Top 10 Common Consulting Interview Questions and How to Prepare

Intro

Consulting interviews follow clear patterns. While every interview sounds different, most questions fall into a small number of recurring formats across case interviews and fit interviews. Candidates who recognize these patterns and prepare systematically perform more consistently and improve their chances of securing an offer. If identifying these patterns feels overwhelming, you can turn to specialized resources like Prepmatter to help them prepare systematically.

Below are the 10 most common consulting interview questions you should prepare for and how to approach each one.

Case Interview Questions (1–5)

1. Should Our Client Enter a New Market?

**Typical format: **Market entry case.

What interviewers test:

• Structured thinking
• Market sizing
• Financial feasibility
• Risk assessment

How to prepare:

• Practice breaking feasibility into demand, competition, costs, and risks
• Get comfortable estimating market size
• Learn to prioritize factors logically

2. Why Is the Client’s Profit Declining?

**Typical format: **Profitability case.

What interviewers test:

• Root-cause analysis
• Data interpretation
• Logical diagnosis

How to prepare:

• Practice profit trees (revenue vs cost drivers)
• Learn to isolate drivers using structured questioning
• Improve speed with basic financial math

3. How Can the Client Grow Revenue?

**Typical format: **Growth strategy case.

What interviewers test:

• Strategic thinking
• Creativity grounded in business logic
• Market understanding

How to prepare:

• Practice growth levers such as pricing, expansion, new products, and partnerships
• Learn to evaluate feasibility and impact
• Avoid listing ideas without structure

4. What Price Should the Client Set?

**Typical format: **Pricing case.

What interviewers test:

• Quantitative skills
• Economic intuition
• Customer value logic

How to prepare:

• Practice break-even and contribution margin calculations
• Understand value-based vs cost-based pricing
• Get comfortable with percentage math

5. How Big Is This Market?

**Typical format: **Market sizing question.

What interviewers test:

• Logical decomposition
• Assumption management
• Mental math speed

How to prepare:

• Practice top-down and bottom-up estimation
• Focus on clean assumptions
• Speak your logic clearly while calculating

Market sizing should be practiced continuously alongside full cases.

Fit Interview Questions (6–10)

6. Tell Me About Yourself

What interviewers test:

• Communication clarity
• Career narrative
• Motivation

How to prepare:

• Build a concise story linking your background to consulting
• Keep it structured and focused
• Avoid listing your CV line by line

7. Why Consulting?

What interviewers test:

• Motivation authenticity
• Industry understanding
• Long-term interest

How to prepare:

• Connect consulting to your skills and interests
• Avoid generic answers
• Be specific about what attracts you to the role

8. Why This Firm?

What interviewers test:

• Firm research
• Cultural alignment
• Commitment

How to prepare:

• Research the firm’s culture, values, and project focus
• Reference concrete differences
• Avoid generic firm descriptions

9. Tell Me About a Time You Led a Team

What interviewers test:

• Leadership behavior
• Decision-making
• Accountability

How to prepare:

• Use structured storytelling (Situation, Task, Action, Result)
• Highlight your personal contribution
• Focus on impact, not just participation

10. Tell Me About a Challenge You Overcame

What interviewers test:

• Resilience
• Problem solving under pressure
• Learning mindset

How to prepare:

• Choose genuinely challenging examples
• Show how you adapted
• Highlight what you learned

How Successful Candidates Prepare for Case and Fit Interviews

Strong case performance alone is not enough to secure a consulting offer. Consulting firms assess both technical problem solving and interpersonal effectiveness. Successful candidates prepare both components in parallel rather than treating them as separate processes.

Some candidates use structured preparation platforms such as Prepmatter’s consulting interview preparation platform to organize case practice, fit interview preparation, and peer feedback in one workflow instead of relying on disconnected resources.

Final Thoughts

Consulting interviews may look unpredictable, but most questions fall into a small number of recurring patterns. Candidates who systematically prepare for these top case and fit interview questions perform more consistently and reduce surprise during interviews.

Strong preparation focuses on structured thinking, quantitative skills, behavioral storytelling, and communication delivery. Treat interview preparation as a structured process rather than last-minute revision to maximize your chances of securing a consulting offer.