Which interview are you sitting? Start-here reading paths

Most candidates open a consulting blog the way they open a bookstore: they wander. Interviewers do not wander. They score one format on one sheet for one firm that week. The mistake is treating prep as a catalog problem when it is a routing problem.

This hub is the start-here path, not the annotated shelf list. Name the interview you will sit, match the format, then read four to six posts in order. Each link below carries one sentence on what that post argues so you know why it is next. The sibling directory holds the full annotated catalog when you need a browse later.

After this page you should be able to point at a firm, a format, and a six-post stack without opening a second tab "just in case."

Step one: which interview will you sit?

Write the answer before you click anything. Firm, office or region if you know it, and whether the next gate is an online assessment, a live case, a fit or PEI slot, or a written or group exercise. If you are applying to three firms, pick the earliest interview date and route there first. Parallel applications do not justify parallel frameworks.

McKinsey publishes its interview design on its Interviewing page: personal experience plus problem-solving for most client-facing roles, with role-specific assessments where relevant. BCG lays out application, skills, case, and team stages on its interview process page. Bain describes digital assessment and case prep on its hiring process hub, including a digital assessment note that SOVA or TestGorilla may apply by office. Deloitte US publishes case and scenario interview tips for consultative roles. Use those pages as the ground truth for what the firm says it runs; everything else on the internet is commentary.

Ned's rule. Prep for the sheet in front of you this month. One firm, one format, one leak at a time. Collecting MBB folklore while you have a Deloitte job simulation next Tuesday is how strong resumes still stall.

McKinsey path: interviewer-led case, then PEI, then Solve if invited

McKinsey is the firm where candidates most often over-train the wrong muscle. The live case is interviewer-led: you answer the question on the table, not the case you wish you had. The PEI is not a soft opener; it is a scored story interview. Solve is a separate gate when your office uses it.

Read in this order:

1. McKinsey case interview guide — argues that McKinsey rewards crisp answers to interviewer prompts more than a candidate who "owns the room" the way BCG often wants.
2. Interviewer-led vs interviewee-led cases — argues that switching leadership mid-case is the most common silent score leak when candidates mix firm styles.
3. McKinsey PEI guide — argues that PEI is a deep dive on one experience per dimension, not a resume tour, and that shallow stories fail under follow-ups.
4. McKinsey PEI questions — argues for preparing two strong examples per dimension so you are not inventing under pressure.
5. McKinsey Solve guide — only if invited; argues that Solve is a timed simulation, not a proxy for spoken case skill.
6. McKinsey Redrock study guide or Sea Wolf guide — pick the module your invite names; each argues for practicing that game's constraints rather than generic brain teasers.

Then practice: one voice case for the live format, and the matching simulator (/mckinsey-red-rock, /mckinsey-sea-wolf, or /mckinsey-sfl) only after the invite text is clear.

BCG path: candidate-led case, then Casey if your office uses it

BCG's public case page stresses structure, clear communication, and judgment when there is no single right answer (case interview preparation). In the room that usually means you drive more of the agenda than at McKinsey. Casey, where used, is a different muscle again: chatbot pacing and a short recorded recommendation.

Read in this order:

1. BCG case interview guide — argues that BCG scores your ability to set a useful structure and revise it without waiting for the next prompt.
2. Case interview prep guide — argues for a method (structure, math, insight, synthesis) before firm folklore, so you know what to drill.
3. BCG case interview practice — argues that volume only helps when each rep has a scored debrief on the same dimensions.
4. BCG fit interview guide — argues that BCG fit is shorter and broader than McKinsey PEI, so story length and depth should match.
5. BCG online case Casey guide — only if your process includes Casey; argues that chatbot cases punish hesitation and reward clean chart reads under a clock.
6. BCG CCA practice — only if your office still routes you through CCA-style numericals; argues for timed arithmetic accuracy over case storytelling.

Then practice: Casey-style case or /tools/bcg-cca-simulator when the invite matches; otherwise a live voice case.

Bain path: case first, digital assessment when required

Bain's own materials treat the case as the core consulting signal and the digital assessment as an office-dependent gate (case interview, digital assessment). Do not assume every Bain office uses the same tool.

Read in this order:

1. Bain case interview guide — argues that Bain cases reward practical commercial judgment and clear recommendations, not ornate frameworks.
2. How to practice case interviews — argues that deliberate reps beat passive reading, with a concrete cadence for solo and partner practice.
3. Bain fit interview guide — argues for Bain-specific motivation and teamwork stories without copying McKinsey PEI length.
4. Bain SOVA test guide — only if your email names SOVA; argues for timed numerical and situational accuracy rather than case frameworks.
5. Numerical reasoning for consulting — useful whenever any firm sends an aptitude layer; argues that consulting numericals are speed-plus-accuracy under messy tables.
6. Bain practice cases — argues for practicing Bain-flavored prompts after the method is solid, not before.

Then practice: /bain-sova if invited; otherwise /interview for the live case.

Big Four and boutiques: same case skills, different process shape

Big Four and boutique processes share case DNA with MBB and diverge on assessments, written work, and how "fit" is weighted. Deloitte's US tips describe case and scenario interviews as tests of clarity, assumptions, recommendations, and next steps—not a memorized answer key. EY, KPMG, and PwC Strategy& routes vary by country and service line; read the firm guide that matches the vacancy, not a generic "Big Four" tip sheet.

Big Four reading order (pick your firm, then stay on it):

1. Big 4 vs MBB consulting — argues where pay, process, and interview style actually diverge so you stop prep as if every offer path were identical.
2. Firm case guide — Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, or Strategy& — each argues for that firm's mix of case, behavioral, and assessment gates.
3. Matching assessment guide when invited — Deloitte assessment, EY assessment, KPMG assessment, or PwC assessment — each argues what that tool measures so you do not prep it like a partner case.
4. Consulting written case and presentation playbook — when your process includes a written pack; argues that synthesis and slide logic matter as much as math.
5. Firm salary page only after you have a process map — Deloitte, EY, PwC — so compensation research does not displace interview skill work.

Boutique / Tier-2 reading order:

1. MBB vs boutique vs Tier-2 — argues how interview intensity and specialization differ so you set the right bar.
2. Your firm guide — for example Kearney, L.E.K., Oliver Wyman, Roland Berger, or Simon-Kucher — each argues the local case flavor and fit emphasis.
3. Case interview types — argues that market entry, profitability, and ops cases recycle the same score dimensions under different labels.
4. Behavioral interview consulting — argues for a small story bank reused across firms with firm-specific motivation answers swapped in.

Assessments, fit, recruiting, and pay shelves

These are side shelves, not parallel hubs. Open them when your invite or calendar makes them the bottleneck.

Assessments shelf (when the email names a tool): Consulting assessment practice for the map; then the firm-specific guide and simulator. McKinsey Solve, BCG Casey or CCA, Bain SOVA, and Big Four immersive or SHL-style tools are different tests. Mixing them is wasted hours.

Fit shelf: Case interview fit questions for the shared patterns; firm PEI or fit guides for depth. McKinsey PEI is the outlier in length and follow-up intensity. Everyone else still fails people who cannot explain "why this firm" without a slogan.

Recruiting shelf: MBA consulting recruiting timeline if you are on a school calendar; undergrad recruiting guide if you are earlier; consulting interview prep timeline for skill weeks (2 / 4 / 8 / 12), not recruiting season folklore; application deadlines 2026 when dates are the constraint; recruiting events guide before you burn evenings on info sessions with no ask.

Pay shelf: Consulting salary guide for the structure of base, bonus, and signing; salary by city when location drives the offer; 2026 salary report for a year-bound snapshot. Read pay after you know which interview you are sitting. Compensation research does not raise a case score.

Six focused hubs sit one level below this page. Each one is a curated directory with the reading order already decided, so open the one that matches your bottleneck rather than browsing the whole blog.

If you are recruiting from a business school, the school guides cover 26 programmes one by one: the recruiting calendar for that format, the offices that hire from that campus, and what changes about prep because of it. Start with your own school, then read the guide for the school whose graduates you will be compared against in the same office.

A 40-hour allocation you can reproduce

Suppose you have four weeks and about 10 focused hours a week before a first-round. That is 40 hours. Split them by format weight, not by article count.

If week two's debriefs show math as the leak, move two hours from cases into /drills/math or /drills/quick-math. If the invite is Casey-only next Friday, swap the live-case block for Casey reps and keep fit light until the live round is scheduled. The point of the table is the reallocation rule, not the exact numbers.

Practice this week, then stop collecting pages

1. Circle the firm and format from the table above.
2. Read only that path's posts, in order, until the annotations stop matching your invite.
3. Sit one timed rep today: /start for a five-minute typed first case, or /interview for the ~18-minute CopperCup voice case with a seven-score debrief. Everything on CoachNed is open for seven days with no card; then $120 for a recruiting season or $49 a month.
4. Fix the single leak the debrief names. Do not open the directory until that leak stops showing up.

CoachNed is independent and is not affiliated with McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, or any other firm named here.

Sources

• Interviewing at McKinsey — McKinsey's description of personal experience, problem-solving, and role-specific assessments. Checked 2026-09-24.
• BCG consulting interview process — BCG's published stages from application through skills, case, and team interviews. Checked 2026-09-24.
• BCG case interview preparation — BCG's own case expectations (structure, analysis, communication, judgment). Checked 2026-09-24.
• Bain hiring process — Bain's overview of role-specific hiring steps. Checked 2026-09-24.
• Bain digital assessment — Bain's note that SOVA or TestGorilla may apply by office and role. Checked 2026-09-24.
• Deloitte US case and scenario interview tips — Deloitte's five-step approach to case and scenario interviews. Checked 2026-09-24.