Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: September 10, 2026

 

KPMG first round interviews are two back-to-back interviews, usually 30 minutes each, that mix behavioral questions with a case or technical discussion depending on the practice you applied to. This guide covers the exact format, the questions you will face, the criteria KPMG scores you against, and how to prepare in the one to two weeks you typically get.

 

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Key Takeaways

 

The KPMG first round interview is a pair of short interviews with business leaders that decides whether you advance to a final round or an office visit.

 

• Expect two back-to-back interviews of 30 to 45 minutes each, run live over video

 

• Behavioral questions carry the most weight, with a case or market sizing question added for advisory and consulting roles

 

• KPMG scores you against five published values: Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better

 

• The US and UK first rounds differ sharply, with the US running live interviews and the UK running a recorded video interview of six questions

 

• KPMG says most decisions land within two weeks of interviewing, and Glassdoor puts the full process at roughly 28 days

 

What Is the KPMG First Round Interview?

 

The KPMG first round interview is the first live interview stage of KPMG's hiring process. Most candidates face two back-to-back interviews of 30 to 45 minutes with managers, senior managers, or directors from the practice they applied to. Behavioral questions carry the most weight, and advisory candidates also get a case or market sizing question.

 

KPMG's US careers site confirms the two-interview format directly, telling early career candidates they will have two live video interviews with business leaders. That is the firm's own description, not a candidate estimate, and it holds across Audit, Tax, and Advisory.

 

The word "round" causes confusion here. At KPMG, a round is a pair of interviews on the same day rather than a single conversation, so candidates who prepare for one interview are caught off guard when the recruiter schedules two.

 

The bar in round one is competence and fit, not brilliance. Interviewers are answering a simple question: would I put this person in front of a client in six months?

 

What Happens Before Your KPMG First Round Interview?

 

Three things happen before the first round: an online application, a resume screen, and in many offices an online assessment. KPMG recruits on a rolling basis and considers candidates as they apply until the role fills, which makes application timing a real factor in whether you get an interview at all.

 

KPMG limits you to two active applications and will not let you interview for multiple positions at the same time. Choose your practice and office carefully before you submit, because switching later is difficult.

 

Stage	What it involves	Typical timing
Application	Resume, transcript, practice and office selection, roughly 10 minutes to complete	Rolling, until the role fills
Resume screen	Recruiter review against the posting, GPA, and practice fit	Selections usually made within 2 weeks of applying
Online assessment	Psychometric and reasoning exercises, used in some offices and most non-US markets	Days after the screen
First round	Two live video interviews with business leaders	1 to 2 weeks after being selected

 

Source: KPMG US careers site, 2026.

 

The screen you should worry about most is the resume. Nothing you say in a first round interview will rescue a KPMG resume that never made it past the recruiter, and this is where the majority of candidates are cut.

 

Referrals shorten the path considerably. Glassdoor data shows that 9% of KPMG candidates got their interview through an employee referral and another 23% through campus recruiting, so a KPMG referral meaningfully improves your odds against the 54% who simply applied online.

 

How Long Is the KPMG First Round Interview and Who Interviews You?

 

Each interview runs 30 minutes in most cases, with 45 minutes more common when a case is included. The two are scheduled back to back, so plan for a full hour of interview time plus setup.

 

Your interviewers are practitioners, not recruiters. Candidates most often report meeting a manager and a senior manager, or a manager and a managing director, drawn from the practice they applied to.

 

That matters for how you prepare. A manager will press on the detail of your stories, while a managing director will spend more time on why you want this practice and how you think about the business.

 

Across more than 17,000 candidate reports, Glassdoor rates KPMG interviews as average difficulty and lists the one-on-one interview as the single most common stage at 24%, followed by phone interviews at 15% and skills tests at 12%. Presentations, personality tests, and group panel interviews each appear in roughly one in ten reports.

 

What Questions Are Asked in the KPMG First Round Interview?

 

KPMG first round questions fall into four groups: motivation questions, behavioral questions, case or market sizing questions, and service line technical questions. Motivation and behavioral questions appear in nearly every interview, while the other two depend on the practice you applied to.

 

Question type	Example	What KPMG is scoring
Motivation	Why KPMG, and why this practice?	Research depth and whether you will actually accept the offer
Behavioral	Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate	Evidence against the five KPMG values
Case or market sizing	A client's margins fell from 14% to 9%. Why?	Structure, comfort with numbers, and business judgment
Technical	Walk me through how you would scope a systems migration	Baseline knowledge for the practice you applied to

 

What motivation questions does KPMG ask?

 

Nearly every KPMG first round opens with some version of three questions: walk me through your resume, why KPMG, and why this practice. These are not warm-ups, and weak answers here damage your score before you reach anything else.

 

The "why this practice" question separates prepared candidates from the rest. KPMG splits Advisory into Deal Advisory and Strategy, Consulting, and Federal, and an interviewer from Deal Advisory will notice immediately if your answer describes generic consulting work.

 

A strong why KPMG answer names three specific things: a practice area you researched, a piece of KPMG's published work you actually read, and a personal reason tied to your background. Two of the three are not enough.

 

Your resume walkthrough should take 90 seconds, not four minutes. Start with the most recent role, hit two or three accomplishments with numbers attached, and land on why that path leads to KPMG.

 

What behavioral questions does KPMG ask in the first round?

 

Behavioral questions make up the bulk of a KPMG first round, and they map directly to the firm's five values. Candidates commonly report questions about leading a team, handling conflict, persuading someone, managing competing deadlines, and a time they failed.

 

Use the STAR method and keep your answer to about two minutes. Spend most of that time on the action you took, because that is the part the interviewer is scoring.

 

Six stories cover almost everything KPMG will ask. Build a leadership story, a conflict story, a failure story, an influence story, an analytical story, and an ethics story, then reuse them across both interviews with different framing.

 

The ethics story is the one candidates skip and KPMG asks about. Integrity is the firm's first published value, and questions about raising an uncomfortable issue or refusing to cut a corner come up more often at KPMG than at strategy firms.

 

Preparing stories on your own is slow going. My fit interview course shows you how to build a story bank that answers 98% of consulting fit questions in a few hours.

 

For a full breakdown of how KPMG frames each value as a question, my guide to the KPMG behavioral interview works through ten of the most common prompts with sample answers.

 

Will you get a case interview in the KPMG first round?

 

Advisory, Strategy, Deal Advisory, and Consulting candidates should assume yes. Candidates in these practices frequently report that one of their two first round interviews was a case, often paired with a behavioral interview in the other slot.

 

First round cases at KPMG are shorter and more structured than final round cases. Expect a profitability, market entry, or operations prompt, delivered candidate-led, with 20 to 25 minutes of actual case time inside a 30 to 45 minute interview.

 

Market sizing shows up as a standalone question just as often as a full case. A quick market sizing question tests whether you can build a clean estimate out loud without freezing on the arithmetic.

 

Build your own structure rather than reciting a template. Interviewers can tell within 30 seconds whether you tailored your buckets to the prompt or dropped in memorized case interview frameworks, and the second one reads as unprepared.

 

If your interview is soon, my case interview course teaches the full case method in as little as 7 days.

 

The KPMG-specific case format, including the written case that appears in later rounds, differs enough from a generic case that it is worth studying separately. My guide to the KPMG case interview covers six practice cases and a worked profitability example.

 

What technical questions come up by service line?

 

Technical depth in a first round is shallow, and interviewers are checking for baseline familiarity rather than expertise. Audit candidates get accounting fundamentals, Tax candidates get basic tax concepts, and Technology candidates get questions about tools they listed on their resume.

 

The rule is simple: everything on your resume is fair game. If you listed SQL, Python, Alteryx, or a specific accounting standard, be ready to explain how you actually used it.

 

Saying "I am still learning that" is a better answer than bluffing. Interviewers at every Big 4 firm write down bluffing, and it does far more damage than admitting a gap.

 

How Does the KPMG First Round Differ Between the US and the UK?

 

The US and UK first rounds are structurally different, and preparing for the wrong one is a common mistake. In the US, your first round is two live video interviews with business leaders. In the UK, it is a recorded video interview where you answer six questions with no interviewer on the other end.

 

Element	United States	United Kingdom
Format	Two live video interviews	One recorded video interview
Number of questions	Varies by interviewer	Six set questions
Length	About 30 minutes each	About 40 minutes total
Sits after	Resume screen, sometimes an assessment	Two online assessments of about 60 minutes
Next stage	Offer or an in-person office visit	Launch Pad, a half day assessment event

 

Source: KPMG US and KPMG UK careers sites, 2026.

 

The UK format is harder in one specific way: there is no interviewer to read. You cannot adjust based on a nod or a follow-up question, so every answer has to be self-contained and finish inside the time limit.

 

Clearing the UK video interview sends you to KPMG Launch Pad, an in-person half day event with a group exercise, an analysis task, and a senior interview. UK candidates who treat the recorded interview as a formality run out of runway there.

 

What Does KPMG Look For in the First Round?

 

KPMG evaluates first round candidates against five published values and, in the UK, a longer list of assessed skills. Learning the language of both and using it deliberately in your answers is the single highest-return thing you can do before the interview.

 

KPMG's five global values are Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, and For Better. The firm publishes a one-line definition for each: doing what is right, never stopping learning and improving, thinking and acting boldly, respecting each other and drawing strength from differences, and doing what matters.

 

Map at least one story to each value before your interview. When an interviewer asks about a time you showed courage, the answer should be immediate rather than assembled on the spot.

 

KPMG UK goes further and publishes the twelve skills it assesses across its recruitment process:

 

• Career Motivation: having thought through why you want this firm, programme, and location

 

• Learning and Curiosity: absorbing new information quickly and staying open to new ideas

 

• Resilience: staying calm under pressure and working through ambiguity

 

• Relationship Building: making connections easily and adjusting how you interact with others

 

• Effective Communication: engaging others with clarity and impact, in writing and out loud

 

• Initiative: seeking out extra responsibility and working well independently

 

• Planning and Organisation: setting clear objectives and completing work in a logical order

 

• Results Focused: working systematically across multiple tasks to a high standard

 

• Critical Thinking: evaluating information and making rational judgments from it

 

• Inclusive Collaboration: building team cohesion and actively seeking input from others

 

• Integrity: upholding ethical standards and being trusted to do the right thing

 

• Applying Expertise and Technology: using relevant knowledge and tools to do the job well

 

US candidates should read that list too. It is the clearest published statement of what KPMG rewards anywhere in the world, and the underlying criteria travel across member firms even though the process does not.

 

How Should You Prepare for the KPMG First Round Interview?

 

Most candidates get one to two weeks between the invitation and the interview, which is enough time if you spend it on the right things. Work through these six steps in order.

 

1. Build six stories: write out leadership, conflict, failure, influence, analytical, and ethics examples in STAR format, then map each to a KPMG value
   
   
2. Research your practice: read the KPMG page for the exact practice you applied to and one recent piece of the firm's published work
   
   
3. Draft your motivation answers: write and say out loud your resume walkthrough, why KPMG, and why this practice
   
   
4. Drill cases if you are in advisory: run 8 to 12 timed cases covering profitability, market entry, and operations, plus 5 market sizing questions
   
   
5. Run two mock interviews: have someone play interviewer for a full 30 minutes and give you unfiltered feedback
   
   
6. Test your setup: check your camera, microphone, internet, and lighting on the exact platform KPMG sends you

 

Step five is the one candidates skip and regret. In my experience at Bain, the gap between how good a candidate thought their stories were and how they landed out loud was the single most common surprise in a first round.

 

If you want that feedback from someone who has sat on the interviewer side, my interview coaching gives you 1-on-1 sessions with honest scoring against real criteria.

 

Do not neglect step six. KPMG publishes its own video interview checklist telling candidates to test their audio and video with a friend, keep the device plugged in, use a laptop rather than a phone, silence notifications, and mind their background and lighting.

 

What Are the Best Tips to Pass the KPMG First Round Interview?

 

These six tips come from what actually separates candidates who advance from candidates who do not. Each one takes under an hour to act on.

 

Tip #1: Use KPMG's value language in your answers

 

End a story about raising a hard issue by naming what it demonstrates. Saying "that is the situation where integrity mattered most" tells the interviewer exactly which box to tick.

 

This feels heavy-handed when you practice it and lands well in the room. Interviewers are filling out a scorecard, and you are helping them fill it out in your favor.

 

Tip #2: Prepare different stories for each of the two interviews

 

Your two interviewers compare notes afterward. Repeating the same example twice wastes half your evidence and makes your background look thin.

 

Plan which three stories go in the first interview and which three go in the second. If a question forces a repeat, say so and add a detail you did not cover before.

 

Tip #3: Name a specific practice, not just KPMG

 

KPMG has more than 80 US offices and over 36,000 employees and partners, spread across Audit, Tax, Advisory, Business Support Services, and Innovation and Technology. "I want to work at a Big 4 firm" tells your interviewer nothing.

 

Name the practice, the type of client work it does, and the specific skill you want to build there. That answer takes 20 minutes of research and beats 90% of what interviewers hear.

 

Tip #4: Quantify every story

 

"I led a team" is forgettable. "I led a team of four, and we cut the reporting cycle from five days to two" is scoreable.

 

Go back through your six stories and attach a number to the result of each one. If a number does not exist, use scale instead: how many people, how long, how much was at stake.

 

Tip #5: Prepare three questions per interviewer

 

Both of your interviewers will ask what questions you have, and "no, you covered everything" reads as low interest. Prepare six total so you never repeat.

 

The best questions are about the person. Ask what project they are on now, what surprised them in their first year, or how their practice has changed since they joined.

 

Tip #6: Send a thank you note within 24 hours

 

Email both interviewers separately and reference something specific from each conversation. Two identical notes are worse than none.

 

Keep it to four sentences. The note will not save a weak interview, and it does tip a borderline call in a firm that weights fit as heavily as KPMG does.

 

What Are the Most Common KPMG First Round Interview Mistakes?

 

Five mistakes account for most first round rejections. Having coached hundreds of candidates through Big 4 and MBB processes, I see the same ones repeat every recruiting season.

 

• Preparing for one interview instead of two: candidates burn their best material in the first 30 minutes and have nothing left for the second interviewer

 

• Giving a generic answer to why KPMG: praising the firm's size and global reach signals that you applied everywhere and researched nowhere

 

• Treating the case as optional: advisory candidates who assume the round is purely behavioral get blindsided when the second interviewer opens with a prompt

 

• Rambling through stories: a four minute answer to a two minute question costs you two other questions you could have scored on

 

• Ignoring the video setup: poor audio and backlighting genuinely lower how competent you seem, and KPMG cares enough to publish a checklist about it

 

How Long Does It Take to Hear Back After the KPMG First Round Interview?

 

KPMG says most decisions are made within two weeks of interviewing for early career roles. Glassdoor data drawn from more than 17,000 candidate reports puts the average KPMG hiring process at 28 days from application to decision.

 

Two outcomes follow a strong first round. You either receive an offer directly or you are invited to visit a KPMG office in person to meet the team and see the culture before deciding.

 

Experienced hire and consulting processes often add a further round instead. Those consulting final round interviews tend to include senior leaders and, in some advisory offices, a written case exercise.

 

Follow up once, not repeatedly. A short email to your recruiter after two weeks of silence is reasonable, and anything more frequent works against you.

 

The KPMG first round interview rewards preparation more than raw talent, because the questions are predictable and the scoring criteria are published. Build six quantified stories mapped to KPMG's five values, and you will walk in ahead of most of the field.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

How long is the KPMG first round interview?

 

Most KPMG first round interviews run 30 minutes each, with two scheduled back to back for a total of about an hour. Advisory and consulting candidates sometimes report 45 minute interviews when a case is included. KPMG runs these live over video, so build in 10 minutes beforehand to test your setup.

 

Is the KPMG first round interview hard?

 

Glassdoor rates KPMG interviews as average difficulty across more than 17,000 candidate reports, which is easier than the MBB firms on the case side. The difficulty sits in the behavioral half. KPMG expects specific, value-linked stories rather than general leadership answers, and vague examples are the most common reason candidates get cut.

 

Does the KPMG first round interview include a case interview?

 

It depends on the practice. Advisory, Strategy, Deal Advisory, and Consulting candidates often get a short case or a market sizing question in one of the two interviews. Audit, Tax, and Business Support candidates usually face behavioral and technical questions instead, with no formal case.

 

What should you wear to a KPMG first round interview?

 

Wear business professional attire, which means a suit or a blazer with a collared shirt. KPMG explicitly tells candidates to wear professional clothing and accessories for its video interviews. Dressing one level above the office dress code is always the safer call in a first round.

 

How long does KPMG take to get back to you after the first round?

 

KPMG states that most decisions are made within two weeks of interviewing for early career roles. Glassdoor data from more than 17,000 reports puts the full KPMG hiring process at an average of 28 days. If two weeks pass with no update, a short and polite follow-up email to your recruiter is appropriate.

 

What percentage of candidates pass the KPMG first round interview?

 

KPMG does not publish first round pass rates, and any specific figure you see online is an estimate rather than firm data. What KPMG does disclose is that it recruits on a rolling basis until roles fill, which means your odds improve the earlier in the cycle you apply. Treat early application as the one lever you fully control.

 

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