Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: June 24, 2026

 

The KPMG behavioral interview is a fit-focused conversation that tests how your past actions map to KPMG's five core values, and it often takes up half or more of your total interview time. This guide walks through the exact process, the questions you will face, and how to build STAR answers that interviewers actually score highly.

 

Before reading on:

 

Most candidates struggle to land interviews and even fewer turn them into offers. Watch my free training to learn how to triple your chances of landing interviews and increase your chances of receiving an offer by 8x.

 

👉 Watch for free

 

Key Takeaways

 

To pass the KPMG behavioral interview, prepare two to three short STAR stories for each of KPMG's five values and tie every answer directly back to the value being tested.

 

• KPMG weights behavioral and fit questions heavily, often 50% or more of total interview time

 

• The five core values are Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better

 

• Structure every story with the STAR method so it stays tight and results-driven

 

• Expect "Why KPMG?" and "Why consulting?" in nearly every round

 

• Name the specific KPMG value in your answer instead of giving a generic leadership story

 

• Many candidates are told the questions in advance, so a rough delivery is a fast way to lose points

 

What Is the KPMG Behavioral Interview?

 

The KPMG behavioral interview is a fit assessment where interviewers ask about your past experiences to judge whether you live KPMG's five values. Questions usually start with "Tell me about a time" or "Give me an example of." Your job is to answer with specific, structured stories that show how you behaved, not how you think you would behave.

 

KPMG cares about fit more than most strategy firms. Many candidates report that behavioral and fit content takes up half or more of their total interview time, and some first-round interviews are almost entirely behavioral. The firm believes how you acted in the past is the best predictor of how you will act with clients.

 

This is good news for you. Behavioral answers are fully preparable, unlike a live case where the math can surprise you. If you walk in with polished stories mapped to each value, you control most of the conversation.

 

In my years interviewing at Bain, the candidates who stood out on fit were never the ones with the most dramatic stories. They were the ones whose stories were specific, easy to follow, and clearly tied to a trait the firm valued.

 

How Does KPMG's Interview Process Work?

 

The KPMG interview process for advisory and consulting roles usually runs two to three rounds over about four weeks. Behavioral questions appear in every round, often alongside a case. The exact structure varies by office and service line, but the path below holds for most United States hires.

 

1. Online or video screen: a 20 to 30 minute assessment or one-way video, often heavy on motivation and basic fit questions
   
   
2. First round: two back-to-back 30-minute interviews, with one focused on behavioral or fit and the other on a case
   
   
3. Final round: a deeper set of interviews that may add a 45 to 60 minute written case and senior leaders who probe values and fit

 

Behavioral weight tends to climb in later rounds as you meet more senior leaders. A partner is less interested in your raw analytics and more interested in whether clients will trust you in the room. That is why a strong KPMG case interview performance still will not save you if your fit answers are flat.

 

Behavioral emphasis also shifts by service line. Audit and tax interviews lean almost entirely on fit and motivation, while advisory and consulting blend fit with a case. Here is how the mix typically breaks down.

 

Service line	Behavioral weight	Case or technical	What to prep first
Audit	High	Light, basic accounting	Why KPMG, why audit, fit stories
Tax	High	Light, comfort with ambiguity	Motivation and fit stories
Advisory	High	Case or business problem	Fit stories, then case practice
Consulting	Moderate to high	Candidate-led and written case	Fit stories plus structured case prep

 

What Are KPMG's Five Core Values?

 

KPMG evaluates every candidate against five core values: Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better. Interviewers often name the value inside the question, such as "Tell me about a time you showed courage." Know the language cold, because the fastest way to lose points is to give a strong story that never connects to the value being tested.

 

Prepare two to three stories for each value before you walk in. The table below maps each value to what interviewers actually look for and the kind of story that lands.

 

Value	What interviewers probe	Story to prepare
Integrity	Doing what is right under pressure	A time you raised a hard issue or made an honest call others avoided
Excellence	Learning, improving, raising the bar	A time you went past the standard ask to deliver higher quality
Courage	Thinking and acting boldly	A time you took a risk, challenged a plan, or spoke up against the room
Together	Teamwork and drawing on differences	A time you united a divided team or worked across a hard disagreement
For Better	Lasting impact on people or community	A time your work created a real, durable improvement for others

 

One story can often serve two values with a small shift in emphasis. A project where you challenged a flawed plan can land as Courage or as Integrity depending on which part you lead with. Build a small bank of strong stories, then flex them to the value in the question.

 

What Are the Most Common KPMG Behavioral Questions?

 

The most common KPMG behavioral questions cover your motivation, your past leadership, and how you handle conflict and failure. The motivation questions appear in almost every first round, and the rest rotate based on the value an interviewer wants to test. Here are the questions candidates report most often.

 

• Tell me about yourself

 

• Why KPMG?

 

• Why consulting, advisory, audit, or tax?

 

• Walk me through your resume

 

• Tell me about a time you led a team

 

• Describe a time you faced conflict or disagreement

 

• Give an example of a time you failed and what you learned

 

• Tell me about a time you showed courage or challenged a decision

 

• Describe a time you solved a difficult problem under pressure

 

• Tell me about a time you adapted to an unfamiliar situation

 

• What is your greatest accomplishment and how did you achieve it

 

• Where do you see yourself in five years

 

Notice how many of these are simply a value in disguise. "Tell me about a time you challenged a decision" is the Courage question, and "Give an example of a time you failed" is really testing Integrity and Excellence. When you hear one of these, the first move is to recognize which value is in play. These sit alongside the broader set of consulting interview questions you should expect across firms.

 

How Do You Answer KPMG Behavioral Questions Using STAR?

 

The best way to answer a KPMG behavioral question is the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, and Result. It keeps your story tight, puts the outcome up front, and stops you from rambling through context. KPMG interviewers reward answers that are specific and easy to follow over answers that are long.

 

Here is what each part covers:

 

• Situation: set the scene in one or two sentences so the interviewer knows the stakes

 

• Task: state the specific problem you owned and why it mattered

 

• Action: spend most of your time here on what you personally did, not what the team did

 

• Result: close with a concrete outcome, ideally with a number, and what you learned

 

Let's walk through a worked example for a Courage question. The numbers below are illustrative, meant to show the shape of a strong answer rather than a real KPMG case.

 

Interviewer: Tell me about a time you showed courage.

 

You: In my final-year capstone, my team of five was building a market entry plan for a client, and three weeks before the deadline I realized our core revenue model double-counted a customer segment (Situation). I owned the financial model, so the credibility of our recommendation rested on me flagging the error even though we were close to done (Task).

 

You (continued): I rebuilt the model overnight, walked the team through the corrected numbers the next morning, and pushed to change our recommendation from "enter now" to "enter in phase two," which I knew would be a harder sell to the client (Action). The client adopted the phased plan, our faculty advisor scored us the highest in the cohort, and I learned that protecting the integrity of the answer matters more than protecting the timeline (Result).

 

That answer works because it names a real risk, keeps the focus on what the candidate personally did, and ends with a clear result. It also lands the value without ever saying the word "courage" in a forced way. If you want structured practice on stories like this, my fit interview course walks through frameworks for every major behavioral question in a few hours.

 

How Should You Answer "Why KPMG?" and "Why Consulting?"

 

Strong answers to "Why KPMG?" connect a specific feature of the firm to a specific thing you want, and avoid generic praise that could apply to any firm. KPMG expects you to have a real reason for choosing it over other employers, given how much it weights fit. A vague "you are a great company with great people" answer reads as unprepared.

 

Build your why KPMG answer around two or three concrete hooks. Point to the firm's implementation-focused, client-shoulder-to-shoulder style, name a service line or industry team you want to join, and tie it to your own background. KPMG reported FY25 global revenue of $40.2 billion across 138 countries, so there is no shortage of specific teams and capabilities you can reference.

 

For why consulting, give a reason rooted in the actual work: variety of problems, steep learning curve, and client impact. Then connect it to a moment in your past where you did something consulting-like and loved it. The pay matters too, and you can research current figures through the KPMG consulting salary data candidates share, but never lead with money in your answer.

 

Have a crisp tell me about yourself answer ready as well. KPMG suggests an elevator pitch of roughly 20 to 30 seconds that covers who you are, what you have done, and where you are headed. Treat it as the opening that frames every story you tell after it.

 

What Are the Top Tips for the KPMG Behavioral Interview?

 

Tip #1: Name the KPMG value in your answer

 

Interviewers score against the five values, so make their job easy. Use the language of Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better inside your stories. A candidate who explicitly ties a story to "doing what is right" stands out from one who tells a good story that floats free of any value.

 

Tip #2: Prepare for questions you may be given in advance

 

Candidates frequently report that KPMG shares the behavioral questions ahead of time or that they match what KPMG publishes. This is a gift and a trap. When the interviewer knows you had the questions, a generic or rambling answer looks far worse than it would in a surprise interview.

 

Tip #3: Keep the focus on what you did

 

The most common reason a story falls flat is too much setup and too little personal action. Cut the backstory to two sentences and spend your time on the specific decisions you made. Interviewers are scoring you, not your team.

 

Tip #4: End every story with a result

 

A story without an outcome leaves the interviewer unsure whether you actually succeeded. Close with a concrete result and a quick lesson learned. A number, even a modest one, makes the result land harder.

 

Tip #5: Prepare thoughtful questions to ask

 

Most KPMG interviews leave time at the end for your questions, and a flat "I have none" reads as low interest. Ask about the interviewer's own path, the kind of clients the team serves, or how the practice is changing. This is part of showing fit, not a throwaway formality.

 

What Are the Most Common Mistakes?

 

The biggest mistake at KPMG is telling a strong story that never connects to a value. Interviewers are filling out a scorecard tied to Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better, and a story that does not map cleanly leaves points on the table. Always close the loop between your example and the trait being tested.

 

The second mistake is treating "Why KPMG?" as a throwaway. Because KPMG leans so hard on fit, a generic motivation answer can sink an otherwise solid interview. Many of the same patterns show up across behavioral and fit questions at every firm, so the prep you do here pays off broadly.

 

The third mistake is over-preparing one perfect story and forcing it into every question. Interviewers notice when a candidate bends an unrelated example to fit. Build a bank of five or six distinct stories so you always have one that genuinely matches the question.

 

Preparing well for the KPMG behavioral interview comes down to mapping clean STAR stories to each of the five values and practicing them out loud until they are tight. Do that, and you will walk in ready for the questions that decide most KPMG offers.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How long is the KPMG behavioral interview?

 

A KPMG behavioral interview usually runs 30 to 45 minutes. In the first round you often face two back-to-back 30-minute interviews, with at least one focused on behavioral and fit questions. Behavioral content can take up half or more of your total interview time across all rounds.

 

What are the five KPMG values?

 

KPMG's five core values are Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better. Interviewers use these values to frame behavioral questions and to score your answers, so prepare a story that maps to each one.

 

Does KPMG tell you the interview questions in advance?

 

Many candidates report that KPMG shares the behavioral questions before the interview or that the questions closely match what KPMG publishes. That does not make the interview easy. It raises the bar, because interviewers expect polished, specific, value-linked answers when you had time to prepare.

 

How many rounds are in the KPMG interview process?

 

The KPMG interview process for advisory and consulting roles usually runs two to three rounds over about four weeks. Expect an online or video screen, a first round of two 30-minute interviews, and a later round that may add a written case and senior leader interviews.

 

What is the most common KPMG behavioral question?

 

The most common KPMG behavioral questions are Why KPMG, Why consulting, and Tell me about yourself, followed by Tell me about a time you led a team and Describe a time you faced conflict. Nearly every candidate faces the motivation questions in the first round.

 

Is the KPMG interview hard?

 

KPMG interviews are moderately challenging and lean conversational rather than aggressive. The difficulty is not in trick questions but in delivering specific, structured stories that connect clearly to KPMG's values. Candidates who give vague or generic answers are the ones who get screened out.

 

Everything You Need to Land a Consulting Offer

 

Need help passing your interviews?

• Case Interview Course: Become a top 10% case interview candidate in 7 days while saving yourself 100+ hours
  
  
• Fit Interview Course: Master 98% of consulting fit interview questions in a few hours
  
  
• Interview Coaching: Accelerate your prep with 1-on-1 coaching with Taylor Warfield, former Bain interviewer and best-selling author

 

Need help landing interviews?

• Resume Review & Editing: Craft the perfect resume with unlimited revisions and 24-hour turnaround

 

Need help with everything?

• Consulting Offer Program: Go from zero to offer-ready with a complete system

 

Not sure where to start?

• Free 40-Minute Training: Triple your chances of landing consulting interviews and 8x your chances of passing them