The 4-Steps of

Distinctive Case
Maths

by Coach Cristian
About this guide
One of the questions I always receive from candidates is
how to best approach math-based questions in
management consulting interviews. This guide answers
precisely to this question and is meant to support
candidates in their recruiting journey.

In the pages that follow, you’ll find a breakdown of the 4-

step method I’ve developed, tested and refined with
hundreds of candidates. Its effectiveness has been
validated not only by the offers the candidates received,
but by direct feedback from the interviewers themselves.

I hope you will find it useful and that it will take your game
to the next level.
 Math-based problems are best broken
down into four steps
Step Description Rationale
When/If you receive an exhibit from the interviewer, Reading the exhibit upfront means you will have more
time to develop the calculations approach in your
01 Read take the opportunity to read it live with them. Read it,
do not interpret it. That means describing high-level ‘thinking time’. It will also help lower stress, reduce the
exhibit the information it contains (e.g., columns, rows, type of chances of making a mistake and give you an opportunity
chart) to ask clarifying questions to the interviewer

Take time to develop an approach for solving the Developing the ‘logic’ for the calculation separately from
Develop
02 approach
calculations end-to-end. Communicate it back to the
interviewer in structured steps without discussing the
actual calculations and numbers you will be computing
’doing’ the actual calculations makes it easier for the
candidate because it separates the two cognitive tasks
and lowers the probability of making mistakes

Run the Once the interviewer approves of your approach, take Once the approach is approved, the candidate can then
03 numbers
the time to do the calculations and sanity check them
on your own. Then share them with the interviewer
move to the computations, thus lowering significantly
the focus that is necessary to perform them correctly

When the interviewer confirms you reached the correct Interpretation is the most important consultant-like skill
Interpret
04 result
number, interpret the result, i.e., reflect on what the
final number means in relation to the client situation
and the mission of the case described in the prompt
that a candidate needs to display in the interview
Now let’s apply this on an example
Case: Digital Lab at LETA Bank – check full case on PrepLounge here

Prompt Exhibit
Let’s assume our client is LETA Bank, a large Central European bank with around 3M
customers and within the top five banks in the mid-sized European country where it is
operating. In a recent benchmarking exercise led by the European banking group that owns
Chart A: Personal Loan (PL)
the bank, LETA Bank appears to be underperforming relative to competitors in terms of its Sales, '000/month
personal loan sales. Our objective is to support LETA Bank in identifying the root cause of
its underperformance and to develop a strategy of addressing it. 70
60
The bank recently hired a new CTO who is excited about working with us and whose
50
hypothesis is that the bank is currently lagging behind in terms of its digital assets and
products, which makes it fall short of customer expectations, thus leading to lower sales 40
across its product groups and especially in its most popular lending product – the personal 30
loan.
20
Question: 10
What is the annual profitability increase that LETA Bank is likely to see if it manages to 0
develop and sell enough digital personal loans to match Bank 3 in terms of overall sales LETA Bank 4 Bank 3 Bank 2 Bank 1
volume? Bank
Assume that digital personal loans will cannibalize 10% of the current regular personal Regular PL Digital PL
loans. Also, assume that the profit margin of a regular personal loan is 5% and that of a
digital personal loan is 8 percentage points higher.
Step 1 – Read exhibit
Ideal case – step by step of what the candidate should do

• The candidate should thank the interviewer for providing the prompt and data, then play back the
information provided to ensure both the prompt and the question have been understood correctly.
• Tip! To ensure that the question is fully clear, the candidate could rephase it with their own words.
• Next, the candidate should read the exhibit (read, not interpret). Example: Allow me to briefly read the
exhibit. So what I see here is a bar chart showing our bank, as well as the other four banks who are within the
top five. The bars represent personal loan sales in terms of volume, measured as thousands of units per
month and then they are further broken down into regular personal loans and digital personal loans. Ok – I
believe the exhibit is clear to me. I’ll take a few seconds now to analyse it further and come up with an
approach for you question, if that is fine with you.
• Tip! This moment in the case is a great opportunity for the candidate to ask clarifying questions.
However, only ask clarifying questions if indeed something is unclear, not because you believe you are
expected to.
Step 2 – Develop approach
Ideal case – step by step of what the candidate should do

• After reading the exhibit and asking any clarifying questions, the candidate should take time to develop an approach for the
calculations.
• Tip! The candidate should only move to this step only if they have a clear understanding of the question being asked
• The candidate is expected to come up with several steps of how to reach the correct answer, but they are not expected to actually
discuss any numbers at this point.
• Tip! The candidate is not expected to answer calculation-based questions on the spot. Instead, they should take a few seconds to
structure their answer.
• Example: Thanks for the time. Basically, I’m thinking of this problem along three steps. First of all, I will want to calculate the profit that
comes from closing the gap between our current unit sales per month and those of Bank 3 and I will do that by multiplying the delta number
of units with the revenue per unit and the margin per loan. Second of all, I want to calculate the profit that comes from the cannibalization
effect by looking at the 10% that is being cannibalized and calculating the delta increase in the profit margin of switching from traditional to
digital loans. Lastly, I will sum up the two and this should provide us with the total number. Does this sound like a fair approach?
• The interviewer should hopefully agree at this point. If not, then ask whether there is a particular part of the approach they disagree
with. If they are not being collaborative, then the candidate should ask for additional time to review their approach and have another go
at it). However, if the interviewer agrees, then the candidate would ask for any additional data points they need – in this case the revenue
per loan (interviewer will tell them it is 500 EUR per loan)
• Tip! Notice how the candidate is using this step as an opportunity to ask for additional data. Never assume that you have all the data and
feel free to ask for additional data points (but only if you can argue why you need that information)
Step 3 – Run the numbers
Ideal case – step by step of what the candidate should do

• Once the interviewer agrees with the approach, the candidate can then focus on the actual calculations. The candidate should
ask again for time and do the calculations on their own according to the steps laid out in the approach.
• Tip! Once the candidate is finished, they should take a few additional seconds to sanity check their numbers
• Next, the candidate should get back to the interview and take them through the answer, step by step.
• Example:
Ø Step 1: Current personal loans sold by LETA Bank: 20,000 units / month. Current personal loans sold by Bank 3: 35,000 units /
month (25,000 regular + 10,000 digital). To close the gap, LETA Bank would need to sell an additional 35,000-20,000 = 15,000
digital personal loans.
Ø Step 2: Additionally, due to a cannibalization effect, 10% of the current personal loan sales are going to be converted into digital
personal loans. Regular personal loans converted into digital loans = 20,000 * 10% = 2,000 units / month.
Ø Step 3: The additional profit increase the bank will get is 15,000 digital personal loans * Revenue per loan * Margin per digital loan +
2,000 converted digital personal loans * Revenue per loan * Additional margin of digital loan = 15,000 * 500 * 13% + 2,000 * 500 *
8% = 1.05M / month. Annualized, this would mean 12.6M / year.
• Tip! Separating the logic of the calculations from the actual computations is in line with how consultants work in reality. As long
as the client helps co-develop the logic with the consultant, they will always agree with the answers since they are already
invested in how the problem is being solved. This approach replicates this dynamic during the actual interview.
Step 4 – Interpret results
Ideal case – step by step of what the candidate should do

• Once the interviewer confirms the number is correct, the critical next step for the candidate is to interpret
the number. This skill is especially important for those applying beyond the Business Analyst role. It basically
consists of contextualising the number with the wider case format, i.e., what does this number tell us
considering everything that we know about the client context and the mission that we are serving the client
for? What are some of the potential hypotheses and recommendations that we could develop?
• Example: This is overall a ~13M EUR increase in yearly profits, which comes as a consequence of satisfying
the appetite for digital personal loans within the current customer base as well as through attracting additional
customers. Further considerations should take into account the duration to ramp up to this target as well as
some of the associated costs.
• Tip! Your job as a candidate is done on a calculation question only after the interpretation has been
finished, not when you reach the correct answer.
Now you know the 4-steps of distinctive
case maths. Good luck!
I know the recruitment process for top
consulting firms is a difficult experience for
any candidate. I felt it myself as a candidate,
then re-lived it many as a coach supporting
others.

However, if there is one certainty, it’s that

more preparation ALWAYS leads to better
chances of securing an offer. And that is
totally within YOUR control.

So don’t hesitate to give it all you’ve got and

do reach out when you feel you require expert
support to get you past the mark.
Coach Cristian Leata