Interview preparation

Your Bain interview is an opportunity for us to learn more about you: your career goals, your skills, your strengths and talents, your passions, as well as areas where you'd like to grow and develop. It's also an opportunity for you to learn more about us; what kind of work we do, what our people are like, and how our overall firm functions. We are eager to identify great talent to join us, and we want you to succeed.

Bain uses a combination of case interviews and experience interviews in our candidate selection process. You may have a combination of interviews dedicated to either a case or your experience, or you may have interviews that combine both case and experience together in the same session.

All candidates are strongly encouraged to prepare for our interview process.

What is a case interview?

The case interview is an example of a real business problem typical of the kind our case teams work to resolve every day. For this reason, our interviewers prepare their interviews based on real cases and tend not to rely on brainteasers or theoretical problems. Cases involve qualitative and quantitative questions as well as real-world business situations. We do not strive to test you on business terms and expressions, current events, or strategic "frameworks."

Instead, we evaluate you based on your ability to think about and structure an approach to solving a business problem, not on whether you get the "right" answer. A good case interview should be fun and thought provoking.

The case interview is only one dimension of the recruiting process, but it is typically the part that raises the most anxiety. We hope the information in this section will help you to prepare for the experience so that you can be confident and enjoy the interview.

You can get more suggestions to "crack the case" on our interview tips page.

We've also included 3 practice case interviews for you to use in preparation for your interview.

• Personal Care Co.
• Office Vending Services
• Utility marketing strategy: video practice case

What is an experience interview?

In addition to the case interview, you may have an experience interview in which the interviewer will use traditional resume questions, a mini-case based on your experience and/or behavioral questions to understand your past experience and gain an understanding of your interest in Bain. The behavioral questions involve asking you to describe your actions in a past experience in the context of a critical consultant skill.