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Case Interview Preparation

Perform at your best during your case interview., bcgers share their case study interview tips., follow these dos and don ’ ts to ace your case prep:, test your case interview skills with these inteactive quizzes..

Related Expertise: Organizational Culture , Business Strategy , Change Management

Five Case Studies of Transformation Excellence

November 03, 2014  By  Lars Fæste ,  Jim Hemerling ,  Perry Keenan , and  Martin Reeves

In a business environment characterized by greater volatility and more frequent disruptions, companies face a clear imperative: they must transform or fall behind. Yet most transformation efforts are highly complex initiatives that take years to implement. As a result, most fall short of their intended targets—in value, timing, or both. Based on client experience, The Boston Consulting Group has developed an approach to transformation that flips the odds in a company’s favor. What does that look like in the real world? Here are five company examples that show successful transformations, across a range of industries and locations.

VF’s Growth Transformation Creates Strong Value for Investors

Value creation is a powerful lens for identifying the initiatives that will have the greatest impact on a company’s transformation agenda and for understanding the potential value of the overall program for shareholders.

VF offers a compelling example of a company using a sharp focus on value creation to chart its transformation course. In the early 2000s, VF was a good company with strong management but limited organic growth. Its “jeanswear” and intimate-apparel businesses, although responsible for 80 percent of the company’s revenues, were mature, low-gross-margin segments. And the company’s cost-cutting initiatives were delivering diminishing returns. VF’s top line was essentially flat, at about $5 billion in annual revenues, with an unclear path to future growth. VF’s value creation had been driven by cost discipline and manufacturing efficiency, yet, to the frustration of management, VF had a lower valuation multiple than most of its peers.

With BCG’s help, VF assessed its options and identified key levers to drive stronger and more-sustainable value creation. The result was a multiyear transformation comprising four components:

• A Strong Commitment to Value Creation as the Company’s Focus. Initially, VF cut back its growth guidance to signal to investors that it would not pursue growth opportunities at the expense of profitability. And as a sign of management’s commitment to balanced value creation, the company increased its dividend by 90 percent.
• Relentless Cost Management. VF built on its long-known operational excellence to develop an operating model focused on leveraging scale and synergies across its businesses through initiatives in sourcing, supply chain processes, and offshoring.
• A Major Transformation of the Portfolio. To help fund its journey, VF divested product lines worth about $1 billion in revenues, including its namesake intimate-apparel business. It used those resources to acquire nearly $2 billion worth of higher-growth, higher-margin brands, such as Vans, Nautica, and Reef. Overall, this shifted the balance of its portfolio from 70 percent low-growth heritage brands to 65 percent higher-growth lifestyle brands.
• The Creation of a High-Performance Culture. VF has created an ownership mind-set in its management ranks. More than 200 managers across all key businesses and regions received training in the underlying principles of value creation, and the performance of every brand and business is assessed in terms of its value contribution. In addition, VF strengthened its management bench through a dedicated talent-management program and selective high-profile hires. (For an illustration of VF’s transformation roadmap, see the exhibit.)

The results of VF’s TSR-led transformation are apparent. 1 1 For a detailed description of the VF journey, see the 2013 Value Creators Report, Unlocking New Sources of Value Creation , BCG report, September 2013. Notes: 1 For a detailed description of the VF journey, see the 2013 Value Creators Report, Unlocking New Sources of Value Creation , BCG report, September 2013. The company’s revenues have grown from $7 billion in 2008 to more than $11 billion in 2013 (and revenues are projected to top $17 billion by 2017). At the same time, profitability has improved substantially, highlighted by a gross margin of 48 percent as of mid-2014. The company’s stock price quadrupled from $15 per share in 2005 to more than $65 per share in September 2014, while paying about 2 percent a year in dividends. As a result, the company has ranked in the top quintile of the S&P 500 in terms of TSR over the past ten years.

A Consumer-Packaged-Goods Company Uses Several Levers to Fund Its Transformation Journey

A leading consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) player was struggling to respond to challenging market dynamics, particularly in the value-based segments and at the price points where it was strongest. The near- and medium-term forecasts looked even worse, with likely contractions in sales volume and potentially even in revenues. A comprehensive transformation effort was needed.

To fund the journey, the company looked at several cost-reduction initiatives, including logistics. Previously, the company had worked with a large number of logistics providers, causing it to miss out on scale efficiencies.

To improve, it bundled all transportation spending, across the entire network (both inbound to production facilities and out-bound to its various distribution channels), and opened it to bidding through a request-for-proposal process. As a result, the company was able to save 10 percent on logistics in the first 12 months—a very fast gain for what is essentially a commodity service.

Similarly, the company addressed its marketing-agency spending. A benchmark analysis revealed that the company had been paying rates well above the market average and getting fewer hours per full-time equivalent each year than the market standard. By getting both rates and hours in line, the company managed to save more than 10 percent on its agency spending—and those savings were immediately reinvested to enable the launch of what became a highly successful brand.

Next, the company pivoted to growth mode in order to win in the medium term. The measure with the biggest impact was pricing. The company operates in a category that is highly segmented across product lines and highly localized. Products that sell well in one region often do poorly in a neighboring state. Accordingly, it sought to de-average its pricing approach across locations, brands, and pack sizes, driving a 2 percent increase in EBIT.

Similarly, it analyzed trade promotion effectiveness by gathering and compiling data on the roughly 150,000 promotions that the company had run across channels, locations, brands, and pack sizes. The result was a 2 terabyte database tracking the historical performance of all promotions.

Using that information, the company could make smarter decisions about which promotions should be scrapped, which should be tweaked, and which should merit a greater push. The result was another 2 percent increase in EBIT. Critically, this was a clear capability that the company built up internally, with the objective of continually strengthening its trade-promotion performance over time, and that has continued to pay annual dividends.

Finally, the company launched a significant initiative in targeted distribution. Before the transformation, the company’s distributors made decisions regarding product stocking in independent retail locations that were largely intuitive. To improve its distribution, the company leveraged big data to analyze historical sales performance for segments, brands, and individual SKUs within a roughly ten-mile radius of that retail location. On the basis of that analysis, the company was able to identify the five SKUs likely to sell best that were currently not in a particular store. The company put this tool on a mobile platform and is in the process of rolling it out to the distributor base. (Currently, approximately 60 percent of distributors, representing about 80 percent of sales volume, are rolling it out.) Without any changes to the product lineup, that measure has driven a 4 percent jump in gross sales.

Throughout the process, management had a strong change-management effort in place. For example, senior leaders communicated the goals of the transformation to employees through town hall meetings. Cognizant of how stressful transformations can be for employees—particularly during the early efforts to fund the journey, which often emphasize cost reductions—the company aggressively talked about how those savings were being reinvested into the business to drive growth (for example, investments into the most effective trade promotions and the brands that showed the greatest sales-growth potential).

In the aggregate, the transformation led to a much stronger EBIT performance, with increases of nearly $100 million in fiscal 2013 and far more anticipated in 2014 and 2015. The company’s premium products now make up a much bigger part of the portfolio. And the company is better positioned to compete in its market.

A Leading Bank Uses a Lean Approach to Transform Its Target Operating Model

A leading bank in Europe is in the process of a multiyear transformation of its operating model. Prior to this effort, a benchmarking analysis found that the bank was lagging behind its peers in several aspects. Branch employees handled fewer customers and sold fewer new products, and back-office processing times for new products were slow. Customer feedback was poor, and rework rates were high, especially at the interface between the front and back offices. Activities that could have been managed centrally were handled at local levels, increasing complexity and cost. Harmonization across borders—albeit a challenge given that the bank operates in many countries—was limited. However, the benchmark also highlighted many strengths that provided a basis for further improvement, such as common platforms and efficient product-administration processes.

To address the gaps, the company set the design principles for a target operating model for its operations and launched a lean program to get there. Using an end-to-end process approach, all the bank’s activities were broken down into roughly 250 processes, covering everything that a customer could potentially experience. Each process was then optimized from end to end using lean tools. This approach breaks down silos and increases collaboration and transparency across both functions and organization layers.

Employees from different functions took an active role in the process improvements, participating in employee workshops in which they analyzed processes from the perspective of the customer. For a mortgage, the process was broken down into discrete steps, from the moment the customer walks into a branch or goes to the company website, until the house has changed owners. In the front office, the system was improved to strengthen management, including clear performance targets, preparation of branch managers for coaching roles, and training in root-cause problem solving. This new way of working and approaching problems has directly boosted both productivity and morale.

The bank is making sizable gains in performance as the program rolls through the organization. For example, front-office processing time for a mortgage has decreased by 33 percent and the bank can get a final answer to customers 36 percent faster. The call centers had a significant increase in first-call resolution. Even more important, customer satisfaction scores are increasing, and rework rates have been halved. For each process the bank revamps, it achieves a consistent 15 to 25 percent increase in productivity.

And the bank isn’t done yet. It is focusing on permanently embedding a change mind-set into the organization so that continuous improvement becomes the norm. This change capability will be essential as the bank continues on its transformation journey.

A German Health Insurer Transforms Itself to Better Serve Customers

Barmer GEK, Germany’s largest public health insurer, has a successful history spanning 130 years and has been named one of the top 100 brands in Germany. When its new CEO, Dr. Christoph Straub, took office in 2011, he quickly realized the need for action despite the company’s relatively good financial health. The company was still dealing with the postmerger integration of Barmer and GEK in 2010 and needed to adapt to a fast-changing and increasingly competitive market. It was losing ground to competitors in both market share and key financial benchmarks. Barmer GEK was suffering from overhead structures that kept it from delivering market-leading customer service and being cost efficient, even as competitors were improving their service offerings in a market where prices are fixed. Facing this fundamental challenge, Barmer GEK decided to launch a major transformation effort.

The goal of the transformation was to fundamentally improve the customer experience, with customer satisfaction as a benchmark of success. At the same time, Barmer GEK needed to improve its cost position and make tough choices to align its operations to better meet customer needs. As part of the first step in the transformation, the company launched a delayering program that streamlined management layers, leading to significant savings and notable side benefits including enhanced accountability, better decision making, and an increased customer focus. Delayering laid the path to win in the medium term through fundamental changes to the company’s business and operating model in order to set up the company for long-term success.

The company launched ambitious efforts to change the way things were traditionally done:

• A Better Client-Service Model. Barmer GEK is reducing the number of its branches by 50 percent, while transitioning to larger and more attractive service centers throughout Germany. More than 90 percent of customers will still be able to reach a service center within 20 minutes. To reach rural areas, mobile branches that can visit homes were created.
• Improved Customer Access. Because Barmer GEK wanted to make it easier for customers to access the company, it invested significantly in online services and full-service call centers. This led to a direct reduction in the number of customers who need to visit branches while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Organization Simplification. A pillar of Barmer GEK’s transformation is the centralization and specialization of claim processing. By moving from 80 regional hubs to 40 specialized processing centers, the company is now using specialized administrators—who are more effective and efficient than under the old staffing model—and increased sharing of best practices.

Although Barmer GEK has strategically reduced its workforce in some areas—through proven concepts such as specialization and centralization of core processes—it has invested heavily in areas that are aligned with delivering value to the customer, increasing the number of customer-facing employees across the board. These changes have made Barmer GEK competitive on cost, with expected annual savings exceeding €300 million, as the company continues on its journey to deliver exceptional value to customers. Beyond being described in the German press as a “bold move,” the transformation has laid the groundwork for the successful future of the company.

Nokia’s Leader-Driven Transformation Reinvents the Company (Again)

We all remember Nokia as the company that once dominated the mobile-phone industry but subsequently had to exit that business. What is easily forgotten is that Nokia has radically and successfully reinvented itself several times in its 150-year history. This makes Nokia a prime example of a “serial transformer.”

In 2014, Nokia embarked on perhaps the most radical transformation in its history. During that year, Nokia had to make a radical choice: continue massively investing in its mobile-device business (its largest) or reinvent itself. The device business had been moving toward a difficult stalemate, generating dissatisfactory results and requiring increasing amounts of capital, which Nokia no longer had. At the same time, the company was in a 50-50 joint venture with Siemens—called Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)—that sold networking equipment. NSN had been undergoing a massive turnaround and cost-reduction program, steadily improving its results.

When Microsoft expressed interest in taking over Nokia’s device business, Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa took the initiative. Over the course of six months, he and the executive team evaluated several alternatives and shaped a deal that would radically change Nokia’s trajectory: selling the mobile business to Microsoft. In parallel, Nokia CFO Timo Ihamuotila orchestrated another deal to buy out Siemens from the NSN joint venture, giving Nokia 100 percent control over the unit and forming the cash-generating core of the new Nokia. These deals have proved essential for Nokia to fund the journey. They were well-timed, well-executed moves at the right terms.

Right after these radical announcements, Nokia embarked on a strategy-led design period to win in the medium term with new people and a new organization, with Risto Siilasmaa as chairman and interim CEO. Nokia set up a new portfolio strategy, corporate structure, capital structure, robust business plans, and management team with president and CEO Rajeev Suri in charge. Nokia focused on delivering excellent operational results across its portfolio of three businesses while planning its next move: a leading position in technologies for a world in which everyone and everything will be connected.

Nokia’s share price has steadily climbed. Its enterprise value has grown 12-fold since bottoming out in July 2012. The company has returned billions of dollars of cash to its shareholders and is once again the most valuable company in Finland. The next few years will demonstrate how this chapter in Nokia’s 150-year history of serial transformation will again reinvent the company.

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Managing Director & Senior Partner, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute

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BCG Case Interview Guide: Criteria, Technique & Tips

Boston Consulting Group  (BCG) is among the top three largest and most prestigious management consulting firms ; candidates must pass through high-stress, yet exciting consulting interviews called “case interviews”.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the fundamentals, techniques, tips, and tricks you can use to break through the case interviews that BCG typically use.

BCG case interviews overview

Bcg recruitment process.

There are three main phases BCG recruitment timeline – resume, tests and interviews . The whole process can take 2-3 months , and if the candidate is accepted, the job usually starts 6-12 months after application. New offices with higher HR demands and staffing shortages can be less clear-cut, but generally faster.

The first two are already covered by other articles on our website: Consulting Resume Overview  and  BCG Potential Test . Once you’ve passed those challenges, the final test is the case interview , where all the fun is.

If you haven’t grasped the basics of case interviews, I advise you to go and read this Case Interview 101 crash course – a “guidebook” written for both beginners and experienced case interviewees. Link is on the right.

Now, let us continue with BCG candidate-led cases.

BCG interview process

The typical BCG candidate can expect 4-6 interviews during a span of 4-8 weeks . The first 2-3 interviews are likely done by Engagement Managers, while later interviews are reserved for the more senior Partners or Directors. BCG interviews usually consist of two parts: Fit interview (10 minutes) and Case interview (30-45 minutes).

What does BCG look for?

BCG looks for the three core skills and qualifications in potential employees: problem-solving skills, leadership ability and achieving mentality . Prior business background is not required, but it’s highly advised for case interviews. Technical/industry knowledge is required for certain career tracks – such as at support centers.

• Problem-solving skills: To be specific, it’s the analytical aspect of problem-solving. This is the core of consulting work – breaking down business problems to find root causes and deliver solutions.
• Leadership ability: A consultant doesn’t just sit around, alone, analyzing stuff. A consultant works with his team , connects to relevant experts, then uses that expertise to convince clients to follow his plans. The work involves a lot of people influencing, so leadership skills are absolutely crucial.
• Achieving mentality: You simply can’t get far without this mindset. Management consulting is notorious for tight deadlines and heavy workload; you must always go the extra mile if you’re to survive in this industry.
• Business background: Consulting firms don’t explicitly look for people with business backgrounds, but fundamental business knowledge is necessary to pass the recruitment process. If you come from a non-business background, you definitely need to brush up on this aspect; check out our video on Case Interview Starter Guide for Non-Business Candidates for more details on what to learn.
• Technical skills: If you’re applying for specialist roles you may be questioned on technical skills besides the usual case interviews . Precisely which skills are tested will differ according to the role and office, so check on their websites or contact the office for the details before going.

In BCG case interviews, each candidate must successfully display the following five attributes – among which the first three are crucial to consulting . In the Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , I’ll teach you how to demonstrate all of these attributes effectively, both in the case interview and the PEI.

BCG case interviews format

“case interview” – what does it mean.

A case interview is an interview with a business context In a case interview , you are given a business problem and asked to solve it – that problem, together with the whole surrounding business context, is called a case.

“The Pirate Company, based in the Caribbeans, offering assets removal services to ships in the area, is suffering from negative profits. They want you to look into the cause and solve it.”

In this case, the problem is decreasing profits. If you are the candidate, you’re supposed to find out what’s causing it, and most of the time, also how to fix it.

What are BCG case interviews like?

BCG case interviews are often candidate-led . At the most extreme of this format, the candidate “leads” the problem-solving process breaking down the problem through an “issue tree” and hypothesizing for the root causes . The interviewer assists the candidate by supplying data to test their hypotheses. There are two extremes in terms of the autonomy you’d have in a case interview. On one end of the spectrum, in a candidate-led case, you lead the problem-solving process. On the other end, in an interviewer-led case , the interviewer tells you what to do.

If the aforementioned Pirate case were interviewer-led, you’d answer a series of questions coming from the interviewer. 

This time, however, it’s a candidate-led case, so you’ll instead actively break down the big profit problem and look for the root cause.

Candidate-led cases focus on one big problem

In candidate-led cases, you solve the problem in its entirety, not through small questions as in interviewer-led cases.

As with all kinds of cases, a top-down approach is of prime importance. You are not supposed to yield solutions immediately, but to break the problem down into small parts and tackle each at a time. That’s how real consultants solve problems, not showing it in an interview will ruin your chances.

To solve The Pirate Company’s profit problem, you would first break the profits down into revenues and costs, then dive into each subdivision. This method ensures you cover all possible factors leading to the original problem, to deliver the most in-depth and comprehensive answer.

Candidate-led cases are more flexible

In candidate-led cases , you are free to analyze the problem as you see fit.

The interviewer usually has a “case universe” in mind – basically a fictional world formed by data on the supposed client and their problem. You’re allowed to freely explore this world.

Even if you venture out of the scenarios imagined by the interviewer through unexpected issue trees and solutions, he/she will most likely come up with new information on the fly to help you solve the case in your own way.

Suppose, in the Pirate case, the interviewer intended to have the costs divided into ship costs and crew costs; you, on the other hand, segment the costs into daily operations costs and battle costs, reasoning that battles don’t happen every day and their costs vary significantly.

If this was an interviewer-led case, the interviewer would likely direct you to ship and crew costs through pre-determined questions. In a candidate-led case, though, he’ll most likely play along and derive some data on operations and battle costs for you.

Candidate-led cases place less emphasis on being right

You are allowed a larger margin of error in candidate-led cases than in interviewer-led ones.

In candidate-led cases, you have to break down the problem all by yourself, with very little assistance from the interviewer. As such, you can be “forgiven” for larger errors than in interviewer-led cases, where you are effectively guided through that process.

Interested in learning about  the interviewer-led side of the spectrum? Wanting to know about the mechanisms of case interviews at McKinsey – the most prestigious management consulting firm? See this extensive guide on interviewer-led case interviews at McKinsey.

BCG case interview fundamentals

Candidate-led case interviews are much more similar to real consulting work than their interviewer-led cousins; as such, you need to approach these cases in the same way real consultants approach their projects – using the fundamental concepts of consulting problem-solving.

There are seven concepts : Problem, Root Cause, Issue Tree , MECE , Hypothesis , Data, and Solution.

Concept #1: Problem

Every case interview starts with one well-defined problem, which is accompanied by a specific objective. To illustrate the principles, I’ll be using a simple, daily-life problem:

There are cockroaches in my apartment. How can I eliminate them?

Concept #2: Root cause

Solutions can only have long-term effects if the root causes of the problem are identified and attacked.

Most problems are at the end of a long chain of causes and consequences; failing to identify the start of the chain ensures that the problem will come back to haunt you. Think of draining a bathtub without turning off the faucet – it just doesn’t work.

Spraying insecticide on cockroaches that stray into my apartment may help with my inner peace for a while, but that peace will be disturbed again if the source of those cockroaches (the root cause) remains on the face of the Earth.

Concept #3: Issue tree

An issue tree helps you identify all the root causes efficiently and effectively.

In an issue tree, the problem is broken down into multiple branches, each corresponding to a contributing factor. Each branch is in turn broken down into sub-branches. This breaking down allows the problem-solver to pinpoint each and every root cause.

For an issue tree to work as intended, it must adhere to a principle that’s a signature of the consulting world – MECE .

I did not exactly draw an issue to kill the cockroaches, but if I did, it would look like this:

Concept #4: MECE

This acronym stands for “ Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive ”, which means there’s no overlap between the branches, and all branches together cover every possibility, i.e there’s no gap.

Besides these basics, the MECE principle actually has several “advanced” rules:

• Parallel items:  Every branch in a MECE issue tree must be on the same logical level.
• Ordered list: The branches should be arranged in a logical order (e.g: A, B, C instead of C, A, B)
• Rule of Three:  The best, most intuitive number of branches in a MECE issue tree is 3. It’s fine to go with 2-4, even 5 can be acceptable sometimes, but an issue tree with 6 branches or more is extremely difficult to work with.
• No interlinking items:  There should be as little interdependence between the branches as possible, to avoid one root cause showing through multiple branches.

This MECE principle is a must-know for every prospective consultant. You’ll be hearing this word a lot in the consulting industry : “I like your idea, but your issue tree is not MECE enough”.

The division of the search into “inside” and “outside” pretty much covered every possible location, and there’s no overlap between them, so it’s MECE.

Concept #5: Hypothesis

A hypothesis, the context of consulting problem-solving, is an educated guess that one certain branch is the most likely to contain the issue tree.

Hypotheses must follow the issue tree, be top-down , and be based on existing information.

Hypothesizing allows the consultant to prioritize the most probable “culprits”, making the problem-solving process much more efficient.

If the root cause is confirmed to be inside one branch, drill down to find it; otherwise, move sideways to another branch on the same level. Rinse and repeat until every root cause is identified.

I noticed that I often saw the cockroaches near the door, coming in, so it would be unwise to hypothesize that the source is inside my apartment. As such, I began my search from the outside.

Concept #6: Data

A hypothesis must always be tested with data – facts and figures related to the problem.

One piece of data standing alone may not yield significant insights; in those cases, we compare them with reference points benchmarks, of which the two most common kinds are “historical” and “competitor”.

The aforementioned piece of data is not enough to verify that the cockroaches come from outside, so I asked my neighbors if they also saw an increase in cockroaches; they mostly said “yes”, so I was able to confirm that hypothesis. Fast forward a short while, I located a site of infestation at the end of the corridor before the building.

Concept #7: Solution

After the analyzing process, it’s time to deliver solutions.

A suitable solution must be actionable – if the proposal is not feasible, it’s as good as useless.

The solutions must attack all the root causes to ensure long-lasting impact – if even one root cause remains untouched, the problem will persist.

In case interviews , you must also pitch your solutions in a structured fashion, by separating them into neat and meaningful categories (usually “long-term” and “short-term”).

I’d love to use a flamethrower and burn those nasty cockroaches, but that would reduce the whole building to ashes, so I had to make do with insecticide (short-term) and cleaning up the place (long-term).

BCG case interview frameworks

Frameworks are off-the-shelf templates to break down problems.

On the one hand, these frameworks, to a large degree, follow the fundamental concepts we’ve just discussed, hence their convenience in case interviews. Most of them are also fairly intuitive. On the other hand, their generic nature necessitates a lot of customizations for consulting work and case interviews, where cases don’t usually fit neatly into the frameworks.

I also wrote another article on  Case Interview Frameworks , with tips and techniques in case interviews, as well as some myth-busting on common misconceptions about frameworks.

Anyhow, here are five frameworks you can use to solve your cases:

• Profitability Framework: Splits Profits into Revenues and Costs; mostly used to mathematically break down problems before switching to qualitative frameworks for solutions.
• Business Situation Framework: Analyzes a company situation in four areas: Company, Competitors, Customers, Products; flexible for many purposes but generic, needs customizations.
• McKinsey M&A Framework: Assesses a proposed M&A on three aspects: stand-alone values of each involving company, their synergy, and “other factors”. MECE and promoting customizations, this is one of the best M&A frameworks.
• 4P/7P Marketing Mix: The 4P analyzes the Product, Price, Place, Promotion for marketing tangible goods; the 7P adds People, Process and Physical Evidence to the mix, meant for service marketing. This framework focuses solely on the marketing aspect, so not suitable for multi-function strategies.
• Porter’s Five Forces Model: Analyzes the industry surrounding a business, on five aspects or “forces” – Suppliers, Customers, Competitors, New Entrants, and Substitutes. Good for getting the “big picture” about the industry and understanding the client’s context.

Along with the frameworks, there are these powerful, universal problem-solving tools which I term “mini frameworks”. Here are five of them:

• External vs Internal: This is a quick and easy method to segment information about a particular entity. The internal branch concerns what’s inside or intrinsic of the said entity, the external branch the outside.
• Qualitative vs Quantitative: This mini-frameworks is mostly meant for evaluations. By dividing items into two MECE groups, it reduces confusion and minimizes the risk of missing an important item.
• Costs vs Benefits: This decision-making tool is pretty straightforward – if the benefits outweigh the costs, you go with that option.
• 2×2 Matrix: The 2×2 Matrix is a decision-making tool where options are examined using two criteria, each of which forms an axis of the matrix.
• SWOT Analysis: This mini-framework is seldom used in case interviews, being too generic; however, it can be used for a quick and easy evaluation of a company’s positioning within the industry context.

BCG case interviews tips

To help illustrate the following tips and techniques, we’ll again visit The Pirate Company. In the Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , you can find countless such tips throughout the 10 case videos of the Tips and Techniques package.

Tip #1: Deliver a structured and friendly case opening

Although a case lasts about 30 minutes, the verdict is almost determined within the first 3 minutes. That means if you have a perfect opening, you stand a much greater chance of getting an offer.

Here are seven steps to deliver that perfect opening:

Step 1: Show appreciation

Everyone loves a compliment, so give a sincere one to your interviewer.

“Thank you for this very interesting case, I’m happy to get the chance to solve it”. 

Your interviewer is not HR personnel; he’s spending time and effort on you as a form of goodwill for the company. Those simple, thankful words go a long way. 

This works best at the start, but you should show appreciation throughout the case (e.g.: when the interviewer gives you useful data or feedback).

Step 2: Announce case introduction

Explicitly and concisely announce that you’re going to do the following steps 3, 4, and 5.

“I’m going to recap the case and ask for some clarifications, just to make sure that we’re on the same page. Then I’m going to inform you of my approach to this case.”

This is related to what I term “map habit” which I’ll explain soon enough because it’s a habit you must have during the whole case interview.

Step 3: Recap

Playback the case to make sure you concretely understand it.

There’s nothing worse than realizing you’ve been spending all resources trying to solve the wrong problem; thus, consultants always try to be absolutely clear what the client wants and what they’re facing.

Do the same in the case interview and you’ll get a lot of plus points; make sure you know (1) who the client is, (2) the situation the client is in, and (3) the case questions and objectives.

“So here’s how I understand the case: our client is The Pirate Company, stationed in the Caribbeans, and provides assets removal services; the Company is having negative profits; our objective is to deliver a solution to that problem. Am I correct?”

Step 4: Clarify

Ask questions to clarify any confusing and unclear parts you have about the case.

Most often, there are three kinds of information to clarify at this stage: definitions, time frame and measurement.

“Great, now I’d like to ask three clarification questions:

1. What kind of assets does our client remove for their customer ships?

2. How long has the negative profit problem been going on?

3. How long can our client continue the business with negative profits, i.e what’s the deadline for our solutions?”

Step 5: Announce the case approach

Announce the overall logical flow of the upcoming case.

This logical flow depends on the type of case. The most common type is “problem-solution”, where the flow is (1) break down the problem into small parts, (2) set up the hypotheses, (3) ask for data to test hypotheses, (4) identify the root causes, and (5) deliver solutions.

“For the overall approach, to ensure long-lasting impact for our solutions, I’m going to try and break down the problems into small pieces with issue trees, then drill down to isolate and identify the root causes, while also gathering data to draw actionable solutions.”

Step 6: Align

Remember to check if the interviewer agrees with your approach, at the start and at each key step in the case!

In real consulting projects, managers expect junior consultants to align early and often, because no one wants their team going in the wrong direction for a whole week!

In case interviews, simply ask “Does this sound like a reasonable approach to you?” . Often you’ll get the green lights, however, there is a chance the interviewer will suggest an even better approach!

Step 7: Ask for timeout

If you need time to think, ask for it! This applies not only at the start of the case, but throughout!

“I need some time to collect my thoughts and develop my issue tree, so may I take a timeout?”

Don’t just rush into the case and then later try to fix all the errors you could have avoided if you spent some more time thinking. It’s a really bad habit and no manager wants their junior consultants to act like that in real projects.

Beware though, once you’ve asked for timeout, you need to come back with something worthy; don’t spend 90 seconds just to divide profits into revenues and costs. 

Additionally, this early in the case, don’t drill down; save that for later, because you have yet to get a clue where the problem is. What if you drill down two levels on the Revenue side, just to have the first piece of data informing that the problem is on the Cost side?

Tip #2: Use personal interview scripts

To nail all of these steps and still come about as naturally, as well as save your brainpower for the analysis part, what you’ll definitely need is a personal interview script.

In the Prospective Candidate Starter Pack , I’ve included one such script – written from my own experience at McKinsey and after McKinsey, interviewing hundreds of customers. You can download the whole pack – along with the script, and one case interview example.

Tip #3: Use the map habit to check the case progress

Pause occasionally to summarize where you are, and where you’re going next!

I call it the “map habit” because it’s so similar to using the map when travelling.

This is a habit that I repeatedly stress in the Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , because of its importance both in case interviews and in my consulting experience . It gives you a sense of direction as well as authority; additionally, you get plus points in the interview for an organized approach.

Suppose you’ve explored The Pirate Company’s “Revenue” branch, with data suggesting the problem is not coming from that branch, you’re supposed to sum up your findings about the revenue branch up till now then announce you’re going to explore the “Cost” branch in consideration of those findings.

Tip #4: Always speak in a structured manner 

Always speak in a very structured fashion, when you do not, announce in advance.

I can’t stress enough how prospective consultants must be structured in everything they do. Every word they speak must reflect that structured mindset .

Here are three tips for structuring your speech:

• Begin with a summary line, stating the most important takeaway/intention.
• Divide what you intend to say into clear-cut parts. Avoid jumping back and forth between items as much as possible.
• Number your items so it’s easier to keep track, both for you and your interviewer. Even better if you announce in advance how many items you’re going to discuss.

Take a look again at the opening parts and you’ll see these tips being applied.

If you desperately need to speak in an unstructured fashion, just ask “May I think out loud for a short while?” – the interviewer will allow unstructuredness for that mode; however, you do need to restructure your ideas once the “verbal brainstorming” session is over.

Tip #5: Avoid long moments of silence

Don’t allow long, awkward moments of silence in your interviews – ask for timeout or announce think-out-loud mode.

A timeout is a great excuse to think in silence; however, too long and it will backfire, especially if you can’t come up with something worthy of the long wait. 

Use it prudently, and always try to think as fast as possible while still being “correct”.

Thinking out loud is especially good if you need a lot of time to brainstorm, and you want some feedback from the interviewer during the process. Again, however, limit your use of this out-of-jail card; too many “think-out-loud” sessions will create the impression that you’re unorganized.

Tip #6: Always stick to the hypotheses

Always speak with the current hypothesis in mind, and that hypothesis must be in the issue tree.

The whole point of this hypothesis-driven approach to problem-solving is to have your efforts guided by hypotheses and not wasted aimlessly. Drawing out the issue tree and forgetting it, is like buying a car and then going everywhere on a bicycle.

That said, even the best and brightest people forget their hypotheses in the midst of overwhelming data. To avoid such a situation, do yourself a sanity check every once in a while, look back at your issue tree; if what you’re doing doesn’t match your current position on it, go back immediately!

Tip #7: Take notes using three separate sheets – data, presentation, scratch

Use three types of notes for your case interviews: data, presentation, and scratch paper.

When the interview starts, pull three sheets of paper and label them accordingly.

You’ll use the data sheet to jot down and process any data the interviewer gives you, as well as your calculations; the presentation sheets to draft things you’ll say to the interviewer; and the data sheet for anything else you need to write out, such as your ideas when brainstorming.

For one thing, neat notes really help with your thought process, because it eases the storing and arranging of information you receive. For another, you’re showing the interviewer that you’re an organized and careful person.

For the example case, the notes may look like this:

Tip #8: Make the final pitch short and result-oriented

Your final, solution pitch must be concise and result-oriented .

Imagine you’re in the elevator with the client CEO (or in the example case, the Chief Captain) and he asks for your findings – you should be able to deliver it before the elevator arrives at its destination floor! This is a “question” they ask at the end of a case interview .

The pitch should always begin with the root causes, immediately followed by your recommendations – client CEOs don’t have much time to waste on the procedure, so no need to bring it up – and lastly, end your pitch in a client-friendly fashion, saying “We’d be happy to work with you to implement the solutions”. Voila, you’ve nailed that pitch!

Tip #9: Know how you can get stuck in cases, and how to avoid

I’ll point out three common kinds of “stuck” in a candidate-led case, and how to overcome each.

The Data “Stuck”

If you got a piece of data and don’t know what to make of it, ask for benchmarks.

Benchmarks are the easiest way to put data into perspective; the two most common benchmarks for comparison in case interviews are competitor figures and past figures. If the client’s data deviate from industry or historical trends, you know something is off with their business.

Make it explicit to the interviewer that you need the benchmarks to help with the issue tree.

“To see if it’s an external or an internal problem, and therefore locate the potential root causes, I need some data on the revenue of other pirate companies in the Caribbean.”

The Framework “Stuck”

If you don’t know which framework to use, go for “segmentation”

A lot of candidates get stuck after they’ve exhausted the first level of their issue tree. Sure, improving your business intuition helps you avoid this, but it takes time. Sure, learning more frameworks might help, but you will “framework-vomit” if you don’t know how to use them right.

The easy way out in this situation is to see how that item is usually segmented by the client or by the industry. If you’re not sure how they do it, ask the interviewer – remember to state your purpose clearly.

“It seems that the conventional breakdown of revenue and unit sales does not yield significant insights. My experience in the pirate industry is rather limited, so to draw a spot-on issue tree, may I ask how our client segment their revenue?”

The I-Can’t-Find-The-Problem “Stuck”

If you can’t point out where the problem is coming from, something’s wrong with your issue tree.

This is probably the most dreadful one, because you can’t even see clearly where you got it wrong. However, don’t panic – that’s the last thing an interviewer wants to see in a prospective consultant.

There are two possibilities here:

• Your issue tree is not MECE
• Your issue tree is MECE, but it’s set up in a way that doesn’t isolate the problem.

Either way, admit you’re having a problem, and ask for a timeout to fix it. Do it with style, here’s something you can use:

“My analysis seems to go into a dead-end, which means either part of my issue tree is not MECE or my method of breaking down does not isolate the problem. Either way, I’d like to take a timeout to have another look at it.”

Just saying this already scores some points for you, and rest assured, no interviewer will refuse.

An example from End-to-End secrets program

Here’s a candidate-led example case from our  Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program !

This sample case is a great example of all the techniques I’ve told you about, because while the candidate does have good business intuition, his techniques need a lot of fine-tuning.

Besides what we’ve discussed, the Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program features countless other instant-result tips and techniques for case interviews.

You have got a really good example, but you still want to practice your own case? 

Book a meeting with former consultants at MConsultingPrep . These coaching experts will practice a specific candidate-led case interview with you, giving you the most detailed and concrete feedback and suggesting the most suitable improvement methods. 

How to prepare for BCG case interviews?

Step 1: familiarize with candidate-led case examples.

Watch examples of candidate-led case interviews to familiarize yourself with the flow of the case, and how to interact with the interviewer.

BCG has several sample cases on their websites:

• BCG Case – Driving Revenue Growth
• BCG Case – Crafting a Distribution Strategy
• BCG Interactive Case Library

Step 2: Practice consulting math

Consultants have to deal with a large amount of quantitative data; therefore,  math skills are a must.

You probably hate math as much as I used to; however, that’s no reason to back down. I have a few personal tips I used to ease up my math practice; try them, you’ll find math much more enjoyable (or less tedious, if you don’t believe math can be enjoyable).

• Use Your Head: Do all your daily calculations mentally unless an EXACT answer is required.
• Flatten the Learning Curve : At the start, a piece of scratch paper and a 5% margin of error really help; once you are confident, discard the paper and narrow down the margin.
• Establish a Routine : Allocate some time for daily practice; this may seem hard at first, but once you’ve overcome the inertia, you can literally feel the improvement.

Step 3: Develop business intuition

As I said earlier, business knowledge and intuition is necessary to win a consulting offer.

Improving this aspect is a gradual process; start early and take your time; slowly, those business insights will become part of your instinct. Here’s how I did it myself:

• Written Sources : I suggest reading business papers daily; you can also visit  McKinsey ,  Bain  and  BCG  websites for their excellent articles. Beware though – it’s not the pages you read that count, but the insights you draw from them.
• First-hand Experience and Observations : Don’t just come to your workplace to work; try to examine what senior managers are doing – what’s the rationale for their decision, and how has it impacted the organization?

Step 4: Learn the fundamentals and frameworks

Master the use of hypotheses , issue trees , MECE principle and the frameworks – they are the backbone of candidate-led case interviews.

At the beginning it may be tempting to focus on the frameworks – if you make this common mistake, be prepared for some very unpleasant surprises in the interview. Frameworks need a lot of customizations to fit with real cases, and to customize effectively you need that fundamental knowledge.

Fortunately, problem-solving fundamentals are something you can practice daily – I already demonstrated how it can be applied to a task as simple as finding lost keys.

Of course, don’t draw an issue tree for all your daily problems – that’s just overkill; but do take a structured approach, and picture an issue tree in your head while searching for your keys.

Step 5: Perform mock interviews

The best way to train on something is to do it.

Find yourself a former consultant to help you practice; they’ve been through countless case interviews, both real and mock, they know what’s required of a candidate, so they’re the best people to run your simulations with.  Connect with experienced coaches here.

Study your cases in the utmost detail. Replay them over and over and over again, take notes of the interviewer’s feedback and look for other areas you can improve.

BCG written case interview

What is a written case interview.

A written case interview is a case interview where you receive the questions and data, as well as deliver your recommendations in written forms of communication. Here are some details about BCG Written Case.

BCG Written Case

Length: 50-60 slides

Preparation time: 2 hours

Interview time: 30 minutes

Product form: PowerPoint slides

(Information acquired from BCG websites, June 2020; may vary depending on office)

As you may have realized through the table, written case interviews test not only your analysis, but also your ability to select relevant data, handle time pressure, and present recommendations. It really does simulate the  daily job of a management consultant , not just focusing on the analyzing process.

Surely, all the principles of  regular case interviews will apply, but how can you effectively showcase the abilities tested uniquely by the written case?

How to nail the written cases

Here’s how you can demonstrate that you possess the qualities tested in written case interviews:

Skim and scan

Skim the data for an overall picture, then scan only for things that back up your analysis.

Waste no time on irrelevant data. Always dive in with a clear idea of what to look for – in this case, data that answers the questions or back up your conclusions.

Since this is a  common speed-reading technique , you can practice it daily. When reading newspapers, for instance, ask yourself questions about the matters discussed, then specifically look for answers in the articles.

Timebox your activities

To ensure effective time management, allocate a precise time limit for each activity.

When that time limit is nearly over, quickly wrap up what you’ve been doing (e.g: skimming data) and move to the next ( structuring the problem ).

In a perfect world, the time limits for all activities together equals the preparation time of the case; however, in such a pressured setting, you are bound to make mistakes, so set aside some time for contingency.

Present recommendations first

Tell them your solutions first, explain later!

Real consultants do it in their work – their chart titles contain the most valuable insights, their presentations and pitches start with the conclusion. Their clients don’t care that much about the procedure – it’s the results that counts.

You are a prospective consultant, so act the same in case interviews, even the regular cases, but especially the written ones.

BCG fit interview

Bcg fit interview topics.

Most fit interview questions at BCG can be grouped into four common topics:

• Why you are interested in BCG/consulting
• Your hobbies and interests
• Your previous job (if you have one)
• Examples of leadership/achieving mentality/problem-solving skills

These topics together aim to assess two things:

• Whether you are “fit” with the organization – personality, motivation, etc.
• Whether you possess sufficient personal experience (i.e leading, handling conflicts, coping with work pressure, etc.) for the consulting world.

Unlike at McKinsey where they focus on personal experience, BCG place more emphasis on the “fit” part. Their interviews are generally less structured.

Why BCG/Why consulting?

For the first topic, the key is to be authentic and detailed .

You’ll almost definitely be asked to explain why you’re applying. When that happens, don’t recite the company’s marketing materials and become the umpteenth candidate with that same generic answer.

Research before you apply, not for the sake of the fit interview, but to thoroughly understand the industry and the companies . Then, pay attention to the unique features of each company, as well as the nature of consulting work, and see how they fit with your own preferences – that will become the basis for your answer.

Hobbies and interests questions

For these questions, implicitly connect your answers with consulting traits .

Don’t just say you like football, say you competed in a local tournament and became the best goalkeeper there (insert quantitative evidence for even better impact). If you play board games, mention that 10,000-member community you founded.

Don’t be afraid of showing unusual hobbies and interests – mine is paragliding, which is not exactly a popular sport in my country. You may pique the interviewer’s curiosity.

However, if your hobbies and interests involve something controversial (political and religious movements come to mind), my advice is to avoid mentioning them at all.

Previous-job questions

If asked about your previous job, you can be more flexible, either mentioning aspects similar to consulting traits , or to BCG cultures (such as when you analyzed your customers to devise better sales pitches, or when your boss allowed you to decide on the monthly sales plan).

However, do keep in mind to avoid negative comments about your former boss or colleagues. Talking behind one’s back is one of the auto-fail mistakes in MBB consulting firms .

Story-telling questions – Showing your consulting traits

The third topic is about telling a story of your consulting traits; which is why you should:

Take a Story-Based approach, not a Question-Answer approach. 

Develop 3-5 well-rounded, detailed stories demonstrating all or most consulting traits (the three key ones being leadership, achieving mindset, and analytical problem-solving). 

In the fit interview , tell those stories from angles that best reflect the traits being asked for.

Many candidates make the mistake of focusing on the possible questions and developing stories specifically answering those questions. The resulting stories are often one-dimensional, reducing the candidate’s flexibility in the interview. 

There are three steps to develop a good fit-interview story:

Lay Down the Content Base

Look back on your past experiences and find stories that best reflect consulting traits (leadership, achieving mentality, problem-solving skills) and your personal values.

List down as many details of your stories as possible, make sure they follow this structure: Problem, Actions, Result, Lesson.

Form the Story Plot

Trim all the unnecessary details, then rearrange and amplify the rest to enhance the drama and to better reflect your traits. If your story is about overcoming politics to unite a team, mention how conflicting interests were destroying all team efforts.

If your stories have highly technical details, try to present them in a way your grandmother understands. Any story will be useless if the listener can’t relate to it.

Add the consulting spirit into the mix by emphasizing the relevant traits, telling your stories in a structured way, explaining all your actions, etc.

Refine Your Style

Tell your story in a style that entertains your listeners and yourself (finding a style will require a lot of practice, so be patient). This sounds really cliche, but if the style doesn’t feel right to you, discard it, you won’t be able to use it in an actual interview anyway. 

Formalize your style. Steer clear of anything that can be perceived as negative and unprofessional: political jabs, self-deprecating jokes, excessive slang use, etc.

Four biggest mistakes in the fit interview

• Faking stories: Be as authentic as possible. The last thing you want is to be perceived as untruthful in an interview – and it’s not that hard to detect fake stories, which have no depth and are full of plot holes.
• Wasting time on  ontext: Be result-oriented even in fit interviews – nobody has time or attention span for unnecessary context. Use just enough context to build tension then quickly move to action and results.
• Repeating stories: Vary your stories as much as possible. That will help you look more experienced in the interviewers’ eyes, and give them a multi-faceted view of the best you.
• Not focusing on oneself: Remember to stress your own value within the team. Teamwork is good, but talking about the team too much makes you sound like an insignificant cog in a machine, and that won’t impress anybody.

For an even more comprehensive guide on consulting fit interviews, see the article on Bain & BCG Fit Interviews and McKinsey PEI .

If you want to learn even more about the case interview and the secrets to landing yourself a consulting offer, subscribe to our Case Interview End-to-End Program !

Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

The scoring mechanism in the McKinsey Digital Assessment

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The BCG Online Case (also known as the Casey Chatbot) is a challenging, 20-30 minute test with 6-8 questions of the case interview and GMAT types

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Hacking the Case Interview

BCG case interviews are the most difficult part of the interview process. BCG interviews consist of case interviews, behavioral or fit interviews, and a written case interview for some offices. You will need to pass every single BCG case interview in order to land a job offer.

The exact BCG interview process may vary, but the vast majority of candidates will have two rounds of interviews before they receive an offer. Every single round of interview will include a BCG case interview.

• BCG First round interviews : typically consists of two 45-minute interviews. The first 10 to 15 minutes will be spent briefly exploring your background and experiences while the remaining 25 to 30 minutes will be spent on the case interview. You may also be given a BCG online case and chatbot interview instead
• BCG Final round interviews : typically consist of two to three 45-minute interviews. The types of questions will roughly be the same mix of behavioral and fit interview questions and case interviews, with the addition of a potential BCG written case interview

If you have an upcoming BCG interview, we have you covered. We’ll cover in detail:

• 6 steps to solve any BCG case interview
• Examples of BCG case interviews
• BCG case interview tips
• The BCG written case interview
• BCG behavioral and fit interview questions
• Recommended BCG case interview resources

6 Steps to Solve Any BCG Case Interview

For BCG case interviews, you’ll analyze a case study and develop solutions for a hypothetical client. Often times, the cases that you see will be based on real BCG consulting projects. These case interviews are meant to give you insight into what it would be like to work at BCG

There are no right or wrong answers. Instead, BCG assesses you on your thinking process, strategic skills, and ability to make a strong case for your recommendations.

BCG case interviews are candidate-led. While your interviewer will provide you with some facts of the case, it is up to you to frame an approach and work through the case. You will need to engage the interviewer and ask for the information that you need to solve the case. Most of the time, the interviewer will have a passive role unless you engage them.

Compared to other candidate-led styles of case interviews at firms such as Bain, Deloitte, or Accenture, BCG cases tend to give you less direction, but more control. You will be left on your own to fully own the process of solving the case. This means that you will be thinking on your feet a lot.

There are six major steps to solving any BCG case interview.

1. Understand the case

The case will begin with the interviewer giving you the case information. While the interviewer is speaking, make sure that you are taking meticulous notes on the most important pieces of information. Focus on understanding the context of the situation, the company, and the objective of the case.

2. Verify the objective

Understanding the business problem and objective of the case is the most important part of the case interview. Not addressing the right business question is the quickest way to fail a case interview.

Make sure that you ask clarifying questions to better understand the business situation and problem. Then, confirm that you understand the case objective with the interviewer. This ensures that you start the case on the right track.

3. Create a framework

Develop a framework to help you tackle the business problem. A framework is a tool that helps you structure and break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable components. With a framework, you’ll be brainstorming different ideas and organizing them into different categories.

Afterwards, walk the interviewer through your framework. They may ask a few questions or provide some feedback to you.

For a complete guide on how to create tailored and unique frameworks for each case, check out our article on case interview frameworks .

4. Develop a hypothesis

After creating a framework, you should develop a hypothesis . A hypothesis is an educated guess on the answer based on the data and information that you have so far.

Your hypothesis does not need to be correct. You’ll be continuously testing and refining your hypothesis throughout the case. The purpose of having a hypothesis is to guide your analysis and ensure that you are spending your time answering the right questions.

5. Test your hypothesis

The majority of the case will be spent testing your hypothesis.

After stating your hypothesis, it is up to you to lead the direction of the case. Depending on the context of the case, you may want to ask for data to do some analysis. You may also want to explore qualitative questions that you have. As you uncover more information, your hypothesis will likely have to change. 

Sometimes, your hypothesis will be completely wrong and you’ll need to develop a completely new hypothesis to test. Other times, your hypothesis may be on the right track, but you’ll need to refine or narrow it down further.

Throughout the rest of the case, you’ll be answering a mix of quantitative and qualitative questions. Make sure that after each question, you explain how your answer impacts your hypothesis or answer to the case.

6. Deliver a recommendation

In the last step of the case interview, you’ll present your recommendation and provide the major reasons that support it. You do not need to recap everything that you have done in the case, so focus on summarizing only the facts that are most important.

It is also good practice to include potential next steps that you would take if you had more time or data. These can be areas of your framework that you did not have time to explore yet or lingering questions that you do not have great answers for.

Afterwards, the interviewer may tell you what actually happened in the case if the case was a real BCG project. Don’t worry if your recommendations do not align with what actually happened. You are assessed on your overall process, not on your answer.

BCG Case Interview Examples

BCG provides only a few practice cases that you can work through to improve your case interview skills:

• Climate Case Challenge
• Driving Revenue Growth at a Healthcare Company (scroll to the middle of the page to find it)
• Crafting a Distribution Strategy (same link as the previous case)

BCG used to have two amazing interactive cases on their website. These were long cases that helped you practice driving the direction of the case in a logical and structured way. 

Although BCG has since taken these interactive cases off their website, we do have full-length videos that cover these cases. You can watch the videos below and use the pause button to practice along.

Airline practice case : A profitability case focused on helping a low-cost carrier airline improve profitability. This is an interactive case that lets you practice leading the direction of a case interview. It takes quite a bit of time to get through, but is highly recommended to go through.

Drug company practice case : A pricing case focused on helping a pharmaceutical company determine the optimal price for a new drug. This is also an interactive case and is highly recommended to go through.

For more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

BCG Case Interview Tips

Below are twelve BCG case interview tips to help you improve your BCG case interview performance:

Tip #1: Ask questions

Make sure that you ask clarifying questions if there is something you do not fully understand. Your interviewer may provide additional data or hints throughout the case, so it is your benefit to ask relevant questions to get more information.

Tip #2: Understand the problem

Don’t rush into doing analysis without having a solid understanding of the problem. You will not be penalized for asking questions to confirm your understanding of the business problem or objective.

Tip #3: Structure the problem and develop a framework

Developing an outstanding framework helps set you up for success in the case interview. Having a mediocre framework can make solving the case more difficult for you. Therefore, dedicate the time to structure a framework before diving into the analysis.

Tip #4: Focus on high-impact issues

You will not have enough time to answer every question that you have. Time is a limited resource in case interviews, so make sure you spend it wisely. Focus your efforts on tackling the issues that have the greatest potential impact on your ultimate recommendation.

Tip #5: Think before speaking

Don’t jump to conclusions too quickly. Whenever you come across new data or information, take the time to organize your thoughts and consider all possibilities. Taking just a few seconds to think before speaking can make your answer much more coherent and intelligent.

Tip #6: Generate a hypothesis

BCG consultants use a hypothesis-driven approach to find solutions to their clients’ problems. You should do the same thing in your BCG case interviews. Your hypothesis will help you lead the direction of the case and focus on what is relevant and important.

Tip #7: Don’t use memorized frameworks

Interviewers can tell when you are using memorized frameworks from popular case interview prep books. BCG values creativity and intellect. Therefore, make every effort to create a custom, tailored framework for each case that you get.

Tip #8: Demonstrate business judgment

Use your business judgment to make hypotheses, conclusions, or recommendations that are reasonable and pragmatic. Consider the client’s situation to determine what is possible and what is too ambitious. 

Tip #9: Make quick and accurate calculations

You’ll likely be doing math calculations at some point during the case interview. Since BCG does not allow the use of calculators during interviews, you’ll need to make sure that your math skills are sharp. You won’t need to know advanced math topics, but you do need to be able to perform basic calculations quickly and accurately.

Tip #10: Don’t defend your solution at all costs

You need to be open-minded and flexible during the case interview. If your interviewer makes strong points that point out flaws in your solution, you need to be able to take feedback and adapt your solution. Don’t be stubborn and stick with your solution if it is not the best one.

Tip #11: Be transparent about your thought process

The interviewer cannot read your mind and know what you are thinking. Therefore, it is good practice to always be transparent on your thought process. Explicitly communicate what approach you are taking, what you are thinking about, and what questions you have. This makes it easier for the interviewer to give tips or feedback if you get stuck.

Tip #12: Engage your interviewer

Remember that a case interview is meant to be a conversation. You should not be talking to yourself the entire time. Make sure that you engage the interviewer by asking questions or asking for their feedback or input. You’ll find the case interview much more stimulating this way.

The BCG Written Case Interview

The BCG written case interview is a completely different variant of the traditional case interview. 

In a written case interview, you’ll be solving the case by working independently rather than by collaborating with the interviewer. Here’s how BCG’s written case interview is structured:

• BCG will provide you with 40 PowerPoint slides that contain data, graphs, charts, and press articles
• BCG will provide 3 to 4 key questions for you to answer
• You will have 2 hours to review the material and make 3 to 5 presentation slides
• You will have 40 minutes to present and discuss your recommendations with the interviewer, who may challenge your analysis and findings

Follow these eight steps to ace your BCG written case interview.

1. Understand the business problem

To efficiently complete a written case interview, the first step is to understand what the overall business problem is. What is the overall question you are trying to answer with the data and information provided?

2. Read the list of key questions

BCG will provide you with a list of 3 – 4 key questions that you will be expected to address or answer. Read through these questions carefully. Knowing what these questions are will help you prioritize your time.

3. Flip through the materials

Afterwards, skim through all of the different slides of information that is provided. If you notice that some information matches the type of information you need to answer a key question, write down the slide number next to the key question.

The goal in this step is not to read and analyze every slide in detail. This would take too much time. The goal is to identify what data you have and what data you do not have.

4. Read and analyze the material 

Afterwards, you’ll start answering the key questions of the case. Start with the question that you think will be the easiest or most straightforward. Save the harder questions for the end.

You’ll likely need to do math at some point during the written case interview, so make sure that you crunch the numbers if it helps you answer a key question.

After answering a key question, write a couple of sentences to summarize your key takeaways or findings. This will help you decide on a recommendation and put together your slides much quicker later on. 

5. Decide on a recommendation

Review the list of key takeaways that you have summarized from answering all of the key questions. If the written case asks for a single recommendation, decide on what recommendation your findings collectively support.

Remember that there is typically no right or wrong recommendation. As long as your recommendation is supported by data and evidence, you will be in great shape.

6. Outline your slides

Once you have a recommendation, it is time to start making your slides. Before you make any individual slide, it is helpful to create a structure for your presentation to make it clear and concise.

We recommend using the following structure for your presentation slides:

• Slide 1: Present your recommendation and the three reasons that support it
• Slide 2: Present your first reason and the data that supports it
• Slide 3: Present your second reason and the data that supports it
• Slide 4: Present your third reason and the data that supports it
• Slide 5: Summarize everything that you’ve covered so far
• Slide 6: Propose potential next steps

Each of your answers to the key questions should be summarized on one slide. These answers will likely support the overall recommendation that you are making.

For each slide, write the title of the slide first. The titles of your slides should be action-oriented and summarize the entire slide. If your interviewer were to just read the titles of your slides, they should be able to understand your entire presentation.

7. Fill in your slides

Once you have your slide outline and slide titles, it is time to fill in the body of the slides. Decide what format of content is most helpful for each slide.

For example, summaries are best illustrated using concise bullet points. Data-driven slides are best illustrated with tables, graphs, or charts. Complex analyses or processes are best illustrated with diagrams or frameworks.

Make sure that the content of the slide supports the title of each slide. However, do not overdue how much content you put on each slide. In general, each slide should have one key message.

8. Prepare for potential questions

If you still have time remaining after you finish your slides, brainstorm potential questions your interviewer could ask you. For example, they may want to know how you performed your analysis or how you reached your conclusions.

Preparing for these potential questions will help your presentation go much more smoothly. In addition, you’ll also feel much more confident while presenting.

For a full guide on written case interviews, check out our consulting written case interview step-by-step guide .

BCG Behavioral and Fit Interview Questions

These are the 10 most common BCG behavioral and fit interview questions you’ll likely be asked:

1.  Why BCG?

How to answer: Provide your three biggest reasons why you’re interested in working at BCG. You could mention that you loved the people that you have met from BCG so far. You can talk about BCG’s thought leadership and innovation, professional development opportunities, or expertise in nearly any industry or function.

2. Why consulting?

How to answer: Again, provide three reasons for why you’re interested in consulting. You could mention the rapid career progression, the opportunity to make a large impact on an organization, or the learning opportunities to develop soft and hard skills that are transferrable to nearly any business role.

3. Walk me through your resume

How to answer: Summarize your work experience, starting with the most recent. Do not cover every single thing that you have done. Instead, focus on highlighting your most impressive and unique accomplishments. At the end, connect your work experiences to why you are interested in consulting.

4. What accomplishment are you most proud of? 

How to answer: Choose your most impressive, unique, or memorable accomplishment. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work. Explain why the accomplishment is so meaningful to you.

5. Tell me about something that is not on your resume

How to answer: This is an opportunity to highlight an accomplishment that is not related to your professional work experience. You could mention a non-profit that you volunteer at, a side project or business that you work on, or a hobby that you have pursued for many years. Select an accomplishment that is impressive and interesting. Avoid mentioning experiences that don’t have quantifiable results or impact.

6. Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team.

How to answer: For these behavioral interview questions, make sure you prepare at least 3 to 5 stories beforehand. This way, no matter what type of experience questioned is asked, you’ll always have an experience that you can share. 

For this question, choose a time when you directly managed a person or a team. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work. This is known as the STAR method and is a common way of answering behavioral or fit interview questions efficiently.

7. Describe a time when you faced conflict or disagreement.

How to answer: When answering this question, focus on emphasizing the steps you took to resolve a conflict or disagreement. Speak about the interpersonal skills you had to use in order to mediate the situation. 

Did you have to be patient, persuasive, or decisive? Interviewers want to know that you can handle conflict in a constructive way.

8. Give an example of a time when you successfully persuaded someone.

How to answer: Choose a time when you were able to change someone’s mind. Focus on emphasizing the steps that you took to persuade that person and what impact this had on the organization. Interviewers want to know that you are a great communicator and have good people skills.

9. Tell me about a time when you failed.

How to answer: Choose a time when you failed to meet a deadline or did not meet expectations. However, don’t pick a failure that is too big or embarrassing. This may raise a red flag to the interviewer.

Focus on emphasizing what you learned from the experience and how you used that experience to improve yourself. Interviewers want to see that you can learn from your past failures and are the type of person that constantly works on improving themself.

10. Are there any questions that you have for me?

How to answer: Make sure that you  prepare questions to ask  beforehand. BCG looks at this question as a way to assess your interest in consulting and the firm. Therefore, ask follow-up questions about the case that you just solved to demonstrate your interest in consulting cases. Ask the interviewer what their favorite project has been so far or what they enjoy most about the job to demonstrate interest in their career.

For a step-by-step guide on how to best answer all of these questions and more, check out our complete guide on consulting behavioral interview questions .

Recommended BCG Case Interview Resources

Bcg case interview books.

After free resources, the next cheapest option to preparing for BCG case interviews are case interview prep books.

Case interview prep books are great resources to use because they are fairly inexpensive, only costing $20 to $30. They contain a tremendous amount of information that you can read, digest, and re-read at your own pace.

Based on our comprehensive review of the 12 popular case interview prep books , we ranked nearly all of the case prep books in the market.

The three case interview prep books we recommend using are:

• Hacking the Case Interview (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• Case Interview Secrets (available on Amazon): This book provides great explanations of essential case interview concepts and fundamentals. The stories and anecdotes that the author provides are entertaining and help paint a clear picture of what to expect in a case interview, what interviewers are looking for, and how to solve a case interview.

BCG Case Interview Online Courses

Case interview courses are more expensive to use than case interview prep books, but offer more efficient and effective learning. 

You’ll learn much more quickly from watching someone teach you the material, provide examples, and then walk through practice problems than from reading a book by yourself.

Courses typically cost anywhere between $200 to $400.

If you are looking for a single resource to learn the best BCG case interview strategies in the most efficient way possible, enroll in our case interview course .

Through 70+ concise video lessons and 20 full-length practice cases based on real interviews from top-tier consulting firms, you’ll learn step-by-step how to crush your BCG case interview.

We’ve had students pass their BCG first round interview with just a week of preparation, but know that your success depends on the amount of effort you put in and your starting capabilities.

BCG Case Interview Coaching

With case interview coaching, you’ll pay anywhere between $100 to $300 for a one-hour mock case interview session with a case coach. Typically, case coaches are former consultants or interviewers that have worked at top-tier consulting firms.

Although very expensive, case interview coaching can provide you with high quality feedback that can significantly improve your case interview performance. 

By working with a case coach, you will be practicing high quality cases with an expert. You’ll get detailed feedback that ordinary case interview partners are not able to provide.

Know that you do not need to purchase case interview coaching to receive a consulting job offer. 

The vast majority of candidates that receive offers from top firms did not purchase case interview coaching. By purchasing case interview coaching, you are essentially purchasing convenience and learning efficiency.

Case interview coaching is best for those that have already learned as much as they can about case interviews on their own and feel that they have reached a plateau in their learning. 

For case interview beginners and intermediates, it may be a better use of their money to first purchase a case interview course or case interview prep book before purchasing expensive coaching sessions.

If you do decide to eventually use a case interview coach, consider using our case interview coaching service .

There is a wide range of quality among coaches, so ensure that you are working with someone that is invested in your development and success. 

If possible, ask for reviews from previous candidates that your coach has worked with.

Summary of Best BCG Case Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to learn the most robust, effective case interview strategies in the least time-consuming way:

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with former consulting interviewers
• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

Complete, step-by-step case interview course. 30,000+ happy customers.

• Casey - BCG’s chatbot online case study - 2023 guide

Casey, or the BCG Chatbot Case, is the new iteration of BCG’s Online Case aptitude test.

With Casey, BCG replaces a more traditional test with multiple choice questions with a chatbot meant to more closely mimic a real case interview - if that interview were conducted over WhatsApp rather than over a desk.

Given your performance will be a big part of whether you make it to the next round of selection - and ultimately whether you manage to land your job at BCG - the stakes are high!

To make matters worse, candidates have said that this new test is very difficult, with huge time pressure.

Obviously then, you’re going to want to prepare for Casey properly. Don’t panic - we’ve got you covered!

In this article, we’ll start by getting you up to speed with what Casey is and how BCG implement it in their selection process. We’ll also provide some useful background on why BCG wants to use this kind of test in the first place.

Once you understand what you are up against, we’ll cover how you can prepare for Casey and how this fits into your wider preparation.

Importantly, we’ll include some guidance on how your preparation should change depending on how long you have until test day. An optimal prep will be considerably different if you’re reading this a couple of months before you apply, versus just after BCG have sent you your invitation to sit the test. Either way though, there is a lot you can do to improve your chances!

Let’s dive right in…

What is Casey?

In short, Casey is a business case study administered automatically. The idea is that it should simulate a traditional case interview but with a chatbot standing in for the human interviewer.

Generally, you will be asked to sit Casey at home on your own computer rather than come in to a BCG location, as was sometimes required with previous tests.

Casey splits a single focal case study into eight to ten questions to be completed in 30 minutes.

As part of this, your last task is to deliver your final recommendation in a 60-second video, recorded on your webcam. The time limit here is very strict, and candidates have noted being automatically cut off when they ran beyond it.

Casey’s interface looks quite like Slack or even WhatsApp or SMS, with the characteristic text balloons from you and the chatbot displayed over a background image.

As such, Casey is presented much like a real conversation. However, despite the very naturalistic look, for the time being, this appears not to be some advanced AI you are chatting with. Instead, the chatbot will ask a series of standardised questions without giving you any feedback or notable interaction etc in between. Given the obvious, and well publicised, advances in AI chatbots , though, this seems likely to change in future iterations of Casey.

As it is, the current lack of feedback from the Casey chatbot has some important implications for the nature of this test and how you approach it - which we will explain in more detail shortly.

Question formats

Unlike the previous BCG Online Case and similar assessments like the old McKinsey PST, Casey is not only limited to multiple choice questions, but contains a mix of different question formats.

Some questions are indeed multiple choice (sometimes allowing you to pick more than one answer), others require you to fill in a number or write a single sentence in a box and others still require you to record your full rationale and/or mathematical working.

Of course, most distinct of all is the final recommendation to be delivered as a strictly timed 60-second video recorded on your webcam.

The previous BCG Online Case used negative scoring for wrong answers. Thus it was better not to guess for a question where you really didn’t have a clue, as wrong answers actively deducted points from your final score.

However, this is no longer a consideration in Casey, as there is no option to skip giving an answer to questions. An answer is required for you to move on to the next question, so you have no choice but to give your best guess, even if you aren’t sure.

One important point to note for time management is that questions are not necessarily singular, but can be subdivided into multiple smaller sub-questions. Thus, you cannot necessarily assume that you will be able to get through the next question in the same time you did the last, as it might be subdivided into more parts. The only thing to do is to work as fast as you can all the time .

Related to the above, you cannot navigate between questions in Casey. You simply complete one and are moved to the next. You cannot return to change your answers to previous questions, nor can you preview questions you haven’t seen yet. This is an important difference versus some other tests and interfaces like Typeforms that Casey might otherwise resemble.

Question interdependence

BCG claims that the questions in Casey are all independent, such that if you mess up one, that shouldn’t stop you from getting the subsequent questions right.

However, this is not how test-takers have experienced Casey.

In practice, those invited to sit Casey find that making mistakes in earlier questions will seriously influence whether you are able to get the correct answers for later questions.

It might be that Casey questions are separable at a strict, logical level but that, in practice, your initial approach to the case will often set you up for success or failure throughout. This would seem more likely to be true in practice with a test where heavy time pressure will realistically prevent a candidate from starting again from an entirely new framing of the overarching case study. Instead, test takers will be forced to rely on their same overall interpretation and structuring of the case throughout - such that getting off to a bad start will make it likely they approach subsequent questions wrongly.

Whatever the underlying truth of the matter, the practical takeaway remains the same - even though you’re up against the clock, you need to work as carefully as possible and check your working as far as time allows . In particular, you need to double-check all your maths, as making a mistake at the start can mean inputting the wrong numbers into all your subsequent calculations.

This issue is exacerbated by the fact that, as discussed below, Casey does not provide feedback or prompts in response to wrong answers, so there is nothing to nudge you onto the correct path again if you take a wrong turn.

Prep the right way

How is casey different from a case interview.

Since BCG and other firms are increasingly conducting at least some fraction of their live case interviews via video call rather than in person, one might be excused for wondering if there is really any meaningful difference between Casey and “real” case interviews beyond working in text rather than verbally.

Certainly, the two are pretty similar in terms of their requirements on the candidate. After all, as we’ll discuss below, Casey is fundamentally a cost-effective stand-in for one or more live interviews. Much the same skills are tested, and your preparation for both Casey and standard case interviews will very heavily elide.

However, Casey isn’t a perfect simulation of a traditional case interview and, importantly, those points of difference actually impose some distinct and notable challenges that you need to bear seriously in mind for a successful preparation and test day.

Let’s take a closer look:

• More Time Pressure - Case interviews can already be pretty time-pressured, but candidates often note that Casey is even worse. As opposed to the McKinsey Solve assessment, which is designed to give ample time and not overly hurry candidates, Casey piles on the pressure. There are even captions regularly reminding you how much time you have remaining and candidates are simply cut off if they don’t finish recording their final video recommendation in time.
• No Interviewer Feedback - This might seem trivial if you are new to case studies, but the fact that the Casey chatbot does not supply appropriate prompts/hints if you get stuck or point out minor mistakes before you move on is a major difference. In a traditional case interview, the interviewer can somewhat coach a candidate to get them through a question. This isn’t simply charitable but gives the interviewer a fuller view of how you think at each step of the problem rather than stopping as soon as you make one error. The fact this isn’t present with Casey means that initial calculation errors or mistakes with initial structuring can easily mess up your whole approach to a question. This ideally means checking twice and working in a more methodical, careful manner - though this is easier said than done under such heavy time pressure…
• Calculators Allowed - A glaring difference versus a standard case interview is that calculators and other, similar tools are allowed. Much like the McKinsey Solve assessment, with your Casey test completed at home, BCG make no attempt to stop you having whatever you like on hand at your desk. This might seem like a ray of hope to candidates with less of a quantitative background. However, this actually makes things tougher…
• Heightened Demands on Mathematical Skills - An increased demand on your mathematical ability in Casey versus a traditional case interview emerges as a result of the previous two points. The fact that you have basic arithmetic covered by your calculator means that Casey is free to test your mathematical skill in other dimensions. Thus, there will generally be a significantly increased demand - at least versus the average case interview - on your ability to form equations and generally to think through more complex, multi-step calculations. The real challenge is likely to be how you set up your approach to the question and the specific route you take through calculations rather than simply manipulating the numbers. This might suit those from an “academic maths” background a little more than a standard interview.
• Interpret Text Fast - Whilst a case interview is verbal, Casey requires you to read, digest and understand relatively substantial blocks of text very quickly. In this regard, Casey is more similar to a GMAT or the old McKinsey PST than the rest of BCG’s selection process.

How is Casey implemented in the BCG selection process?

At time of writing, Casey appears to be used differently by different BCG offices. However, it is not clear if this is simply a comparative trial of different methods for one pipeline to subsequently be adopted across the firm, or if this is simply a case of different offices exercising latitude in how they operate their own selection processes. Time will tell.

Currently, though, there appear to be two main ways in which Casey is used:

Casey as gatekeeper

Many offices will employ Casey as part of one or more pre-interview stages of selection that must be passed before being invited to a live interview.

Casey might be employed alone at this stage or might be leveraged alongside an HR phone screen and/or additional online selection tools, potentially including the SparkHire automated fit interviews, the Pymetrics Test or the BCG Potential Test.

Accounts from applicants suggest significant inter-office variation here. However, one relatively consistent feature of this MO is that subsequent live case interviews will tend to be conducted in person, on location. In this case, Casey will have straightforwardly acted to thin down the candidate pool before any interviews are conducted by real humans at all.

There is also some evidence that this use of Casey-as-gatekeeper might be more prevalent where offices are selecting candidates for internships or lower-ranking positions than for more senior roles.

Casey as interview supplement

Possibly more common is using Casey as part of the first round of case interviews. Casey will thus be deployed alongside one or more live case interviews, presumably replacing one or more additional live interviews that might be performed otherwise.

With this MO, the entire first round will typically be conducted online and candidates will often be asked to sit Casey on the same day as they attend one or more live interviews via Zoom.

This usage of Casey is interesting, though, as the fact they still employ Casey beside a live interview at all suggests that BCG finds some utility in their online chatbot beyond it being a pale, cost-cutting imitation of a real interview. We explore some possible synergies between Casey and “real” interviews below.

Does everyone get the same case?

This is very hard to confirm for sure, but the short answer is “yes and no”.

It does seem that BCG will often make use of at least very similar cases for all the applicants in a particular geographic region over a particular period of time.

Thus, everyone in South East Asia might get the same case in a particular hiring cycle, whilst everyone in North America might get another.

However - and this is important - even if everyone applying this year to the same office as you are saying they got, for example, the same case study about an airline with a profitability problem, that doesn’t mean these cases are actually exactly the same.

One of the touted features of Casey is to be able to score candidates on fundamental traits, so that those candidates can still be robustly ranked despite being given different questions.

This would be very similar to McKinsey’s approach with their Solve assessment (also known as the PSG) where, at time of writing, every candidate will get slightly different versions of the same two basic games. For some candidates, the settings of the games will change - the same challenges might be set in an alpine, aquatic or jungle environment, for instance. For other test takers though, simply the raw parameters in the game will change. So an ostensibly very similar scenario might contain different numbers of species to work with, have different stats associated with those species etc.

These arbitrary differences stop any candidate from having an unfair advantage because they heard some details from someone else who took the test before them. However, the differences are simultaneously not sufficiently profound to mean that candidates cannot be usefully ranked - McKinsey is able to look through the minor differences in the exact games and rank candidate performance regardless.

Information is still relatively scant for the time being, and it seems that changes are being made more frequently than the more established Solve assessment. However, the key takeaway is that, whilst you should pay attention to what other test takers are saying, you shouldn’t assume that will get the same case as them - and you should absolutely not plan to simply enter someone else’s answers into your own Casey test!

Why do BCG use this kind of assessment?

Casey is effectively a modernised iteration of BCG’s older Online Case.

BCG is far from the only big consulting firm starting to leverage reasonably advanced modern aptitude tests as part of their selection process. At high level, McKinsey’s Solve assessment and the Pymetrics test leveraged by a number of consulting firms (sometimes including BCG) fulfil much the same function.

In the past, all these firms used more traditional aptitude tests. These would typically be multiple choice, broadly GMAT-style tests, conducted on pen and paper in exam rooms supervised by company staff. Latterly, candidates would be asked to sit similar tests on company computers rather than on paper.

However, as these tests became digital, it became possible to have candidates sit them at home rather than on location, and this at-home testing has since become the norm.

Notably, other major firms - in particular McKinsey and Bain - have gone in a somewhat different direction to BCG in terms of the specific tests they have adopted. Elsewhere, the move has largely been towards tests that assess the same fundamental cognitive traits as a case interview, but outside of a business context and requiring little or no mathematics. However, BCG has been moving to a more and more direct simulation of a case interview, with obviously high demands on business knowledge and mathematical competence.

What do modern aptitude tests offer?

Importantly though, all these tests fill the same basic role. Let’s take a quick look at a few things modern aptitude tests offer consulting firms:

Cost-Cutting

Bluntly put, for all these firms, the primary reason for employing these tests is as a straightforward cost saver.

Whilst the theory and computational methods underpinning aptitude tests are improving at a formidable pace, it seems fairly certain that the real-life case interview will continue to be the gold standard means of selecting new consultants until such time as an AI can replace human consultants entirely.

The problem for BCG and similar firms is that real case interviews are expensive in terms of both staff time and disruption to projects.

Conducting in-person case interviews involves pulling consultants off active engagements, potentially requiring them to fly back to their home office if they are working on-site. Make this issue exponentially worse for second-round interviews requiring a partner to lead them.

The result is that consulting firms want to minimise the number of case interviews conducted per new hire as far as possible.

This problem is of course all the more pressing in light of the sheer volume of applications per position top-end firms like BCG receive. For sure, the majority will always be cut at the resume screen, but there will still be far more high-quality candidates than can ever be given multiple case interviews.

Many BCG offices appear to use Casey in precisely the same manner as other firms use Solve, Sova or Pymetrics. That is, to significantly reduce the candidate pool before proceeding those who remain on to the case interview round of selection. Clearly, this hugely reduces the number of interviews needed to finally winnow down the pool. Even for those BCG offices using Casey in parallel with real case interviews, at the same stage in the selection process, having candidates sit Casey will be replacing one or more traditional interviews and thus keeping costs down.

The demands of the Covid pandemic accelerated a general trend towards at-home testing and interviews, making more of the selection process for major corporates remote. However, even before the pandemic, there were other reasons to move recruitment online.

One of these reasons for at-home testing was the ability to cast a wider net in finding new talent - allowing those candidates living outside major cities with BCG offices and/or target universities to get a foot in the door in the selection process without having to find the time and money for trains, planes and automobiles to make it to BCG’s physical location.

Importantly, this isn’t just an ethical matter but makes good raw business sense. Expanding the pool of candidates competing for roles should, all things being equal, increase the quality of those being selected at the end of the process. BCG and similar firms’ business models ultimately rely on recruiting the very best talent available - and they simply can’t rely on this being located a stone’s throw from their own office.

Environmental

Another advantage of moving to a more remote selection process is a reduction in carbon emissions - and especially air miles - associated with the recruitment process. Thus, tests like Casey not only allow BCG and similar firms to save money on interviews but also derive some PR gain around their ESG credentials.

Casey might be better for BCG than just another case interview

An interesting consideration is that the differences between Casey and a real interview aren’t just shortcomings of Casey as a lower-cost simulation of an in-person interview, but might also be leveraged as positive advantages by BCG when employed in synergy with traditional case interviews.

In simpler terms, it might well be that some aspects of Casey allow BCG to gather useful information they wouldn’t have been able to access via case interviews alone.

An easy example from above is that Casey allows BCG to get an assessment of the candidate’s mathematical skills in a different dimension to a case interview. The traditional interview will largely test mental arithmetic and particularly the ability to make estimations and conduct quick calculations.

Casey then allows BCG to assess the same candidate’s mathematical reasoning at a higher level, separated from the need to conduct raw calculations.

However, there are potentially more significant synergies with in-person interviews.

BCG notes that Casey offers more of an objective, absolute assessment, and thus ranking, of candidates. This can have some real advantages in, for instance, taking account of the differences between individual interviewers.

In effect, the absolute scores generated by Casey could let BCG “calibrate” the assessments offered by different human interviewers - ironing out the differences between those who are more or less demanding - or potentially even helping account for systematic biases.

Since Casey is employed globally, there might also be some utility for BCG in making a similar examination of differences in recruitment between different offices. Thus, BCG would be able to notice if the calibre of candidates, as scored by Casey, was notably lower at certain locations - possibly allowing for ameliorative action from headquarters if large differentials started to develop.

We can expect that a firm like BCG, which needs to be at the cutting edge and sells itself to clients based on having exceptionally high-quality staff, will care a great deal about maintaining high standards across a global operation. Indeed, this is an issue other large firms explicitly contend with - as we see with Amazon dispatching its “ Bar Raisers ” even to the most far-flung locations to make sure that only the best new employees are hired. Casey might help BCG accomplish some measure of the same quality control.

Impress your interviewer

How can i prep for casey.

Your best options to prep for Casey depend on how long you have until test day. Here, we’ll start by outlining what an optimal prep would look like, with unlimited time on your hands. We’ll then see how things change if you are on a tight time frame - for example, if you only found out Casey existed when you were asked to take the test in the near future.

Finally, at the most immediate end, we’ll take a look at some fundamental tips for test day itself.

Optimal, Long-Term Prep

At a fundamental level, case cracking is case cracking, regardless of the specific format. Success when facing a chatbot or a video or in-person interview will ultimately depend on your being able to understand the case they give you and efficiently work through to a correct solution.

If you want to land a job at BCG, you will very likely have to get through five or possibly more live case interviews, conducted either via video call or in person. If you are asked to complete Casey, you can think of this as simply an idiosyncratic wrapper around what is basically just another case session.

Ideally then, your prep for Casey will simply be a more specific subset of your wider preparation for case interviews at BCG and any other firms to which you are applying.

We have excellent articles on all aspects of case cracking and related skills. A great place to start is our introduction to the case interview , where you can read about our recommended, MBB-style case cracking method in some detail in the collection of articles here, including particularly Casey-relevant skills like consulting maths .

We also have a great free case library for you to test your skills against and a free meeting board , where you can find fellow applicants from around the world to practice with.

These articles and free resources will give you an excellent foundation. However, to step things up to a higher level, the best place to go for a fully rounded, high-quality guide to case solving is our Case Academy course .

You can get full Case Academy access on its own with the MCC Bundle. However, you can lock in more value by getting course access along with some coaching sessions with real BCG consultants.

Having a real consultant put you through your paces will help immeasurably with both Casey and your live case interviews. Not only will this be great practice for tackling BCG cases, but receiving detailed feedback from experienced professionals is the single best way to identify your problem areas and iterate to make genuine progress and truly hone your case-cracking competence.

A great option for the basis of a decent prep would be our Bridge to Consulting, which is a bundle of five one-hour coaching sessions and full course access. You can find this package here:

Bridge to Consulting

Now, if you are going to make time for a genuinely thorough prep and want to leave nothing to change, the best option of all is one of our comprehensive mentoring programmes, where a 5+ year experienced consultant takes charge of your whole journey into consulting - advising on networking, helping draft your applications and planning your whole approach to case interviews and the consulting selection process as a whole.

You can read more about our mentoring programmes and apply to join here:

Mentoring Programmes

Specific Casey Prep

Whilst the bulk of your case prep will always be focussed on general skill building and simulating live case interviews with peers and/or coaches, it’s still a good idea to do some Casey-specific activities.

You can do these alongside your general case prep from the start, but it will make sense to throw in more Casey-specific work as you get towards the end of your prep, nearer to test day.

Some ideas to help build specific skills and practice for Casey are as follows:

Solo Cases Using a Calculator

You can do a reasonable simulation of Casey simply by working through cases solo, keeping within a strict time limit and using a calculator for the calculations. Our case bank is a great place to start, with a further compendium of free cases linked in this article. Ideally, select interviewer-led , “McKinsey-style” cases, as these will have a more similar structure to Casey. Cases with a strong mathematical component will also be particularly useful.

Practice Video Recommendations

Practice 60 second final recommendation videos. In particular, when working through cases solo, you can practice delivering your final recommendation into your webcam. If you find you struggle with any aspect of this, you might want to specifically practice delivering recommendations to camera in a more focused manner, iterating and improving until you are confident.

Zero Feedback Cases

Even when working with case partners and/or a coach, you can ask that they simulate the feel of Casey by not giving you feedback as you work, but prompting you to work faster and holding you against strict time limits.

PST and Similar Questions

A closer simulation, though, would be to work through some PST-style multiple-choice business questions. The Problem Solving Test, or PST, was McKinsey’s old aptitude test before they moved to the Solve assessment. We have many of these format of questions included in our Case Academy course and, with a free account on our site, you can work through some for free here . These questions embedded in the course are particularly relevant as simulations, as they are presented digitally and have a clock running with a tight time limit imposed.

If you simply want to secure some questions on their own, we have a free downloadable PST practice paper and some more PDFs to purchase in our main PST article .

Mathematics

Almost all the points above will build in a fair bit of mathematics - which you can perform with a calculator to yield more Casey-relevant practice. However, given both the heightened salience of maths within Casey, as well as the slightly different character of that maths, it will likely pay to put in some more focused maths practice.

It might sound trivial, but if it’s been a few years since you’ve used a calculator (a lot of folk won’t have touched one since university, or possibly even since leaving secondary school), then practising working through even trivially easy calculations quickly will help restore some muscle memory and help you avoid “fat finger” errors on the day.

As noted above, our consulting math article is a great jumping-off point.

Help, I’m in a hurry!

So, you’ve applied to BCG and you’ve just found out you’re going to have to sit Casey very soon. You didn’t know the chatbot interview existed until you got the email from BCG and now you’re scrabbling to prepare.

Perhaps, to make matters even worse, you have a busy work and/or academic schedule between now and test day, cutting down your time to prepare even further.

What to do next depends primarily on how much general case prep you have already done:

I have done minimal/no case prep

If you also haven’t started your general case interview prep yet and are green when it comes to case cracking in general, we won’t lie to you - this isn’t an optimal position to be in. This is doubly true if you have a live case interview on the same day or very shortly after.

However, hope is certainly not lost!

In this situation, you will want to think in terms of the Pareto Principle . You need to ramp up your basic knowledge and skillset as much as possible in the time you have available. This is not the time to focus a lot on a little, but to get an understanding of the fundamentals of one topic and move on to the next.

The best single resource here to bring you up to speed on case cracking quickly, as well as give you a truckload of PST-style questions and maths practice material, is our Case Academy course .

You can purchase the MCC Bundle to get access to our course material by itself. However, it will be more economical to get that same material along with some coaching sessions, which will let you work through mock case interviews with real BCG consultants, who will be able to give you pointers on what your weak points are and how to bring these up ASAP. A great option here is a discounted package of our course plus three coaching sessions:

Discounted - Course Plus Three Coaching Sessions

Importantly, this course material and any coaching sessions you get won’t just be useful for Casey but will continue to be useful as you go through the rest of the interview process at BCG and any other firms to which you are applying. You aren’t going to get a consulting job anywhere without convincing case skills and likely multiple rounds of challenging case interviews. You need to get good at case cracking, and top-tier learning material plus coaching is the way to do this .

I’ve done general case prep, but nothing Casey specific

This is a much better position in which to be. If you are already a decent case cracker, then there is a fairly strong chance you’ll be able to pass Casey without any further work - it’s the same fundamental skillset after all.

However, by the same token, there are plenty of accounts of decent casers fluffing Casey because they weren’t used to the format and simply made a mess of things as a result.

As such, it’s a good idea to do at least a bit of case prep - and if you’ve been diligent enough with your prep to learn case solving already, then why stop now?

Really you should try to get through as much of the Casey-specific activity suggested in the optimal prep section as you have time for.

The most useful elements will likely be working through the PST questions , doing some solo cases with a calculator where you practice video recommendations and doing some calculator practice if you need it. These will help transfer the skills you have over to the Casey format - hopefully helping you feel more relaxed and ready to demonstrate your existing competence on test day.

Test Day Fundamentals

Beyond your preparation to get you ready to deal with the questions themselves, there are a few basic tips to take on board before sitting down to do your Casey assessment.

A lot of this is going to be the same as the standard advice for getting ready for more normal Zoom interviews. Indeed, this is already salient as, depending on your target office, you might very well have a video case interview on the same day as your Casey.

• Make sure you have a decent wifi connection. If anything tends to mess this up (using the microwave or vacuum cleaner, for example), make sure any housemates/family know not to do that during your test.
• Check with your webcam in advance that your lighting is on point for the final recommendation video. This might well mean moving around some curtains and/or lamps.
• Similarly, ensure your background is professional or at least contains nothing incredibly sloppy (it seems unlikely that Casey will blur your background for you as you might be used to on Zoom).
• Dress as you would for an in-person interview. If you have a Zoom interview the same day, just dress the same for both. However, if you only have Casey, you should still look fully professional for your 60 seconds of fame at the end.

Now, let’s be more specific…

• First up, don’t do Casey on your phone. This is apparently possible, but will just make life difficult for no particular benefit to you and runs the risk of making your video recommendation at the end look sloppy.
• Use a proper computer and do so at a desk where you have some space for the other items you’ll need. Do not try to sit Casey from a sofa and end up juggling your laptop, calculator, paper etc between your lap and a coffee table (seems obvious, but someone will try it…).
• Finally, make sure you have everything you might need at your desk before you start. Just as basics, you’ll want a pad of paper, a pen and a calculator (you could use a calculator app on your phone here, but you’ll probably be faster with a real calculator). Remember that you can’t pause Casey, so if you kick things off and then remember you left your calculator downstairs, that dash through the house is time you won’t be getting back. Similarly, make sure that your computer is plugged in so you don’t have to do a panicked hunt for a charger halfway through when your battery starts to die.

Now over to you - Good Luck!

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• Our Meeting Board lets you practice with peers on 100+ realistic, interactive cases.
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• All the advice you need on resume, cover letter and networking.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. mckinsey case interview examples.

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

2. BCG case interview examples

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

3. Bain case interview examples

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

4. Deloitte case interview examples

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

5. Accenture case interview examples

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

6. OC&C case interview examples

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

7. Oliver Wyman case interview examples

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

8. A.T. Kearney case interview examples

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

9. Strategy& / PWC case interview examples

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

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

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

11. Roland Berger case interview examples

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

12. Capital One case interview examples

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

13. Consulting clubs case interview examples

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

Practice with experts

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

At some point you’ll want to practise with friends or family who can give some useful feedback. However, if you really want the best possible preparation for your case interview, you'll also want to work with ex-consultants who have experience running interviews at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc.

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

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

The IGotAnOffer team

How to Prepare for Boston Consulting Group Management Consulting Case Interviews?

If you're preparing for a Boston Consulting Group management consulting case interview, this article is a must-read.

Posted August 17, 2023

Featuring Ben L. and Jeremy S.

Nailing the Case with McKinsey & Bain Alumni

Monday, april 1.

11:00 PM UTC · 60 minutes

If you're applying for a management consulting role at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), you're likely aware that the case interview is a critical component of the hiring process. While interviews can be nerve-wracking, preparation and practice can alleviate some anxiety and help you put your best foot forward. This article will cover everything you need to know about how to prepare for Boston Consulting Group management consulting case interviews.

Understanding the Boston Consulting Group case interview process

Before you start preparing, it's important to understand the Boston Consulting Group case interview process. BCG case interviews aim to assess your problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills. The interviews typically last around 45 minutes and are composed of two parts: a case study and a behavioral interview.

The case study is designed to test your analytical skills and your ability to think critically. You'll be presented with a hypothetical business problem or situation, and you'll need to provide recommendations and solutions based on the information provided. The interviewer will evaluate your ability to communicate your thought process effectively and logically.

The behavioral interview aims to assess your fit for the role. You'll be asked about your previous experiences and achievements, and you'll need to demonstrate your ability to work in a team and your leadership potential.

It's important to note that BCG case interviews are highly competitive, and the firm receives thousands of applications each year. Therefore, it's crucial to prepare thoroughly and practice as much as possible. You can find sample case studies and behavioral interview questions online, and it's recommended to practice with a partner or a coach to receive feedback and improve your performance.

Additionally, BCG values diversity and inclusivity, and the firm is committed to creating a welcoming and supportive environment for all candidates. If you have any specific needs or requirements, such as accommodations for a disability or religious observance, you can inform the recruiter in advance, and they will do their best to accommodate your needs.

Top tips for acing your Boston Consulting Group case interview

Now that you know what to expect, let's dive into some tips to help you ace your interview:

1. Practice! The more case studies you complete, the more comfortable you'll feel during the interview. There are numerous resources available online that provide case studies for practice.

2. Listen carefully to the interviewer's instructions. Pay close attention to the problem statement and make sure you understand the objective of the case.

3. Structure your approach. A structured approach will help you stay organized and focused during the interview. Start with the problem statement, clarify objectives, gather information, develop options, make recommendations.

4. Communicate effectively. It's important to articulate your thought process clearly and logically. Make sure to explain your assumptions, and ask questions if you're unsure about anything.

5. Be confident and calm. Remember that the interviewer is not trying to trick you, but rather assess your problem-solving skills. Take a deep breath and approach the case with a clear mind.

6. Use real-life examples. Whenever possible, use real-life examples to support your recommendations. This will demonstrate your ability to apply your knowledge to real-world situations.

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Practice makes perfect: how to hone your case interview skills

As mentioned earlier, practice is key to preparing for your BCG case interview. Here are some additional tips to help you effectively hone your skills:

1. Work with a partner. Practice with a friend or mentor who has experience in consulting. You'll get valuable feedback and be able to practice your communication skills.

2. Time yourself. The time restriction in the case interview can be challenging, so it's important to practice under timed conditions.

3. Analyze feedback. After completing a case study, analyze the feedback you received and identify areas for improvement.

4. Research the company. Before your interview, research the company and its values. This will help you tailor your approach and show that you are invested in the company's success. Check out this article to learn how to answer the "Why BCG?" question!

The importance of research and preparation for a successful BCG interview

Research and preparation are key components to success in a BCG interview. Here are some tips:

1. Research BCG. Learn about the company's culture, values, and recent projects. This will help you tailor your responses to the firm's expectations.

2. Read case studies. Reading case studies will provide you with a good understanding of the types of problems a management consultant may encounter.

3. Familiarize yourself with frameworks. Familiarize yourself with different frameworks used in consulting, such as SWOT analysis and Porter's Five Forces.

4. Practice your communication skills. In addition to having a strong understanding of consulting frameworks and case studies, it's important to be able to effectively communicate your ideas and solutions. Practice presenting your ideas to friends or family members and ask for feedback on your communication style.

How to analyze and approach a case study during a BCG interview

Here are some tips for analyzing and approaching a case study:

1. Break the case study down. Identify the key issues and prioritize them.

2. Gather information. Ask relevant questions to gather information that will help you solve the problem.

3. Develop hypotheses. Based on the information you've gathered, develop hypotheses to test.

4. Use frameworks. Utilize frameworks such as SWOT analysis, Porter's Five Forces, and the 4 Ps of marketing to organize your thoughts and approach the problem systematically.

Examples of common case questions asked during a Boston Consulting Group interview

Here are a few examples of common case questions:

1. Should a company enter a new market?

2. Should a company pursue a new product line?

3. How can a company improve its profitability?

4. How can a company reduce costs?

5. How can a company improve its customer satisfaction?

One approach could be to conduct customer surveys to identify pain points and areas for improvement. Another approach could be to invest in customer service training for employees to ensure they are equipped to handle customer inquiries and complaints.

6. How can a company stay competitive in a rapidly changing industry?

One strategy could be to invest in research and development to stay ahead of industry trends and innovations. Another strategy could be to form strategic partnerships or mergers with other companies to increase market share and resources.

Behavioral interviews: what to expect and how to prepare

Behavioral interviews aim to assess your fit for the role. Here are some tips:

1. Prepare examples of your previous experiences that demonstrate your problem-solving, communication, and analytical skills.

2. Be honest and authentic. Behavioral interviews are designed to test your character and work style, so be yourself.

3. Research the company and the role you are applying for. This will help you understand the company culture and the specific skills and qualities they are looking for in a candidate.

4. Practice your responses to common behavioral interview questions. This will help you feel more confident and prepared during the actual interview.

5. Remember to listen carefully to the interviewer's questions and answer them directly. Avoid going off on tangents or providing irrelevant information.

6. Finally, don't be afraid to ask questions of your own. This shows that you are genuinely interested in the role and the company, and can help you gain a better understanding of what is expected of you if you are offered the job.

Navigating the group case discussion portion of the BCG interview

The group case discussion is designed to test your teamwork and leadership skills. Here are some tips:

1. Listen to others. It's important to actively listen to your group members and build on their ideas.

2. Encourage participation. Encourage all members to contribute to the discussion and make sure everyone feels heard.

3. Manage time effectively. Keep an eye on the time and make sure the group stays on track. If the discussion is going off-topic, gently steer it back to the main point.

What to wear and bring to your Boston Consulting Group interview

It's important to dress professionally for your interview. For men, a suit and tie are appropriate. For women, a suit or professional dress is appropriate. You should also bring a pen, notepad, and a copy of your resume.

In addition to dressing professionally and bringing necessary materials, it's also important to research the company and the position you are interviewing for. This will show your interest and preparation for the interview. You can also prepare by practicing common interview questions and thinking about your own experiences and skills that relate to the job.

During the interview, it's important to listen carefully to the interviewer's questions and answer them thoughtfully and honestly. You should also ask questions about the company and the position to show your interest and engagement.

Follow-up & conclusion

After the interview, it's important to follow-up with a thank-you email to your interviewer. The email should thank them for their time and reiterate your interest in the position. You should also be prepared to answer any additional questions and provide any additional information requested by the interviewee.

Another important step after the BCG interview process is to reflect on your performance and identify areas for improvement. Take note of any questions you struggled with or areas where you felt unprepared. Use this feedback to adjust your preparation strategy for future interviews.

It's also a good idea to continue networking with BCG employees and attending company events. This can help you stay up-to-date on the company culture and values, as well as potentially lead to future job opportunities.

Preparing for the Boston Consulting Group management consulting case interview process can seem daunting, but the key to success is practice and preparation. Use these tips to prepare effectively for your interview, and remember to stay calm, collected, and confident. Good luck

For expert tips on how to prepare for interviews at other top-tier consulting firms, check out these resources:

• How to prepare for Deloitte management consulting case interviews?
• How to prepare for Accenture management consulting case interviews
• How to prepare for PwC management consulting case interviews?
• How to prepare for EY management consulting case interviews?

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Acing the BCG Online Case Interview – 2023 Guide

What’s the BCG Online Case Interview?

It’s a business problem you must solve.

But unlike the traditional case interview, you must solve this problem by interacting with a chatbot, Casey, on your computer.

No more one-to-one discussion with an interview.

For this chatbot case, you’re on your own.

And acing the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Online Case interview is no easy feat.

Not only does it require adapting to a unique interview format, but also having case-cracking skills that outshine the other candidates.

Hence, in this comprehensive guide, we will explore the ins and outs of the BCG Online Case, discussing its components, differences from traditional case interviews, and tips for success.

Let’s dive in right now.

Table of Contents

Key takeaways.

• The BCG Online Case is an assessment used to simulate real-life problem-solving scenarios. This is a case simulation via chatbot followed by a one-way video assessment.
• It assesses various skills, including problem-solving, business judgment, mathematical aptitude, graph reading, and logical reasoning.
• BCG uses this test during the screening phase to select the candidates who will be invited for interviews.
• The BCG Online Case is mainly used in the US offices right now (but seems to be rolled out worldwide). Alternative screening tests include the BCG Potential Test (also known as BCG online assessment) or the BCG Pymetrics Test.
• After a presentation of a client’s context and problem, candidates have 25 to 30 minutes to answer 8 to 12 questions (the time and number of questions might change, so be careful).
• Also, candidates must record a one-minute video to answer a final question and end the BCG online assessment.
• The online case must usually be performed within 3 days after receiving the link. Candidates hear back within 2 weeks.
• Candidates who fail the test are usually banned for 12 to 18 months.
• Time management is an important factor in acing the BCG online case assessment.

Understanding the BCG Online Case

The BCG Online Case (also called the BCG chatbot case or BCG Casey) plays a significant role in the recruitment process of the Boston Consulting Group.

Because the BCG Online Case evaluates if applicants have the skills to become best-in-class consultants before interviewing those applicants.

During this unique assessment, candidates engage with a chatbot, Casey, that presents a business case study.

Then, the case includes 8 to 12 questions assessing applicants’ critical thinking, data analysis, and strategic insights.

This online case experience aims to challenge candidates by offering a snapshot of the actual case interview process, simulating real-life problem-solving scenarios encountered by BCG consultants daily.

Finally, the candidates who fail the test are not invited for interviews.

Plus, they are usually banned for a 12 to 18-month period.

Key Components

The BCG Online Assessment is composed of a mix of question formats, ranging from multiple-choice to open questions, and culminates in a final video recommendation.

Candidates must complete the 8 to 12 questions within the 30-minute window, followed by a precisely timed 1-minute video on their webcam, presenting their final recommendation.

A sample multiple-choice question:

A sample open question:

A sample one-way video question:

This unique format tests the candidate’s ability to think on their feet and communicate their ideas effectively, similar to a live case interview, making it an essential part of the interview process.

Important : The candidates must answer the questions one by one. In other words: there is no possibility to skip a question or pause the test.

Skills Assessed

A wide range of skills are evaluated in the BCG Online Case, including:

Problem-solving (structuring)

Business judgment

Logical reasoning

Mathematical aptitude

Graph reading and interpretation

Candidates must demonstrate their understanding of business principles and showcase their overall business knowledge to excel in this assessment.

The BCG Online Case emphasizes proficiency in basic math concepts, data interpretation skills, and tackling math questions, all of which are crucial in solving real-life business problems.

Later in this guide, we’ll discuss how to master the different types of questions used to test those 5 skills.

But first, let’s have a quick overview of how the BCG Casey case compares to the aptitude tests used by the other top-tier consulting firms.

Next, let’s talk about the differences between the BCG Casey case and the traditional case interviews.

Differences Between BCG Online Case and Traditional Case Interviews

While the BCG Online Case shares some similarities with traditional case interviews, such as presenting a business problem to be solved, there are notable differences.

The most significant distinction is the use of Casey, a chatbot, which eliminates the need for a human interviewer and offers a more interactive experience through the BCG Interactive Case Library, which features various online cases.

Additionally, the online interview format presents unique time management challenges, as candidates do not receive the same level of interviewer feedback as in traditional case interviews.

Interaction with Casey Chatbot

In the BCG Online Case, success hinges on adapting to interaction with Casey, the non-human interviewer.

Candidates must navigate through questions without guidance, relying on their problem-solving skills and ability to structure their thoughts effectively.

Given the lack of feedback from the chatbot, a solid initial structure and a well-prepared approach are necessary to ensure smooth progression through the questions.

Time Management Challenges

In the BCG Online Case, time management is crucial as candidates must balance accuracy and speed within strict time limits.

The lack of interviewer feedback and the need to think and respond swiftly create a demanding situation, requiring candidates to prioritize questions, avoid getting stuck on difficult problems, and know when to skip or guess.

Calculator are allowed

Candidates can use a calculator during the BCG Casey test. 

While it seems to make the test easier, especially for candidates with limited quantitative backgrounds, remember that calculators are not allowed during live case interviews.

Hence, sooner than later, all candidates must develop strong calculation skills.

Okay, now let’s talk about how to ace the different types of questions asked in the BCG online cases:

• Structuring questions
• Business acumen questions
• Math questions
• Chart questions
• One-way video (or synthesis) questions

Mastering the structuring questions

The structuring questions are most likely asked at the beginning of the assessment.

In this type of question?

The chatbot asks you to choose 2-4 answers among 8 different options.

This is similar to creating an issue tree at the beginning of a live case interview. 

Check this article if you don’t know what an issue tree is.

How to correctly answer Structuring questions

Use the following approach to answer the structuring questions:

Step 1: Understand which metric the client wants to optimize

Step 2: Read each option provided one by one and select ALL the options that can influence this metric

For example, the client wants to optimize its profits.

And the factors that influence the client’s profits include “total costs per segment,” “the number of products per segment sold by the client,” and “the price of products per segment sold by the client.”

How to develop this skill

Refining problem-solving skills is crucial for success in the BCG Online Case.

Practicing mock case interviews is the best way to develop your structuring skills.

All case interviews include structuring questions.

For instance, when developing an issue tree at the beginning of the case.

Or during the case, when answering brainstorming questions such as “Which factors influence the market growth?”

You can practice independently, with friends, or with an expert.

Regardless of how you practice, you must track your mistakes and improvement.

Practice Resources

You can find a library of 280 case examples on this page .

These case examples?

They are directly from top-tier firms’ websites or case books from prestigious universities like Wharton, Harvard, or INSEAD.

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Acing the business acumen questions

Strong business judgment is what separates the good from the best consultants.

And BCG wants to assess how strong your business judgment is.

In other words:

They want to know if you understand how “business forces” can influence a situation or an environment.

But these “business forces” can take many forms, such as supply & demand, competition dynamics, regulation, etc.

Hence, you must develop a strong business culture to be able to understand how these “business forces” work.

How to correctly answer Business Acumen questions

Use the following approach to answer the business acumen questions:

Step 2: Select, from the list of options provided, the factors that can influence this metric

For example, the client wants to optimize its pricing.

And the factors that influence the client’s pricing include “the willingness to pay of the customers” and “the sales of competitors for different price levels.”

One of the useful tactics for learning to ‘think business’ is when you learn about recent business events, try to figure out the (direct and indirect) implications of the event.

For example, imagine that the OPEC nations have decided to restrict oil supply. 

A first direct implication can be that gas prices will increase, which means that oil company revenues will increase as well. 

An indirect implication can be that the sales of SUVs will decrease, which means that  Auto companies will be offering more sales promotions on SUVs.

Another indirect implication can be that the use of public transportation will increase.  

And so on… you can think of dozens of other implications. 

If you want to learn more about developing your business acumen, check out our coaching program on this page or sign up for our free case interview training.

I recommend reading business articles from the following websites:

McKinsey.com

Business insider ( the strategy section )

When reading these articles, try to understand the underlying business forces that created or solved a problem.

Mastering the Math questions

For all consulting firms, including BCG, a strong correlation exists between a candidate’s quantitative skills and the probability that this candidate will become a best-in-class consultant.

That’s why top consulting firms love asking quantitative questions in case interviews.

And the Casey chatbot interview is no exception.

Hence, you’ll have to answer Math questions like this one:

How to correctly answer Math questions

Use the following approach to answer the math questions:

Step 1: Understand the objective and the data presented (units, titles, etc.)

Step 2: Develop the formula you need to answer the question

Step 3: Plug the numbers provided in your formula and do the Math

Step 4: If you have time, do a quick sanity check of your answer

For example, the client wants to optimize its pricing to maximize revenues.

Since revenues are equal to volumes times price, you need to add all the units per price level and multiply the total volumes by the price levels.

The answer will be the price level that maximizes the client’s revenues.

Note : calculators are allowed during the BCG test.

To sharpen your quantitative skills, practice with mock quantitative tests such as:

Mock GMAT Tests: These tests are excellent for practicing various quantitative problems.

Case Interviews: Simulate the real experience using case interviews that include math questions.

Mock McKinsey PST or BCG Potential Test .

Don’t limit yourself to traditional methods.

Various online platforms and apps are designed to help you practice mental calculations and case-specific math problems.

By mastering case interview math, you’re not just showcasing your ability to crunch numbers.

You’re proving that you can think critically, make data-driven decisions, and lead a case to its logical conclusion.

Acing the Chart questions

Analyzing lots of data is part of the daily routine of a consultant.

And these data come in many forms: charts, data tables, texts, etc.

Hence, you’ll have to answer Chart questions like this one:

To answer a chart question, you might have to analyze more than one chart.

How to correctly answer Chart questions

Use the following approach to answer the chart questions:

Step 3: Find the data you need in the charts presented

Step 4: Plug numbers from these charts into your formula and do the math.

This is important to do step 2 before step 3.

You don’t want to jump aimlessly in the chart.

Instead, have a clear goal (know what you’re looking for) before wasting your precious time reading the chart.

As for the Math questions, you can practice with mock quantitative tests like GMAT, McKinsey PST, or BCG Potential test.

Additionally, this article shares more tips on developing your analytical skills (including chart reading).

First, you can practice with GMAT tests.

Here are some examples .

Besides, visit websites full of charts like The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, etc.

Find charts, draw conclusions from these charts, and read the article to check if your conclusions make sense. 

Also, practice with the case examples you can find in these case books .

Additionally, here are more resources:

• SHL practice tests ( here )
• SHL verbal reasoning questions ( here )
• SHL numerical reasoning questions ( here )
• SHL inductive reasoning questions ( here )
• Free aptitude test examples ( here )
• Kearney mock recruitment test ( here )
• McKinsey PST examples ( here , here , and here )

Finally, you can use a platform like JobTestPrep to practice with tests that mimic real tests.

Tackling the one-way video question

With this question, BCG will test your communication skills and capacity to synthesize your work.

Most of the time, the one-way video question asks you to give a recommendation to the client’s CEO.

The one-way video question looks like this:

How to correctly answer One-Way Video questions

Use the following approach to answer the one-way question:

Step 1: Repeat the objective

Step 2: Provide an answer-first conclusion (following the pyramid principles)

Step 3: Discuss potential next steps and risks

Your answer is very similar to the conclusion you must provide in a real-life case interview.

For instance:

“ Our objective was to understand why profits declined and how to fix this problem. The drop in profits comes from an increase in our client’s labor costs. A solution is outsourcing some administrative activities in a low-labor-cost country such as [X]. For the next steps, I would estimate the impact of our client’s labor costs and analyze the potential risks, such as the impact on our client’s brand image and quality of services. “

There is a must-read book if you want to become a consultant.

The pyramid principle by Barbara Minto.

If you don’t have this book in your library, buy it now.

As for structuring questions, use this library of 280 case examples to practice giving recommendations and improving your communication skills.

Frequently Asked Questions (and final tips)

Is the online case important for bcg.

The Online Case is an integral part of the BCG recruitment process and provides the firm with a way to evaluate essential consulting skills, such as structuring, business sense, math skills, graph interpretation, and synthesis. As such, it is highly important for BCG.

What is BCG online case experience?

BCG Online Case Experience is a 25-minute assessment that challenges candidates with a fictional client case presented by the online chatbot ‘Casey’, requiring them to answer 8-12 questions to demonstrate their business skills.

How much does the BCG online case matter?

BCG online case is important because if your performance on the test isn’t up to the mark, then it doesn’t matter what other documents you provide; you won’t be invited to the first round of interviews.

What is the passing score for the BCG online case?

BCG’s online test is not used to filter candidates, but an average performance would be considered a good result with 70% of questions answered correctly.

What is the role of the chatbot, Casey, in the BCG Online Case?

Casey is an AI-powered chatbot that facilitates the BCG Online Case, assessing candidates’ critical thinking, data analysis, and strategic insights through various question formats.

Will I have to take the test from home?

Yes. BCG will send you a link to take the test.

Can I pause the game once it has started?

No. You must go through all the questions at one time once you have started.

Hence, it’s important to have an effective time management strategy.

Effective time management strategies for the BCG Online Case include avoiding getting stuck on difficult problems and knowing when to skip or guess.

Any last advice?

Before starting the test, ensure you are in a silent room (mute your phone) and check your internet connection.

BCG online case: final words

In conclusion, acing the BCG Online Case requires thorough preparation, mastery of relevant skills, and effective time management.

So, I hope you enjoyed this guide about the BCG online case.

And that you feel more confident about taking this online test, paving your way to a successful career with the Boston Consulting Group.

Now, I’d like to hear from you: What’s your biggest challenge in answering the 10 questions?

Managing your time effectively?

The one-way video assessment?

The numerical questions?

Let me know by leaving a quick comment below right now.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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BCG Case Interview: Preparation Advice from a Former-BCG Consultant

• Last Updated January, 2024

Former BCG Consultant

What Sets BCG Apart from others?

BCG Case Interview Example

What Does BCG Look for in Candidates?

BCG Behavioral Interview

The Interview Process – An Overview

5 Tips For Passing Your BCG Interview

The bcg case interview.

BCG, short for The Boston Consulting Group, is one of the top strategy consulting firms in the world. BCG invests a lot in training and coaching its consultants so it’s no surprise that it ranked several times in the top 5 on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.”  

Working at BCG is also a sign of being a top performer. It will remain on your resume for life and the experience you’ll get there will help propel your career forward. 

Every year, many candidates from undergraduates to MBAs, Ph.D.s, MDs, and experienced hires apply for a chance to join the ranks of BCG Associates and Consultants. It’s not easy to get an offer among such a competitive crowd: preparation is required to shine through the BCG case interview and behavioral interview.

But don’t worry, I can help you get ready. In this article, I’ll discuss:

• What sets BCG apart from other top consulting firms,
• What BCG looks for in candidates,
• The BCG interview process,
• The BCG case interview,
• An example of a BCG case interview,
• The BCG behavioral interview, 
• Tips for passing your BCG interview, and 
• Further resources.

Let’s get started!

What Sets BCG Apart from Other Top Consulting Firms?

Bcg is one of the mbbs.

BCG is among the top 3 management consulting firms alongside Bain and McKinsey, forming a group referred to as “the big three” or “MBB.” This isn’t to say that other firms are not tackling extremely complex problems brilliantly or that their staff is not composed of some of the brightest people you’ll ever meet. It does mean however that these 3 firms are better known and that Fortune 500 companies might pick them for their highest stake problems. 

Working at any of these 3 firms will give you:

• More exposure to those high stakes projects,
• More exposure to the executives who sponsor them, 
• More connections for your exit opportunities whenever you feel ready for your next chapter, and 
• A higher paycheck while working there. 

Pro-tip! Never ask about the pay in a BCG interview. It’s seen as caring about the wrong things.

Working for BCG, Bain, or McKinsey also allows you to cover a wide variety of industries and functions as a “generalist” before you choose a specific industry or area of expertise.  (They are not the only firms offering this either though.) 

What Makes BCG Different From Its 2 Main Competitors? 

• BCG is often seen as the nerd among the 3. Still influenced today by the mindset of its founder Bruce Henderson, BCG strives to develop tools and insights that influence business thinking. Ever heard of the growth-share matrix ? That’s a BCG concept.
• BCG tailors its approach to each client’s specific needs and situation , instead of replicating an existing recipe. 
• BCG values unique points of view and fosters them through encouraging diversity in its recruiting and staffing. I especially remember Women@BCG and Pride@BCG as being two very active internal networks, be it for mentoring or organizing events. 
• BCG offers clients digital and start-up incubation services in addition to strategy consulting. BCG Gamma for AI and big data or BCG Digital Ventures for internal disruptions (they design and incubate start-ups within a client, it’s pretty cool) help clients overcome challenges and make transformations. As a consultant, most cases you’ll be staffed on will not involve those other entities, but if you show interest you might very well be able to join your dream project disrupting the industry you’re most passionate about. 
• BCG’s people are unique. In all likelihood, what will end up making the biggest difference for you no matter which firm you pick is the people. There are real differences in fit among the three firms. When you work such an intense job, it’s really important to get along. 

BCG’s People

For the people, it’s not about which firm is “best” but which you like most. During your recruiting process, attend as many networking events and presentations from as many different firms as you can. Talk to the presenters, ask friends and friends of friends (or reach out to alumni from your school or any other club you’re part of) who work in these firms to chat with you and ask them what they like about working there. 

It’s hard for me to contrast BCG’s culture with either Bain or McKinsey since I have not worked for the other two. From what I’ve seen during my time at BCG, people there care tremendously about each other and managers are very involved in your development. I know that some of the friends I made there I’ll likely keep in touch with my entire life. A former BCG recruiter agrees on the people being the biggest determinant and the people at BCG being awesome. 

In terms of center of interests, most undergrads were what you’d expect of your average first-job-in-the-city 20-something (I was part of the NY office), and most MBAs/PhDs/experienced hires were pretty family-oriented in their free time (and some had cool hobbies or were high performers in their sport of choice). Company events were wholesome and typically welcomed partners and children. 

During my recruiting process, I went through “Bridge to BCG,” an immersive workshop for Ph.D. students (I was finishing up my dissertation at that time). On top of having a recruiting track tailored for Ph.D.s, which let me know that BCG valued my profile, the people I met at BCG, from consultants to partners, are really what convinced me BCG was the best match. 

And that contributes to self-selection: two guys I met when going through that recruiting event were also aiming for offers from BCG. We became good friends, practiced together like crazy, and all got offers. They’re still among the best friends I made during my time at BCG.

Personally, I was so set on wanting BCG that when I got the offer, I canceled my final round with McKinsey. If an additional offer wasn’t going to change my mind, I might as well start celebrating.

Alright, now let’s dive into how you can get there too. 

I’ll first cover what all top consulting firms want, and then color my answer with some BCG green. Do not skip the first part if you’re not familiar with it though – these things matter tremendously and honing on the specifics for the BCG case interview is pointless if you’re not at the bar yet on the basics. 

What All Top Consulting Firms Expect 

All firms are looking for the same basics: smart people, able to think fast, accurately, creatively, and by themselves, and communicate the solutions they come up with concisely and eloquently. They are looking for people who are open to feedback, care about making an impact, are inspiring leaders to others, and thrive when working in teams. 

The entire point of the case interview and the behavioral interview is to test precisely these skills. If you’re not familiar with these yet, the case interview is a business problem that you solve in real-time with prompts and data from the interviewer, while the behavioral interview is an opportunity for you to showcase soft skills such as leadership or impact through relating past experiences. 

My colleague Rebecca (former McKinsey) dives a lot deeper into the basics of the case interview in our Guide to Case Interview Prep and also gives a few tips about the Behavioral Interview . It’s worth reading these if you haven’t already. 

As you go through the interview, you are graded independently and methodically on all these skills to allow for easy comparison across candidates. At the end of the day though, the question the interviewer is answering internally is: “Would I want to staff this person on my team?” It’s that simple. 

What BCG Emphasizes More Than Bain & McKinsey

All the firms care about the attributes below. Moreover, one thing my time in consulting convinced me of is that there is still more variation within firms than across firms in terms of personalities and style, so each interviewer will have slight skews in preferences on what they deem most important in a candidate based on who they’d like on their team. 

That being said, here are 3 things that were regularly important in BCG recruiting decisions during my time there: 

• A Tailored Approach
• The BCG Attitude

#1 – Drive

The most important thing to ace your BCG case interview is your ability to drive the case. This means always being in the driving seat as you go through the case interview: 

• knowing where to go next, 
• getting there by yourself, and 
• explaining to the passengers (i.e. the interviewer) where to, why, and exactly what they need to know about it. 

One way to do this is the “hypothesis-driven” approach that BCG talks a lot about, which simply means having a running hypothesis and driving toward testing it. For instance, once you are done laying out the structure of the case, do not wait for the interviewer to tell you what to do and take an initiative: 

Example: “My hypothesis at this point is that the profit decline is due to a change in our client’s pricing since you mentioned attendance remained stable. Do we have any data on the pricing and membership model our client used over the last 5 years and have there been any recent changes?”

Drive is not just the ability to know what to do next and move toward it smoothly, it’s also the ability to constantly explain why you are doing it. It shows your interviewer that you have both the ability to think well and take someone by the hand through your thought process as you do so. 

Example: “Now that we’ve established the revenues of our site each year, I’d like to compute the total cost to know whether these revenues are enough for our client to meet their target of breaking even in 2 years. Do we have any data on costs at this point? Maybe starting with investment costs?”

Why Is Drive So Important?

Because that’s what you need to do constantly on the job.  As a consultant, your clients are paying your team a lot of money so they expect to know exactly what you are doing with that expensive time and why. It also helps prevent you from taking any wrong turn, as they are still the experts on their own business. 

As a team member, your manager’s stress level will also go down by a lot if when they come out of the meeting, they hear you say that given the partner’s remarks you took the initiative to stress-test the results of the analysis you are showing the client tomorrow. They’ll know they don’t need to constantly tell you what to do: you’ll know what’s needed and you’ll be a good communicator about what you are focusing on so they don’t need to obsess over monitoring you either. 

Drive also means knowing what to do with the results you find, and spontaneously getting to what we call 2nd level insight . 

1st level insight: Using the result to answer the question you were asked. Example: “The total cost is $1.2M.Therefore, given the revenues we computed earlier, it will take us 3 years to breakeven.” 

2nd level insight: The next-step that pushes the problem-solving forward. Example: “This does not match our client’s objective of breaking even in 2 years, so at this point, we’d have to recommend that they do not enter this market. Before doing so though, I’m wondering if we could explore additional revenue streams to see if they can make this a viable opportunity. Is it ok with you if I take a moment to brainstorm options?”

By getting to 2nd-level insights, you show you’re not just an analyst. You’re a consultant and you have the skills to do everything for the client if you had to. 

I once saw a documentary about the recruiting process for the acrobatic show Cirque du Soleil . One applicant was told “Power went down, everybody else is injured, you’re the Cirque tonight. What do you do?” Some days on the job will feel exactly like that. That’s why you need drive.

#2 – A Tailored Approach

The second thing that is emphasized at BCG is the ability to tailor your approach to the situation at hand. As explained earlier, BCG is proud of coming to each client and business problem not with a pre-made solution, but with all their expertise and a commitment to developing what is best for the client in that case. This trickles down to the BCG case interview.

During the case interview, your structure will still rely on some basics that you might have seen in a book, such as “external/internal factors.” But as way you lay out your structure, and as you interact with the interviewer throughout the entire case, you are putting yourself in the shoes of a consultant that’d be visiting a plant, the client’s headquarters, or talking with the Vice President of Sales about their rollout strategy for this new left-handed stapler to address the situation at hand. 

You can foster that skill for yourself by “using the words of the case.”

Example: Don’t say “volume is going down” but “the number of cases ordered by the supermarket went down so we’ve been shipping fewer bottles.’ Ask clarifying questions about the business model of the client during the opening of the case: imagine that you are trying to understand how your best friend is making a living. The hypothesis-driven approach is also helping you tick that box. 

Similarly in any brainstorming question during the BCG case interview (for which you should also answer using buckets/a mini-structure by the way), use specifics of the case to structure your brainstorming.

Example: If asked about additional revenues opportunities, you could think about it each step along the customer journey of your client’s clients, or you could use “options within the client’s expertise area” vs. “options in adjacent areas” vs. “options in new areas of expertise.”

The goal is really to show your interviewer that you are not just a machine at rehashing models and frameworks. You know how to look at every situation with new eyes, and you’ll be able to catch the subtleties of each client.  

#3 – The BCG Attitude

Last but not least is the attitude you project. I just came up with the term “BCG attitude” so no need to Google it, but what I mean by it is a combination of being personable, being coachable, and having a go-getter mindset . 

In conversations among interviewers, I’ve seen candidates who did quite well on the case interview being disfavored compared to others because they failed to demonstrate these qualities. The logic is that if the interviewer does not feel comfortable having you represent them and BCG in front of the client or if they think you wouldn’t get along with the rest of your teammates (or that your teammates wouldn’t get along with you), there are plenty of other stellar candidates that day who would be a better fit.

Being personable . I don’t mean being a stand-up comedian or as charismatic as Barack Obama, simply that interacting with you is pleasant. The interviewer can naturally start chit-chatting with you, and ideally, as you go through the interview both you and the interviewer get the feeling of working together.

Anything perceived as arrogance is likely to be a turn-off for the interviewers: they don’t want to send someone who would project that vibe to a client. If you stay professional and make the effort to care about whoever is in front of you, you’ll be just fine.

Being coachable. Like other consulting firms, BCG has a feedback-heavy culture. You are constantly reviewed (upward and downwards, i.e. by both your managers and the people you manage, if any). There is a culture of sharing feedback directly and regularly (there is even a culture of discussing how you like your feedback to be given to you). Hell, that’s how you progress in these firms. 

It’s not that you’re not expected to know everything when you start: it’s that you’re expected to not know most things, and be able to learn them fast, and then get feedback, and then course-correct even faster. So someone who does not take feedback well is unlikely to thrive in that environment. 

In practice, try not to ignore cues the interviewers might be giving you on where to go during the BCG case interview. Abstain from showing annoyance at any point. 

Having a go-getter attitude. This means always being game for more if need be. 

On the job example : The team is exhausted. It’s already late Thursday, we have a presentation tomorrow. The client just completely changed their mind on what they want to see. Your manager doesn’t want to be worried about you throwing your laptop at the wall or being passive-aggressive in the windowless team room. 

Instead, being able to take a breath and say: “Ok, it is what it is. What do we need to do and how can we do it efficiently so that we still get to sleep?”

Of course, all of these soft skills are hard to measure. But if you collapse when you realize that your numerical answer was off by a factor 100, the interviewer might have less faith in your ability to endure and perform under pressure. If that happens, just acknowledge it, explain why it makes no sense, and show the same structured approach in tracking down the error. 

In summary, showing that “BCG attitude” is not some magic trick: stay humble, stay hungry, and try to have a good time. That’s about it. 

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

The BCG Interview Process – An Overview

How many interviews will i have .

As with most questions in management consulting, the answer is “it depends.” It is likely to vary with the country you are applying in as well as the recruiting channel (i.e., undergraduates, MBAs, advanced degree candidates such as Ph.D.s and MDs, experienced hires, etc).

Recently, BCG introduced the BCG Pymetrics Test and One-way Interview as pre-screening assessments in North American and other worldwide offices. They’ve also introduced the BCG Chatbot Interview as a round one case interview.

What was most standard in the US pre-COVID for the BCG interviews was to have 2 rounds of in-person interviews, each round composed of 2 interviews back-to-back. 

• First round: 2 interviews back-to-back with Consultants to mid-level managers (i.e., Project Leaders or Principals)
• Decision round: 2 interviews back-to-back with more senior managers (i.e., Principals, Partners, or Partners and Managing Directors)

Each one of the interviewers would go through both a BCG case interview and a BCG behavioral interview (also known as “fit”) with you, so that’d mean 4 case interviews and 4 behavioral interviews in total. After the first round and the decision round, you’d hear back from the recruiting team to know whether or not you are moving on to the next round (or getting an offer) within a few hours to a few days, sometimes longer. 

These calls would usually also involve some feedback on what you did well and what you could do better: BCG cares about people’s development, even here, and they want you to succeed.

There are exceptions to this schedule. Back when I was a Ph.D. student, I first applied to an immersive recruiting workshop called “Bridge to BCG” with a cover letter and a behavioral phone interview, which then led to a standard first round after the workshop. For my decision round, one of the two interviews was a written case.

BCG North America’s format for fall interviews is:

• First round: 1 25-minute fit interview. Candidates are asked 2-4 fit questions from a firm-wide standard list.
• Decision round: 2 back-to-back case interviews. These cases will be specific to the offices hosting the interviews.

The implication of this change is that BCG candidates will need to prepare their fit interview stories earlier in the recruiting process. See our article on “ Why BCG? ” for help with preparing for BCG fit interviews.

For the next season and beyond, it’s not clear how things will vary country by country. The result will likely be an overlap of general company policy and office discretion in each. 

While in-person interviews are likely to come back soon, it also seems reasonable to expect online case interviews to remain as part of the recruiting process.

In summary, you should prepare for something like 2 rounds of 2 interviews each, with some combination of in-person interviews, virtual interviews, and an automated online case study (at least for the first round), and be ready for any variation that might come your way. 

The good news is that the skills required are pretty consistent throughout, and they are the ones you need to pass both the BCG case interview and the BCG behavioral interview. 

What’s In a Typical One-on-One BCG Interview?

Whether you are in person at your campus, in a BCG office, or sitting in front of your laptop at home, here is what to expect when you are interacting with a (human) BCG interviewer, in chronological order.

One interview typically lasts about 45 minutes. If you are there in person, your two interviews will probably be back-to-back. One of your interviewers will probably either walk you or pick you up from the first room to the second. 

The Intro (~5min)

If you are there in person, think about this part as starting the moment the interviewer comes and picks you up to walk you to the interview room. As they do so, they might chit-chat, asking whether you stayed in the city the night before or mention something they’ve noticed on your CV. Once seated, they will take about 5 minutes to introduce themselves and remind you of the agenda for the interview. 

The Behavioral Interview (aka, the fit) (~10min)

The interviewer will ask you a couple of questions about your motivation, your experience, or how you’d handle a certain hypothetical situation. The goal is to showcase the skills such as Leadership, Impact, Coachability, as well as your motivations and fit for the firm. This part lasts about 10 minutes. Read more on that below in the penultimate section. 

The BCG Case Interview (~30min)

This is the meat of the interview and lasts about 30 minutes-maybe less if you’ve been efficient. While you are rated holistically throughout the entire interview, most of what is tested is through the case interview. In the next two sections, I will go more in-depth on what makes the BCG Case Interview different from other firms and go through an example of a BCG case interview.

The Q&A (~2-3min)

Your Interviewer should make sure there is at least a couple of minutes left after the case interview for you to ask any questions you have about the job or the firm. 

Those questions are your last shot to become memorable in the mind of an interviewer who might be seeing up to 9 other interviewees that day while having to think about answering 100+ client emails by Monday (and that one email from their Partner definitely tonight).

Pro-tip! Don’t ask about something that’s easily Googlable, as this shows a lack of preparation. Don’t ask about the pay or the hours: these topics are seen as inappropriate in the interview. If you’ve done your research, you know that the pay is good and that the hours can be long, and the assumption is that if the exact number matters to you enough to ask about it here, someone else wants this job more than you and will be a better fit.

So don’t neglect to give a thought to a few questions in advance. Of course, if something came up during the intro or the case that got you curious, go for it: the point is also to be authentic. If it looked like your interviewer was passionate about the industry you just talked about you might want to probe them on that; or if they mentioned having young kids and you’re expecting or would like to be soon, you probably care about how they managed and that’s also a great way to build rapport. 

I enjoyed asking some of my interviewers what were the good and bad surprises on the job. Feel free to use that, or take a few minutes at some point during your preparation to come up with something you’re genuinely curious about. 

The BCG case interview is a business problem that you are solving live with the help of the interviewer. It involves showing that you know how to think in a structured way, that you are able to drive toward an answer, have solid arithmetic skills, and the ability to communicate clearly. The interviewer of course knows the answer and hands you the relevant data and exhibits as you are making progress towards it. 

Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep explains exactly what the case interview is and details its various stages: 

• The opening, 
• The structure, 
• The analysis, and
• The conclusion.

It also gives you tips on how to become proficient at each.

In my experience, BCG cases are pretty standard compared to most you will encounter during your preparation. What is characteristic about the BCG case interview is to expect the interviewee to take the lead and be the driving force throughout. This is different from McKinsey, where the interview is led by the interviewer who really drills down on topics through a series of scripted questions (to prioritize an exhaustive assessment of your skills over this ability of driving the case).

As with any case interview, expect a fair amount of math, exhibit reading, brainstorming questions, or market sizing. BCG case interviews tend to have more variation than other firms in terms of industry, topic, or exact composition of the case. For instance, there are more often cases that are not about profitability, or you might solve a problem for a non-governmental organization (NGO). 

Some cases end up being very math heavy while others are frankly mostly qualitative. I had a case during my first round where a financial services firm had a turnover problem coming from a culture mismatch after merging with a Japanese counterpart. In my decision round, a partner asked me about what I thought that Galileo, tired of being a broke scientist, should do to make a ton of money after having invented the binocular (whether or not any of that is historically accurate).

That being said, for the vast majority of the cases you’ll encounter, you can still expect some form of profitability or growth case for your BCG case interview, with a couple of exhibits, some math, and a market sizing and/or a brainstorming question. From your point of view at the beginning of the case, think about it as an open map in front of you that it is for you to explore to find a treasure: strategically, heading toward your most likely guess, and taking your interviewer by the hand on the way. 

Let’s dive into an example. 

The BCG Case Interview – An Example

“Your client is the Health Ministry of a small developing country. They want to roll out a polio vaccination program for young kids. How should they go about it and what will be the cost?”

Opening 

The first thing to do is to repeat the main info in the prompt to the interviewer to make sure you got it right, and ask clarifying questions. If you don’t know what polio is or how old the kids receiving the vaccine against it are, it would be a good idea to ask your interviewer. Turns out polio is an infection caused by a virus that can lead to paralysis, and let’s assume we are targeting kids age 6 to 8. The location of the country does not particularly matter here.

Now is also the time to establish the client’s key success metrics: “What would success look like to the government of this country? Is there anything else they are worried about beyond costs?” Here, they simply care about reaching as many children as feasible in the country and want to estimate the costs. 

You’d now ask for a minute to lay down your thoughts so that you can build your structure. Notice that this case prompt is not your average profitability question so you can’t just use a framework you learned. 

Pro-tip! Take a moment to think about what you’d do before reading ahead, that’ll be infinitely more helpful to you. 

Here’s one proposal you could go with: 

• How many kids do we have to reach?
• What are the biggest locations across the country?
• How do we make sure families are aware of our program?
• How will kids enroll in our program? Do we go to them or do they get to us? (homes, hospitals, schools, etc.)
• Any adjustment in rural vs urban areas? What’s the topography like?
• Medical: Doctor, medical personnel, etc.
• Logistics: drivers, receptionist, etc. 
• Do we need security guards?
• Can we use any existing buildings?
• If not, a pop-up tent, or is it worth building?
• A medical bus?
• Vaccine storage
• How many vehicles?
• Any specialized storage needs? (frozen, etc.)
• Any shipping costs? (for refills?)
• Have they done other vaccination programs in the past?
• Do they have specialized medical staff who are public servants?
• NGOs (such as Doctors without Borders)?
• Private actors? (private clinic, etc.)
• Neighboring countries with expertise?
• Who is responsible? 
• How is accountability measured?
• Is there a budget? 
• Do we need to apply for grants or international help?
• If partnership, share costs?
• How much will we save in health expenditures down the line with fewer sick children? 
• Can we also use this program to test/vaccinate for other usual suspects among children’s diseases?
• What are our relations with the rest of the government? 
• Do they see polio as a priority?
• How is the general population seeing the Health Ministry in that country? 
• Could we leverage this program for a PR campaign?

This structure is pretty exhaustive. Don’t worry if you didn’t come up with every bullet point on your own.

In practice since you only have a couple of minutes at most to lay it out during your BCG case interview, you would not necessarily write these full questions on your piece of paper but a couple of keywords for each bucket and each sub-bucket.  

If you’d like to learn more about how to create a case structure, see our article on the Pyramid Principle .

Analysis 

Turns out the structure above is also pretty spot on. The first thing the interviewer would do after you lay it out is prompt you to brainstorm in-depth on the various ways to reach the kids, so if you’ve already alluded to it in your structure that gives you a headstart. 

On brainstorming questions, you’ll be rated on both your structure and your creativity. Make sure to always articulate the logic behind your ideas, using your past experience, analogies, or your general knowledge (“I remember when we got vaccinated for measles in our school…”). One way to go about it could be: 

• Pop-up locations by neighborhood
• Have primary care providers refer them to us (is that feasible in this country?)

And the most pragmatic answer is of course to go where kids already are spending the most time, which is schools. Opt-in programs where recipients have to go somewhere end up having reliably lower reach, for various reasons from opportunity costs to the social stigma associated with going to locations like hospitals.

Once aligned with your interviewer on that, what would you ask next? (Remember the importance of drive?) 

Sample follow-on question: “Do we have any data on the school repartition in this country?”

You’d then be handed a first exhibit: a map detailing the number of schools in each area of the country and the average number of students per school. Let’s say that there are 5 schools in area 1, 3 in area 2, 2 in area 3, and 10 schools in area 4. Each school has on average 400 students in our target age range. There are thus 20 schools with 400 students per school on average. 

A great candidate will comment right away on the total number of students we are targeting, which is 8,000, and ask about any differences in the various areas that would require different logistics. There are none here.

At this point, knowing that we will be touring schools, the interviewer would ask you to brainstorm further all the precise cost items associated with that. This is already done a bit in our structure above (told you it was spot on) but you can give it a try for yourself. 

Once satisfied, they’ll give you a second exhibit, this time with the following data. In each area, there will be a team composed of: 

• 1x doctor ($50/day)
• 4x technicians ($40/day)
• 1x driver + vehicle ($110/day)
• Vaccines ($2/vaccine)

When seeing this, you might first want to ask about the slight ambiguity on the technician cost: it’s $40/day for all 4 of them, not for each. It’s up to you now to take the initiative to compute the cost of the program. 

Take a break and try now. What do you notice? 

You’re missing a very important piece of data: how many kids can we see per day? Only when asked about this would the interviewer share with you that it takes a technician 6 minutes to inoculate a vaccine to a kid. We’re almost there. Great, and how many hours can we work per day? You might ask if it’s ok to go with a standard assumption of 8 hours/day and your interviewer would let you know that in this case, it’s actually closer to 5 hours/day. Now we have everything we need! 

A great candidate will also notice right away that since we only have variable costs here, the total cost will be the same whether we consider one team per area or one team touring all areas, so we can group all the computations at once to avoid doing it area by area (of course touring the areas simultaneously will however shorten the program length).

Each technician can therefore see 10 kids per hour, hence you can vaccinate 40 kids per hour in total with 4 technicians in a school. With 5 hours of work a day, that’s 200 kids per day which means exactly 2 days per school for each team. 

Since there are 20 schools at $200 per day per school in staff cost and it takes 2 days per school, the total staff cost is $8,000 for 40 days of man-work. And of course, 20 schools times 400 students that’s 8,000 students which represent $16,000 in vaccine costs at $2/vaccine. The total cost of the program is $24,000 to tour all the schools once. 

When getting to any kind of number, always take a moment to sanity check whether they make sense and comment on them. Big picture, $24,000 feels like a low number for a national program, and it is; you can link that back to the overall low number of schools (only 20 for the whole country). Whether that’s a lot of money for the Health Ministry is however an open question, and you might also wonder whether all kids in the country are covered by these schools: were these only the public schools? What about the rate of absenteeism in this country?

You can also comment on the overall timeline: it will be driven by the biggest area which will take the longest to tour. It had 10 schools, hence the program can be over in 20 working days assuming that transportation and school schedules do not slow it down. 

Notice how doing the math methodically helped me realize that some data was missing? It also made the computations flow easily. Without a structured approach, it would have been easy to run around in circles or compute tons of useless intermediate results instead.

“The right hand of the Health Minister walks into the team room and asks you about your findings before she jumps on a call with her boss. What do you tell her?”

The final synthesis of your BCG case interview should lead with your recommendation to the client and details the key reasons supporting that recommendation. It then mentions any risks to consider which might impact the outcome and the next steps that you’d suggest to either cover these risks or double down on the analysis. There is no need to repeat everything you covered during the case: be succinct and stick to the key arguments.

What would you say? Give it a try before reading the end!

“We recommend rolling out the polio vaccination program for kids aged 6-8 by touring schools with one medical team in each area of the country. This program is reasonably low cost and would only represent $24,000 in funding and take only 4 to 5 weeks to reach all the schools in the country. 

One concern we’d like to address next is whether absenteeism is an issue that would prevent us from reaching kids, especially in rural areas. That might inform whether running this program once a year is enough.” 

Congrats, you made it through your first BCG case interview!

The BCG Behavioral Interview

The BCG Behavioral interview (or “fit”), is the portion of the interview that allows you to showcase the soft skills that would make you a good consultant and a worthy addition to their team. Here are a few do’s and don’ts that apply to all firms , including BCG.

At BCG, each interviewer you’ll encounter asks two different questions about you and your experience. 

You can expect with a probability close to one that one of these questions will be what I’ll call a “motivation” question, which are things like: 

• “Why consulting?”
• “Why BCG?” or 
• “Walk me through your CV.” 

These are not opportunities to ramble or be exhaustive about everything you’ve ever done in your life, but instead, tell convincing and alluring stories that make it obvious that you are exactly where you ought to be right this moment. 

Personally, I talked about how during my Ph.D., while I enjoyed solving complex problems, I realized that I was longing for faster-paced environments that would give me a breadth and depth of exposure to many different issues and industries. I also mentioned that the people that I met during my recruiting (actually naming them and their office) convinced me that BCG would be a fantastic place to do that while building amazing relationships. There was a bit more color to it, but that was the backbone of my answer. 

Other questions will typically ask you about “a time where you did X” or “what you’d do in hypothetical situation Y” (in which case, feel free to tell the interviewer about a time when you did exactly Y). 

The main themes that come back for these questions are: 

• Leadership – your ability to inspire others, 
• Impact – how much effect you have on your environment and the lives of others,
• Influence – your ability to change someone else’s mind, and
• Resilience – how you fare against adversity such as after a setback or failure. 

Within the same round, the interviewers are supposed to coordinate themselves so that the themes they ask you about do not overlap.

When answering any of these questions, it’s important to be able to do so pretty much the same way you answer the BCG case interview: with a structured answer, taking your interviewer by the hand. The “A STAR(E)” framework is an amazing way to do just that.

My Consulting Offer’s founder Davis provides an example of using this framework at the link above. I will just emphasize 2 ingredients that my interviewers complimented me for when I went through BCG interviews myself. 

• Use your stories to show you are intentional and structured in the way that you tackle the Action (the second A in “A STAR(E)”). Instead of simply relating the series of steps that you took in that awesome story of you turning the tables over during that team project Sophomore year, also explain how you came up with the solution, and why. Example:   “I knew that to convince our adviser to give us that extension, I’d have to show her that there would be additional value for the lab, so I first contacted my favorite Professor to get them on board…”. You get the gist.  
• Use that final bracketed E, the Effect: what did you learn, about yourself or people? Which self-reflections did that story lead to? What did you or what will you change going forward given what happened then? A story about you overcoming a team disagreement that led to a deadlock will go a lot further if you wrap it up with reflections on team dynamics and the role you can play in those. Example: “One thing this episode taught me is that if my team reaches a dead end, it doesn’t matter who has the best idea. Now, if I see a situation like this coming up, I take the time to listen to every stakeholder to understand why they are so attached to their solutions. This always helps find common ground for the team to pivot and move forward.”

Of course, that exercise is worth doing by itself. It will contribute to making you a better consultant and a better colleague whichever firm you end up working for. 

And with all that preparation under your belt, sometimes a more senior interviewer like a Partner and Managing Director might just chat with you about a hobby you both share before diving into the case interview.  

1. Be Methodical in Your Casing Prep

Commit to practicing regularly with a wide array of case partners. Make sure some are at your level and some are more experienced (and don’t turn down casing with a couple of beginners once you have more preparation). 

Don’t overdo it. You don’t want to become blasé or a casing robot-but set a serious but realistic schedule for yourself between now and your BCG interview-whether that’s in 3 months or 5 days.

2. Make Sure You’re at the Bar on Each Part

When preparing, ask for detailed feedback on the various parts of the case and act on that feedback. Someone thought your conclusion was weak and gave you tips to improve? Go back to past cases you’ve done and rehearse the conclusions in front of a mirror. Get particularly comfortable doing math fast and accurately, reading exhibits, and coming up with structured answers on the go.

3. Focus on the Drive

Now that you have the skills, it’s time to embody a consultant. Demonstrate your ability to solve a business problem in collaboration with someone. When in doubt, walk your interviewer through your thought process. Same if you need to make an assumption at any point: explain why, how you are choosing it, and see if your interviewer is on board with that.

4. Don’t Skip the Fit

Have those 5 or 6 stories about your experience ready using the A STAR(E) framework, plus your answers to the motivation questions. Make sure to touch on all the typical themes and train with friends to alter your delivery of those stories in real-time to answer the plethora of prompts that might come up.

5. Enjoy yourself

At the end of the day, the BCG case interview is also a way for you to see whether you’d like the job. If even after solid preparation the idea of solving a business case live in front of the interviewer sounds horrific to you, this might not be the job for you. 

Once interview day comes, go with the intent to really enjoy the process. Remember, the people across the table want you to succeed. They are investing time that they could allocate to their clients into finding their best future teammates instead. 

They want that to be you.

Further Resources

• Our Ultimate Guide to Case Interview Prep
• Behavioral Interviews
• The BCG Online Case

In this article, we’ve covered:

• What sets BCG apart from other top firms,
• What makes a good BCG consultant,
• How to ace your BCG case interview,
• A BCG case interview example,
• What to expect in your BCG behavioral interview, and
• 5 tips to pass your BCG interview.

Still have questions?

If you have more questions about the BCG case interview, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s case coaches will answer them.

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Thanks for turning to My Consulting Offer for advice on the BCG case interview. My Consulting Offer has helped almost 85% of the people we’ve worked with to get a job in management consulting. We want you to be successful in your consulting interviews too. For example, here is how Matt was able to get his offer from BCG.

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• The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview
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• Cover Letter & Resume
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• Bain Aptitude Tests (SOVA, Pymetrics, HireVue)
• Kearney Recruitment Test
• All-in-One Case Interview Preparation
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The Complete Guide to the BCG Online Case Experience: Conquering the Casey Chatbot (2024)

Last Updated on March 26, 2024

Cracking the door to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is no easy feat. Out of the numerous hopeful applicants, only 1-3% secure a consulting job offer with the firm. One key stepping stone in this journey is the BCG Online Case Assessment, also known as the Casey Chatbot Interview. The assessment’s pivotal nature has made it a crucial part of the BCG recruiting process.

If you’ve ever dreamed of being a part of BCG’s team, understanding this new assessment model is your first step. Looking for how to prepare for the BCG Casey Chatbot Interview? You’re in the right place to start your journey.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll unpack everything about the BCG Online Case Experience and the Chatbot interview. From what it entails, the skills it assesses, and how you can most effectively prepare, we’ll cover it all. So, let’s get started!

The content of this article has been updated in January 2024 to reflect the current version of the Casey.

BCG Online Case Experience: A Quick Overview

BCG Online Case Assessment, also known as the Casey Chatbot Interview, is a digital assessment where you’re guided through a specific business case by a chatbot named Casey. This chatbot interview has replaced the BCG Online Case or BCG Potential Test, assessing applicants’ problem-solving skills within a time-constrained environment.

Here are a few quick facts about the assessment:

Refer to practice guides for online case interviews to familiarize yourself with the question types and formats you’ll encounter. Our ultimate guide to BCG assessment preparation is designed to provide you with the resources and strategies you need to excel.

BCG Online Case: The Insider Guide

The BCG Online Case Guide is your resource to ace the Casey Chatbot Guide in no time with targeted preparation and test-taking strategies, skill building, and BCG-like, interactive practice tests.

Understanding the Purpose

The Casey Interview serves two primary goals:

• Efficiency & Cost-effectiveness : As a swift and economical method, it enables the assessment of a vast number of candidates. This additional step in the recruiting funnel lessens the number of candidates moving forward to case interviews, consequently reducing the hours consultants spend on interviewing applicants, thereby reducing the cost of recruitment over time. This is akin to the McKinsey Solve Game or the Bain SOVA test . The convenience of administering this test from home makes this an even more valuable investment for BCG, as HR resources only need to get involved lightly.
• Standardization & Comparability : The test, although involving different cases, is highly standardized with the same evaluation metrics. This enables BCG to compare candidate performance objectively, adding another layer of fairness to the process, a trait highly valued by top-tier consulting firms during recruiting.

Introducing the BCG Casey Chatbot Interview

In 2020, feedback regarding a new testing format that was initiated in Asian BCG offices and later extended to European and North American offices emerged. Since 2023, it appears that almost all offices use the Casey chatbot during the assessment. Nonetheless, we recommend reaching out to the HR department of your desired BCG office before applying to pre-empt any surprises.

The rise of chatbots has paved the way for them to be utilized in the hiring process, and BCG, being a forward-thinking top-tier consulting company, hopped on the bandwagon partnering with Casey, thereby replacing the former BCG Online Case and Potential Test (which was also computer-based but had to be taken from the local office, often in combination with the first-round case interview).

While the new format essentially tests the same skills as the classic online case – problem decomposition, analysis, and providing a recommendation – there are certain nuances to be aware of.

Key Features of the BCG Online Case Assessment

• Fully Online : The assessment is entirely online and can be taken from home before your interviews.
• Duration & Structure : The test lasts around 30 minutes (including the video recommendation) and comprises a maximum of 8-10 questions. This contrasts with the old format’s 45-minute duration and 23 questions.
• Open Questions : Unlike the previous single/multiple-choice questions, there are some open-ended questions.
• Scoring : The scoring of answers isn’t transparent as they also encompass qualitative elements, however, no points are deducted for incorrect answers.
• Use of Calculators : Since the test is taken from home, calculators or the use of Excel are allowed. The emphasis is on quickly devising the right calculation approach.
• Video Recommendation : At the conclusion of the test, a brief, 1-minute video recording is required where you explain your recommendations and analytical approach to a fictional client.

Understanding the Skillset Assessed by BCG’s Casey Chatbot

For those seeking an edge in their consulting job application, mastering the BCG Casey Chatbot strategy is essential.

BCG has developed the Casey chatbot to replicate the dynamic environment of a traditional case interview online. But what exactly are the skills Casey evaluates during an online case assessment? Here’s an in-depth look at each skill and practical examples of how they manifest during the test-taking stage.

Idea Generation and Creativity

Mastering business case analysis for BCG is a key component of your preparation, enhancing your ability to tackle complex problems effectively. The ability to think outside the box and generate innovative ideas is a critical skill assessed by BCG. The firm values individuals who can produce fresh perspectives and creative solutions to complex problems. For example, during the online case assessment, you might be given a scenario where a company is experiencing a decline in sales. A creative solution might involve leveraging untapped markets or developing novel marketing strategies rather than simply reducing costs.

Business Sense and Intuition

A strong business acumen, encompassing an understanding of market dynamics, industry trends, and economic factors, is another vital skill for potential consultants. During the assessment, you might be presented with a case about a firm planning to launch a new product. A test-taker with a keen business sense would consider aspects like potential competition, target audience, and economic conditions before deciding on the feasibility of the product launch.

Analytical Rigor and Logical Thinking

Improving problem-solving skills for consulting is vital, as these skills are at the heart of what BCG looks for in candidates. BCG seeks individuals capable of rigorous analysis and logical reasoning. This skill involves breaking down complex issues into manageable parts, identifying patterns, and making data-driven decisions. For instance, in a case scenario involving a company with declining profits, you would need to analyze different aspects like revenue, costs, market share, and competitors. Using logical thinking, you’d pinpoint the root causes of the problem and suggest appropriate solutions.

Mental Math and Affinity for Numbers

Strong quantitative skills, particularly mental math, and comfort with numbers are crucial in management consulting. BCG’s online case assessment may present you with numerical data, graphs, or charts that you must interpret quickly and accurately. For example, you might be asked to calculate the company’s profit margin or forecast future sales based on given data.

Top-Down Communication

Effective communication, especially the ability to present complex information succinctly, is another skill assessed by BCG. The online assessment may require you to explain your solutions or strategies concisely. In a practical scenario, you might be asked to summarize a complex turnaround strategy for a struggling business in a few key points.

Lastly, BCG values maturity, which they define as the ability to handle pressure, make sound judgments, and demonstrate professional behavior. In a case assessment, this could be reflected in how you handle time management or how you present yourself at the end during the video recommendation. Maturity could also be evaluated indirectly by looking at how you manage a crisis situation for a client or make tough decisions that balance business goals with ethical considerations.

In summary, BCG’s online case assessment evaluates a wide range of skills crucial in the management consulting field. By understanding these key areas and how they might be tested, you can better prepare and enhance your performance in the assessment.

Key Themes in the BCG Online Case Assessment

The Online Case Assessment is an in-depth examination of your consulting skills, drawing parallels to the interviewer-led case interviews used by other top-tier firms like McKinsey. This test revolves around four central themes – each evaluating your skills discussed above. Let’s delve into these themes, provide an understanding of their relevance in the online case assessment, and present practical examples that can appear during the test.

Structuring

At the heart of problem-solving lies the art of structuring. BCG’s online case assessment evaluates your ability to dissect a complex issue into more manageable components. It’s about creating a roadmap at the onset of the case interview that will guide your investigation process. For example, if you’re asked to devise a strategy for boosting a company’s declining sales, you might structure the problem into key areas such as market analysis, competitive landscape, internal processes, and customer behavior.

For more information on case frameworks and structures, read our article here:

The Complete Guide to Case Interview Frameworks and Structuring

Chart Interpretation

An essential aspect of the case assessment is chart or data interpretation. This skill tests your ability to extract vital insights from charts or data sets and relate them back to the case question and the client’s situation. For instance, you might be given a graph showing a company’s sales performance over several quarters. The task could involve identifying trends or anomalies in the data and providing a meaningful interpretation relevant to the client’s challenge.

For more information on chart interpretation, read our article here:

The Complete Guide to Charts and Exhibits in Case Interviews

Case Interview Math

Another theme emphasized in the BCG online case assessment is case interview math. Here, you’re expected to apply mathematical business analysis to a problem, followed by a qualitative investigation of the resulting numerical data or deriving specific recommendations. A practical example could involve determining the breakeven point for a new product launch. You would have to calculate the number of units needed to cover the product’s fixed and variable costs and then derive strategic implications from the result.

For more information on case interview math, read our article here:

The Complete Guide to Case Interview Math

The final theme is synthesis, which demands you compile all your collected insights and formulate a strategic recommendation for your client. Synthesis allows you to showcase your big-picture thinking and your ability to draw conclusions from a wide array of data. For example, after analyzing market trends, customer preferences, and internal capabilities for a product expansion case, you might need to provide a clear and actionable recommendation, such as expanding into a particular market or enhancing certain product features.

For more information on case interview communication, read our articles here:

How to Communicate in a Case Interview

Case Interview Language

The Pyramid Principle: A Guide to Effective Business Communication

The Question Types of the BCG Online Case

Taking up to 30 minutes (with the video recommendation), the BCG Chatbot interview stands as a test of your ability to navigate complex business problems. Unlike the typical candidate-led style at BCG, the Casey chatbot leads you through the case, posing questions that will ultimately guide your analysis to a fruitful conclusion.

The eight to ten questions you’ll encounter are presented in different question formats and revolve around integral aspects of a case study. This includes the structuring of your analysis, identifying the appropriate data needed for problem-solving, employing simple case math, and interpreting exhibits. It’s worth noting that these questions may build upon each other, emphasizing the importance of recalling previous answers as you progress.

Finally, you’ll be given two attempts to record a 1-minute synthesis and recommendation, wrapping up your analysis succinctly and effectively. This finale is crucial in demonstrating your understanding of the case and providing strategic advice akin to a real consulting scenario.

Understanding the various question types in the BCG Online Case Assessment is key to maximizing your performance. This guide will closely examine the different formats and share strategic tips for tackling each type.

Let’s look into the question types and format more closely.

Single-Choice Questions

In the context of the BCG Online Case, a single-choice question is a type of question that presents several options but requires you to select only one correct or most appropriate answer. These questions are used to assess your problem-solving skills, business acumen, or analytical abilities.

For instance, you might be asked, “Which of the following strategies should the client implement to boost their revenue growth?” The options could include various strategic initiatives such as market expansion, product diversification, cost reduction, etc. Your task is to select the single strategy that you believe is the most suitable based on the case information provided.

Multiple-Choice Questions

A multiple-choice question in the BCG Online Case allows you to select more than one correct answer from the options provided. These questions typically surface when there are multiple valid responses to a given problem or scenario in the case.

For example, the question could be, “What data should we gather to analyze the company’s declining profits?” The answer options might encompass various data points such as sales data, cost structure, market trends, and competitor analysis. Here, depending on the context of the case, several of these data types could be relevant, and you would select all that apply to analyze the problem at hand effectively.

Both single-choice and multiple-choice questions can offer a range of 2 to 10 choices. Case queries may adhere to any of the following formats:

• Hypothesis-forming questions: “What assumptions would you make in addressing this issue?”
• Problem-solving queries: “Given these obstacles, what remedies would you propose to our client?”
• Value proposition queries: “What should the client provide to meet their customers’ needs?”
• Evidence-seeking questions: “What information would you like to analyze to understand this better?”

As a general rule, start by eliminating responses that seem irrelevant before focusing on the more plausible answers. Consider using decision tree logic for a structured approach to each question, whether it involves math or a word problem.

1. Carefully Read the Questions and Answers: Before diving into the options, ensure you fully understand the question. A misinterpreted question can lead to an incorrect answer. Similarly, thoroughly read through all the answer choices. Some options may be designed to sound correct but could be misleading.

2. Process of Elimination: If you’re unsure about the correct answer, use a process of elimination. Identify choices that are clearly incorrect or irrelevant and eliminate them. This can narrow down your options and increase your odds of selecting the correct answer.

3. Look for Cues in the Question: Sometimes, the question itself can provide cues or hints towards the correct answer. Watch for any specific words or phrases that could guide you to the correct choice.

4. Don’t Overthink: While you should consider all options carefully, avoid overthinking. Typically, the most straightforward answer is often the correct one.

5. Beware of the “All of the Above” Option: If one of the options is “all of the above” or “none of the above”, consider it carefully. These options can be correct, but they can also serve as distractors.

6. Use Your Case Knowledge: Your understanding of the case and its details can help you make an informed choice. If an option doesn’t align with the case details you’ve studied, it’s likely not the correct answer.

Open-Format Questions

Open-format questions are more interested in your thought process rather than the final result. Unlike multiple-choice questions that provide a product score, these questions allow BCG to gain insight into your analytical thinking and award a process score. You might be asked to describe your logic for a numerical answer or write about your thought process around a particular issue or analysis outcome.

For example, “If you had to prioritize one answer from above, state which one and why?”

Approaching open-format questions in the BCG Online Case requires a blend of critical thinking, clarity in communication, and a solid understanding of the case context. Here are a few tips on how to effectively tackle these questions:

1. Understand the Question Fully: Before you begin to formulate your response, make sure you understand what the question is asking. It may be helpful to rephrase the question in your own words to ensure you’ve grasped the core ask.

2. Prioritize Logical Thinking: Remember, these questions are designed to assess your thought process more than the final outcome. Make sure you showcase your logical and analytical thinking in your responses. For example, if you’re asked to describe your logic for a numerical answer, don’t just provide the number; explain how you arrived at it step-by-step.

3. Be Structured and Coherent: Given these questions often require written responses, it’s crucial to be clear and structured in your explanation. Use clear language, follow a logical flow, and break down complex thoughts into smaller, understandable parts.

4. Justify Your Choices: Whenever you make a decision or a choice, be sure to provide justification. If a question asks you to prioritize an answer, explain why you chose that particular one. Highlight the reasons behind your choice, linking back to the case’s details, objectives, or challenges.

5. Keep it Concise: While it’s important to be thorough in your explanations, avoid being overly verbose. Strive to communicate your thought process as succinctly and directly as possible.

6. Review and Edit: Finally, don’t forget to proofread your response for clarity, grammar, and coherence before moving on. It’s important that your thought process comes across as clear and polished.

Fill-In Questions

Fill-in questions require you to provide a numerical answer or complete a statement. These questions typically assess your ability to understand and interpret data.

An example could be, “Variable manufacturing cost increased by <xx.x%> over the last year.”

1. Understand the Context: Before you start calculating or formulating an answer, ensure that you fully understand the context of the question. Know what’s being asked and how the data you’re working with relates to the overall case.

2. Check the Unit of Measurement: When dealing with numerical answers, it’s crucial to confirm the unit of measurement the question requires. Whether it’s a percentage, a currency, or a unit of volume, getting the unit right is as important as getting the number right.

3. Use a Systematic Approach: When tackling numerical problems, try to break them down into smaller, manageable steps. This will make your calculations easier to handle and also reduce the chance of errors.

4. Review Your Calculations: Double-check your calculations to ensure accuracy. A small computational error can lead to a significantly wrong answer, which could impact your overall performance.

5. Be Concise and Direct: When completing a statement, be concise and direct. Avoid unnecessary jargon or complex sentence structures. The goal is to communicate your answer clearly and effectively.

6. Refer Back to the Case Details: If you’re unsure about your answer, refer back to the case details. There might be information there that can guide you to the correct response.

Video Recommendation

For the video recommendation, you’ll need to record a one-minute statement summarizing the case and offering a recommendation. This closely mirrors the synthesis and summary section of a traditional case interview.

The trick here is to structure your answer using the pyramid principle: start with your recommendation (“Based on our analysis, I recommend the following <x> actions”), signpost your arguments (“because of the following <x> reasons”), provide supporting arguments (First, …, Second, …), and discuss next steps and potential risks (“This entails certain risks,…”, “To mitigate we would need to…”).

Remember, you’re given one attempt for this section. So, make your shots count!

As an example, “Provide a recommendation for the client on resolving their low revenue situation.”

Video recommendations in the BCG Online Case represent an opportunity to bring together all your insights from the case and articulate a cohesive strategy for the client. Here are some tips on how to effectively approach this question type:

1. Practice Clear and Concise Communication: Remember, you only have one minute to deliver your recommendation. Make sure your message is clear and direct. Avoid using jargon or overly complex sentences.

2. Follow a Logical Structure: A well-structured recommendation can significantly boost its effectiveness. A recommended structure might be:

• Begin with a brief summary of the case (not critical for success)
• State your main recommendation.
• Provide supporting arguments or evidence.
• Discuss potential risks and ways to mitigate them.

3. Leverage the Pyramid Principle: The pyramid principle is a communication technique where you start with your most important point (your recommendation) and then provide supporting arguments. This ensures that even if your time is cut short, the most crucial information has been communicated.

4. Be Persuasive: Your recommendation should be persuasive. Clearly articulate why your proposed solution is the best way forward, leveraging data and insights from the case.

5. Showcase Your Presentation Skills: Use this opportunity to demonstrate your presentation skills. Speak clearly, maintain a good posture, and try to appear confident and composed. Remember, your communication style can be as important as the content of your recommendation.

6. Review and Practice: Before you record your final take, practice your recommendation a few times. This can help ensure a smooth delivery and also helps identify any areas that need refinement. You have two attempts to record your video, but it’s best to aim to get it right the first time.

7. Keep Time Constraints in Mind: Keep your recommendation succinct and on-point, respecting the time limit. Having a timer nearby while practicing could be helpful.

If you inadvertently select the “incorrect” choices in the multiple-choice questions or gravitate towards an area with minimal scope for improvement, the chatbot will attempt to guide you back on track through a series of follow-up questions.

The easiest way to spot these questions is to identify if they’re aiming to dispute, modify, or cast uncertainty over your case approach (e.g., “Are you confident you’ve gathered enough information to draw that inference?”).

Sometimes, it could be that you’ve fully explored one aspect of the problem, finding no root cause or potential for improvement. However, in other instances, it may indicate that there’s a flaw in your strategy. So, when confronted with these types of questions, it’s advisable to take a brief pause to ensure you haven’t overlooked any aspects of your case dissection.

Optimize Your BCG Online Case Assessment Preparation

The BCG Online Case Assessment has been a key feature of the interview process for some time now, resulting in candidates being generally well-equipped and leading to a noticeable uptick in overall scores. To truly distinguish yourself and impress Casey in this new landscape, you’ll need to adopt innovative strategies in addition to established ones.

We’ve broken down the preparation process into a manageable 2-step strategy designed to help you outshine your peers in your upcoming assessment. Follow these BCG Online Case prep tips:

• Our comprehensive guide on the BCG Chatbot Case, featuring real sample tests
• BCG Invitation Email and PDF
• BCG Online Case Assessment Practice Test
• This very article
• Sample Tests from StrategyCase.com
• BCG Interactive Case Library
• Previous BCG Online Cases and Potential Tests
• McKinsey interviewer-led cases
• Former McKinsey Problem Solving Tests
• Live case practice with mentors and fellow aspirants
• Business school case compendiums
• Business and financial periodicals

Devote particular attention to developing the following skills:

• Math : Practice creating equations to determine a specific value or figure. Certain questions in the case might require you to calculate a particular number. This could be straightforward arithmetic (for example, calculating a growth rate with three variables), or more complex scenarios where you need to devise an intricate calculation strategy. Hence, honing the skill of constructing formulas in complex systems is key.
• Reading comprehension: Learn to extract key points from intricate business texts and interpret their core statements.
• Chart, table, and data interpretation: Strengthen your ability to comprehend, interpret complex data, and draw accurate conclusions from it.
• Logical reasoning: Perfect your deductive skills to discern correct statements from various information sources. Preparing for GMAT reasoning questions can prove extremely beneficial for this.
• Top-Down Synthesis and Communication : To tackle summary and synthesis questions, you’ll need to master the pyramid principle, similar to a case interview.

In this preparation journey, both a holistic approach to the test and a strategic response to each individual question are crucial for your success.

Maximize Your Performance During the Test

What habits can boost your performance during the test?

Stay calm. The competencies evaluated and the variety of questions are identical to those in the case interview. Here are some essential tips to adhere to before and during the examination.

Test-Taking Habits for the BCG Online Case

Optimize Your System Setup

• Ensure your computer and internet connection are compatible with the sample test before initiating the actual exam. Have a backup internet connection ready via your mobile device.
• Chrome is the recommended browser for the exam, so make sure it’s ready for use.
• Verify that your webcam is functional and not obstructed by other applications.
• Keep a coffee or water handy before commencing the final segment of the assessment.

Manage Your Surroundings

• Choose a tranquil environment with no background noises for the test.
• Minimize potential distractions and inform those around you to avoid disturbing you for the upcoming 30 minutes.

Focus on the Questions

• Pay close attention to the instructions and question briefs to avoid simple errors and traps.
• Jot down the most crucial facts to keep them accessible throughout the assessment.
• Keep all exhibit tabs open for future reference as you can’t revisit previous answers and exhibits.

Maintain a Finisher Mindset

• Be prepared with a strategy to tackle every question type and decision, such as eliminating incorrect options for multiple-choice questions.
• Progress through each question quickly and accurately. Remember that once an answer is submitted, it’s final, and questions must be answered in the order they appear.

Monitor the Clock

• Stay mindful of the overall test timing and the timing for each question.
• Don’t allow frustration over a previous question to slow your pace for the remainder of the exam.

Avoid Falling into Common Pitfalls

Feedback from our client interviews about the assessment highlighted four primary challenges they encountered:

• The persistent time pressure throughout the assessment.
• The increased difficulty level compared to the BCG’s practice test, particularly for math questions.
• The overall format left some test-takers uncertain about the best way to answer questions.
• The stress induced when an incorrect answer was selected, as the chatbot immediately informs you in order to progress the case in the correct direction.

Your Comprehensive Guide to BCG Online Case Experience

We’ve developed an all-in-one solution for all BCG Aptitude assessments. The BCG assessment guide offers detailed insights into navigating the complexities of the Casey Chatbot Interview. Our extensive 123-page BCG Casey Chatbot Interview guide, created in collaboration with previous test-takers and BCG insiders, covers the chatbot interview, the online case, the one-way video interview, and the Pymetrics. The guide provides:

• A thorough breakdown of each assessment, the skills tested, and tips on the best ways to approach each.
• The most effective preparation advice, tools, and exercises for each assessment.
• Insider strategies for taking the tests to optimize your scores for each test and game.
• 5 sample Casey tests to mirror the real BCG Online Case Assessment experience.

By following this guide, you’ll be able to

• answer all questions accurately within the stipulated time
• present yourself impressively for the recommendation part
• practice most efficiently and save time
• stay confident that you’re always preparing for the most current version

SALE: $ 89 / $54

Frequently Asked Questions about the BCG Online Case

Welcome to our FAQ section, where we aim to address your most pressing queries about the BCG Online Case Experience. Let’s dive in.

What is the BCG Online Case Assessment, and how does it work? It’s a digital assessment tool used by BCG to evaluate candidates’ problem-solving skills through a business case study, guided by a chatbot named Casey.

How can I prepare for the Casey Chatbot Interview effectively? Familiarize yourself with the format, practice case study elements, and drills, improve your data analysis and problem-solving skills, and utilize professional practice resources.

What skills does the BCG Casey Chatbot Interview assess? The assessment focuses on problem-solving, analytical thinking, business acumen, logical reasoning, and the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly.

Are there any tools or resources to help practice for the BCG Online Case? BCG offers specific preparation resources, including sample cases and practice tests. Additionally, we offer useful guides, practice tests, drills, and mock interviews.

How is the BCG Online Case Assessment structured? The assessment includes 8-10 analytical questions, covering multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, open-ended questions, and a final video recommendation, within a 30-minute time frame.

Can I use a calculator or other aids during the BCG Online Case? Yes, the use of calculators and Excel is permitted to help with calculations and data analysis during the assessment. You can even use AI tools such as ChatGPT to help you with your answers.

What happens if I don’t pass the BCG Online Case Assessment? Candidates who do not pass the assessment may have to wait before they can reapply. It’s essential to check with BCG’s specific reapplication policies .

How does the BCG Online Case Experience compare to traditional case interviews? While traditional case interviews involve interactive problem-solving with an interviewer, the online case assessment is digital and self-guided, testing similar skills in a different format.

What are the best strategies for approaching the video recommendation part? Organize your thoughts clearly, start with a strong recommendation, support it with key arguments, and practice delivering your points concisely within the time limit.

Utilize these BCG Casey Chatbot Interview strategies to navigate the digital assessment with confidence and poise. By navigating the BCG Online Case Experience effectively, you’re not just preparing for an assessment; you’re laying the groundwork for a successful career in consulting.

We hope this guide offers you a solid foundation for your BCG Online Case Experience preparation.

If you have any specific questions or need further clarification on any topic mentioned here, please feel free to ask in the comments section below. We are eager to help you conquer the Casey Chatbot and advance in your consulting career journey!

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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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