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McKinsey Case Interview Preparation: the only post Recent Articles

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McKinsey interviews are among the hardest job interviews you will come across. The questions are
dicult and specic to McKinsey and the interviewer can also sometimes seem intimidating.
McKinsey Case Interview
Preparation: the only post you'll
But the good news is that with the right preparation it can actually become relatively straightforward to
need to read
succeed at a McKinsey interview. We have put together the ultimate list of facts and tips you need to
Posted on April 18, 2016
know to maximize your chances of success.

Tags
1. Onein teninterview candidates get a job offer
All
First, it is important that you understand the dierent stages of your interview process with McKinsey
McKinsey case interviews
and your chances at each step. In most countries, McKinsey usesfour lters to select candidates:

CV and cover letter screening

McKinsey Problem Solving Test (PST)
First round of interviews
Second round of interviews

In arecent interview, Dominic Barton, McKinseys Global Managing Director, revealed that about 1% of
the 200,000 candidates applying to the rm every year receive a job oer.

Assuming a 33% success rate at the four steps of the recruiting process described above, we estimate
that McKinsey interviews about 21,000 candidates every year and that they extend a job oer to about
2,200 of them. If you have been invited to a rst round interview with McKinsey you therefore have a
10% chance of getting an oer.

Filter 1 / CV and cover letter: 200,000 candidates

Filter 2 / McKinsey PST: ~65,000 candidates

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Filter 3 / First round of interviews: ~21,000 candidates
Filter 4 / Second round of interviews: ~6,800 candidates
Job oers: 2,200 candidates

The good news is that the rst and second round interviews are really manageable when you know
what to prepare for. The rst thing to focus on is really trying to understand what skills McKinsey is
testing for in case interviews.

2. Skills tested by McKinsey case interviews

McKinsey uses case interviews to test three types of skills that are used by consultants in their daily job:

Problem structuring and maths skills

Creativity and business sense skills
Communication skills

First, McKinsey already started testing your maths skills with itsProblem Solving Test. This skill will
continue being tested during case interviews and you will be expected to perform mental maths both
quickly and accurately. In addition, your interviewer will also ask you to solve the problem at hand in a
structured way. In simple terms, that means you will be expected to solve the questions you are asked
in a clear step-by-step approach that is easily understandable by your interviewer.

Second, McKinsey case interviews are designed to evaluate your business sense and creativity. That
means your interviewer will assess your ability to come up with a range of ideas that make business
sense to solve the client issue at hand. For instance, you could be asked to nd innovative ideas for a
restaurant to grow sales, or to decrease costs.

An important nuance is that interviewers will not assess your business knowledge per se. In other
words, you are not expected to have any knowledge of the industry your case will be about. For
instance, you could get a case about re-insurance and not know what the re-insurance industry is. This
is perfectly normal. In these situations, your interviewer will expect you to ask questions about the
industry and will help you understand its specicities.

The only expectation is that you know basic business concepts such as revenues, xed and variable
costs, etc. We have summarized the nance concepts you need to know for consulting interviews here.

Finally, your interviewer will also test your softer skills. This includes how you communicate your ideas
and interact with others. Good soft skills are critical to deal with clients as a consultant and a lot of
interviewees underestimate their importance. To put things simply, you should try to communicate
your ideas in as a structured way as possible during case interviews and behave in a professional way.

Take a look at the following excerpt of one of ourMcKinsey live case interview videos to nd out what a
good, consistent approach to answering case interview questions sounds like.

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McKinsey case interview practice video

3.Differences between 1st and 2nd round interviews

The second important thing to understand is the number of case interviews you will have and how they
will dier. In most cases, you will have two rounds of interviews. The number of interviews by round
may vary but it is usually between 2 and 4. In total, you will therefore have between 4 and 8 interviews
before getting a McKinsey job oer.

First and second round interviews are similar in format and diculty. However, your rst round
interviewers will usually be more junior than your second round ones. Associates (2+ years of
experience) or Engagement Managers (4+ years of experience) usually lead rst round interviews while
the second round is led by Partners (10+ years of experience).

In theory, McKinsey takes into account your performance at both rst and second round interviews
when it makes the decision to make you an oer. However, in practice, your performance during the
second round carries a bigger weight simply because Partners will have a stronger voice when the
recruiting group will get together to make a nal decision on your application. It is therefore particularly
important that you do well at your second round interviews.

Lets now look at how interviews are structured and help you prepare for each of the dierent sections.
Your interviews will usually last between 45 and 60 minutes and consist of two parts:

Personal Experience Interview for 25% of the interview time

Case Interview for 75% of the interview time

Lets rst focus on personal experience interviews.

4. Personal Experience Interview

The PEI part of your interview will last about ten minutes. It is fairly dierent from a typical CV
interview mainly because your interviewer will only assess you on a single topic. Interviewers at other
rms tend to cover a large range of topics during a CV interview but that is not the case at McKinsey.

The good news is that the topics on which you will be assessed are very predictable. They are made
relatively clear on McKinseys career website: personal impact, leadership abilities, entrepreneurial drive
and problem solving skills. For instance you could be asked: Tell me about a time when you led a group
of people through a dicult situation or Tell me about a time when you had to solve an extremely
dicult problem.

Our recommended approach to prepare for these questions is to craft a story for each of the four skills
McKinsey will test you on. You can then use and adapt these stories depending on the exact question
your interviewer will ask. There are dierent structures you could use to tell your story but we
recommend keeping it relatively simple:

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Context: start by giving the necessary context on the example you are using
Problem: outline the problem you and your team were facing
Solution: explain the solution you came up with to solve the problem outlined
Impact: if possible, quantify the impact you had in solving the problem
Lessons: nish by any lessons you might have learned in the process

There are two common mistakes candidates make when answering McKinsey PEI questions. First, a lot
of candidates spend too much time on setting the context when telling their story. Second, some
candidates forget that the question is about them. They should therefore focus on what they did, what
their impact was on the situation they are telling their interviewer about. When you craft your four
stories you should keep these common pitfalls in mind and try to avoid them.

For more details and example answers, you should read the following blog post on how to impress your
interviewer when answering Personal Experience Interview questions.

5. McKinsey case interview structure

After thePEI question, your interviewer will then move on to the case interview.

In this part of the interview, you will be presented with a business case about a company facing an
issue. For instance, your case could focus on an industrial facility facing a prot challenge, or a company
that needs help to make a strategic decision on a new product. Cases are usually a simplied version of
real projects your interviewer worked on in the past.

Your interviewer will tell you about the situation the company is facing and will ask you questions about
the situation. She may also provide you with documents such as graphs and tables with gures about
the company. You will be allowed to use scrap paper to structure your thoughts and perform
calculations. However, you will not be allowed to use a calculator.

Most McKinsey case interviews use the following structure:

Situation
Framework question
Quantitative question
Creativity question
Recommendation

First, your interviewer will introduce you to the companys situation and the business problem they are
facing. Then, the interviewer will ask you to identify the areas you would look at to solve the problem at
hand -this is the framework question. You will then be asked to solve one or several quantitative
questions that will help further investigate the problem faced by the company and draw some initial
conclusions.

In addition, at some point during your interview, you will be asked a creativity question. These are
usually open-ended question such as what are the other areas the company could look at to increase
its online sales?. Finally, at the end of the case, your interviewer will ask you to make an overall
recommendation for the company based on the analysis you have just carried out.

Although the format and order of questions may vary from one case to the next, you will almost
invariably come across these types of questions during your McKinsey interviews and should therefore
prepare for them. To nd out more about the format of case interviews, you can download our Free
McKinsey Case Prep product here.

6. Differences between McKinsey and other cases

All consulting rms use case interviews during their recruiting process. But McKinsey interviews are
dierent in two regards.

First, McKinsey interviewers tend to control the pace of the interview much more than other
interviewers. Theyve got a list of questions about the case they want to go through with you and will

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take you from one question to the next. If they feel you spend too much time on one question, they
might interrupt you and ask the following question. Some people call this interviewer-ledcase
interviews. At other rms such as Bain or BCG, interviewers give you more control over the pace of the
interview. Some people call this interviewee-led case interviews. The skills tested in both types of
cases are the same but you should expect slightly dierent behaviours from your interviewers.

Second, there is a lot of competition to get into McKinsey, and your interviewer will probably challenge
the quality and logic of your answers more than at other rms. That being said, interviewers are
instructed to always be well intentioned and therefore will not try to trip you up or misguide you.

Lets now walk through the skills you need to develop to be able to impress at these dicult case
interviews.

7. Develop confident maths skills

It is almost impossible to crack case interviews without being able to perform maths calculations quickly
and accurately. This is because every case interview at McKinsey includes quantitative questions and
you will not be allowed to use a calculator to answer questions.

When you start preparing for case interviews, it is common to have relatively rusty maths skills.
However, in our experience, successful candidates take the time to refresh their memories and learn a
few maths shortcutsat the startof their preparation. This initial time investment provides them with
the condence they need to perform calculations condently in case interviews.

We denitely encourage you to make this initial time investment. In fact, this maths preparation is the
rst step of the McKinsey Case Interview Training Programme we have put together. To help you
refresh your maths skills, here are also a few mathsshortcutsyou should consider using.

8. Acquire a consistent answering method for each type of

questions
As mentioned previously, McKinsey case interviews follow a pre-dened set of questions: situation,
framework, quantitative, creativity and recommendation questions.It is therefore critical that you learn
to quickly recognise these types of questions and that you develop a consistent method of answering
them. Approaching each question with a pre-dened method will enable you to build stronghabits. On
the day of your case interview, these habits will make a huge dierence as they will reduce your stress
and save you a lot of time and mistakes.

At IGotAnOer, when we were preparing for case interviews, we were frustrated by the lack of
consistent method that existed to crack case interviews. We have therefore developed a method to
consistently answer McKinsey case interview questions. After being successful at case interviews, we
then set out to share this IGotAnOer method with future generations of candidates through
ourMcKinsey case interview programme.

Having a consistent method to answer dierent case interview questions may feel a little mechanical at
rst. But trust us, if you stick to a pre-dened method you will experience a step-change in your
performance that will help you get a job oer at McKinsey.

9. Practice out loud

Another key element to succeed at case interviews is practicing in real conditions. If you can practice
case interviews with a partner you should denitely do so, that will help you progress faster.

However, when you practice by yourself there still is something you can do to recreate case interview
conditions: practicing out loud. While this may sound a little awkward at rst, in our experience,
candidates who have forced themselves to use this technique have progressed much faster than
others.

When you practice out loud, you should both play the role of the interviewer and the interviewee. You
should ask yourself the questions your interviewer would ask you and then answer these questions out

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loud as if you were in the interview.

The reason this technique works so well is that it forces you to practice communicating your answer to
your interviewer. As mentioned previously, communicating in a structured and simple way is a key skill
assessed by McKinsey. Developing this skill as much as possible will make a big dierence on the day of
the interview.

10. Learn from every case

Finally, the best candidates learn as many things as possible from every case they do. In our experience,
it is much better to train on 20 case interviews and to learn a lot from them than to train on 40 and not
learn much.

To ensure you make the most of each case you practice on, we recommend that at the end of each
case, you write down what you have learned as well as the main mistakes you have made. After a few
days you should then do the case again. This approach will enable you to make sure that you apply
what you have learned and to ensure you are making progress.

Readytostarttraining?YoucanvisitourMcKinseyCaseInterviewTrainingProgrammepagetolearnmore
abouthowtogetajobofferatMcKinsey.

Once you have taken McKinsey Case Interviews

Once you have taken McKinsey Case Interviews, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom this page to
talk about your experience. It will be extremely valuable to future candidates!

Good luck!

Additional resources

Candidates from the best universities around the world use ourMcKinsey Case Interview Training
Programme,Free McKinsey Case Interview Prep,McKinsey PST Training Programme,Free McKinsey
PST,BCG Potential Test Training ProgrammeandFree BCG Potential Test.Some races are worth the
extra eort - let's get started!

The IGotAnOer team

Photo: Ed Gregory / Stokpic

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3Comments IGotAnOffer
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DPent7monthsago
I'dliketoknowifmoreseniorrolesalsohavethePSTorisitjusttheexperiencetest
Reply Share

IGotAnOffer Mod >DPent 6monthsago

HiDPent,

Generallyspeaking,candidateswhoareapplyingforBusinessAnalystandAssociatepositionsareaskedtotakethePST.However,
therearesomeexceptions(E.g.:PhdsintheUSarenotaskedtotakethePST).FormoreseniorrolessuchasEngagementManager
thedecisionistakenonacasebycasebasis.Ifyouareapplyingforaroleinateamthatisveryquantitative(E.g.:financialrisk)you
mightstillbeaskedtotakethePST.

Hopethathelps!InallcasesthebestthingtodoistodoublecheckwithyourMcKinseyHRdirectly,theyareusuallyveryhelpful.

TheIGotAnOfferteam
Reply Share

JackMan>IGotAnOffer3monthsago
Heyfolks,

WhatdoyouthinkaboutauxilliaryenrylevelrolesatMckinsey?suchastheProductandDeliveryanalystroleinMckinsey
Healthcare.
Reply Share

ALSOONIGOTANOFFER

Wanttoscore90%+attheMcKinseyPST?Dothisquestionin
30seconds.September132014,4Comments
32comments2yearsago
AdyaUsingthemethodyouhavedescribedinthereplyabove,
25%x(1+Yx7%)=50%,thenyouget,Y=14.3years.Isthis
correct?Isn'tthisclosertooption(C)ratherthan(B)?Isitthatthe
WanttosetyourselfapartattheBCGPotentialTest?Dothis
questioninlessthan30secondsAugust102015
3comments2yearsago
IslaMunroTookmeabout50secondstoreadandabsorb,but
onceIdidthatandcalculatedWifirevenues,Iquicklyrealisedthere
wasonlyoneoption(hadtobetheoneendingwith8)Intotal

McKinseyPST:9toppreparationfactsandtipsDecember28
2014
2comments2yearsago
IGotAnOfferHiNatalie!Itcantakeanywherebetweenonedayand
twoweeksforMcKinseytogetbacktoyouonyourresultsdepending
ontheofficeyouareapplyingtoandyoupersonalcircumstances.
BelazyandincreaseyourspeedattheMcKinseyPSTMarch
292014
2comments2yearsago
IGotAnOfferHiShaz,Thanksforyourcomment!Iunderstand
whereyouarecomingfrombutIthinkyouaremissingastepinthe
logic.Thebelowshouldhopefullyhelpclarify.Let'ssayweare

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