How to Prepare for a Consulting Interview: A Realistic 2-Week Step-by-Step Plan
- Nine to Grow
- Nov 22, 2025
- 7 min read
Table of content:
Two weeks to prepare for a consulting interview? Totally doable — if you know how to spend your time. Forget endless frameworks and late-night panic. What matters isn’t doing everything — it’s practicing the right things, in the right order.
Preparing for consulting interviews requires a structured plan, strong case interview fundamentals, and consistent practice. This two-week strategy mirrors how candidates usually prepare for MBB interview prep — focused, intentional, and grounded in a structured approach rather than memorization. This guide breaks down exactly how to prepare for consulting interviews in just two weeks using practical steps, real examples, and proven strategies.
Two Parts, One Goal: Every Consulting Interview Has Two Sections
1. The Case Interview – where you show how you think through a problem.
2. The Fit (Behavioral) Interview – where you show who you are and how you work.
You’ll prepare for both in parallel. The goal is not perfection — it’s structured thinking, calm communication, and the ability to adapt on the spot. This mirrors how McKinsey interview structure assesses both analytical thinking and leadership qualities.
If you’re new to how consultants think, you can start with our articles. These fundamentals help you build business intuition — something you’ll rely on heavily in every case discussion:
Before You Start: The Ground Rules
💬 Practice with people. You’ll only get better when someone challenges your logic out loud. A friend, colleague, or even your partner works.
📓 Track your mistakes. Everyone has patterns — maybe you forget to think about the customer, overlook AI as a trend, or lose structure mid-case. Write these down in a cheat sheet — your personal “what I usually forget” list.This mistake-tracking habit is central to strong consulting case interview preparation because it helps you build repeatable awareness of your blind spots.
🔁 Iterate, don’t memorize. Each case should make you sharper, not more scripted.
🧮 Do quick math daily. Spend 5–10 minutes each day doing mental math — percentages, break-evens, quick estimates. You don’t need to be a calculator; you just need to be smooth and confident. Daily math practice also prepares you for market sizing and estimation questions, which almost always appear in case interviews.
💡 If you can’t explain your structure simply, you don’t understand it yet.
Your 2-Week Consulting Interview Prep Plan
Below is the complete day-by-day plan. This plan is intentionally practical, built around mock interviews, practice cases, and the core case frameworks that matter most.
Day 1: Learn the Logic Behind the Frameworks
Start by understanding how consultants structure problems. Read these two foundational articles:
How to Structure a Business Case: The Core Frameworks You Need to Know
Don’t just memorize them — focus on the thinking behind each. Why do they start where they do? How do they help you stay MECE (structured and non-overlapping)?
Understanding case frameworks at this deeper level helps you stay adaptable, which is exactly what MBB firms look for.
Write your own version of the frameworks. Use words that make sense to you — that’s how you’ll actually remember and apply them in an interview.
💡 A framework isn’t a checklist; it’s a way of seeing the problem clearly.
Day 2: Practice, Reflect, Repeat
Do 2 practice cases (ideally with someone). We have two free interview case examples to give you a head start: Revitalizing Market Position for FreshBites FMCG and Market Sizing Case: Expanding Digital Banking Services
Be specific about what went wrong: Did you define the problem clearly? Forget to test your hypothesis? Miss a major driver? Rush your math? These are your unique learning signals — note them down.
This specificity is what builds your personal business intuition — a skill interviewers expect even from new candidates.
Add each mistake to your cheat sheet.
💡 Most people over-practice math and under-practice speaking out loud.
Day 3: Behavioral Foundations
Revisit your case frameworks.
Start working on fit stories using:
Draft 3–5 stories that can flex across multiple questions — one story can often show both leadership and problem-solving.
This is key because consulting interviewers often ask overlapping fit interview questions that require clear, structured storytelling.
Day 4: More Cases, More Insights
Do 2 more cases.
Expand your cheat sheet — note both improvements and recurring habits.
Review your structure: Are you hypothesis-driven from the start? (If not, read The Hypothesis-Driven Approach).
By now, you should be developing comfort with structured approaches that reflect how real consultants break down problems.
Day 5: Build Range
Refine your behavioral answers; try a mock fit interview.
Learn the basics of key industries — banking, FMCG, e-commerce, healthcare, and public sector. You don’t need deep expertise, just the main drivers (e.g., margins in FMCG, licenses in banking).
This broader exposure will help when cases require outside-in thinking, especially if a prompt involves market sizing or sector dynamics.
Day 6: Target Weak Spots
Do 2 more cases.
Focus on formats you struggle with — M&A, market entry, or pricing.
Keep refining your cheat sheet.
If you struggle with a particular type of case (like profitability or market entry), doing focused practice cases now will help you stay balanced across formats.
Day 7: Rest Day
Rest is part of preparation. Give your brain space to absorb patterns and reset. Rest days also help consolidate the pattern-recognition skills you’ve been developing through practice cases.
💡 You’re not just learning frameworks — you’re training your mind to stay structured under pressure.
Day 8: Simulate the Real Thing
Review your cheat sheet and frameworks.
Do one end-to-end mock interview — case + behavioral.
Get feedback, reflect, iterate.
Simulating the full McKinsey interview structure or any other MBB-style format will help you understand how your pacing, structure, and communication hold up under real pressure.
Day 9: Broaden Your Base
Do one more case, or review several quickly from our Business Case Pack.
Skim through additional cases from consulting firm websites or case books — note how they’re structured, don’t just read passively.
This step helps you see the variety in case interview prompts and expands your exposure to different industries and business problems.
Day 10: Tailor Your Prep
Another full mock.
Focus only on your gaps — structure, confidence, creativity, or math.
If you notice recurring patterns, revisit your earlier notes.
By this stage, your consulting case interview preparation is no longer about new content — it's about sharpening execution and consistency.
Day 11: Recharge
You’ve done a lot of thinking — step away. Take a walk, do something unrelated, let your brain breathe. This small reset helps you show up more present and confident for your final stretch.
Day 12: Final Practice
2 last cases or a full mock interview.
Review your cheat sheet — by now, it’s your personal playbook.
Use this final round to refine your structured approach and reinforce your strongest fit interview stories.
Day 13: Calm Before the Case
No new content, just light review.
At this stage, staying calm helps more than adding another framework or practice case.
By the End of Two Weeks
You’ll have solved 13–15 cases, practiced 3+ full mock interviews, and refined 5 behavioral stories. You’ll also have built a personal cheat sheet that reflects your style — your mistakes, your thinking process, and your best way of fixing them. This combination of practice cases, business intuition building, and targeted behavioral prep mirrors exactly what’s needed for strong MBB interview prep. If you want to go further, explore book a mock interview coaching session with our ex-MBB consultants:
By this point, you’ll be structured, confident, and ready — not over prepared, just prepared well.
Because consulting interviews don’t reward perfection. They reward clarity, calm, and the ability to think on your feet, all of which come from a structured approach.
FAQ: Preparing for Consulting Interviews in 2 Weeks
1. How many cases should I practice in a two-week preparation plan?
Aim for 8–12 well-practiced cases. What matters most is progression: do 1–2 cases, review your mistakes, and correct them in the next set. Quality matters far more than volume. This amount of volume is usually enough to cover common formats such as profitability, market sizing, and market entry.
2. Which case frameworks are actually useful for MBB interviews?
A flexible version of 3C–1P combined with a simple profitability framework will cover most cases you’ll encounter. The key is understanding how to adapt these frameworks, not memorizing rigid templates. These core case frameworks help you stay structured in both straightforward and more ambiguous prompts.
3. Should I also prepare for the behavioral (fit) interview?
Yes. Fit interviews matter as much as cases. Prepare 3–5 strong stories and map each to multiple question types (leadership, impact, problem-solving). Practice them out loud. Fit interview questions often determine culture fit and communication clarity — both essential in consulting.
4. Do I need deep industry knowledge to succeed in case interviews?
No — but knowing the basics of a few common industries helps. FMCG → margins; banking → regulation; healthcare → payer/provider dynamics AND R&D spend; tech → scalability; public → stakeholders. High-level familiarity is enough.
5. What’s the best way to practice cases without overdoing it?
Mix peer practice with self-practice. Do a couple of cases, analyze your recurring mistakes, add them to your cheat sheet, and improve round by round. This iterative approach beats doing 30+ cases blindly. The goal is steady improvement, not becoming robotic. Mock interviews will help you see your real habits under pressure.
6. What should I do the day before the interview?
Don’t cram. Review your cheat sheet, your frameworks, and your stories. Light warm-up + rest = better performance.
