[PwC Deals Graduate Program] How do I prepare for Leadership Behavioural Interview - Final Round

Question

Hey everyone! For my PwC application (Deals Graduate Program), I have just completed my assessment day (still waiting on the result 🤞) which was a full day of group activities, testing M&A's technical/industry knowledge, presentation, and Q&A. Figured I should start prepping for behavioural interviews (final round) in case I make it through — plus I’ve got one other interview lined up too.

I’ve listed some questions below and would really appreciate any advice or insights. Thanks in advance!

1) Preparation: a friend suggested me not to predict specific questions, but instead preparing stories around themes (e.g. motivations, skills/experiences, company, industry/technical knowledge). The idea is that this gives more flexibility no matter what comes up — What are your thoughts? Any other prep tips/ other approaches?

2) What do I do if I could not answer the question because I do not have relevant skills/experiences? I am not very good at lying or playing with words either

3) Do you mind sharing interesting/difficult questions that you have heard/experienced? How did you handle it?

4) Practicing: I have been practicing with AI chatbots and real humans (my friends and my sister). Do you have any tips when practicing with AI chatbots?

Answer 1

Hi,

Great that you’re preparing early; that’s exactly the right approach.

Here are my 2 cents:

1) Preparation
I would rehearse the main types of fit questions directly. You don’t need a different story for each question you can reuse the same 3–4 stories and adapt them slightly depending on the angle. That said, not preparing specific questions is not great advice; the set of questions is actually quite predictable, so you should be ready for them.

2) “What if I don’t have an example?” In most cases fit questions cover very general skills (leadership, teamwork, influencing, failure, ...), and interviewers expect you to have experienced them somewhere; if not at work, then at university or in extracurriculars. That’s why it’s important to prepare your stories in advance rather than improvise.
If a truly niche question comes up it’s perfectly fine to say you haven’t faced that exact situation yet; but that’s rare.

3) Difficult questions In theory they can ask anything, but in practice the pool is quite limited. There aren’t really “difficult” questions; what makes them difficult is lack of preparation. A classic one many candidates struggle with is: “What’s your biggest failure?” not because it’s tricky, but because they haven’t thought it through beforehand.

4) Practicing AI can help you generate questions, but it’s limited for actual prep.
You should practice answering out loud and get feedback from a real person (friend, coach ...). That’s where most of the improvement comes from.

Hope this helps and good luck!
Franco

Answer 2

Hi there,

You’re approaching this in a very sensible way — especially starting prep early. Behavioural rounds are much more about clarity and authenticity than “tricky” questions.

On preparation, your friend is right. Don’t try to predict exact questions. Instead, prepare 4–5 strong stories that you can flex across themes like leadership, teamwork, challenges, and impact. The key is knowing your stories so well that you can adapt them naturally rather than forcing a fit.

If you don’t have a perfect example for a question, don’t panic. It’s completely fine to use something from academics, extracurriculars, or even a smaller situation. What matters is how you think, what you did, and what you learned — not how “impressive” the situation sounds. Avoid making things up; interviewers can tell.

In terms of difficult questions, they’re usually not complex — they just go deep. For example, you might get follow-ups like “what were you thinking in that moment?” or “what would you do differently?” The challenge is staying specific and not becoming generic. The best way to handle this is to really understand your own story, not just memorize it.

For practice, using both people and AI is great. With AI, focus on repetition and pressure-testing your structure. With real people, focus more on delivery, clarity, and how natural you sound. Also, record yourself — it helps you catch where you’re being vague or too long.

Overall, keep it simple: clear stories, specific actions, honest reflection. That’s what sets strong candidates apart.

Happy to help you refine your stories if useful

Best
Evelina