I applied through college or university. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company (Washington, DC) in Jan 2015
Interview
Round 1 interview
Did 2 case + behavioral interviews
Though I did quiet well both on behavioral and cases.
It would have been better if I got feedback from my first interviewer who I thought was the one to ding me as my second case interview went really well. Everyone else was provided feedback on the interview but my interviewer didn't even after I emailed her asking for one. That ruined the entire process for me becuase I had really connected well with the company and wanted to get some honest feedback on what I could improve upon.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Stumbled a bit on the first case which included estimating an issue with one of the retail package products of a CPG company.
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