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Case Study Interview Questions and Answers
One of the most challenging aspects of case interviews is that after you are provided with the problem, there are an infinite number of ways the case can go. While that is true, there are types of questions that you’ll run across more frequently than others. Once you start recognizing these patterns, you will be able to create frameworks more accurately and efficiently. In this article, we’re be providing case study interview questions and answers for the top 5 most common business problems presented during case interviews.
Top 5 Case Study Interview Questions and Answers
Increasing profits, entering a new market, developing a new product, pricing strategies, mergers & acquisitions.
Ultimately, any client’s goal is to increase profits. As a result, profitability is the most important objective in consulting case study interviews. Knowing how to analyze the major components of profitability is imperative for any aspiring consultant.
The profitability framework is broken into two components: revenue and costs. A profitability view requires looking into both components. Within each of these components, you can structure your framework to analyze the drivers within (price, quantity, variable costs and fixed costs) or the overall situation (big picture and potential solutions).
Case Study Interview Prompts Examples
- Our client is a pharmaceutical drug company that has seen an increase in drug sales but a decrease in overall profit. Our client has hired us to figure out what the issue is.
- Our client manufactures high-end watches and has been in business for several decades. Last year was the first year the company was unprofitable. Our client would like our help in understanding what went wrong.
- Our client is a skincare company that has seen an explosion of sales after being in business for a few years. Even with a drastic increase in volumes, the company is in the red. Can you help figure out how to get the client into the black?
Potential Profitability Framework Categories & Questions:
- What is our client pricing its products at?
- How has pricing changed over the past few years?
- What is our pricing strategy?
- How is pricing expected to change over the next few years?
- What are competitors pricing similar products at?
- What is the demand for our client’s products?
- How has demand been changing over the past few years?
- How is the client marketing its products? How have our marketing efforts affected demand
Big picture
- What are our client’s revenue streams?
- What percent of total revenue does each stream represent?
- Have those percentages changed lately?
- Have the revenue streams been declining or growing over the past 1, 3, 5, or 10 years?
- How is our client growing relative to the industry?
- What is our market share in terms of sales compared to competitors?
Ways to Increase Revenue
- Increase prices
- Update marketing strategy
- Bundle products
Variable Costs
- What are the variable costs with regards to variable labor? Has this been changing?
- What are the variable costs with regards to materials? Has this been changing?
- What are the variable costs with regards to distribution? Has this been changing?
Fixed Costs
- What are the fixed costs with regards to salaried labor? Has this been changing?
- What are the fixed costs with regards to rents? Has this been changing?
- What are the fixed costs with regards to utilities? Has this been changing?
Big Picture
- What are our client’s major fixed and variable costs?
- How have costs changed over the past few years?
- How are our client’s relationships with its suppliers?
- Will reducing costs damage any of our revenue streams?
- How do our costs compare against our competitors?
- What does our client’s supply chain look like?
- Is there anything happening within our client’s market or the economy that is impacting costs?
- Are there any government regulations that impact our client’s costs?
Ways to Decrease Costs
- Analyze areas of the business that aren’t producing results and reduce resources
- Create a more efficient supply chain
- Negotiate with supplier for better costs
Companies often need to enter new markets to grow business. New markets represent new opportunities but also additional challenges. Case study interview frameworks for new markets should include categories and questions that are open-ended, since there are a wide range of possibilities to consider.
- Our client is a European-based speaker manufacturing company that is seeking further growth. The client is considering entering the US market but has some reservations and would like you to analyze whether it’s a good idea.
- Our client is a light bulb manufacturer that is based in Brazil. Our client is seeing stagnant growth and therefore is trying to enter a new country in Latin America. Can you help the client determine which country is best to enter?
- Our client is an agricultural powerhouse that produces many kinds of vegetables and fruits. The client currently has a surplus of produce and is looking for new countries where it can sell this produce. Can you help the client determine which countries seem most promising?
Potential Market Entry Framework Categories & Questions:
Market situation.
- What is the size of the market?
- What is the projected market growth or decline for the next 1, 3, 5, or 10 years?
- At what rate has the market been growing or declining for the past 1, 3, 5, or 10 years?
- Where is the market in its lifecycle?
- Who are the customers and how are they segmented?
- Will our client’s products become less useful over time with technological advances?
- Have there been any major changes in the market lately?
- What are the key factors that drive the industry?
Competition
- Who are the main competitors and what are their market shares?
- How do the competitors’ products compare to our client’s?
- How will the competition respond?
- What are our client’s competitive advantages?
Market Entry Considerations
- What are the key risks to consider?
- Are there any barriers to entry?
- Would it be more profitable to enter through an acquisition, a joint venture, or by creating a business from scratch?
- How will the client exit the new market if things don’t go well?
Similar to new markets, companies need to develop new products in order to grow. This problem is intimidating for most clients due to potential high costs and a fear of the unknown. Your case study interview framework should dive deep into the new product before anything else.
- Our client is a mature paper company that feels it is in a saturated market. The company has great manufacturing and distribution capabilities and is looking into creating notebooks to expand its revenue streams. Can you help analyze this decision and see if it’s a good idea?
- Our client is a cutting-edge technology company that is working on a smart television. The client has never worked on a product like this before and would like to understand its viability.
- Our client is a national grocery store that is thinking of creating generic versions of sodas to sell at its own stores. There is some hesitation because our client hasn’t manufactured its own products before. They want your advice on what you think they should do.
Potential New Product Framework Categories & Questions:
New product and product portfolio.
- What is the new product and how is it different from what is currently on the market?
- How innovative is this product compared to others that exist in the market?
- Is the product patented or have any rights that can protect it from being copied?
- Are there similar products in the market that can act as substitutes?
- How does the product fit within the client’s current product line?
- Can the product be bundled with any existing products?
- Will the product cannibalize any of the client’s current products?
- Is the client replacing an existing product?
Market Strategy
- Who are our customers and how can we best reach them?
- How will this product expand our customer base and increase sales?
- Is there any data or research supporting that customers want this product?
- Who are the main competitors and how much market share does each firm have?
- How will competitors respond to this new product?
- Are we entering into a new market or are we serving the market we currently serve?
Feasibility
- How much funding does this new product require?
- Where will the funding be coming from?
- If debt is required, can the client support debt?
- Does the client have the manufacturing or production capabilities to produce this product on its own or does it need help from other parties?
- Do we have relationships with the right suppliers that will help us create this product?
- How will this new product impact our client’s profitability?
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Another common case study interview question revolves around pricing strategy. Prices usually greatly impact volume and ultimately profits, so this case study objective comes up quite frequently.
- Our client is a medical device manufacturer that has developed a new CT machine. They just received regulatory approval and are now trying to market the product. What price should they sell the machine at?
- Our client is a luxury handbag company that is diversifying its revenue stream by creating a more affordable handbag aimed at the masses. How should the client price this new handbag without diluting its brand?
- Our client is a technology company that uses artificial intelligence to review medical records. How much should the client charge for its services?
Potential Pricing Framework Categories & Questions:
Product information.
- Could the product cannibalize any of the client’s current products?
- What were the R&D costs required to create this product?
- How big is the market for this product?
Competitive Analysis
- How much are competitors charging for similar products?
- How are competitors thinking about their pricing strategies?
- How much does it cost for competitors to create similar products?
- Are there any substitutions to our client’s product?
Pricing Strategy
- What is our breakeven point?
- How much does it cost to create and deliver the product?
- Has there been any research completed to see how much customers are willing to pay for the product or similar ones?
- Do customers need to be educated about the product?
- What are the potential costs with bringing this product to market?
- How much will be spent on marketing?
Because they aren’t as common, M&A problems often can catch candidates off guard. You’re not recruiting for a finance position, but it’s still important to have a decent understanding of how mergers & acquisitions work.
- Our client is a soda company considering buying a nearby potato chip manufacturer to expand its product lines. Does this make sense? What should our client be thinking about?
- Our client is a gym franchise that is considering an offer to buy the rights for one of the most popular exercise machines. Should they take the deal?
- Our client is the largest leather manufacturer in the world. They are considering purchasing a smaller up and coming competitor. Should they do it?
Potential M&A Framework Categories & Questions:
Target market.
- If our client doesn’t purchase the company, will a competitor?
- How healthy is the industry the target is in?
- How will competitors respond to this acquisition?
Target Company
- How are the potential acquisition target’s financials?
- Has the target’s revenue and profitability been increasing or decreasing over the past few years?
- How unique are the target’s products?
- What is the target’s customer base like?
Post-Acquisition Strategy
- How much is our client going to be paying? What are the terms of the deal?
- Is the price fair?
- How will the deal be financed?
- Will our client be taking on debt, and if so, can the client support it?
- Why is our client thinking about purchasing the asset or company?
- Are there any potential alternatives?
- How does the company fit within our client’s broader product portfolio and strategy?
- Are there a lot of potential revenue and cost synergies from the deal?
- How special are the target’s products?
- Are there any legal or regulatory reasons this acquisition may not work?
- Are there any financial reasons like tax advantages that make this a good transaction?
Concluding Thoughts
These common case study interview questions and answers are a great place to begin your case interview prep! This guide covers the majority of case studies that will come your way.
However, keep in mind that the best consulting frameworks are catered to the specific prompt. So while it’s helpful to know these business concepts and questions, they’re not enough to prepare you for all case study interviews.
Advanced candidates blend case study frameworks to best answer the problem at hand. Until you can do that, you’re not completely ready for an interview. Looking for expert help to get over the hump? Schedule a coaching session with an expert MBB coach today.
Related Content:
- No Case Interview Experience? Start Here
- Case Structure
- Breaking Down Case Interview Frameworks – M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions)
- Case Interview Category Feed
- Case Interview Frameworks: Ultimate Guide
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100 Best Case Study Questions for Your Next Customer Spotlight
Published: November 29, 2022
Case studies and testimonials are helpful to have in your arsenal. But to build an effective library, you need to ask the right case study questions. You also need to know how to write a case study .
Case studies are customers' stories that your sales team can use to share relevant content with prospects . Not only that, but case studies help you earn a prospect's trust, show them what life would be like as your customer, and validate that your product or service works for your clients.
Before you start building your library of case studies, check out our list of 100 case study questions to ask your clients. With this helpful guide, you'll have the know-how to build your narrative using the " Problem-Agitate-Solve " Method.
What makes a good case study questionnaire?
The ultimate list of case study questions, how to ask your customer for a case study, creating an effective case study.
Certain key elements make up a good case study questionnaire.
A questionnaire should never feel like an interrogation. Instead, aim to structure your case study questions like a conversation. Some of the essential things that your questionnaire should cover include:
- The problem faced by the client before choosing your organization.
- Why they chose your company.
- How your product solved the problem clients faced.
- The measurable results of the service provided.
- Data and metrics that prove the success of your service or product, if possible.
You can adapt these considerations based on how your customers use your product and the specific answers or quotes that you want to receive.
What makes a good case study question?
A good case study question delivers a powerful message to leads in the decision stage of your prospective buyer's journey.
Since your client has agreed to participate in a case study, they're likely enthusiastic about the service you provide. Thus, a good case study question hands the reins over to the client and opens a conversation.
Try asking open-ended questions to encourage your client to talk about the excellent service or product you provide.
Free Case Study Templates
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Categories for the Best Case Study Questions
- Case study questions about the customer's business
- Case study questions about the environment before the purchase
- Case study questions about the decision process
- Case study questions about the customer's business case
- Case study questions about the buying team and internal advocates
- Case study questions about customer success
- Case study questions about product feedback
- Case study questions about willingness to make referrals
- Case study question to prompt quote-worthy feedback
- Case study questions about the customers' future goals
Case Study Interview Questions About the Customer's Business
Knowing the customer's business is an excellent way of setting the tone for a case study.
Use these questions to get some background information about the company and its business goals. This information can be used to introduce the business at the beginning of the case study — plus, future prospects might resonate with their stories and become leads for you.
- Would you give me a quick overview of [company]? This is an opportunity for the client to describe their business in their own words. You'll get useful background information and it's an easy prompt to get the client talking.
- Can you describe your role? This will give you a better idea of the responsibilities they are subject to.
- How do your role and team fit into the company and its goals? Knowing how the team functions to achieve company goals will help you formulate how your solution involves all stakeholders.
- How long has your company been in business? Getting this information will help the reader gauge if pain points are specific to a startup or new company vs. a veteran company.
- How many employees do you have? Another great descriptor for readers to have. They can compare the featured company size with their own.
- Is your company revenue available? If so, what is it? This will give your readers background information on the featured company's gross sales.
- Who is your target customer? Knowing who the target audience is will help you provide a better overview of their market for your case study readers.
- How does our product help your team or company achieve its objectives? This is one of the most important questions because it is the basis of the case study. Get specifics on how your product provided a solution for your client. You want to be able to say "X company implemented our solution and achieved Y. "
- How are our companies aligned (mission, strategy, culture, etc.)? If any attributes of your company's mission or culture appealed to the client, call it out.
How many people are on your team? What are their roles? This will help describe key players within the organization and their impact on the implementation of your solution.
Case Study Interview Questions About the Environment Before the Purchase
A good case study is designed to build trust. Ask clients to describe the tools and processes they used before your product or service. These kinds of case study questions will highlight the business' need they had to fulfill and appeal to future clients.
- What was your team's process prior to using our product? This will give the reader a baseline to compare the results for your company's product.
- Were there any costs associated with the process prior to using our product? Was it more expensive? Was it worth the cost? How did the product affect the client's bottom line? This will be a useful metric to disclose if your company saved the client money or was more cost-efficient.
- What were the major pain points of your process prior to using our product? Describe these obstacles in detail. You want the reader to get as much information on the problem as possible as it sets up the reasoning for why your company's solution was implemented.
- Did our product replace a similar tool or is this the first time your team is using a product like this? Were they using a similar product? If so, having this information may give readers a reason to choose your brand over the competition.
- What other challenges were you and your team experiencing prior to using our product? The more details you can give readers regarding the client's struggles, the better. You want to paint a full picture of the challenges the client faced and how your company resolved them.
- Were there any concerns about how your customers would be impacted by using our product? Getting answers to this question will illustrate to readers the client's concerns about switching to your service. Your readers may have similar concerns and reading how your client worked through this process will be helpful.
- Why didn't you buy our product or a similar product earlier? Have the client describe any hesitations they had using your product. Their concerns may be relatable to potential leads.
- Were there any "dealbreakers" involved in your decision to become a customer? Describing how your company was able to provide a solution that worked within those parameters demonstrates how accommodating your brand is and how you put the customer first. It's also great to illustrate any unique challenges the client had. This better explains their situation to the reader.
- Did you have to make any changes you weren't anticipating once you became a customer? Readers of your case study can learn how switching to your product came with some unexpected changes (good or bad) and how they navigated them. If you helped your client with troubleshooting, ask them to explain that here.
How has your perception of the product changed since you've become a customer? Get the interviewee to describe how your product changed how they do business. This includes how your product accomplished what they previously thought was impossible.
Case Study Interview Questions About the Decision Process
Readers of the case study will be interested in which factors influenced the decision-making process for the client. If they can relate to that process, there's a bigger chance they'll buy your product.
The answers to these questions will help potential customers through their decision-making process.
- How did you hear about our product? If the client chose to work with you based on a recommendation or another positive case study, include that. It will demonstrate that you are a trusted brand with an established reputation for delivering results.
- How long had you been looking for a solution to this problem? This will add to the reader's understanding of how these particular challenges impacted the company before choosing your product.
- Were you comparing alternative solutions? Which ones? This will demonstrate to readers that the client explored other options before choosing your company.
- Would you describe a few of the reasons you decided to buy our product? Ask the interviewee to describe why they chose your product over the competition and any benefits your company offered that made you stand out.
- What were the criteria you used when deciding to buy our product? This will give readers more background insight into the factors that impacted their decision-making process.
- Were there any high-level initiatives or goals that prompted the decision to buy? For example, was this decision motivated by a company-wide vision? Prompt your clients to discuss what lead to the decision to work with you and how you're the obvious choice.
- What was the buying process like? Did you notice anything exceptional or any points of friction? This is an opportunity for the client to comment on how seamless and easy you make the buying process. Get them to describe what went well from start to finish.
- How would you have changed the buying process, if at all? This is an opportunity for you to fine-tune your process to accommodate future buyers.
- Who on your team was involved in the buying process? This will give readers more background on the key players involved from executives to project managers. With this information, readers can see who they may potentially need to involve in the decision-making process on their teams.
Case Study Interview Questions About the Customer's Business Case
Your case study questions should ask about your product or solution's impact on the customer's employees, teams, metrics, and goals. These questions allow the client to praise the value of your service and tell others exactly what benefits they derived from it.
When readers review your product or service's impact on the client, it enforces the belief that the case study is credible.
- How long have you been using our product? This will help readers gauge how long it took to see results and your overall satisfaction with the product or service.
- How many different people at your company use our product? This will help readers gauge how they can adapt the product to their teams if similar in size.
- Are there multiple departments or teams using our product? This will demonstrate how great of an impact your product has made across departments.
- How do you and your team currently use the product? What types of goals or tasks are you using the product to accomplish? Get specifics on how the product actively helps the client achieve their goals.
- If other teams or departments are using our product, do you know how they're using it? With this information, leads can picture how they can use your product across their teams and how it may improve their workflow and metrics.
- What was the most obvious advantage you felt our product offered during the sales process? The interviewee should explain the benefits they've gained from using your product or service. This is important for convincing other leads you are better than the competition.
- Were there any other advantages you discovered after using the product more regularly? Your interviewee may have experienced some additional benefits from using your product. Have them describe in detail what these advantages are and how they've helped the company improve.
- Are there any metrics or KPIs you track with our product? What are they? The more numbers and data the client can provide, the better.
- Were you tracking any metrics prior to using our product? What were they? This will allow readers to get a clear, before-and-after comparison of using your product.
- How has our product impacted your core metrics? This is an opportunity for your clients to drive home how your product assisted them in hitting their metrics and goals.
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Case Study Interview Questions About the Buying Team and Internal Advocates
See if there are any individuals at the customer's company who are advocates for your product.
- Are there any additional team members you consider to be advocates for our product? For example, does anyone stick out as a "power user" or product expert on your team? You may want to interview and include these power users in your case study as well. Consider asking them for tips on using your service or product.
- Is there anyone else on your team you think we should talk to? Again, the more people can share their experience using your product, the better.
- Are there any team members who you think might not be the biggest fans of our product or who might need more training? Providing extra support to those struggling with your product may improve their user experience and turn into an opportunity to not only learn about their obstacles but turn them into a product fan
- Would you share some details about how your team implemented our product? Get as much information as possible about the rollout. Hopefully, they'll gush about how seamless the process was.
- Who from your company was involved in implementing our product? This will give readers more insight into who needs to be involved for a successful rollout of their own.
- Were there any internal risks or additional costs involved with implementing our product? If so, how did you address them? This will give insight into the client's process and rollout and this case study question will likely provide tips on what potential leads should be on the lookout for.
- Is there a training process in place for your team's use of our product? If so, what does it look like? If your company provided support and training to the client, have them describe that experience.
- About how long does it take a new team member to get up to speed with our product? This will help leads determine how much time it will take to onboard an employee to your using your product. If a new user can quickly get started seamlessly, it bodes well for you.
- What was your main concern about rolling this product out to your company? Describing their challenges in detail will provide readers with useful insight.
- What have people been saying about our product since they started using it? Collect all the positive feedback you can to give your product more social proof.
Case Study Interview Questions About Customer Success
Has the customer found success with your product? Ask these questions to learn more.
- By using our product can you measure any reduced costs? If it has, you'll want to emphasize those savings in your case study.
- By using our product can you measure any improvements in productivity or time savings? Any metrics or specific stories your interviewee can provide will help demonstrate the value of your product.
- By using our product can you measure any increases in revenue or growth? Again, say it with numbers and data whenever possible.
- Are you likely to recommend our product to a friend or colleague? Recommendations from existing customers are some of the best marketing you can get.
- How has our product impacted your success? Your team's success? Getting the interviewee to describe how your product played an integral role in solving their challenges will show leads that they can also have success using your product.
- In the beginning, you had XYZ concerns; how do you feel about them now? Let them explain how working with your company eliminated those concerns.
- I noticed your team is currently doing XYZ with our product. Tell me more about how that helps your business. Illustrate to your readers how current customers are using your product to solve additional challenges. It will convey how versatile your product is.
- Have you thought about using our product for a new use case with your team or at your company? The more examples of use cases the client can provide, the better.
- How do you measure the value our product provides? Have the interviewee illustrate what metrics they use to gauge the product's success and how. Data is helpful, but you should go beyond the numbers. Maybe your product improved company morale and how teams work together.
- What will it take for you and your team to get the most value out of our product? This will help you dive deeper into how your client operates and how you can best assist them.
Case Study Interview Questions About Product Feedback
Ask the customer if they'd recommend your product to others. A strong recommendation will help potential clients be more open to purchasing your product.
- How do other companies in this industry solve the problems you had before you purchased our product? This will give you insight into how other companies may be functioning without your product and how you can assist them.
- Have you ever talked about our product to any of your clients or peers? What did you say? This can provide you with more leads and a chance to get a referral.
- Why would you recommend our product to a friend or client? Be sure they pinpoint which features they would highlight in a recommendation.
- Can you think of any use cases your customers might have for our product? Similar industries may have similar issues that need solutions. Your interviewee may be able to provide a use case you haven't come up with.
- What is your advice for other teams or companies who are tackling problems similar to those you had before you purchased our product? This is another opportunity for your client to talk up your product or service.
- Do you know someone in X industry who has similar problems to the ones you had prior to using our product? The client can make an introduction so you can interview them about their experience as well.
- I noticed you work with Company Y. Do you know if they are having any pain points with these processes? This will help you learn how your product has impacted your client's customers and gain insight into what can be improved.
- Does your company participate in any partner or referral programs? Having a strong referral program will help you increase leads and improve customer retention.
- Can I send you a referral kit as a thank-you for making a referral and give you the tools to refer someone to us? This is a great strategy to request a referral while rewarding your existing customers.
- Are you interested in working with us to produce additional marketing content? The more opportunities you can showcase happy customers, the better.
Case Study Interview Questions About Willingness to Make Referrals
- How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or client? Ideally, they would definitely refer your product to someone they know.
- Can you think of any use cases your customers might have for our product? Again, your interviewee is a great source for more leads. Similar industries may have similar issues that need solutions. They may be able to provide a use case you haven't come up with.
- I noticed you work with Company Y; do you know if they are having any pain points with these processes? This will help you learn how your product has impacted your client's customers and gain insight into what can be improved.
Case Study Interview Questions to Prompt Quote-Worthy Feedback
Enhance your case study with quotable soundbites from the customer. By asking these questions, prospects have more insight into other clients and their success with your product — which helps build trust.
- How would you describe your process in one sentence prior to using our product? Ideally, this sentence would quickly and descriptively sum up the most prominent pain point or challenge with the previous process.
- What is your advice to others who might be considering our product? Readers can learn from your customer's experience.
- What would your team's workflow or process be like without our product? This will drive home the value your product provides and how essential it is to their business.
- Do you think the investment in our product was worthwhile? Why? Have your customer make the case for the value you provide.
- What would you say if we told you our product would soon be unavailable? What would this mean to you? Again, this illustrates how integral your product is to their business.
- How would you describe our product if you were explaining it to a friend? Your customers can often distill the value of your product to their friends better than you can.
- What do you love about your job? Your company? This gives the reader more background on your customer and their industry.
- What was the worst part of your process before you started using our product? Ideally, they'd reiterate how your product helped solve this challenge.
- What do you love about our product? Another great way to get the customer's opinion about what makes your product worth it.
- Why do you do business with us? Hopefully, your interviewee will share how wonderful your business relationship is.
Case Study Interview Questions About the Customers' Future Goals
Ask the customer about their goals, challenges, and plans for the future. This will provide insight into how a business can grow with your product.
- What are the biggest challenges on the horizon for your industry? Chances are potential leads within the same industry will have similar challenges.
- What are your goals for the next three months? Knowing their short-term goals will enable your company to get some quick wins for the client.
- How would you like to use our product to meet those challenges and goals? This will help potential leads understand that your product can help their business as they scale and grow.
- Is there anything we can do to help you and your team meet your goals? If you haven't covered it already, this will allow your interviewee to express how you can better assist them.
- Do you think you will buy more, less, or about the same amount of our product next year? This can help you gauge how your product is used and why.
- What are the growth plans for your company this year? Your team? This will help you gain insight into how your product can help them achieve future goals.
- How can we help you meet your long-term goals? Getting specifics on the needs of your clients will help you create a unique solution designed for their needs.
- What is the long-term impact of using our product? Get their feedback on how your product has created a lasting impact.
- Are there any initiatives that you personally would like to achieve that our product or team can help with? Again, you want to continue to provide products that help your customers excel.
- What will you need from us in the future? This will help you anticipate the customer's business needs.
- Is there anything we can do to improve our product or process for working together in the future? The more feedback you can get about what is and isn't working, the better.
Before you can start putting together your case study, you need to ask your customer's permission.
If you have a customer who's seen success with your product, reach out to them. Use this template to get started:
Thank you & quick request
Hi [customer name],
Thanks again for your business — working with you to [solve X, launch Y, take advantage of Z opportunity] has been extremely rewarding, and I'm looking forward to more collaboration in the future.
[Name of your company] is building a library of case studies to include on our site. We're looking for successful companies using [product] to solve interesting challenges, and your team immediately came to mind. Are you open to [customer company name] being featured?
It should be a lightweight process — [I, a product marketer] will ask you roughly [10, 15, 20] questions via email or phone about your experience and results. This case study will include a blurb about your company and a link to your homepage (which hopefully will make your SEO team happy!)
In any case, thank you again for the chance to work with you, and I hope you have a great week.
[Your name]
If one of your customers has recently passed along some praise (to you, their account manager, your boss; on an online forum; to another potential customer; etc.), then send them a version of this email:
Hey [customer name],
Thanks for the great feedback — I'm really glad to hear [product] is working well for you and that [customer company name] is getting the results you're looking for.
My team is actually in the process of building out our library of case studies, and I'd love to include your story. Happy to provide more details if you're potentially interested.
Either way, thank you again, and I look forward to getting more updates on your progress.
You can also find potential case study customers by usage or product data. For instance, maybe you see a company you sold to 10 months ago just bought eight more seats or upgraded to a new tier. Clearly, they're happy with the solution. Try this template:
I saw you just [invested in our X product; added Y more users; achieved Z product milestone]. Congratulations! I'd love to share your story using [product] with the world -- I think it's a great example of how our product + a dedicated team and a good strategy can achieve awesome results.
Are you open to being featured? If so, I'll send along more details.
Case Study Benefits
- Case studies are a form of customer advocacy.
- Case studies provide a joint-promotion opportunity.
- Case studies are easily sharable.
- Case studies build rapport with your customers.
- Case studies are less opinionated than customer reviews.
1. Case studies are a form of customer advocacy.
If you haven't noticed, customers aren't always quick to trust a brand's advertisements and sales strategies.
With every other brand claiming to be the best in the business, it's hard to sort exaggeration from reality.
This is the most important reason why case studies are effective. They are testimonials from your customers of your service. If someone is considering your business, a case study is a much more convincing piece of marketing or sales material than traditional advertising.
2. Case studies provide a joint-promotion opportunity.
Your business isn't the only one that benefits from a case study. Customers participating in case studies benefit, too.
Think about it. Case studies are free advertisements for your customers, not to mention the SEO factor, too. While they're not promoting their products or services, they're still getting the word out about their business. And, the case study highlights how successful their business is — showing interested leads that they're on the up and up.
3. Case studies are easily sharable.
No matter your role on the sales team, case studies are great to have on hand. You can easily share them with leads, prospects, and clients.
Whether you embed them on your website or save them as a PDF, you can simply send a link to share your case study with others. They can share that link with their peers and colleagues, and so on.
Case studies can also be useful during a sales pitch. In sales, timing is everything. If a customer is explaining a problem that was solved and discussed in your case study, you can quickly find the document and share it with them.
4. Case studies build rapport with your customers.
While case studies are very useful, they do require some back and forth with your customers to obtain the exact feedback you're looking for.
Even though time is involved, the good news is this builds rapport with your most loyal customers. You get to know them on a personal level, and they'll become more than just your most valuable clients.
And, the better the rapport you have with them, the more likely they'll be to recommend your business, products, or services to others.
5. Case studies are less opinionated than customer reviews.
Data is the difference between a case study and a review. Customer reviews are typically based on the customer's opinion of your brand. While they might write a glowing review, it's completely subjective and there's rarely empirical evidence supporting their claim.
Case studies, on the other hand, are more data-driven. While they'll still talk about how great your brand is, they support this claim with quantitative data that's relevant to the reader. It's hard to argue with data.
An effective case study must be genuine and credible. Your case study should explain why certain customers are the right fit for your business and how your company can help meet their specific needs. That way, someone in a similar situation can use your case study as a testimonial for why they should choose your business.
Use the case study questions above to create an ideal customer case study questionnaire. By asking your customers the right questions, you can obtain valuable feedback that can be shared with potential leads and convert them into loyal customers.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in June 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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47 case interview examples (from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.)
One of the best ways to prepare for case interviews at firms like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, is by studying case interview examples.
There are a lot of free sample cases out there, but it's really hard to know where to start. So in this article, we have listed all the best free case examples available, in one place.
The below list of resources includes interactive case interview samples provided by consulting firms, video case interview demonstrations, case books, and materials developed by the team here at IGotAnOffer. Let's continue to the list.
- McKinsey examples
- BCG examples
- Bain examples
- Deloitte examples
- Other firms' examples
- Case books from consulting clubs
- Case interview preparation
1. McKinsey case interview examples
- Beautify case interview (McKinsey website)
- Diconsa case interview (McKinsey website)
- Electro-light case interview (McKinsey website)
- GlobaPharm case interview (McKinsey website)
- National Education case interview (McKinsey website)
- Talbot Trucks case interview (McKinsey website)
- Shops Corporation case interview (McKinsey website)
- Conservation Forever case interview (McKinsey website)
- McKinsey case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
- McKinsey live case interview extract (by IGotAnOffer) - See below
2. BCG case interview examples
- Foods Inc and GenCo case samples (BCG website)
- Chateau Boomerang written case interview (BCG website)
- BCG case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
- Written cases guide (by IGotAnOffer)
- BCG live case interview extract (by IGotAnOffer) - See below
3. Bain case interview examples
- CoffeeCo practice case (Bain website)
- FashionCo practice case (Bain website)
- Associate Consultant mock interview video (Bain website)
- Consultant mock interview video (Bain website)
- Written case interview tips (Bain website)
- Bain case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
- Bain live case interview extract (by IGotAnOffer) - See above
4. Deloitte case interview examples
- Engagement Strategy practice case (Deloitte website)
- Recreation Unlimited practice case (Deloitte website)
- Strategic Vision practice case (Deloitte website)
- Retail Strategy practice case (Deloitte website)
- Finance Strategy practice case (Deloitte website)
- Talent Management practice case (Deloitte website)
- Enterprise Resource Management practice case (Deloitte website)
- Footloose written case (by Deloitte)
- Deloitte case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
5. Accenture case interview examples
- Case interview workbook (by Accenture)
- Accenture case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
6. OC&C case interview examples
- Leisure Club case example (by OC&C)
- Imported Spirits case example (by OC&C)
7. Oliver Wyman case interview examples
- Wumbleworld case sample (Oliver Wyman website)
- Aqualine case sample (Oliver Wyman website)
- Oliver Wyman case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
8. A.T. Kearney case interview examples
- Promotion planning case question (A.T. Kearney website)
- Consulting case book and examples (by A.T. Kearney)
- AT Kearney case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
9. Strategy& / PWC case interview examples
- Presentation overview with sample questions (by Strategy& / PWC)
- Strategy& / PWC case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
10. L.E.K. Consulting case interview examples
- Case interview example video walkthrough (L.E.K. website)
- Market sizing case example video walkthrough (L.E.K. website)
11. Roland Berger case interview examples
- Transit oriented development case webinar part 1 (Roland Berger website)
- Transit oriented development case webinar part 2 (Roland Berger website)
- 3D printed hip implants case webinar part 1 (Roland Berger website)
- 3D printed hip implants case webinar part 2 (Roland Berger website)
- Roland Berger case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
12. Capital One case interview examples
- Case interview example video walkthrough (Capital One website)
- Capital One case interview guide (by IGotAnOffer)
13. Consulting clubs case interview examples
- Berkeley case book (2006)
- Columbia case book (2006)
- Darden case book (2012)
- Darden case book (2018)
- Duke case book (2010)
- Duke case book (2014)
- ESADE case book (2011)
- Goizueta case book (2006)
- Illinois case book (2015)
- LBS case book (2006)
- MIT case book (2001)
- Notre Dame case book (2017)
- Ross case book (2010)
- Wharton case book (2010)
Practice with experts
Using case interview examples is a key part of your interview preparation, but it isn’t enough.
At some point you’ll want to practise with friends or family who can give some useful feedback. However, if you really want the best possible preparation for your case interview, you'll also want to work with ex-consultants who have experience running interviews at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc.
If you know anyone who fits that description, fantastic! But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen. And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well.
Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. We’ve created a coaching service where you can do mock case interviews 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from MBB firms . Start scheduling sessions today!
Any additional resources?
Have we missed any additional case interview resources available for free? Please post them in the comments section below so we can add them to our list.
The IGotAnOffer team
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Case Study Interview Examples: Questions and Answers
- What would be your approach for introducing a product into a foreign market? What are the risks and benefits to consider i.e. producing in your own country vs producing in the new country, etc?
- Company ABC is struggling, should it be restructured? Identify the three main problems it's facing. What is the most important problem the company is facing? How would you recommend the company address this problem? How would you turn this company around? Provide your reasoning for your recommendation(s).
- A toy company has been experiencing decline sales for the last two seasons. Research suggests that introducing several new product lines is the solution. Develop a marketing strategy for the company's largest product line, including pricing, product packing, etc.
- A large chain of retail clothing stores is struggling with profitability. Bases on your review fo the company's financial statements, what problems can you identify? Can this company be turned arounds? How would you go about deciding?
- A new Eddie Bauer Store is being opened up in London. Discuss all the marketing issues regarding the opening of this new location.
- Take in information quickly and remember what you hear.
- Identify key issues, prioritize and logically solve problems.
- Make quick, yet accurate, decisions.
- Manage time efficiently.
- Perform under pressure.
- Be aware of resource constraints.
- Identify customer needs.
- Be original and creative.
- Please provide the total weight of a fully loaded Jumbo Jet at the time of take off.
- How many light bulbs are there in the United States?
- How many photocopies are taken in the United Kingdom each year?
- How much beer is consumed in the city of New York on Fridays?
- How many people sell AMWAY products in the United States?
- If there are 7,492 people participating in a tournament, how many games must be played to find a winner?
- How many golf balls will fit in the Empire State Building?
- How many car tire are sold in Canada each year?
- Given thhe numbers 5 and 2000, what is the minimum number of guesses required to find a specific number if the only hint you're given is "higher" and "lower" for each guess made?
- How do you determine the weight of a blue whale without using a scale?
- Take time to think before you answer the question.
- If given a pen and paper, take notes and write down key information. Use the paper to make calculations, write down ideas and structure your answer.
- Ask additional questions if you feel you are missing information. The interviewer is often expecting you to ask to find missing information.
- Use lateral thinking and be creative. There isn't always just one right answer. Just make sure your answer is backed up by sound logic and numbers that make sense.
- Make sure you know your math. At minimum you'll need to perform some basic arithmetic or mathematical calculations.
- These quesitons are often used to test your ability to structure, as well as your ability to think laterallly, make logical links and communicate clearly.
- Make mental calculations quickly by making sensible estimates and rounding numbers up or down.
- Does your answer make sense? If you're answer doesn't make sense, chances are you've made a bad assumpation, estimate or calculation. Go back and carefully check your work and provide a new answer.
- You can use business frameworks (SWOT, Porter's Five forces, etc.) or mind mapping to support your analysis and answers, as long as it makes sense.
- Many market sizing questions revolve around issues being faced by an organization or industry. Commercial awareness can be very important to answering market sizing questions.
- How would you work with a subordinate who is underperforming?
- You're consulting with a large pharmacy with stores in multiple states. This company has improved sales but experienced a decrease in revenue. As a result, it is contemplating store closings. Explain how you'd advise this client?
- You are working directly with a company's management team. It is organizing a project designed to significantly increase revenue. If you were provided with data and asked to supervise the project, what steps would you take to ensure it's successful?
- You have been assigned to work with a small company that manufactures a popular product. However, a competitor begins selling a very similar product which incorporates state of the art technology. What would you advise your client to do?
- You have been assigned to advise a company with a large Western European market. Company management wants to open the Chinese market. What advice do you have for this company?
- The firm has assigned you to consult a company intending to drop a product or expand into new markets in order to increase revenue. What steps would you take to help this company achieve its objective?
- You have been assigned to consult a shoe retailer with stores throughout the nation. Since its revenue is dropping, the company has proposed to sell food at its stores. How would you advise this client?
- Vault Guide to the Case Interview
- Vault Career Guide to Consulting
- Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation
- Mastering the Case Interview
- Ace Your Case! Consulting Interviews (series 1-5)
- Caseinterview.com
- Bain Case Interview Preparation
- BCG - Interactive Case
- Cornerstone Research Cases
- Deloitte - Case Interview Preparation
- Gotham Consulting Case Studies
- McKinsey Interview Prep
- Mercer Case Study
- Oliver Wyman - Practice Case Studies
- pwc Case Studies
What Is a Case Study Interview? Sample Case Study Questions and Answers
What is a case study interview, standard case interview question, logical case study interview questions, business case study questions.
There are many types of job interviews that you will face in your job hunt- HR interviews , behavioral interview questions , panel interviews , group interviews , screening interviews , etc., are just a few to name. But each of them is equally challenging, some more than others.
Today, we will discuss another addition in this series of job interviews, Case Study interviews.
In this blog, we will dive deep into understanding what are case study interviews all about, followed by some crucial sample case study interview questions and answers to help you ace your upcoming interview.
Let’s begin!
A case study interview is one where recruiters ask hypothetical business-related questions, to which the candidates have to provide recommendations accordingly.
The reason for these case study interview questions is to test the candidate's problem-solving abilities and quick-thinking capabilities.
Although every interview requires thorough preparation, case study interviews need a little more attention to ace.
Case study interview questions
It is important to know about the types of case study interview questions before we go looking for answers. Case study interview questions are of 4 types, namely:
- Standard case study questions and answers
- Market sizing case study questions and answers
- Business case study questions and answers
- Logical/ trick case study questions and answers
Here are a few sample case study questions and answers to help you understand better.
How would you introduce a product into a foreign market? What are the risks and benefits to consider i.e., producing in your own country vs producing in the new country, etc.?
“My first step will be to study the targeted market and understand the customers’ demands and requirements. Next, examine the cost of production in the new country and compare it to domestic production. Once we have answers to these crucial factors, my next step is to draw up a marketing strategy that will appeal to new customers.Every customer base reacts differently to different advertisements. This makes it crucial to nail the right marketing recipe especially when introducing your product to a new customer base.”
If a company is struggling, should it be restructured? Identify its three main problems. What is the most important problem the company is facing? How would you recommend the company address this problem? How would you turn this company around? Provide your reasoning.
“If I see a company struggling, my first action will be to identify the problem areas and break it down to the most critical one. Once that is done, I will suggest a few reforms the company can undertake and give them 6 months to a year’s time. If the condition still does not improve, I would suggest a performance analysis of the problem areas, ask them to take a call accordingly. I am not pro to downsizing hence I suggest it as the final option when all other reforms have failed.”
Why are manhole covers always round and not square?
“The reason why manhole covers are round is because a square cover if turned diagonally will fall right through. On the other hand, round covers will get stuck if turned diagonally.”
There are 23 football teams playing in a tournament. What will be the least number of games played to find a tournament winner?
“Given there are 23 teams contending and each round will only present 1 winner, the final winner can only be declared after 22 rounds.”
How will you put a giraffe in a fridge?
“I’ll open the fridge, put the giraffe in and shut the door.”
Tip: Remember, no specifics were provided. So, keep your answer simple and witty.
A woman and daughter walked into a restaurant. A man walked past and the women both said “Hello, Father”. How is this possible?
“The answer is rather simple and have only 2 options. He’s either a church priest or his name is Father.”
How will you work with an underperforming team member?
“To work with an underperforming teammate, my first step will be to understand what drives them and the reason for their lack of optimum productivity. Once I have this information, I will try to give them a friendly advice and try to encourage them more to perform better with small gestures like a team lunch. If I am on the same work level with my teammate, I am not the right person to remind them of the implications of lagging behind. Hence my approach to keep them encouraged.”
Market sizing case study questions
- Please provide the total weight of a fully loaded Jumbo Jet at the time of take off.
- How will you weigh a blue whale without using a scale?
- How many people sell XYZ products in India?
- How many photocopies are taken in India each year?
These case study interview questions should be tackled carefully. Here are a few tips to face such case study questions and answers;
- Take time to gather your thoughts before answering
- Note down the key information and for calculations
- Be confident of your math skills
- Ask additional questions if you feel you are missing some information
- These questions test your ability to think laterally, logically, structurally and communicate effectively
- Use business frameworks like SWOT analyses to frame your answers
- Be aware of your market scenarios as most of market-sizing cast study interview questions test your awareness.
Hope these sample case study interview questions and answers were helpful.
In addition, when preparing to answer these questions, always carry a pen and notepad to note down information, basic calculations, etc. Secondly, ask more questions to collect more information you find lacking.
Apart from these, always practice case study interview questions and answers at home to build confidence.
All the Best!
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Crack the Case Interview with this Guide and Sample Questions and Answers
Consulting is among the most sought profession by business management graduates. The top three consulting firms are abbreviated as MBB ( McKinsey , Boston Consulting Group , and Bain ), also known as the Big Three .
Since most consultancy firms work on various kinds of problems, they look to hire people with the best critical thinking abilities who can tackle challenges faced by their clients by applying well-known frameworks for problem-solving.
Hence, most consulting firms rely on case studies as a crucial part of the interview process. Nailing these case studies can be the difference between landing a role as a consultant or leaving empty-handed from an interview.
However, most case studies can be solved with existing frameworks like Porter's five forces, SWOT analysis , and the 4 Ps. Learning these frameworks and walking through them during the interview helps differentiate yourself as a star candidate.
We strongly believe it's a great place to start your preparation before investing in our more comprehensive Consulting Case Interview Course, which features more than 2,000 questions.
Everything You Need To Break into the Top Consulting Firms
Land at an Elite Consulting Firm with the Most Comprehensive Case Interview Prep Course in the World.
Consulting Case Interview Example
Every case study interview starts by providing some background information on the case, which helps you understand the problem you are tasked with finding a solution to.
It is essential to separate the necessary information from the useless ones, as this skill is highly sought after.
Also, make sure to note down all the critical relationships between the date provided. For example, suppose the case first mentions that profits have been declining, and later mentions something about reducing marketing costs. In that case, it's a good idea to jot down that it might be a factor in lowering profits (reduction in marketing costs means lower revenue, which in turn means lower yields).
For this sample case, we will use the example of Cali Cable and present it just like how an interviewer would.
Sample Case Prep: Cali Cable
Cali Cable is a small business that operates in northern California. Their core business is installing cable infrastructure in residential neighborhoods so that the homes have access to cable television. Cali Cable has manufactured its own cable since it has been in existence.
However, the factory is out of date and must be shut down. The CEO does not want to open a new factory because it will be expensive, costing as much as $15 per foot of cable. Therefore, he is considering outsourcing cable manufacturing from either a local supplier, an Asian supplier, or an Eastern European supplier.
He is experiencing problems with the local supplier, so he asked the COO to find the most cost-effective way to find a reliable cable supplier elsewhere. You are assigned to work with the COO to find the best course of action.
Sample Consulting Interview Questions and Frameworks
Based on the case study above, the interviewer will proceed to ask you questions that test your critical thinking and analysis skills. Hence, it is very important to properly understand the case first, ask the right questions, and follow a proven approach.
1. How should the COO approach outsourcing?
A 2x2 for an outsourcing case is a valuable framework.
- For the x-axis competitiveness, the candidate should consider Cali Cable's effectiveness in terms of costs.
- For strategic importance, the candidate should think about how the cable is important to the company's overall goals. For example, how is the quality of an outsourced line going to threaten customer satisfaction?
The candidate should also consider the costs and risks of outsourcing. The tree below could be useful.
2. The COO approaches you. She has collected some data and wants you to analyze it and prepare a PowerPoint presentation slide for a meeting with the CEO. The template for the slide is as follows.
The COO has found that the Asian supplier will charge $7 per foot of cable with a fixed payment of $600,000 per year. The Eastern European supplier will charge $6 per foot of cable and $800,000 in fixed costs. Complete the blank slide for the COO plotting the total cost per foot for the two different options for 100K, 200K, 300K, and 400K feet.
The candidate is instructed to create her own slide on her scratch paper.
You should immediately recognize the economies of scale resulting from the fixed cost structure of the two outsourcing options. If not, try to explain the graph. All three plants cost $10 per foot at 200,000 units, but the Asian and Eastern European plants enjoy the benefits of scale beyond this point. The Eastern European plant becomes the clear cost leader past 200,000 units.
3. The COO thinks she has a good feel for demand based on historical data. She calls you and says, 'for the past few years, Cali Cable has used about 50 miles of cable per year, so we'll order 50 miles of cable from our new supplier for next year.' What should you tell her?
Considering the standard deviation and service level, how much cable should be ordered annually how much will cali cable save compared to the local supplier if it goes with the eastern european option.
Because the COO wants to satisfy demand 98% of the time, the 400,000 feet of cable is the relevant footage on the x-axis of the cost graph. With the Eastern European plant costing $8 per foot for 400,000 units, Cali Cable will save $800,000 per year ($2 times 400K feet).
4. What else should the COO consider to reduce costs?
Consider at least four different options. We have highlighted the four below:
- Warehouse: store any excess supply in a warehouse and adjust order levels for the next year. Inventory carrying costs should be compared to the costs of mismatching supply and demand.
- Increase the number of orders: annual orders result in costs from stock-outs or excess supply. If Cali Cable can order throughout the year, it can better match supply and demand.
- Shorten lead times: this could also fall under increasing the number of orders. Shorter lead times from the supplier to Cali Cable will allow them to postpone ordering and have more information about demand forecasts.
- Explore other options and suppliers: for example, when demand exceeds supply, locate excess capacity at other cable operations or use the local supplier at $10 per foot when the cable is needed. This allows Cali Cable to order less.
- Better forecasting: find a more accurate way to forecast demand or have customers commit to quantities in advance.
5. What are some of the risks to outsourcing to Asia or Eastern Europe?
There are many different risks to consider. We have named a few below under the relevant bucket.
- Product Risks: Will the cable be compatible with American cables and televisions? Are there any risks to the cable becoming obsolete? With the growth in high definition, 3D, and internet television, the supplier needs to be able to stay up to date with technology.
- Company Risks: Is the Eastern European or Asia supplier a sustainable company that will be able to deliver into the future? If Cali Cable sources exclusively from a new supplier, their fortunes are tied.
- Operational Risks: Will the new supplier be successfully integrated with the supply chain logistics at Cali Cable? Are there any risks to shipping cable from Europe or Asia? Will it be shipped via boat or plane? What are the lead times? How reliable is this company in delivering on time?
- Customer Service Risks: Will the quality of the cable meet the customer's expectations? What are the risks to over or under-ordering cable?
6. Using the PowerPoint slide you prepared with the COO, present your recommendation to the CEO.
Recommendation:
The CEO wants the most cost-effective supplier, but the candidate should also mention the reasons behind the decision and the risks involved. A possible recommendation:
"For our cost structure to remain competitive, it looks like outsourcing is the best option. As long as the outsourced cable meets our quality standards, it appears to align with our corporate strategy . Cali Cable should consider outsourcing its cable from Eastern Europe because it is a low-cost option.
Show the PowerPoint slide. Due to the fixed cost structure, Cali Cable will enjoy economies of scale with both offshore options, but Eastern Europe appears to be the most attractive. Cali Cable will save $800,000 per year compared to the local supplier and $200,000 per year compared to the Asian supplier.
Before proceeding, I'd like to find out more about the risks associated with the Eastern European supplier, such as their reliability, quality, ordering processes, and ability to integrate with our supply chain."
This free guide covers one whole case study question from start to finish and will drastically improve your chances of securing an offer with your dream job. You can find more tips, tricks, and examples in the free Case Interview Guide created by our friends at Management Consulted.
How are management consulting case interviews graded?
Interviewers usually grade the candidates over a variety of qualities using a scale ranging from 1 to 10, with one meaning poor and ten meaning star.
We look into the various qualities that are evaluated, as well as questions used to measure them. These questions should give you a good feel for what you need to focus on to ace these consulting interview cases.
- Did she maintain eye contact?
- Did she fidget during the interview?
- Did she appear nervous?
- Did she smile and appear relaxed?
- Was the framework clearly presented on the page?
- Was the math organized and easy to follow on the page?
- Did she keep track of key findings?
- Did the framework provide a road map to solve the case?
- Did she "bucket" or categorize any lists or ideas?
- Did she follow the cadence of clarify, structure, solve, and recommend?
Communication
- Did she speak clearly throughout the interview?
- Was it easy or difficult to follow her ideas?
- Did she try to work with you as a partner in solving the case?
Math Proficiency
- Did she correctly complete all math problems?
- Did she use appropriate assumptions or clarify any ambiguity?
- Did she think out loud so that you could follow the calculations?
- Did she think outside the box?
- Did she mention any current events or recent trends affecting the industry?
Recommendation
- Did she answer the question?
- Was the conclusion clear, confident, and to the point?
- Did she justify the conclusion with the key findings?
- Did she include "next steps" as though she would finish the case?
Full WSO Consulting Case Interview Prep Guide & Additional Resources
The case study covered in this free guide was obtained directly from WSO's very own Consulting Case Interview Guide, which features:
- 2,037 questions across 209 consulting firms
- 11 challenging cases authored by McKinsey Associate
- Five critical frameworks for case interview success
Think about it - if this page alone can set you miles ahead of the competition, imagine what our complete course can do for you.
The WSO Case Interview Course will guide you through each step of the interview process and ensure you're in the strongest position to land the job at a top-tier consulting firm. Check it out below!
Additional interview resources
To learn more about interviews and the questions asked, please check out the additional interview resources below:
- Investment Banking Interview Questions and Answers
- Private Equity Interview Questions and Answers
- Hedge Funds Interview Questions and Answers
- Finance Interview Questions and Answers
- Accounting Interview Questions and Answers
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Case Interview Examples
Type 1 - Framework/Issue tree questions Compensations: are the salaries, bonuses, and benefits attractive enough? Difficulty: is the job too difficult?
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Case Study Interview Examples and Questions
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100 Case Study Interview Questions [Updated for 2020]
Case study interview questions and answers.
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Table of content
Case interview questions
Case interviews at management consulting firms are among the most difficult job interviews, but they are also quite predictable. Once you know the types of questions they ask, preparation is straightforward. Using years of experience at McKinsey, as well as field reports from thousands of candidates, I’ve crafted a list of 8 common case interview questions, and in this article, I’ll show you how to answer each of them.
Case interview questions – Overview
Types of case interview questions .
Most questions in case interviews belong to one of these 9 types: 1. Framework/issue tree questions 2. Market-sizing and guesstimate questions 3. Valuation questions 4. Brain teaser questions 5. Chart insight questions 6. Value proposition questions 7. Information questions 8. Math problems 9. Solution-finding questions In this article, we’ll discuss how to answer each question, along with the necessary tips and tricks.
How to answer case interview questions
There are the fo ur basic steps to answer case interview questions:
This general outline may vary depending on each type and each question – for example, brain teasers or information questions need only the last step, while market-sizing and framework questions need all four steps to deliver the perfect answer.
Type 1 – Framework/Issue tree questions
If the interviewer asks you to identify factors contributing to a problem or to break down an entity (such as the revenue of a business), he/she is telling you to draw an issue tree. And to draw a spot-on issue tree, you need to master consulting problem-solving foundations , the MECE principle , and common consulting frameworks . You should check out our other articles on these topics before moving on, because mastering the issue tree is the key to acing every possible case interview. You also need good business intuition to draw good issue trees, so that’s all the more reason to start reading every day.
Job: Factors from the job itself. Further divided into 3 sub-branches
Company: Factors from the work environment within the restaurant chain, surrounding the affected jobs. Further divided into 2 sub-branches
Competitors: Factors from outside the restaurant chain, related to competing job offers. Further divided into 2 sub-branches.
For detailed guides on issue trees, frameworks and their principles, see the articles on Issue Trees , Case Interview Frameworks, and MECE Principle
Type 2 – Market-sizing & guesstimate
These questions go along the lines of “How many trees are there in Central Park?” or “What’s the market size of pick-up trucks in the USA?” The key to nailing market-sizing and guesstimate questions lies in not the closest results, but the most logical and structured approaches. In fact, the interviewer expects you to follow these four steps:
Unless you come up with something about 10 times the reasonable estimate, don’t worry about being “wrong” – the interviewer is unlikely to have a “correct” number in mind, he/she just wants to see your structured mindset. This question type is so common, we devote a whole article to it, and our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program have a separate package on these questions. Check out our comprehensive guide on Market-Sizing & Guesstimate Questions for more details! Now, here’s a quick example for you to try and get used to this type:
Market-Sizing & Guesstimate Questions
How to Estimate Logically and Structurally
Break down the problem: The global smartphone market can be divided into three segments – developed countries, developing countries, and undeveloped countries. In each segment, the annual unit sales of smartphones depend on four variables:
Solve each piece:
=> Estimated global smartphone market: 1.53 billion units per year => Actual 2019 global smartphone sales: 1.37 billion units (error margin: 11.7%) This market-sizing question is solved using a four-step process, which is explained in this article: Market-Sizing & Guesstimate Questions
Type 3 – Valuation questions
Valuation questions are a blend of guesstimation/market-sizing, math, and business. They also require basic finance knowledge. There are three ways to estimate the value of a business:
In real case interviews, you have to justify your approach then ask the interviewer to give you the necessary data.
Type 4 – Brain teasers
Brain teasers are riddles designed to test unconventional, creative, and logical thinking. A famous example of this is Accenture’s “How do you put a giraffe in a fridge?”. Although not as popular as before, brain teasers might still appear in consulting interviews; therefore, you should spend some time to prepare. Most brain teasers can be allocated into these seven types:
In our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program , there are +200 brain teasers to help you prepare for these “unpredictable” questions. You can also read our article about Case Interview Brain Teasers for insights on all of these exciting brain teasers, as well as 30 example questions and answers!
Brain Teaser Questions
Cracking the Most Unpredictable Interview Questions with 30 Examples
Answer Key Open the fridge, put the giraffe in, then close the fridge. The question never says how big the fridge or the giraffe is. For the logic and approach behind each kind of brain teasers, see the article on Brain Teasers.
Type 5 – Chart insight questions
You can’t be a management consultant without mastering the use of charts – the complex, scary-looking real-world charts such as those included in our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program. In management consulting and case interviews, most charts are one (or a combination) of these four basic types:
To read these charts and answer chart-insights questions effectively, you must follow a structured, comprehensive process:
You can find a more detailed guide in the Charts section in our article about Consulting Math.
Type 6 – Value proposition questions
No business or consulting candidate can succeed without understanding the customers! Value-proposition questions are not only about correctly identifying customer preferences, but also about analyzing and delivering the answer in a structured fashion. The former relies heavily on business knowledge and intuition, but the latter can be trained methodically and quickly. Personally, I use a “double issue-tree” – essentially a table with customer segments on one axis and proposed values on the other: For segmenting customers, you can use the following table. However, don’t over-rely on it, since there may be more relevant and insightful question-specific segmentations.
In some cases, clarification is also necessary – both to avoid “answering the wrong question” and to narrow down the range of customers/values you need to cover in the answer.
Cost factors
Physical factors
Emotional factors
Type 7 – Information questions
“Information questions” essentially ask if the piece of data you use is obtainable in the first place. In real consulting work, data is not always available – client team members may refuse to cooperate or there’s simply no data on the subject. There are many kinds of information sources in case interviews/consulting works, but I’ll divide them into primary and secondary sources. Primary sources means you must do the research yourself (or pay someone else to do it for you), such as customer surveys or mystery shoppings. If someone already did that research, and you use their results, it’s called a secondary source – you can get these from the client , the consulting firm you work for, or third-parties such as market research firms or external industry experts. You can find out more about these sources and how to cite them in real case interviews through this free Prospective Candidate Starter Pack, which contains a glossary of data sources in consulting. Our Prospective Candidate Starter Pack has a sheet containing all the possible sources of information in case interviews and consulting projects, among numerous other free resources; you can download and use it to answer these questions, by subscribing to our newsletter at the end of this article.
Type 8 – Math problems
When you have to do the math, perform back-of-the-envelope calculations in a structured fashion, and say out loud what you’re writing. For one thing, it’s safe; for another, you show that you’re careful, organized, and reliable – just like actual consultants. We have a Math Practice Tool right here! Use it every day, and you’ll be a master of mental calculations in no time flat! We have a dedicated article on Consulting Math, which you should definitely read.
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Type 9 – Solution-finding questions
When dealing with solution questions, keep these four points in mind:
Last but not least, deliver at least two solutions, preferably three to five. Otherwise, you’ll appear uncreative and lazy to the interviewer’s eyes. Nailing these questions relies on having excellent business intuition; our Case Interview End-to-End Program has a dedicated Business Intuition package, but you should also train a habit of reading consulting and business articles daily, to sharpen your business mind.
Reminders on case interview questions
The questions are not clear-cut in candidate-led cases.
There are two extremes in consulting case interview format: interviewer-led (McKinsey) and candidate-led (BCG, Bain).
This list, therefore, is much more relevant to the interviewer-led format; nonetheless, this guide is still quite beneficial for candidate-led cases, because when solving that big problem, you’ll have to tackle small issues similar to the 8 aforementioned question types.
Mastering the fundamentals is crucial to consistent performance
Although it’s good to study the case interview questions, it is no substitute for mastering the fundamental principles. Learning the exercises without the basics is like building a house without a foundation. My poor neighbor’s house developed a huge crack right down the center because of its weak foundation, so make sure to build your case interview prep a strong one by knowing the basics first. Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you’ll become much more flexible – this quality is getting increasingly important because case interviews are getting less predictable, and more realistic. If you haven’t, I advise you to read these articles (especially the first 4) before practicing the question types:
Expect the unexpected
If you study those nine question types, rest assured that you’ve covered the majority of questions in case interviews. However, these are not all the possible questions you might be given. In actual cases, there are always questions that cannot be categorized neatly. If you do not prepare for these questions, it’s easy to be thrown off-balance. So, how do you prepare for “the unexpected”?
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Case Study Interview Examples and Questions
19 Data Science Case Study Interview Questions (with Solutions)
Data science case study interview questions are often the most difficult part of the interview process. Designed to simulate a company’s current and past projects, case study problems rigorously examine how candidates approach prompts, communicate their findings and work through roadblocks.
Practice is key for acing case study interviews in data science. By continuously practicing test problems, you will learn how to approach the case study, ask the right questions from your interviewer and formulate answers that are both illustrative of your abilities and crafted within the time constraints of the question format.
There are four main types of data science case studies:
- Product Case Studies - This type of case study tackles a specific product or feature offering, often tied to the interviewing company. Interviewers are generally looking for a sense of business sense geared towards product metrics.
- Data Analytics Case Study Questions - Data analytics case studies ask you to propose possible metrics in order to investigate an analytics problem. Additionally, you must write a SQL query to pull your proposed metrics, and then perform analysis using the data you queried, just as you would do in the role.
- Modeling and Machine Learning Case Studies - Modeling case studies are more varied and focus on assessing your intuition for building models around business problems.
- Business Case Questions - Similar to product questions, business cases tackle issues or opportunities specific to the organization that is interviewing you. Often, candidates must assess the best option for a certain business plan being proposed, and formulate a process for solving the specific problem.
How Case Study Interviews Are Conducted
Oftentimes as an interviewee, you want to know the setting and format in which to expect the above questions to be asked. Unfortunately, this is company-specific: Some prefer real-time settings, where candidates actively work through a prompt after receiving it, while others offer some period of days (say, a week) before settling in for a presentation of your findings.
It is therefore important to have a system for answering these questions that will accommodate all possible formats, such that you are prepared for any set of circumstances (we provide such a framework below).
Why Are Case Study Questions Asked?
Case studies assess your thought process in answering data science questions. Specifically, interviewers want to see that you have the ability to think on your feet, and to work through real-world problems that likely do not have a right or wrong answer. Real-world case studies that are affecting businesses are not binary; there is no black-and-white, yes-or-no answer. This is why it is important that you can demonstrate decisiveness in your investigations, as well as show your capacity to consider impacts and topics from a variety of angles. Once you are in the role, you will be dealing directly with the ambiguity at the heart of decision-making.
Perhaps most importantly, case interviews assess your ability to effectively communicate your conclusions. On the job, data scientists exchange information across teams and divisions, so a significant part of the interviewer’s focus will be on how you process and explain your answer.
Quick tip: Because case questions in data science interviews tend to be product- and company-focused, it is extremely beneficial to research current projects and developments across different divisions , as these initiatives might end up as the case study topic.
How to Answer Data Science Case Study Questions (The Framework)
There are four main steps to tackling case questions in Data Science interviews, regardless of the type: clarify, make assumptions, gather context, and provide data points and analysis.
Step 1: Clarify
Clarifying is used to gather more information . More often than not, these case studies are designed to be confusing and vague. There will be unorganized data intentionally supplemented with extraneous or omitted information, so it is the candidate’s responsibility to dig deeper, filter out bad information, and fill gaps. Interviewers will be observing how an applicant asks questions and reach their solution.
For example, with a product question, you might take into consideration:
- What is the product?
- How does the product work?
- How does the product align with the business itself?
Step 2: Make Assumptions
When you have made sure that you have evaluated and understand the dataset, start investigating and discarding possible hypotheses. Developing insights on the product at this stage complements your ability to glean information from the dataset, and the exploration of your ideas is paramount to forming a successful hypothesis. You should be communicating your hypotheses with the interviewer, such that they can provide clarifying remarks on how the business views the product, and to help you discard unworkable lines of inquiry. If we continue to think about a product question, some important questions to evaluate and draw conclusions from include:
- Who uses the product? Why?
- What are the goals of the product?
- How does the product interact with other services or goods the company offers?
The goal of this is to reduce the scope of the problem at hand, and ask the interviewer questions upfront that allow you to tackle the meat of the problem instead of focusing on less consequential edge cases.
Step 3: Propose a Solution
Now that a hypothesis is formed that has incorporated the dataset and an understanding of the business-related context, it is time to apply that knowledge in forming a solution. Remember, the hypothesis is simply a refined version of the problem that uses the data on hand as its basis to being solved. The solution you create can target this narrow problem, and you can have full faith that it is addressing the core of the case study question.
Keep in mind that there isn’t a single expected solution, and as such, there is a certain freedom here to determine the exact path for investigation.
Step 4: Provide Data Points and Analysis
Finally, providing data points and analysis in support of your solution involves choosing and prioritizing a main metric. As with all prior factors, this step must be tied back to the hypothesis and the main goal of the problem. From that foundation, it is important to trace through and analyze different examples– from the main metric–in order to validate the hypothesis.
Quick tip: Every case question tends to have multiple solutions. Therefore, you should absolutely consider and communicate any potential trade-offs of your chosen method. Be sure you are communicating the pros and cons of your approach.
Note: In some special cases, solutions will also be assessed on the ability to convey information in layman’s terms. Regardless of the structure, applicants should always be prepared to solve through the framework outlined above in order to answer the prompt.
The Role of Effective Communication
There have been multiple articles and discussions conducted by interviewers behind the Data Science Case Study portion, and they all boil down success in case studies to one main factor: effective communication.
All the analysis in the world will not help if interviewees cannot verbally work through and highlight their thought process within the case study. Again, interviewers are keyed at this stage of the hiring process to look for well-developed “soft-skills” and problem-solving capabilities. Demonstrating those traits is key to succeeding in this round.
To this end, the best advice possible would be to practice actively going through example case studies, such as those available in the Interview Query questions bank. Exploring different topics with a friend in an interview-like setting with cold recall (no Googling in between!) will be uncomfortable and awkward, but it will also help reveal weaknesses in fleshing out the investigation.
Don’t worry if the first few times are terrible! Developing a rhythm will help with gaining self-confidence as you become better at assessing and learning through these sessions.
Product Case Study Questions
With product data science case questions , the interviewer wants to get an idea of your product sense intuition. Specifically, these questions assess your ability to identify which metrics should be proposed in order to understand a product.
1. How would you measure the success of private stories on Instagram, where only certain close friends can see the story?
Start by answering: What is the goal of the private story feature on Instagram? You can’t evaluate “success” without knowing what the initial objective of the product was, to begin with.
One specific goal of this feature would be to drive engagement. A private story could potentially increase interactions between users, and grow awareness of the feature.
Now, what types of metrics might you propose to assess user engagement? For a high-level overview, we could look at:
- Average stories per user per day
- Average Close Friends stories per user per day
However, we would also want to further bucket our users to see the effect that Close Friends stories have on user engagement. By bucketing users by age, date joined, or another metric, we could see how engagement is affected within certain populations, giving us insight on success that could be lost if looking at the overall population.
2. How would you measure the success of acquiring new users through a 30-day free trial at Netflix?
More context: Netflix is offering a promotion where users can enroll in a 30-day free trial. After 30 days, customers will automatically be charged based on their selected package. How would you measure acquisition success, and what metrics would you propose to measure the success of the free trial?
One way we can frame the concept specifically to this problem is to think about controllable inputs, external drivers, and then the observable output . Start with the major goals of Netflix:
- Acquiring new users to their subscription plan.
- Decreasing churn and increasing retention.
Looking at acquisition output metrics specifically, there are several top-level stats that we can look at, including:
- Conversion rate percentage
- Cost per free trial acquisition
- Daily conversion rate
With these conversion metrics, we would also want to bucket users by cohort. This would help us see the percentage of free users who were acquired, as well as retention by cohort.
3. How would you measure the success of Facebook Groups?
Start by considering the key function of Facebook Groups. You could say that Groups are a way for users to connect with other users through a shared interest or real-life relationship. Therefore, the user’s goal is to experience a sense of community, which will also drive our business goal of increasing user engagement.
What general engagement metrics can we associate with this value? An objective metric like Groups monthly active users would help us see if Facebook Groups user base is increasing or decreasing. Plus, we could monitor metrics like posting, commenting, and sharing rates.
There are other products that Groups impact, however, specifically the Newsfeed. We need to consider Newsfeed quality and examine if updates from Groups clog up the content pipeline and if users prioritize those updates over other Newsfeed items. This evaluation will give us a better sense of if Groups actually contribute to higher engagement levels.
4. How would you analyze the effectiveness of a new LinkedIn chat feature that shows a “green dot” for active users?
Note: Given engineering constraints, the new feature is impossible to A/B test before release. When you approach case study questions, remember to always clarify any vague terms. In this case, “effectiveness” is very vague. To help you define that term, you would want to first consider what the goal is of adding a green dot to LinkedIn chat.
5. How would you diagnose why weekly active users are up 5%, but email notification open rates are down 2%?
What assumptions can you make about the relationship between weekly active users and email open rates? With a case question like this, you would want to first answer that line of inquiry before proceeding.
Hint: Open rate can decrease when its numerator decreases (fewer people open emails) or its denominator increases (more emails are sent overall). Taking these two factors into account, what are some hypotheses we can make about our decrease in the open rate compared to our increase in weekly active users?
Data Analytics Case Study Questions
Data analytics case studies ask you to dive into analytics problems. Typically these questions ask you to examine metrics trade-offs or investigate changes in metrics. In addition to proposing metrics, you also have to write SQL queries to generate the metrics, which is why they are sometimes referred to as SQL case study questions .
6. Using the provided data, generate some specific recommendations on how DoorDash can improve.
In this DoorDash analytics case study take-home question you are provided with the following dataset:
- Customer order time
- Restaurant order time
- Driver arrives at restaurant time
- Order delivered time
- Customer ID
- Amount of discount
- Amount of tip
With a dataset like this, there are numerous recommendations you can make. A good place to start is by thinking about the DoorDash marketplace, which includes drivers, riders and merchants. How could you analyze the data to increase revenue, driver/user retention and engagement in that marketplace?
7. After implementing a notification change, the total number of unsubscribes increases. Write a SQL query to show how unsubscribes are affecting login rates over time.
This is a Twitter data science interview question , and let’s say you implemented this new feature using an A/B test. You are provided with two tables: events (which includes login, nologin and unsubscribe ) and variants (which includes control or variant ).
We are tasked with comparing multiple different variables at play here. There is the new notification system, along with its effect of creating more unsubscribes. We can also see how login rates compare for unsubscribes for each bucket of the A/B test.
Given that we want to measure two different changes, we know we have to use GROUP BY for the two variables: date and bucket variant. What comes next?
8. Write a query to disprove the hypothesis: Data scientists who switch jobs more often end up getting promoted faster.
More context: You are provided with a table of user experiences representing each person’s past work experiences and timelines.
This question requires a bit of creative problem-solving to understand how we can prove or disprove the hypothesis. The hypothesis is that a data scientist that ends up switching jobs more often gets promoted faster.
Therefore, in analyzing this dataset, we can prove this hypothesis by separating the data scientists into specific segments on how often they jump in their careers.
For example, if we looked at the number of job switches for data scientists that have been in their field for five years, we could prove the hypothesis that the number of data science managers increased as the number of career jumps also rose.
- Never switched jobs: 10% are managers
- Switched jobs once: 20% are managers
- Switched jobs twice: 30% are managers
- Switched jobs three times: 40% are managers
9. Write a SQL query to investigate the hypothesis: Click-through rate is dependent on search result rating.
More context: You are given a table with search results on Facebook, which includes query (search term), position (the search position), and rating (human rating from 1 to 5). Each row represents a single search and includes a column has_clicked that represents whether a user clicked or not.
This question requires us to formulaically do two things: create a metric that can analyze a problem that we face and then actually compute that metric.
Think about the data we want to display to prove or disprove the hypothesis. Our output metric is CTR (clickthrough rate). If CTR is high when search result ratings are high and CTR is low when the search result ratings are low, then our hypothesis is proven. However, if the opposite is true, CTR is low when the search result ratings are high, or there is no proven correlation between the two, then our hypothesis is not proven.
With that structure in mind, we can then look at the results split into different search rating buckets. If we measure the CTR for queries that all have results rated at 1 and then measure CTR for queries that have results rated at lower than 2, etc., we can measure to see if the increase in rating is correlated with an increase in CTR.
Modeling and Machine Learning Case Questions
Machine learning case questions assess your ability to build models to solve business problems. These questions can range from applying machine learning to solve a specific case scenario to assessing the validity of a hypothetical existing model . The modeling case study requires a candidate to evaluate and explain any certain part of the model building process.
10. Describe how you would build a model to predict Uber ETAs after a rider requests a ride.
Common machine learning case study problems like this are designed to explain how you would build a model. Many times this can be scoped down to specific parts of the model building process. Examining the example above, we could break it up into:
How would you evaluate the predictions of an Uber ETA model?
What features would you use to predict the Uber ETA for ride requests?
Our recommended framework breaks down a modeling and machine learning case study to individual steps in order to tackle each one thoroughly. In each full modeling case study, you will want to go over:
- Data processing
- Feature Selection
- Model Selection
- Cross Validation
- Evaluation Metrics
- Testing and Roll Out
11. How would you build a model that sends bank customers a text message when fraudulent transactions are detected?
Additionally, the customer can approve or deny the transaction via text response.
Let’s start out by understanding what kind of model would need to be built. We know that since we are working with fraud, there has to be a case where either a fraudulent transaction is or is not present .
Hint: This problem is a binary classification problem. Given the problem scenario, what considerations do we have to think about when first building this model? What would the bank fraud data look like?
12. How would you design the inputs and outputs for a model that detects potential bombs at a border crossing?
Additional questions. How would you test the model and measure its accuracy? Remember the equation for precision:
Because we can not have high TrueNegatives, recall should be high when assessing the model.
13. Which model would you choose to predict Airbnb booking prices: Linear regression or random forest regression?
Start by answering this question: What are the main differences between linear regression and random forest?
Random forest regression is based on the ensemble machine learning technique of bagging . The two key concepts of random forests are:
- Random sampling of training observations when building trees.
- Random subsets of features for splitting nodes.
Random forest regressions also discretize continuous variables, since they are based on decision trees and can split categorical and continuous variables.
Linear regression, on the other hand, is the standard regression technique in which relationships are modeled using a linear predictor function, the most common example represented as y = Ax + B.
Let’s see how each model is applicable to Airbnb’s bookings. One thing we need to do in the interview is to understand more context around the problem of predicting bookings. To do so, we need to understand which features are present in our dataset.
We can assume the dataset will have features like:
- Location features.
- Seasonality.
- Number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
- Private room, shared, entire home, etc.
- External demand (conferences, festivals, sporting events).
Which model would be the best fit for this feature set?
14. Using a binary classification model that pre-approves candidates for a loan, how would you give each rejected application a rejection reason?
More context: You do not have access to the feature weights. Start by thinking about the problem like this: How would the problem change if we had ten, one thousand, or ten thousand applicants that had gone through the loan qualification program?
Pretend that we have three people: Alice, Bob, and Candace that have all applied for a loan. Simplifying the financial lending loan model, let us assume the only features are the total number of credit cards , the dollar amount of current debt , and credit age . Here is a scenario:
- Alice: 10 credit cards, 5 years of credit age, $20K in debt
- Bob: 10 credit cards, 5 years of credit age, $15K in debt
- Candace: 10 credit cards, 5 years of credit age, $10K in debt
If Candace is approved, we can logically point to the fact that Candace’s $10K in debt swung the model to approve her for a loan. How did we reason this out?
If the sample size analyzed was instead thousands of people who had the same number of credit cards and credit age with varying levels of debt, we could figure out the model’s average loan acceptance rate for each numerical amount of current debt. Then we could plot these on a graph to model the y-value (average loan acceptance) versus the x-value (dollar amount of current debt). These graphs are called partial dependence plots.
Business Case Questions
In data science interviews, business case study questions task you with addressing problems as they relate to the business. You might be asked about topics like estimation and calculation, as well as applying problem-solving to a larger case. One tip: Be sure to read up on the company’s products and ventures before your interview to expose yourself to possible topics.
15. How would you estimate the average lifetime value of customers at a business that has existed for just over one year?
More context: You know that the product costs $100 per month, averages 10% in monthly churn, and the average customer stays for 3.5 months.
Remember that lifetime value is defined by the prediction of the net revenue attributed to the entire future relationship with all customers averaged. Therefore, $100 * 3.5 = $350… But is it that simple?
Because this company is so new, our average customer length (3.5 months) is biased from the short possible length of time that anyone could have been a customer (one year maximum). How would you then model out LTV knowing the churn rate and product cost?
16. How would you go about removing duplicate product names (e.g. iPhone X vs. Apple iPhone 10) in a massive database?
See the full solution for this Amazon business case question on YouTube:
17. What metrics would you monitor to know if a 50% discount promotion is a good idea for a ride-sharing company?
This question has no correct answer and is rather designed to test your reasoning and communication skills related to product/business cases. First, start by stating your assumptions. What are the goals of this promotion? It is likely that the goal of the discount is to grow revenue and increase retention. A few other assumptions you might make include:
- The promotion will be applied uniformly across all users.
- The 50% discount can only be used for a single ride.
How would we be able to evaluate this pricing strategy? An A/B test between the control group (no discount) and test group (discount) would allow us to evaluate Long-term revenue vs average cost of the promotion. Using these two metrics how could we measure if the promotion is a good idea?
18. A bank wants to create a new partner card, e.g. Whole Foods Chase credit card). How would you determine what the next partner card should be?
More context: Say you have access to all customer spending data. With this question, there are several approaches you can take. As your first step, think about the business reason for credit card partnerships: they help increase acquisition and customer retention.
One of the simplest solutions would be to sum all transactions grouped by merchants. This would identify the merchants who see the highest spending amounts. However, the one issue might be that some merchants have a high-spend value but low volume. How could we counteract this potential pitfall? Is the volume of transactions even an important factor in our credit card business? The more questions you ask, the more may spring to mind.
19. How would you assess the value of keeping a TV show on a streaming platform like Netflix?
Say that Netflix is working on a deal to renew the streaming rights for a show like The Office , which has been on Netflix for one year. Your job is to value the benefit of keeping the show on Netflix.
Start by trying to understand the reasons why Netflix would want to renew the show. Netflix mainly has three goals for what their content should help achieve:
- Acquisition: To increase the number of subscribers.
- Retention: To increase the retention of active subscribers and keep them on as paying members.
- Revenue: To increase overall revenue.
One solution to value the benefit would be to estimate a lower and upper bound to understand the percentage of users that would be affected by The Office being removed. You could then run these percentages against your known acquisition and retention rates.
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More Data Science Interview Resources
Case studies are one of the most common types of data science interview questions . Practice with the data science course from Interview Query, which includes product and machine learning modules.
Sample case study questions and answers
Company ABC is struggling, should it be restructured? Identify the three main problems it's facing. What is the most important problem the company is facing?
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Case Interview Examples
Case interview questions, 100 case study interview questions [updated for 2020].
Post-Acquisition Strategy How much is our client going to be paying? Is the price fair? How will the deal be financed? Will our client be
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What Is a Case Study Interview? Sample Case
Tips for responding to case interview questions Take notes Work on your math abilities Pose questions Organise your response Practise with
Focus on your job
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Solve math problem
I can solve the math problem for you.
Explain math
One way to think about math problems is to consider them as puzzles. To solve a math problem, you need to figure out what information you have.
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Deal with mathematic problems
Math is all about solving equations and finding the right answer.
math is the study of numbers, shapes, and patterns. It is used in everyday life, from counting to measuring to more complex calculations.
Case Study Interview Examples (With Tips to Answer Them)
All case interview examples are taken from real life case interviews. approach but are more effective when used to answer different types of questions.
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Preparing For Shell Interview Questions: A Guide To Ace Your Technical Interview
If you are looking to land a job in the tech industry , you know that having a great resume and interviewing well are essential components to securing your dream job. One of the most important pieces of the interview process is the technical interview, which usually involves fielding questions about coding and software engineering. One of the most popular types of questions asked in technical interviews is shell interview questions, which are designed to test your knowledge and command of the Unix shell. In this article, we will explore why shell interview questions are so important and how you can best prepare for them. We will also provide some common shell interview questions and answers so you can get a better understanding of the types of questions you might be asked.
Why Do You Want To Join Here?
I am interested in joining this organization because I believe that I can be an asset to the team. I am a hardworking and dedicated individual who can bring a strong work ethic and a positive attitude to the table. I am also eager to learn new skills and gain more knowledge in the field. Additionally, I am passionate about the mission of this organization and I believe that working with the team will be an incredibly rewarding experience. I am confident that my skills and dedication will be beneficial to the organization and that I can help it grow and achieve its goals.
Join The Forward-thinking: Ready To Make A Difference
As a result of my unique talents and abilities, I am delighted to be joining this forward-thinking organization and contributing to its success. I have the necessary industry insight and experience to succeed in this role and add value to the company because of my involvement in this field. My previous roles, such as saving the company a significant amount of money, have proven to me that I can make a significant difference in this position, and I am eager to do the same. I am flexible and available to work whenever and however I need to be. I look forward to the opportunity to grow and learn with this organization and can’t wait to get started with my new team.
What Does Shell Look For In Employees?
Shell looks for employees who demonstrate a passion for their work and a commitment to their organization. They want employees who are self-motivated, have a positive attitude, and take initiative. They also look for employees who are able to think critically and creatively, have strong problem-solving skills, and have good communication skills. Additionally, Shell wants employees who are able to work in a team environment and have excellent customer service skills . Lastly, they value employees who are willing to learn and grow with the company and have an eagerness to take on new challenges.
Join Shell: Find Fulfillment And A Sense Of Purpose
Shell is looking for enthusiastic, dependable, and confident individuals who can contribute to the company’s success. Relationships are valued as well as the ability to work effectively with others in a diverse team, according to the company. There are no major changes in the workplace at a Shell station, and there is no significant pay raise. Despite this, the recruitment process is very short, with candidates being invited for an assessment within three weeks of the completion of the initial interview. Shell takes pride in its ability to hire people who bring enthusiasm, passion, and passion to their work.
Shell Interview Questions And Answers
Preparing for a shell interview can be a daunting task, but with the right knowledge and understanding, you can ace it. Common shell interview questions can range from basic to more complex topics such as Linux commands, scripting, debugging, system administration, and more. It’s important to understand the basics of the operating system and scripting language , as well as have general familiarity with the system’s architecture and capabilities. You should also be prepared to answer questions about your experience and the specific challenges you’ve faced in the past. Additionally, be sure to brush up on your problem-solving skills and be prepared to discuss how you would implement solutions to address specific scenarios. With the proper preparation and practice, you’ll be ready to tackle any shell interview questions and answers.
Unlock The Power Of The Shell: Understanding $$ And $!
It is a powerful program that allows users to run and manage other programs on their computer. This is especially useful in Unix, where Bash is the name of the implementation. To complete a wide range of tasks, you must enter commands at the command-line prompt in Bash. Move (mv), copy (cp), create (nano), and delete (rm) are some of the most basic shell commands . A better understanding of the difference between $! and $$ is also required – $$ represents the process id of the process that currently has the task, whereas $! displays the process id of the process that has recently been removed. These commands make it simple for users to manage their files and folders, ensuring that their computers run smoothly.
Shell Case Study Interview
A shell case study interview is a type of job interview in which the interviewer presents a hypothetical business problem or situation and then asks the candidate to analyze the situation and provide a solution. It is a popular technique used in the recruitment process for many positions, including management and consulting jobs. The interviewer will present a business scenario and ask the candidate to analyze the situation, provide a solution, and discuss the potential implications of their proposed solution. The interviewer will then ask the candidate to explain their thought process and the logic behind their decision-making. This type of interview is a great way for employers to assess a candidate’s problem-solving skills, analytical abilities, and their ability to think on their feet.
Acing The Shell Interview: Tips For Success
Shell isn’t as difficult as it appears, as long as you have a clear goal in mind for what you want to do there, have done extensive preparation in advance, and are willing to work hard. During the final assessment interview , two senior members of Shell’s operations team will participate in a live online session. To impress Shell recruiters, you should demonstrate both your skills and knowledge as well as your passion for working for Shell. Your chances of being hired are increased if you do so.
Shell Graduate Program Interview Questions
When interviewing for a shell graduate program, you should be prepared to answer questions related to your academic and professional experience. Interviewers may ask questions about your research methods, problem-solving abilities, and experience working with data. They may also ask you to explain complex concepts or theories related to your field of study. Additionally, you should be prepared to discuss your goals and objectives for the program, as well as your overall career plans . Be sure to have examples of past projects and accomplishments ready to discuss, and be prepared to talk about challenges you have faced and how you overcame them. Lastly, be prepared to answer questions about why you want to pursue a career in the shell graduate program.
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Top 10 Data Science Case Study Interview Questions for 2023
Data Science Case Study Interview Questions and Answers to Crack Your next Data Science Interview. Last Updated: 02 Feb 2023
According to Harvard business review, data scientist jobs have been termed “The Sexist job of the 21st century” by Harvard business review . Data science has gained widespread importance due to the availability of data in abundance. As per the below statistics, worldwide data is expected to reach 181 zettabytes by 2025
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“Data is the new oil. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, etc. to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity; so must data be broken down, analyzed for it to have value.” — Clive Humby, 2006
Table of Contents
What is a data science case study, why are data scientists tested on case study-based interview questions, research about the company, ask questions, discuss assumptions and hypothesis, explaining the data science workflow, 10 data science case study interview questions and answers.
A data science case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. A data science case study is a real-world business problem that you would have worked on as a data scientist to build a machine learning or deep learning algorithm and programs to construct an optimal solution to your business problem.This would be a portfolio project for aspiring data professionals where they would have to spend at least 10-16 weeks solving real-world data science problems. Data science use cases can be found in almost every industry out there e-commerce, music streaming, stock market,.etc. The possibilities are endless.
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A case study evaluation allows the interviewer to understand your thought process. Questions on case studies can be open-ended; hence you should be flexible enough to accept and appreciate approaches you might not have taken to solve the business problem. All interviews are different, but the below framework is applicable for most data science interviews. It can be a good starting point that will allow you to make a solid first impression in your next data science job interview. In a data science interview, you are expected to explain your data science project lifecycle , and you must choose an approach that would broadly cover all the data science lifecycle activities. The below seven steps would help you get started in the right direction.
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Business Understanding — Explain the business problem and the objectives for the problem you solved.
Data Mining — How did you scrape the required data ? Here you can talk about the connections(can be database connections like oracle, SAP…etc.) you set up to source your data.
Data Cleaning — Explaining the data inconsistencies and how did you handle them.
Data Exploration — Talk about the exploratory data analysis you performed for the initial investigation of your data to spot patterns and anomalies.
Feature Engineering — Talk about the approach you took to select the essential features and how you derived new ones by adding more meaning to the dataset flow.
Predictive Modeling — Explain the machine learning model you trained, how did you finalized your machine learning algorithm, and talk about the evaluation techniques you performed on your accuracy score.
Data Visualization — Communicate the findings through visualization and what feedback you received.
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How to Answer Case Study-Based Data Science Interview Questions?
During the interview, you can also be asked to solve and explain open-ended, real-world case studies. This case study can be relevant to the organization you are interviewing for. The key to answering this is to have a well-defined framework in your mind that you can implement in any case study, and we uncover that framework here.
Ensure that you read about the company and its work on its official website before appearing for the data science job interview . Also, research the position you are interviewing for and understand the JD (Job description). Read about the domain and businesses they are associated with. This will give you a good idea of what questions to expect.
As case study interviews are usually open-ended, you can solve the problem in many ways. A general mistake is jumping to the answer straight away.
Try to understand the context of the business case and the key objective. Uncover the details kept intentionally hidden by the interviewer. Here is a list of questions you might ask if you are being interviewed for a financial institution -
Does the dataset include all transactions from Bank or transactions from some specific department like loans, insurance, etc.?
Is the customer data provided pre-processed, or do I need to run a statistical test to check data quality?
Which segment of borrower’s your business is targeting/focusing on? Which parameter can be used to avoid biases during loan dispersion?
Make informed or well-thought assumptions to simplify the problem. Talk about your assumption with the interviewer and explain why you would want to make such an assumption. Try to narrow down to key objectives which you can solve. Here is a list of a few instances — 
As car sales increase consistently over time with no significant spikes, I assume seasonal changes do not impact your car sales. Hence I would prefer the modeling excluding the seasonality component.
As confirmed by you, the incoming data does not require any preprocessing. Hence I will skip the part of running statistical tests to check data quality and perform feature selection.
As IoT devices are capturing temperature data at every minute, I am required to predict weather daily. I would prefer averaging out the minute data to a day to have data daily.
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Now that you have a clear and focused objective to solve the business case. You can start leveraging the 7-step framework we briefed upon above. Think of the mining and cleaning activities that you are required to perform. Talk about feature selection and why you would prefer some features over others, and lastly, how you would select the right machine learning model for the business problem. Here is an example for car purchase prediction from auctions -
First, Prepare the relevant data by accessing the data available from various auctions. I will selectively choose the data from those auctions which are completed. At the same time, when selecting the data, I need to ensure that the data is not imbalanced.
Now I will implement feature engineering and selection to create and select relevant features like a car manufacturer, year of purchase, automatic or manual transmission…etc. I will continue this process if the results are not good on the test set.
Since this is a classification problem, I will check the prediction using the Decision trees and Random forest as this algorithm tends to do better for classification problems. If the results score is unsatisfactory, I can perform hyper parameterization to fine-tune the model and achieve better accuracy scores.
In the end, summarise the answer and explain how your solution is best suited for this business case. How the team can leverage this solution to gain more customers. For instance, building on the car sales prediction analogy, your response can be
For the car predicted as a good car during an auction, the dealers can purchase those cars and minimize the overall losses they incur upon buying a bad car.
Often, the company you are being interviewed for would select case study questions based on a business problem they are trying to solve or have already solved. Here we list down a few case study-based data science interview questions and the approach to answering those in the interviews. Note that these case studies are often open-ended, so there is no one specific way to approach the problem statement.
1. How would you improve the bank's existing state-of-the-art credit scoring of borrowers? How will you predict someone can face financial distress in the next couple of years?
Consider the interviewer has given you access to the dataset. As explained earlier, you can think of taking the following approach.
Ask Questions — 
Q: What parameter does the bank consider the borrowers while calculating the credit scores? Do these parameters vary among borrowers of different categories based on age group, income level, etc.?
Q: How do you define financial distress? What features are taken into consideration?
Q: Banks can lend different types of loans like car loans, personal loans, bike loans, etc. Do you want me to focus on any one loan category?
Discuss the Assumptions  — 
As debt ratio is proportional to monthly income, we assume that people with a high debt ratio(i.e., their loan value is much higher than the monthly income) will be an outlier.
Monthly income tends to vary (mainly on the upside) over two years. Cases, where the monthly income is constant can be considered data entry issues and should not be considered for analysis. I will choose the regression model to fill up the missing values.
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Building end-to-end Data Science Workflows — 
Firstly, I will carefully select the relevant data for my analysis. I will deselect records with insane values like people with high debt ratios or inconsistent monthly income.
Identifying essential features and ensuring they do not contain missing values. If they do, fill them up. For instance, Age seems to be a necessary feature for accepting or denying a mortgage. Also, ensuring data is not imbalanced as a meager percentage of borrowers will be defaulter when compared to the complete dataset.
As this is a binary classification problem, I will start with logistic regression and slowly progress towards complex models like decision trees and random forests.
Conclude — 
Banks play a crucial role in country economies. They decide who can get finance and on what terms and can make or break investment decisions. Individuals and companies need access to credit for markets and society to function.
You can leverage this credit scoring algorithm to determine whether or not a loan should be granted by predicting the probability that somebody will experience financial distress in the next two years.
2. At an e-commerce platform, how would you classify fruits and vegetables from the image data?
Q: Do the images in the dataset contain multiple fruits and vegetables, or would each image have a single fruit or a vegetable?
Q: Can you help me understand the number of estimated classes for this classification problem?
Q: What would be an ideal dimension of an image? Do the images vary within the dataset? Are these color images or grey images?
Upon asking the above questions, let us assume the interviewer confirms that each image would contain either one fruit or one vegetable. Hence there won't be multiple classes in a single image, and our website has roughly 100 different varieties of fruits and vegetables. For simplicity, the dataset contains 50,000 images each the dimensions are 100 X 100 pixels.
Assumptions and Preprocessing—
I need to evaluate the training and testing sets. Hence I will check for any imbalance within the dataset. The number of training images for each class should be consistent. So, if there are n number of images for class A, then class B should also have n number of training images (or a variance of 5 to 10 %). Hence if we have 100 classes, the number of training images under each class should be consistent. The dataset contains 50,000 images average image per class is close to 500 images.
I will then divide the training and testing sets into 80: 20 ratios (or 70:30, whichever suits you best). I assume that the images provided might not cover all possible angles of fruits and vegetables; hence such a dataset can cause overfitting issues once the training gets completed. I will keep techniques like Data augmentation handy in case I face overfitting issues while training the model.
End to End Data Science Workflow — 
As this is a larger dataset, I would first check the availability of GPUs as processing 50,000 images would require high computation. I will use the Cuda library to move the training set to GPU for training.
I choose to develop a convolution neural network (CNN) as these networks tend to extract better features from the images when compared to the feed-forward neural network. Feature extraction is quite essential while building the deep neural network. Also, CNN requires way less computation requirement when compared to the feed-forward neural networks.
I will also consider techniques like Batch normalization and learning rate scheduling to improve the accuracy of the model and improve the overall performance of the model. If I face the overfitting issue on the validation set, I will choose techniques like dropout and color normalization to over those.
Once the model is trained, I will test it on sample test images to see its behavior. It is quite common to model that doing well on training sets does not perform well on test sets. Hence, testing the test set model is an important part of the evaluation.
The fruit classification model can be helpful to the e-commerce industry as this would help them classify the images and tag the fruit and vegetables belonging to their category.The fruit and vegetable processing industries can use the model to organize the fruits to the correct categories and accordingly instruct the device to place them on the cover belts involved in packaging and shipping to customers.
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3. How would you determine whether Netflix focuses more on TV shows or Movies?
Q: Should I include animation series and movies while doing this analysis?
Q: What is the business objective? Do you want me to analyze a particular genre like action, thriller, etc.?
Q: What is the targeted audience? Is this focus on children below a certain age or for adults?
Let us assume the interview responds by confirming that you must perform the analysis on both movies and animation data. The business intends to perform this analysis over all the genres, and the targeted audience includes both adults and children.
Assumptions — 
It would be convenient to do this analysis over geographies. As US and India are the highest content generator globally, I would prefer to restrict the initial analysis over these countries. Once the initial hypothesis is established, you can scale the model to other countries.
While analyzing movies in India, understanding the movie release over other months can be an important metric. For example, there tend to be many releases in and around the holiday season (Diwali and Christmas) around November and December which should be considered.
End to End Data Science Workflow — 
Firstly, we need to select only the relevant data related to movies and TV shows among the entire dataset. I would also need to ensure the completeness of the data like this has a relevant year of release, month-wise release data, Country-wise data, etc.
After preprocessing the dataset, I will do feature engineering to select the data for only those countries/geographies I am interested in. Now you can perform EDA to understand the correlation of Movies and TV shows with ratings, Categories (drama, comedies…etc.), actors…etc.
Lastly, I would focus on Recommendation clicks and revenues to understand which of the two generate the most revenues. The company would likely prefer the categories generating the highest revenue ( TV Shows vs. Movies) over others.
This analysis would help the company invest in the right venture and generate more revenue based on their customer preference. This analysis would also help understand the best or preferred categories, time in the year to release, movie directors, and actors that their customers would like to see.
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4. How would you detect fake news on social media?
Q: When you say social media, does it mean all the apps available on the internet like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTub, etc.?
Q: Does the analysis include news titles? Does the news description carry significance?
Q: As these platforms contain content from multiple languages? Should the analysis be multilingual?
Let us assume the interviewer responds by confirming that the news feeds are available only from Facebook. The new title and the news details are available in the same block and are not segregated. For simplicity, we would prefer to categorize the news available in the English language.
Assumptions and Data Preprocessing — 
I would first prefer to segregate the news title and description. The news title usually contains the key phrases and the intent behind the news. Also, it would be better to process news titles as that would require low computing than processing the whole text as a data scientist. This will lead to an efficient solution.
Also, I would also check for data imbalance. An imbalanced dataset can cause the model to be biased to a particular class.
I would also like to take a subset of news that may focus on a specific category like sports, finance , etc. Gradually, I will increase the model scope, and this news subset would help me set up my baseline model, which can be tweaked later based on the requirement.
Firstly, it would be essential to select the data based on the chosen category. I take up sports as a category I want to start my analysis with.
I will first clean the dataset by checking for null records. Once this check is done, data formatting is required before you can feed to a natural network. I will write a function to remove characters like !”#$%&’()*+,-./:;<=>[email protected][]^_`{|}~ as their character does not add any value for deep neural network learning. I will also implement stopwords to remove words like ‘and’, ‘is”, etc. from the vocabulary.
Then I will employ the NLP techniques like Bag of words or TFIDF based on the significance. The bag of words can be faster, but TF IDF can be more accurate and slower. Selecting the technique would also depend upon the business inputs.
I will now split the data in training and testing, train a machine learning model, and check the performance. Since the data set is heavy on text models like naive bayes tends to perform better in these situations.
Conclude  — 
Social media and news outlets publish fake news to increase readership or as part of psychological warfare. In general, the goal is profiting through clickbait. Clickbaits lure users and entice curiosity with flashy headlines or designs to click links to increase advertisements revenues. The trained model will help curb such news and add value to the reader's time.
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5. How would you forecast the price of a nifty 50 stock?
Q: Do you want me to forecast the nifty 50 indexes/tracker or stock price of a specific stock within nifty 50?
Q: What do you want me to forecast? Is it the opening price, closing price, VWAP, highest of the day, etc.?
Q: Do you want me to forecast daily prices /weekly/monthly prices?
Q: Can you tell me more about the historical data available? Do we have ten years or 15 years of recorded data?
With all these questions asked to the interviewer, let us assume the interviewer responds by saying that you should pick one stock among nifty 50 stocks and forecast their average price daily. The company has historical data for the last 20 years.
Assumptions and Data preprocessing — 
As we forecast the average price daily, I would consider VWAP my target or predictor value. VWAP stands for Volume Weighted Average Price, and it is a ratio of the cumulative share price to the cumulative volume traded over a given time.
Solving this data science case study requires tracking the average price over a period, and it is a classical time series problem. Hence I would refrain from using the classical regression model on the time series data as we have a separate set of machine learning models (like ARIMA , AUTO ARIMA, SARIMA…etc.) to work with such datasets.
Like any other dataset, I will first check for null and understand the % of null values. If they are significantly less, I would prefer to drop those records.
Now I will perform the exploratory data analysis to understand the average price variation from the last 20 years. This would also help me understand the tread and seasonality component of the time series data. Alternatively, I will use techniques like the Dickey-Fuller test to know if the time series is stationary or not.
Usually, such time series is not stationary, and then I can now decompose the time series to understand the additive or multiplicative nature of time series. Now I can use the existing techniques like differencing, rolling stats, or transformation to make the time series non-stationary.
Lastly, once the time series is non-stationary, I will separate train and test data based on the dates and implement techniques like ARIMA or Facebook prophet to train the machine learning model .
Some of the major applications of such time series prediction can occur in stocks and financial trading, analyzing online and offline retail sales, and medical records such as heart rate, EKG, MRI, and ECG.
Time series datasets invoke a lot of enthusiasm between data scientists . They are many different ways to approach a Time series problem, and the process mentioned above is only one of the know techniques.
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6. How would you forecast the weekly sales of Walmart? Which department impacted most during the holidays?
Q: Walmart usually operates three different stores - supermarkets, discount stores, and neighborhood stores. Which store data shall I pick to get started with my analysis? Are the sales tracked in US dollars?
Q: How would I identify holidays in the historical data provided? Is the store closed on Black Friday week, super bowl week, or Christmas week?
Q: What are the evaluation or the loss criteria? How many departments are present across all store types?
Let us assume the interviewer responds by saying you must forecast weekly sales department-wise and not store type-wise in US dollars. You would be provided with a flag within the dataset to inform weeks having holidays. There are over 80 departments across three types of stores.
As we predict the weekly sales, I would assume weekly sales to be the target or the predictor for our data model before training.
We are tracking sales price weekly, We will use a regression model to predict our target variable, “Weekly_Sales,” a grouped/hierarchical time series. We will explore the following categories of models, engineer features, and hyper-tune parameters to choose a model with the best fit.
- Linear models
- Tree models
- Ensemble models
I will consider MEA, RMSE, and R2 as evaluation criteria.
End to End Data Science Workflow-
The foremost step is to figure out essential features within the dataset. I would explore store information regarding their size, type, and the total number of stores present within the historical dataset.
The next step would be to perform feature engineering; as we have weekly sales data available, I would prefer to extract features like ‘WeekofYear’, ‘Month’, ‘Year’, and ‘Day’. This would help the model to learn general trends.
Now I will create store and dept rank features as this is one of the end goals of the given problem. I would create these features by calculating the average weekly sales.
Now I will perform the exploratory data analysis (a.k.a EDA) to understand what story does the data has to say? I will analyze the stores and weekly dept sales for the historical data to foresee the seasonality and trends. Weekly sales against the store and weekly sales against the department to understand their significance and whether these features must be retained that will be passed to the machine learning models.
After feature engineering and selection, I will set up a baseline model and run the evaluation considering MAE, RMSE and R2. As this is a regression problem, I will begin with simple models like linear regression and SGD regressor. Later, I will move towards complex models, like Decision Trees Regressor, if the need arises. LGBM Regressor and SGB regressor.
Sales forecasting can play a significant role in the company’s success. Accurate sales forecasts allow salespeople and business leaders to make smarter decisions when setting goals, hiring, budgeting, prospecting, and other revenue-impacting factors. The solution mentioned above is one of the many ways to approach this problem statement.
With this, we come to the end of the post. But let us do a quick summary of the techniques we learned and how they can be implemented. We would also like to provide you with some practice case studies questions to help you build up your thought process for the interview.
7. Considering an organization has a high attrition rate, how would you predict if an employee is likely to leave the organization?
8. How would you identify the best cities and countries for startups in the world?
9. How would you estimate the impact on Air Quality across geographies during Covid 19?
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10. A Company often faces machine failures at its factory. How would you develop a model for predictive maintenance?
Do not get intimated by the problem statement; focus on your approach -
Ask questions to get clarity
Discuss assumptions, don't assume things. Let the data tell the story or get it verified by the interviewer.
Build Workflows — Take a few minutes to put together your thoughts; start with a more straightforward approach.
Conclude — Summarize your answer and explain how it best suits the use case provided.
We hope these case study-based data scientist interview questions will give you more confidence to crack your next data science interview.
Unix Commands Interview Questions
Are you searching for Unix Commands Interview Questions and Answers? You can stop your search. MindMajix provides you with the top 50 Unix commands interview questions with proper answers in this blog. MindMajix's subject expert team has prepared the questions and answers from various topics, including Unix commands, pipes, link types, shells, file systems, permissions and grants, and much more. By going through all these well-versed Unix command interview questions, you will succeed in your interview, Undoubtedly.
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- Beginners Level
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Know that computer scientists in Bell laboratories invented the Unix operating system in 1969. Unix is a family of computer operating systems. Unix is popular for its flexibility, portability, adaptability, interoperability, and many more. Not only limited to this, but you can also perform multiple operations since the Unix operating system is a multitasking and multiuser operating system.
When it comes to Unix commands, you can perform various functions using them. For example, you can create, move, and remove files and folders using Unix commands. In this blog, the MindMajix subject expert team has devised Unix commands interview questions and answers with great care. If you go through all these top 50 Unix commands interview questions, it will be beneficial to face your interviews with courage and confidence.
Importantly, the MindMajix subject expert team has prepared these interview questions and answers considering all levels of learners. So, you can find the Unix commands questions and answers from this blog according to your expertise. The team has divided the blog into different sections as follows
Top 10 Unix Commands Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the Different File Types of Unix?
- What do you mean by Kernel in Unix?
- What is the Use of Unix Wildcard?
- What is the use of the Grep Command?
- What do you mean by the File System in Unix?
- List out the Network Commands in Unix.
- How would you remove a File in Unix?
- What are the Various IDs used in Unix Processes?
- What do you Understand by Permissions in Unix?
- What Commands would you use to get User Information?
Unix Commands Interview Questions For Beginners
1. what is unix.
Unix is also referred to as Unics. UNIX stands for UNiplexed Information Computing System. It is one of the most famous operating systems. It is a multiuser as well as a multitasking operating system that provides flexibility and adaptability. Kernel, file system, Shell, and programs are the core components of UNIX.
2. What do you understand by filters in Unix?
A filter in Unix is a program that receives a standard input, processes the input, and delivers a standard output. You can also use the program between two programs in a pipeline.
3. What are the Different File Types of Unix?
The following are the different file types of Unix.
- Ordinary files
- Directories
- Special files
- Symbolic links
4. What is the Process in Unix?
The process is nothing but an instance of a program that runs on a computer. A process starts when a program is initiated. A process or parent process can trigger a subprocess known as the child process. If you terminate a parent process, the child process also gets completed.
5. What do you mean by Kernel in Unix?
The kernel is the hub of the Unix operating system. The function of the kernel is to allocate time and memory to programs. Mainly, it manages file storage. Also, it initiates communication when receiving system calls.
6. Can you describe the general format of Unix command syntax?
The Unix command syntax consists of three parts: the command, a list of options, and arguments.
- The first part, the command, describes the type of operation
- The next part, the list of options, changes the way the command operates
- The last part, the list of arguments, is the additional information required to execute the command.
7. What is the Use of Unix Wildcard?
The wildcard is the symbol used to replace unknown characters. Asterisk (*) and question mark (?) are Unix's two commonly used wildcards. You can use an Asterisk wildcard to replace unknown characters, whereas a question mark wildcard can replace only one unknown character. More to the point, you can use an asterisk to replace an empty string.
8. What do you mean by pipes and links in Unix?
A pipe is used to redirect the output of a command to another. Similarly, you can use pipes to redirect the output of a process or program. In other words, you can combine two or more commands using pipes. It is essential to note that pipes are unidirectional.
Links act as the pointer to a file or directory. There are two types of links such as soft links and hard links. Soft links are also known as symbolic links.
9. What do you understand by the Zombie Process in Unix?
The Zombie Process is also referred to as the defunct process. Generally, the zombie process occurs in parent-child functions. Once the child function completes the execution, it sends an exit message to the parent function. Only when the parent function acknowledges the exit message the child function can exit. In the meantime, the child function is in a zombie state.
10. What is the use of the chmod Command?
Chmod refers to change mode. This command is used to change access permissions of files and directories based on the specified mode in the command. Note that mode is usually identified with octal numbers or letters.
11. What is Command Substitution?
In this process, any command's output is substituted as another command's argument. Command substitution is usually expressed in double-quotes.
12. What do you Understand by a Superuser?
Superuser is the privileged account that can access any file or command. The super status is required to perform many administrative tasks and execute associated commands. The root is the user name of this account. If you want to become a super user, you can achieve this in two ways. One way is logging into the root directory. Another way is executing the su command.
13. What is Superblock?
It is a collection of metadata describing a file system's properties. It describes file systems along with inode and entry. The properties can be block size, filled blocks, block group size, magic number, pointers, and location of inode tables.
14. What is the use of the Grep Command?
Grep refers to the global search for regular expression and print. This command is used to search and match text files. This command searches files for a pattern of characters in text files. After the execution, it displays all the lines of the pattern. The pattern is usually expressed in a regular pattern.
15. What is the use of mount and unmount Commands?
Generally, files are structured in a tree format. And the files are distributed across many devices. The mount command is used to attach a file to the big tree. On the other hand, unmount command detaches a file from the big tree.
16. What is the difference between Absolute Path and Relative Path?
17. what is inode.
An inode is an entry that contains all the information about a file. It is created on a disk. An inode contains information such as where the file begins, file size when the file was changed along with time, all the associated read and write, execute permissions, the file owner, and many others.
18. What do you mean by the File System in Unix?
A file system is a logical method to store and manage information in the form of files, folders, as well as directories. Know that a file is the smallest unit to store data. Directories contain files and folders. In the Unix file system , all the Directories are organized in a tree structure. This entire system, including files, directories, and folders, is the file system in Unix.
19. Can you brief about the daemon?
Daemon is nothing but a background process that performs a task or set of functions. The background processes include memory management, printer jobs, file system management, network connections, etc.
20. What is the role of the fork ( ) system call?
This system call creates a new process from an already-existing process. The new process is known as the child process, and the primary process is known as the parent process.
Intermediate Level Unix Commands Interview Questions
21. what is shell and shell variable.
- Essentially, the shell is the command interpreter used to process Unix commands.
- Shell variable is usually available to the current shell only. Shell variables are temporary and are deleted soon after the shell session.
22. How would you find a File in Unix?
We can use the ‘find' command to identify Unix files. The following is the syntax of the find command.
23. How would you copy a File from one host to another in Unix?
We can use the scp command to copy files from one host to another. Using this command, you don't need to start an FTP session or log into the remote systems. Note that this command uses SSH to transfer data. So, if you want to share files or directories in remote systems, you must apply a password or passphrase.
24. List out the Network Commands in Unix.
Following are the various network commands used in Unix.
25. What do you mean by kill ( ) system call and return value in Unix?
With the kill ( ) system call, you can send any signal to any process or process group. The syntax for this system call is given as follows:
If a signal is sent successfully, then zero will be returned. If not, the value -1 will be returned. Note that at least one signal must be sent successfully to return a zero.
26. Can you differentiate the ‘cmp’ and ‘diff’ commands in Unix?
27. how would you remove a file in unix.
We can use the rm command to remove files from Unix. If you want to delete a file, you need to get write permission on the parent directory as well as execute permission.
For example, if you want to remove a text file, you can use write the command as follows
28. What is the difference between the cat command and the more command?
Both cat and more commands display file contents. However, they differ in displaying the contents. The Cat command's output is the entire file content on a single page, whereas more command outputs file contents page by page.
29. How would you find out whether a system is 32-bit or 64-bit?
We can find this in two ways. One way is using the “uname – a" command, and another way is using the “arch” command.
30. Can you name some File Manipulation Commands?
31. what do you mean by networking stack and protocol.
Know that TCP/IP is the networking stack protocol for the Unix kernel. TCP refers to the transmission control protocol. It manages a virtual circuit layer that ensures bidirectional data transmission. IP stands for internet protocol that manages packet transmission between user processes and the networking layer. TCP/IP has four layers as shown below.
32. Why do we use the tee Command?
We use the tee command for two purposes. One purpose is that the tee command receives data from a standard input and sends the data to a standard output. Another purpose is that it redirects the input into a specified file.
33. What do you understand by Wildcard's Interpretation?
When a command line consists the wildcard characters such as * and ?, they will be replaced with the shell.
34. How does the Unix system identify that one command ends and another start?
Semicolons and ampersand characters denote the end of a command. Similarly, the newline character generated by the enter and return key helps to show a command that ends and another start.
35. What do you mean by Aliasing Mechanism?
It is the short form of long commands. By using aliasing, you can reduce the time to type long commands again and again. Below is an example of an alias.
Advanced Level Unix Commands Interview Questions
36. how would you find a hostname if you have an ip address in your network.
We can find the hostname using the nslookup command.
37. Can you write a Unix Command to shut down in 15 minutes and reboot?
We can use /sbin/shutdown –r +15 to shut down a Unix system and then reboot the system.
38. Write a Unix Command to identify the files that must not have the word ‘wonderful’.
We can use grep –vi wonderful *.txt command to find the files that don’t have the word wonderful.
39. How would you display files in the current directory in color and long format?
We can use the command ls-l-color to display files in the current directory in color and long format.
40. How would you Change any user type to a super user type?
We can use the su command for the same. At the same time, you must enter the password to access the privileges granted to you.
41. What are the Various IDs used in Unix Processes?
PID, PGID, and PPID are the three IDs used in Unix Processes.
- PID – It is known as process ID
- PGID – It is known as process group ID
- PPID – it is known as parent process ID
42. How does system boot-up occur in Unix?
It occurs in the following five phases.
- Hardware: First, BIOS starts and makes checks for hardware connections
- OS Loader: It is loaded in MBR, a 512-byte block of the boot device.
- Kernel: It initializes the computer's operating system, drivers, and other components.
- Root user-space process: It establishes an accessible environment for usage
- Boot scripts: The startup scripts are located in directories for every managed service.
43. How would you check disk space using the Unix command?
We can use the %quota –v command to check the space left in disk space. So, it will know the space left in the disks and clean them regularly.
44. How would you check the size of files using a Unix Command?
We can use the %du - s * - command to know the size of various files in the file system of directories and sub-directories. So you can remove unwanted files and empty spaces.
45. Which Unix Command would you use to compress and decompress files?
We can compress files using gzip command. The syntax is given as follows
Similarly, you can decompress files using gunzip command. The syntax is given as follows
46. What do you Understand by Permissions in Unix?
Generally, users are segregated into three groups in Unix: users, groups, and others. The user is the person who created the file. The group is the users with the privileges to access the file as the owner does. Others are the people who have offered access to the file.
Users can read, write and execute when it comes to access rights. Read permission represents that users can only read the contents of the file. Write permission indicates that users can change the contents of the file. Execute permission means that users can only execute the file.
47. How would you Change the Permissions of a File in Unix?
We can use the chmod Command to change the permissions of a file. The syntax for the command is given as follows
This command allows groups, Users, and others to read and write as well as execute.
48. What Commands would you use to get User Information?
- Id: you can get the active user id along with login and group detail by executing this command.
- Last: you can find the last login details of a user by running this command.
- Groupadd admin: you can add group admin using this command.
- Usermod –a : This command can add an existing user to a group.
49. What is the Crucial Function of a Pipe?
You can use the pipe function if you like to run two or more commands simultaneously. While executing pipe functions, the output of one program goes as the input to another program.
You can execute grep and sort commands using pipe functions.
50. How would you differentiate swapping from paging?
Most common unix commands faqs, 1. what is a file system in unix.
Essentially, a file is the collection of data. Unix has different types of files, such as special files, ordinary files, and directories. Directories are the file types in which ordinary and special files and folders are stored.
2. How to identify the users who are currently logged in using the Unix command?
We can use the who command to identify the users currently logged in now.
3. Which Unix command would you use to view the names of users logged in?
We can use the user command to view the names of users currently logged in users.
4. Is Unix a Programming Language?
No. Unix is an operating system.
5. What language is used to write the Unix Operating System?
C language is used to write the Unix operating system.
Tips for Unix Commands Interview preparation
- Solid subject knowledge: It is the first and foremost thing to crack any interview. You must have substantial knowledge of Unix commands and operations. You must research how to use Unix commands for various functions.
- Clear and concise Communication: You must clearly communicate what you are trying to convey to the interviewers. For this, you must have enough courage and confidence in your knowledge. Then, it will be easy to express what answer you are trying to deliver. At the same time, you should answer only the question precisely. You shouldn’t pour what all you know about Unix commands.
- Discuss real-time examples: Before attending a Unix interview, you can get hands-on experience. Work on small projects or complete certification on the Unix operating system. It will help to strengthen your knowledge as well as ease your interview.
- Know the company: You must know the details of the company where you are going to attend interviews. You can go through their websites, whitepapers, case studies, etc. They will give you what they are doing in the market precisely.
- Continuous learning: Show the interviewers that you are a continuous learner. Communicate to them the skills you recently acquired relevant to the job you are attending the interview.
We hope that the Unix commands interview questions and answers provided in this blog post sharpened your knowledge in a better way. We advise you to learn the concepts deeply to ace your Unix command interview soon. This way, MindMajix offers a Unix Training Course and certification with which you can enrich your knowledge and add a feather to your skillset. Apart from this, you can find all other courses on the MindMajix training page. We are sure that you will be one step ahead among your competitors after taking a MindMajix course.
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Madhuri is a Senior Content Creator at MindMajix. She has written about a range of different topics on various technologies, which include, Splunk, Tensorflow, Selenium, and CEH. She spends most of her time researching on technology, and startups. Connect with her via LinkedIn and Twitter .
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Examples of case study interview questions and answers You may also refer to these question and answer examples to guide you in your next case interview: Which product would you recommend to assist the client's business to grow? Example answer: ' After examining the many possibilities, the ideal product to select is the AI software platform.
Some skills that employers may check for in a case study interview include: confidence adaptability curiosity an actionable and logical thinking process analytic skills intuition clear communication Related: Informational Interview Questions 3. Study potential questions the interviewer may ask
Case Study Interview Questions About the Decision Process Readers of the case study will be interested in which factors influenced the decision-making process for the client. If they can relate to that process, there's a bigger chance they'll buy your product.
The following are 10 examples of case interview questions. You can use these examples to get a better understanding of how case interview questions will be presented and the topics that they may cover. 1. A client of a company is a hotel located in New York City, New York. Their primary customer base is made up of mostly foreign tourists.
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Here are some general questions an interviewer might ask you for a case manager position: Can you tell me a little about yourself? Why are you leaving your current job? Why do you want to work here? What are some of your strengths as a case manager? What are some of your weaknesses as a case manager? Why do you want to be a case manager?
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Best Unix Commands Interview Questions Real-time Case Study Questions ️Frequently Asked ️Beginners ️Intermediate & Advanced. ... We hope that the Unix commands interview questions and answers provided in this blog post sharpened your knowledge in a better way. We advise you to learn the concepts deeply to ace your Unix command interview soon.
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