A case interview gives you a short business problem and about 30 to 40 minutes to work it through out loud. There's rarely one right answer. The interviewer is watching how you think.
Most cases follow the same arc: clarify the question, structure your approach, analyze data and do the math, then recommend. Two formats are common:
- Interviewer-led: the interviewer asks a set series of questions and hands you each exhibit. You answer what is asked, well.
- Candidate-led: you decide what to look at next and ask for the data. The interviewer follows your lead.
Interviewers score four things: structure, analysis and math, business judgment, and communication. The common ways to lose points: jumping into math before structuring, reciting a memorized framework, calculating in silence, and ending without a clear answer.
0:00 Prompt listen and write it down
1:00 Clarify goal, timeframe, scope
3:00 Structure a minute or two of quiet thinking is normal
8:00 Analyze exhibits, data requests, math out loud
25:00 Recommend answer first, the numbers, a risk, a next step
A typical 30-minute case. The times are rough; the order matters more.