Interactive tool
Case interview practice timer
A phase-by-phase timer for practising cases with a partner, plus a bank of original case prompts to start from.
Profitability
A family-run chain of 12 bakeries in Jaipur has seen profit fall 15% over the last year, even though revenue stayed roughly flat. Why, and what should the owners do?
Phase 1 of 4: Clarify
3:00
Remaining in this phase
Play back the problem, confirm the objective, ask only questions that change your approach.
- Clarify
- Structure
- Analyse
- Recommend
How to use the timer
- Pick a prompt from the list, or use one of your own.
- The interviewer reads the prompt aloud; the candidate presses Start.
- The timer moves through each phase. When a phase's time is up, it is marked as over time — the clock keeps running so you can see by how much.
- Press Next phase when you move on. You can adjust any phase's minutes before you start.
The default plan (3 minutes to clarify, 3 to structure, 15 to analyse and 2 to recommend) is a practice guide, not a rule. Real interviews vary in length and pace, and interviewers often steer the conversation.
After each case
Spend five minutes on feedback while it is fresh. The interviewer should cover:
- Was the structure specific to this problem?
- Was the maths accurate and spoken aloud?
- Did each finding end with a "so what"?
- Did the recommendation come first, with reasons and a risk?
Then swap roles. Being the interviewer is one of the best ways to learn what a strong answer sounds like.
For a full walkthrough of the method, read how to approach a case interview. For more prompts and a fully solved example, see the case prompts.