McKinsey Private Capital Interviews

Hi there,

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

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,

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!

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.

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

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 :)