McKinsey Private Capital Interviews

Hi,

Based on my time in this London practice, I recommend focusing your preparation on Commercial and Vendor Due Diligence (incl. market, company, competitor and value creation plan assessment) and portfolio transformation cases.

For the later, specifically drill down into understanding how to identify levers for EBITDA improvement and growth acceleration.

For McKinsey Private Capital in London, expect cases that lean toward PE and deals, but don't ignore the fundamentals.

The cases will likely have a deals flavor. Think M&A, due diligence, growth strategy, portfolio company value creation, or investment decisions. These are the bread and butter of what the team does. You should be comfortable with things like evaluating an acquisition target, assessing market attractiveness for a PE client, or improving EBITDA at a portfolio company.

That said, McKinsey is still McKinsey. You might get a more general case thrown in to test your fundamentals. Profitability, market entry, or pricing could still come up. Don't skip your basic case prep just because the role has a PE focus.

On the interview process, it follows the standard McKinsey format. Problem-solving interview with cases plus PEI for fit. The content may skew toward deals and investing, but the structure is the same.

A few things worth preparing:

Understand how PE firms think. Returns, hold periods, value creation levers, exit multiples. You don't need to be an investor, but you should understand the basics of what drives PE decisions.

Know the language. EBITDA, multiples, synergies, due diligence, carve-outs. Be comfortable using these naturally in your case.

Prepare for fit questions around why Private Capital specifically. Why not generalist McKinsey? Why not direct PE? Have a clear answer that shows you understand what this team does and why it excites you.

Practice a few deal-focused cases. Market sizing for a PE target, commercial due diligence, value creation at a portfolio company. These are the most likely scenarios.

You're applying to a specialized team, so show you understand the context. But remember, strong structured thinking still wins at the end of the day.

Good luck.

Specializing in Private Capital changes the flavor of your interviews somewhat especially for the second round.

Here is the reality for the PC track, which is heavily focused on Commercial Due Diligence (CDD) and portfolio value creation. You should expect the overwhelming majority (70-80%) of your case work to be commercially driven: assessing the attractiveness of a specific asset class, testing the viability of a target company's growth plan, or identifying post-merger synergies. Frame your preparation around investment committee thinking—can you rapidly size a market, identify key risks, and structure a decisive recommendation?

However, you cannot ignore the foundational consulting skills. The firm still needs to ensure you possess the rigorous, structured thinking required for any complex problem. It is highly common for McKinsey to throw one standard, complex case (like a challenging operations bottleneck, a cost optimization exercise in a foreign market, or an organizational restructuring) into the mix. This is their way of confirming your analytic engine is sound, even if you’ll mostly be running DDs on the job.

Your best strategy is to prepare primarily for transaction-focused cases but use standard, tough generalist cases (from firms like BCG or Bain) to stress-test your structure and synthesis under pressure.

All the best!

Hi there,

McKinsey Private Capital interviews in London are broadly similar in format to generalist McKinsey interviews, but with a noticeable tilt toward investor and value creation topics. Cases are often PE related, such as commercial due diligence, portfolio value creation, growth strategy, or M&A scenarios, but they are not exclusively PE focused. You can still get more general business problems like cost optimization or market entry, and occasionally less traditional contexts.

Interviewers mainly look for the same core skills as in generalist interviews, structured thinking, hypothesis driven analysis, and clear communication, with the expectation that you’re comfortable in an investor mindset. Preparing with a mix of PE style cases and classic McKinsey cases is usually the best approach.

Happy to help you prep, I’ve helped other candidates through this process.

Best,
Evelina

Hi,

I would focus on your fundamentals and not try to over-index on anticipating a specific case type. 

You may get a PE case, but you may also get a generalist case... because well if you can't solve the generalist case, then it would show you dont have the core consulting toolkit the firm is looking for. 

Back when I was an interviewer for BCG's PE practice, we gave a mixture of cases across the 4 rounds for each candidate (assuming they made it through R1). 

You may also find my article helpful about understanding more about PE consulting and what's needed to succeed there: 

What is Private Equity Consulting?

All the best!

That just means PEPI or "private capital" practice in your term would be funding your salary, so they won't be surprised if you already got that area of jargons. 

Sometimes they also might throw you a random case out of your zone to test your intrinsic without the industry know-hows. Others might stick to staff-ability. You can get both. 

Hey there, 

I’ve been part of McKinsey’s Private Capital practice, so happy to share some perspective.

If you’re interviewing specifically for Private Capital, cases are usually PE-focused, since you’re applying into a dedicated practice. You should expect themes like commercial due diligences (both buy-side and sell-side), growth strategy for portfolio companies, value creation, PMI / carve-outs, and exit readiness, etc.

That said, you’re still expected to be strong on generalist problem-solving. Even PE cases ultimately test clear structuring, hypothesis-driven analysis, and synthesis, so being able to handle more “classic” cases (e.g. cost, market entry) still matters, especially early on. There’s also no guarantee you won’t get a more classic, generalist case at some point in the process.

It also helps to be familiar with financial DD basics: understanding how the three financial statements are structured, what the key financial terms mean, and how to interpret high-level financials. There’s no expectation to build an LBO or do complex modeling, just solid financial literacy.

Bottom line: expect a PE flavor, but don’t over-specialize, strong fundamentals are still what gets you through!

Hi there,

If you're interviewing for a specific practice then the case interviews are more likely to be of that practice.

hey there :)

For McKinsey Private Capital in London the cases are usually strongly PE and investor focused, so think commercial due diligence, market attractiveness, value creation and growth or M&A scenarios rather than non profit or pure cost cutting. The interview format is otherwise the same as generalist with standard PEI and classic McKinsey style cases, just with a clear private equity angle. Happy to help if you want to prepare specifically for PC cases.

best,
Alessa :)

Ask the recruiter. 

Yes, it's likely going to be PE focused, but sometimes they might also have cases focused on other industries. 

Only the recruiter will be able to confirm it. 

Also, if you're looking to practice a McKinsey style PE focused case, reach out. 

Best,
Cristian