A Comprehensive Guide to McKinsey Case Interview Preparation

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

Posted June 8, 2023

mckinsey case study examples

Consulting Week (Apr 15-18)

Monday, april 15.

10:00 PM UTC · 60 minutes

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

Understanding the McKinsey Case Interview Process

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

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

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

Key Skills Required for a Successful McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

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

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

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

Mastering Consulting Case Frameworks: A Comprehensive Guide

  • Five Tips for Breaking Into Management Consulting

Tips to Ace McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

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

The Importance of Researching the Company and Industry before the Interview

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

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

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

How to Structure Your Responses in a McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

Common Mistakes to Avoid in a McKinsey Case Interview

Common mistakes that applicants make in McKinsey case interviews include:

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

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

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

Sample McKinsey Case Interview Questions and Answers

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

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

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

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

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

The Role of Creativity in Solving McKinsey Case Study Problems

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

How to Develop a Personalized Strategy for McKinsey Case Interviews

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

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

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

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

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

How to Follow Up After a Successful McKinsey Case Interview

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

Resources for Further Practice and Preparation for a McKinsey Case Interview

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

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

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

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

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McKinsey Case Interview & PEI - 6 Things You Need to Know

  • Last Updated January, 2024

Rebecca Smith-Allen

Former McKinsey Engagement Manager

If you’re interested in a career in management consulting, McKinsey & Company is probably on your list of firms to apply to. It’s the oldest consulting firm, established in 1926 by James McKinsey, a University of Chicago professor and expert in management accounting.

Today, the firm employs 30 thousand professionals working in 130 cities around the world. McKinsey regularly ranks at the top of lists of strategy consulting firms and is hired by businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations to help solve their toughest problems.

It’s difficult to get a job offer from McKinsey.

Like its top management consulting competitors, Bain and BCG, McKinsey typically hires only 1% of candidates who apply. In particular, McKinsey case interviews are tough to crack…but not impossible.

If you’re interested in trying to beat the odds, this article will tell you what you need to know to succeed. We’ll tell you:

What’s different about McKinsey,

6 things candidates recruiting with McKinsey should know,

We’ll provide a mock McKinsey case interview video, and

Provide tips on acing your McKinsey interview.

Let’s get started!

What’s Different About McKinsey? 6 Things Candidates Should Know

1. consultants are hired for either the generalist track or a specialist track.

Generalists at McKinsey are consultants who could be staffed to help clients in any industry and dealing with any type of business problem. Specialists are consultants with a particular area of expertise.

Areas of specialization within McKinsey  include digital and advanced analytics, marketing and sales, business turn around, operations,  software development and design, and implementation.

2. Consultants Work On-Site At The Client 4 Days A Week.

Most consultants travel a lot and at McKinsey, this is definitely the case. Consider whether regular plane flights and hotel stays are right for you.

3. McKinsey Cases Are Interviewer-Led Rather Than Candidate-Led.

Candidates are still expected to identify key issues to be addressed to solve the business problem presented by their interviewer and outline a plan to explore these issues. After they do that, their McKinsey interviewer is likely to tell the candidate which issue they’d like to discuss first. Other management consulting firms, like Bain and BCG typically let candidates steer their case interview.

4. Interviewers Assess Fit As Part Of Every Interview With Personal Experience Interview (PEI) Questions.

While all strategy firms ask candidates Consulting Behavioral Interview Questions  to assess their fit with their firm, many have one interviewer focus entirely on fit while others focus entirely on a case study question. 

McKinsey interviewers split their interview time between the case and PEI in every interview.

5. McKinsey Looks For Personal Impact And Entrepreneurial Drive In Candidates.

This is in addition to the structured problem solving and leadership skills that McKinsey, as well as other top consulting firms, look for in candidates.

6. Mckinsey Recruiting Uses Solve - a Gamified Digital Assessment.

McKinsey’s Solve Game was launched to broaden the firm’s reach to find the best talent regardless of geography as well as provide deeper insight into candidates’ problem-solving skills.

Keep reading for a deeper dive into these topics.

Generalist versus Specialist Track Roles

When the management consulting industry was first founded, simply having an MBA and expertise in solving business problems was enough to set a consultant apart. Consultants hired by McKinsey could expect to be staffed on a case in any industry and solving any type of problem.

To help clients solve these types of business problems effectively, McKinsey hires people with years of experience in functional specialties. These include advanced analytics, marketing and sales, business turn around, operations, software development and design, and implementation.

Specialists work alongside generalists on projects to leverage their functional expertise across the work of the team. The specialist practices are growing faster than generalist roles and get fewer applications, so if you have the right kind of expertise and apply to the practice, you may have a better chance of landing an interview.

How McKinsey Interviews Differ from Bain and BC

There are two main ways that McKinsey’s interviews differ from those of other top management consulting firms. McKinsey uses interviewer-led case interviews while other firms use candidate-led case interviews.

In the “fit” portion of the interview, McKinsey uses the personal experience interview and each interviewer you meet with in all rounds will assess fit.

Interviewer-led Cases

At the start of any McKinsey case study, candidates need to go through 4 phases to solve the business problem the interviewer has given them in a structured manner: the opening, structure, analysis, and closing. 

In a candidate-led case interview, candidates will pick which part of the problem they want to dive into first and proceed with it. In McKinsey’s interviewer-led cases, the interviewer will pick the first part of the business problem they want the candidate to address.

Is the interviewer-led case interview easier or harder than the candidate-led one?

If you’ve structured the business problem well, breaking the problem down into the MECE  issues that require further analysis, it should not matter who picks which aspect of the problem to address first. What is helpful is knowing what to expect in your case interview so that you don’t start down one path just to be redirected by your McKinsey interviewer.  You don’t want anything to throw you in the middle of your case!

For more information on these 4 phases of answering a case interview question, see  Case Interview Prep .

Behavioral Interview Questions - The McKinsey PEI

As mentioned above, fit or personal experience interview (PEI) questions are part of every McKinsey interview. 

How else is the PEI different?

While other top management consulting firms focus on bringing the best creative problem-solving to their clients’ problems (BCG is notable here), McKinsey is interested in candidates’ personal impact and entrepreneurial spirit.

McKinsey interviewers look for these characteristics in answers to PEI questions. Because of this, it’s good to have some insight into why the firm thinks these characteristics are important.

Personal Impact

McKinsey says this about personal impact on its career website:

McKinsey does not want to create PowerPoint presentations with elegant solutions that sit on an executive’s shelf, not implemented.

Personal impact means that McKinsey consultants work shoulder-to-shoulder, on-site with client executives, developing solutions that don’t just solve a business problem in theory but also do it in practice. This can require facing resistance to change in the client’s organization head-on and persuading people to reassess long-held beliefs.

During the PEI, questions like the following will be asked to assess personal impact:

  •   Tell me about a team you worked on when you needed to change someone’s mind on a topic that was important to them, or
  •   Tell me about a time when you needed to rely on your communication skills to solve a difficult interpersonal situation.

This belief that personal impact is key to developing an implementable solution is what drives McKinsey consultants to spend 4 days a week on client site.

Entrepreneurial Drive

McKinsey says this about entrepreneurial drive on its career website:

McKinsey doesn’t hire consultants who can only implement solutions they’ve seen in previous businesses. They want people who are willing to try new things, take solutions to new industries or new types of problems.

The McKinsey problem solving approach treats each client problem as unique. Each solution should push thinking about best-practices.

In addition to personal impact and entrepreneurial drive, McKinsey also assesses leadership using the PEI. We won’t address this in detail because this is similar to other consulting firms, but you can find more about how McKinsey assesses leadership in our page on  McKinsey PEI Questions.

It also includes What McKinsey Is Looking For and provides a list of 11 Common PEI Questions.

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

The McKinsey Interview Process - Traditional and Recent Changes

The traditional recruiting process.

For years, McKinsey focused on a group of core schools to find new analyst (undergraduate hires) and associate (MBA hires) candidates. 

While the firm now recruits from a broader set of schools as well as more diverse candidates, recruiting at these core schools still starts in much the same way. McKinsey consultants conduct on-campus presentations and coffee chats to talk to potential candidates about what it’s like to work in the management consulting industry and at McKinsey, in particular.

If the firm hosts an event at your campus, you should attend to make personal connections and to find out first-hand if a career at McKinsey is right for you. If there are no events at your school or if you’re already employed, check out the company’s career site for articles and videos that will tell you what it’s like to work at McKinsey and what it takes to get an offer.

Candidates submit their resumes (and optional cover letters) to the firm’s recruiting department via their school’s department of career services and on the firm website. Candidates who are invited to interview typically have their first round interviews on campus.

During first round interviews, candidates meet with 2 interviewers back-to-back. Candidates who pass first round interviews are invited to a McKinsey office for second round interviews.

In second round interviews, candidates meet with 3 interviewers. Unless a candidate’s interviewers are split in their decision, second round interviews are also final round interviews.

In each round of interviews, McKinsey interviewers walk candidates through a business problem and asks a series of  McKinsey PEI Questions , aimed at evaluating their potential fit with the organization. 

The Recruiting Process for Candidates at Non-core School and Experienced Hires

Candidates from non-core schools submit their resumes (and optional cover letters) directly to the recruiting department of the 3 offices they’d like to work in.

If they are invited to interview, candidates who live relatively close to a McKinsey office will be invited for in-person first round interviews. Others will be asked to do their first round McKinsey interviews via video conference.

Candidates already working in another industry or those working at another consulting firm submit their resumes (and optional cover letters) directly to the recruiting department of the three offices they’d like to work in. They will typically have a phone interview before the “first round” of in-person interviews.

In both cases, once candidates are passed to second round interviews the recruiting process is the same as for core school candidates.

Solve, The McKinsey Problem Solving Game

McKinsey is reaching out to more candidates outside of their traditional core schools to diversify its recruiting. As part of that, it’s launched  Solve , an online game  that assesses candidates’ problem-solving skills.  Solve is both more fun and gives candidates from non-core schools a better shot at getting a McKinsey interview than they’ve had in the past.

Example McKinsey Case Interview - Video

Below, we have 4 videos in which My Consulting Offer founder, Davis Nguyen, walks you  through each segment of a McKinsey case interview from beginning to end. 

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - Opening the Case

The key thing to do in the opening of a McKinsey case study is to repeat back the question so you’re sure you understand the problem you are solving. Then, ask questions to begin to get more information.

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - Structuring the Case

In the structure section of McKinsey Case Interviews, create a MECE list of important issues you will analyze to solve the client’s problem.

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - The Case Analysis

In the analysis section of a McKinsey case study, you’ll need to do analysis to evaluate the best option for your client. This may require interpreting data from charts or graphs provided by your interviewer or doing calculations based on numbers you’re given.

Mock McKinsey Case Interview - Concluding the Case

In the conclusion of McKinsey case interviews, you’ll need to pull your analysis together into a persuasive recommendation for the client. Restate the question you were asked to solve, lay out key findings from each section of your case structure, and show how your analysis points to the course of action the client should take.

Now that you’ve watched our sample McKinsey case interview, you should be ready to start practicing for your own interviews. 

Here are 5 tips on making the most of your preparation time:

5 Tips on Acing Your McKinsey Interview

  • Practice casing with another person. Answering case interview questions does not come naturally and it is not enough to practice on your own since casing requires having a dialogue. Give yourself as much time to practice mock interviews as possible by starting early.
  • Record yourself during mock interviews  using your computer or phone. Study these videos to see how you can improve your performance in each phase of the case interview. Aim to make your answers more fluent and conversational.
  • Practice sample McKinsey interview-led case interviews. Use  McKinsey-specific case interview examples  below to make sure you’re not just familiar with cases, but with McKinsey cases. Make sure you are comfortable with being redirected at times. 
  • Brainstorm several  stories to answer common personal experience interview questions. You can find a list of these common questions here .
  • Find out more about the  McKinsey Solve Game  before you take it. 

After reading this article, you should have a good understanding of what McKinsey’s recruiting process looks like and how McKinsey case interviews are different from other management consulting firms. 

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about McKinsey case interviews, the PEI, or working at McKinsey, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

People interested in this topic have also found the following pages helpful:

  • Why McKinsey?
  • McKinsey PEI Questions
  • McKinsey Problem Solving Game
  • Case Interview Examples

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

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mckinsey case study examples

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

mckinsey case study examples

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

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  • The McKinsey Solve Assessment - 2023 Guide with Redrock Case Update

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McKinsey’s Solve assessment has been making candidates sweat ever since it was initially trialled at the firm’s London office back in 2017 - and things have gotten even more difficult since the new version launched in Spring 2023 added the Redrock case study.

Since its initial roll-out, the Solve assessment is definitely the most idiosyncratic, but also the most advanced, of the screening tests used by the MBB firms.

It can be hard to understand how an ecology-themed video game can tell McKinsey whether you’ll make a good management consultant, let alone know how to prepare yourself to do well in that game. When you consider that McKinsey are potentially cutting 70%+ of the applicant pool based on this single test, you can hardly blame applicants for being worried.

Matters are definitely not helped by the dearth of reliable information about what could very well be - with a top-tier consulting job on the line - the most important test you will take over your entire career. This was already true with the version of Solve that had been around for a few years, let alone the new one.

What information is available online is then often contradictory. In particular, there is a huge amount of disagreement as to whether it is actually possible for you to meaningfully prepare for the Solve assessment - before you’ve even considered how to go about that preparation. There is also a lot of confusion and inaccuracy around the new Redrock Case - largely as it is so recent as an addition and individual test takers tend to misremember details.

McKinsey Solve assessment screenshot of undersea ecosystem

Luckily, we at MCC have been interviewing test takers both before and after the Redrock Case rollout and following up to see which strategies and approaches actually work to push individuals through to interview.

Here, we’ll explain that it is indeed possible to prepare effectively for both versions of Solve and give you some ideas for how you can get started. Understanding how the Solve assessment works, what it tests you for and how is critical for all but the most hurried preparations.

This article makes for a great introduction to the Solve assessment. However, if you are going to be facing this aptitude test yourself and want full information and advice for preparation, then you should ideally get our full PDF guide:

MCC McKinsey Solve Guide

What is the McKinsey Solve assessment?

Coral reef with many red fish swimming around it, represetning the aquatic ecosystem from the McKinsey Solve assessment

In simple terms, the McKinsey Solve assessment is a set of ecology-themed video games. In these games, you must do things like build food chains, protect endangered species, manage predator and prey populations and potentially diagnose diseases within animal populations or identify natural disasters.

Usually, you will be given around 70 minutes to complete two separate games, spending about the same amount of time on each.

Until recently, these games had uniformly been Ecosystem Building and Plant Defence. However, since Spring 2023, McKinsey has been rolling out a new version across certain geographies. This replaces the Plant Defence game with the new Redrock Case Study. Some other games have also been run as tests.

We’ll run through a little more on all these games below to give you an idea of what you’ll be up against for both versions and possible new iterations.

In the past, candidates had to show up to a McKinsey office and take what was then the Digital Assessment or PSG on a company computer. However, candidates are now able to take the re-branded Solve assessment at home on their own computers.

Test-takers are allowed to leverage any assistance they like (you aren’t spied on through your webcam as you would be with some other online tests), and it is common to have a calculator or even another computer there to make use of.

Certainly, we strongly advise every candidate to have at least a pen, paper and calculator on their desk when they take the Solve assessment.

Common Question: Is the Solve assessment the same thing as the PSG?

In short, yes - “Solve” is just the newer name for the McKinsey Problem Solving Game.

We want to clear up any potential confusion right at the beginning. You will hear this same screening test called a few different things in different places. The Solve moniker itself is a relatively recent re-branding by McKinsey. Previously, the same test was known as either the Problem Solving Game (usually abbreviated to PSG) or the Digital Assessment. You will also often see that same test referred to as the Imbellus test or game, after the firm that created the first version.

You will still see all these names used across various sites and forums - and even within some older articles and blog posts here on MyConsultingCoach. McKinsey has also been a little inconsistent on what they call their own assessment internally. Candidates can often become confused when trying to do their research, but you can rest assured that all these names refer to the same screening test - though folk might be referring to either the legacy or Redrock versions.

Why does the assessment exist?

Screenshot of an Island from the McKinsey Solve assessment

As with Bain, BCG and other major management consulting firms, McKinsey receives far far more applications for each position than they can ever hope to interview. Compounding this issue is that case interviews are expensive and inconvenient for firms like McKinsey to conduct. Having a consultant spend a day interviewing just a few candidates means disrupting a whole engagement and potentially having to fly that consultant back to their home office from wherever their current project was located. This problem is even worse for second-round interviews given by partners.

Thus, McKinsey need to cut down their applicant pool as far as possible, so as to shrink the number of case interviews they need to give without losing the candidates they actually want to hire. Of course, they want to then accomplish this as cheaply and conveniently as possible.

The Problem Solving Test (invariably shortened to PST) had been used by McKinsey for many years. However, it had a number of problems that were becoming more pronounced over time, and it was fundamentally in need of replacement. Some of these were deficiencies with the test itself, though many were more concerned with how the test fitted with the changing nature of the consulting industry.

The Solve assessment has been developed and iterated by the specialist firm Imbellus ( now owned by gaming giant Roblox ) to replace the long-standing PST in this screening role and offers solutions to those problems with its predecessor.

We could easily write a whole article on what McKinsey aimed to gain from the change, but the following few points cover most of the main ideas:

  • New Challenges: In particular, the changing demands of the consulting industry mean that McKinsey is increasingly seeking a new kind of hire. Previously, candidates were largely coming out of MBAs or similar business-focussed backgrounds, and so the PST’s quickfire business questions in a familiar GMAT-style format were perfectly sufficient to select consultants for what were fairly non-technical generalist consulting roles. However, clients have been bringing ever more technical projects to firms like McKinsey. This has led to the increasing internal segmentation of consulting firms - to create specialist digital divisions , for example. Even in generalist consulting, there is also now an increasing recognition of the utility of individuals with real depth of knowledge coming out of either industry or non-business academic routes like PhD programmes (you can read more about getting into consulting without an MBA here ). This feeds through to change what constitutes a good aptitude test for McKinsey. Without the once-crucial MBA, McKinsey can’t assume the same kind of detailed business knowledge. They also ideally want a single test that can be given to all kinds of prospective specialist consultants as well as generalists.
  • Fairness and the Modern Context: The covid pandemic necessitated at-home aptitude testing. However, even before that, there were pressures for a move to a largely remote recruitment process. Online testing - versus real-life papers, sat on location - dramatically reduces the amount of travel required of candidates. This allows McKinsey to cast a wider net, providing more opportunities to those living away from hub cities, whilst also hugely reducing the carbon footprint associated with the McKinsey selection process.
  • Gaming the System: More pragmatically, the Solve assessment promises to simply do the job of selecting the right candidates better than the PST. All things being equal, just increasing the candidate pool with an online test should lead to better quality candidates emerging to top the cohort. However, the Solve assessment also promises to do a better job at ranking those candidates in line with their actual abilities. A large part of this is that it is a much harder test to “game” than the PST was, where highly effective prep resources were available and readily allowed a bad candidate with good preparation to do better than a good candidate. The fact that game parameters change for every individual test-taker also cuts down the risk of some candidates having an unfair advantage by receiving details of the tests being used from those who have already taken them. The recent move towards the Redrock version also helps McKinsey stay ahead of those developing prep resources for the legacy Solve assessment.
  • Cost Cutting: A major advantage of scrapping the old pen-and-paper PST is that the formidable task of thinning down McKinsey’s applicant pool can be largely automated. No test rooms and invigilation staff need to be organised and no human effort is required to devise, transport, catalogue and mark papers. This is especially impactful when we consider that the Solve assessment’s advanced “process scoring” function allows the kind of nuanced filtering of candidates that would usually require something like an essay-based exam to accomplish, rather than the multiple-choice PST. Imbellus has provided this without the huge time and effort from expert human markers that would usually be required - so McKinsey has gained ability whilst eliminating cost and inconvenience.

How is the Solve Assessment used by McKinsey?

McKinsey's own account of how the Solve assessment is used in selection can be seen in the following video:

Whilst some offices initially stuck with the old PST, the legacy Solve assessment was soon rolled out globally and is given universally to candidates for roles at pretty well every level of the hierarchy. Certainly, if you are a recent grad from a Bachelor’s, MBA, PhD or similar, or a standard experienced hired, you can expect to be asked to complete the Solve assessment.

Likewise, we can expect the new Redrock Case Study version to be rolled out globally - though at this point it seems you might be given either (especially as McKinsey has been having significant technical problems with this new online case study) and so should be ready for both.

At present, it seems that only those applying for very senior positions or perhaps those with particularly strong referrals and/or connections are allowed to skip the test. Even this will be office-dependent.

As noted above, one of the advantages of the Solve assessment is that it can be given to all of McKinsey’s hires. Thus, you can expect to be run into the same games whether you are applying as a generalist consultant or to a specialist consulting role - with McKinsey Digital , for example.

The takeaway here is that, if you are applying to McKinsey for any kind of consulting role, you should be fully prepared to sit the Solve Assessment!

Where does the Solve assessment fit into the recruitment process?

You can expect to receive an invitation to take the Solve assessment shortly after submitting your resume.

Flow chart showing the different stages of the McKinsey recruitment process

It seems that an initial screen of resumes is made, but that most individuals who apply are invited to take the Solve assessment.

Any initial screen is not used to make a significant cut of the candidate pool, but likely serves mostly to weed out fraudulent applications from fake individuals (such as those wishing to access the Solve assessment more than once so they practice...) and perhaps to eliminate a few individuals who are clearly far from having the required academic or professional background or have made a total mess of their resumes.

Your email invitation will generally give you either one or two weeks to complete the test, though our clients have seen some variation here - with one individual being given as little as three days.

Certainly, you should plan to be ready to sit the Solve assessment within one week of submitting your resume!

Once you have completed the test, McKinsey explain on their site that they look at both your test scores and resume (in more detail this time) to determine who will be invited to in-person case interviews. This will only be around 30% of the candidates who applied - possibly even less.

One thing to note here is that you shouldn’t expect a good resume to make up for bad test scores and vice versa. We have spoken to excellent candidates whose academic and professional achievements were not enough to make up for poor Solve performance. Similarly, we don’t know of anyone invited to interview who hadn’t put together an excellent resume.

Blunty, you need great Solve scores and a great resume to be advanced to interview.

Your first port of call to craft the best possible resume to land your invitation to interview is our excellent free consulting resume guide .

Impress your interviewer

What does the solve assessment test for.

Chart from Imbellus showing how they test for different related cognitive traits

Whilst information on the Solve assessment can be hard to come by, Imbellus and McKinsey have at least been explicit on what traits the test was designed to look for. These are:

Diagram showing the five cognitive traits the Solve Assessment examines

  • Critical Thinking : making judgements based on the objective analysis of information
  • Decision Making : choosing the best course of action, especially under time pressure or with incomplete information
  • Metacognition : deploying appropriate strategies to tackle problems efficiently
  • Situational Awareness : the ability to interpret and subsequently predict an environment
  • Systems Thinking : understanding the complex causal relationships between the elements of a system

Equally important to understanding the raw fact of the particular skillset being sought out, though, is understanding the very idiosyncratic ways in which the Solve assessment tests for these traits. Let's dive deeper:

Process Scores

Perhaps the key difference between the Solve assessment and any other test you’ve taken before is Imbellus’s innovation around “process scores”.

To explain, when you work through each of the games, the software examines the solutions you generate to the various problems you are faced with. How well you do here is measured by your “product score”.

However, scoring does not end there. Rather, Imbellus’s software also constantly monitors and assesses the method you used to arrive at that solution. The quality of the method you used is then captured in your “process score”.

To make things more concrete here, if you are playing the Ecosystem Building game, you will not only be judged on whether the ecosystem you put together is self-sustaining. You will also be judged on the way you have worked in figuring out that ecosystem - presumably, on how efficient and organised you were. The program tracks all your mouse clicks and other actions and will thus be able to capture things like how you navigate around the various groups of species, how you place the different options you select, whether you change your mind before you submit the solution and so on.

You can find more detail on these advanced aspects of the Solve assessment and the innovative work behind it in the presentation by Imbellus founder Rebecca Kantar in the first section of the following video:

Compared to other tests, this is far more like the level of assessment you face from an essay-based exam, where the full progression of your argument towards a conclusion is marked - or a maths exam, where you are scored on your working as well as the final answer (with, of course, the major advantage that there is no highly qualified person required to mark papers).

Clearly, the upshot of all this is that you will want to be very careful how you approach the Solve assessment so you generally think before you act and show yourself in a very rational, rigorous, ordered light.

We have some advice for how to help look after your process score in our PDF Guide to the McKinsey Solve Assessment .

A Different Test for Every Candidate

Another remarkable and seriously innovative aspect of the Solve assessment is that no two candidates receive exactly the same test.

Imbellus automatically varies the parameters of the different games to be different for each individual test-taker so that each will be given a meaningfully different game to everyone else’s.

Within a game, this might mean a different terrain setting, having a different number of species or different types of species to work with or more or fewer restrictions on which species will eat which others.

Consequently, even if your buddy takes the assessment for the same level role at the same office just the day before you do, whatever specific strategy they used in their games might very well not work for you.

This is an intentional feature designed to prevent test takers from sharing information with one another and thus advantaging some over others. At the extreme, this feature would also be a robust obstacle to any kind of serious cheating.

If cheating seems far-fetched to some readers, remember how competitive the race to land jobs at top consulting firms is. We at MCC have previously been made aware of individuals purporting to sell the answers to consulting screening tests on the black market. If cheating is possible, there is always a risk it can happen.

To manage to give every candidate a different test and still be able to generate a reliable ranking of those candidates across a fundamental skillset, without that test being very lengthy, is a considerable achievement from Imbellus. At high level, this would seem to be approximately equivalent to reliably extracting a faint signal from a very noisy background on the first attempt almost every time.

Taking this level of trouble - and presumed additional expense - shows how seriously McKinsey take the task of ensuring reliable, fair selection by trying to eliminate anything like cheating, or even just normal information flow between candidates, that might have happened with something like the PST.

(Note that we are yet to confirm this also happens with the new Redrock Case Study, but it seems to be set up to allow for easy changes to be made to the numerical values describing the case, so we assume there will be the same kind of variation.)

What does it all mean for you?

Understanding what you are being tested for is obviously crucial in preparing yourself for any kind of assessment. For the Solve assessment, this is especially true the longer the time you have to prepare.

Over longer preps, an understanding of exactly the kind of traits being examined allows you to select skill-building activities that should actually show transference in boosting your test performance.

Of course,  this begs the obvious question…

Can I Prepare for the McKinsey Solve Assessment?

Clown fish swimming in a coral reef

In short, yes you can - and you should!

As noted previously, there has previously been a lot of disagreement over whether it is really possible to prep for the Solve assessment in a way that actually makes a difference.

Especially regarding the legacy version, there has been a widespread idea that the Solve assessment functions as something like an IQ test, so that preparation beyond very basic familiarisation to ensure you don’t panic on test day will not do anything to reliably boost your scores (nobody is going to build up to scoring an IQ of 200 just by doing practice tests, for example).

This rationale says that the best you can do is familiarise yourself with what you are up against to calm your nerves and avoid misunderstanding instructions on test day. However, this school of thought says there will be minimal benefit from practice and/or skill building.

The utility of preparation has become a little clearer with the addition of the Redrock Case Study to the new version of Solve. Its heavily quantitative nature, strong time pressure and structure closely resembling a traditional business case make for a clearer route to improvement.

However, as we explain in more detail in our PDF guide to the Solve assessment the idea that any aspect of either version of Solve can't be prepared for has been based on some fundamental misunderstandings about what kind of cognitive traits are being tested. Briefly put, the five key skills the Solve assessment explicitly examines are what are known as higher-order thinking skills.

Crucially, these are abilities that can be meaningfully built over time.

McKinsey and Imbellus have generally advised that you shouldn’t prepare. However, this is not the same as saying that there is no benefit in doing so. McKinsey benefits from ensuring as even a playing field as possible. To have the Solve test rank candidates based purely on their pre-existing ability, they would ideally wish for a completely unprepared population.

Group of blue fish in a coral reef

There has been a bit of variation in the games included in the Solve assessment/PSG over the years and what specific form those games take. Imbellus and McKinsey have experimented with whole new configurations as well as making smaller, iterative tweaks over time. That being said, the new 2023 Redrock case is by far the largest change to Solve since that assessment's genesis back in 2017.

Given that innovation seems to continue (especially with the lengthy feedback forms some candidates are being asked to sit after sitting the newest iteration), there is always the chance you might be the first to receive something new.

However, our surveys of, and interviews with, those taking the Solve assessment - both before and after recent changes - mean we can give you a good idea of what to expect if you are presented with either the legacy or the Redrock version of Solve.

We provide much more detailed explanation of each of the games in our Solve Assessment PDF Guide - including guidance on optimal scenarios to maximise your performance. Here, though, we can give a quick overview of each scenario:

Ecosystem Building

Screenshot showing the species data from the ecosystem building game

In this scenario, you are asked to assemble a self-sustaining ecosystem in either an aquatic, alpine or jungle environment (though do not be surprised if environments are added, as this should be relatively easy to do without changing the underlying mechanics).

The game requires you to select a location for your ecosystem. Several different options are given, all with different prevailing conditions. You then have to select a number of different plant and animal species to populate a functioning food chain within that location.

In previous versions of the game, you would have had to fit as many different species as possible into a functioning food chain. However, recent iterations of the Solve assessment require a fixed number of eight species to be selected.

Species selection isn’t a free-for-all. You must ensure that all the species you select are compatible with one another - that the predator species you select are able to eat the prey you have selected for them etc. All the species must also be able to survive in the conditions prevailing at the location you have selected.

So far, this sounds pretty easy. However, the complexity arises from the strict rules around the manner and order in which the different species eat one another. We run through these in detail in our guide, with tips for getting your food chain right. However, the upshot is that you are going to have to spend some significant time checking your initial food chain - and then likely iterating it and replacing one or more species when it turns out that the food chain does not adhere to the eating rules.

Once you have decided on your food chain, you simply submit it and are moved on to the next game. In the past, test takers were apparently shown whether their solution was correct or not, but this is no longer the case.

Test-takers generally report that this game is the easier of the two, whether it is paired with the Plant Defence game in the legacy Solve or the Redrock Case Study in the new version. Candidates will not usually struggle to assemble a functioning ecosystem and do not find themselves under enormous time pressure. Thus, we can assume that process scores will be the main differentiator between individuals for this component of the Solve assessment.

For ideas on how to optimise your process score for this game, you can see our PDF Solve guide .

Plant Defence

Screenshot showing the plant defence game in progress

As mentioned, this game has been replaced with the Redrock Case Study in the new newer iteration of the Solve assessment, rolled out from Spring 2023. However you might still be asked to sit the legacy version, with this game, when applying to certain offices - so you should be ready for it!

This scenario tasks you with protecting an endangered plant species from invasive species trying to destroy it.

The game set-up is much like a traditional board game, with play taking place over a square area of terrain divided into a grid of the order of 10x10 squares.

Your plant is located in a square near the middle of the grid and groups of invaders - shown as rats, foxes or similar - enter from the edges of the grid before making a beeline towards your plant.

Your job then is to eliminate the invaders before they get to your plant. You do this by placing defences along their path. These can be terrain features, such as mountains or forests, that either force the invaders to slow down their advance or change their path to move around an obstacle. To actually destroy the invaders though, you use animal defenders, like snakes or eagles, that are able to deplete the groups of invaders as they pass by their area of influence.

Complication here comes from a few features of the game. In particular:

  • You are restricted in terms of both the numbers of different kinds of defenders you can use and where you are allowed to place them. Thus, you might only have a couple of mountains to place and only be allowed to place these in squares adjacent to existing mountains.
  • The main complication is the fact that gameplay is not dynamic but rather proceeds in quite a restricted turnwise manner. By this, we mean that you cannot place or move around your defences continuously as the invaders advance inwards. Rather, turns alternate between you and invaders and you are expected to plan your use of defences in blocks of five turns at once, with only minimal allowance for you to make changes on the fly as the game develops.

The plant defence game is split into three mini-games. Each mini-game is further split into three blocks of five turns. On the final turn, the game does not stop, but continues to run, with the invaders in effect taking more and more turns whilst you are not able to place any more defences or change anything about your set-up.

More and more groups of invaders pour in, and your plant will eventually be destroyed. The test with this “endgame” is simply how many turns your defences can stand up to the surge of invaders before they are overwhelmed.

As opposed to the Ecosystem Building scenario, there are stark differences in immediate candidate performance - and thus product score - in this game. Some test takers’ defences will barely make it to the end of the standard 15 turns, whilst others will survive 50+ turns of endgame before they are overwhelmed.

In this context, as opposed to the Ecosystem Building game typically preceding it, it seems likely that product score will be the primary differentiator between candidates.

We have a full discussion of strategies to optimise your defence placement - and thus boost your product score - in our Solve guide .

Redrock Case Study

Pack of wolves running through snow, illustrating the wolf packs central tot he Redrock case study

This is the replacement for the Plant Defence game in the newest iteration of Solve.

One important point to note is that, where the Solve assessment contains this case study, you have a strict, separate time limit of 35 minutes for each half of the assessment. You cannot finish one game early and use the extra time in the other, as you could in the legacy Solve assessment.

McKinsey has had significant issues with this case study, with test takers noting several major problems. In particular:

  • Glitches/crashes - Many test takers have had the Redrock Case crash on them. Usually, this is just momentary and the assessment returns to where it was in a second or two. If this happens to you, try to just keep calm and carry on. However, there are reports online of some candidates having the whole Solve assessment crash and being locked out as a result. If this happens, you should contact HR.
  • Confusing interface - Candidates have routinely noted that Redrock's controls are confusing and seem poorly designed compared to the older Ecosystem Building game preceding it. This means that they can often lose time figuring out how to interact with the case.
  • Confusing language - Related to the above is that the English used is often rather convoluted and sometimes poorly phrased. This can be challenging even for native English speakers but is even worse for those sitting Solve in their second language. It can make the initial instructions difficult to understand - compounding the previous interface problem. It can also make questions difficult, requiring a few readings to comprehend.
  • Insufficient time - Clearly, McKinsey intended for Redrock to be time pressured. However, time is so scarce that pretty well nobody is getting through all the questions. This is plainly sub-optimal for McKinsey - as well as being stressful and disheartening for candidates. We would expect changes to be made to address this issue in future.

McKinsey are clearly aware of these issues, as they have been asking some test takers to complete substantial feedback surveys after sitting Redrock. Be aware, then, that this raises the likelihood of changes to the Redrock Case Study in the near term - meaning you should be ready to tackle something new.

For the time being, though, we can take you through the fundamentals of the current version of the Redrock Case Study. For more detail, see our freshly updated PDF Guide .

The Scenario

Whilst changes to the details are likely in future, the current Redrock Case Study is set on the Island of Redrock. This island is a nature reserve with populations of several species, including wolves and elk. Redrock's wolves are split into four packs, associated with four geographical locales. These packs predate the elk and depend upon them for food, such that there is a dynamic relationship between the population numbers of both species. Your job is to ensure ecological balance by optimising the numbers of wolves in the four packs, such that both wolves and elk can sustainably coexist.

The Questions

The Redrock case study's questions were initially split into three sections, but a fourth was later added. These sections break down as follows:

  • Investigation - Here, you have access to the full description of the case, with all the data on the various animal populations. Your task is to efficiently extract all the most salient data points and drag-and-drop them to your "Research Journal" workspace area. This is important, as you subsequently lose access to all the information you don't save at this stage.
  • Analysis - You must answer three numerical questions using information you saved in the Investigation section. This can include you dragging and dropping values to and from an in-game calculator.
  • Report - Formerly the final section, you must complete a pre-written report on the wolf populations, including calculating numerical values to fill in gaps and using an in-game interface to make a chart to illustrate your findings. You will leverage information saved in the Investigation section, as well as answers calculated in the Analysis section.
  • Case Questions - This section adds a further ten individual case questions. These are thematically similar to the preceding case, but are otherwise separate, not relying on any information from the previous sections. The ten questions are highly quantitative and extremely time pressured. Pretty well nobody finishes them before being timed out.

This is a very brief summary - more detail is available in our PDF Guide .

Other Games - Disease and Disaster Identification

Screenshot of a wolf and beaver in a forest habitat from the Solve assessment

There have been accounts of some test-takers being given a third game as part of their Solve assessment. At time of writing, these third games have always been clearly introduced as non-scored beta tests for Imbellus to try out potential new additions to the assessment. However, the fact that these have been tested means that there is presumably a good chance we’ll see them as scored additions in future.

Notably, these alternative scenarios are generally variations on a fairly consistent theme and tend to share a good deal of the character of the Ecosystem Building game. Usually, candidates will be given a whole slew of information on how an animal population has changed over time. They will then have to wade through that information to figure out either which kind of natural disaster or which disease has been damaging that population - the commonality with the Ecosystem Building game being in the challenge of dealing with large volumes of information and figuring out which small fraction of it is actually relevant.

Join thousands of other candidates cracking cases like pros

How to effectively prep for the solve assessment.

Two stingrays and a shark swimming in blue water, lit from above

We discuss how to prep for the Solve assessment in full detail in our PDF guide . Here though, we can give you a few initial pointers to get you started. In particular, there are some great ways to simulate different games as well as build up the skills the Solve assessment tests for.

Playing video games is great prep for the legacy Solve assessment in particular, but remains highly relevant to the new Redrock version.

Contrary to what McKinsey and Imbellus have said - and pretty unfortunately for those of us with other hobbies - test-takers have consistently told us that they reckoned the Problem Solving Game and now the Solve assessment pretty robustly favours those with strong video gaming experience.

If you listened when your parents told you video games were a waste of time and really don’t have any experience, then putting in some hours on pretty much anything will be useful. However, the closer the games you play are to the Solve scenarios, the better. We give some great recommendations on specific games and what to look for more generally in our Solve guide - including one free-to-play game that our clients have found hugely useful as prep for the plant defence game!

PST-Style Questions

The inclusion of the Redrock case studies in the new version of Solve really represents a return to something like a modernised PST. Along with the similar new BCG Casey assessment, this seems to be the direction of travel for consulting recruitment in general.

Luckily, this means that you can leverage the wealth of existing PST-style resources to your advantage in preparation.

Our PST article - which links to some free PST questions and our full PST prep resources - is a great place to start. However, better than old-fashioned PDF question sets are the digital PST-style questions embedded in our Case Academy course . Conducted online with a strict timer running, these are a much closer approximation of the Solve assessment itself. These questions are indeed a subset of our Case Academy course, but are also available separately in our Course Exercises package .

Quick Mathematics With a Calculator

Again, specifically for the Redrock assessment, you will be expected to solve math problems very quickly. The conceptual level of mathematics required is not particularly high, but you need to know what you are doing and get through it fast using a calculator (and/or Excel, if you are already comfortable with that program).

Our article on consulting math is a great place to start to understand what is expected of you throughout the recruiting process, with our consulting math package (a subset of our Case Academy course) providing more in-depth lessons and practice material.

Learn to Solve Case Studies

With the Redrock Case Study clearly being an ecology-themed analogue to a standard business case study, it's pretty obvious that getting good at case studies will be useful.

However, the Solve assessment as a whole is developed and calibrated to be predictive of case interview performance, so you can expect that improving your case solving ability will indirectly bring up your performance across the board.

Of course, this overlaps with your prep for McKinsey's case interviews. For more on how to get started there, see the final section of this article.

Learning About Optimal Strategies for the Games

The first thing to do is to familiarise yourself with the common game scenarios from the Solve assessment and how you can best approach them to help boost your chances of success.

Now, one thing to understand is that, since the parameters for the games change for each test-taker, there might not be a single definitive optimal strategy for every single possible iteration of a particular game. As such, you shouldn’t rely on just memorising one approach and hoping it matches up to what you get on test day.

Instead, it is far better to understand why a strategy is sensible in some circumstances and when it might be different to do something else instead if the version of the game you personally receive necessitates a different approach.

In this article, we have given you a useful overview of the games currently included in the Solve assessment. However, a full discussion with suggested strategies is provided in our comprehensive Solve guide .

With the limited space available here, this is only a very brief sketch of a subset of the ways you can prep.

As noted, what will help with all of these and more is reading the very extensive prep guidance in our full PDF guide to the Solve assessment...

MCC Solve Assessment PDF Guide

Preparing for the Solve assessment doesn’t have to be a matter of stumbling around on your own. Whilst prep isn’t quite as straightforward as it would be for a more conventional test, there is still a lot you can do to increase your chances.

This article is a good start to get you up to speed. From here, though our new, updated PDF guide to the McKinsey Solve assessment is your first stop to optimise your Solve preparation.

This guide is based on our own survey work and interviews with real test-takers, as well as follow-ups on how the advice in the previous guide worked out in reality.

The MyConsultingCoach Solve guide is designed to be no-nonsense and straight to the point. It tells you what you need to know up front and - for those of you who have already received the invitation to interview and don’t have much time - crucial sections are clearly marked to read first, with specific advice for prepping in a hurry

For those of you starting early with more time to spare, there is also a fully detailed, more nuanced discussion of what the test is looking for and how you can design a more long-term prep to build up the skills you need - and how this can fit into your wider case interview prep.

All throughout, there is no fluff to bulk out the page count. The market is awash with guides at huge page counts, with appendices etc stuffed full of irrelevant material to boost overall document length. By contrast, we realise your time is better spent actually preparing than ploughing through a novel.

If this sounds right for you, you can purchase our PDF Solve guide here:

The Next Step - Case Interviews

Male interviewer with laptop administering a case study to a female interviewee

So, you pour in the hours to generate an amazing resume and cover letter.

You prepare diligently for the Solve assessment. You go through our PDF guide , implementing all the suggestions. Accordingly, you pour more hours into gaming, skill building and practising with PST-style questions.

You feel great on the day itself and ace the test, building a perfect ecosystem and keeping your plant alive for 50+ turns or acing the calculations for the Redrock questions.

Your product and process scores are right at the top of your cohort and those plus your resume and cover letter are enough to convince McKinsey to invite you for a first-round case interview. Excellent!

Now the real work begins…

Arduous as application writing and Solve prep might have seemed, preparing for McKinsey case interviews will easily be an order of magnitude more difficult.

McKinsey tells candidates not to prepare for Solve, and it is quite possible that someone might pass that assessment without having done any work in advance. However, McKinsey explicitly expects candidates to have rigorously prepared for case interviews , and it is vanishingly unlikely that an unprepared interviewee could pass even first-round interviews.

The volume of specific business knowledge and case-solving principles, as well as the sheer complexity of the cases you will be given, mean that there is no way around knuckling down, learning what you need to know and practising on repeat.

McKinsey have internal mentoring programmes for promising individuals and we have even heard of HR staff there explicitly telling candidates to secure private coaching before their interviews (indeed, it seems MCC got directly recommended by at least one HR).

All this means that, if you want to get through your interviews and actually land that McKinsey offer, you are going to need to take things seriously, put in the time and learn how to properly solve case studies.

Unfortunately, not all case cracking methods are created equal. There are some older-but-still-well-known systems out there largely trading on brand recognition, but with dubious efficacy - especially in a world where interviewers know all about the frameworks they teach and how to select cases that don’t fit them.

The method we teach throws out generic frameworks altogether and shows you how to solve cases the way a real management consultant approaches a real engagement. Usefully, our method is based specifically on the way McKinsey train incoming consultants

The time you put into learning our approach to case cracking won't just be time down the drain memorising some cribs to be forgotten after the interview. Instead, the methods we teach should still be useful when you start the job itself, giving you a head start on becoming a top-performing consultant!

You can start reading about the MCC method for case cracking here . To step your learning up a notch, you can move on to our Case Academy course .

To put things into practice in some mock interviews with real McKinsey consultants, take a look at our coaching packages .

And, if all this (rightfully) seems pretty daunting and you’d like to have an experienced consultant guide you through your whole prep from start to finish, you can apply for our comprehensive mentoring programme here .

Looking for an all-inclusive, peace of mind program?

Candidates who sign up to our free services are 3 times more likely to land a job in one of their target firms . How?

  • We teach how to solve cases like consultants , not through frameworks
  • Our Meeting Board lets you practice with peers on 100+ realistic, interactive cases.
  • Our AI mentor creates a personalised study roadmap to give you direction.
  • All the advice you need on resume, cover letter and networking.

We believe in fostering talent, that’s why all of the above is free .

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Case Interview Examples (2024): A Collection from McKinsey and Others

case interview examples from consulting firms such as mckinsey, bcg or bain

Last Updated on January 11, 2024

Whenever you prepare for case interviews, you have to practice as realistically as possible and mimic the real case study interview at McKinsey , BCG , Bain , and others. One way to do this and make your preparation more effective is to practice real cases provided by the firms you apply to.

It will help you to understand what the differences are across firms, how they structure and approach their cases, what dimensions are important to them, and what solutions they consider to be strong.

Below is a steadily expanding selection of real case interview examples provided by different management consulting firms.

Before wasting your money on case interview collection books that use generic cases, use original cases first. Additionally, use professional case coaches, who interviewed for the top firms , to mimic the real interview experience and get real, actionable feedback to improve.

Please be aware that cases are just one part of a typical consulting interview. It is equally important to prepare for behavioral and fit interview questions .

McKinsey Case Interview Examples

  • Loravia – Transforming a national education system
  • SuperSoda – Electro-light product launch
  • GlobaPharm – Pharma R&D
  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Diconsa financial services offering
  • Beautify – Customer approach
  • Shops – DEI strategy
  • Talbot Trucks – Electric truck development
  • Conservation Forever – Nature conservation

We have written a detailed article on the McKinsey application process, the McKinsey interview timeline, the typical McKinsey case interview, and the McKinsey Personal Experience interview here . You can expect similar cases regardless of your position (e.g. in a McKinsey phone case interview or interviewing for a McKinsey internship as well as a full-time BA, Associate, or Engagement Manager role).

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Case interview Examples

  • Consumer Goods – Climate strategy
  • Banking – Client satisfaction
  • Consumer Goods – IT strategy
  • Chateau Boomerang – Written case

Bain and Company case interview examples

  • NextGen Tech
  • FashionCo .

Ace the case interview with our dedicated preparation packages.

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Deloitte Case Interview Examples

  • Federal Agency – Engagement strategy
  • Federal Benefits Provider – Strategic vision
  • Apparel – Declining market share
  • Federal Finance Agency – Architecture strategy
  • MedX – Smart pill bottle
  • Federal Healthy Agency – Finance strategy
  • LeadAuto – Market expansion
  • Federal Bureau – Talent management

Strategy& Case Interview Examples

  • Strategy& tips and examples  (case examples included )

Accenture Case Interview Examples

  • Accenture interview tips and examples (case examples included )

Kearney Case Interview Examples

  • Promotional planning

Roland Berger Case Interview Examples

  • Transit-oriented development Part 1
  • Transit-oriented development Part 2
  • 3D printed hip implants Part 1
  • 3D printed hip implants Part 2

Oliver Wyman Case Interview Examples

  • Wumbleworld – theme park
  • Aqualine – boats

LEK Case Interview Examples

  • Video case interview example (currently unavailable)
  • Market sizing video example
  • Brainteaser (scroll to the bottom of the page)

Simon Kucher Case Interview Examples

  • Smart phone pricing

OC&C Case Interview Examples

  • Imported whiskey in an emerging market – business strategy
  • Leisure clubs – data interpretation

Capital One Case Interview Examples

  • How to crack case interviews with Capital One (includes case examples)

Bridgespan Case Interview Examples

  • Robinson Philanthropy – Strategy
  • Reach for the Stars – Student success
  • Home Nurses for New Families – Expansion strategy
  • Venture Philanthropy – Charity

Consulting Clubs Case Interview Books

Contact us at [email protected] for a collection of consulting club case interview books (from Harvard, ESADE, LBS, Columbia, etc.).

How We Help You Ace Your Case Interviews

We have specialized in placing people from all walks of life with different backgrounds into top consulting firms both as generalist hires as well as specialized hires and experts. As former McKinsey consultants and interview experts, we help you by

  • tailoring your resume and cover letter to meet consulting firms’ highest standards
  • showing you how to pass the different online assessments and tests for McKinsey , BCG , and Bain
  • showing you how to ace McKinsey interviews and the PEI with our video academy
  • coaching you in our 1-on-1 sessions to become an excellent case solver and impress with your fit answers (90% success rate after 5 sessions)
  • preparing your math to be bulletproof for every case interview
  • helping you structure creative and complex case interviews
  • teaching you how to interpret charts and exhibits like a consultant
  • providing you with cheat sheets and overviews for 27 industries .

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

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mckinsey case study examples

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

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

Case interview maths

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

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

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

Let’s dive in!

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

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

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

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

Case interview maths formulas

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

1.2. Optional maths formulas

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

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

EBITDA = Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation

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

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

NPV = Net Present Value

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

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

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

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

Return on equity = Profits / Shareholder equity

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

Return on assets = Profits / Total assets

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

1.3 Case interview maths cheat sheet

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

Download free pdf case interview maths cheat sheet

2. Case interview maths practice questions

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

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

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

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

Now here’s the first question!

2.1 Payback period - McKinsey case example

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

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

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

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

2.2 Cost reduction - McKinsey case example

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

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

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

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

2.3 Product launch - McKinsey case maths example

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

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

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

2.4 Pricing strategy - McKinsey case maths example

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

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

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

2.5 Inclusive hiring - McKinsey case maths example

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

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

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

2.6 Breakeven point - Bain case maths example

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

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

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

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

2.7 Driving revenue - Bain case maths example

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

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

Option A: Rewards program

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

Option B: Intermittent sales

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

3. Case maths apps and tools

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

  • Set up the equation
  • Perform the calculations

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

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

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

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

  • Additions and subtractions
  • Multiplications and divisions
  • Percentages

Scientific notation

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

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

4. Case interview maths tips and tricks

4.1. calculators are not allowed in case interviews.

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

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

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

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

Let’s begin with rounding numbers.

4.2. Round numbers for speed and accuracy

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

Case maths tips

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.3. Abbreviate large numbers

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

Labels (k, m, b)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.4. Use factoring to make calculations simpler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Factoring the numerator / denominator

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

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

4.5. Expand numbers to make calculations easier

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

Expanding with additions

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

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

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

Expanding with subtractions

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

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

4.6. Simplify growth rate calculations

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

Multiply growth rates together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Estimate compound growth rates

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

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

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

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

  • Estimate growth rate = Growth rate x Number of years

In our example:

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

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

4.7. Memorise key statistics

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

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

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

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

Statistics for market sizing questions

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

5. Practice with experts

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

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

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

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

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

Interview coach and candidate conduct a video call

Generative AI and the future of work in Australia

In a 2019 report, Australia’s automation opportunity: Reigniting productivity and inclusive income growth , McKinsey examined the possible impact of automation on the future of work. Australia’s economy was at the tail end of a three-decade boom and losing momentum fast—yet the automation wave was on the horizon, bringing the possibility of inclusive economic growth and an uplift in productivity. The report found that, to realize this promise, Australia would need to embrace rapid automation adoption and facilitate social inclusion in the process. 1 Australia’s automation opportunity: Reigniting productivity and inclusive income growth , McKinsey, March 3, 2019.

What is generative AI?

In this report, generative AI (gen AI) encompasses applications typically constructed using foundation models, a class of artificial neural networks that have layered structures comparable to the human brain’s neuron networks. 1 For more, see “ Generative AI and the future of work in America ,” McKinsey Global Institute, July 26, 2023 and The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier , McKinsey, June 14, 2023. This type of AI is called generative because of its capacity to create new content based on deep learning, or processing patterns and information from large amounts of data. One example is ChatGPT, which uses its data sourced from the internet to respond to questions and create a variety of written content—from poetry and stories to essays and computer code. 2 James Purtill, “How Australians are using ChatGPT and other generative AI in their everyday lives,” ABC Science, April 14, 2023.

Gen AI tools can also be used to generate graphics. Leonardo.Ai, developed by a North Sydney-based start-up, generates images and videos online from text prompts. In an interview for this report, cofounder J.J. Fiasson explains that Leonardo.Ai aims to help people to move quickly from idea to visual creation, an exercise which could otherwise take days or weeks. Users can input basic stick figures which the technology outputs as realistic drawings—for example, a line with some green dashes can be rendered into an oak tree. 3 “Leonardo.Ai accelerates global growth, generates 700 million AI images in less than a year on AWS,” Amazon media alert, November 27, 2023.

Despite many users interacting with these platforms for curiosity’s sake alone, gen AI nevertheless has the potential to perform an array of business-related functions—from product design to writing music and from customer service chatbots to assistance with scientific advancements. Still, gen AI’s early stage limitations require consideration to avoid unwanted legal, ethical, or plagiarism-related consequences. Human input and assessment, adequate monitoring, and awareness of possible inaccuracies are critical to ensure that gen AI is used responsibly. 4 “ Generative AI and the future of work in America ,” McKinsey Global Institute, July 26, 2023; The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier , McKinsey, June 14, 2023.

Half a decade later, a lot has changed—not least because of the profound shifts that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the Australian economy. In 2023, generative AI (gen AI) emerged as a significant new force with the potential to reshape the future of work. 2 Insights from the first six months of JobKeeper , The Australian Government the Treasury, October 11, 2021; The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier , McKinsey, June 14, 2023. With its advanced natural language capabilities, gen AI could become ubiquitous, embedded into knowledge workers’ everyday tools (see sidebar, “What is generative AI?”). As gen AI continues to evolve through 2030, it could affect a more comprehensive set of work activities, transforming skills demand in Australia.

The acceleration of gen AI, alongside overlapping macroeconomic trends, prompted us to reexamine automation and the future of work. A new report by McKinsey, Generative AI and the future of work in Australia , aims to reflect what Australia’s mix of occupations could look like in 2030, including potential shifts in skills demand and how workers may need to reskill to stay productively employed and transition to new roles. This article explores some key findings from the report’s analysis.

The accelerated capabilities of machines

In 2019, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that 44 percent of Australians’ time at work could be automated by adopting the technology of the time. 3 Australia’s automation opportunity: Reigniting productivity and inclusive income growth , McKinsey, March 3, 2019. In 2023, we revisited the topic to assess how the rapid emergence of gen AI has accelerated machines’ capabilities, finding that 62 percent of existing task hours could be automated using the technology available at the time of analysis. This potential could rise further to between 79 and 98 percent by 2030.

However, there could be a substantial time lag between technical potential and realized change—developing capabilities into technical solutions takes time, the cost of implementing solutions may exceed the cost of human labor, and the pace of adoption could be influenced by social or regulatory dynamics.

Accounting for these potential sources of friction, we modeled a series of adoption scenarios. While the early scenario suggests that just above 50 percent of activities could be automated by 2030, the late scenario could see just 2 percent in the same year. The midpoint of these scenarios would imply that around one-quarter of work hours could be automated by 2030. This is an eight percentage point acceleration with the inclusion of gen AI (Exhibit 1). 4 Based on a historical analysis of various technologies, we modeled a range of adoption timelines from eight to 27 years between the beginning of adoption and its plateau, using sigmoidal curves (S-curves). This range implicitly accounts for the many factors that could affect the pace at which adoption occurs, including regulation, levels of investment, and management decision making within companies.

In a midpoint adoption scenario, every sector and occupation in Australia sees increases in automation, with associated potential for productivity gains. The introduction of gen AI has altered the adoption pattern observed in the 2019 report, Australia’s automation opportunit y 5 Australia’s automation opportunity: Reigniting productivity and inclusive income growth , McKinsey, March 3, 2019. —automation is now rapidly encroaching on knowledge work, and the activities of white-collar workers, higher-wage roles, and workers in metropolitan areas. Automation adoption in educational services, professional, scientific, and technical services, and finance and insurance could see the most profound impact from gen AI (Exhibit 2).

The new landscape of human work

Technology-driven shifts intersect with other macro factors, such as an aging population, the net-zero transition, and increased infrastructure spending. When these factors are combined, up to 1.3 million workers—9 percent of Australia’s total workforce—may need to transition out of their current roles into new occupations by 2030. 6 Here, 1.3 million transitions are distinct from regular employment churn within the economy. In this case, an individual would move into a different occupation from their current one, as opposed to current measures of churn where an individual may leave one business and go to another business to perform the same occupation.

When looking at future demand for jobs, and potential occupational transitions, three distinct occupational groups emerge:

  • Resilient and growing occupations include those in science and technology, healthcare, and professional services, which remained in demand during the pandemic. In this group, after automation, there could be net demand for 1.5 million additional jobs in 2022–30 and up to 210,000 required occupational transitions.
  • Stalled but rising occupations—building and mechanical installation and repair—saw downturns from 2019–22 related to the pandemic and global supply shortages. 7 Infrastructure beyond COVID-19—A national study on the impacts of the pandemic on Australia, Infrastructure Australia, December 16, 2020. Alongside growing infrastructure demand, job demand could increase by 290,000, with 200,000 occupational transitions.
  • Disrupted and declining occupations saw low growth or decline from 2019 to 2022 and are likely to continue to shrink, with up to 850,000 occupation transitions by 2030. Declining demand for jobs in office support, production work, food services, and customer service and sales could see almost 850,000 workers leaving their current occupations and finding jobs in different occupations (Exhibit 3).

Understanding the nuances of these changes, and their potential impact on individuals and businesses, is crucial for a smoother transition. For instance, roles that are categorized within the lowest wage quintile and those without bachelor’s degree requirements are, respectively, 5.0 and 1.8 times more likely to experience occupational transitions than roles within the highest wage quintile and with higher education requirements. Women, who are underrepresented in jobs with growing demand, such as technology-related roles, and overrepresented in office support and customer service, are 1.2 times more likely to be affected by job transitions than men. 8 Australian Bureau of Statistics; McKinsey Global Institute analysis.

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Skill building may be a crucial tool to navigate a changing jobs landscape.

Staying relevant in this rapidly changing environment could require workers to build new skills continuously. There could be greater demand for occupations requiring social, emotional, and technological skills, and relatively less demand for occupations requiring only basic cognitive skills by 2030.

Social and emotional skills, such as empathy, are often considered critical in healthcare and may continue to be paramount. However, with the increasing use of digital systems in healthcare delivery and the overall digitization of jobs and industries, healthcare workers may also need to build their digital skills.

Demand is anticipated to shrink for activities that primarily only require basic cognitive skills. The recurring, routine tasks in office support roles, for example, can often be completed by software and AI. Consequently, individuals could spend more time on higher-value work. For instance, retail employees could shift their focus from routine tasks, such as payment processing, to customer assistance—thereby delivering a superior customer experience.

Higher education could remain essential as demand increases in STEM, health, business, and legal professions. The need for bachelor’s degrees could grow by 17 percent by 2030, while tertiary and higher qualifications could make up about 2 percent more of the labor market. Still, about 60 percent of the labor market might not require a tertiary degree in 2030.

This continued and increasing demand for certain skill sets presents opportunities for upskilling and transitions to better-paid positions, which could rebalance the economy toward higher-wage jobs. More Australians could secure higher-paying positions—provided they have access to skills training and education.

Successful integration of automation and gen AI could boost the Australian economy and benefit businesses

Assuming all factors are in place, gen AI has the potential to increase Australian labor productivity by 0.1 to 1.1 percentage points a year through 2030. 9 We conservatively use the low and midpoint scenarios for these productivity numbers, given uncertainty concerning how productivity benefits will be captured. For both low and midpoint, we created two scenarios: a pessimistic scenario in which labor displaced by automation rejoins the workforce at 2022 productivity levels, and a more optimistic scenario in which it rejoins at 2030 productivity levels, net of automation. In both scenarios, we have incorporated labor displaced rejoining in line with the expected 2030 occupational mix. All other projections (such as, for example, jobs lost and jobs gained), are based on the midpoint adoption scenario. The range reflects a late and average speed of gen AI adoption, along with full-time equivalent hours released from deploying these technologies being redeployed back into the economy. Both scenarios account for the occupational mix expected in 2030. When we combine gen AI with all other automation technologies, the productivity growth could range from 0.2 to 4.1 percent a year in the late and midpoint adoption scenarios, respectively. But as a year-on-year increase of 4.1 percentage points would be up to four times greater than recent historical productivity growth levels, this potential is unlikely to be fully realized, especially as there could be significant transition costs and second-order effects (Exhibit 4).

Despite headwinds such as an aging population, automation and gen AI offer opportunities. If Australia were to achieve even half of the potential productivity uplift, it could be on track to rekindle the faster economic growth of the post-1990s heyday. Enabling factors to help achieve this improvement include leaders who prioritize adoption, redesigned processes, effective change management, and strategies to ensure value capture from new efficiencies.

For the purposes of this research, we identified three sectors to bring to life how gen AI could transform the future of work in particular industries:

  • In retail trade, technology has the capability to introduce greater personalization, redefining the customer experience. Automation could improve inventory, back-office, and supply chain management, while gen AI could augment key functions such as customer service, and marketing and sales.
  • In financial services and insurance, gen AI adoption could reshape the way employees carry out risk assessments, fraud detection, software development, and customer service. Nearly one-third of task hours could be automated by 2030.
  • In the public sector, gen AI could transform activities such as education delivery, interactions with citizens, financial analysis, and R&D. In all these areas, productivity gains and improvements in accuracy and service could come as a result.

An illustration of an eyeball with a digital iris, sitting inside a larger sphere whose front half is open. Three-dimensional geometric shapes float near the top and to the left of the sphere. A person holding a laptop is positioned to the right of the sphere and stands atop a three-dimensional polygon. A light shines from the center of the iris to the laptop.

Gen AI and the future of work

Considerations for employers, governments, and educators.

It will not be a straightforward task for Australia’s stakeholders to realize the full benefits of automation and gen AI while ensuring that the coming transition in occupations and skills is well planned and fair.

Three main groups of stakeholders have an opportunity to take meaningful action:

Employers can consider the following questions to prepare for workforce evolution:

  • How will gen AI affect our competitive advantage and value proposition?
  • Do we have a strategic workforce plan that matches demand and supply with the capabilities we need?
  • How do we create sustainable value at scale?

Governments can help unlock the benefits of task augmentation and automation, providing a transparent regulatory framework and supporting those most vulnerable to role transitions. Government leaders can consider the following questions:

  • How can we create a simple, balanced regulatory environment?
  • How can governments support business adoption of automation?
  • How might we drive automation adoption in the public sector?
  • How can we encourage reskilling and provide a safety net for those transitioning to new roles?

Education institutions, supported in part by governments, can prepare to meet the evolving needs of employers and workers who are transitioning between occupations. Educators can consider the following questions:

  • How can we develop a more responsive and agile education system?
  • How can we leverage gen AI to improve outcomes through personalized learning?

Gen AI unlocks a future that may differ markedly from the present. Some people may fear the development, thinking it will negatively impact the way that we live and work. Others may embrace it, believing it will enhance productivity and help meet the needs of the planet and its people. Supporting an optimistic outlook, Australia’s economy has proved robust through challenging times, and shifts from gen AI could unlock benefits for Australia—including higher job demand and productivity. However, this potential may only be realized if employers, governments, and educators are able to adopt the technology in a bold and thoughtful way. Such strategic action could ensure that future generations of Australians benefit from the same prosperity that the country has experienced over the past three decades.

Chris Bradley is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a senior partner in McKinsey’s Sydney office, where Jules Carrigan is a senior partner and Seckin Ungur is a partner; Gurneet Singh Dandona is a senior expert in the New York office.

The authors wish to thank Juhi Daga, Jack Dalrymple, Lauren East, Andrew Goldberg, Sean O’Brien, Laura Scott, and Alok Singh for their contributions to this report.

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Generative AI: How will it affect future jobs and workflows?

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Not so fast: study finds ai job displacement likely substantial, yet gradual.

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A full-scale figure of a terminator robot "T-800", used at the movie "Terminator 2. YOSHIKAZU ... [+] TSUNO/AFP via Getty Images

In popular culture, the fear of AI taking over jobs often manifests in dystopian narratives in which machines replace human workers, leading to societal unrest and economic collapse. Films like "The Terminator" and "Blade Runner" depict a future where AI-driven automation results in widespread unemployment and social upheaval, reflecting deep-seated anxieties about technological advancement and its impact on the workforce. These portrayals resonate with real-world concerns about job displacement and the growing role of AI in various industries.

A new study set out to address the significance – and speed – with which AI might automate tasks currently performed by workers. Titled ”Which Tasks are Cost-Effective to Automate With Computer Vision,” the study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT Sloan School of Management, The Productivity Institute, and IBM’s Institute for Business Value challenges conventional wisdom surrounding AI's potential impact on the economy, particularly focusing on the domain of computer vision.

In the age of rapid technological advancement, the fear of job displacement by machines – and the impact of AI on the economy and the workforce – has become a common refrain. As stated in McKinsey’s 2023 report The State of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s Breakout Year , “AI-related talent needs shift, and AI’s workforce effects are expected to be substantial.” However, the study introduces a novel approach to understanding the economic feasibility of AI adoption, departing from previous broad-stroke models. Instead of merely speculating on the potential for AI to affect various sectors, the researchers developed an end-to-end AI task automation model. This model evaluates the technical performance required for AI systems to undertake specific tasks, the associated costs of building and deploying such systems, and the economic viability of adopting AI solutions.

One of the key findings of the study is that the current economic landscape does not favor widespread AI adoption in tasks involving computer vision. Only about 23% of wages paid for vision-related tasks are deemed economically viable for automation. This suggests a more gradual integration of AI into the workforce, contrary to the apocalyptic predictions of mass job displacement.

The researchers emphasize the importance of understanding the nuances between full task automation and partial automation. While AI has the potential to augment productivity in certain tasks, the decision to automate must be economically justified. For instance, even seemingly straightforward tasks, such as visually inspecting food quality in a small bakery, may not be cost-effective to automate due to the high upfront costs of AI systems in small companies without scale and the relatively low cost of some labor.

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Neil Thompson, Principal Investigator at MIT CSAIL and the Initiative on the Digital Economy

“The biggest contribution of our work is to take into account the costs that businesses would face when deploying AI” said Neil Thompson, Principal Investigator at MIT CSAIL and the Initiative on the Digital Economy. “This contrasts with previous work which has focused only on whether AI might technically be able to do a task. Once we take economics into account, most of the tasks that had ‘AI exposure’ turn out to be unattractive to automate, at least in the short term.”

Moreover, the study explores how reductions in AI system costs and the emergence of AI-as-a-service platforms could influence the pace of automation. Scalability and wider application of AI technologies could democratize access to AI solutions, benefiting smaller businesses and organizations without the need for extensive in-house resources. For example, an AI-powered tool developed by NavTech can classify diamonds without a human jeweler. Another real-world example is Nvidia’s AI platform for autonomous vehicles, which provides vehicle manufacturers with updated deployments without building the capability in-house.

“Our research reveals two big trends that will help determine the pace of AI adoption in the future,” Thompson said. “One is reductions in the cost of AI deployments; as we find ways to build these systems more cheaply, more applications for AI automation will become attractive. The other is the creation of platforms where AI is delivered as a service to many players in an industry. The broader customer base of these business models will increase the financial benefits of automation and so accelerate that process.”

As our society considers the economic impact of AI, policy development and workforce upskilling and retraining must be considered. As certain jobs become automated, there will be a growing demand for roles focused on managing and improving AI systems, as well as roles where human skills remain irreplaceable.

In conclusion, the MIT study provides a nuanced understanding of AI's impact on the labor market. By meticulously assessing the technical, economic, and societal factors involved in AI adoption, the study offers valuable insights for policymakers, businesses, and workers navigating the challenges and opportunities presented by the integration of AI into the workplace. As AI continues to reshape industries, this research serves as a pivotal reference for guiding future explorations and policymaking in this rapidly evolving landscape.

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Heather Wishart-Smith

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