READY
Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company
WHAT IS IN THE PDF
Timeline: 4 to 6 weeks from application to offer. Decision turnaround shortened to 2-3 weeks between rounds for the 2026 LA BA cohort.
Recruiter screen
Phone · 25-30 min
What they evaluate. Basic fit, story coherence, why-McKinsey, why-now. Expect one PEI-flavored question (often drive).
First round (back-to-back)
Video · 2 interviews · 45-60 min each
What they evaluate. 10 min PEI + 30-35 min interviewer-led case + 5 min your questions. Cases skew profitability or operations in LA. Math moderately heavy.
Final round (partner + EM)
Video or onsite · 3 interviews · 60 min each
What they evaluate. Same format, harder cases (growth strategy, M&A target evaluation), partner-style synthesis questions. PEI digs deeper across two interviewers to test consistency.
Offer decision
Recruiter call · 5-10 min
What they evaluate. LA office traditionally extends offers within 48 hours of final round close. Sell-the-offer call follows within a week.
A West Coast consumer-electronics manufacturer has seen gross margin slip from 38% to 31% over the last 6 quarters while revenue grew flat at ~$1.4B annually. The CEO wants to know where the margin went and what to do. Structure: revenue (price, mix, channel) and cost (COGS with 2024 tariff exposure, manufacturing wage growth, freight). Numbers the interviewer hands you: avg unit price flat at $89, COGS up $52 to $58, 22% China-sourced components, promo discount depth 12% to 17%. The 7-point margin loss splits ~4 points COGS/tariffs, ~3 points promo. Recommendation: accelerate supplier diversification (1.5-2 points back in 18mo), renegotiate promo cadence (1-1.5 points in 2 quarters), test pricing on top 3 SKUs. Pitfall: jumping to "raise prices" before sizing volume sensitivity.
Built from the consulting club diagnostic. Situation: 40-person nonprofit losing 31% volunteers per quarter. Task: 5-person team, 12 weeks. Action (3-4 min, heaviest weight): two members wanted to skip stakeholder interviews; walked through one literature example, ran 3 demo interviews with them shadowing, redivided ownership so they led 4 of the next 12. Result: cut turnover 18% over two quarters. Personal learning: resistance from capable peers usually maps to a missing skill or context, not a missing buy-in.
Problem: a 14% promo discount on a $89 unit applied to 38% of units sold drives $1.4B baseline revenue to what number? Solve in under 60 sec, narrate as you go. Step 1, sanity-check: "14% off on 38% of volume is about 5.3% blended discount on total revenue." Step 2, apply: "5.3% of $1.4B is $74M. New revenue ~$1.326B." Step 3, verbalize: "Order of magnitude looks right." Saying the check out loud is the move McKinsey interviewers grade.
Example output for a fictional student. Your real PDF is generated live from the McKinsey JD you paste.
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Real questions
Pulled from Reddit threads where candidates report what they were actually asked.
Live research
Perplexity searches the last month for current interview-process changes.
Source-backed
Every claim in your PDF traces back to a citation, not an LLM guess.
MCKINSEY & COMPANY BA INTERVIEW, BY THE NUMBERS
4 to 6
weeks from application to offer for McKinsey BA (faster in 2026 than prior years)
3
PEI dimensions McKinsey screens for: leadership, drive, personal impact
90 sec
what the widget above takes to generate your PDF
A typical 14 to 18 page PDF tailored to the McKinsey JD you paste. Seven sections: full round-by-round process breakdown, 3 to 6 question patterns or case frameworks, 9 behavioral stories drafted from your resume, a drill bank (math or coding or technical), firm-specific intel including recent practice news and named alumni, 20 to 30 specific questions to ask each interviewer, and a 48-hour study plan.
1. Paste the McKinsey posting
JD text or URL. Include the office and round if you have it.
2. The widget runs live research
Pulls question patterns from Glassdoor and Reddit, scrapes the JD for office signals, aggregates current-cycle behavioral questions. 60 to 90 seconds.
3. Download the prep PDF
14 to 18 pages, tailored to the role and round. Print-ready and structured for offline study.
4. Drill against the banks
Use the question bank with a peer or ChatGPT for structuring reps; use the behavioral stories for live mocks.
NOT INTERVIEWING YET?
Every Monday: new question patterns appearing in McKinsey and peer-firm rounds, behavioral question drops, and firm-specific intel.
2 back-to-back 45-60 min interviews. Each split: ~10 min PEI, 30-35 min interviewer-led case, 5 min your questions. PEI from fixed bank (leadership, drive, personal impact). Cases interviewer-led.
2025-2026 cycle skewed toward 3 case types: profitability (margin diagnosis), operations (throughput/waste), growth strategy (entry/launch). Less common: M&A target evaluation and digital transformation ROI.
McKinsey PEI is structured around 3 named dimensions: leadership, drive, personal impact. Each story 5-7 min, STAR with heavy Action weight, one specific learning surfaced.
40 to 80 hours of focused prep over 4-8 weeks. Heavier if new to cases, lighter if you have prepared for Bain or BCG (case structures overlap).
Fine for the structuring drill (you propose a framework, it tells you what is missing), weak for iterative (it does not push back). Pair with live mocks on Pramp or with a peer.
No catch. Paste the McKinsey JD, get the PDF, no account required.
60 to 90 seconds. Pulls case patterns from Glassdoor and Reddit, scrapes the JD for office-specific signals, aggregates current cycle PEI questions.
Yes. Paste the round in the JD field (e.g. "McKinsey LA, BA, final round, after first-round case on profitability"). The widget tailors to the round.