Hi there,

First of all, candidates don't fail or pass interviews but rather interview rounds (except in cases where a round consists of one interview only). This is important to understand in the context of unforgivable mistakes, that basically don't exist.

If you made a blunder, don't let it happen again and make sure you blow them away with your quant skills next time. This will make them forget about the blunder and you will have good chances to pass the round (assuming everything else was very good, too).

As for the mistake you made, it's hard to tell how much it weighs. If it was something minor, a little side calculation let's say, the interviewer may see past it. If the calculation was on the critical path to successfully answering a key question, it may cost you a good score.

I will conclude with this: there's hardly a McKinsey hire that hasn't made a math mistake at some point in their interviews, including myself!

Keeping my fingers crossed. All the best!

Moritz

Hello,

Here are my thoughts:

1) If everything else was perfect and this is the only error that you have made, then it is not an automatic fail.

2) However, if there were other mistakes as well, OR if you made another careless mistake in another McKinsey interview then they will draw the conclusion that you have a tendency to make careless mistakes.

3) Don't overthink it! 

All the very best!

Rushabh

Hi there,

Rest assured, this mistake alone is not even close to being unforgivable!

The most likely scenario is that the interviewer was impressed with you and didn't see it as important to correct you (they had already “passed” you).

Another possibility is that they had already decided against you (performance was bad) and they were no longer assessing.

Regardless, don't worry about that one mistake - it's a hollistic assessment!

It sounds as though they did not notice if they even said “it makes sense”. I would worry if you felt you were strong in other parts of the case.

However, definitely worth not making this mistake again! Always give yourself some time to double check the numbers 

Sounds like all of the tricky thinking went into your consideration. She/he also didn’t call you out on it which could mean that they didn’t catch it or that the specific number didn’t matter to be begin with anyway.

But this is all speculation. You’ll have to wait for the official feedback unfortunately.

Good luck