--- title: "McKinsey interview process and practice questions | Orbit" description: "How McKinsey interviews, as candidates commonly report it: the rounds, what interviewers listen for, and 15 practice questions with what a good answer covers." canonical: https://orbitanswer.com/companies/mckinsey last_reviewed: 2026-10-18 --- [Companies](https://orbitanswer.com/companies) [Roles](https://orbitanswer.com/roles) [Free warm-up](https://orbitanswer.com/warmup) - [Home](https://orbitanswer.com/) - [Companies](https://orbitanswer.com/companies) - McKinsey Company interview guide # McKinsey interview process and practice questions McKinsey's interviews are known for two parts: case interviews, where you work through a client problem with the interviewer, and the Personal Experience Interview, where one past experience is explored in depth with many follow-ups. Many candidates are first invited to Solve, McKinsey's online problem-solving game, and candidates commonly describe the cases as led by the interviewer, with maths and charts along the way. As candidates commonly report it; it varies by team, level and year. Last reviewed 18 October 2026. [Practise a mock interview in McKinsey's style](https://orbitanswer.com/register) [Warm up free on these questions](https://orbitanswer.com/warmup?track=company%3Amckinsey) ## The interview process - 1 Problem-solving assessment (a digital game) - 2 First round: case interviews with a personal experience interview - 3 Final round: more case and personal experience interviews ## What interviewers listen for - Structured problem solving - Personal impact - Entrepreneurial drive - Inclusive leadership - Courageous change ## Behavioral questions ### Tell me about a time you persuaded someone who disagreed with you. A good answer covers - Who they were, what they believed, and why their view made sense to them - What you did and said at each step, including what you changed after their pushback - The result, and how the relationship stood afterwards ### Tell me about a time you led a team through a difficult situation. A good answer covers - What made it difficult and what was at stake for the team - The specific things you did as the leader, not what 'we' did - The outcome, and what you'd do differently next time ### Tell me about a time you set yourself an ambitious goal and kept going when it got hard. A good answer covers - Why the goal was ambitious for you at the time - The obstacles and how you got past each one yourself - What you achieved, with a number or clear outcome ### Tell me about a time you brought together people with different views and made sure everyone was heard. A good answer covers - Who was involved and why some voices were being missed - What you did to draw them in and use their ideas - How the result was better because of it ### Tell me about a time you pushed for a change that others were comfortable without. A good answer covers - Why the change was needed and what the resistance was - The risk you took personally in pushing for it - How you won people over, and what changed as a result ## Role and technical questions ### Our client's profits fell 15% this year. How would you work out why? A good answer covers - A short structure first: revenue (price, volume, mix) and costs (fixed, variable) - Comparing with competitors and past years to see if it's the market or the client - A hypothesis, the data you'd ask for to test it, and a summary with next steps ### A regional airline is thinking about starting flights to a new country. How would you decide whether it should? A good answer covers - The airline's goal and what success means: profit, growth or network strength - Market size and demand, competitors on the route, costs and the airline's own capabilities - A recommendation with the key risk and what you'd check before committing ### How would you estimate the number of fuel stations needed in Bengaluru? Talk me through your numbers. A good answer covers - Starting from vehicles and how often each needs fuel - How many vehicles one station can serve in a day, with rounded assumptions - A final number and a quick check against what you'd expect to see ### A hospital wants to cut waiting times in its emergency department. How would you structure the problem? A good answer covers - Following the patient's journey: arrival, triage, tests, treatment and discharge or admission - Finding the bottleneck with data: where patients wait longest and at what times - Practical fixes for the biggest bottleneck and how you'd measure the effect ### Your client's revenue is growing, but its market share is falling. What does that tell you, and what would you look at next? A good answer covers - That the market is growing faster than the client - Which segments, regions or channels competitors are winning, and why - Whether this matters for the client's goals, and what to do about it ### If a store's costs are 80% of its revenue, and revenue rises 8% while costs rise 12%, what happens to its profit margin? Talk me through it. A good answer covers - Setting revenue at 100: costs go from 80 to about 90 and revenue to 108 - Profit falls from 20 to about 18, so the margin drops from 20% to about 17% - What that means for the client in one sentence ### A consumer goods company is deciding whether to buy a smaller rival. What would you want to know before recommending it? A good answer covers - Why it wants the deal: growth, new products, customers or cost savings - The target's market, profitability and fit, and realistic savings from combining - Price versus value, the main risks, and a clear yes or no with conditions ### How would you explain to a client's chief executive what a machine-learning model can and can't do for their pricing? A good answer covers - In plain words: it finds patterns in past sales to suggest prices - What it needs: clean data, enough history, and people who check its suggestions - Its limits: new situations, bias in past data, and how you'd test it safely first ## Why McKinsey? Fit and HR questions ### Why McKinsey, and why consulting rather than a role in industry? A good answer covers - What you want from consulting: variety of problems, learning speed, impact on clients - Something specific about McKinsey you've learnt from its people or work - How it fits where you want to be in a few years ### Which industry or kind of problem would you most like to work on here, and why? A good answer covers - A specific choice, not 'anything' - Why it interests you, shown by something you've read, studied or done - What you'd bring to that work ## Tips - Structure every case answer out loud before you solve it. - Prepare one deep story per personal experience theme; they'll probe it for 10–15 minutes. - Do case maths out loud with round numbers, say the units, and sanity-check the answer against the real world. - End each case with a clear recommendation, the main risk and what you'd check next, even if you haven't covered everything. - In the personal experience interview, choose stories where you personally made the difference; expect questions on what you thought, said and did at each step. - Practise with a partner who changes the facts mid-case, so a new question or chart doesn't throw you. ## Practise it out loud A mock interview asks the way McKinsey's interviewers are known to, follows up on your answers and gives you a report. The warm-up is free, needs no account and checks five of these questions as you answer. [Practise a mock interview in McKinsey's style](https://orbitanswer.com/register) [Warm up free on these questions](https://orbitanswer.com/warmup?track=company%3Amckinsey) ## About this guide Written by Orbit from McKinsey's own public pages and what candidates commonly report. Orbit isn't affiliated with McKinsey. The questions are practice questions in the style of its interviews, not questions taken from them. Processes change, so check the job post and what your recruiter tells you. ## Role guides to read with this one - [Management consultant Management consulting interviews are known for the case interview: you're given a business problem, such as falling profits or whether to enter a new market,… 17 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/roles/management-consultant) - [Business analyst Business analyst interviews usually test how you turn a vague business need into clear requirements, and how you work between business teams and developers. 17 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/roles/business-analyst) - [MBA placement MBA placement interviews, for both summer internships and final roles, commonly start from your CV: interviewers pick a line and go deep, ask why you chose an… 17 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/roles/mba-placement) - [Financial analyst Financial analyst interviews usually test whether you understand the three financial statements and how they connect, can build or read a model, and can turn… 17 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/roles/financial-analyst) ## More guides: consulting and the big four - [PwC PwC's interviews usually mix behavioural questions with technical or case questions for the line of service you've applied to: assurance, tax or advisory. 13 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/companies/pwc) - [Bain & Company Bain's consulting interviews usually start with a digital assessment and move to case interviews, which Bain says look at how you think and structure a… 13 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/companies/bain) - [BCG BCG's interviews for client-facing roles centre on case interviews, which BCG says judge how you structure and reason through a realistic business problem… 13 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/companies/bcg) - [Deloitte Deloitte's interviews usually mix behavioural questions with a case or technical problem for the business you've applied to (audit, tax, consulting or… 14 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/companies/deloitte) - [EY EY's interviews lean on behavioural questions, which EY says on its careers site it relies on heavily, alongside technical questions for the service line… 14 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/companies/ey) - [KPMG KPMG's interviews usually combine an assessment, technical questions for the practice you've applied to (audit, tax, advisory or consulting) and a… 13 practice questions](https://orbitanswer.com/companies/kpmg) [All 100 company guides](https://orbitanswer.com/companies) [Guides by role](https://orbitanswer.com/roles)