of whether there are vital topics you keep forgetting or whether there are unnecessary buckets you keep adding. There is no one “right” answer, but your roadmap should enable you to uncover the necessary information to make your recommendation.

Presenting: Introduce the high-level buckets first before diving into each one. You will want to “customize” your framework to the specific case you’re working on. This does not mean creating a custom framework for every single case. You can use the same topics for similar types of cases (but ensure that those topics are relevant - some cases sneakily rule out an entire topic to see if you are paying attention), but you need to make sure that you are using case-specific language and examples when you present. This shows that you are thinking about the specific problem, not just recycling a generic framework. After going through the structure, pause and ask if the interviewer has any questions. Then, give your hypothesis and state which bucket you want to start with by asking for data pertaining to that bucket and why you want it.

• Prep: Present your structures out loud and note whether you are rambling or being case-specific in your language. If you find that your presentation is too long, consider cutting down on the examples or explanations. Be succinct and say enough to get your point across. Don’t just move on to the next case if your presentation falls short. Keep practicing until you feel satisfied and make mental notes for the next case.

Interview “Questions” (10-20 minutes)

For each type of question, you are going to be doing the same things: answering the question, providing insights, conveying how it impacts your recommendation, and driving the case forward. Every time you have “answered” a question, you want to be thinking, “ What else do I need? What’s the logical path forward ?” The only way you can prepare for this is to run through entire cases! Remember, your framework is your friend. Refer back to it often if you don’t know where to go next.

Brainstorming : You will want to structure your ideas into MECE buckets. They can be fairly simple (financials vs. non-financials, external vs. internal, etc.). Similar to your framework, you will give a preview of the buckets first before going into the details of each and you will need to ensure that it is “custom” for your case. If a structure doesn’t naturally come to you, you can create a pseudo-structure by organizing how you will present your brainstorm. For example, you can state how many ideas you have from the onset or say that you will first go through the ideas first and then the associated risks.

This is a highly debated practice, but I always ask for a few seconds so I can think of a structure (they may say no). Don’t take more than 30 seconds because you can add to your buckets as you are presenting.

For non-technical brainstorms, be creative! For example, when interviewers asked about how to increase sales for a consumer-facing retail company, I would bring up TikTok campaigns and celebrity endorsements as a few ideas. Have fun with it!

Occasionally, interviewers will prod you with, “What else?” This does not always mean you didn’t give enough ideas. Sometimes it’s the opposite – they are looking to challenge you or see how you will react. Just roll with it - if you don’t have anything else, say so.

• Prep: Practice brainstorming for different types of prompts. Collect a bank of general ideas and solutions that can be customized for use across industries. Try to think of as many ideas as you can (four to six at the very least) and exercise that creative muscle. To help you with structuring, have a list of “easy” MECE buckets that you can pull out on the fly.

Exhibits : First, give an overview of the exhibit. As an example, for graphs say what the axes represent, tie it back to the case, and give your interpretation of those axes. This gives the interviewer a chance to course-correct if you misinterpreted the exhibit. Give some insight, even if it is low-hanging fruit, and tie it back to the case. There are three levels of insights for both exhibits and math:

• What the numbers say, patterns/trends (X is smaller than anticipated, Y is the largest driver)
• What the client should do (enter the market, cancel plans, plan for launch)
• What we should do next (reconsider something specific, research more data on X, move on to Y)

Oftentimes, exhibits will tie into a calculation. If you are given an exhibit with data that can be used to calculate more insightful information, tell the interviewer that you would like to make those calculations. The interviewer will lead you down that path regardless but it is more impressive if you call it out.

• Prep: Run through different types of exhibits and see how many insights from each level you can pull out. Practice anticipating what type of data you need next in order to move ahead in the case or whether you can/should calculate anything from the data given. Don’t be too insightful though – you only have a limited amount of time to run through the case.

Math : Before you start calculating anything, it is critical for you to confirm what you are solving for and that the information you wrote down is correct. SUPER IMPORTANT – answer the question that is being asked !!  If the interviewer is asking for the incremental profit from a certain strategy, you don’t want to calculate the total profit from the strategy. Active listening is so important!

As you know by now, structure is everything. Again, I always ask for a few seconds to organize my thoughts (the worst thing they can say is no). Set up the problem before you start calculating. This allows you to identify whether there is data missing. Walk the interviewer through your method and ask for missing data. You may need to make your own assumptions or estimates – be sure you can justify them.

If your method is off, the interviewer will usually guide you back to the right path. This saves you from wasting time calculating the incorrect answer. Be sure to pay attention when the interviewer is trying to coach you.

As you are solving the problem, walk the interviewer through each calculation and use math shortcuts as much as possible. Again, if you make a math error, the interviewer can stop you before you go down the entire path. Save time by only calculating what is important for the case and understanding what you can skip.

• Prep: Practice setting up the problem, walking the interviewer through your proposed method, and verbalizing the calculations out loud. On paper, make sure your calculations are being done neatly and not all over the place. Look for different math shortcuts and try them out. Not all of them will fit your style, but you might find new tricks. Track whether you are answering the right questions. Once again, active listening is critical to your candidacy. Once you have correctly solved the problem, make sure you are thinking about the, “So what?” Determine how that number impacts your recommendation and where you should go next.

Synthesis and Recommendation (2-3 minutes)

Again, I always ask for a few seconds to collect your thoughts (<30 secs). If the “CEO is already in the elevator,” they may say no. Have a definitive stance – start with your recommendation and then provide two to three supporting facts using data from the case.

Address risks and next steps (i.e., what is the required analysis/gameplan – this is like real life where the firm is trying to sell additional projects). Your recommendation should be <2 minutes. Frankly, the interviewer has most likely made a decision on your candidacy. Don’t ramble and try to finish strong.

The hardest part of this is pulling out the supporting data in a succinct way. Throughout the case, you should be jotting down notes. I tend to circle what I believe to be relevant supporting data. When you present it, don’t be too specific or granular. You want your recommendation to be punchy.

• Prep: Run through whole cases where you are tracking the relevant supporting data along the way. Time your recommendation and practice verbalizing the information concisely. Don’t forget the risks and next steps. I usually have a list of generic risks (e.g., competitor response, regulation, inaccurate projections) that I can “customize” on the off-chance I’m scrambling to think of some. Your next steps can be collecting additional data to support your recommendation or ways to address those risks.

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Final Thoughts

• Your approach is more important than the solution – The interviewer is trying to understand how you think. Some cases have data that support recommendations in either direction. The key piece is that you are able to back your stance using the facts and data uncovered during the interview.
• Deadends are okay – There will be times when you make multiple requests for data and the interviewer does not have it. That’s perfectly fine! You can’t read the interviewer’s mind and the case could go in so many directions. Just look back at your framework to see where else you can proceed.
• Be coachable – It’s not the end of the world if your method is wrong or if you misinterpreted an exhibit. The interviewer wants to see that you are actively listening and can take feedback and improve. Don’t freak out! Stay calm! Listen to what the interviewer is trying to tell you.

This guide only scratches the surface of case interviews. The best way to prepare for case interviews is to get your reps in with entire cases. That way, you can identify your areas of weakness and be more precise with the drills. I can give you feedback and additional tips and tricks so that you are performing at your best on interview day. Book a free intro call with me on my Leland profile to discuss how we can personalize your case prep plan!

Preparing for consulting recruiting and/or case interviews? Here are some additional resources to help:

• Top 3 Tactics to Ace Your Case Interview
• A Comprehensive Guide to McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and Boston Consulting Group
• From No Offers to Multiple Offers - How to Take Your Casing to the Next Level
• How a Disneyland Churro Helped Me Land a Job at Bain (and 5 Pitfalls to Avoid in Market Sizing Problems)
• Five Tips to Break Into Management Consulting

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. mckinsey case interview examples.

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

2. BCG case interview examples

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

3. Bain case interview examples

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

4. Deloitte case interview examples

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

5. Accenture case interview examples

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

6. OC&C case interview examples

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

7. Oliver Wyman case interview examples

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

8. A.T. Kearney case interview examples

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

9. Strategy& / PWC case interview examples

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

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

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

11. Roland Berger case interview examples

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

12. Capital One case interview examples

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

13. Consulting clubs case interview examples

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

Practice with experts

Using case interview examples is a key part of your interview preparation, but it isn’t enough.

At some point you’ll want to practise with friends or family who can give some useful feedback. 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 case interviews 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from MBB firms . Start scheduling sessions today!

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Case Interview: Complete Prep Guide

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Welcome to our preparation tips for case interviews!  Whether you are just curious about case interviews or are planning to apply for consulting internships or full-time jobs, these tips and resources will help you feel more prepared and confident.

A case interview is a role playing exercise in which an employer assesses how logically and persuasively you can present a case. Rather than seeing if you get the “correct” answer, the objective is to evaluate your thought process. ( Adapted with permission from Case In Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation by Marc Cosentino). 

Case interviews are very commonly used in the interview process for consulting firms and companies in similar industries. In the case interview, you will typically be given a business problem and then asked to solve it in a structured way. Learning this structure takes preparation and practice. You can learn more and practice using the resources listed below.  

Why are Case Interviews Used?

Case interviews allow employers to test and evaluate the following skills:

• Analytical skills and logical ability to solve problems
• Structure and thought process
• Ability to ask for relevant data/information
• Tolerance for ambiguity and data overload
• Poise and communication skills under pressure and in front of a client

How can I prepare for Case Interviews?

1.) Read Management Consulted’s “Case Interview: Complete Prep Guide (2024)”

Management Consulted is a FREE resource for Tufts students : case and consulting resources such as 500 sample cases, Case Interview Bootcamp,  Market Sizing Drills, Math Drills, case videos, consulting firm directory, and more

2.) Review additional resources:

• Case in Point – This book, by Marc Cosentino, is a comprehensive guide that walks you through the case interview process from beginning to end. This guide has helped many students over the years and can serve as an excellent foundation for how to approach business problems
• Casequestions.com – The companion website to Marc Cosentino’s book listed above offers preparation for case interviews, along with links to top 50 consulting firms
• Management Consulting Case Interviews: Cracking The Case – tips for case interviews from the other side of the table, from Argopoint, a Boston management consulting firm specializing in legal department consulting for Fortune 500 companies
• Preplounge.com – Free case preparation access for to up to 6 practice interviews with peers, selected cases, and video case solutions
• RocketBlocks – Features consulting preparation such as drills and coaching
• Practice sample online cases on consulting firm websites such as McKinsey , BCG , Bain , Deloitte and more!  

3.) Schedule a mock case interview appointment with  Karen Dankers or Kathy Spillane , our advisors for the Finance, Consulting, Entrepreneurship, and Business Career Community.

4.) PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE cases out loud on your own (yes, that can feel odd) or preferably, with another person. See #2 and #3 above for resources and ideas to find partners to practice live cases

5.) Enjoy and have fun solving business problems!

35 Case Interviews Examples from MBB / Big Four Firms

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

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

McKinsey case interview examples

Mckinsey practice cases.

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

What should I know about McKinsey Case interviews?

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

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

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

BCG & Bain case interview examples

Bcg practice cases.

• BCG – Written Case – Chateau Boomerang

Bain practice cases

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

What should I know about BCG & Bain case interviews?

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

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

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

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

Deloitte case interview examples

Deloitte practice cases.

Undergrad Cases

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

Advanced Cases

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

What should I know about Deloitte case interviews?

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

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

Accenture case interview examples

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

Sorted in descending order of popularity, they are:

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

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

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

Capital One case interview examples

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

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

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

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

Other firms case interview examples

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

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

Consulting clubs case books

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

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

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

Case interview example – Case video

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My pitch would sound like this:

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

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

Does that correctly and adequately summarize the case?”

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

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

Alright, let’s break down the perfect opening.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Preparing for case interviews is a hard task when you only have 1 week, so the first part you need to learn during this time is fundamentals of case interview

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

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

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Career in Consulting

280 Free Case Interview Examples

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

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

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

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

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

In the meantime, here are 8 McKinsey case interview examples

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

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

Besides, here is another McKinsey case interview example.

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

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

How would you approach this business problem?

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

BCG: Tips And Case Interview Examples

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

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

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

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

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

Bain: Tips And Case Interview Examples

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

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

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

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

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

Deloitte: Tips And Case Interview Examples

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

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

Get 4 Complete Case Interview Courses For Free

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

Oliver Wyman: Tips And Case Interview Examples

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

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

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

Kearney: Tips And Case Interview Examples

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

Yet too many candidates do it.

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

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

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

Strategy&: Interview Prep Tips

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

• Strategy& interview prep tips

Roland Berger: Tips And Case Interview Examples

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

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

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

Alix Partners: Interview Prep Tips

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

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

• Alix Partners interview prep tips

OC&C: Interview Prep Tips

Here are two case study examples from OC&C:

• Imported spirit
• Leisure clubs

253 Case Studies From Business School Case Books

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

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

The Full List Of 253 Free Case Study Examples

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CareerInConsulting.com's Free Resources

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’s quite a list.

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

Now, I’d like to hear from you.

Which key insights were new to you?

Or maybe I have missed something.

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

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You need 4 skills to be successful in all case interviews: Case Structuring, Case Leadership, Case Analytics, and Communication. Enroll in our 4 free courses and discover the proven systems +300 candidates used to learn these 4 skills and land offers in consulting.

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Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening?

All vaccines have at least occasional side effects. But people who say they were injured by Covid vaccines believe their cases have been ignored.

Shaun Barcavage, 54, a nurse practitioner in New York City, said that ever since his first Covid shot, standing up has sent his heart racing. Credit... Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

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By Apoorva Mandavilli

Apoorva Mandavilli spent more than a year talking to dozens of experts in vaccine science, policymakers and people who said they had experienced serious side effects after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.

• Published May 3, 2024 Updated May 4, 2024

Within minutes of getting the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, Michelle Zimmerman felt pain racing from her left arm up to her ear and down to her fingertips. Within days, she was unbearably sensitive to light and struggled to remember simple facts.

She was 37, with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and until then could ride her bicycle 20 miles, teach a dance class and give a lecture on artificial intelligence, all in the same day. Now, more than three years later, she lives with her parents. Eventually diagnosed with brain damage, she cannot work, drive or even stand for long periods of time.

“When I let myself think about the devastation of what this has done to my life, and how much I’ve lost, sometimes it feels even too hard to comprehend,” said Dr. Zimmerman, who believes her injury is due to a contaminated vaccine batch .

The Covid vaccines, a triumph of science and public health, are estimated to have prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths . Yet even the best vaccines produce rare but serious side effects . And the Covid vaccines have been given to more than 270 million people in the United States, in nearly 677 million doses .

Dr. Zimmerman’s account is among the more harrowing, but thousands of Americans believe they suffered serious side effects following Covid vaccination. As of April, just over 13,000 vaccine-injury compensation claims have been filed with the federal government — but to little avail. Only 19 percent have been reviewed. Only 47 of those were deemed eligible for compensation, and only 12 have been paid out, at an average of about $3,600 .

Some scientists fear that patients with real injuries are being denied help and believe that more needs to be done to clarify the possible risks.

“At least long Covid has been somewhat recognized,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist and vaccine expert at Yale University. But people who say they have post-vaccination injuries are “just completely ignored and dismissed and gaslighted,” she added.

In interviews and email exchanges conducted over several months, federal health officials insisted that serious side effects were extremely rare and that their surveillance efforts were more than sufficient to detect patterns of adverse events.

“Hundreds of millions of people in the United States have safely received Covid vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history,” Jeff Nesbit, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement.

But in a recent interview, Dr. Janet Woodcock, a longtime leader of the Food and Drug Administration, who retired in February, said she believed that some recipients had experienced uncommon but “serious” and “life-changing” reactions beyond those described by federal agencies.

“I feel bad for those people,” said Dr. Woodcock, who became the F.D.A.’s acting commissioner in January 2021 as the vaccines were rolling out. “I believe their suffering should be acknowledged, that they have real problems, and they should be taken seriously.”

“I’m disappointed in myself,” she added. “I did a lot of things I feel very good about, but this is one of the few things I feel I just didn’t bring it home.”

Federal officials and independent scientists face a number of challenges in identifying potential vaccine side effects.

The nation’s fragmented health care system complicates detection of very rare side effects, a process that depends on an analysis of huge amounts of data. That’s a difficult task when a patient may be tested for Covid at Walgreens, get vaccinated at CVS, go to a local clinic for minor ailments and seek care at a hospital for serious conditions. Each place may rely on different health record systems.

There is no central repository of vaccine recipients, nor of medical records, and no easy to way to pool these data. Reports to the largest federal database of so-called adverse events can be made by anyone, about anything. It’s not even clear what officials should be looking for.

“I mean, you’re not going to find ‘brain fog’ in the medical record or claims data, and so then you’re not going to find” a signal that it may be linked to vaccination, Dr. Woodcock said. If such a side effect is not acknowledged by federal officials, “it’s because it doesn’t have a good research definition,” she added. “It isn’t, like, malevolence on their part.”

The government’s understaffed compensation fund has paid so little because it officially recognizes few side effects for Covid vaccines. And vaccine supporters, including federal officials, worry that even a whisper of possible side effects feeds into misinformation spread by a vitriolic anti-vaccine movement.

‘I’m Not Real’

Patients who believe they experienced serious side effects say they have received little support or acknowledgment.

Shaun Barcavage, 54, a nurse practitioner in New York City who has worked on clinical trials for H.I.V. and Covid, said that ever since his first Covid shot, merely standing up sent his heart racing — a symptom suggestive of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome , a neurological disorder that some studies have linked to both Covid and, much less often, vaccination .

He also experienced stinging pain in his eyes, mouth and genitals, which has abated, and tinnitus, which has not.

“I can’t get the government to help me,” Mr. Barcavage said of his fruitless pleas to federal agencies and elected representatives. “I am told I’m not real. I’m told I’m rare. I’m told I’m coincidence.”

Renee France, 49, a physical therapist in Seattle, developed Bell’s palsy — a form of facial paralysis, usually temporary — and a dramatic rash that neatly bisected her face. Bell’s palsy is a known side effect of other vaccines, and it has been linked to Covid vaccination in some studies.

But Dr. France said doctors were dismissive of any connection to the Covid vaccines. The rash, a bout of shingles, debilitated her for three weeks, so Dr. France reported it to federal databases twice.

“I thought for sure someone would reach out, but no one ever did,” she said.

Similar sentiments were echoed in interviews, conducted over more than a year, with 30 people who said they had been harmed by Covid shots. They described a variety of symptoms following vaccination, some neurological, some autoimmune, some cardiovascular.

All said they had been turned away by physicians, told their symptoms were psychosomatic, or labeled anti-vaccine by family and friends — despite the fact that they supported vaccines.

Even leading experts in vaccine science have run up against disbelief and ambivalence.

Dr. Gregory Poland, 68, editor in chief of the journal Vaccine, said that a loud whooshing sound in his ears had accompanied every moment since his first shot, but that his entreaties to colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to explore the phenomenon, tinnitus, had led nowhere.

He received polite responses to his many emails, but “I just don’t get any sense of movement,” he said.

“If they have done studies, those studies should be published,” Dr. Poland added. In despair that he might “never hear silence again,” he has sought solace in meditation and his religious faith.

Dr. Buddy Creech, 50, who led several Covid vaccine trials at Vanderbilt University, said his tinnitus and racing heart lasted about a week after each shot. “It’s very similar to what I experienced during acute Covid, back in March of 2020,” Dr. Creech said.

Research may ultimately find that most reported side effects are unrelated to the vaccine, he acknowledged. Many can be caused by Covid itself.

“Regardless, when our patients experience a side effect that may or may not be related to the vaccine, we owe it to them to investigate that as completely as we can,” Dr. Creech said.

Federal health officials say they do not believe that the Covid vaccines caused the illnesses described by patients like Mr. Barcavage, Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. France. The vaccines may cause transient reactions, such as swelling, fatigue and fever, according to the C.D.C., but the agency has documented only four serious but rare side effects .

Two are associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is no longer available in the United States: Guillain-Barré syndrome , a known side effect of other vaccines , including the flu shot; and a blood-clotting disorder.

The C.D.C. also links mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to heart inflammation, or myocarditis, especially in boys and young men. And the agency warns of anaphylaxis, or severe allergic reaction, which can occur after any vaccination.

Listening for Signals

Agency scientists are monitoring large databases containing medical information on millions of Americans for patterns that might suggest a hitherto unknown side effect of vaccination, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the C.D.C.’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

“We toe the line by reporting the signals that we think are real signals and reporting them as soon as we identify them as signals,” he said. The agency’s systems for monitoring vaccine safety are “pretty close” to ideal, he said.

Those national surveillance efforts include the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). It is the largest database, but also the least reliable: Reports of side effects can be submitted by anyone and are not vetted, so they may be subject to bias or manipulation.

The system contains roughly one million reports regarding Covid vaccination, the vast majority for mild events, according to the C.D.C.

Federal researchers also comb through databases that combine electronic health records and insurance claims on tens of millions of Americans. The scientists monitor the data for 23 conditions that may occur following Covid vaccination. Officials remain alert to others that may pop up, Dr. Daskalakis said.

But there are gaps, some experts noted. The Covid shots administered at mass vaccination sites were not recorded in insurance claims databases, for example, and medical records in the United States are not centralized.

“It’s harder to see signals when you have so many people, and things are happening in different parts of the country, and they’re not all collected in the same system,” said Rebecca Chandler, a vaccine safety expert at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

An expert panel convened by the National Academies concluded in April that for the vast majority of side effects, there was not enough data to accept or reject a link.

Asked at a recent congressional hearing whether the nation’s vaccine-safety surveillance was sufficient, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the F.D.A.’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said, “I do believe we could do better.”

In some countries with centralized health care systems, officials have actively sought out reports of serious side effects of Covid vaccines and reached conclusions that U.S. health authorities have not.

In Hong Kong, the government analyzed centralized medical records of patients after vaccination and paid people to come forward with problems. The strategy identified “a lot of mild cases that other countries would not otherwise pick up,” said Ian Wong, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong who led the nation’s vaccine safety efforts.

That included the finding that in rare instances — about seven per million doses — the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine triggered a bout of shingles serious enough to require hospitalization.

The European Medicines Agency has linked the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to facial paralysis, tingling sensations and numbness. The E.M.A. also counts tinnitus as a side effect of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, although the American health agencies do not. There are more than 17,000 reports of tinnitus following Covid vaccination in VAERS.

Are the two linked? It’s not clear. As many as one in four adults has some form of tinnitus. Stress, anxiety, grief and aging can lead to the condition, as can infections like Covid itself and the flu.

There is no test or scan for tinnitus, and scientists cannot easily study it because the inner ear is tiny, delicate and encased in bone, said Dr. Konstantina Stankovic, an otolaryngologist at Stanford University.

Still, an analysis of health records from nearly 2.6 million people in the United States found that about 0.04 percent , or about 1,000, were diagnosed with tinnitus within three weeks of their first mRNA shot. In March, researchers in Australia published a study linking tinnitus and vertigo to the vaccines .

The F.D.A. is monitoring reports of tinnitus, but “at this time, the available evidence does not suggest a causal association with the Covid-19 vaccines,” the agency said in a statement.

Despite surveillance efforts, U.S. officials were not the first to identify a significant Covid vaccine side effect: myocarditis in young people receiving mRNA vaccines. It was Israeli authorities who first raised the alarm in April 2021. Officials in the United States said at the time that they had not seen a link.

On May 22, 2021, news broke that the C.D.C. was investigating a “relatively few” cases of myocarditis. By June 23, the number of myocarditis reports in VAERS had risen to more than 1,200 — a hint that it is important to tell doctors and patients what to look for.

Later analyses showed that the risk for myocarditis and pericarditis, a related condition, is highest after a second dose of an mRNA Covid vaccine in adolescent males aged 12 to 17 years.

In many people, vaccine-related myocarditis is transient. But some patients continue to experience pain, breathlessness and depression, and some show persistent changes on heart scans . The C.D.C. has said there were no confirmed deaths related to myocarditis, but in fact there have been several accounts of deaths reported post-vaccination .

Pervasive Misinformation

The rise of the anti-vaccine movement has made it difficult for scientists, in and out of government, to candidly address potential side effects, some experts said. Much of the narrative on the purported dangers of Covid vaccines is patently false, or at least exaggerated, cooked up by savvy anti-vaccine campaigns.

Questions about Covid vaccine safety are core to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. Citing debunked theories about altered DNA, Florida’s surgeon general has called for a halt to Covid vaccination in the state.

“The sheer nature of misinformation, the scale of misinformation, is staggering, and anything will be twisted to make it seem like it’s not just a devastating side effect but proof of a massive cover-up,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, a vice dean at Johns Hopkins University.

Among the hundreds of millions of Americans who were immunized for Covid, some number would have had heart attacks or strokes anyway. Some women would have miscarried. How to distinguish those caused by the vaccine from those that are coincidences? The only way to resolve the question is intense research .

But the National Institutes of Health is conducting virtually no studies on Covid vaccine safety, several experts noted. William Murphy, a cancer researcher who worked at the N.I.H. for 12 years, has been prodding federal health officials to initiate these studies since 2021.

The officials each responded with “that very tired mantra: ‘But the virus is worse,’” Dr. Murphy recalled. “Yes, the virus is worse, but that doesn’t obviate doing research to make sure that there may be other options.”

A deeper understanding of possible side effects, and who is at risk for them, could have implications for the design of future vaccines, or may indicate that for some young and healthy people, the benefit of Covid shots may no longer outweigh the risks — as some European countries have determined.

Thorough research might also speed assistance to thousands of Americans who say they were injured.

The federal government has long run the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program , designed to compensate people who suffer injuries after vaccination. Established more than three decades ago, the program sets no limit on the amounts awarded to people found to have been harmed.

But Covid vaccines are not covered by that fund because Congress has not made them subject to the excise tax that pays for it. Some lawmakers have introduced bills to make the change.

Instead, claims regarding Covid vaccines go to the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program . Intended for public health emergencies, this program has narrow criteria to pay out and sets a limit of $50,000, with stringent standards of proof.

It requires applicants to prove within a year of the injury that it was “the direct result” of getting the Covid vaccine, based on “compelling, reliable, valid, medical, and scientific evidence.”

The program had only four staff members at the beginning of the pandemic, and now has 35 people evaluating claims. Still, it has reviewed only a fraction of the 13,000 claims filed, and has paid out only a dozen.

Dr. Ilka Warshawsky, a 58-year-old pathologist, said she lost all hearing in her right ear after a Covid booster shot. But hearing loss is not a recognized side effect of Covid vaccination.

The compensation program for Covid vaccines sets a high bar for proof, she said, yet offers little information on how to meet it: “These adverse events can be debilitating and life-altering, and so it’s very upsetting that they’re not acknowledged or addressed.”

Dr. Zimmerman, the neuroscientist, submitted her application in October 2021 and provided dozens of supporting medical documents. She received a claim number only in January 2023.

In adjudicating her claim for workers’ compensation, Washington State officials accepted that Covid vaccination caused her injury, but she has yet to get a decision from the federal program.

One of her therapists recently told her she might never be able to live independently again.

“That felt like a devastating blow,” Dr. Zimmerman said. “But I’m trying not to lose hope there will someday be a treatment and a way to cover it.”

Apoorva Mandavilli is a reporter focused on science and global health. She was a part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic. More about Apoorva Mandavilli

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• Open access
• Published: 06 May 2024

Perceptions of Chinese women with a history of gestational diabetes regarding health behaviors and related factors: a directed qualitative content analysis

• Xiaoxia Ma 1 , 2 ,
• Yun Yang 1 ,
• Shuhua Qian 1 ,
• Yan Ding 1 ,
• Qiping Lin 1 &
• Na Wang 1  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  1237 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is one of the most common metabolic disorders during pregnancy and is associated with adverse outcomes in both mothers and their children. After delivery, women who experience GDM are also at higher risk of both subsequent GDM and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) than those who do not. Therefore, healthcare providers and public health practitioners need to develop targeted and effective interventions for GDM. In this study, we aimed to explore the perceptions regarding health behaviors and related factors during the inter-pregnancy period among Chinese women with a history of GDM through the lens of the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

Between December 2021 and September 2022, 16 pregnant Chinese women with a history of GDM were purposively recruited from a tertiary maternity hospital in Shanghai for face-to-face semi-structured interviews. They were asked questions regarding their health behaviors and related factors. The transcribed data were analyzed using a directed qualitative content analysis method based on the theory of TPB.

The health-related behaviors of the women varied substantially. We identified five domains that influenced women’s behaviors according to TPB constructs and based on the data collected: behavioral attitude (perceived benefits of healthy behaviors and the relationship between experience and attitude towards the oral glucose tolerance testing); subjective norms (influences of significant others and traditional cultural beliefs); perceived behavior control (knowledge of the disease, multiple-role conflict, the impact of COVID-19, an unfriendly external environment and difficulty adhering to healthy diets), incentive mechanisms (self-reward and external incentives); preferences of professional and institutional support (making full use of social media platform and providing continuous health management).

Conclusions

The health-related behaviors of women with a history of GDM were found to be affected by multiple factors. Healthcare professionals are recommended to provide women with sufficient information regarding the disease and to take advantage of the power of the family and other social support networks to improve women’s subjective norms and to promote the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.

Peer Review reports

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) refers to impaired glucose tolerance that is first identified during pregnancy [ 1 ], and is increasingly prevalent worldwide. It is estimated that 21.1 million (16.7%) of live births to women in 2021 were associated with some form of hyperglycemia during pregnancy [ 2 ]. Of these, 80.3% cases were the result of GDM [ 2 ], which is associated with adverse outcomes in both perinatal women and the fetus, including preeclampsia, emergency caesarean section, macrosomia, and premature birth [ 3 ]. After delivery, mothers who experience GDM are at a tenfold higher risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the recurrence of GDM in a subsequent pregnancy than those who do not [ 4 ,  5 ]. Besides, the exposure of high glucose environment within the uterus leads to increased risk of long-term metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in offspring [ 6 ,  7 ].

Postpartum health behaviors, and especially diet and physical activity levels, are strongly associated with the risk of diabetes. The Da Qing Impaired Glucose Tolerance and Diabetes Study [ 8 ], which was performed in China, showed that diet and/or exercise interventions led to significant reductions in the incidence of diabetes over the following 6-year period in women with impaired glucose tolerance. A similar study performed in the United States, the National Diabetes Prevention Program [ 9 ], which had the goals of a ≥ 7% weight loss and 150 min of physical activity per week, reduced the incidence of diabetes in patients at high risk by 58%. According to the statement position of the American Heart Association [ 10 ] and the American Diabetes Association [ 11 ] on postpartum and interpregnancy management of GDM, women should undergo oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) 4–12 weeks postpartum, weight loss and exercise for diabetes prevention, etc. However, following childbirth, most women do not make the appropriate lifestyle adjustments or undergo OGTT as recommended. Studies performed in China and other countries have shown that attendance at a clinic for glucose screening is undesirable in women who have recently experienced GDM [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. In fact, only 58% of women were found to take up the offer of glucose screening during the first year following delivery and the percentage attending declined substantially in the second and third years [ 15 ]. Furthermore, women who experience GDM tend to return to their unhealthy lifestyle, have irregular meal patterns, exercise at lower intensity, and gain more body weight than women who remain normoglycemic during pregnancy [ 16 ,  17 ].

In real-world settings, changes in health behavior are difficult to maintain. Studies have suggested that women who have previously experienced GDM face multiple barriers to the maintenance of healthy behaviors following delivery, including a lack of knowledge regarding diabetes risk, insufficient social support, negative emotions, and prioritization of the needs of their family [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Therefore, effective interventions that take into account these barriers and involve tailored solutions should be developed. In China, the government has gradually relaxed fertility restrictions from the one-child policy to universal two- and three-child policies. With these changes in family planning policy, an increasing number of women have become pregnant at a more advanced age, along with a high body mass index and a history of GDM, which have led to increases in the incidences of pregnancy complications and comorbidities [ 21 ,  22 ]. However, to date, evidence regarding the prevention of recurrence of GDM through comprehensive lifestyle interventions is scarce. And few studies have applied implementation science and behavioral change theories to develop and implement interventions that enable sustained behavioral changes in the target population; for example, women with a history of GDM in China, which has unique culture and healthcare systems.

The aim of the present study was to explore the perception regarding health behaviors and related factors during the inter-pregnancy period among Chinese women with a history of GDM through the lens of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). TPB suggests that behavioral intention determines individual behavior, which in turn is influenced by behavioral attitudes (the positive or negative evaluation of a particular behavior), subjective norms (the influence of important others or groups on individual decisions) and perceptual behavior control (perception of the ease or difficulty of a particular behavior) [ 23 ]. It has been well developed and proven to have strong explanatory power and predictive ability for health behaviors, widely used in areas such as physical activity and diet behaviors [ 24 ,  25 ].

Design and setting

We performed a qualitative study that used in-depth interviews to explore the perceptions and influences on inter-pregnancy health-related behaviors, of women who had experienced GDM and who attended a tertiary maternity hospital in Shanghai, China, between December 2021 and September 2022. Shanghai is the largest city in China and the study hospital is a university-affiliated hospital at which there were ~ 12,000 births annually over the preceding 5 years.

Participants

Pregnant women with a history of GDM were selected at the hospital to obtain a wide range of maternal ages and numbers of gestational weeks. The participants were recruited according to the following eligibility criteria: a diagnosis of GDM during the previous pregnancy, based on the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups criteria published in 2010 [ 26 ]; age ≥ 18 years, and fluency in Mandarin Chinese. Women with mental or cognitive impairment were excluded from the study. Briefly, women who attended their first routine antenatal care session at the hospital were approached by a trained nurse, who considered their eligibility, and they were then referred to two interviewers (Na Wang and Xiaoxia Ma).

Table 1 shows the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. In total, 16 pregnant women, ranging in age from 30 to 43 years, who had a history of GDM during their previous pregnancies, were interviewed between December 2021 and September 2022. The gestational intervals of the participants ranged from 2 to 8 years. Half of them had been administered insulin during their previous pregnancies. After giving birth on the previous occasion, only three of the participants (P7, P12 and P16) had undergone OGTT 4–12 weeks postpartum, as recommend by the guidelines, two had been identified as being hyperglycemic when they visited a hospital for another reason 1–2 years postpartum (P5 was diagnosed with diabetes and P14 was diagnosed with insulin resistance), and five participants had their fasting blood glucose or glycosylated hemoglobin levels measured when they attended the routine physical examinations organized by their units, 1 year postpartum, and the remaining six women did not have blood glucose concentrations measured during the inter-pregnancy period at all. Most of the participants (87.5%, 14/16) had experienced recurrence of GDM during their present pregnancy.

The study was approved by the hospital Ethics committee (approval no. 202123), and all the participants provided their written informed consent to be interviewed. The sample size was selected based on the principle of saturation of qualitative research data, and 16 women were finally interviewed.

Data collection

On the basis of the purpose of the present study and a literature review of related studies, semi-structured interview guidelines were developed and used to conduct in-depth interviews. The interview consisted of a standardized set of open-ended questions that focused on the health-related behaviors of women who had previously experienced GDM, which were followed by further probing questions. Two women participated in individual pilot interviews to test the efficacy of the interview procedure before the official interviews. The final list of questions was as follows:

What do you know about this disease?

What do you think about the impact of GDM on your health in the future?

How does it affect your daily life? What changes have you made to your daily life after being diagnosed with GDM?

How about your lifestyle after giving birth? Did someone give you some advice postpartum regarding lifestyle issues, such as diet and exercise, or blood glucose screening, relating to GDM?

What are the challenges you face or the facilitators of the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle following your last birth or during the inter-pregnancy period?

What support, especially from health professionals, do you expect after giving birth? At what time and in what form?

Before starting the interview, the participants were asked to complete a short questionnaire regarding their age, educational background, family history of diabetes, treatments during previous pregnancy, postpartum lifestyle interventions, attendance for postpartum glucose screening, gestational intervals, a diagnosis of GDM during the present pregnancy, and their number of gestational weeks at the time of the interview. After building a rapport, we started the interview with the broad question “What was your experience of GDM in your last pregnancy”? When describing their experiences, participates often talked about the advice given by the medical staff upon diagnosis with GDM along with changes in their lifestyles. Followed by questions further involved their understanding regarding the disease and its impact on their postpartum lifestyles. If they have continued a healthy lifestyle after giving birth, e.g., healthy diet, regular exercise, etc., a follow-up question regarding promoting factors was asked; if not, we further investigated what the barriers were and what support they needed. The interviews were conducted in Mandarin Chinese and field notes regarding the participants’ expressions, emotions, and behaviors during the interview were also taken to facilitate subsequent data analysis.

The interviews were conducted by two well-trained interviewers and audio-recorded. They lasted between 25 and 60 min. We recruited a final sample size of 16 women for data saturation, which means no further information relevant to the research was introduced. Each participant was offered a 20-yuan gift as compensation for their time and cooperation.

Data analysis

Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim, word-by-word, within 24 h, and imported into the qualitative analysis software NVivo 12.0. Adhering to the suggestions provided by Satu Elo [ 27 ], the data analysis process consists of the following steps: (1) selecting the units of analysis and being immersed in the data to gain a holistic understanding of women’ descriptions; (2) developing a categorization matrix deductively derived from TPB (behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptual behavior control) [ 23 ]; (3) coding the data according the pre-determined categories; (4) besides, through the inductive coding, the new categories that did not fit within the TPB domains emerged. The combination of inductive and deductive approaches used for the data analysis facilitates more synergistic findings to be made regarding the influences on and determinants of women’s behaviors [ 28 ]. The data analysis was conducted concurrently with the data collection, to determine whether new codes and categories emerged during the interviews. To ensure the rigor of the study, two researchers independently reviewed and analyzed the transcripts and field notes. Any discrepancies in the data analysis between the two researchers were resolved through discussion.

The health-related behaviors of the women varied substantially. After careful review of the text, through deductive approach, three categories of related factors were identified that fit the structures of TPB. Additionally, two other categories that did not fit TPB frame (incentive mechanisms and preferences derived from professional and institutional support) were generated using the inductive approach. As presented in Fig.  1 .

Perceptions of Chinese women with a history of gestational diabetes regarding health behaviors. The orange dotted lines indicate factors related to health behaviors that were beyond the theoretical domain of TPB in this study, which have not been rigorously validated in other populations

Attitudes towards health-related behavior

Perceived benefits of healthy behaviors, keeping fit.

Owing to their irregular eating habits and physical inactivity, 3 women (18.75%) developed cardiovascular diseases following their previous birth, which made them realize that they had to take responsibility for their own health by adopting a healthy lifestyle.

P7: “Six months after the birth, I went for a routine physical examination. The doctor said that I had gained too much weight, almost 25 pounds. Then I was diagnosed with…uh…fat infiltration into my liver, which made me pay more attention to my diet and exercise… I did yoga for about 20 min each evening and I lost a lot of weight.”

P13: “There were a lot of problems at work… and I had to take care of the child after work. It was very stressful (sigh). So, I chose to do yoga, during which I can be alone and relax my mind.”

Remodeling their image

To get slim is a powerful impetus for some women to follow a healthy diet and be physically active.

P10: “In order to lose weight and look beautiful, I insisted on taking a brisk walk for an hour every day, unless it was rainy, and I also went swimming once a week at that time. Besides, I subconsciously balanced my diet, by controlling my sugar intake, eating more vegetables, and reducing the amount of high starchy food I consumed… I lost 20 pounds in 5 months! (loudly).”

P11: “I will return to work after my maternity leave and I must prioritize my body image… which is very important.”

Family planning

Women who plan to have a second child were more likely to have a positive attitude toward glycemic control and to adopt the recommendations regarding the maintenance of a healthy lifestyles before conception.

P13: “After giving birth to my first baby, I planned to have a second one. I thought it was necessary to control my staple food intake and reduce my sugar intake. Therefore, coarse grains, taro, and sweet potatoes were my first choices for every meal.”

In contrast, some participants said that the second pregnancy was accidental, and therefore they did not make any preparations during the early stages, which might have prevented them from maintaining a healthier lifestyle.

P6: “To be honest, I did not plan to have another baby and I haven’t adjusted my lifestyle significantly during the past three or four years… The recurrence (of GDM) was… not surprising.”

The relationship between experience and attitude towards OGTT

The previous experience of the unpleasant taste of the glucose syrup and the repeated venipuncture during OGTT appeared to affect women’s attitude to undergo this procedure again following delivery.

P2: “At that time, he (the doctor) reminded me to do OGTT after delivery, but I remembered that the process was painful. I put it off as long as I could and in the end I did not do the test.”

P5: “The sugary water (consumed during OGTT) was too sweet to drink, so I didn’t want to drink it again.”

Subjective norms

Influence of significant others.

The “significant others” in the lives of the participants were principally family members, colleagues, and health professionals. The influence of their family was identified as a key determinant in the establishment of a healthy lifestyle by women with a history of GDM.

P14: “My husband sets a great example for me because he is a fitness fanatic, which also influences me. In addition, my parents attach great importance to health, and they urge me to make changes every day, such as ‘Why don’t you go running? It’s time to exercise’ (laugh).”

P2: “My husband is very lazy; he always lies on the couch playing with his mobile phone… I must ask someone else if I want to play badminton, which makes me lack motivation to exercise… Uh…in fact, I don’t like exercise myself. None of us like exercise.”

In addition to this, the attitudes and behavior of the women’s friends and colleagues also had an influence on their behavior.

P12: “Experiencing the physical examination organized by the unit in recent years, all of my colleagues feel that one’s health is very important… We have been playing badminton together for the last 2 or 3 years to strengthen our bodies.”

Notably, the health professionals at the maternity hospital were the most authoritative and important influences on the women with GDM regarding the risks of T2DM following GDM and the importance of blood glucose screening and maintaining a healthy lifestyle postpartum. These were in the form of warnings and urging.

P7: “When I was discharged from the hospital, the doctor told me that if I didn’t control my blood sugar after birth, I might develop permanent diabetes. I am worried about it, so I continued to eat a balanced diet after birth. And he also advised me that it was better to test my blood sugar by… drinking sugary water (OGTT) or… something I don’t remember any more, to prevent diabetes. It (diabetes) was likely to continue and affect my later life.”

Despite these responses, most of the women interviewed in the present study reported that no-one had reminded them about maintaining a healthy lifestyle or undergoing blood glucose screening following birth. They had poor awareness of the long-term implications of GDM.

P2: “The doctor didn’t say anything about a relapse of the disease or the probability of diabetes in the future… I was never told before (by the doctor)”.

Traditional cultural beliefs

The observance of the traditional cultural “confinement” custom limits women’s dietary choices and activities during the first month following delivery, and these limitations can continue well into their lactation period.

P10: “When I breastfed my baby after childbirth, my mother-in-law made me drink all kinds of soup every day, such as fish soup, chicken soup and so on, in order to produce more milk; and I was not allowed to go out in the period after giving birth. All I could do every day was to eat, sleep, feed, and eat again.”

P11: “I put on a lot of weight after I gave birth. I breastfed my baby, and the internet and my family and friends said that it is best not to do exercise during the period of breastfeeding… To be honest, I do not understand why, but I started to exercise and lose weight after weaning.”

Perceived behavioral control

Knowledge of the disease, disease cognition.

In the interviews, most women regarded GDM as a temporary abnormality in glucose status. They had poor awareness of the long-term implications of the disease, and rarely realized the importance of either a healthy lifestyle or blood glucose screening following delivery. Knowledge gaps translated into a lower likelihood for them to establish a healthy lifestyle.

P5: “After birth, I quickly resumed my old lifestyle habits, especially with respect to eating fried foods, which I like very much (laugh). This was because I thought that this disease only happened during pregnancy, uh… and my baby was born very healthy; he was not macrosomic. It (GDM) had no effects on him. The doctor just wanted to scare me.”

P14: “Anyway, after giving birth, I didn’t care about it (blood sugar) anymore and did no exercise either… However, about 1 year ago, I felt a little dizzy. Then I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and high blood sugar… It is very strange: no one in our family has diabetes… Is it because I am fat? Now, I am really worried about myself and my baby (sobbing).”

Perceived risk of developing T2DM

Women were more willing to change their sub-optimal lifestyle if they recognized that GDM might increase their risk of metabolic disease, and especially if they were concerned about developing T2DM in the future. 5 women (31.25%) remained a healthy lifestyle for this reason in the postpartum period. This was more evident among women with a family history of T2DM.

P15: “After giving birth, I attached great importance to my lifestyle. You know, I didn’t even dare to eat porridge anymore- I was really strict- because my doctor told me that I was susceptible to T2DM after this (GDM). I must take responsibility for my own health.”

P2: “My grandmother used to have severe diabetes and injected insulin… Unfortunately, she was involved in a car accident a few years ago and her injury did not heal easily… Then she died after that… My uncle also had diabetes, and he experienced retinal bleeding because of diabetes. It scared me! I was worried about whether I would get it in the future.”

Multiple-role conflict

The social roles of women can be categorized as worker, spouse, parent, and daughter. Women need to take care of their newborns and adapt to their new roles as mothers during the early postpartum period. In China, the mothers-in-law of women are the most likely people to help with the care of the children, and sometimes they live with their daughters-in-law. These multiple roles make it difficult for mothers to focus on themselves.

P7: “Uh… It was totally different having and not having a child. Previously, I might have gone to play ball or do some other sports after finishing work, and it didn’t matter if I went home early or late. Now, the first thing I do after work is rush home to look after my baby (laugh). It is completely different!”

P11: “At that time, I was living with my parents-in-law. Uh… There were a lot of conflicts between us, which meant that I was always in a bad mood. I thought it was postpartum depression. And I had to take care of my child and deal with an intense job at the same time… It was too hard (sigh).”

Impact of COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shanghai underwent a lockdown for approximately 2 months, which limited people’s outdoor activities and their attendance at gyms, as well as the variety of food available.

P3: “I used to go to the gym three times a week. However, owing to the COVID-19 epidemic, I could not go out to exercise and I gained more than ten pounds at that time. It shocked me!”

P5: “We were locked down at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We couldn’t buy whole grains, or various vegetables or fruits from the market, and had to accept a limited range of food.”

Unfriendly external environment

Despite growing concerns regarding obesity and diabetes during recent years, provision of healthy meals in public places is still limited, which makes it more difficult for such women to pursue a healthier lifestyle.

P1: “I think the outside environment is not friendly to diabetic people. When eating out, it’s difficult for me to get specific meals.”

P6: “It’s very difficult to bring food every day when I go to work, so I eat in the cafeteria. And in that situation, my sugar, oil, and staple food intake can’t be strictly controlled.”

Difficulty adhering to healthy diets

Owing to the relative lack of flavor of “healthy food”, some women find it difficult to observe a healthy diet.

P4: “After giving birth, I didn’t deliberately maintain the eating habits recommended by the doctors during pregnancy, especially with respect to coarse grains: I couldn’t stand the taste of them. Really, they are terrible; don’t you think so?”

P12: “Compared to low-sugar diets, foods such as bread, cakes, and glutinous rice products are more tempting to me. They are my favorites (laugh).”

Incentive mechanisms

Self-reward.

Obtaining a reward is considered to be an important contributor to compliance with an exercise regimen.

P10: “For me, I need to give myself a little reward to encourage me to keep moving. For example, if I swam for 1 h today, I would reward myself with a cup of low-sugar milky tea (laugh). In this way, I can keep doing exercise more easily.”

External incentives

Some platforms use incentive mechanisms to motivate their customers.

P14: “Do you know the Keep, the sports software? It can track and record the duration of exercise and display the number of calories I have burned. If you keep moving, you get some cute medals. On that platform, some people upload their fitness dynamics, which is very motivating for me… their figures are so charming!”

Preferences of professional and institutional support

Making full use of social media platform.

During the interviews, some women expressed a need for education by qualified health professionals over the internet, involving videos that improve their knowledge of diabetes following delivery and encourage them to undergo blood glucose screening.

P13: “I think there will be some promotional videos, which will tell me what I need to pay attention to when I go home. This method is more vivid and impressive.”

P2: “For example, if I haven’t visited for OGTT at about 42 days postpartum, I hope that my doctor will remind me and send messages about the risks of missing screening via telephone or WeChat.

Providing continuous health management

Regarding the timing of the support provided by healthcare workers following delivery, most women expected to obtain guidance prior to their discharge from hospital. In addition, during the routine examination of women 42 days following delivery, health professionals can provide education and guidance according to the results of OGTT, and continue to provide support through an online platform.

In the present study, we interviewed 16 Chinese women with a history of GDM to explore their health behaviors and related factors through the lens of TPB theory, during the inter-pregnancy period. We found that their behaviors varied substantially, and most were not optimal. Further exploration of the determinants of their behaviors revealed that in addition to some personal characteristics, a lack of awareness of the risks of diabetes, multiple-role conflicts, insufficient social support, and traditional cultural beliefs were repeatedly mentioned as factors that had negative impacts on the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. In addition, some of the barriers were perceived to be beyond their control. In contrast, women who adhered to a healthy lifestyle believed that the incentive mechanisms and sufficient social support had positive impacts on their performance.

With the economic development and lifestyle changes occurring around the world, the prevalence of obesity is gradually increasing, and women of child-bearing age are no exception to this [ 29 ]. Obesity is associated with a range of health problems, including diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, and other chronic diseases, and weight loss can significantly reduce the risk of obesity-related diseases [ 30 ]. In the present study, women who developed conditions associated with obesity during the inter-pregnancy period were more willing to maintain good physical condition through lifestyle improvements, such as increases in physical exertion to achieve weight loss and a reduction in the consumption of foods that are rich in fat and sugar. In addition, the desire to improve body image is an important intrinsic motivation that increases the likelihood of women adopting a healthy diet and higher physical activity levels.

Of note, we found that women who were willing to prepare for their subsequent pregnancies were more likely to adopt a healthy lifestyle. However, a previous study showed that the unintended pregnancy rates, both in China and worldwide, remain high [ 31 ]. In the present study, only two of the women had a reproduction plan. A retrospective cohort study conducted in the United States showed that people who planned their pregnancies were less likely to smoke before becoming pregnant, were more likely to regularly take multivitamins, and were more likely to have undergone health checks during the preceding year [ 32 ]. In contrast, women with an unplanned pregnancy had higher body mass indexes and were less likely to take a folic acid supplement [ 33 ]. According to the guide “Optimizing Postnatal Care”, patients and their obstetricians/gynecologists or other obstetric care providers should discuss the woman’s reproductive life plans, beginning during prenatal care, and including a discussion regarding future pregnancies and their timing [ 34 ]. Therefore, medical staff in maternity hospitals may need to highlight the need for postpartum contraception and discuss future maternity plans with women who experience GDM and their partners, and encourage them to adopt healthy behaviors.

Furthermore, OGTT is time-consuming, involves the ingestion of unpalatable glucose syrup, and requires multiple blood samples to be collected. Therefore, this can be an unpleasant experience for women [ 35 ], and they may be reluctant to undergo this process again following delivery. As healthcare professionals, we should raise women’s awareness of the importance of postpartum OGTT and increase the rate of screening through telephone, emails and other internet platforms [ 36 ,  37 ].

Advice from health professionals is often thought to be the most important means of improving women’s knowledge regarding diabetes and the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle postpartum. However, previous studies have shown that the information women receive regarding postpartum glucose management is too limited. A study conducted in Singapore showed that although women typically receive advice regarding healthy lifestyles from medical staff, this largely focuses on the prevention of obstetric complications, and includes little information regarding future diabetes risk [ 38 ]. After childbirth, the participants were transferred from tertiary hospitals to primary care facilities, but the staff in the latter did not know whether the women had previously experienced GDM, and therefore the continuity of maternal care, especially with regard to postpartum glucose management, was interrupted [ 38 ]. In China, the situation is similar. Healthcare professionals at maternity hospitals routinely help women who experience GDM during pregnancy and the early postpartum period to understand the severity of diabetes and the risk of developing diabetes in the future, and provide personalized health education to motivate them to make necessary lifestyle changes. In addition, maternity and primary hospitals can make use of information systems to affect a seamless handover. Specifically, they can make use of media including the telephone, email, WeChat, and other digital applications to continue the management of GDM [ 19 ]. This has been shown to be accepted by women in previous studies [ 19 ,  39 ], and the women in the present study expressed similar opinions.

Of particular note, in China, the traditional month-long perinatal confinement period is considered to be a barrier to women’s engagement with a healthy lifestyle. Women are usually required to undergo confinement after giving birth and there are certain contraindications with respect to diet and activities during puerperium [ 40 ]. For example, women in some areas are prohibited from eating vegetables, fruit, and cold food; are required to consume substantial amounts of chicken soup and brown sugar water; and are not permitted to go out during the confinement period. Furthermore, some of these conventions, such as drinking a lot of soup and not performing vigorous physical activity, can even last until weaning. During this period, the women are cared for in general by their mothers or mothers-in-law, who may follow traditional customs. Furthermore, the birth of a baby engenders changes in the family structure and the social roles of its members. Mothers generally have to take the bulk of the responsibility for raising their babies, which may put them under substantial physical and psychological stress and reduce their concern for their own health. Many women say that postpartum fatigue and a lack of time, owing to the necessity to feed and care for the newborn, are the major barriers to maintaining a healthy lifestyle [ 19 ,  20 ,  38 ]. The necessity to rest or sleep is considered to be more important than exercise when women have some free time, and in their new role, they often prioritize the comfort and needs of their children over their personal health [ 38 ,  41 ]. Moreover, when their maternity leave finishes, work and childcare occupy most of their time and energy, greatly reducing the amount of time they have available for regular exercise [ 19 ].

As reported in a systematic review, social support can improve an individual’s ability to change and maintain new lifestyle habits [ 42 ]. Similarly, the availability of adequate support has been identified as a significant element in the successful modification of the health-related behaviors of such women [ 18 ,  38 ]. The foremost emotional motivating factor for these women is from their families, whose encouragement provides them with a sense of love and belonging. In particular, as we have shown in the present study, spouses with a high level of health awareness often accompany women and encourage them to do physical exercise, which is regarded as a strong incentive to achieve a healthy lifestyle [ 38 ]. In addition, peers can build a mutual aid system by sharing experiences and motivating one another [ 43 ], which empowers patients with diabetes to improve their self-efficacy [ 44 ]. In the present study, some women suggested the setting up of a WeChat group to share knowledge and skills regarding diabetes, based on their own personal experiences, a finding that was also made in another qualitative study [ 43 ]. This provides a reference for us to formulate more targeted and effective strategies to assist this high-risk population.

In the present study, most of the participants had a poor understanding of health information and limited knowledge regarding the association between GDM and long-term disease risk, and these were the primary obstacles to compliance with healthy lifestyle behaviors in women after giving birth, consistent with the findings of other studies [ 18 ,  38 ]. Because the abnormalities in glucose metabolism disappear soon after delivery, some of the women believed that their blood glucose status had returned to normal, and therefore they resumed their pre-pregnancy lifestyle [ 45 ,  46 ]. This was particularly the case in the women who did not administer insulin or maintain a strict diet and exercise regimen to control their blood glucose concentrations during pregnancy. In contrast, the women who understood the risk of developing T2DM or other metabolic diseases because of online education, information provided by healthcare providers, or the experience of family members were more likely to return to the hospital for glucose screening and to change their unhealthy lifestyles [ 35 ]. In addition, knowledge of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is related to the health status of women themselves.

Women’s perception of the ease or difficulty of consuming a balanced diet, undertaking regular activity, and participating in health screening also makes a difference. We found that the poor taste of coarse grains was one of the reasons why mothers were unwilling to continue eating this food after giving birth. Especially for women whose dietary preferences conflict with the recommendations, the maintenance of a healthy diet is not easy [ 47 ,  48 ]. Therefore, we suggest that healthcare providers should encourage women to consult a dietitian, to develop a diverse range of recipes, taking into account their food preferences. In addition, the outcomes of the present study show that women can increase their motivation by preparing a “self-reward checklist” regarding a healthy lifestyle for the long term. This technique helps reinforce particular behaviors, and has been successfully applied to weight loss, the management of diabetes, the cessation of smoking, and broader changes in health behaviors [ 49 ].

In addition to personal and interpersonal factors, the external environment affects lifestyle. The present study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore the participants were locked down at home and it was difficult for them to obtain a diverse range of foods. At the same time, the closure of gyms and sports venues restricted the activity of pregnant women and caused many of them to put on weight. A rapid review revealed that there were significant decreases in the availability and utilization of postnatal care services during and after the COVID-19 lockdown [ 50 ], owing to the postponement of non-urgent treatments and changes in the care delivered [ 51 ]. In addition to environmental changes owing to unexpected events, current societal practices are generally not attuned to people with diabetes, and specifically with respect to the provision of healthy diets. In China, very few restaurants and canteens provide special meals for people with diabetes. Instead, fast food and foods high in fat and sugar are more accessible, meaning that women face great challenges in maintaining a healthy diet. Therefore, public awareness should be raised to facilitate the provision of a more convenient and optimized eating environment for this group.

Strengths and limitations of the present study

To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the perceptions and attitudes, and the influences on these, regarding health-related behaviors in Chinese women with a history of GDM during their second pregnancy. We have obtained an abundance of data regarding their health-related behaviors during the inter-pregnancy period, which includes both the postpartum and preconception periods. Furthermore, the interviewees in the study had experienced the lockdown of the city owing to COVID-19, which was a unique experience for the women with a history of GDM. In addition, the combination of the inductive and deductive approaches used for the data analysis facilitated the making of synergistic findings regarding the influences on and determinants of women’s behaviors. The present study also had several limitations. First, because all the participants were recruited from one center in Shanghai, the findings may be context-specific and not readily generalizable. Second, only the views and attitudes of patients regarding their health-related behaviors were captured. Future studies should explore the views of healthcare professionals and policymakers regarding the support of women with a history of GDM, and especially regarding those who want to become pregnant again, in the Chinese context.

In the present qualitative study, we have shown that health-related behaviors are affected by multiple factors in women with a history of GDM. As shown in Fig.  2 , healthcare professionals should provide enough information regarding the disease and help women, as well as their families, to understand the associated future risks, to facilitate the development of a positive attitude toward healthy behaviors. In addition, the power of family and other social support networks to improve women’s subjective norms, as well as their intentions to actively adopt a healthy lifestyle, should be taken into account.

Intervention hypothesis, based on the results identified during the study. The red dotted line indicates the intervention hypothesis that is derived from the study data and the social support theory

Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author Na Wang, upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Gestational diabetes mellitus

• Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Oral glucose tolerance testing

• Theory of planned behavior

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the participants who took part in this study. We appreciate the help from Liang Xu for participant recruitment.

This study was supported by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health Foundation (grant number: 202150050); the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Fudan University (grant number: FC2021CR203).

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NW and QL designed the study, oversaw the study implementation; XM, NW and YY conducted interviews, analysed and interpreted the data; XM drafted the main parts of manuscript; NW worked on the manuscript revision until the version for submission is finalized; SQ, QL and YD participated in the study implementation and data translation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Ma, X., Yang, Y., Qian, S. et al. Perceptions of Chinese women with a history of gestational diabetes regarding health behaviors and related factors: a directed qualitative content analysis. BMC Public Health 24 , 1237 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18731-3

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Plants can communicate and respond to touch. Does that mean they're intelligent?

Tonya Mosley

"The primary way plants communicate with each other is through a language, so to speak, of chemical gasses," journalist Zoë Schlanger says. Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

"The primary way plants communicate with each other is through a language, so to speak, of chemical gasses," journalist Zoë Schlanger says.

In the 1960s and '70s, a series of questionable experiments claimed to prove that plants could behave like humans, that they had feelings, responded to music and could even take a polygraph test .

Though most of those claims have since been debunked, climate journalist Zoë Schlanger says a new wave of research suggests that plants are indeed "intelligent" in complex ways that challenge our understanding of agency and consciousness.

"Agency is this effect of having ... an active stake in the outcome of your life," Schlanger says. "And when I was looking at plants and speaking to botanists, it became very clear to me that plants have this."

In her new book, The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth , Schlanger, a staff reporter at The Atlantic, writes about how plants use information from the environment, and from the past, to make "choices" for the future.

Happy Arbor Day! These 20 books will change the way you think about trees

Schlanger notes that some tomato plants, when being eaten by caterpillars, fill their leaves with a chemical that makes them so unappetizing that the caterpillars start eating each other instead. Corn plants have been known to sample the saliva of predator caterpillars — and then use that information to emit a chemical to attract a parasitic wasp that will attack the caterpillar.

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Schlanger acknowledges that our understanding of plants is still developing — as are the definitions of "intelligence" and "consciousness." "Science is there [for] observation and to experiment, but it can't answer questions about this ineffable, squishy concept of intelligence and consciousness," she says.

But, she adds, "part of me feels like it almost doesn't matter, because what we see plants doing — what we now understand they can do — simply brings them into this realm of alert, active processing beings, which is a huge step from how many of us were raised to view them, which is more like ornaments in our world or this decorative backdrop for our our lives."

Interview highlights

On the concept of plant "intelligence"

Intelligence is this thing that's loaded with so much human meaning. It's too muddled up sometimes with academic notions of intelligence. ... Is this even something we want to layer on to plants? And that's something that I hear a lot of plant scientists talk about. They recognize more than anyone that plants are not little humans. They don't want their subjects to be reduced in a way to human tropes or human standards of either of those things.

On the debate over if plants have nervous systems

I was able to go to a lab in Wisconsin where there [were] plants that had ... been engineered to glow, but only to glow when they've been touched. So I used tweezers to pinch a plant on its vein, ... the kind of mid-rib of a leaf. And I got to watch this glowing green signal emanate from the point where I pinch the plant out to the whole rest of the plant. Within two minutes, the whole plant had received a signal of my touch, of my "assault," so to speak, with these tweezers. And research like that is leading people within the plant sciences, but also people who work on neurobiology in people to question whether or not it's time to expand the notion of a nervous system.

On if plants feel pain

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We have nothing at the moment to suggest that plants feel pain, but do they sense being touched, or sense being eaten, and respond with a flurry of defensive chemicals that suggest that they really want to prevent whatever's going on from continuing? Absolutely. So this is where we get into tricky territory. Do we ascribe human concepts like pain ... to a plant, even though it has no brain? And we can't ask it if it feels pain. We have not found pain receptors in a plant. But then again, I mean, the devil's advocate view here is that we only found the mechanoreceptors for pain in humans, like, fairly recently. But we do know plants are receiving inputs all the time. They know when a caterpillar is chewing on them, and they will respond with aggressive defensiveness. They will do wild things to keep that caterpillar from destroying them further.

On how plants communicate with each other

Zoë Schlanger is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Heather Sten/Harper Collins hide caption

Zoë Schlanger is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

The primary way plants communicate with each other is through a language, so to speak, of chemical gasses. ... And there's little pores on plants that are microscopic. And under the microscope, they look like little fish lips. ... And they open to release these gasses. And those gasses contain information. So when a plant is being eaten or knocked over by an animal or hit by wind too hard, it will release an alarm call that other plants in the area can pick up on. And this alarm call can travel pretty long distances, and the plants that receive it will prime their immune systems and their defense systems to be ready for this invasion, for this group of chewing animals before they even arrive. So it's a way of saving themselves, and it makes evolutionary sense. If you're a plant, you don't want to be standing out in a field alone, so to speak. It's not good for reproductive fitness. It's not good for attracting pollinators. It's often in the interest of plants to warn their neighbors of attacks like this.

On plant "memory"

Research News

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There's one concept that I think is very beautiful, called the "memory of winter." And that's this thing where many plants, most of our fruit trees, for example, have to have the "memory," so to speak, of a certain number of days of cold in the winter in order to bloom in the spring. It's not enough that the warm weather comes. They have to get this profound cold period as well, which means to some extent they're counting. They're counting the elapsed days of cold and then the elapsed days of warmth to make sure they're also not necessarily emerging in a freak warm spell in February. This does sometimes happen, of course. We hear stories about farmers losing their crops to freak warm spells. But there is evidence to suggest there's parts of plants physiology that helps them record this information. But much like in people, we don't quite know the substrate of that memory. We can't quite locate where or how it's possibly being recorded.

On not anthropomorphizing plants

What's interesting is that scientists and botany journals will do somersaults to avoid using human language for plants. And I totally get why. But when you go meet them in their labs, they are willing to anthropomorphize the heck out of their study subjects. They'll say things like, "Oh, the plants hate when I do that." Or, "They really like this when I do this or they like this treatment." I once heard a scientist talk about, "We're going to go torture the plant again." So they're perfectly willing to do that in private. And the reason for that is not because they're holding some secret about how plants are actually just little humans. It's that they've already resolved that complexity in their mind. They trust themselves to not be reducing their subjects to human, simplistic human tropes. And that's going to be a task for all of us to somehow come to that place.

It's a real challenge for me. So much of what I was learning while doing research for this book was super intangible. You can't see a plant communicating, you can't watch a plant priming its immune system or manipulating an insect. A lot of these things are happening in invisible ways. ... Now when I go into a park, I feel totally surrounded by little aliens. I know that there is immense plant drama happening all over the place around me.

Sam Briger and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz and Molly Seavy-Nesper adapted it for the web.