A curated map of CoachNed consulting interview guides

Search dumps every firm name and framework into one ranking. A directory does the opposite: it groups guides by the decision you are actually making this week. Use the sections below as a reading order, not a reading list.

McKinsey, BCG, and Bain each publish their own interviewing pages—Interviewing at McKinsey, BCG's case interview preparation, and Bain's interviewing hub—and those pages are where the official process language lives. Everything linked here is independent commentary and practice material; CoachNed is not affiliated with any firm named below.

How to use this page: pick one heading that matches your bottleneck, open three annotated links, then practice. If you want a single starting case, take the five-minute first rep at /start.

MBB interviews

• McKinsey case interview guide — Argues that McKinsey cases reward interviewer-led structure and PEI depth more than memorized frameworks.
• McKinsey practice cases — Maps which public McKinsey sample cases teach what, and how to sequence them before a live mock.
• BCG case interview guide — Contends BCG interviews lean interviewee-led, so your first two minutes of structure carry more weight than at McKinsey.
• BCG case interview practice — Shows how to convert BCG-style cases into repeatable reps without recycling the same framework every time.
• Bain case interview guide — Claims Bain's case style is closer to a client conversation: crisp math, clear recommendation, less theater.
• MBB — Compares McKinsey, BCG, and Bain interview shapes so you stop preparing one generic "MBB case."
• First round vs final round — Explains why final rounds punish recovery theater and reward calm synthesis under partner pressure.
• Case interview scoring rubric — Translates interviewer scorecards into seven dimensions you can grade yourself against after each mock.
• How to practice case interviews — Argues volume without a scoring loop is noise; a weekly cadence with debriefs beats endless partner hunting.
• Case interview tips and mistakes — Lists the failure modes interviewers actually mark—rambling structure, silent math, buried recommendation—not folklore tips.

Assessments and games

• McKinsey Solve guide — Separates what McKinsey's Solve assessment page states from candidate folklore about "games prep."
• McKinsey Redrock study guide — Walks the Redrock study format as a chart-and-math exercise, not a video-game skill.
• McKinsey Sea Wolf guide — Argues Sea Wolf rewards triage under time pressure more than perfect optimization.
• McKinsey Ecosystem Building guide — Treats Ecosystem as a constrained optimization puzzle and shows how to avoid common scoring traps.
• McKinsey SFL guide — Explains the Solve for Leadership variant and when offices still use it.
• BCG online case (Casey) — Frames Casey as a chatbot case: short answers, chart reads, and a recommendation clock.
• BCG Casey simulator compared — Compares practice approaches for Casey so you pick a format that matches the live product.
• BCG CCA practice test — Breaks the Consulting Career Assessment into numericals you can drill without guessing the scoring curve.
• Bain SOVA test guide — Aligns with Bain's digital assessment page: aptitude + situational judgment, office-dependent.
• BCG Pymetrics guide — Describes what Pymetrics-style games measure and what they do not predict about case performance.
• Best MBB assessment simulators — Ranks which simulators are worth time before Solve, Casey, CCA, or SOVA.
• Consulting assessment practice — Gives a cross-firm practice order so assessments do not eat the weeks you need for live cases.

Frameworks and math

• Case interview frameworks complete guide — Argues frameworks are scaffolding, not answers, and shows when to abandon a canned tree.
• Profitability framework — Rebuilds profit cases as driver trees so you stop dumping "price, volume, cost" without a hypothesis.
• MECE principle explained — Shows how interviewers spot fake MECE (overlapping buckets dressed as structure).
• Issue tree case interview — Teaches issue trees as the real product of a clarifying minute, not a PowerPoint template.
• Market sizing step by step — Walks a sizing you can reproduce: assumptions stated, units checked, sanity band at the end.
• Case interview math mental shortcuts — Gives interviewer-side tolerance for rounding and the shortcuts that keep you talking while computing.
• Break-even analysis — Turns break-even into a two-equation habit instead of a formula you forget under stress.
• Porter's Five Forces in cases — Shows when Five Forces helps a market-entry case and when it wastes the clock.
• Pyramid Principle — Argues synthesis is a top-down answer first, evidence second—not a summary of your whiteboard.
• Consulting framework mistakes — Catalogs the framework errors that cost points even when the math is right.

Industry cases

• Healthcare case interview — Shows how payer, provider, and pharma cases diverge so you stop using one "healthcare" tree.
• Retail case interview — Argues retail cases live or die on unit economics and channel mix, not brand slogans.
• Consumer goods case interview — Maps CPG cases to brand, trade, and cost levers interviewers actually probe.
• Pharma case interview — Separates pipeline, pricing, and access questions so candidates stop treating pharma like generic tech.
• Energy case interview — Frames energy cases around regulation, capex cycles, and commodity risk—not only "green transition."
• Technology case interview — Contends tech cases reward product metrics and go-to-market clarity over buzzword strategy.
• Airline case interview — Walks load factor, yield, and network math so airline cases stop feeling like trivia.
• Private equity case interview — Shows how PE diligence cases differ from classic strategy cases: value creation plan before elegance.
• Financial services case interview — Argues bank and insurer cases need balance-sheet intuition, not only revenue trees.
• Operations case interview — Puts process, capacity, and bottleneck thinking ahead of generic "cost cut" lists.

Fit and PEI

• McKinsey PEI guide — Treats PEI as a scored interview, not a warm-up: dimensions, story length, and depth of reflection.
• McKinsey PEI questions — Collects the question shapes McKinsey uses so you prepare stories, not scripts.
• BCG fit interview guide — Argues BCG fit rewards motivation clarity and coachability as much as leadership drama.
• Bain fit interview guide — Shows Bain's behavioral bar: results ownership plus collaboration, told without fluff.
• Behavioral interview consulting — Gives a cross-firm behavioral method that survives when the question is not a PEI dimension label.
• STAR method for consulting — Adapts STAR so the Result is quantified and the Reflection is what interviewers score.
• Tell me about yourself — Argues the opening pitch should end in a consulting-relevant thesis, not a biography.
• Leadership story examples — Shows how to pick stories with conflict and agency instead of resume highlights.
• BCG behavioral questions — Maps common BCG behavioral prompts to the competencies behind them.
• Bain behavioral questions — Separates Bain's preferred answer shape from generic "teamwork" essays.

Firm guides

• What is MBB consulting — Defines McKinsey, BCG, and Bain without the mythology, including where they actually differ for candidates.
• Big 4 vs MBB — Compares pay, interview styles, and strategy arms so you choose a process, not a brand.
• Deloitte case interview — Walks Deloitte's case and assessment mix as its own product, not a diluted MBB copy.
• Strategy& case interview — Argues Strategy& interviews blend PwC logistics with strategy-case standards.
• Kearney case interview — Positions Kearney as operations-heavy cases with less PEI theater than McKinsey.
• Oliver Wyman case interview — Highlights Oliver Wyman's quantitative tilt and financial-services depth in cases.
• L.E.K. case interview — Contends L.E.K. rewards crisp market sizing and commercial diligence habits.
• Roland Berger case interview — Frames Roland Berger's European process and case expectations for applicants outside the US.
• Accenture case interview — Separates Strategy vs delivery interview tracks so you prep the right format.
• Consulting firms in the UK — Maps who hires in London and what pay and process look like as of 2026.
• Consulting firms in India — Covers MBB and Big 4 India recruiting realities for campus and lateral candidates.
• Consulting firms in Singapore — Treats Singapore as a SEA hub: which offices hire, and how interviews differ from US campus.

Pay

• Consulting salary guide — Explains base, bonus, and signing so offer comparisons stop mixing apples and total cash.
• Consulting salary report 2026 — Gives the 2026 season numbers CoachNed publishes, with ranges labeled as estimates where firms stay silent.
• Consulting salary by city — Shows how geography and cost of living change the same title's take-home.
• McKinsey salary — Breaks McKinsey pay by level with the caveat that offices and years move the figures.
• BCG salary — Compares BCG compensation bands to peers without inventing precision the firm does not publish.
• Bain salary — Puts Bain's packages next to McKinsey and BCG so candidates stop treating "MBB" as one number.
• Deloitte consulting salary — Separates Deloitte Consulting / GPS / strategy-arm pay so LinkedIn screenshots stop misleading.
• Kearney salary — Places Kearney against MBB and Big 4 for associate and consultant levels.
• Oliver Wyman salary — Covers Oliver Wyman total cash with the usual disclaimer on bonus variance.
• Consulting offer negotiation — Argues what is negotiable (signing, start date, office) versus what usually is not (base band).

Recruiting and applications

• How to get into consulting — Gives a realistic path from resume to offer without pretending every school has equal access.
• Is consulting right for you — Asks the questions candidates skip: travel, ambiguity, and exit paths versus prestige.
• Consulting career path — Maps analyst to partner timelines and where people actually leave.
• Consulting resume guide — Shows what recruiters scan in thirty seconds: impact verbs, quantification, and signal density.
• Consulting cover letter guide — Contends most letters should be short and firm-specific, or skipped when the office does not read them.
• Consulting networking guide — Treats networking as information gathering, not a referral lottery.
• Coffee chat guide — Gives a twenty-minute coffee-chat agenda that does not waste the consultant's time.
• Referral strategy guide — Separates warm intros from cold asks, and when a referral actually moves the pile.
• Application deadlines 2026 — Lists season deadlines with "as of" dating so you do not trust a stale spreadsheet.
• MBA recruiting timeline — Puts MBA consulting recruiting on a calendar from spring networking to fall interviews.
• Undergrad recruiting guide — Explains campus pipelines, clubs, and when off-cycle applications are realistic.
• Case interview prep for MBA students — Frames MBA prep as a sprint with assessments and PEI sharing the calendar with cases.

Schools and casebooks

• HBS case book — Shows how to use the Harvard casebook as drills, not as a substitute for live feedback.
• Wharton case book — Argues Wharton cases are strong for market-entry and profitability reps if you score yourself.
• Chicago Booth case book — Points to Booth's book for quantitative cases that punish sloppy units.
• Kellogg case book — Treats Kellogg's cases as good interviewee-led practice with clear exhibits.
• Columbia case book — Maps which Columbia cases teach structure versus which teach chart reading.
• INSEAD case book — Notes INSEAD's international flavor and how to adapt currency and market assumptions.
• MIT Sloan case book — Highlights Sloan cases that reward first-principles sizing over canned frameworks.
• Darden case book — Positions Darden's book as a solid free library when partner supply is thin.
• Yale case book — Shows how to extract practice value from Yale cases without copying outdated answers.
• Duke Fuqua case book — Gives a reading order for Fuqua cases so you cover profitability, entry, and ops once each.
• Best MBA programs for consulting — Ranks consulting placement signal without pretending rank equals interview skill.

CoachNed tools

• CoachNed drill engine — Explains the six AI-graded skills and why short graded drills beat ungraded chat practice.
• Seven-dimension grading — Shows the score sheet Ned uses so you know what "better" means after a case.
• CoachNed voice mode — Argues speaking a case aloud exposes silence and filler that typing hides.
• CoachNed guided cases — Describes turn-by-turn cases for candidates who still need scaffolding before freeform mocks.
• CoachNed quick math — Points to free forever math drills for the candidates who lose points on arithmetic, not structure.
• CoachNed resume grader — Runs a consulting-specific resume pass before you burn a referral on a vague bullet list.
• CoachNed free tools hub — Lists what stays free versus what the seven-day open access covers.
• Free case interview drills — Gives a no-signup drill path for structure, math, charts, sizing, synthesis, and brainstorming.
• Prep hub — Is the season map: where to start if this directory felt like too many doors.
• Interview coaching — Compares AI practice to human coaching so you spend money only where feedback is scarce.

Start here this week

If you have seven days: one firm guide, one assessment guide if you have a test invite, three framework or industry posts matched to your target cases, then daily drills at /drills/quick-math and one live voice case at /interview. Everything on CoachNed is open for seven days with no card; then $120 for a recruiting season or $49 a month.

Sources

• Interviewing at McKinsey — Official description of personal experience and problem-solving interviews. Checked 2026-09-24.
• Solve, McKinsey's assessment game — Firm statement on Solve and assessment integrity rules. Checked 2026-09-24.
• BCG case interview preparation — BCG's public case-interview expectations and preparation tips. Checked 2026-09-24.
• BCG consulting interview process — Step overview including skills and case interviews. Checked 2026-09-24.
• Bain interviewing — Bain's role-dependent interview formats for consulting and other tracks. Checked 2026-09-24.
• Bain digital assessment — Official note on Sova / TestGorilla timing and office variation. Checked 2026-09-24.
• Bain case interview preparation — Bain's published case prep materials and interview tips. Checked 2026-09-24.