What Is a Case Interview? Four Names, One Exercise

The only full case interview definition a firm publishes

Bain writes it out on its case interview page at bain.com: "A case interview is a structured conversation where you work through a real business problem, the kind our teams tackle every day. We're not looking for a single right answer; we're looking for how you think, structure problems, and build on ideas as the conversation evolves."

Four things in that sentence are load-carrying, and each one contradicts something candidates commonly believe.

Structured conversation. Not a presentation and not an interrogation. The interviewer talks back, and what you do with what they say is part of the exercise.

A real business problem. Accenture's workbook adds where these come from: "The cases given tend to be real business situations, often drawn from the interviewer's actual project experience." So the person across the table may have lived the problem, which is why an answer that sounds generic lands badly.

No single right answer. The firm says this about its own cases while publishing suggested answers whose numbers are correct. Both hold together: the number is a floor and the reasoning is the score.

Build on ideas as the conversation evolves. This is the clause that rules out a rehearsed monologue.

Oliver Wyman's version is shorter and adds a different emphasis, at oliverwyman.com: "The case interview is an interactive exercise in analytical thinking that allows us to assess how you approach and evaluate a problem." The same page tells you the stance it expects: "Think of your case interviewer as your client. They want you to solve the problem, and can help you to do so. Work together."

Deloitte states the purpose in its own practice tool at usrecruiting.deloitte.com: "Case interviews help us assess your thought process, creativity, and comfort with ambiguity. At the same time, the cases represent real client engagements so they allow you to gain insight into the work we do."

Four published names, from case interview to case study interview

The naming matters because a search for one term misses the others, and because one firm explicitly flags the mismatch.

McKinsey's interviewing page at mckinsey.com names its own exercise and notes what the market calls it, describing a Problem-Solving Interview that is sometimes referred to as a case interview, in which a business case is presented to evaluate analytical thinking and the approach to complex problems.

Deloitte's split is the most practical of the four. Its tips page directs candidates to two different tools: a case interview tool for an entry-level Consultative Offerings position, and a scenario interview tool for an entry-level Audit and Assurance position. Same firm, two exercises, two preparation paths, chosen by the role you applied for.

So what a case study interview is, when BCG uses that term, is the exercise Bain defines above: a structured conversation on a business problem you work out loud. The word study adds no step to anything these firms publish, and a case study in an interview at a consulting firm is this conversation rather than a document you hand in.

The consequence is small and real. If you are preparing for one firm, use its word. If you are reading around the subject, all four terms describe the same kind of conversation.

The two halves, and which comes first

Most consulting interviews contain two exercises rather than one, and the order is published in two places.

McKinsey writes: "For most client-facing roles, you will participate in a personal experience interview, followed by a problem-solving interview. Depending on the role, you may also have expertise interviews. Your recruiter will confirm your interview details in advance." So the behavioral half comes first there.

Oliver Wyman names its two types as conversational interviews and case interviews. BCG's global process page names four stages: Application, Skills Interview, Case Interview, Team Interview, and describes the Skills Interview as a traditional interview exploring experience, skills and motivation.

Sometimes the two share one slot. BCG's Swiss page describes a 45-minute first-round interview that opens with what drives you and then moves to a client case, with both inside the same booking. Those figures cover Switzerland and a full-time consulting role, and the page says the process differs by role.

Accenture's blog warns that the split is not fixed: the focus may vary, so be ready for whatever discussion the interviewer has in mind, since they may spend the first half on your previous experience or go straight into the case.

Now the arithmetic of how much of the meeting is actually the case. Accenture's workbook publishes 45 to 60 minutes total with 30 to 45 on the case. At the low end that is 30 over 45, which is 66.7 percent. At the high end it is 45 over 60, which is 75 percent. Recomputed by hand on 30 September 2026. So the case takes two thirds to three quarters of the meeting, and the remaining quarter is greeting, background and your own questions.

One firm publishes ten cases in the US and none in the UK

This is the fact that undermines every sentence beginning with consulting firms always.

Deloitte publishes ten openable practice cases for US recruiting, each with suggested answers, and a five-step approach for working them. Its UK early careers page at deloitte.com publishes four stages plus the outcome: Apply Online, Immersive Online Assessment, Job Simulation, Final Stage Assessment, Outcome. The page states: "Regardless of whether you're applying for a Summer Vacation Scheme, Industrial Placement, or one of our full-time Graduate or Brightstart programmes, our assessment process follows the same structure".

The word case appears in none of the four stages. The final stage has two exercises, a discussion of about 30 to 40 minutes on a topic prepared in advance, and a skills and motivation interview of about 50 minutes. The preparation is mandatory: "Before you attend, we need you to complete some mandatory preparation which involves researching and conducting analysis on a topic."

So a graduate applying to that firm in one country works ten published cases, and a graduate applying in another country prepares a topic instead. The spelling of programmes there is the firm's own.

A second divergence sits at Accenture. Its company-wide process page never mentions a case interview, while a Copenhagen posting states that a selection bootcamp will include "both case interviews and personal-fit interviews". Same firm, two documents, and the posting is the one with the detail.

Bain draws the boundary differently and states it plainly: "Case interviews are used for consulting roles only."

The practical rule: the invitation from the recruiter is the authority on what you will face. Everything else, including this page, is background.

What is actually happening in the room

Strip away the format and the exercise is doing three things at once.

1. Testing whether you can impose order on a problem you were told about ninety seconds ago. Every published sequence starts here. Listen, understand, pinpoint, restate.
2. Testing whether you can compute under conversation. Bain publishes the boundary that makes this explicit: a calculator is allowed on its digital assessment and ruled out in the interviews that follow.
3. Testing whether the answer is usable. Deloitte's fifth published step asks for next steps and expected results, which is the only step in any published sequence that comes after the recommendation.

What it is not doing is checking industry knowledge. Accenture's workbook lists that belief among three myths it corrects, and states that the interviewer "expects you to be effective with the knowledge you have and make hypotheses based on sound common sense."

The scale of published practice material is worth knowing at the start. Counting what we could read: Accenture 21, Deloitte 10, Oliver Wyman 6, McKinsey 4, Bain 2. That is 43 cases, verified by addition on 30 September 2026, plus one Kearney case whose content is not in the archived snapshot. All free, and all served by the firms themselves. BCG serves none of its own and points instead to thirteen simulation modules hosted by a third party, which is why they are not in this count.

Who gets a case interview, and who does not

Three published facts bound this, and all three are firm-specific.

Bain limits them to consulting roles. Deloitte splits by practice, sending Consultative Offerings candidates to cases and Audit and Assurance candidates to scenarios. Accenture's process page says the number of interviews depends on the role, and its Stockholm posting describes assessments without naming a case while its Copenhagen posting names cases twice.

Round counts are published in three places and nowhere else.

McKinsey, Bain, Kearney, L.E.K. and Simon-Kucher publish no round count. Bain writes "several rounds" without a figure. Kearney states that the process varies by region. McKinsey states that the recruiter confirms the details.

One page prices a failure. Oliver Wyman's regional page states that all stages are evaluative and eliminatory, and that an unsuccessful fit interview means waiting a year before reapplying. That is Brazil and Mexico, and no other firm in our corpus publishes a reapplication rule of that kind.

What it is scored on, and by whom

Four firms publish criteria for the case, and none publishes a weight. The weights below are ours, read from the grading code in src/lib/grading.

Where to start if you have never done one

How to prepare for a case study interview, in five steps and on free published material only.

1. Read one firm's definition and one firm's method. Bain's definition and Oliver Wyman's six method steps take ten minutes together.
2. Read one worked case with its answer. McKinsey's four published cases contain logic, thought processes and suggested answers. Pick one and read it as a reader before you try one as a candidate.
3. Do one case badly, out loud, timed at thirty minutes. Thirty is the published lower bound for the case portion. Doing it badly is the point of the first one.
4. Fix the opening before anything else. Restate the prompt, state assumptions, lay out a structure, say why that structure beats the alternatives. Four moves, ninety seconds.
5. Add arithmetic under time in week two. Not before, because a candidate who cannot structure cannot use a number.

Our structure drill and math drill score the two halves separately and name the first correction on each. Both are free and neither needs an account. Neither one is a case interview, because neither talks back, and the conversation is the part of the exercise that matters most.

For the shapes a case can take, see case interview types. For 43 case study interview examples published by the firms themselves, see case interview examples. For a timetable, see the case interview prep guide.