Any advice for doing a at home case study for Deloitte?

Hi,

The main advantage of a take-home is that you have time, so use it wisely: leave yourself enough room to get a first draft down and then review it with a fresh mind. If the brief allows outside research, use it to back your assumptions with real data.

What will set you apart at senior consultant level is making it feel client-ready. Put an executive summary at the front that works on its own, so a partner could read that one page and get your recommendation and the main reasons for it without reading the rest. 

The other thing that reads as senior is judgment. You will not have the time or data to solve everything, so choose deliberately: pick the two or three issues that matter most, say clearly that you are leaving the rest aside for now, and note what you would do next with more time. That comes across far better than trying to cover everything thinly.

Since it is an Infrastructure and Capital Programmes role, make sure the recommendation sounds like it comes from someone who understands how these programmes actually run, not from a generic strategy playbook.

Hope it helps, and good luck with the process!

Federico

At-home case studies are quite different from live case interviews. Deloitte is usually less interested in seeing whether you can solve the "right" answer and more interested in how you think, prioritize and communicate.

A few suggestions:

• Start by making sure you fully understand the question before jumping into the analysis.
• Build a clear storyline first. Don't collect lots of data and hope the story emerges at the end.
• Keep your recommendations practical and prioritized. Don't try to solve every issue.
• Back up your conclusions with facts from the case and make your assumptions explicit.
• Leave enough time to review your work. A well-structured deck with a clear message is much more effective than one with lots of content.

For the interview itself, be prepared to defend your recommendations. Partners will often challenge your assumptions or ask, "Why did you prioritize this over that?" They are testing your judgment as much as your analysis.

For an Infrastructure & Capital Programmes role, I'd also think about topics such as:

• project delivery and governance
• cost and schedule management
• stakeholder management
• risk mitigation
• benefits realization

Finally, don't underestimate the presentation. I've seen strong analyses lose impact because the candidate couldn't communicate them clearly. A concise, confident explanation of your recommendations is just as important as the analysis itself.

Hi,

I would spend most of your preparation time on how you communicate your thinking, not on trying to guess the case.

For Deloitte take-home case studies, the analysis is usually only part of the assessment. They are also looking at how you structure an ambiguous problem, prioritize issues, make practical recommendations, and communicate with senior stakeholders.

A few things that have worked well for candidates I have coached:

• Start by defining the client's objective before analyzing the data. Many candidates jump straight into Excel or PowerPoint without clarifying what success looks like.
• Keep your recommendations practical. Do not just say "improve efficiency." Explain how, why, what impact you expect, and what risks need to be managed.
• Make your presentation executive-friendly. A clear storyline with 5–10 well-structured slides is usually much stronger than 20 slides full of analysis.
• Be ready to defend your assumptions. During the interview, expect questions like "Why did you prioritize this recommendation?" or "What additional data would you request?" There is rarely one correct answer—the quality of your reasoning is what matters.

Since your role is in Infrastructure & Capital Programmes, I would also think beyond the financials. Consider implementation challenges, stakeholder management, delivery risks, governance, timelines, and KPIs. Those topics are often just as important as the numbers.

Finally, leave yourself plenty of time to review your work. In my experience, candidates lose more points from small errors, inconsistent numbers, or unclear slides than from imperfect recommendations.

Good luck! These exercises are designed to assess how you think as a consultant, not whether you find the "perfect" answer.

Best,

Soheil

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the invitation from Deloitte!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• First of all, plan the time before you start working. The usual mistake with a take-home case is that people research for 95% of the time and write in the 5%. I would advise you to get a rough draft finished in the first third of the time, then leave it, then come back with a fresh head and cut. And read the brief twice, because they check very carefully whether you answered the question that was asked rather than the question you found interesting.
• Moreover, the one aspect that makes it look client-ready is an executive summary. Put a one page summary at the start that stands alone, so a partner reading only that page gets your recommendation and the two or three reasons behind it. Give every slide or section a title that states the message rather than the topic, and write your assumptions down openly instead of hiding them.
• Lastly, remember that the document is not really what is being scored, the conversation about it is. They will push on your weakest assumption on purpose, so go in knowing where your own soft spots are and have an honest answer ready, including what you would check first if you had a real team and two more weeks. Being able to say calmly that a number is an estimate and here is how you would validate it lands much better than defending everything.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming Deloitte take-home case study and/or interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

hello!

for a Deloitte take home case, I’d focus on being very structured and commercially pragmatic. Since it’s for Infrastructure & Capital Programmes, make sure you think beyond the analysis itself and consider cost, timeline, risks, governance, stakeholders and implementation. Your final recommendation should be very clear, with the key evidence supporting it.

Also practice building a concise executive level storyline and presenting your recommendation confidently, because they’ll likely challenge your assumptions during the interview. Don’t try to analyse everything available, focus on identifying the few insights that actually drive the decision.

Let me know if you have more questions, happy to help!

best,
Alessa :)