What frameworks should I know/focus on for BCG interview?

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the invitation from BCG!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• First of all, I would advise you to avoid memorizing rigid frameworks - case study interviews are more about showing how you think than plugging into pre-set structures. Also, there really are no BCG-specific initial structures.
• Moreover, I would strongly advise you to consider working with an experienced coach like me on your structuring skills. I developed the "Case Structuring Program" to help exactly such candidates like you who struggle with case study structures.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming BCG interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hi there,

If you’re pressed for time, don’t overcomplicate things. At BCG, the interviewer is less interested in whether you know 10 different frameworks and more in whether you can break a problem into clear, logical buckets. With that in mind, I’d suggest you focus on just a few basics that cover most cases:

• Profitability – revenues (price × volume, segments) and costs (fixed vs variable, along the value chain)
• Market entry / growth – market attractiveness, competition, client capabilities, risks
• Operations – where efficiency is lost (process, people, tech) and how to fix it
• M&A / investments – is the target attractive, does it fit strategically and can the deal be executed

That’s really enough – most cases boil down to one of these. If the case has a sustainability or social angle, just adapt the same logic (define objective, stakeholders, levers, risks)

Specific to BCG:

• They’ll often guide you so be ready for an interviewer-led style where they push you into specific analyses
• Always be hypothesis-driven – take a stance on what you think might be driving the issue and then test it
• Prioritize: show that you can focus on what matters most instead of listing every possible factor
• Communicate simply and clearly – walk them through your logic step by step and summarize often

Happy to help you prep – feel free to reach out
 

Best,

Evelina

If you’re spending your limited prep time memorizing frameworks, you’re already setting yourself up for failure.

Interviewers at BCG (and MBB in general) are exhausted by candidates who come in and dump a “profitability framework” or “market entry framework” on the table. 

It screams cookie-cutter. It shows you can regurgitate, not that you can actually think.

Consulting isn’t about fitting problems into pre-set buckets. It’s about building clarity where none exists. 

That means:

• Defining the true objective.
• Breaking it into logical drivers.
• Prioritizing the levers with the most impact.
• Testing your hypotheses against the data.

That’s not a framework. That’s a method. A disciplined way of thinking you can apply to any problem, whether it’s revenue decline, supply chain resilience, or DEI strategy.

If you want to walk into BCG interviews with a real shot at the offer, forget the templates and start learn the method of problem solving. 

When you can take a messy prompt, structure it according to a set of fundamental principles, and adapt on the fly as new data comes in, that’s when interviewers lean back, smile, and think: “This one gets it.”

But you don't learn this from case books unfortunately. You need someone to guide you and calibrate your performance. Nobody can learn this skill on his own - especially not with the bad internet resources that almost everyone is using and sharing around.

Hope this helps!
Sidi

___________________

Dr. Sidi S. Koné

Former Senior Engagement Manager & Interviewer at McKinsey | Former Senior Consultant at BCG | Co-Founder of The MBB Offer Machine™

Hi,

Thanks for your question.

For any consulting interview, you should focus on familiarizing with the basic frameworks, there is no such thing as specific framework for a firm.

A few basic frameworks to know for any consulting interview are profitability framework, Market entry, growth strategy, product strategy M&A, operations.

A few other mini frameworks that maybe helpful to know are for pricing strategy or competitor response cases.

Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out.
Thanks,

Soh

Focus on thinking about what is critical to solve in each case. To do that, you should't be using pre-made frameworks.

As such, and contrary to the widespread view, pre-made frameworks are not useful as frameworks. They are useful only as a collection of topics to consider to include when defining a targeted, objective driven approach for each problem.

Having said that, the frameworks Soh mentioned is spot on, you will be able to get ~80% of useful topics from those.

Hi there, 

I wouldn't think about it in terms of frameworks. The methodology is old and doens't do the job anymore, especially with the current cases.

Rather, try and practice structuring based on your own common sense and getting a handle on first principles thinking. 

Here's a material that might help with the basics of structuring and brainstorming:

• Expert Guide: Mastering Structuring & Brainstorming

And if you want to dig deeper, I run a class specialised on structuring here:

• Masterclass: First Principle Structuring

Best,
Cristian

Hi there,

Don’t worry too much about cramming every framework as BCG cares more about how you structure a problem. Interviewers can tell if you're just being a case monkey and repeating a memorized framework. Therefore, with limited prep time, a good approach is: practice building your own structure first, then compare it to the basic frameworks (profitability, market entry, growth, etc.) to see where you might have missed something. That way you’re both training your MECE thinking and slowly getting familiar with the common frameworks. Eventually, you’ll start recognizing the patterns and build your structuring muscle without having to memorize frameworks.

For BCG R1 internship cases, focus on flexible frameworks as thinking tools, not memorized templates: profitability, market entry/growth, M&A, operations, and customer/marketing. Prioritize structured, hypothesis-driven thinking, clear communication, and quick math. Practice a few cases, signpost your logic, and ask smart clarifying questions. Structure and reasoning matter more than rigid frameworks.

Alessa