50 case interview examples to practice, set in US markets
Every case below is a full interview prompt with the data a candidate is given up front: profitability, market entry, M&A and private equity, pricing, growth, operations, cost reduction, go-to-market and competitive strategy. They are written in the interviewer-led style McKinsey uses and the candidate-led style common at BCG and Bain. Read a prompt, then practice it live with MECE's AI interviewer, which answers your clarifying questions, pushes back on your structure and scores you out of 100.
Profitability cases
Grocery retail · medium · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~20 min
A Midwest grocery chain's margins have nearly halved
Heartland Fresh is a regional supermarket chain whose EBITDA margin has fallen from 5.8% to 3.1% in two years while sales stayed flat. The CEO wants to know what happened and what to fix first.
What you know
180 stores across Ohio, Indiana and Michigan; revenue $6.3B, flat for two years.
Store labor rose from 12.0% to 13.7% of sales after wage increases.
Shrink (theft, spoilage, damage) rose from 1.8% to 2.6% of sales.
Private label fell from 22% to 18% of sales; private label earns a gross margin 10 points higher than national brands.
Your task
What drove the 2.7-point margin decline? Put a dollar figure on each driver.
Which driver is most fixable within 12 months, and why?
Restaurants · easy · Deloitte-style, interviewer-led · ~15 min
Why is a Southeast restaurant chain suddenly losing money?
A family-owned casual-dining chain with 22 restaurants in Georgia and the Carolinas went from a healthy profit to a loss in two years. The owners want to understand why.
What you know
Revenue fell from $66M to $58M.
Food cost rose from 29% to 33% of sales; labor stayed at 32% of sales.
Guest counts fell 15%; the average check rose 3%.
Rent, utilities, marketing and other operating costs are fixed at about $22M a year.
Your task
What was profit before and after? Walk the bridge.
Airlines · medium · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
A low-cost airline's unit costs are rising faster than fares
A US low-cost carrier's operating margin dropped from 9% to about 2% in one year. Fares have held up; costs have not. The CFO wants a cost bridge and a plan.
What you know
120 narrow-body aircraft flying 30 billion available seat miles (ASMs) a year.
Revenue per ASM is flat at 12.0 cents; cost per ASM rose from 10.9 to 11.8 cents.
Fuel was 30% of costs, and the jet fuel price rose 20%.
A new pilot contract added about $90M a year in crew costs.
Travel & leisure · medium · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
A Colorado ski resort's profits have halved
An independent Colorado ski resort saw EBITDA fall from $40M to $20M over two seasons. The owners blame the weather. They want to know if that is the whole story and what to do.
What you know
Skier visits fell from 900K to 780K; average lift-ticket yield rose from $90 to $98 per visit.
Revenue fell from $180M to $168M; everything that is not lift tickets (lodging, food, ski school, rentals) scales with visits.
Operating costs rose from $140M to $148M: +$5M for employee housing and +$3M of wages.
The mega-resort season passes now cover several nearby mountains.
Your task
Build the EBITDA bridge from $40M to $20M.
How much is weather, and how much is controllable?
Industrials · hard · Kearney-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
A US steel mini-mill's profits collapse as prices fall
An electric-arc-furnace steel mill in Indiana saw operating profit fall from about $370M to about $50M in a year. The CEO wants to understand the split between price and volume before deciding whether to chase volume.
What you know
Capacity is 2M tons a year; utilization fell from 90% to 72%.
Steel price fell from $1,050 to $850 a ton; scrap (the main input) fell from $450 to $400 a ton, and each ton of steel needs 1.1 tons of scrap.
Other variable conversion costs are $250 a ton; fixed costs are $180M a year.
Your task
Rebuild profit before and after.
Split the decline into spread (price minus scrap cost) and volume.
Media & entertainment · medium · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
A cinema chain's profits keep falling
A US cinema chain with 150 theaters has gone from a solid profit to a loss. Ticket prices are up, but fewer people come. The CEO wants a bridge and a plan.
What you know
Attendance fell from 60M to 42M; the average ticket rose from $11.00 to $12.50.
Concessions average $7.50 per visitor at a 70% margin.
Film rental costs 52% of box office; fixed costs are about $520M a year.
Automotive retail · easy · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~15 min
A Texas car-dealership group's profits dropped by half
A 12-store dealership group in Texas had record profits when car supply was tight. Now that inventory has returned, profits have fallen by half. The owner asks what to do.
What you know
The group sells 24,000 new cars a year; gross profit per new car fell from $4,800 to $2,300.
It sells 20,000 used cars a year at ~$2,000 of gross profit each.
Finance and insurance earns ~$1,800 of gross profit per vehicle sold; service and parts earn $150M a year (stable).
Selling, general and administrative costs are $260M a year.
Restaurants · medium · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
A Canadian coffee chain eyes the US Northeast
Maple & Bean, a 400-store Canadian coffee chain, wants to open 60 US stores over three years in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The board asks whether the Northeast is worth it and how to win against entrenched players.
What you know
A mature US store should make $1.4M in annual revenue at a 16% four-wall margin.
Build-out costs $900K per store; new stores take 18 months to reach maturity.
Starbucks and Dunkin' together hold roughly 60% of US coffee-shop sales.
Your task
Is the Northeast an attractive market?
What payback does the store plan imply, and what does 60 stores require?
Banking · hard · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~25 min
A national bank considers a digital-only brand for Gen Z
A top-10 US bank is losing young customers to digital-only banks. The CEO is considering a separate app-only brand aimed at Americans aged 18 to 27 and wants a view on the economics and the odds of success.
What you know
About 70M Americans are aged 18–27; roughly 20% bank primarily with a digital-only bank.
Expected customer economics: $120 a year of revenue, $30 a year of servicing cost, $150 to acquire.
Building the platform costs $250M over three years, and running it about $60M a year.
The bank's target is 3M customers by year five.
Your task
What are the unit economics and payback per customer?
Should a Florida dental group expand into Atlanta?
A private-equity-backed dental group with 60 offices in Florida wants to expand into metro Atlanta. It can build new offices or buy existing practices.
What you know
Average office revenue is $1.8M at an 18% EBITDA margin.
Metro Atlanta has about 6.3M people; ~55% of adults visit a dentist each year, spending about $600 each.
Building a new office costs $1.1M and takes about two years to mature; existing practices sell for ~5x EBITDA.
Health insurance · hard · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
Should a health insurer enter Medicare Advantage in Arizona?
A Midwestern health insurer sells commercial plans only. Its board wants to enter Medicare Advantage (MA) in Arizona, one of the fastest-growing retirement markets, and targets 30,000 members within three years.
What you know
Arizona has about 1.4M Medicare beneficiaries; about 40% are in Medicare Advantage.
Average MA revenue is ~$14,000 per member per year; a mature plan runs an 86% medical loss ratio and 10% admin cost.
Plans rated 4 stars or higher earn a bonus of roughly 5% of revenue.
New plans typically run a ~92% medical loss ratio in their first two years.
Your task
How big is the opportunity and what share does the target imply?
Fitness · easy · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~15 min
Should a gym chain launch boutique Pilates studios?
A national gym chain sees members leaving for boutique Pilates studios. It is considering opening its own reformer Pilates studios next to existing gyms.
What you know
A studio has 12 reformer machines and runs 8 classes a day, every day.
Average price per class (after package discounts) is $32; expected fill rate is 75%.
Rent and staff cost about $55K a month; build-out costs $450K.
Energy · hard · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~25 min
Should a California solar installer push into home batteries?
California cut how much homeowners are credited for exporting solar power to the grid, which makes storing it in a home battery more valuable. A residential solar installer asks whether to make batteries a core business.
What you know
The installer does 15,000 solar installs a year in California; 20% include a battery today.
A battery system sells for $14,000 installed at a 22% gross margin; the federal tax credit covers 30% for the homeowner.
With the new rules, a battery saves a typical homeowner about $1,000 a year, and utility virtual-power-plant programs pay about $500 a year more.
About 1.5M California homes already have solar; roughly 3% a year might add a battery.
Telecom · hard · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
A cable company is losing broadband customers to 5G home internet
A US cable operator's broadband base, its profit engine, shrank last year as wireless carriers pushed cheap 5G home internet. The board wants to know how much is at risk and whether to cut prices.
What you know
5M broadband subscribers paying $70 a month on average; broadband gross margin is about 75%.
The company lost 300K subscribers net last year to fixed wireless priced at $50 a month.
Fixed wireless now wins 45% of new connections in its footprint.
Winning back a churned customer costs about $450.
Your task
How much revenue and profit is at risk?
Evaluate cutting price, targeted retention and a mobile bundle.
Restaurants · easy · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~15 min
A New England bakery-café chain has hit a plateau
A 28-unit bakery-café chain in Massachusetts and Connecticut has seen flat sales for two years. The owners want growth without betting the company on new stores.
What you know
Average unit revenue is $1.5M; 60% of sales happen before 11 a.m.
Lunch is about 25% of sales.
Catering is 5% of sales, vs about 12% at peer chains.
Higher education · medium · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~20 min
A private university's enrollment keeps falling
A private university in Ohio has lost 12% of its undergraduates in five years and faces the Midwest 'demographic cliff' of fewer 18-year-olds. The president asks how to stabilize tuition revenue.
What you know
8,000 undergraduates; list tuition $42,000 but the average discount rate is 55%, so net tuition is ~$18,900.
Each freshman class has about 2,000 students; first-year retention is 78% vs 85% at peers.
The number of 18-year-olds in the Midwest is projected to fall about 10% by 2035.
Online degree programs for working adults at peer schools charge about $12,000 a year.
Your task
How big is net tuition revenue today, and what are the levers?
Apparel · hard · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
A premium outdoor-apparel brand's growth is slowing
A premium outdoor-apparel brand grew fast for a decade but is now flat at $1.2B. Warm winters hurt its core outerwear. The CEO asks for a growth plan that is less exposed to the weather.
What you know
Channels: wholesale 55%, direct-to-consumer e-commerce 30%, own stores 15%.
Direct-to-consumer gross margin is 65% vs 45% for wholesale.
60% of revenue is outerwear; only 28% of customers buy again within a year.
Consumer goods · easy · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~15 min
A fresh dog-food subscription brand wants to keep growing
A direct-to-consumer fresh dog-food brand has reached ~$80M of revenue, but acquiring customers online keeps getting more expensive. The founders want to know how to keep growing.
What you know
100,000 subscribers paying about $67 a month; gross margin 45%.
Customer acquisition cost rose from $150 to $260 in two years.
Monthly churn is 5%.
Pet-specialty and grocery chains are interested, but retailers keep about 40% of the shelf price.
Your task
What is a customer worth, and how has that changed relative to acquisition cost?
Media & streaming · medium · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
Should a streaming service launch a cheaper ad-supported tier?
StreamLine, a US video streaming service, is ad-free today. Management wants to add an ad-supported tier at a lower price to grow subscribers, but worries existing members will trade down.
What you know
30 million US subscribers at $15.99 a month, no ads.
Proposed ad tier: $7.99 a month; expected ad revenue is $5 per ad-tier subscriber per month.
Research: the ad tier would attract 4 million new subscribers, and 15% of existing subscribers would trade down.
Your task
Does the ad tier grow monthly revenue? By how much?
B2B software · hard · L.E.K.-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
A cybersecurity company wants to switch from per-seat to per-device pricing
A mid-market cybersecurity software company charges per user seat. Customers increasingly protect laptops, phones, sensors and shared devices, so the CFO wants to price per protected device instead. The CEO fears a customer backlash.
What you know
1,200 customers, averaging 250 seats at $8 per seat per month.
Proposed price: $6 per protected device per month; the average customer has 400 devices.
Manufacturing customers average 3 devices per user; knowledge-work customers average 1.2.
Real estate & mobility · easy · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~15 min
Should a Chicago parking operator switch to dynamic pricing?
A parking operator runs three downtown Chicago garages at one flat price. It turns cars away on weekdays and sits half empty on weekends. The owner wants to try weekday and weekend prices.
What you know
2,400 spaces in total; flat price $30 a day.
Weekday occupancy is 95%; weekend occupancy is 40%.
At $38 on weekdays, demand would fall about 10%; at $15 on weekends, demand would rise about 50%.
Your task
What is the revenue impact of $38 weekdays and $15 weekends?
Automotive · medium · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~20 min
Should an EV maker sell driver-assist as a monthly subscription?
A US electric-vehicle maker sells its advanced driver-assist package as a one-time option. The product team wants to switch to a monthly subscription to build recurring revenue.
What you know
200,000 vehicles a year; the $6,000 one-time option has a 25% take rate.
Proposed subscription: $99 a month.
Research: 45% of buyers would try the subscription and keep it about 30 months on average.
Your task
Compare revenue per 100 vehicles under each model.
Travel & leisure · medium · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
Pricing a skip-the-line pass at an Orlando theme park
A regional theme park near Orlando wants to sell a front-of-line pass. Marketing wants a low price to maximize uptake; operations warns that too many passes will ruin the regular lines.
What you know
4M visitors a year; average ticket $110.
Research: 12% of visitors would pay $60, 6% would pay $90 and 3% would pay $130.
To keep regular lines acceptable, no more than 8% of visitors can hold a pass on any day.
Your task
Which price maximizes revenue within the capacity limit?
Airlines · hard · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~25 min
Should an airline add basic economy on New York–Miami?
An airline flies 20 daily New York–Miami flights at a single main-cabin fare. It is considering a cheaper basic-economy fare without seat selection or a carry-on bag.
What you know
180 seats per flight; load factor 85%; main-cabin fare $220.
Proposed basic-economy fare: $180.
Expected: 20% of current passengers buy down; 60% of basic-economy buyers pay ~$35 in bag or seat fees; the load factor rises 5 points.
Home services · hard · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
A private equity fund weighs a Sun Belt HVAC roll-up
A mid-market private equity fund is looking at a residential HVAC service and replacement business with 14 branches in Texas, Florida and Arizona. The seller wants 11x EBITDA. The partner asks whether that price can make the fund its target 20% IRR over five years.
Retail & healthcare · medium · EY-Parthenon-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
Should a pet-supply retailer buy a veterinary clinic chain?
A national pet-supply retailer is offered a chain of 150 veterinary clinics. Management likes the idea of putting clinics inside stores but worries about the 15x price.
Consumer packaged goods · hard · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~25 min
A beverage giant considers buying a fast-growing sparkling-water brand
A large US beverage company wants to buy a buzzy sparkling-water brand. The founders are asking $2.4B, which is 50x EBITDA. The CEO asks what would have to be true to pay that.
What you know
Target: revenue $400M growing 25% a year, EBITDA margin 12%.
The acquirer's distribution could take the brand from 60,000 to 180,000 retail outlets.
Brands inside the acquirer typically reach a 22% EBITDA margin; similar deals are valued at about 15x EBITDA.
Consumer services · medium · Oliver Wyman-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
A private equity firm considers buying a chain of express car washes
A PE firm is looking at 60 express car washes across the Midwest. The seller wants 14x EBITDA, well above what most consumer-services businesses sell for. The partner asks whether it is worth it.
Banking · hard · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
Should a regional bank merge with its neighbor?
Bank A ($30B of assets) is considering buying Bank B ($18B), whose branches overlap heavily with its own in two states. B’s shareholders expect a 25% premium.
What you know
Bank B: revenue $720M, efficiency ratio (non-interest expense ÷ revenue) 68%, 300 branches, market value $2.4B.
40% of B’s branches are within a mile of an A branch.
In-market bank deals typically cut 25–30% of the target's non-interest expense; the corporate tax rate is 21%.
Food manufacturing · medium · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~20 min
A family-owned Wisconsin cheese company gets a buyout offer
A third-generation cheese maker has received a $540M offer from a large food company. Some family members want to sell; others want to invest in a new specialty-cheese plant. They ask you to compare the options.
What you know
Revenue $500M; EBITDA $45M (9%), growing ~3% a year; the offer is $540M (12x EBITDA).
A $60M specialty plant would add ~$150M of revenue at an 18% EBITDA margin by year five.
Three retiring family members need about $100M of liquidity; the family would take ~$25M a year of dividends if it keeps the business.
E-commerce logistics · medium · Kearney-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
An e-commerce warehouse keeps missing same-day cutoffs
A New Jersey fulfillment center that serves the New York metro area misses the carrier cutoff on almost one order in five. The COO wants to know why, what it costs, and how to fix it before peak season.
What you know
The site ships 60,000 orders a day; 18% miss the carrier cutoff.
Pickers average 90 units an hour; an average order has 2.5 units.
70% of orders arrive between noon and 6 p.m.; about 160 pickers are on the floor in that window.
Each late order costs about $4 in expedited shipping or customer credits.
Healthcare · hard · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~25 min
A Phoenix hospital's emergency department is overcrowded
A 400-bed hospital in Phoenix has long emergency department waits and a growing number of patients who leave before being seen. The CEO's instinct is to expand the ED. She asks you to check that instinct.
What you know
The ED sees 220 patients a day; average ED length of stay is 6.5 hours; 12% leave without being seen.
A quarter of ED patients are admitted, and they wait an average 5 hours in the ED for an inpatient bed.
Inpatient occupancy is 95%; average inpatient stay is 5 days; only 30% of discharges happen before noon.
Each patient who leaves without being seen costs about $600 of lost margin.
Your task
What is the problem costing?
Where is the real bottleneck?
What should the hospital do instead of, or before, expanding the ED?
Transportation · medium · Oliver Wyman-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
A trucking company's empty miles are eating its margin
A truckload carrier's trucks drive more than a fifth of their miles empty. The CEO has heard that the best carriers run far fewer empty miles and wants to know what closing the gap is worth.
What you know
1,500 trucks, each driving about 110,000 miles a year; 22% of miles are empty (deadhead).
Revenue is $2.90 per loaded mile; variable cost is $1.90 per mile driven, loaded or empty.
Automotive manufacturing · hard · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
A Michigan auto-parts plant can't keep up with EV demand
A supplier makes aluminum battery trays for an electric pickup assembled in Michigan. The automaker needs 1,200 trays a day; the plant ships about 1,000 and pays late-delivery penalties.
What you know
Three steps: stamping (1,500 trays a day capacity), welding and painting (1,300 a day).
Welding has 8 robots, each able to weld 150 trays a day if it never stopped; actual availability is 83%.
A new welding robot costs $2.5M; a preventive-maintenance program could lift availability to 95%.
The contract charges $400 per tray short; the plant runs 250 days a year.
Your task
Find the bottleneck.
What is the shortfall costing?
What combination of fixes gets the plant to 1,200 a day?
Insurance · medium · Kearney-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
An auto and home insurer must cut operating costs by 15%
A US property and casualty insurer's expense ratio is above its peers. The CEO has promised investors a 15% cut in operating expenses (excluding claims payouts) and asks where the money is.
E-commerce · easy · Accenture Strategy-style, interviewer-led · ~15 min
An online apparel retailer's shipping costs are out of control
A US online apparel retailer offers free shipping over $50 and free returns. Shipping now eats most of its margin. The CFO wants ~$9M of savings without hurting sales.
What you know
4M orders a year; average order value $62; average outbound shipping cost $9.50 per package.
30% of orders ship in two packages because items sit in different warehouses; each extra package costs about $6.
25% of orders are returned; return shipping costs $7.
Research suggests that at a $75 free-shipping threshold, 15% of orders would pay a $6.95 shipping fee.
Energy & EVs · medium · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
Taking a California EV home-charger installer national
VoltHome installs Level 2 home chargers in California and wants to go national. The founders are debating three models: their own installation crews, a marketplace of certified local electricians, or becoming the referred installer for an automaker.
What you know
VoltHome does 18,000 installs a year at an average $1,600 (hardware plus labor) and a 25% gross margin.
About 1.3M new EVs are sold in the US each year; roughly 70% of buyers install a home charger.
A marketplace model would earn a 15% fee per install.
A partner automaker would hold ~25% of US EV sales; about half of its referred buyers would book an install.
Home improvement retail · hard · McKinsey-style, interviewer-led · ~25 min
A Pacific Northwest hardware chain faces a big-box entrant
A regional hardware and lumber chain has learned that a national big-box home-improvement retailer will open 12 stores in its region over the next two years. The CEO asks how bad this is and how to respond.
Retail pharmacy · medium · BCG-style, candidate-led · ~20 min
A regional pharmacy chain responds to online pharmacies
A 400-store pharmacy chain in the Southeast is watching online pharmacies and mail order take prescriptions. The CEO asks how much is at risk and how to compete.
What you know
Revenue $3.2B; pharmacy is 65% of revenue at a 20% gross margin; front-of-store retail earns 28%.
Maintenance medications (easiest to move online) are 18% of pharmacy revenue.
Mail-order and online already fill about 12% of US prescriptions, and the share is rising.
Your task
How much revenue and profit is at risk over five years?
Mobility · hard · Bain-style, candidate-led · ~25 min
A ride-hailing company faces robotaxis in Phoenix
A driverless-taxi operator is scaling in Phoenix at lower prices. The market-leading ride-hailing app wants to know how much it could lose and whether to fight on price.
What you know
Phoenix has about 60,000 ride-hail trips a day; the client has 70% share; the average fare is $22.
Drivers receive 70% of the fare, so the client keeps 30%.
The robotaxi operator prices 15% lower and plans 1,000 vehicles doing ~20 trips a day each within two years.
A case interview is a 20–40 minute business problem an interviewer walks you through, used by consulting firms such as McKinsey, BCG and Bain and by many finance and strategy teams. You ask clarifying questions, structure the problem, analyze data and do math out loud, then give a recommendation. Interviewers score how you think, not whether you reach one right answer.
What types of case interviews are there?
The most common are profitability cases (why profits fell), market entry (should we enter a market), M&A and private equity (should we buy a company), pricing, growth strategy, operations, cost reduction and competitive response, plus market sizing questions. Interviewer-led cases (McKinsey style) move you through set questions; candidate-led cases (BCG and Bain style) let you drive.
How should I practice with these case examples?
Treat each one as a live interview, not reading material. Say your clarifying questions and structure out loud, do the math by hand, and commit to a recommendation before checking any answer. On MECE you can run every case with an AI interviewer that answers your questions and scores you on six dimensions.
Looking for estimation questions? See 50 market sizing questions. All scenarios are fictional and written for practice; MECE is not affiliated with any consulting firm.