A case interview is a type of interview that is commonly used by management consulting to assess a candidate’s problem-solving and analytical skills. It involves presenting a candidate with a business problem or scenario and asking them to solve it in real time. The interview is designed to simulate the types of problems that consultants…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated June 12, 2026 A second-round case interview is the final, partner-led round of consulting recruiting, and it is not harder than your first round. The case standards, the skills tested, and the evaluation criteria stay the same. What changes is who sits across from you, what…
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Updated May 2026 | By Florian Smeritschnig, Former McKinsey Senior Consultant Roughly half of consultants at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain don’t have a business or finance background. Engineers, lawyers, doctors, military officers, and academics together make up the majority of MBB hires once you set MBA recruiting aside. Firms aren’t reluctantly accepting non-traditional candidates —…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated June 2026 MECE stands for mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive. It is a way of splitting a problem into buckets that do not overlap (mutually exclusive) and that leave nothing important out (collectively exhaustive). In a case interview, a MECE structure breaks the problem into clean, complete…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated June 15, 2026 The strengths and weaknesses questions feel easy, so candidates answer them lazily, with a generic strength and a fake weakness like “I’m a perfectionist.” That answer quietly costs them. In a consulting interview, this is a self-awareness and authenticity screen: name one relevant…
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Florian spent five years at McKinsey as a Senior Consultant and is a highly experienced consulting interviewer and problem-solving coach. Having conducted interviews with hundreds of candidates, he understands exactly what top-tier firms look for in successful applicants.
He founded StrategyCase.com to make top consulting careers more accessible by providing tailored, up-to-date insights into the recruiting process. Recognized as the most successful case and fit interview coach, Florian has helped his clients secure 700+ offers at MBB, Tier-2 firms, Big 4 consulting divisions, in-house consultancies, and boutique firms over the past four years.
He is the author of “The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview,” “The 1%: Case Interview Workbook,” and “Consulting Career Secrets”, all available on Amazon.
