Summer Associate applicants have rated the interview process at McKinsey & Company with 3.9 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 73% positive. To compare, the company-average is 64.3% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Summer Associate roles take an average of 33 days to get hired, when considering 85 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at McKinsey & Company overall takes an average of 40 days.
Common stages of the interview process at McKinsey & Company as a Summer Associate according to 85 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 41%
Skills test: 19%
IQ intelligence test: 12%
Group panel interview: 6%
Presentation: 6%
Personality test: 6%
Other: 3%
Background check: 3%
Phone interview: 3%
Drug test: 1%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through college or university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company (New York, NY) in Feb 2015
Interview
Initial resume screening, Long process with 2 rounds of interviews. First round contained two case interviews and fit questions. Third round involved 3 back to back hour long interviews with joint case studies and fit questions. Personal experience questions are very specific and you need to know exactly what your story is, how you contributed, and what you learned. You receive a buddy at the office you are interviewing with who will call you and give you tips and a practice case if you want it which you should definitely take advantage of. The third round is a long day. I was called to go to New York extremely last minute. At 4pm I was called and told I was expected to drop all school work and get on a 4 hour train into the city to arrive at the office at 8am the next day for interviews.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What would a city want to consider when deciding to install public wifi
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