I applied through university. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company (Atlanta, GA) in Feb 2009
Interview
Three rounds of interviews, including one by a partner. The cases seemed quite straightforward - fairly manageable numbers and structure. Seemed like the interviewers were looking for very specific answers to match their checklist of "approved responses"... but maybe that's just my imagination. The partner gave an older case, clearly one that he had used for several years and was quite familiar with.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Carpet manufacturing company, profitability has been declining, investigate why.
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