I wonder how many questions there are in 1 case interviews at McKinsey? Is the standard 3 or 4? Thank you!
Hey there,
There is no real standard. The goal of the interviewers is to get enough data points about your performance on a number of different question types:
If you provide high-quality answers to each of those questions, the interview might end after 3 questions, however, you would have taken quite some time to communicate your exhaustive insights and potentially would have reached the time limit already anyway.
On the other end of the spectrum are candidates who answer all questions the interviewer has prepared for them (6-7). However, that usually means that they are way too fast and touch the questions only on a surface level, which is the complete opposite of what McKinsey interviewers are looking for.
Most candidates are somewhere in-between (e.g., 4-5 questions), for instance, if they are particularly fast on the charts or the math section of the case.
What does this mean for you?
Focus all your attention on the quality of your answers, speed is secondary. Let us look at a concrete example, the structuring portion of the McKinsey case:
At the core, McKinsey wants to see creative ideas communicated in a structured manner, the more exhaustive the better.
Your goal should be to come up with a tailored and creative answer that fits the question. The framework should - broadly speaking - follow these three characteristics:
You would need to go into detail and qualify your answer with practical examples and more details.
To come up with the framework you have 1-2 minutes (2 minutes is kind of a soft limit). Then, in a McKinsey interview, you can take up to 6-8 minutes to present your structure, your qualification, and hypotheses. This is due to the interviewer-led format that McK employs. The interviewer will only ask 'what else' if you
The firm wants to see exhaustive and creative approaches to specific problems, which more often than not do not fit into the classic case interview frameworks that were en vogue 10 years ago...
Again, this only applies if everything you say
It could be that just for your initial structure question 8 to 10 minutes of the interview have already passed (+ some minutes for the case introduction and follow-up), which then leaves you with only 15 to 20 minutes for other questions. If you do the structure right, that would be not an issue.
Hope it is clear now! :-)
Have a look at this article for more information on the McKinsey case interview: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/mckinsey-interview
All the best,
Florian
Hi there,
So technically you should “expect” around 3-4, but please also try to avoid expecting things!
You could have far more or far fewer. Go in flexibly and be adaptable to whatever happens :)
Hi there,
Good question! In theory, cases have up to 7-8 questions. However, almost no candidate makes it there. And even if they did - the quality of the answers is much important than the number answered.
For example:
You job is to answer every question best possible and follow the interviewer’s lead.
Hope this helps a bit! Best of luck!
Hello,
There really is no standard number: cases vary a lot in question length and depth, which to some extent will be guided by the length of the interview and how quickly you are answering each question. It is quite common to get McKinsey cases with 3 or 4 questions, but don't set yourself up for this necessarily, and don't worry if you end up getting more or fewer.
It can be 4 to 6. But to be honest, this information is absolutely irrelevant.
Hi there,
Indeed, the average is 3-4 questions, but the number doesn't actually matter. What matter is progressing through the case as quickly as you can but only by providing high-quality answers. Quality is significantly more important than quantity.
Best,
Cristian
Expert case by
