What are the most relevant case types for Roland Berger?

Ex RB interviewer here: the interviewer himself is responsible for the case he is using. That said, the case can be a proxy of a previous project or something abstract like market sizing. So, unfortunately for you, there is a variety of case types you have to prepare for. It is helpful to do research on the background of your interviewer. Reach out in case of specific questions.

Hi there,

Please remember than any type of case can be asked. Please do not prepare for a set of case types - you will only be disappointed and caught off-gaurd when the interview happens.

Rather, prepare for eveyr major case type AND train yourself in the unexpected. Practice being surprised by unique cases, and reacting appropriately.

Happy to train you in this if you're confused as to how to achieve this!

For practice, I'd make sure you're comfortable with the major case families like profitability, growth, market entry, M&A and pricing, but don't memorize them as rigid templates.

I'd also work through a few less conventional cases so you're not thrown when the prompt doesn't look like a classic profitability case:

• Bain 1st Round: Last Mile Delivery
• Bain + BCG: Hot Wheels
• BCG: YodaPhone

And I'd read:

• The Most Common Pitfalls in Case Interview Preparation
• How to Shift Your Mindset to Ace the Case

The transit-station and 3D-printed-hips examples show that Roland Berger likes practical, slightly unusual industry prompts. They still test the same core skills as classical cases: a clear structure, clean maths, commercial judgement and a recommendation you can defend.

I wouldn't practise only those two samples. Mix classical profitability, market-entry and growth cases with a few odd industry settings so you stay calm when the context is unfamiliar. Do not treat the website demos as the full catalogue of what you will see.

Exact mix varies by office and interviewer, so ask your recruiter what format and case style that office usually uses, then build your drills around that answer.

hey Leonard! 

I also interviewed with Roland Berger and received a full-time offer, and I’d say you definitely shouldn’t focus only on the two example cases on their website.

The cases can be quite creative and industry-specific, but you can absolutely expect more classical case types as well:  profitability, market entry, growth strategy, pricing, market sizing, etc. I’d therefore practice the classic case types first and make sure you’re comfortable with structuring, quantitative analysis, and interpreting charts. The RB examples are still useful to get a feeling for the style and level of ambiguity, but I wouldn’t treat them as representative of every interview case.

Alessa

Hi Leonard,

Congrats on getting invited to the RB interview!

Are you apply for a generalist role or a specialist one? That might then influence the sort of cases you receive.

Assuming the former, you can expect any type of industry or project (e.g., acquisition, pricing strategy, etc.) 

Feel free to also ask the recruiter in case they might be able to narrow the scope down so you can be more tailored with the prep. My expectations is that they'll tell you the same as above. 

Best,
Cristian

Hi there,

you should generally practice candidate-led cases but use cases across different industries and functional topics. The two examples you mentioned are just snapshots. It doesn't mean that the cases you will be working on in the actual interviews will just be slight permutations of what they have published. Typically though, don't expect to be able to just use a single "framework recipe" approach for these cases. In my experience, they like to combine a few different things.

Feel free to reach out to me in case you have more questions.

Best of luck