Hey there,

The answer, as often is the case, is "it depends". In general, it is different to "typical just postings" in a couple ways:

• In some cases, recruiting happens year round, and there isn't a specific number of associates/BAs they are looking to hire. This is sometimes even the case in fall recruiting - for example, I heard that McKinsey's London office has no "intake target" for fall recruiting but will simply hire all candidates who were "good enough". In this situation you are really just competing against yourself.
• In some cases, of course, there may be a limited number of positions. However, since consulting firms are always looking for best talent, if they genuinely thought you were good enough for the job, it is unlikely that they will reject you simply because there is no space right now. They may offer you a position in another office (or to go through another set of interviews for this office), or propose a delayed start-date. I think this might be especially the case in Germany, where there are many offices so it seems reasonable that if there are no spaces in Frankfurt, you might be offered a space in the Munich office.
• The example you gave about potentially no one getting an offer is also true - consultancies don't just say "we will hire the top 10 candidates we interview". Rather, firms have well defined standards they are looking for in their applicants. If no candidate meets the mark, then the firm will hire no candidates. However, if more than 10 do and there are only 10 spaces, they may try to find an alternate solution (e.g. the points I mentioned in point 2).

Hope that clears some things up!

Alessandro