These findings come from reading firms' own careers pages at scale and counting what is there. They are free to cite with attribution to Protocol Career. Each one carries the pages read, the date, and the limit of what it shows.
read 30 September 2026
No consulting firm publishes a case interview conducted over the phone. Across 371 official pages read live, ten firms name the phone as an interview channel in eleven distinct published mentions, two publish a duration, and one publishes phone-specific guidance. One firm, Capital One, requires video for any remote interview instead.
How it was measured
532 official URLs from our own source registers were fetched on 30 September 2026; 371 returned a readable page. Those 371 were searched in full text for a case conducted by phone. Pages that returned an error or refused our connection were excluded and counted separately.
What it does not show
An absence in what firms publish, not an absence in what firms do. A firm may run a phone case without documenting it.
read 30 September 2026
Ten consulting firms of nineteen publish a number of interview rounds somewhere on their careers pages. Nine publish none, and three of the ten publish it only for a specific region or role rather than for the firm.
How it was measured
Nineteen firms' careers sections were read in full on 30 September 2026, following every page that describes the hiring process. A firm counts as publishing a number only where that number appears in its own text.
What it does not show
Counts published pages, not recruiter practice. Regional variation means a published number may not apply to the office you are interviewing with.
read 30 September 2026
Published response times after a consulting interview range from two working days to four weeks, a factor of ten. Thirteen firms publish at least one figure, in sixteen distinct numbers, and one firm publishes four different figures across four of its own pages.
How it was measured
Every careers page in our source registers was searched for a published response or decision time on 30 September 2026. Four weeks is twenty working days, which is ten times two working days. Firms publishing dates rather than intervals were recorded separately.
What it does not show
These are the times firms publish, not the times candidates wait. We have no measurement of actual waits.
read 30 September 2026
Seventeen firms publish guidance on the questions a candidate should ask, in eighteen distinct instructions. Only one publishes where in the interview to ask them, only one names a subject on which the candidate has a stated right of reply, and only one publishes a limit on what its team will answer.
How it was measured
Careers and interview-preparation pages of every firm in our registers, read on 30 September 2026. One firm is counted twice because two of its pages give different advice on the same point.
What it does not show
Published guidance only. It says nothing about how an interviewer weighs the questions a candidate actually asks.
read 30 September 2026
Twelve firms publish a dress instruction for interviews, and they name four different and non-overlapping registers. Four more write 'professional' without naming a register, one turns the question back to the candidate, and one defers the answer to the invitation email.
How it was measured
The same 371 readable official pages, searched for dress guidance on 30 September 2026. A register counts as named only where the firm uses the term itself.
What it does not show
None of McKinsey, BCG, Bain or Oliver Wyman publishes any dress guidance at all, so the four registers describe the firms that speak, not the market.