100+ Case Interview Examples for the Best Practice (2024)

Case interview examples


We’ve compiled 50 case interview examples and organized them by industry, function, and consulting firm to give you the best, free case interview practice. Use these case interview examples for practice as you prepare for your consulting interviews.

 

If you’re looking for a step-by-step shortcut to learn case interviews quickly, enroll in our case interview course. These insider strategies from a former Bain interviewer helped 30,000+ land consulting offers while saving hundreds of hours of prep time.

 

Case Interview Examples Organized by Industry

 

Below, we’ve linked all of the case interview examples we could find from consulting firm websites and YouTube videos and organized them by industry. This will be helpful for your case interview practice if there is a specific consulting industry role that you are interviewing for that you need more practice in.

 

Aerospace, Defense, & Government Case Interview Examples


 

Consumer Products & Retail Case Interview Examples


 

Healthcare & Life Sciences Case Interview Examples


 

Manufacturing & Production Case Interview Examples


 

Social & Non-Profit Case Interview Examples


 

Technology, Media, & Telecom Case Interview Examples


 

Transportation Case Interview Examples


 

Travel & Entertainment Case Interview Examples


 

Case Interview Examples Organized by Function

 

Below, we’ve taken the same cases listed in the “Case Interview Examples Organized by Industry” section and organized them by function instead. This will be helpful for your case interview practice if there is a specific type of case interview that you need more practice with.

 

Profitability Case Interview Examples


 

To learn how to solve profitability case interviews, check out our video below:


 

 

Market Entry Case Interview Examples


 

Merger & Acquisition Case Interview Examples



 

Growth Strategy Case Interview Examples


 

Pricing Case Interview Examples



 

New Product Launch Case Interview Examples


 

Market Sizing Case Interview Examples


 

To learn how to solve market sizing case interviews, check out our video below:


 

 

Operations Case Interview Examples


 

Other Case Interview Examples

 

These are cases that don’t quite fit into any of the above categories. These cases are the more unusual, atypical, and nontraditional cases out there.

 

 

Case Interview Examples Organized by Consulting Firm


Below, we’ve taken the same cases listed previously and organized them by company instead. This will be helpful for your case interview practice if there is a specific company that you are interviewing with.

 

McKinsey Case Interview Examples





 

BCG Case Interview Examples





 

Bain Case Interview Examples





 

Deloitte Case Interview Examples


 

LEK Case Interview Examples


 

Kearney Case Interview Examples


 

Oliver Wyman Case Interview Examples


 

Roland Berger Case Interview Examples


 

OC&C Case Interview Examples


 

Bridgespan Case Interview Examples


 

Strategy& Case Interview Examples


 

Accenture Case Interview Examples


 

Simon Kutcher Case Interview Examples


 

Capital One Case Interview Examples


 

Case Interview Examples from MBA Casebooks

 

For more case interview examples, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases. There additional cases created by MBA consulting clubs that make for great case interview practice. For your convenience, we’ve listed some of the best MBA consulting casebooks below:


 

Consulting casebooks are documents that MBA consulting clubs put together to help their members prepare for consulting case interviews. Consulting casebooks provide some case interview strategies and tips, but they mostly contain case interview practice cases.

 

While consulting casebooks contain tons of practice cases, there is quite a bit of variety in the sources and formats of these cases.

 

Some practice cases are taken from actual consulting interviews given by consulting firms. These are the best types of cases to practice with because they closely simulate the length and difficulty of an actual case interview. Other practice cases may be written by the consulting club’s officers. These cases are less realistic, but can still offer great practice.

 

The formats of the practice cases in consulting casebooks also vary significantly.

 

Some practice cases are written in a question and answer format. This type of format makes it easy to practice the case by yourself, without a case partner. Other practices cases are written in a dialogue format. These cases are better for practicing with a case interview partner.

 

MBA consulting casebooks can be a great resource because they are free and provide tons of practice cases to hone your case interview skills. However, there are several caveats that you should be aware of.

 

  • Similarity to real case interviews: Some cases in MBA consulting casebooks are not representative of actual case interviews because they are written by consulting club officers instead of interviewers from consulting firms

 

  • Quality of sample answers: While consulting casebooks provide sample solutions, these answers are often not the best or highest quality answers

 

  • Ease of use: Consulting casebooks are all written in different formats and by different people. Therefore, it can be challenging to find cases that you can consistently use to practice cases by yourself or with a partner

 

Therefore, we recommend that you first use the case interview examples listed in this article and wait until you’ve exhausted all of them before using MBA consulting casebooks.


Case Interview Examples from HackingTheCaseInterview


Below, we've pulled together several of our very own case interview examples. You can use these case interview examples for your case interview practice.


1. Tech retailer profitability case interview


 


2. Airline profitability case interview


 


3. Ride sharing app market entry


 


4. Increasing Drug Adoption


 



How to Use Case Interview Examples to Practice Case Interviews

 

To get the most out of these case interview examples and maximize your time spent on case interview practice, follow these three steps.

 

1. Understand the case interview structure beforehand

 

If case interviews are something new to you, we recommend watching the following video to learn the basics of case interviews in under 30 minutes.


 

 

Know that there are seven major steps of a case interview.

 

  • Understanding the case background: Take note while the interviewer gives you the case background information. Afterwards, provide a concise synthesis to confirm your understanding of the situation and objective

 

  • Asking clarifying questions: Ask questions to better understand the case background and objective

 

  • Structuring a framework: Lay out a framework of what areas you want to look into in order to answer or solve the case

 

  • Kicking off the case: Propose an area of your framework that you would like to dive deeper into 

 

  • Solving quantitative problems: Solve a variety of different quantitative problems, such as market sizing questions and profitability questions. You may also be given charts and graphs to analyze or interpret

 

  • Answering qualitative questions: You may be asked to brainstorm ideas or be asked to give your business opinion on a particular issue or topic

 

  • Delivering a recommendation: Summarize the key takeaways from the case to deliver a firm and concise recommendation

 

2. Learn how to practice case interviews by yourself 

 

There are 6 steps to practice case interviews by yourself. The goal of these steps is to simulate a real case interview as closely as you can so that you practice the same skills and techniques that you are going to use in a real case interview.

 

  • Synthesize the case background information out loud: Start the practice case interview by reading the case background information. Then, just as you would do in a live case interview, summarize the case background information out loud

 

  • Ask clarifying questions out loud: Just as you would do in a live case interview, ask clarifying questions out loud. Although you do not have a case partner that can answer your questions, it is important to practice identifying the critical questions that need to be asked to fully understand the case

 

  • Structure a framework and present it out loud: Pretend that you are in an actual interview in which you’ll only have a few minutes to put together a comprehensive and coherent framework. Replicate the stress that you will feel in an interview when you are practicing case interviews on your own by giving yourself time pressure.

 

When you have finished creating your framework, turn your paper around to face an imaginary interviewer and walk through the framework out loud. You will need to get good at presenting your framework concisely and in an easy to understand way.

 

  • Propose an area to start the case: Propose an area of your framework to start the case. Make sure to say out loud the reasons why you want to start with that particular area

 

  • Answer each case question out loud: If the question is a quantitative problem, create a structure and walk the interviewer through how you would solve the problem. When doing math, do your calculations out loud and explain the steps that you are taking.

 

If the question is qualitative, structure your thinking and then brainstorm your ideas out loud. Walk the interviewer through your ideas and opinions.

 

  • Deliver a recommendation out loud: Just as you would do in a real case interview, ask for a brief moment to collect your thoughts and review your notes. Once you have decided on a recommendation, present your recommendation to the interviewer.

 

3. Follow best practices while practicing case interviews:   

 

You’ll most likely be watching, reading, or working through these case interview examples by yourself. To get the most practice and learnings out of each case interview example, follow these tips: 

 

  • Don’t have notes or a calculator out when you are practicing since you won’t have these in your actual interview

 

  • Don’t take breaks in the middle of a mock case interview

 

  • Don’t read the case answer until you completely finish answering each question

 

  • Talk through everything out loud as if there were an interviewer in the room

 

  • Occasionally record yourself to understand what you look like and sound like when you speak

 

4. Identify improvement areas to work on

 

When the case is completed, review your framework and answers and compare them to the model answers that the case provides. Reflect on how you could have made your framework or answers stronger.

 

Also, take the time to reflect on what parts of the case you could have done better. Could your case synthesis be more concise? Was your framework mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive? Could your math calculations be done more smoothly? Was your recommendation structured enough?

 

This is the most important part of practicing case interviews by yourself. Since you have no partner to provide you feedback, you will need to be introspective and identify your own improvement areas.

 

At the end of each practice case interview, you should have a list of new things that you have learned and a list of improvement areas to work on in future practice cases. You’ll continue to work on your improvement areas in future practice cases either by yourself or with a partner.

 

5. Eventually find a case partner to practice with

 

You can only do so many practice case interviews by yourself before your learning will start to plateau. Eventually, you should be practicing case interviews with a case partner.

 

Practicing with a case partner is the best way to simulate a real case interview. There are many aspects of case interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner:

 

  • Driving the direction of the case

 

  • Asking for more information

 

  • Collaborating to get the right approach or structure

 

  • Answering follow-up questions

 

If you are practicing with a case partner, decide who is going to be giving the case and who is going to be receiving the case.

 

If you are giving the case, read the entire case information carefully. It may be helpful to read through everything twice so that you are familiar with all of the information and can answer any question that your partner asks you to clarify.

 

As the person giving the case, you need to be the case expert.

 

You should become familiar with the overall direction of the case. In other words, you should know what the major questions of the case are and what the major areas of investigation are. This will help you run the mock case interview more smoothly.  

 

Depending on whether you want the case interview to be interviewer-led or candidate-led, you will need to decide how much you want to steer the direction of the case.

 

If your partner gets stuck and is taking a long time, you may need to step in and provide suggestions or hints. If your partner is proceeding down a wrong direction, you will need to direct them towards the right direction.

 

Where to Find More Case Interview Examples

 

To find more case interview examples, you can use a variety of different case interview prep books, online courses, and coaching. We'll cover each of these different categories of resources for more case interview practice in more detail.


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: In this book, learn exactly what to do and what to say in every step of the case interview. This is the perfect book for beginners that are looking to learn the basics of case interviews quickly.

 

  • The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook: In this book, hone your case interview skills through 65+ problems tailored towards each type of question asked in case interviews and 15 full-length practice cases. This book is great for intermediates looking to get quality practice.

 

  • Case Interview Secrets: 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.

 

Case Interview 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 case interview strategies in the most efficient way possible, enroll in our comprehensive 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 case interview.

 

We’ve had students pass their consulting 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.

 

Case Interview Coaching

 

With case interview coaching, you’ll pay anywhere between $100 to $300 for a 40- to 60-minute 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 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 the Best Consulting Interview Resources

 

Here are the resources we recommend to land your dream consulting job:

 

For help landing consulting interviews

 

 

For help passing case interviews

 

  • 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.

 

For help passing consulting behavioral & fit interviews

 

  • 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.