Foster Casebook: What’s Inside All 29 Practice Cases

Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: September 6, 2026

 

The Foster casebook is the Foster Consulting Society's official case interview guide, and the 2021-2022 edition runs 198 pages with 15 full cases, 14 case starts, six firm profiles, and a grading rubric attached to every case. This article breaks down exactly what is inside it, which cases are worth your time, how to get access, and what to practice with if you are not an FCS member.

 

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Key Takeaways

 

The Foster casebook is a 198-page, members-only guide from the University of Washington's Foster Consulting Society, built around 29 practice cases and an unusually detailed feedback rubric.


You can download the casebook here: 2022 Foster casebook.pdf

 

  • The 2021-2022 edition holds 15 full cases and 14 case starts, with 15 cases written new that year

 

  • Every case is scored on two difficulty scales, quantitative and qualitative, each from 1 to 7

 

  • Case starts lean hard on Seattle-area organizations including Boeing, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Alaska Airlines

 

  • The casebook skews qualitative: only 2 of 15 full cases rate above 5 out of 7 on quantitative difficulty

 

  • Access is restricted to FCS members, and the document's own terms prohibit redistribution

 

What Is the Foster Casebook?

 

The Foster casebook is the official case interview preparation guide published by the Foster Consulting Society at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. The 2021-2022 edition spans 198 slides and covers consulting industry background, firm profiles, frameworks, industry primers, evaluation rubrics, and 29 practice cases. It is distributed to FCS members only.

 

The book has been revised by student editors since at least the 2014-2015 edition. The 2021-2022 version was edited by Stan Kabacheuski of the Class of 2022, with seven named student contributors writing and compiling cases.

 

It is built to pair with the club's own curriculum rather than to stand alone. The editor's note describes it as a complement to the FCS casing roadmap, which is a meaningful distinction: the casebook assumes you also have access to peer coaching and weekly workshops.

 

Do not confuse this with the Foster Case Hub, which houses faculty-authored teaching cases for classroom use. Those are 15 to 30 page discussion documents and look nothing like a 30 to 45 minute case interview.

 

What Is Inside the Foster Casebook?

 

The casebook splits into four teaching sections and one practice section, with roughly 60% of the page count given over to full cases. The table below maps the structure of the 2021-2022 edition.

 

Section

Pages

What it covers

Consulting Overview

8 to 17

What consulting is, the pros and cons of the job, a month-by-month recruiting timeline, and six firm profiles

General Interview Prep

18 to 51

Interview day breakdown, behavioral interview guidance, case interview mechanics, six frameworks, and seven industry primers

Evaluation Guide

53 to 56

A four-category scoring rubric with 14 sub-criteria, each rated 1 to 10

Case Starts

57 to 72

14 short framing drills, each designed to run 5 to 10 minutes

Full Cases

73 to 197

15 full-length cases with prompts, interviewer guidance, exhibits, solutions, behavioral questions, and rubrics

 

Source: Foster Consulting Society 2021-2022 Casebook, table of contents and section pages.

 

The frameworks section covers six named structures: profitability, the Five C's, the Four P's, Porter's Five Forces, mergers and acquisitions, and the value chain. It then pivots to a driver-based approach and works a sample prompt about an airplane tire manufacturer facing price erosion.

 

The industry primers cover seven sectors: airlines, consumer packaged goods, consumer banking, insurance, manufacturing, private equity, and technology. Each gets a one-page overview of key trends, competitors, customers, and channels.

 

There is also a short market sizing module with general population statistics, a set of estimation prompts, and worked responses. It is thin at three pages, but the prompts are usable.

 

How does the Foster grading rubric work?

 

The evaluation guide is the most useful part of the book for anyone practicing with a partner. It scores four categories on a 1 to 10 scale: structure, quantitative ability, business intuition, and professionalism.

 

Each category breaks into sub-criteria. Structure covers logical approach, MECE, and appropriate drive to solution. Quantitative ability covers speed, accuracy, and comfort reacting to mistakes.

 

Business intuition covers practicality, insight, breadth and depth across functions, and creativity. Professionalism covers poise, persuasiveness, concision, and whether you come across as client ready.

 

That last category is where most candidates get scored down and never find out why. In my time interviewing at Bain, "not client ready" ended more candidacies than a botched calculation ever did, because a wrong number is fixable and an inability to hold a room is not.

 

What Cases Are in the Foster Casebook?

 

The 15 full cases each carry two difficulty ratings from 1 to 7, one for quantitative demand and one for qualitative demand. That dual rating is rare among casebooks and it is genuinely useful, because it lets you pick a case that targets the specific skill you are weak on.

 

#

Case name

Quantitative

Qualitative

1

Arthur & Devine

6

3

2

Estonia Oil

4

4

3

WSDOT Ferries

4

3

4

CYA Insurance

4

3

5

Bourbon Brand Turnaround

2

3

6

ABC Inc.

2

4

7

Weravang

1

5

8

Bog Brothers

2

2

9

J Crew

2

5

10

UKEF

1

7

11

Double Dog Trucking

6

5

12

Emerald Biofuels

4

4

13

BWM Worldwide

3

3

14

Old Folks Inc.

3

3

15

Big Pharma

1

6

 

Source: Foster Consulting Society 2021-2022 Casebook, full case index, page 73.

 

Run the averages and a clear pattern falls out. Quantitative difficulty averages 3.0 across the 15 cases while qualitative difficulty averages 4.0, and only two cases rate above 5 on the quant scale against five cases above 5 on the qualitative scale.

 

Practically, that means Arthur & Devine and Double Dog Trucking are the only two cases here that will stress your arithmetic. If math speed is your weak point, this book will not fix it and you should be running dedicated case interview math drills alongside it.

 

The 14 case starts run the other direction and are the book's most distinctive asset. They cover Banner Bank, Amazon, Seattle Children's Hospital, Microsoft, Hyperloop, the Gates Foundation, T-Mobile, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Holland America, Boeing, Alaska Airlines, USPS, and the City of Seattle.

 

Ten of those 14 are Pacific Northwest organizations. No other casebook I have worked through concentrates its prompts on one region like that, and it is a real advantage if you are interviewing with a Seattle office where the interviewer may know the client firsthand.

 

Which Firms Does the Foster Casebook Cover?

 

Six firms get a dedicated profile page: Accenture Strategy, Bain, BCG, McKinsey, PK, and PwC. Each page gives the round structure, the interview features that firm is known for, and the promotion ladder from the MBA entry point.

 

Firm

Interview structure described in the casebook

McKinsey

Round 1 is four interviews, each pairing a 20-minute personal experience discussion with a 30-minute case

Bain

Round 1 is two 45-minute case-heavy interviews. Round 2 adds one dedicated fit interview and two more cases

BCG

Both rounds are two 45-minute analytical cases with 10 to 15 minutes of behavioral questions folded in

Accenture Strategy

Round 1 is two 45-minute cases, followed by two 45-minute confirming interviews in Round 2

PwC

Round 1 is two behavioral interviews plus one conversational case that is light on math and charts

PK

Round 2 includes a prepared case presentation: a 7-slide deck built from a prompt given 5 to 6 days ahead

 

Source: Foster Consulting Society 2021-2022 Casebook, Meet The Firms pages 11 to 16.

 

Two things about this section have aged. The casebook states that PK recruits MBA consultants only from UW Foster, which was a genuine local advantage at the time, but Concentrix closed its acquisition of PK in December 2021 and folded the business into what is now Concentrix Catalyst.

 

The McKinsey profile is the section that has held up best. Its description of one behavioral question before each case, probed with repeated follow-ups, still matches how the McKinsey PEI runs today.

 

Is the Foster Casebook Any Good?

 

It is a solid regional casebook with two standout features and one real gap. The rubric and the Seattle-focused case starts are better than what most schools publish, and the quantitative difficulty is the weak spot.

 

What the Foster casebook does better than most

 

Attaching behavioral questions to every case is the smartest structural choice in the book. The editor's note says this was added because students were struggling to give structured answers, and forcing behavioral reps into every practice session is exactly the right fix.

 

Most candidates over-index on cases and walk into the consulting fit interview underprepared. Having coached hundreds of candidates one-on-one, I would estimate that fit answers are the single most under-rehearsed part of the average prep plan.

 

The rubric is the other genuine differentiator. Fourteen scored sub-criteria give a peer partner something concrete to react to, which beats the vague "that was pretty good" feedback most practice sessions produce.

 

Where the Foster casebook falls short

 

The framework section contradicts itself. One page argues that having frameworks memorized is essential, and the very next page warns that forcing a case into a Five C's or Four P's structure will almost certainly cost you the next round.

 

The book does eventually land in the right place with its driver-based approach, but a first-year reading straight through will hit the memorization advice first. Building tailored case interview frameworks from the problem in front of you is what actually scores well, and that message deserves to lead rather than follow.

 

The quantitative ceiling is the other issue. Thirteen of 15 cases sit at 4 or below on quant difficulty, which is well under what BCG in particular will throw at you.

 

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How Do You Get the Foster Casebook?

 

You can download the casebook here: 2022 Foster casebook.pdf

 

The Foster Consulting Society is the largest MBA club on campus with close to 100 active members, and membership carries dues. Members also get group and small-group case prep, one-on-one mock interviews with second-year coaches, and a portal for booking sessions.

 

The club also runs consulting walks through Seattle offices. Past hosts include Accenture, Alvarez & Marsal, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, PwC, Slalom, and West Monroe Partners, which is a better read on who actually hires locally than any ranking will give you.

 

If you are a Foster MBA, join early rather than in October. The casebook is the smaller half of what membership buys, and the peer coaching hours are the part you cannot replicate alone.

 

What Should You Use If You Cannot Get the Foster Casebook?

 

Use the public casebooks, which give you far more volume than Foster's 29 cases anyway. There are 26 free MBA consulting casebooks available with no signup, holding over 500 practice cases between them.

 

For the quantitative work Foster underweights, the Booth casebook is the direct substitute. Its cases push harder on economics and arithmetic than anything in the Foster set except Double Dog Trucking.

 

For profitability and market entry volume, the Kellogg casebook covers the two case types that dominate first rounds. Wharton gives you the broadest overall variety if you only want one book.

 

None of these will replicate Foster's regional angle. If you are targeting a Seattle office, build your own case starts from local companies the way FCS did, since writing a prompt about a company you can actually research is a strong exercise in itself.

 

How Should You Practice with the Foster Casebook?

 

Work each case out loud with a partner, finish before reading the solution, and score it with the book's own rubric. The rubric is the reason this casebook rewards partner practice more than solo reading. Follow these six steps.

 

  1. Warm up with case starts: run two or three 5-minute framing drills before attempting a full case

  2. Pick by difficulty score: choose a case that targets your weaker axis rather than working through in order

  3. Split the materials: your partner takes the interviewer guidance and exhibits, you see only the prompt

  4. Do the behavioral question first: answer the attached fit question before the case, the way McKinsey actually sequences it

  5. Score the rubric immediately: have your partner fill in all four categories while the case is fresh

  6. Track the lowest sub-score: log which of the 14 criteria you score worst on and check the pattern every five cases

 

Step six is what turns a casebook into a training plan. After ten cases you should see the same one or two sub-criteria at the bottom every time, and that is your actual prep priority.

 

The hard part outside FCS is finding someone reliable to run the interviewer side. A committed case interview practice partner matters more than which casebook you own, and it is the most common reason candidates stall.

 

Work backward from your deadlines too. Foster runs on quarters, and the casebook warns first-years that the compressed calendar forces an accelerated prep schedule against a consulting recruiting timeline that puts MBB applications in the autumn.

 

The Foster casebook is a well-built regional resource, and its rubric and Seattle case starts are worth more than the raw case count suggests. Get access through FCS if you can, pair it with a harder quantitative book to cover its weakest dimension, and score every case you run rather than just finishing it.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Is the Foster casebook free to download?

 

No. The casebook carries an authorized use page stating that access is a privilege of Foster Consulting Society membership and that redistribution requires permission from the current FCS President. It is not sold and it is not posted publicly, which is why it does not appear in the casebook libraries that circulate Wharton, Kellogg, and Booth editions.

 

How many cases are in the Foster casebook?

 

The 2021-2022 edition contains 29 practice items: 15 full-length cases with interviewer guidance, exhibits, and solutions, plus 14 shorter case starts. The full cases begin on page 74 and run to page 197. The case starts are framing drills meant to take 5 to 10 minutes each.

 

Which firms does the Foster casebook cover?

 

Six firms get dedicated profiles: Accenture Strategy, Bain, BCG, McKinsey, PK, and PwC. Each profile lists the round-by-round interview structure, distinctive interview features, and the promotion path from the MBA entry point. The PK profile is now dated because Concentrix acquired PK in late 2021.

 

Is the Foster casebook good for case interview practice?

 

It is strong on regional relevance and feedback structure and weaker on quantitative difficulty. Its case starts lean heavily on Pacific Northwest companies, and every case ends with a grading rubric. But only two of the 15 full cases rate above a 5 out of 7 on quantitative difficulty, so it will not stretch your math.

 

How is the Foster casebook different from other MBA casebooks?

 

Three features stand out. It rates every case on two separate difficulty scales rather than one, it attaches behavioral questions to each case, and its case starts are built around Seattle-area organizations like Boeing, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Alaska Airlines, and the Gates Foundation.

 

What should I use if I cannot get the Foster casebook?

 

Use the publicly available casebooks instead. Wharton gives you the broadest case variety, Booth pushes harder on quantitative work than Foster does, and Kellogg concentrates on profitability and market entry. Two casebooks worked carefully will beat ten skimmed, so pick a small set and run every case out loud.

 

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