Case Interview - Introduction
Consulting interviewers use case interview questions to test your analytical ability,
reasoning skills, confidence and knowledge of business concepts.
Case interviews simulate live scenarios to test the quickness of your mind and confirm the skills you
claim on your resume. You must discuss hypothetical situations based on information provided
to you and make assumptions based on commonly known facts. Even if you have no background knowledge
of the case, you must still address the question thoughtfully under pressure.
The interviewer cares more about how you arrived at your answer than if you answer correctly,
so be sure to explain your thought process as well.
Five Categories of Consulting Cases
You will have an easier time successfully dissecting a case problem if you know
that they come in several different forms. For the purposes of our discussion,
we have grouped cases into five general types. They include:
- Market Sizing: determine how big a particular problem is, or how many
of x products are used
- Business Operations: problems relating to running the day-to-day operations
of a business
- Business Strategy: questions focusing on future business strategy, usually
at a top level
- Brainteasers: puzzles or questions that challenge a candidate’s ability to
think creatively
- Other: a grab bag of questions such as those drawn from a candidate’s
resume, macroeconomic questions, and others
What an interviewer seeking?
Case interview is one of the important tools to evaluate a candidate's aptitude for consulting. What does
that mean exactly? A case interviews is genreally to check you out on the following dimensions:
- Structured thinking
- Analytical ability
- Intelligence
- Ability to not break into hives under pressure
- Common sense
- Ability to think on your feet
- Interest in problem solving
- Business intuition
- Facility with numbers
- Presentation skills
- Communication skills
- Ability to sort through information and focus on the key points
- Ability to analyze and then make recommendations based on the analysis
- Creativity