Here are My Top 8 Tips to Ace Your Case Interviews
Ready or not, recruiting season is here. For many candidates, this means they face the dreaded case interview.
I remember the first time I attempted a case interview. I was in a case workshop at UCLA Anderson, and we were told to work in teams on a practice case. My classmate read my first prompt. I was already intimidated, and when the answer wasn’t immediately evident to me, I froze. I ran out of time, and before we exchanged turns, I could feel my face turn red as she explained what I could have done differently.
What I didn’t realize back then is that casing is a learned skill. Very few people know how to approach case interviews without training. This is actually good news: it means that anyone can learn how to ace a case interview; it will just take practice. If I learned how to do it, so can you.
Here are my favorite tips when it comes to surviving—and mastering—the case interview.
1. Think out loud
The best way to avoid freezing during your case interview is to think out loud. A case interview assesses more than just your ability to solve a problem; it allows the interviewer to observe your communication style and executive presence.
Make it a conversation. Treat the interviewer as if she were a colleague. If you approach the case interview as a brainstorming exercise, rather than a timed exam, you will relax and think more clearly.
Throughout the interview, make your logic explicit. Talk through your assumptions, your initial hypotheses, and your framework. If you make your logic explicit, your interviewer can assess your abilities and gently nudge you if you go off track.
2. Understand the objective of a case
If this seems fairly obvious, it is. Before you begin building a framework or solving the case, repeat the case prompt or objective to confirm you understand it.
What is the ultimate goal of the case? Are you assessing a market entry, product consolidation, or margin improvement? Identify what the goal is, and stay focused on it throughout the case. A case interview on average lasts about 30 minutes. Stay focused on the objective to successfully solve the case and remain undistracted by superfluous details.
3. Develop a framework
Frameworks are useful tools in consulting. The goal of a framework is to create structure for your analysis. This structure will help you to identify categories to analyze, diagnose root causes, and recommend strategic actions.
A good framework will organize your thinking and keep your analysis MECE—mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.
To make a framework MECE, ensure that you didn’t exclude an important category (i.e. your categories are collectively exhaustive) and that you address each issue only once (i.e. your categories are mutually exclusive).
For example, if your case asks you to evaluate a market opportunity for a new product, you will want to learn more about the product (its price point and costs to calculate the margin); the market opportunity (who would buy this product, where, why, and what quantity); its direct and indirect competitors; its supply chain; the company (its capabilities, resources, market entry strategy); risks; external factors (regulatory and legal requirements); etc. Here, you could use a framework that analyzes the product, the market, the company, and external factors.
I begin by identifying MECE categories that cover the scope of a case. Then I create a list of questions for each of these categories to dig deeper. Marc Consentino’s book, Case in Point, includes common questions for various case scenarios. If you learn to pose these questions, they will help you unlock the information you need to discover insights and suggest strategic actions.
I highly recommend that you learn to develop your own specific frameworks. A case interview is designed to assess your ability to solve problems in real life. In lieu of memorizing cookie-cutter frameworks and trying to force them onto a case, learn to build your own. Once you develop this skill, you can create specific frameworks that you can use to solve any problem.
4. Prepare to quickly crunch numbers
When I prepared for consulting, I was very intimidated by the quantitative portion of case interviews. I did not have any desire to do math—on the spot, without a calculator—in front of my interviewer.
This was the biggest hurdle for me personally. If you feel the same way about a math test on an interview, here are a few strategies that helped me:
a) Round whenever possible – Make your life easy and round whenever possible. Often in a case interview, the answer does not need to be precise. Your recommendation won’t change if the market opportunity is $982,450,700 or $1B or if you calculate margin at 48.6% vs. 50%. Rounding makes math easier. Rounding also avoids a false level of precision in your answer. Projections should always be rounded—they are estimates, not precise scientific facts. So round, round, and round, and make the math easy.
b) Memorize common percentages and fractions – If you’re like me and interview math still makes you nervous, memorize common percentages and fractions. It’s much easier to memorize that 3/8 = 37.5% rather than trying to calculate that during the interview. Do yourself a favor: make yourself some flashcards and commit common fractions and percentages to memory. That will eliminate a good portion of your calculations and make you seem like a mental math whiz.
c) Write it down – If you still face a math problem that requires some calculation, it’s okay to write the math problem out. There is no shame in doing long division, multiplication, even adding or subtracting on paper. It’s much better to come up with the right answer on paper, than to make a mistake while trying to impress your interviewer with your mental math. In real life, we have calculators and Excel, so feel free to write down the problem and take your time to solve it accurately.
5. Develop insights
This is where the case becomes fun. I imagine cases are a puzzle that I’m trying to solve. They’re a type of business whodunit, or rather, a what-should-they-do mystery. First, I have to understand what I’m trying to solve. Then I organize in categories to create a structure for my analysis. Next, I start asking questions to “unlock the puzzle.” At this point, the interviewer will often give you data to review. He or she may ask you to make some calculations, e.g. what is the market opportunity, what is the margin, etc.
You’ve done all that initial work, and now it’s your moment to shine. It’s time for you to connect the dots and discover insights. What should the company do? Should they enter a new market, and if so, which one and how? Do they have products that are underperforming or whose markets are saturated?
This is where those calculations come in handy. What does the data tell you? Combine the data and calculations with your business sense and judgment to arrive at insightful findings. This requires deep thinking, and, as many things in life, it takes practice. Look for these insights to help you consider possible actions, the various scenarios resulting from those actions, and strategic recommendations on a path forward.
6. Use your creativity
Think outside the framework. Many firms assess creativity in interviews to identify potential in candidates. Computers can solve tough math problems. Good consultants, however, combine insights and creativity to offer best-in-class recommendations. If you demonstrate your creative thinking skills, you will have a much higher likelihood of acing your interview.
Many interviewers will test for creativity without explicitly telling you that’s what they’re doing. Your interviewer might ask you, “What other ideas do you have?” or “What are other possible solutions?” They’re testing your ability to think outside of your business jargon and come up with something unique.
Here is an example:
A case asks you to review a company’s product portfolio. Upon review of the data, you notice that there is a product that isn’t performing well. What are some solutions?
Improve the product quality/functionality
Reduce costs (production, marketing, distribution, etc.)
Identify a market segment where it would sell better
Divest (sell it) to another company
Sunset (phase out) the product
Combine it with another product
Partner with another company to create a joint product
Implement creative marketing strategies (E.g.: Consider the destination country’s culture – Is there a creative marketing strategy that would fit culturally? For an F&B [food and beverage] product, you could introduce a tasting/pairing with local foods, etc.)
The key is to demonstrate that you can think outside of the box. The more creative your ideas are, the better.
I recommend that you come up with at least three options, and then ask your interviewer if you should continue to brainstorm more. You want to demonstrate your creativity to your interviewer without spending too much time, since time is precious in a case interview.
7. Demonstrate initiative
Case interviews test quite a few important skills: your problem-solving abilities, your communication, your math skills, and your creativity. They are also a great way to demonstrate your ability to take initiative and self-manage. During a case, you should lead the conversation. Talk out loud, tell your interviewer which categories you want to explore more, ask questions, take initiative to calculate some quick numbers to help you derive insights, and make recommendations.
Stay in the driver’s seat. Interviewers will sometimes give a little hint or ask a question to help you keep the case moving forward, but this should be a last resort. You can make a great impression by taking control of the case. It’s your time to shine, so take the lead to "wow" your interviewer.
8. Succinctly summarize the case
Often, near the end of a case, the interviewer will prompt you for a quick summary of the case. He or she may announce, “The CEO just walked into the room and wants an update on the case” or “You have a meeting in five minutes with your client, what advice do you give her?”
Here you want to deliver a 30-second elevator pitch of the highlights of the case. I recommend that you focus on your findings and your recommendations. Avoid talking about process (i.e. first I considered A, B, C; then I calculated X, Y, Z, then I thought about this…).
Process is boring and time-consuming, and you don’t have much time.
You have maximum 30 seconds to make a very strong impression. Make your case summary punchy, fact-driven, and action-oriented.
“We discovered that product X has a market opportunity of $ZB and a margin of Y%. We recommend that you start in [country/market] through these three steps…”
The key here is to show that your communication is succinct, you understand what is critically important (versus superfluous details), and you can handle executive-level conversations.
The Takeaway (TLDR)
You can learn to ace your case interview with practice. Practice often with classmates, friends, colleagues, and professional consultants. Think out loud to make your logic explicit, focus on the case objective, learn to develop a strong framework, and practice developing insights.
To master the quantitative portion of the case, memorize common fractions and percentages, round wherever possible, and, if in doubt, write it down.
Demonstrate your creative thinking as you brainstorm possible solutions, and stay in the driver’s seat to showcase your initiative. Finally, succinctly summarize the findings of the case to show off your sharp communication skills and executive presence to neatly finish the case.
You’ve got this.
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About the Author: Brittany Blackamore is a Management Consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). She also serves as the CEO and Founder of Suitcase of Joy, a nonprofit organization that delivers school supplies, toys, sport equipment, and other materials to underserved children in Africa and around the world. Prior to joining BCG, Brittany worked as a Director of Strategy and oversaw a global team at Experian. Brittany earned her Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) at UCLA Anderson School of Management, where she also earned a Specialization in Global Management. Brittany earned her Bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Pepperdine University.
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