The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook: Exclusive Cases and Problems for Interviews at Top Consulting Firms

by Taylor Warfield

In “The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook,” you’ll sharpen your case interview skills to dominate your upcoming interview and land your dream consulting job. Taylor Warfield, a former Bain management consultant and interviewer, provides essential practice problems and challenging cases to develop the skills needed to get multiple job offers. Use this workbook to access:

65+ problems tailored towards each type of question in case interviews: Feel confident across a range of interview questions including framework questions, market sizing problems, profitability assessments, breakeven analysis, charts & graphs analysis, brainstorming questions, and other qualitative questions 15 full-length cases based on McKinsey, BCG, and Bain interviews: Build business acumen across a variety of industries (e.g., technology, retail, healthcare, energy, finance, non-profit) and functions (e.g., strategy, operations) Efficient practice that can be done individually or with a partner: Save yourself time by working through carefully crafted practice problems and cases that teach you a new concept, strategy, or takeaway each time

Warfield’s former students include undergraduates, MBAs, advanced degree holders, and experienced hires. They have landed job offers at top consulting firms, including McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, L.E.K., Oliver Wyman, and Accenture as well as at Fortune 500 strategy groups.

“I felt really confident after my McKinsey interview – this book’s cases prepared me perfectly! They were very similar to the ones I received in my first and final round interviews.”
-McKinsey Consultant, Wharton MBA Candidate

“I had very little time before my next BCG interview. This book provided me with plenty of practice that I could do by myself. After working through these cases, I felt excited going into my interviews.”
-BCG Associate, Experienced Hire

“These cases were much higher quality than those found in other case books. The explanations were detailed and thorough and I got to practice thinking like a true consultant.”
-Bain Consultant, Stanford Undergraduate

Also visit HackingTheCaseInterview.com for a 10-hour online crash course to pass your upcoming interview in the shortest amount of time through 53 concise video lessons and 20 challenging practice cases.

Genres: Business

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 22, 2019

Reviews

[Roberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written and easy to follow! I highly recommend this book for those new to consulting case interviews. It provides valuable guidance on useful frameworks and structures. However, be cautious not to simply memorize them. Stay critical and adapt the frameworks to the specific needs of each case, considering other important factors as well. To truly elevate your case-solving skills, it's essential to use additional resources alongside this book. Overall, it's a great starting point!

[Valentin Nugmanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook: Exclusive Cases and Problems for Interviews at Top Consulting Firms is a casebook by Taylor Warfield released in 2018. It is divided into two parts: bite-size questions and plagiarized cases.

The first part, “Practice Problems,” goes through unrelated questions by type. The 17 framework questions are rather interesting although neither MECE nor rooted in data. The ten market-sizing questions lead to some barely convincing estimates, while the nine profitability questions are hardly helpful at all. Confusing insights with the next steps, the graph interpretation questions are way too basic. In turn, the 14 brainstorming questions sound very much like the framework questions. Finally, the most interesting ones are the eight business judgment questions that should be developed into complete cases, but that would call for some original thought… The section concludes with fit interview questions that seem out of place.

There are three things to know about the second part, “Practice Cases:”

1] none of them are original (the same cases are available online for free, often with more details),

2] only four out of 15 are advanced, and

3] all of them are interviewer-led.

The issue with interviewer-led cases is not so much that they are almost exclusive to McKinsey, but rather that they are hardly suitable for practicing case structuring, which is the most important part of a case interview.

Unlike candidate-led cases, where the progression depends entirely on the candidate, interviewer-led cases are broken down into a series of loosely connected questions. The framework is presented in response to one of the interviewer’s questions but never actually tested against case data.

As a result, readers will learn how to build frameworks that look well but never know whether they work well. Any approach looks plausible. Only candidate-led cases teach how to craft frameworks that get all the way to the solution.

On the upside, the book was proofread, so case numbers add up. Nonetheless, the author consistently confuses percentages and percentage points, and the business logic in cases is sometimes truly off.

TAKEAWAY: The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook is a decent book to get familiar with the McKinsey-style cases. But the marginal learning value of a case from it is low, and it is clearly overpriced given that all cases can be found online for free.

[Oluwaseun Onasanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tansformed the way I think about Business Problems

This book is great not just for those who want to build a consulting career but also for pretty much anyone who wants to understand the basics of how to think like a businessman. Very simple and straightforward but immensely powerful book. Just wish there were more cases. 15 is too small.

[Vaish Behara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Effective for getting exposure to broad range of problems, but most cases can be found online

[Umar Patel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third installment in the series, I feel this a great supplement to Wakefield’s “MainStage” book and Victor Cheng’s case interview secrets.

[Aurélien · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but you can probably find cases for free online.

I recommend going on prep lounge for practice more than using this book.