Consulting Case Book PDF's
I went through the consulting interview process a few months ago and found these case books really useful for practicing, both with people in mock interviews and for solo issue tree practice. I have also really benefited time and time again from WSO so thought I might give something back by leaving all this here. It includes older Harvard consulting case books and Wharton Consulting casebooks.
these books are all readily "findable" on the internet if you look hard enough but can be a little time consuming.
Hope they help someone out!
Recommended Reading
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Darden 2012 1.5 MB | 1.5 MB |
| fuqua 2014 3.25 MB | 3.25 MB |
| HBS (older) 2.93 MB | 2.93 MB |
| Illinois 2015 4.02 MB | 4.02 MB |
| INSEAD 2011 1.19 MB | 1.19 MB |
| LBS 2013 3.09 MB | 3.09 MB |
| McCombs 2008 801.46 KB | 801.46 KB |
| McGill 2013 4.68 MB | 4.68 MB |
| Wharton 2007 412.78 KB | 412.78 KB |
| Wharton 2009 1.54 MB | 1.54 MB |
| Wharton 2010 758.61 KB | 758.61 KB |
| HBS 2011 1.94 MB | 1.94 MB |
Thank you for uploading all these resources. Was curious how many times did you go over these cases in order to feel pretty confident in the interview? I've seen some on this forum gone through 25-50+ cases to be prepared for case interviews.
I went through consulting recruiting last year, and from what I've seen, 25-50 is not at all uncommon for successful candidates. That said, the ideal number varies from person to person.
Personally, I hit diminishing returns around my 20th case, although I still did about 30 by the end. Looking back, I think I plateaued earlier than most people, since I had pretty good business intuition to start with (probably thanks to my multiple internships in finance beforehand). Recruiting went quite well for me, as I reached the final round at 3/4ths of the places I interviewed before I took an equity research offer instead.
However, if you have no business experience/intuition whatsoever, you'll probably need to do 50 at minimum -- I had a pre-med friend who still needed a lot of improvement at his 30th case, and I doubt 40 would've been enough for him either. And there are also some people out there who virtually never hit diminishing returns with practice. The more they practice, the better they get.
That's the critical ingredient - "practice".
Although it's certainly ideal to practice in person with someone so you can practice your communication and adaptability when you are challenged on your logic, you can still get a lot out of practicing yourself. Just read the case opening and practice making your issue trees, take your time and do it very thoroughly, speed can come later.
One thing that surprised me when I did my interviews, was how much time you actually have to do things like your issue trees and lay out your structure. In many cases I would take a minute or two to do my introductory issue tree and I would go to start talking and they would remind me not to rush and take all the time I need. So don't ever feel like you are in a rush... You probably won't be remembered if you take 1 minute longer than usual, but you will if you rush it and perform poorly.
Another key piece of advice which worked for me was taking time to think about how to segment each piece of analysis and to keep it as un-technical (or fancy) as possible for as many layers as necessary. As an example, I come from an oil and gas drilling background, and when the question was, words to the effect of "how our client, big oil, increase their production across the reservoir portfolio" my mind starts thinking of all sorts of technical things like seawater steam injection, advanced perforation stimulation etc. But the correct answer in this case would probably be something like:
how our client, big oil, increase their production across the reservoir portfolio? There are two options (one or both of the following): 1) increase recovery per reservoir 2) increase number of reservoirs
This is a completely non technical answer, and anyone who did grade 5 math can probably follow the logic, but this is what you should be aiming for. If you then wanted to look at 1. above, you would do something like:
Increase recovery per reservoir (one or both of the following): a) increase number of wells b) increase flow rate per well
*potentially at this point you might have to start looking at something a little more technical, but this would almost certainly be out of scope for a strategy case interview.
On the other side "2) increase number of reservoirs" you would do something like the following:
a) Find new reservoirs (Notice how plain and simple the language is. don't try and sound sophisticated) b) Buy reservoirs
Under "a) Find new reservoirs", you could look at something like:
i) further explore current fields ii) explore new fields
The next question could be something like how would you select which field to explore from the following list (or something like that)
This is all fictitious and likely more simple then the interviews you might see at MBB, but it's an illustration as to the sort of simplicity you need to be thinking with.
I have attached an example of how you could do this in an interview, and how simple it would look. I would have another sheet where I have scribbled down the actual question and as a bit of a scratch pad, but the actual issue tree should be as clean as possible. You can then talk through your logic while pointing to each section of your tree.
They will almost certainly have a specific area they want you to look at anyway, so this is all just to see how your logic works. They could have a sheet of paper with some semi technical information about where they could explore next, some different reservoirs they might be able to purchase, a few options for increasing flow etc etc. Your job would then be to show some sort of logical and structured approach to choosing a specific recommendation and why, that part will almost certainly have some math involved.
If anyone has any more questions I am more than happy to help. I am certainly no expert, but have spent so much time on this over the last year, it would be a shame not to pass it on to at least one person.
Good luck!!!
one more easy practical tip that comes to mind for those who have interviews coming up to consider...
When you have a math Problem, explain every step while you are doing it, regardless of how simple it may look to you. They will often ask you to do this anyway, but for whatever reason, some might not. There are three reasons that come to mind for why you do this:
Conversely, lets say that after you get your math problem, you bury your head in your paper, scratch numbers all over your page, and after an awkwardly long time, produce you answer, and it's is wrong! The interviewer suggests you have another go, you go back and try again, even more anxious than you were the first time, and make another mistake. At this point you are basically cooked.
I would split math problems in two two main types: 1. Defined: when you are given all the data you need to complete your calculation and really all you have to do, is walk them through your process. eg "If price is your only consideration, which company should you use to paint the inside of the clients pool" and you have a table in front of you with the dimensions of the pool, and a table containing a few different companies, each with how many coats of paint they recommend, how thick a coat is when wet, and a volume price for the paint. They may be even more tricky and trow in a few colors or something.
My preferred process when I came across one of these problems was as follows: 1. Repeat the question back to them, and WRITE IT DOWN. So many times when I was practicing I would passively listen to the question, race into all the math, and then at the end forget that the question was, for example, how the paint will cost, not how much of it you will need. This sounds simple, but your brain can do weird things in the heat of the moment. 2. Ask to take a moment... then use that moment to think about the problem and sketch out your thoughts on your scratch paper (not your neat one), how you will solve it, what you currently know, and what you will need to know. 3. If you are missing inputs, then go through the process outlined above. 4. talk them through your process: this sounds simple enough, but don't try and be Einstein, just think back to how you did it at school, write the actual formula down i.e. "profit = revenue - cost", then sub in the things you need, then perform the calc. chances are, that after you listed your assumptions, the interviewer will give you the assumptions they would like you to use (just so it's easy for them to follow the math). Because you are doing this with them and explaining every single step, and writing it down as you go, if you do something silly like drop a zero, mess a decimal point, or forget that 4/2=2 they will say something like "hmmm, hold on, take another look at that bit" (hopefully). 5. Get to the end, check you answered the actual question and put it forward confidently
Guys and girls, I know some of this sounds like really basic simple stuff, but I am deliberately writing this with so much detail because these little things can be the difference between coming off polished and taking a few extra minutes, and coming off like you are in a rush and sloppy... No amount of MECE practice can redeem getting the same math problem wrong 3 times in a row.
A few examples to think about below (do yourself a favour and refrain from jumping on wiki, I know this is full of unknowns, but practice making some assumptions):
How much oil flows out of an oil well each day? How much will it cost to re-carpet all the floors of the empire state building? What is the sales revenues from coca-cola vending machines in Chicago?