accenture case study round

• Hacking the Case Interview

Accenture interviews are comprised of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions. If you are interviewing for Accenture’s Strategy group, you will also be given a special type of interview called the Accenture Potentia Interview.

If you have an upcoming Accenture interview, we have you covered. We’ll cover in detail:  

• The Accenture interview process
• What is an Accenture case interview?
• What does an Accenture case interview assess?
• How to solve Accenture case interviews
• The common types of Accenture case interviews
• Accenture case interview examples
• Accenture case interview tips
• How to prepare for Accenture case interviews
• How to ace the Accenture Potentia Interview
• Accenture behavioral and fit interview questions
• Recommended Accenture case interview resources

The Accenture Interview Process

Accenture is a massive professional services firm that provides management consulting, IT consulting, and back office outsourcing. Within management consulting, Accenture is broken down into three groups: Strategy, Operations, and Digital.

Accenture Strategy is the group that is most similar to McKinsey, BCG, and Bain in the type of work that they do. The Operations and Digital group is focused more on implementation rather than on pure strategy.

Depending on the office and group that you are applying for, there will be two to three rounds of interviews. Each round will have anywhere from one to three 1-hour interviews. Your interviews will be a mix of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions.

Below is an example of what your interview process could look like:

• Accenture first round interview : Two 40-minute interviews. The first 10 minutes will be spent on behavioral or fit interview questions and the remaining 30 minutes will be spent on an Accenture case interview.
• Accenture final round interview : Three 1-hour interviews. One interview will be focused on behavioral or fit interview questions. The other two interviews will be focused on Accenture case interviews.

One important thing to note is that if you are applying for a role in Accenture Strategy, one of your interviews will be a special type of interview called the Potentia interview.

You’ll be interviewed by more senior people as you go through the different rounds of interviews. In the first round, you’ll be interviewed by consultants or managers. In the final round, you’ll be interviewed by managing directors and senior managing directors.

We’ll cover all of the different types of interview questions in detail in the next few sections.

What is an Accenture Case Interview

An Accenture case interview, also known as a “case” for short, is a 30 to 60-minute exercise in which you and the interviewer work together to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

These business problems can be anything that real companies face:

• How can Amazon increase its profitability?
• What can Apple do to increase customer retention?
• How should Tesla price its new electric vehicle?
• Where should Disney open another Disneyland theme park?

Accenture case interviews simulate what the consulting job will be like by placing you in a hypothetical business situation. Cases simulate real business problems that consulting firms solve for their clients. Many Accenture case interviews are based on actual projects that interviewers have worked on.

While consulting projects typically last between 3 to 9 months, case interviews condense solving the business problem into just 30 to 45 minutes.

Accenture case interviews can cover any industry, including retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, energy, education, healthcare, government, and technology.

They can also cover a wide range of business situations, including entering a new market, launching a new product, acquiring a company, improving profitability, and growing revenues.

Although Accenture case interviews cover a wide range of industries and business situations, no technical or specialized knowledge is needed.

Unless you are interviewing for a consulting firm that specializes in a particular industry or function, cases are designed to be solved by someone that has general business knowledge.

Nailing your Accenture case interviews is critical to get a job at Accenture. There is no way to get a Accenture job offer without passing your case interviews.

What Does an Accenture Case Interview Assess?

Accenture case interviews assess five different qualities or characteristics: logical and structured thinking, analytical problem solving, business acumen, communication skills, and personality and cultural fit.

1. Logical and structured thinking : Consultants need to be organized and methodical in order to work efficiently.

• Can you structure complex problems in a clear, simple way?
• Can you take tremendous amounts of information and data and identify the most important points?
• Can you use logic and reason to make appropriate conclusions?

2. Analytical problem solving : Consultants work with a tremendous amount of data and information in order to develop recommendations to complex problems.

• Can you read and interpret data well?
• Can you perform math computations smoothly and accurately?
• Can you conduct the right analyses to draw the right conclusions?

3. Business acumen : A strong business instinct helps consultants make the right decisions and develop the right recommendations.

• Do you have a basic understanding of fundamental business concepts?
• Do your conclusions and recommendations make sense from a business perspective?

4. Communication skills : Consultants need strong communication skills to collaborate with teammates and clients effectively.

• Can you communicate in a clear, concise way?
• Are you articulate in what you are saying?

5. Personality and cultural fit : Consultants spend a lot of time working closely in small teams. Having a personality and attitude that fits with the team makes the whole team work better together.

• Are you coachable and easy to work with?
• Are you pleasant to be around?

All of these five qualities can be assessed in just a 30 to 60-minute Accenture case interview. This is what makes case interviews so effective in assessing consulting candidates.

How to Solve Accenture Case Interviews

Accenture case interviews, also known as case study interviews, are candidate-led. This means that you will be expected to drive the case. You will be suggesting what areas to explore, what analyses to do, and what next steps should be.

Accenture cases last between 30 to 45 minutes. They tend to be based on real business situations, often drawn from an actual project that your interviewer worked on.

In  Accenture’s case interview workbook , they state that success in their case interviews does not depend on finding the correct answer. Instead, you are assessed on:

• How clearly you define the problem
• How logically you structure the analysis
• How strong your quantitative analysis skills are
• How well you communicate your thoughts to the interviewer

In addition to these hard skills, there are also soft skills that you will be assessed on. These are:

• Poise : your confidence, ability to perform well under pressure, and how you handle making mistakes
• Communication : your listening skills and how articulate you are in presenting your process and conclusions
• Flexibility : how well you can adapt your thinking to changing circumstances
• Other  intangibles : your energy and drive, initiative, time management, decisiveness, and genuine interest in consulting and the firm

Accenture suggests following six different steps to solve an Accenture case interview.

(Source: Accenture Case Interview Workbook)  

1. Listen to the case

In this step, the interviewer will give you a description of the case problem. This description can be as short as a few sentences or as long as a full page of detailed information.

During this step, make sure you are taking notes on the most important pieces of information. You should focus on understanding the context, company, and the objective.

2. Clarify the problem

Understanding the business problem and objective is imperative to successfully solving the case. Answering or addressing the wrong business problem is the quickest way to fail a case interview.

Therefore, ask clarifying questions to better understand the business situation and issue. Afterwards, make sure that you confirm or verify the objective of the case with the interviewer. This ensures that you will start the case on the right track.

3. Decompose the problem

Next, you’ll need to break down the problem in an exhaustive and logical way. You can do this by creating an issue tree or framework.

A framework is a tool that helps you structure and break down complex problems into simpler, smaller components. Think of a framework as brainstorming different ideas and organizing them neatly into different categories.

Accenture provides a few examples of frameworks that you can use to get you started thinking about how to solve different types of cases.

  (Source: Accenture Case Interview Workbook)  

We recommend that you do not just memorize these frameworks and use them in your interviews. Instead, use these frameworks as background knowledge to help you make your own frameworks that are tailored to the specific case that you are solving for.

For a complete guide on how to create tailored and unique frameworks for each case, check out our article on case interview frameworks .

4. State your hypotheses

After decomposing the problem, you should list out potential hypotheses that answer or address the business problem. A hypothesis is an educated guess on the answer based on the data and information that you have so far.

A hypothesis helps guide your analysis and keeps you on track. It ensures that you are spending your time answering the right questions and conducting the right analyses.

5. Test your hypotheses

Once you have a hypothesis, you’ll answer questions or conduct analyses to refine your hypothesis.

Sometimes, your hypothesis will be completely wrong and you’ll need to develop another hypothesis to test. Other times, your hypothesis will be generally right and you’ll need to refine and narrow down your hypothesis further.

This is an iterative process. Your hypothesis should be constantly changing and becoming more refined as you progress through the case. Once you have developed meaningful support for your hypothesis, you will move onto the final step.

6. Summarize your findings

In this step, you’ll present your recommendation and provide the major reasons that support it. It is also good to include potential next steps that you would take if you had more time or data.

Afterwards, the interviewer may tell you what actually happened with the case or project that they worked on. Don’t worry if your methodology or answer does not match what actually happened. Remember, you are not assessed on your answer, but the overall process.

Learn case interviews in 30 minutes

We've compiled all of the different steps of solving an Accenture case interview into a more easily digestible 30-minute video. We highly recommend watching the video below in its entirety.

The Common Types of Accenture Case Interviews

Accenture states that there are three types of cases you may see in your interviews:

• The “Great Unknown”
• The “Parade of Facts”
• The “Back of the Envelope”

The “Great Unknown” and “Back of the Envelope” are the most common types of cases.

The “Great Unknown” Case

For this type of case, very little information will be provided to you on the case background. For “Great Unknown” cases, you’ll be tested on your ability to probe for details, which requires having a structured framework.

Examples of cases:  

• Your client is a leading manufacturer of prefabricated kitchen furnishings. They have been steadily losing market share over the past two years. You have been hired to help them understand why this is happening and what they can do to improve their market standing.
• A major furniture retailer has experienced declining profits for four quarters, but has experienced a 25% growth in sales and has opened many new stores during this time. Why are profits declining?
• A fast food company is thinking about putting a franchise in an airport. Should they do this?
• A bread division of a large food company is facing increasing competition in the market. Should they exit the market?
• A car company is interested in developing a new car. What marketing related issues should it consider before making the investment?
• What factors influence the revenue potential of a new pharmaceutical product?
• Citibank is considering purchasing another credit card company, which would give them access to 100,000 new card holders. What is the estimated value of this acquisition?
• A commercial bank is re-evaluating the number of branches it operates and whether they should increase the number of branches or close some down. How should they make this decision?
• A large conglomerate company is facing declining profits in its railroad company division and is considering shutting it down. Is this the right course of action? What are potential alternatives?
• New York City has hired you to determine what optimal route or what destination taxi drivers should go to when they do not have a customer.

The “Parade of Facts” Case

For this type of case, a significant amount of details on the case background will be provided to you, some of them unnecessary. For “Parade of Facts” cases, you’ll be tested on the ability to synthesize and identify key issues.

Example of a case:

• Your client is a food company that wants to develop a freshly prepared meal business
• There is a trend among customers towards fresher foods with no artificial preservatives or coloring
• Consumers are currently purchasing $5B of frozen meals and there is a trend towards more upscale products
• A fresh meal plate combines a protein, vegetable, and starch and is delicately arranged in a sealed plastic dome package
• Nitrogen gas flushing is used to extend shelf life
• Product is currently in limited consumer testing at $5.50 to $8.50 per meal
• Shelf life of product is 14 days
• Product will spoil in 21 days, potentially causing food poisoning
• Client wants to know if they can make money in this business
• Client wants to know if the market is big and how will they keep competition out
• Client wants a consultant to assist in building a business case for them

The “Back of the Envelope” Case

This type of case asks a market sizing or estimation question. Very little information will be provided, but a clear question will be asked.

“Back of the Envelope” cases primarily test your analytic abilities. It requires a structured, logical thought process and competency in working with numbers and making calculations.

Examples of cases:

• Estimate the total number of dry cleaners in Philadelphia
• How much money could Continental Airlines save by giving customers half a can instead of a whole can of Sprite?
• What is the estimated value of a taxi medallion in New York City?
• Discuss what is wrong with the following statistic: The Volvo is the safest car on the road because a recent study has shown that Volvos have the fewest number of accident deaths per mile driven
• Estimate the change in the price of oil in the year 2000 from today’s price. Will it increase or will it decrease?
• Estimate the number of attendees for a free concert for U2 in Central Park in New York City

Accenture Case Interview Examples

We've compiled additional examples of Accenture case interviews below. These case interviews were actual cases given in previous Accenture interviews.

Example #1 : A consumer electronics company is looking to introduce a new smartwatch to the market. How should they launch this new product?

Example #2 : A global logistics company wants to streamline its supply chain operations. How can they lower their costs?

Example #3 : A pharmaceutical company is considering discontinuing a particular drug from its portfolio. Evaluate the reasons behind the decision and assess the financial implications.

Example #4 : A non-profit organization focusing on wildlife conservation is facing funding challenges. Recommend initiatives to enhance long-term sustainability of fundraising.

Example #5 : A financial services firm is considering adopting blockchain technology for its operations. What are some considerations that they should think through?

Example #6 : A leading e-commerce platform wants to enhance its customer experience. How can they improve customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Example #7 : A software company that currently serves small and medium-sized businesses wants to expand into the enterprise market. Should they enter this new market?

For more practice, check out our article on 23 MBA consulting casebooks with 700+ free practice cases .

Accenture Case Interview Tips

Below are six of the most useful Accenture case interview tips for acing your case interviews.

Tip #1: Take your time and don’t rush into speaking

Structure your ideas and thinking before you start talking. If needed, talk through the problem out loud so that the interviewer can follow your thought process.

Tip #2: Be flexible

There may be times when the case will take a different direction than anticipated. You may also need to completely change your approach or hypothesis. It is important that you are open-minded and adaptable throughout the case.

Tip #3: Use visual aids

To make your communication even more clear and easy to follow, use visual aids to your advantage. When presenting your framework, turn your paper around so that it faces the interviewer. When outlining a process, use a whiteboard if there is one available.

Tip #4: Be 80/20

The 80/20 principle states that 80% of the results comes from 20% of your effort. You will not have the time to answer every single question in a case interview. Therefore, take an inventory of all of the information that you have and focus on diving deeper into the areas that will have the greatest impact.

Tip #5: Pay attention to cues from the interviewer

Remember that case interviewers are meant to be collaborative. You should listen closely to what the interviewer has to say. They may provide you with hints to help you out. They may also give you feedback on your approach or structure to help steer you in the right direction. Don’t dismiss what interviewers have to say.

Tip #6: Showcase your individuality

A case interview is an opportunity to showcase your personality and experiences. If you have unique insights based on your previous work experiences, make sure that you bring it up. This can help separate your answer from other candidates.

How to Prepare for Accenture Case Interviews

There are seven steps to preparing for Accenture case interviews.

1. Understand what a case interview is

The first step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to understand exactly what case interviews are.

When you are familiar with what case interviews are, it is important to know what a great Accenture case interview performance looks like.

Knowing what a great Accenture case interview performance looks like will facilitate how quickly you learn case interview strategies in the next step.

Before continuing onto the next step, you should be familiar with:

• The overall objective of a case interview
• The structure and flow of a case interview
• The types of questions you could get asked
• What a great case interview performance looks like

2. Learn the right strategies

Now that you have sufficient background knowledge, the next step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to learn the right strategies to build good case interview habits.

It is much more effective to learn the right case strategies the first time than to learn poor strategies and try to correct them later.

The quickest, most efficient way to learn these strategies is to go through our Comprehensive Case Interview Course .

If you prefer reading case interview prep books instead, the three I recommend are:

• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook
• Case Interview Secrets

Hacking the Case Interview provides strategies on exactly what to do and what to say in every step of the case interview. It is a concise and straight to the point guide. I recommend this book as the first book to read for beginners.

Case Interview Secrets teaches core concepts such as the issue tree , drill-down analysis, and a hypothesis driven approach. It illustrates these concepts through stories and anecdotes. If you have read Hacking the Case Interview, I recommend also reading this book to get perspectives from a second author. Check out our full review of Case Interview Secrets .

Case in Point provides a ton of specific and complex frameworks. However, you likely won’t be using many of these in an actual case interview because many of them are overly complex and specific. If you have time, it may be useful to skim through this book. Check out our full review of Case in Point .

At the bare minimum, read either the first or second book. If you have the time, read the first two books so that you can get strategies from two different authors.

Make sure to spend sufficient time learning the right strategies before starting to practice cases. It is ineffective to practice cases if you have no idea what strategies to practice and refine.

Before moving onto the next step, you should at least have strategies for the following parts of a case interview:

• Developing unique and tailored frameworks
• Solving quantitative problems
• Answering qualitative questions
• Delivering a recommendation

3. Practice 3-5 cases by yourself

Once you have learned the right strategies, the next step in Accenture case interview prep is to practice.

When practicing case interviews, it is usually better to practice with a case interview partner than to practice by yourself . Casing with a partner better simulates the real case interview experience.

However, when you are just starting to practice, I recommend doing the first 3 – 5 cases by yourself.

There are three reasons for this:

• You can get the hang of the case interview structure and format much more quickly working by yourself rather than having to wait to schedule a time with a partner
• There are many aspects of case interviews that you can practice without a partner, such as structuring a framework and solving quantitative problems. You can get much more practice working through these parts by yourself
• You may have difficulty finding a case interview partner if you are a complete beginner. Without having done any cases, you likely won’t know how to properly give a case or provide good feedback

4. Practice 5-10 cases with a partner

The next step in preparing for Accenture case interviews is to case with a partner.

Casing with a partner is the best way to simulate a real case interview. There are many aspects of case interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner.

When practicing cases with a partner, ensure you are spending enough time after cases to deliver feedback.

For a case that takes around 30 – 40 minutes, spend at least 15 – 20 minutes for feedback. Much of your learning and improvement will come from these feedback sessions.

Do not move onto the next step until you have done at least 5 – 10 cases and are beginning to feel comfortable with case interviews.

5. Practice with a former or current consultant

At this point, I highly recommend asking former or current consultants to give you a practice case. This will significantly help you prepare for case interviews.

Doing a mock case with a former or current consultant is highly advantageous because they know exactly how to run cases and give feedback. You’ll receive incredibly helpful feedback that your previous case partners likely missed.

If you feel that you are plateauing with your case partner, that is a sign you should do a mock case interview with a former or current consultant.

You can find former or current consultants among:

• People you met during the consulting recruiting process
• Your broader LinkedIn network

I would not ask a consultant that is involved with the consulting recruiting process for a case too prematurely. Although these practice cases are not evaluative, some firms will actually make note of how well you perform during the practice case.

At this point, you will have accumulated a long list of improvement areas from all of the different people you have cased with.

6. Work on your improvement areas

In this step of preparing for Accenture case interviews, you will work on strengthening and fine-tuning your improvement areas. Examples of common improvement areas include:

• Creating a more complete and mutually exclusive framework
• Performing math calculations quicker or more smoothly
• Providing more structure to your qualitative answers
• Leading the case more proactively
• Delivering a more succinct recommendation

Try to focus on improving one thing at a time. This is much more effective than trying to improve everything at once.

For some areas, such as math, it will be better to work independently. For other areas, such as learning to proactively lead the case, it will be better to work with a case partner.

If you are looking for more cases, look at the resources listed in step four. If you are looking for specific drills or practice problems for a particular part of a case interview, check out The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook .

Do not move onto the next step until you have finished working on all of your improvement areas.

7. Stay sharp

If you have progressed this far, congratulations! You have almost finished preparing for Accenture case interviews.

Once you feel that you have no more improvement areas to work on, the key is to not burn yourself out by doing too many unnecessary cases.

While each case that you do makes you slightly better, there is a point when doing too many cases can create case fatigue right before your interview. Case fatigue can negatively impact your interview performance.

On the other hand, you also don’t want to go weeks without having done a case. You may end up forgetting strategies or become rusty and slow.

Once you have achieved case mastery, I recommend doing no more than 2 cases per week in the weeks leading up to your interview. This ensures that you remain sharp for case interviews, but don’t have case fatigue.

How to Ace the Accenture Potentia Interview

The Accenture Potentia interview is a 1-hour interview given to candidates that are applying for a role in Accenture Strategy. Here is the structure of the Accenture Potentia Interview:

• You’ll be given a short paragraph of text about a business topic with a problem statement. Topics are diverse and may not be work-related. Examples of topics include blood diamonds in Africa or intellectual property on the Internet
• You’ll have 5 minutes to prepare and think through the problem statement
• You’ll have a 45 to 60-minute conversation with the interviewer in which you’ll present your thoughts and the interviewer will ask follow-up questions

The purpose of the Potentia interview is to challenge your strategic thinking. There is no right or wrong answer. There are also no calculations or math involved.

Instead, the interviewer is assessing you on the structure and organization of your answer and your creativity.

Tips for the Accenture Potentia Interview:  

• Use a framework or structure for your answer : Remember that you are being assessed on how you structure and organize your answer. Therefore, instead of listing random ideas that come to mind, develop a framework to structure your ideas.
• Brainstorm as many ideas as you can : Use your framework to help you brainstorm effectively. Your framework should have three to five different areas. Meticulously think through each area and try to generate at least three ideas in each.
• Have a mix of practical and ambitious ideas : You are being assessed on creativity, so make sure you include ideas that are ambitious and impactful. However, you also want to show sound business judgment, so you will need to include ideas that are practical and easier to implement. You should have a mix of these two types of ideas.
• Bring in ideas that you learned from your prior work experience : One way to demonstrate creativity is to take ideas or solutions in one industry and apply them to another. Therefore, if there is an opportunity to leverage learnings from your prior work experience, you should definitely bring it up.
• Make it a conversation : Remember that the Accenture Potentia interview is meant to be a two-way conversation. Make sure you are listening to the feedback or questions that the interviewer has and responding accordingly.

Accenture Behavioral and Fit Interview Questions

In addition to case interviews, you will likely be asked a few behavioral or fit interview questions. There are ten questions that are most commonly asked.

1. Why are you interested in working at Accenture?

How to answer: Have at least three reasons why you’re interested in working at Accenture. You could mention that you loved the people that you have met from Accenture so far. You can talk about Accenture’s massive global presence and expertise in nearly any industry or function. You can speak to how Accenture provides strategy and implementation, so you can see the impact of your work.

2. Why do you want to work in consulting?

How to answer: Again, have three reasons why you’re interested in consulting. You could mention the fast career growth opportunity, the opportunity to develop soft and hard skills, or the level of impact that you can make by working with large companies on their most challenging issues.

3. Walk me through your resume.

How to answer: Provide a concise summary of your work experience, starting with the most recent. Focus on emphasizing your most impressive and unique accomplishments. At the end, tie your experiences to why you are interested in consulting.

4. What is your proudest achievement?

How to answer: Choose your most impressive, unique, or memorable accomplishment. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work.

5. What is something that you are proud of that is not on your resume?

How to answer: This is a great opportunity to highlight an accomplishment that is not related to your professional work experience. Perhaps there is a non-profit that you volunteer at, a side project or business that you work on, or a hobby that you have won awards or recognition for. Choose something that is impressive and interesting.

6. Tell me about a time when you led a team.

How to answer: If possible, choose a time when you directly managed a person or a team. For this question and the following questions, make sure that you structure your answer. Structure your answer by providing information on the situation, the task, the actions you took, and the results of your work. This is known as the STAR method and is commonly used to answer behavioral or fit interview questions.

7. Give an example of a time when you faced conflict or a disagreement.

How to answer: When answering this question, focus on emphasizing the steps you took to resolve the conflict or disagreement. Speak to the interpersonal skills you had to use in order to mediate the situation. Interviewers want to know that you are a great mediator and that you can handle conflict in a constructive way.

8. Tell me about a time when you had to persuade someone.

How to answer: Choose a time when you were able to change someone’s mind. Focus on emphasizing the steps that you took to persuade that person and what impact and results this had. Interviewers want to know that you are a great communicator and a good people person.

9. Describe a time when you failed.

How to answer: Choose a time when you failed to meet a deadline or did not meet expectations. Focus on emphasizing what you learned from the experience and how you used that experience to deliver even better results in the next opportunity that you got. Interviewers want to see that you don’t get discouraged from failure and that you treat those experiences as learning opportunities.

10. What questions do you have for me?

How to answer: This is a great opportunity to get to know the interviewer on a more personal level. Ask them questions about their experience in consulting or their career. Express genuine interest in what they have to show and ask follow-up questions. The more you can get the interviewer talking about themself, the more likely they will have a positive impression of you.

For a step-by-step guide on how to best answer all of these questions and more, check out our complete guide on consulting behavioral interview questions .

Recommended Accenture Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to land an Accenture consulting offer:

For help landing consulting interviews

• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple consulting interviews

For help passing case interviews

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with a former Bain interviewer.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.

For help passing consulting behavioral & fit interviews

• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer.
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

Complete, step-by-step case interview course. 30,000+ happy customers.

Accenture Case Interview: Formats, Question Types & Tips

Accenture is one of the largest consulting firms in the world, with more than 500,000 employees serving clients in 120 countries. If we could pick a consulting firm to win the aggressive campus recruiting award, it would probably be Accenture.

Accenture case interviews are a bit heavier on market-sizing, with a mix of candidate- and interview-led, and may include a special interview called Potentia.

Table of Contents

What is Accenture case interview?

Accenture case interviews are the final test to become an accenture consultant.

The Accenture case interview is the screening interview of Accenture, where candidates must solve business problems (or cases). The interview evaluates whether candidates possess the capabilities and qualities to become an Accenture consultant.

Accenture case interviews are both interviewer-led and candidate-led. The former has multiple separate questions presented by the interviewer, while the latter is one big case where you lead every step of the process, from structuring the issue, developing frameworks, requesting data, synthesizing findings, and providing solutions.

Before getting to the case interview, you must pass the initial screening rounds, which include resume screening and on-campus behavioral test.

In the resume round, you’ll of course need a consulting resume, just like what you’d need for McKinsey, and a cover letter, then submit it on Accenture’s website.

The behavioral interview will test whether you are fit to work for Accenture and the position you are applying to. This should take around 30-45 minutes.

Accenture also has a special case interview called the Potentia, testing candidate’s judgment and creative thinking ability. We’ll touch on this a bit later.

You don’t need tech background to solve Accenture cases

Accenture is a tech support powerhouse , but you don’t need to know about tech for consulting positions (it’s BUSINESS, but knowing wouldn’t hurt either).

Some may have tech-related topics, like on Uber or Facebook but you can solve the case, content-wise, just like normal case interviews. 

So brighten up if you don’t have any exposure in IT or computer science, you’ll be working in business at core. But tech bros are also welcome! (Well, they indeed can join tech for (arguably) higher pay up front versus consulting, but I’d say consulting is better in the long-run, so get at it!).

And in case you didn’t know, Accenture literally became the biggest consulting firm in the world thanks to tech.

Big corps nowadays are more than willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year to keep their tech humming, and Accenture enjoys quite a fair share of that. It is basically synonymous with tech consulting/advisory.

Also, before the tech giant it is today, Accenture actually hailed from a former Big Five firm (now Big Four)! It was first known as Andersen Consulting, the business & tech consulting department of Arthur Andersen, but later split in the late 1990s due to internal conflict and became Accenture! 

Accenture looks for those with achieving & analytical mindset

Just like all management consulting firms, Accenture looks for those who want to make an impact. The main value Accenture will look for are:

Outstanding academic achievement: Usually, your GPA (obviously) and school prestige. Your best bet? 4.0 at Harvard! But jokes aside, a 3.6 GPA should be good. Below that? Try to make focus points in other parts of your resume. This article might help!

Analytical ability: The ability to create a thorough, data-driven, insightful analysis and define the root cause and solutions to difficult problems

Demonstrated leadership : The ability to inspire and motivate others. Consultants won’t simply look for “leaders” who just tell their subordinates what to do, but a guiding beacon, even for their superiors (very much telling your boss what to do, but, think of it as inspiring ideas to them).

Collaborative approach : The ability to exchange facts and insights and effectively interact with people from various backgrounds and cultures

Intellectual curiosity : The ability to actively and continuously seek and expand knowledge 

Accenture case interview format

Accenture interviews are heavy on market-sizing.

This was based on our research. Also, most cases were divided into very specific and realistic questions, and they had no connections, whatsoever. The case as a whole sounds like a casual business discussion on some pressing issues.

So, you can expect these questions to be typical of consulting interviews. Market-sizing and guesstimate questions are popular and it’s no exception here. But keep this in mind: Market-sizing is not about getting the correct number, but estimating in a structured and logical way . The process is the important part .

Accenture cases are not heavier on math

Accenture cases are just about as math-y as what you’d see in most consulting firms. Yes, math is the foundation of consulting work, but what interviewers will look for is structured problem-solving, which brings us to MECE, root cause, and actionable solutions, the core of all cases. 

Accenture case interview questions

There are three types of questions in Accenture cases, known as the “ Great Unknown ”, the “ Parade of Facts ” and the “ Back of the Envelope ,” each targeting very specific aspects of a candidate’s problem-solving ability. 

The two most common will be the “Great Unknown” and the “Parade of Facts”. Still, no matter the question type you’re dealing with, don’t jump right in cracking the case before understanding the facts and knowing exactly what is being asked of you.

The Great Unknown focuses on ability to probe information

The Great Unknown questions basically give you the barebone, with truly nothing to build a case. They will test your ability to uncover necessary facts - to ask the right questions. 

Here’s an example: 

A leading manufacturer of plant-based meat has experienced a decline in profits despite an increase in market share. The senior executive team would like you to help them understand why and what they can do to reverse this trend.

And here’s how you should approach the case:

Okay, first, “market share” here is a rough percentage of the company on the market, not an absolute number. So, “an increase in market share” can be either by chewing out the competition, or competition dying.

Also, the market might be shrinking, but our sales are falling less than competitors. 

After clarifying what “an increase in market share” means, you can ask something like:

Has the company experienced any significant increase in cost in the last couple of years related to any additional fixed or variable cost?

On the revenue side, has there been an increase in the volume of output?

What about the competition? Has the competitive structure of the industry changed? Mergers and Acquisitions? New Entrants?

Are there any new products or new technologies that are gaining market share?

How is the company currently positioned (low cost, high quality, etc)? What is its competitive advantage?

The Parade of Facts focuses on the ability to distill key issues

The “Parade of Facts” presents you with an abundance of information, so now, it’s your job to navigate through massive loads of facts. It will put your ability to grasp the crux of the problem and find relevant information to the test.

For this type of question, pause for a moment and consider the central problem . It’s key to ask questions about facts that appear relevant.

Here’s an example:

Client is a leading ice-cream company that wants to sell vegan ice-cream. They want to know the market size, the feasibility of the business and how they can set up barriers to entry. Some additional information is given:

Trend among consumers is toward production transparency, e.g. they want to know their products were not made at the cost of animal suffering, labor exploitation, and environmental repercussions.

Trend among consumers is to avoid artificial preservatives or colorings.

Consumers are currently purchasing $45 billion ice-cream cups per year.

There are five flavors – matcha, coconut, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

Ice-cream is packaged in 18 oz cups.

Product is currently in limited consumer testing at $4 to $5.50 per cup

Here’s what you can do:

The key problem here is to find out the market size and profitability of the business. So, consider asking something like:

What prices are consumers responding to?

What is the competitive structure of this market currently?

What are the components of the company’s cost structure?

What is the break-even point for the firm?

What is the required market share to break-even?

The Back of the Envelope focuses more on math

This takes us back to the basics of market-sizing and guesstimate, so, things like estimate the number of phones in New York, or how many shots of espresso are consumed each year in Italy.

But let’s try a real case, shall we?

Estimate the total number of taxi drivers in Montreal.

Now, we’ll focus on assumptions.

First, estimate the market size by segmenting the population.

Assume Montreal’s population consists of 30% adult men, 30% adult women and 40% children

Assume children don’t use taxis and only 30% of adults use taxis

Estimate the average number of taxi rides each man and woman takes a week. For this case, assume one takes 10 rides a week, as the average works 5 days a week, and will take one to get to work and another back home

So, the market size (per week) is: 1.2 million people (60% of males & females) x 30% (percentage of adults using taxis) x 10 taxis rides = 3.6 million rides

Next, estimate the number of rides a driver can complete per week

Assume the average taxi driver completes 3-4 rides per hour

If the average driver works 10 hours/day, 6 days/week, he’d typically complete 180-240 rides (3-4 rides x 10 x 6)

Divide the total number of rides per week, we get the answer (about 15000-20000)

These are just some questions you may encounter in Accenture case interviews. If you want to familiarize yourself with the interview format, improve your performance, and develop techniques for each question type. The only proven way is to PRACTICE! 

Having trouble on where to start? Check out our Case Interview End-to-End Secrets Program. We have everything covered for you to get ready for your case.

After practicing mock cases, try out MConsultingPrep’s coaching service. You’ll have the opportunity to receive detailed feedback on your performance from former consultants, and a personalized study plan to ace every case!

Accenture Potentia interview

Accenture Potentia Interview is a special type of case interview designed to test sound judgment and creative thinking of candidates applying for Strategy roles at Accenture. So not all candidates will take the Potentia, only the Strategy guys.

Potentia is also a case interview, just for Strategy candidates

The Potentia is a one-hour case interview. There are no clear guidelines for these cases, so whatever case you get depends on the interviewer. Regarding case type, some 60% chance you’ll get market-sizing, and nearly 40% chance you get profitability. On the format:

First, the interviewer will hand you a topic with a problem. The topics can be anything, even unrelated to work, like blood diamonds in Africa, or treatment of homosexuals in Muslim countries

You’ll have 5 minutes to read through the problem statement and prepare

After that, you’ll present your thoughts and the interviewer will ask follow-up questions. This conversation lasts around 45 to 60 minutes

Potentia is more on creativity rather than structure

Potentia focuses slightly more on creativity than structure. It mostly tests your ability to think outside the box, and come up with something fresh. So do expect it to be more casual than MBB cases (still, it’s a job interview, expect some level of seriousness).

But if you meet someone hailing from the MBB, they may get more demanding (it’s MBB, what do you expect?) and the interview will get serious real quick.

Still, Potentia will be more conversational and not go too much on getting the right answer.

Tips for Potentia

Tip #1: Construct your answers using frameworks:

You are still being evaluated on how structured and organized the answers are ( it’s a case interview at core , remember?). So, use frameworks to capture ideas.

Tip #2: Practice brainstorming ideas:

Coming up with a lot of good ideas in a short period of time takes practice. Try to generate ideas in different areas of your framework for a start.

Tip #3: Welcome ambitious ideas:

Remember, your creativity and innovation is also being assessed. Don’t be afraid to speak up ambitious ideas, because they might turn out to be very good. Still, it’s best to keep both practicality and ambition, for flexibility.

Tip #4: Don’t focus too much on getting the right answer:

Potentia problems are usually complex and don’t have absolute answers. Focus on giving sound judgements, creativity, innovation and you’re good! 

Tip #5: Bring in ideas from prior work experience:

A good way to showcase creativity is to draw relevant ideas from one industry and match them with another. Besides, it’s a good opportunity to leverage your previous work experiences.

Tip #6: Listen carefully to feedbacks:

Listen carefully and respond thoughtfully to your interviewer’s comments. It’s more of a conversation, not a one man show. Besides, listening is respecting, and a good impression goes a long way. Do apply feedback from previous questions to improve your performance in later questions. It shows that you are paying attention.

How to prepare for Accenture case interview

Careful preparation is a must to ace Accenture’s case. You can tackle each aspect of the interview step by step.

Start from getting used to both interviewer-led candidate-led cases, then further out with business intuition, consulting math, fundamentals & frameworks of case interview, then finally conduct mock interviews.

Step 1: Get used to the candidate-led case interview, and written case interview

Examine examples of interviewer-led and candidate-led case interviews to familiarize yourself with the case flow and how to interact with the interviewer.

You can also get familiar with more case interview samples and all instantly-effective tricks for case interviews with our Case Interview E2E Secret Program. Also, here’s our free video of a case interview example with an explanation and expert comments.

Step 2: Develop business intuition

Having business intuition significantly improves your performance in case interviews. Working on intuition is a gradual process that takes practice every day. You can improve your business intuition in two ways:

Written sources: Read business papers daily (Bloomberg is recommended). You can also find articles on McKinsey, Bain, and BCG’s websites. But be careful! The important thing is not your page count, but what you absorbed from them

First-hand experience and observations: Don't just do things like a machine; find out what the seniors are doing, why they did what they did, and how it has affected the organization. Everything is a learning process, and it’s up to you to squeeze out every bit of knowledge and experience

Step 3: Practice consulting math

Consultants work with quantitative data in just about every minute. It simply takes too long to whip out a calculator every time they need to calculate something, and you’re definitely not impressing clients with that. That’s why interviewers place such high emphasis on mental math skills of interviewees. To improve your math, you can:

Train your head : Apply mental calculations on any daily occasion unless an EXACT answer is required

Start small : Use a piece of scratch paper, give yourself some margins of error (5% is a good start); once you get used to it, remove the paper and narrow down the margin of error.

Establish a routine : Spare time for daily practice and get better each day, just like exercise. You’ll never notice the little changes, but they stack up HARD, and when you realize it, you’re probably doing math thrice as fast

Step 4: Learn the fundamentals and frameworks of case interview

Accenture case interviews (or any other case interview) are based on the fundamentals - using hypotheses and issue trees, the MECE principle, and the frameworks. So, knowing them is extremely important and you should practice the fundamentals until you are comfortable.

A common mistake candidates make during their case interviews is to go straight for the frameworks. Frameworks require extensive adaptation to match actual cases. To customize appropriately, you must understand the fundamental knowledge first.

To know more about case interviews, here’s a dedicated article .

Step 5: Conduct mock case interview

Mock interviews are a great way to simulate the actual case interview session. You should examine your cases in great depth during the mock case interview. Record your session, replay, note the comments, and look for ways to improve.

Find a former consultant to help you with your practice - they are the ideal people; they've been there, they’ll know what a candidate must be. Through their feedback, you can improve on what needs to be improved and boost your chance of getting an offer.

We can also help you connect with consulting coaches (all former consultants!) for a more personalized feedback. Book your mock case interview session with us now !

Accenture Tech or Accenture Consulting?

But Kim, you may ask, I have tech background, do I go for Accenture Tech or Accenture Management Consulting?

Good question! Both are great careers but I’d say even if you are amazing at tech, if you can, go for management consulting. Yes I might be biased, but let’s focus on the aspect of each: one leans more on one aspect of business, and other on the entire business.

With tech, you can make six figures fresh out of college

Tech guys can easily make six figures right after graduation, because, well, it’s tech! So you want to make 150, 200 just fresh out of school? Go tech!

With consulting, you have the potential to make millions in the long run

But I’ll ask you this, what does a company, say even a tech company do to make money? BUSINESS . Everything it does serves one purpose, to sell a product or service and make money from that. No matter what type of company, BUSINESS is always the core.

What management consulting will teach you is to look at the big picture, how the entire business works to make a profit, how to improve on what’s already there, how to solve upper-level problems, not just narrowing down to a simple cog of a whole machine.

Let’s say you go with the tech path, you make big bucks right out of school, but that’s probably it. Tech’s all you know, but you’re quite good at it. As time goes by, your development, and your money seem to plateau, because you can’t quite get higher up. You’re limited to just one aspect of the entire business.

But now, you go with the consulting path, you make less than tech guys at first (still good money), but with what you’ve learnt in business and management, you hop to upper-level management levels for another firm (COO, CTO, even CEO isn’t out of the question), or, you build your own tech firm. You become the boss of the tech kids.

I’d say the money from tech vs consulting looks something like this. Tech gives you the boost right from the start, but consulting gives you the momentum later in your career.

You can say some tech guys like Bill Gates or Zuck made billions, but as I said, their core was BUSINESS. You won’t make billions simply by writing some codes or making some phones. There’s a lot more to it, and that’s exactly what consulting will teach you.

And hey, you know that guy from Google? Sundar Pichai? Yeah, he began in engineering, but transitioned to consulting. From McKinsey to Google CEO. That’s a real brag. I’d doubt he’d get anywhere as big just staying in engineering.

So your choice, go big now, or go real big later. 

Scoring in the McKinsey PSG/Digital Assessment

The scoring mechanism in the McKinsey Digital Assessment

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Case interview is the last round of ZS Associates hiring process with 3 stages: online application, aptitude tests + video interview & 2 parts of case interview

A case interview is where candidates is asked to solve a business problem. They are used by consulting firms to evaluate problem-solving skill & soft skills

Accenture case interview (questions, process, prep)

Accenture interviews are pretty challenging compared to regular interviews at large corporations. The questions are difficult and the interview format is specific to Accenture.

But the good news is that, with the right preparation, it can actually become relatively straightforward to succeed at an Accenture interview. We've put together this ultimate guide to maximise your chances of success.

Here's an overview of what we'll cover.

• Accenture overview
• Accenture interview process
• Accenture case interviews
• Accenture Potentia interview
• Accenture Fit / PEI interviews
• How to prepare

Click here to practise 1-on-1 with Accenture ex-interviewers

1. accenture overview.

Accenture is a consulting giant, with more than 500,000 employees across 120 countries.  It can roughly be broken into three parts; management consulting, IT consulting, and what is often called 'Back office', which includes accounting services, sales, customer support, etc.

This interview guide is for candidates applying for management consulting roles at Accenture (if you're applying for another tech role, such as software engineering, we recommend you use the prep articles on our engineering blog ).

Management consulting is further divided into three groups:

1) Accenture Strategy (focused on strategy,competes with McKinsey , BCG , etc) 2) Operations (focused on implementation of business initiatives) 3) Digital (focused on implementation of digital business initiatives)

Next, let's outline the different stages of your interview process with Accenture.

2. Accenture interview process

The exact Accenture interview process will depend on which of the management consulting areas you're applying for, but generally there are three of four stages:

• Resume and cover letter screening
• First round of interviews
• Second round of interviews
• Accenture Potentia (Strategy roles only)

2.1 Resume and cover letter screening

First, recruiters will look at your resume and assess if your experience matches the open position. This is the most competitive step in the process—we’ve found that 90% of candidates don’t make it past this stage.

You can use  this free resume guide  and this  free cover letter guide  to help tailor your application to the position you’re targeting. 

And if you’re looking for expert feedback, you can also get input from our  team of  ex-MBB recruiters and interviewers , who will  cover what achievements to focus on (or ignore), how to fine tune your bullet points, and more.

2.2 Interview rounds

After sending your resume and cover letter you should prepare yourself for two to three rounds of interviews with Accenture Consultants, Managers and Managing Directors (equivalent to partner).

As a general rule of thumb, your interviewers will be more and more senior as you progress through the different rounds. Your last interview will generally be with a Senior Managing Director (equivalent to Senior Partner) who will make a final decision on whether the firm should give you an offer or not.

During each round you can expect between one and three interviews which are usually a mix of fit / behavioural questions (e.g. Why consulting? ) as well as case interview questions.

If you are applying for Accenture Strategy, one of your interviews will be a 1-hour assessment called the Potentia Interview. We'll go into more detail on that in section 4 below.

3. Accenture case interviews

Accenture uses candidate-led case interviews similar to  BCG  and  Bain . As the candidate, this means that you should be prepared to lead the conversation and suggest next steps for how to analyse and solve the case.

Accenture divides its case interviews into three types.

1. "The Great Unknown" questions

Don't be confused by the name, these are your typical case interview questions used by all consulting companies. You'll receive one or two sentences with a case problem. You'll need to ask the right questions to establish further facts and construct a solution.

Example: " The client, a leading manufacturer of prefabricated kitchen furnishings, has been steadily losing market share over the last two years. The senior executive team would like you to help them understand why and what they can do to improve their market standing ."

To prepare for these types of questions, use our case case interview prep guide.

2. "Parade of facts" questions

These case problems are a little bit different to the usual ones.. You will be given a deluge of facts in the case description, and one of your key tasks is determining which facts are relevant to the client’s business problem.

Accenture doesn't use these questions as often as the others, but you'll still need to prepare properly.

2. "Back of the envelope" questions.

These are typical market sizing questions, such as "Estimate the total number of dry cleaners in Philadelphia."

Accenture uses these a lot and you should be well prepared. Use our market sizing questions guide to learn how best to answer these, and then use our market sizing questions article to practise with.

4. Accenture Potentia interview

As we mentioned above, if you're an Accenture Strategy candidate, you'll face a 1-hour "Potentia" interview. You will be given a short paragraph of text about a broad business topic (e.g. how to manage intellectual property in the age of Chat GPT). You will then have 5 minutes to analyse the text and the question it raises.

After this, you will need to present your initial thoughts to your interviewer and they will then follow up with a series of questions. The whole interview will last 45-60 minutes and should feel like a conversation. Its main objective is to test your creativity and it therefore won't involve any calculations.

As we have previously mentioned, creativity questions are frequent in case interviews . This type of question can be a little tricky to answer. The most common mistake candidates make with creativity questions (and the Potentia Interview) is to brainstorm ideas in an unstructured way. Jumping from one idea to another without any overarching structure makes it really hard for your interviewer to follow your thoughts.

Instead, we suggest that you use the following two-step approach to impress your interviewer:

• Use a framework. At the beginning of your Potentia Interview, you should lay out a high-level framework to structure the different types of ideas you have to answer the question you are asked.
• Brainstorm within each branch. Once you have established a framework, you can then brainstorm ideas within each branch of your framework. As a rule of thumb, you should aim to generate 2 to 5 ideas per branch.

Using a framework and brainstorming within branches will go a long way in ensuring you do well at your Potentia Interview. But, it’s also helpful to think about how your interviewer will assess your answers. In short, they will look at two criteria:

• Range of thought. You interviewer wants you to demonstrate that you can generate a broad range of ideas. You can achieve this by both going wide in your framework (e.g. having 4 or 5 branches). But also by going deep in each branch (e.g. having 4 or 5 ideas per branch).
• Practicality. Your interviewer will also assess how practical your ideas are.  In practice, that means you should aim to have a mix of ambitious long-term ideas but also shorter-term ones which you feel can be implemented relatively easily.

5. Accenture Fit / PEI interviews

You can expect to face typical fit or "personal experience" questions at the end or beginning of each Accenture case interview:

Top 5 Accenture fit questions:

• Why Accenture?
• Why consulting?
• Walk me through your resume
• Tell me about something not on your resume
• Tell me about your greatest accomplishment

Top 5 PEI questions. Tell me about a time when ...

• You led a team through a difficult situation
• You worked in a team and had to manage a conflict
• You had a disagreement with a colleague / boss
• You had to change someone's / a group's mind
• You overcame a really difficult challenge

Don't fall into the trap of under-preparing for these types of questions. While they may seem easier than the case interviews, they are extremely important to get right.

You’ll need to prepare several ”stories” or “examples” from your personal and professional experience to demonstrate that you have the traits that Accenture is looking for.

To learn more, check out our guide to consulting fit / PEI questions .

6. How to prepare for your Accenture case interviews

Now you've seen the different types of questions in the Accenture interview process, let's look at the steps you need to take to make sure you ace your Accenture interview.

6.1 Learn the case interview essentials

For your case interviews, Accenture provide a very useful case workbook which you should definitely read though as part of your preparation.

However, while the workbook is a great starting point, you'll need to use much more detailed prep materials. For example, it lists 5 key frameworks that you'll need to be very familiar with, but we recommend you learn seven and combine them to create your own.

A great starting point for your case interview prep is our case interview prep guide . You can also watch the example video below. Although the video is labeled for BCG and Bain, the interviews you will come across at Accenture will be similar.

6.2 Become really confident at maths

You don't have to have a perfect GPA or GMAT score to succeed at case interview maths. However, during your Accenture  interviews, you will be expected to quickly perform accurate mental maths. 

In order to do this, it’s essential to know the formulas for common metrics, like return on investment or breakeven point. And it’s also helpful to know a few maths shortcuts to help you solve problems more quickly. To learn more about these topics, check out our free guide to case interview maths . 

In our experience, the most successful applicants start their interview preparation by practising maths skills, so make sure you prioritise this step. 

6.3 Research the company

Accenture interviewers want to hire candidates who are deeply motivated to work for their firm. Make sure you're up to date in the latest developments in the area of the company you're applying to join. Here are some useful links to get you started:

• Accenture Strategy page
• Accenture YouTube channel
• Accenture Insights blog

In addition, do some networking so that you can show you've made the effort to reach out to current staff.

6.4 Practise cases out loud

How you solve each case is important, but your interviewers will also be evaluating how you COMMUNICATE your answers. It's important to speak in a structured way that makes it easy to clearly understand your points.

The best way to hone your communication skills is to practise interviewing out loud.

To help you with this process, here is a  broad  list   of consulting interview questions  you can practise with.  Practising by yourself is a great way to get started, and can help you get more comfortable with the flow of a case interview. However, this type of practice won’t prepare you for realistic interview conditions. 

After getting some practice on your own, you should find someone who can do a mock interview with you. You can ask a friend or family member to help you.

We’d also recommend that you practise with ex-interviewers from Accenture . This is the best way to replicate the conditions of a real interview, and to get feedback from someone who really understands what the interviewers will be looking for.

Meet our Accenture ex-interviewers who’d love to work with you.

Related articles:

How to prepare for Accenture Strategy Business Case Study?

How to prepare for Accenture Strategy Business Case Study?  It is very different from the normal consulting case.

Prepare the same way you would any other consulting interview!

The most important thing here is  narrowing down the noise.  There is a lot of content flying around, and you need to work hard to focus on what's important (much like when solving a case).

I recommend the following:

1)  An initial planning session with a coach:  1 hour with a coach now  will have a productivity multiplier effect on all your efforts moving forward . They will figure out what materials are best for you, guide you towards the best ways to learn, and come up with a preparation plan with you.

2)  Leverage free resources first:  PrepLounge Q&A and case library, Poets and Quants, SpencerTom, Google, etc.).  Leverage these options, read-up, and over time you'll get a feel for what you really need and where you really need to invest your hard-earned $

3)  Case with other PrepLoungers : Casing with other PrepLoungers is free. Not only do you get to practice casing, but you get direct feedback. Additionally, you  learn a lot just from casing others . Finally, from other PrepLoungers  you'll learn which materials/coaches are helpful.

In summary, while free options don't beat paid options, you can use them for a while to get a feel for what works for you.  Have an initial coaching session to get you on the right track, then go the paid route when it's clear either 1) You are stuck or 2) It's clear the paid route will improve your productivity/progress

No need to panick! The road is long but not complicated -however, also consider, if you believe you don´t have enaugh time to get up to speed, to postpone the interviews. I did it myself, and it has no had consequences.

In any case, you have 2 main workstreams ahead for your Accenture interview: 

1. FIT INTERVIEW

The "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

You can see plenty of reviews from candidates who purchased it already.

Furthermore, you can find 2 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation:

Intro and CV questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/introduction-and-cv-questions-fit-interview-preparation-200

Motivational questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/motivational-questions-fit-interview-preparation-201

Behavioural questions (ENTREPRENEURIAL DRIVE) >https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/behavioral-questions-entrepreneurial-drive-fit-interview-preparation-211

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes, since we still have some left from the launch! :)

2. BUSINESS CASE

You don´t have any more time to the classics of Viktor Cheng, "Case in point" book, etc. You need to get hands on asap:

1. Practice cases with partners asap, as many as you can do.Find experienced partners who can provide a good feedback

2. Practice your math skills, both in your cases and with ad hoc exercisess, such as:

1. ​Multiplying double digit numbers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ndkkPZYJHo

2. Leveraging math tools (Mimir math for iOS), Math tool on Viktor Cheng website to practice

1. Profitability cases- basic profitability framework.

2. Idea generation cases: for any specif issue

3. Growth cases: market penetration, new product launch, product mix change, etc.

4. Pricing cases

5. M&A cases

6. Valuation cases

7. Value chain cases

Given you are under this much time contraint, consider working with a coach to foster speed and ensure you have a tailored plan to be very targeted. PM me interested!

Hope it helps!

In general the interviews at Accenture are not that structured:

• No clear guidelines for cases, so the case depends on the interviewer
• 60% chance that it will be marketsizing
• 40% chance - profitability and general frameworks
• Interviewers are less demanding than at Big3. unless you meet an ex-big3 consultant as an interviewer
• For fit I would prepare: Story about yourself; Why consulting; Why Accenture; Leadership; Team work; Your questions to the interviewer

In your specific case, I would also expect some short valuation cases (like doing a very simplified valuation on paper.

Basically it's the same way for preparing. 

According to the type and topic of the case it might slightly depends on geography. 

If you have any further questions or advice, feel free to reach out. 

Best, André

No. Practice the candidate-led interviews as for MBB cases and you should be good.

Cases are quite similar to the standard ones. Depending on the office, you may find more market sizing compared to MBB.

In terms of how to prepare for consulting interviews, you can find some tips here:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-first-round-in-1-week-5092

It is similar to a typical case study that MBBs offer.

Hey there, happy to help. Please feel free to send me a direct message and we can organise an intro chat to get you going. Let me know which level (consultant/manager)?!

I led Accenture's Supply Chain and Operations consulting practice in UK, and also recruited for CFO&EV for transformation projects.

Hi, the interview will be structured in 3 parts: - Personal Experience Interview: fit and CV questions to assess your personal impact, leadership skills, and entrepreneurial spirit - Case Interview: typical business case to evaluate your structure in approaching problems, problem-solving skills, and business sense - Your final questions to the interviewers

Feel free to text me for some tips about the preparation. I have supported hundreds of candidates in crafting impactful stories and structuring business cases.

Hope it helps, Antonello

My understanding is the format is standard interviewee-led case, as with BCG, Bain... Many companies have differences by office however, might be the case w/ Accenture as well.

Deep breaths! There's a lot of information but you'll get through it :)

Hi there! I hope the following tips will be useful for you:

• Imagine that you are playing a solving case role game. Consider the interviewer your client, ask good clarifying questions to define the final structure and drive the case confidently.

My main recommendation for the FIT part is to follow the STAR structure and try to follow the top-down approach. Just remember that in every FIT story you have to be structured, and try not to speak more than 3 mins. This is psychological tips, that it becomes difficult to listen to person who speaks longer. So try to put your main thoughts in this time, and be prepared that you can be followed with the follow-up questions.

• Take your time to prepare well to feel confident. I would also recommend thinking of having a few sessions with an experienced coach to exclude any chance of failure. Simulation of the case interview is the best type of preparation for it.

Do you need any further help?

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Accenture Case Study Round

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I have a case study interview with Accenture Strategy coming up, and was hoping someone might be able to provide some insights into the case studies? Along with difficulty etc. Would also be grateful if someone could point me towards relevant practice case studies

Not exactly the same thing, but I interviewed with Accenture Consulting for the sophomore program. The case was a lot different than I expected because they just gave me this one pager to read and then asked me about my thoughts after - no back and forth like you’d expect from MBB . There were some follow up questions after, but overall the flow felt off for me at least.

Thanks a lot for this. Were there any quantitative questions and data that you needed too incorporate?

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Filling the mentorship gap

Sky’s the Limit supports underrepresented entrepreneurs

2-MINUTE READ

Launching business dreams

Every entrepreneur starts their journey with a dream. Imagine a young person who wants to be the next great tech founder, restaurateur, or fashion designer. They have a vision and the beginnings of a business plan, but perhaps no sense of the road ahead.

For too many entrepreneurs, the story stops here. It’s difficult to find the proper guidance on starting your first business. 20% of new small businesses fail [1] , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is especially true in historically underrepresented communities. For example, 80% of Black-owned businesses fail in the first 18 months [2] , and 55% of Black business owners want to receive more mentorship, according to a study by Intuit [3] .

Sky’s the Limit is a nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs unlock the full power of social capital, skilled mentoring and business funding to fuel their business dreams. They turned to Accenture to help them scale their support for the communities and aspiring business owners who can’t readily access business mentorship.

Accenture helped Sky’s the Limit build a digital platform that allows entrepreneurs to promote their business ideas, find mentorship, and potentially secure funding. Accenture also tapped into its 750,000 people globally to recruit mentors, and now over 3,200 Accenture employees volunteer their time and support for business owners through Sky’s the Limit to support racial equality and opportunity for entrepreneurs from underprivileged backgrounds.

Lasting mentorship

Sky’s the Limit partnered with Accenture to expand its support for communities and entrepreneurs across North America. To achieve its ambitions for growth, Sky’s the Limit built a new platform that would extend its offering to new audiences.

The heart of the platform is the mentor-matching feature. Mentors and mentees can search through their prospective partners and contact those who best match their needs, expertise and interests. A budding sports entrepreneur, for example, can reach out to someone who works with corresponding experience at Accenture. Entrepreneurs form lasting relationships with their mentors throughout their business journey, from their first idea to their first hire and beyond.

The partnership has led to successful growth. Sky’s the Limit has expanded to Canada and the UK and has seen organic growth in the Caribbean, South Africa, and India. Today, Sky’s the Limit serves over 70,000 entrepreneurs. Prospective users typically encounter the program through a digital ad, then simply sign up and create a profile. Once they’re approved on the platform, entrepreneurs can access a wide range of resources to help them structure their business plans, including the opportunity to apply and compete for $2,500 start-up grants toward their business.

Impact where it counts

I am eternally thankful for how easy Sky’s the Limit makes it to find mentors. They speak to you like you are a serious business person. I did not know how much I was lacking that sense of legitimacy until I found it here.

Keiarra Ortiz-Cedeno / founder of Ever Arable and a former Sky’s the Limit mentee

Ortiz-Cedeno’s experience is just one example of the entrepreneurial dreams made possible by Sky’s the Limit. In collaboration with Accenture, the program has extended access and opportunity to over 70,000 aspiring business owners.

That rapid growth isn’t the only fact worth celebrating.

Of all entrepreneurs on the platform:

identify as women

identify as Black

report low income

identify as people of color

No matter their vision, our partnership is committed to offering the platform and mentorship to the extraordinary, undiscovered business leaders who wouldn’t otherwise get a chance. True to its name, Sky’s the Limit is elevating the next generation of entrepreneurs to reach their fullest potential, fostering equitable economic opportunity and helping people realize their dreams.

Accenture is committed to driving social impact in our communities.

1 Source: Georgia McIntyre , “What Percentage of Small Businesses Fail? (And Other Need-to-Know Stats),” Fundera, November 20, 2020

2 Source: Dymond Green, “Why Black-owned businesses are struggling to stay afloat,” CNBC, February 3, 2021

3 Source: Jamerlyn Brown, “Black History Month survey: Legacy and community prevail against social and economic inequalities,” Inuit Quickbooks, February 1, 2023