McKinsey & Company Business Analyst Interview Questions & Reviews
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Updated Feb 11, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.
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Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 61 ratings 
“Difficult” Interview
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Interview Experience [?] Based on 61 ratings
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| 1–10 of 61 McKinsey & Company Interviews | Sort by |
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Feb 11, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 (took 3 weeks)
Two rounds of interviews.
Round one was two 1:1s with mix of case and behavioural. Cases were fair, and quite similar to the practice ones on the company's website. Behavioural questions are specific and structured. Be prepared to discuss your experiences in detail.
Final round is 4 to 5 1:1s. Again, mix of cases and behavioural. Cases are less structured. Found many behavioural questions were repeated -- come prepared with several experiences to discuss.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Jan 30, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Declined Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2011 in Chennai (India) (took a day)
I got interviewed after an initial resume based shortlist (where the firm looks for "peaks" in different facets of your career, say academics, leadership etc). The interviews were a pleasant experience. Had four rounds of about 40 min each, each of which had a personal "Experience Interview" where they expect you to substantiate stuff in your resume followed by a "Case Interview", where one is expected to solve systematically, a business problem that McKinsey consultants typically face. Creativity is highly valued but comprehensive analysis of the problem is critical.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and an IQ/Intelligence Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Jan 26, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Neutral Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Jan 2012 (took 4+ weeks)
One month after I applied on the internet site, HR contacted me to schedule the first round and emailed me some docs that I found really useful to prepare myself. The first round consisted of a written test followed by a 1:1 interview. The written test was very similar to one that I had received in the email.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and an IQ/Intelligence Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Jan 26, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Sep 2011 (took 4+ weeks)
First round consisted of two phone interviews, both with associates. These were essentially all case (I'll get to them later). Each interview took about 30 minutes
Second round consisted of four in office interviews, two with principals, one with an engagement manager, and one with an associate. These consisted of about 25 minutes of a case, 15-20 minutes of an experience interview, and 5 minutes for your questions. The experience interviews are unique to McKinsey. Basically the interview will ask you to "tell about a time..." and then after you tell a story they'll ask probing questions. The prompt will fall into one of the following categories: problem solving, achieving, personal impact, and leadership (details/descriptions can be found on the McKinsey web site). To prepare for these you should have at least one story for each category. Don't memorize but run through it in your head once or twice and make sure you remember all pertinent details (you'll need to be able to talk about it for 10+ minutes). I also ended up taking the McKinsey Problem Solving Test in the office after the interviews (this seems to be reverse order, not sure why it happened that way other than McKinsey doesn't officially recruit at my school). The language filter will not let me say what I want to say about that test, but the impression I got was that they didn't think it was worth much anyway. I would agree with this notion since it was essentially a test of your accuracy at performing complex math (complex as in lots of decimal places, sometimes with division) without a calculator. It was pretty similar to the practice test that's available on their web site, but a little more difficult.
The McKinsey cases are very structured so the interviewer does the driving. This takes a lot of the weight off your shoulders versus some of the other firms, but you still have to be able to perform and explain math efficiently and effectively as well as come up with innovative ideas. The feedback I was given was that I wasn't quite creative enough, which seems reasonable. Definitely practice, but nothing to get worked up about. I would not recommend doing 20+ cases as some have suggested because that will just stress you out more.
The people I interviewed with were all quite friendly, but I did not particularly care for the analysts/associates who took me out to lunch. I actually think it's a blessing in disguise that I wasn't offered. I had an odd timing situation so I probably would have accepted if offered, but, since I wasn't, I ended up interviewing at a firm of similar prestige that fit me much better and accepted there. The office was fairly nice but was completely dead (even on a Friday).
My main words of wisdom from this experience (well worth it btw) is to not try to cram in these interviews. I ended up taking a later flight so as to not miss a class on Thursday which resulted in me having to connect. In the end I didn't make it to the hotel until after 11pm while if I had been willing to miss one, unimportant class I would have been there 5-6 hours earlier. I blame my lackluster performance during the case interviews on the resulting lack of sleep (always trying to pass the buck).
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Jan 14, 2012 — 1 of 1 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2011 in Istanbul (Turkey) (took 3 days)
Applying for a B.A. position with McKinsey is typically a 3-round process plus a Problem Solving Test at the very beginning. PST and interview rounds were held at a 5-star hotel in Istanbul.
1st round consisted of the PST plus two one-on-one case interviews. Took the 1-hour PST and then waited 10 minutes before being called in for my first case interview. Apparently I passed the PST. I think they mainly use it to make sure you reach a certain benchmark of problem-solving ability. Test is basically three McKinsey-style business cases with lots of graphs and stuff a multiple choice questions. Questions are both qualitative and quantitative in nature.
Interviewers were very nice. Asked me a couple personal questions about my reasons for applying and also to describe a time when I had "personal impact." Both interviewers were McKinsey Engagement Managers.
Made it through to the 2nd round. Only made me wait a few minutes before telling me I had passed. Then they gave me some feedback with some advice on how to proceed in the next round. I was a bit weak on the quantitative side (not quick enough or thorough enough with numbers apparently) and was also advised to ask for help quicker when I got stuck in a case.
2nd round was the exact same format except w/o the PST. Interviewers were a Associate Principal and a Partner, respectively. Cases were about the same. One was particularly tricky though as it included a very confusing graph that I got stuck on about production capacity for a steel manufacturing company.
Told 15 minutes afterwards that I did not make it to the final round. Their only concern this time was my quantitative skills. Too slow and made a math error.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through an Employee Referral and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Jan 15, 2012
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3.0
Average Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Apr 2011 (took 5 days)
first round numerical test. two first rounds interviews on the phone. each interview was 45 min long. 15 min behavior questions and 30 min case. asked me to walk through my resume and a leadership example. make sure that you know your resume well. overall very positive experience.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Jan 13, 2012
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Dec 2011 in Madrid (Spain) (took 3 months)
First I was appointed for the Problem Solving Test, make sure you practice so you get faster at solving them. I would say that the acceptance threshold isn't too demanding, they want to prove you can work with numbers.
I received a call informing me that I passed the PST and that I move into the next round. They offered me the chance to talk with a junior employee who set up a conference to give us some advices and make a case study example. It was quite basic but it was still useful.
The first round of interviews consisted on two 1:1 interview, first you get asked about 1 personal experience (about 10-15 minutes) and then you move into the Case Study. I found quite surprising that they just asked about one experience (make sure you choose it well) and they don't go extremelly deep on it. The Case Study had medium difficulty because they help to guide you, so you have to pay attention to their signals.
I got a call saying that I passed the first round of interviews and I got offered to have a feedback session with one of the members that interviewed me (both Engagement Managers at McKinsey). Now I'm waiting to be appointed for the last round of interviews.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Dec 7, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Interviewed and No Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 (took 1 week)
Got the interview through campus recruiting. Upon being invited for a first round interview, I was assigned an interview coach who was very helpful in answering questions, and doing two practice cases over the phone.
Took a relatively hard test prior to the interview on campus.
Day of the interview: Everyone at the office was very friendly. The first round consisted of two interviews that followed the same structure:
1. Behavioral question with detailed follow up questions. Focused on one experience only.
2. Case question: Interviewer presented a case from their practicing area. Was given charts, and graphs. Case interview is very interviewer-driven, and follows a question and answer format.
A week later I was informed by one of the interviewers that I was not going to continue in the interview process. I had a chance to ask questions and get feedback on what I could have done better in the interview.
Interview Questions
Other Details
I got the interview through a College or University and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Nov 12, 2011
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Nov 2011 in New York, NY (took 3 weeks)
First rounds at Chicago office - two 45-min interviews with 15-20min behavioral and 25-30 min case. Behavioral is super intense and they'll drill down on the same situation for 15-20 min.
Interviewers clearly more direct than at other firms. Case itself wasn't as hard as other top firms, but McK will push back a lot more and use that as a way to see if you really understand business dynamics.
Interview Questions
Other Details
The interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview, a Skills Test and a Personality Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
Posted Oct 11, 2011 — 4 of 4 people found this helpful
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4.0
Difficult Interview
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Overall Positive Experience
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Received and Accepted Offer
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Interviewed Oct 2011 (took 3+ weeks)
I've initially applied online on the website, but apparently my application was "lost" by the office I ranked first in the process, and then tought I was rejected from all office. Two months later I discovered this fact, and applied directly to the office by email.
In 3 days I was contacted and scheduled for the PST in a 2/3 months (just missed one). But in the end this was good news because I trained a lot, using both online and paper resources: caseinterviews.com; Case in point; How to get into top consulting firms.
I cumulated 50 practice cases, 100+ hours of preparation, and GRE/GMAT training for the PST.
The test was very hard, time is tight and i had to answer a fair number of questions with educated guesses. But I guess the threeshold to pass the test is not so high.
Then I was called back for a motivational interview (eg tell me about a moment in which you demonstrated leadership) with a case, and then a little space for my questions to the interviewer, which are no less important!
Then the final round, with the same motivational + case format repeated 3 times in a day. Then I received the offer.
The only suggestion: be prepared, and think about every single word or assumption before it leaves your mouth! It should be inserted in a structure that you should have already presented to the interviewer.
And be relaxed and relatively friendly: they also want to check if they'd like to work with you till midnight without pick up a fight or get bored, or if you can meet a client and get along with him well without embarassing the firm.
Interview Questions
Negotiation Details
No negotiation: contract is very fair, and moreover it seems that any upward negotiation is just impossible, contracts are standard.
Other Details
I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a 1:1 Interview and a Skills Test.
Helpful Interview?
Yes |
No
Inappropriate?
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