Feel like I did bad in the case interview?

Hi there :) 

I had 3 immediate thoughts after reading your post. In order of importance:

1) Breath my friend :D. It's obvious you are quite stressed over this (completely understandable; consulting recruiting is tough!). Telling someone to relax is always tough advice to follow haha, but I still wanted to say this first and foremost 

2) Don't dwell on what's done- you can't change it. Instead of asking "how bad did I do?" redirect your energy to orient on what you'll do next time based on what you learned (and there is almost always a next time)

3) At the risk of over reading into your word choice, I feel you may be approaching the interview process too formulaically (e.g., framework/ set up- how good? Build rapport with interviewer- how good? Like ticking through boxes in a rubric for self assessment of how it went). While case interviews are highly structured, it's still super important to not come across as rote/ robotic. I can't speak to this whether this was actually an issue for you, but i will say that, in my experience, candidates who start down the path of "box ticking" in their mind often end up coming across as exactly such.

Hope this helps and best of luck with your recruiting search!

This is a stressful spot to be in, and it's completely normal to dissect every minute after the fact. It sounds like you had a solid-but-uneven performance across two very different interview segments.

Here’s the reality of how these split R1s are often judged: The strategy case is usually the major hurdle. The fact that the interviewer needed to significantly adjust your initial structure because you misdiagnosed the problem (cost comparison vs. market entry) is a serious demerit. Firms look for immediate issue identification; a structural correction like that flags a fundamental misread. The disengaged interviewer feeling, whether real or perceived, compounds the challenge, as R1 is where firms decide if they can put you in front of a client.

However, the market sizing and fit portion isn't just filler. While the math is important, that segment primarily tests composure, communication under pressure, and rapport—all things you felt you nailed. In a tight decision, a strong "chemistry" score and clear communication rating from the second interviewer can absolutely pull a candidate over the line, especially if the first interviewer gave a borderline or "low pass" score rather than a hard fail. The good news is that they saw you perform well under the pressure of the sizing exercise, which indicates coachability and strong baseline analytical skills.

You can't change what happened, so stop replaying the strategy case. Instead, use this waiting period to aggressively polish the areas you identified: ensuring your initial hypothesis is directly responsive to the prompt, and practicing structuring cases out loud for maximum clarity and confidence, even when you are nervous. If you get the callback, you know your primary focus needs to be on unwavering communication clarity and precise structure from the first 60 seconds of the interview.

All the best with the outcome.

hey there :)

From what you describe this does not sound bad at all, having a structure tweak is very normal especially when the case direction is clarified, solving it in time matters much more, and rapport is often out of your control, while a strong and composed market sizing with good communication usually carries a lot of weight, so one wrong assumption rarely breaks the case, and mixed feelings after interviews are extremely common even for people who get offers, happy to go through it with you and give a more precise read if you want.

best,
Alessa :)

Hi there, 

It is normal for candidates to have very different experiences with different interviewers even from the same firm. There are many subtle factors, beyond just pure technical ones, that affect how you feel about an interview, and many of these are out of our hands. 

Plus, sometimes our feeling is not always reflecting the actual situation (e.g., I thought I would fail my BCG R1 because one of my interviewers was very stern, but actually he liked my case performance and turned out to be a very pleasant person to work with).

Regardless of what the outcome is, take every interview as a learning opportunity. Focus on learning about what would you do differently if you had a chance to do it again, what can be better next time...

Best,

Emily

Actually, it sounds like it went pretty well. 

Beyond that, it's impossible to tell. 

If anything, I've noticed that most people think the interview went a lot worse than it actually went. Let's hope that's also the case with you. 

I hope you hear back from them soon so you can rest!
Best,
Cristian

I don't know. I've added "buckets" to candidates having good performances. I've seen fast quick performances being too shallow, and good performances providing a wrong answer - wrong, but still somewhat evidence based (which is what is really critical to have here).

So... it may have been good... or bad. 

Hi there,

It would be very difficult for us to gauge your performance as assessment involves many nuances. Also, this is only from your POV, which is naturally not neutral. My sense is it's not clear-cut from your description. My suggestion is to be patient and wait for a response.