McKinsey interviews are among the hardest job interviews in the world. The questions are difficult, specific to McKinsey, and the interviewer can sometimes seem intimidating.
Of course, the good news is that if you prepare well, it can be pretty easy to do well at a McKinsey interview. We have put together the ultimate guide to help you maximise your chances of success.
Landing a job as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company is no easy feat. As one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world, McKinsey receives thousands of applicants every year for a handful of openings. The interview process is notoriously rigorous, designed to filter out all but the brightest candidates.
If you have an interview lined up for a McKinsey business analyst role, you need to be prepared for a variety of complex behavioral and case interview questions designed to evaluate your problem-solving skills, leadership potential, and cultural fit With some study and practice, you can show the interviewers that you have what it takes to land the job and succeed at McKinsey
Typical McKinsey Business Analyst Interview Format
The McKinsey business analyst interview process typically follows this general format
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1st Round: 30-minute phone screening focused on resume review and behavioral questions to evaluate communication skills and cultural fit.
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2nd Round: 4-6 rounds of case and behavioral interviews, usually held on-site at a McKinsey office. Each interview lasts 45-60 minutes. Interviewers will assess your analytical skills, business acumen, structured thinking, and leadership potential through business cases. Behavioral questions evaluate your motivations, achievements, and teamwork abilities.
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3rd Round: Partner/director interviews to assess cultural fit and match your motivations with McKinsey values. Case questions continue evaluating analytical abilities.
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4th Round: Offer stage. The recruiting team debriefs on your candidacy and may check references before extending an offer.
Common McKinsey Business Analyst Interview Questions
Let’s look at some of the most frequently asked McKinsey interview questions for the business analyst role and tips for acing your responses:
Behavioral Interview Questions
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Tell me about yourself. Focus on your academic, extracurricular, and professional achievements. Emphasize experiences demonstrating leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Keep it concise – 1-2 minutes.
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Why do you want to work at McKinsey? Show you understand McKinsey’s values and impact. Convey your passion for consulting and interest in McKinsey’s problem-solving culture. Mention specific practice areas that interest you.
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Describe a challenging team project. Share a situation demonstrating teamwork, leadership, conflict resolution, and achievement of goals. Emphasize your specific contributions.
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When have you gone above and beyond expectations? Choose an example showcasing initiative, creativity, and strong drive for results. Quantify your impact.
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Tell me about a time you failed. Share lessons learned from a setback. Demonstrate reflection, accountability, and ability to develop new problem-solving strategies. Emphasize positive outcomes.
Case Interview Questions
Case questions evaluate your problem-solving process. McKinsey looks for a structured approach:
- Clarify the question and confirm your assumptions
- Frame the issue concisely
- Suggest hypotheses/causes and prioritize them
- Identify required data and suggest ways to collect it
- Structure your analysis into logical steps
- Provide clear recommendations
Examples:
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Our client is a large grocery store chain. Their revenue growth has stagnated over the past two years. How should they improve performance? Clarify assumptions about the grocery industry. Ask relevant questions about competitors, pricing, store locations, and operations. Determine the key drivers of revenue growth and present a hypothesis on the cause. Suggest collecting data on customer demographics, basket sizes, pricing differences vs. competitors. Structure the analysis into assessing pricing, promotions, new store locations, and product assortment. Provide specific ideas to test each driver.
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Our client is considering entering the Indian telecom market. How should they evaluate this opportunity? Clarify assumptions about the Indian telecom sector. Outline the key factors to consider – market size, competition, regulatory environment, required capital expenditure. Suggest analyzing customer segments and pricing. Propose examining partnerships with local companies. Recommend a phased market entry to test capabilities and appetite before full rollout.
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You’re the CEO of an airline that’s losing money on short-haul routes. What should you do? Ask clarifying questions. Hypothesize reasons for losses – competition from low-cost carriers, operational inefficiency. Suggest data to analyze on costs per route, passenger load factors, customer surveys. Recommend options like cutting underperforming routes, decreasing flight frequency, trying differential pricing, forming alliances with other airlines.
Tips for Acing McKinsey Business Analyst Interviews
With practice, you can master the McKinsey case interview:
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Thoroughly research McKinsey’s principles and expectations for candidates. Understand their core values like client service, integrity, and commitment to diversity.
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Study McKinsey’s website and annual reports to learn their service offerings and capabilities. Memorize key facts and stats.
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Practice case interviews extensively. Master a structured approach to breaking down ambiguous problems.
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Work on thinking out loud clearly. Verbalize your thoughts and logic when working through cases.
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Brush up on business fundamentals. Review basic concepts in finance, operations, marketing, and strategy.
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Prepare compelling stories highlighting your most relevant accomplishments and skills. Quantify your impact.
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Research your interviewers on LinkedIn to personalize your responses and frame your experiences accordingly.
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Show enthusiasm and engagement. Ask thoughtful questions that demonstrate your interest in the firm.
With rigorous preparation, you can stand out during the pressure-filled McKinsey interviews. Show your structured problem-solving approach, leadership potential, and fit with the firm’s values, and you will be well on your way to securing a coveted position as a business analyst.
2 McKinsey interview timeline ↑
When you’re getting ready for your McKinsey case interview, it can be hard to know when each part of the process will happen. To help illustrate a typical timeline, weve created the below overview of McKinseys recruitment schedule. As a rule of thumb you can expect the whole process to take 5 to 8 weeks.
Please note: this is meant to give you a general overview, and may not reflect your specific interview timeline. Actual interview timelines depend on a number of factors (e.g. Experience hire vs. University hire). The below is based on the expected recruitment timelines at the University of Chicago (an MBB target school). You can find the original document from the University of Chicago here.
You now know what to expect from the hiring process and when it will happen. Next, let’s talk about the skills that McKinsey will test you on during case interviews.
Behavioural interview questions (PEI) ↑
The PEI part of your interview will last about ten minutes. It’s not really like a normal “CV interview” because the person interviewing you will only judge you on one thing. When someone does a “CV interview” at another company, they might talk about a lot of different things, but not at McKinsey.
The good news is that the topics on which you will be assessed are very predictable. They are made relatively clear on McKinsey’s career website: personal impact, leadership abilities, entrepreneurial drive and problem solving skills.
You might be asked, “Tell me about a time when you led a group of people through a tough situation” or “Tell me about a time when you had to solve a very tough problem.”
Writing a story for each of the four skills McKinsey will test you on is the best way to get ready for these questions. You can then use and adapt these stories depending on the exact question your interviewer will ask. There are different structures you could use to tell your story but we recommend keeping it relatively simple:
- Setting: begin by giving the example you’re using the setting it needs.
- Problem: outline the problem you and your team were facing
- Answer: Describe the answer you came up with to the problem given.
- Impact: If you can, give a number to how much you helped solve the problem.
- Lessons: end with any lessons you may have learned along the way.
There are two common mistakes candidates make when answering McKinsey PEI questions. First, a lot of candidates spend too much time on setting the context when telling their story. Second, some candidates forget that the question is about them.
When responding to PEI questions, focus on what you did, and what your impact was on the situation. This is an important step in presenting your qualifications well. When writing your four stories, you should keep these common mistakes in mind and try to stay away from them.
Before you answer any Personal Experience Interview questions, read this blog post. It has more information and examples of how to do well.
McKinsey Careers: Life as a business analyst
FAQ
What are the rounds for McKinsey business analyst?
What does a business analyst do at McKinsey and Company?
How long does it take to get a job at McKinsey & Company?
The process took 2 months. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company Virtual game followed by three interviews. each interview consist of explaining your experience and a business case.
How many McKinsey & Company business analyst interview questions are there?
Glassdoor has millions of jobs plus salary information, company reviews, and interview questions from people on the inside making it easy to find a job that’s right for you. 1,145 McKinsey & Company Business Analyst interview questions and 1,098 interview reviews. Free interview details posted anonymously by McKinsey & Company interview candidates.
How many questions are on a business practice test?
This test assesses your ability to solve business problems using deductive, inductive, and quantitative reasoning. This practice test contains a total of 26 questions. The actual test contains 26 questions and you will be given 60 minutes to answer as many questions as possible.
