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Anonymous A

on Apr 16, 2021

Global

McKinsey vs BCG/Bain Case Prompts - Length

I'm wondering if the case prompt for McKinsey is much longer compared to BCG/Bain's. I've been studying using Victor Cheng's McKinsey Case Materials, and the case prompts were very long. The case prompts, however, for BCG/Bain from PL/other sources were short, and this actually allows interviewees to make a lot hypotheses. I'm wondering if this is correct, or I just happened to stumble upon some lengthy and short cases for McKinsey and BCG/Bain, respectively.

Thanks!

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Top answer

Ian

Coach

on Apr 17, 2021

Top US BCG / MBB Coach - 5,000 sessions |Tech, Platinion, Big 4 | 9/9 personal interviews passed | 95% candidate success

Hi there,

That is correct. McKinsey absolutely places more emphasis on diving deeper (and broader) into 2nd and 3rd level insights.

15

Anonymous A

on Apr 20, 2021

Hi Ian, thanks for the reply! Does it mean that I have to use different frameworks/structures to tackle the problem? Since BCG/Bain prompts the interviewee to ask lots of questions to get what's actually the main issue during our explanation, while McKinsey tends to require the interviewee to "guess" or basically "list" everything based on our assumptions for a complete framework.

Gaurav

Coach

on Apr 16, 2021

#1 MBB Coach(Placed 750+ in MBBs & 1250+ in Tier2)| The Only 360° coach(Ex-McKinsey+Certified Coach+Active recruiter)

You are right, that's how it usually goes for McKinsey

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Allen

Coach

on Apr 16, 2021

Ex-McK Experienced Hire and EM - I show you how to perform at your best

Yes, that's been my experience.

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