The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company (Palo Alto, CA) in Jan 2010
Interview
interviewed with McK for summer associate position as an APD candidate, advanced to round 2. The Problem solving test in Round 1 wasn't too difficult - just a lot to read during a short period of time. I recommend brushing up your math for that.
3 1:1 case interviews for round 2. 2 interviews involved personal experience questions where you should focus on (1) your leadership skills in overcoming a challenge (2) the outcome. One of the cases was hard with a lot of calculation and some tricky questions. The other two cases were ok.
The interviewers said I did well on the cases, but didn't have enough leadership skills; hence they couldn't move me onto the next round. In retrospect, I would definitely have talked more about my leadership experiences during the interview.
On campus, met with three different partners/associate partners. Behavioral question followed with case. Behavioral interview they were fishing for something very specific in the story and more often than not I didn't even get to the end of what I prepared.
Case was much shorter than Case Book examples. They take your scrap work so make sure it's clean.
1)Framework (MECE is very important to them)
2)Insights from Graph (Important to hit 3rd level insights)
3) Math Calculation (Math wasn't complicated but had many coponents, organization is key)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time where you handled a conflict with a coworker
Long and hard. Overall, the people were really nice, but one of the partners in my very last interview gave me a very difficult time with one specific chart. The cases were much harder than I had actually prepared for.
I applied online. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company in Jan 2026
Interview
It consisted of three case interviews and a personal experience interview question. Mine were in one day back to back. The PEI was pretty standard. the case interviews were difficult.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe a challenging situation you encountered when working with someone of an opposing opinion