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Alvarez & Marsal Case Interview Examples: A Worked Practice Case

Alvarez & Marsal cases are built around turnarounds: cash, costs, and companies under pressure. Work through a full A&M-style liquidity case step by step, check your math as you go, and compare your answers to a model response.

By the Case Prep Team Updated October 1, 2026 15 min read

Candidate-ledYou are expected to drive

2 to 3 roundsTypical for entry-level roles

Cash firstTurnaround and liquidity themes

Varies by groupRestructuring, PEPI, TAG, and more

Start the practice case Read the A&M interview guide

Format

What makes A&M cases different

Alvarez & Marsal is best known for turnaround and restructuring work, helping companies that are underperforming, distressed, or owned by private equity. It is not a classic strategy firm, and its cases feel different: the question is often how to keep a company alive and fix it, not where it should grow next.

Cash comes before strategy

In a turnaround, the first question is how long the money lasts. Expect weekly cash flow, liquidity, and working capital math, and lead with the most urgent problem.

Think like an operator

A&M interviewers want practical fixes a team could start on Monday: which costs to cut, which stores to close, which suppliers to call. Abstract frameworks score poorly.

Your practice group shapes the case

Cases vary by group. Restructuring cases focus on liquidity, PEPI cases on improving private equity portfolio companies, and transaction advisory roles may bring more accounting and financial questions.

A&M's turnaround focus means its cases overlap with private equity and operations work at other firms. For more deal and operations practice, see the EY-Parthenon and Kearney case examples.

Case types

Case types A&M candidates report

These five themes cover most A&M cases. Each example prompt below is an original A&M-style prompt, not a real interview question. Pick a tab to see how you would structure it and what math to expect.

Example prompt: A restaurant chain will run out of cash in ten weeks. What should it do first?
How to structure it: Build a weekly cash view, then sort levers by speed: stop the bleeding (spending, payables, inventory), raise cash (asset sales, financing), and fix the underlying business.
Math to expect: Weekly cash burn, runway in weeks, and cash freed by each lever.

Practice case

Worked practice case: Summit Outdoor

This is an original turnaround case written in the style A&M candidates describe: a weekly cash flow exhibit, liquidity math, quick cash levers, and a stakeholder plan. In a live interview you would drive the structure yourself. Here, each step shows the question an interviewer would likely ask next.

Answer each step out loud or on paper before you reveal the model answer. The suggested times match a strong candidate's pace.

TurnaroundRetailAbout 25 minutes

Summit Outdoor: how long can it survive?

Your client is Summit Outdoor, a sporting goods retailer with 120 stores. Sales have fallen for two years, and the company is now burning cash every week. It has $18 million in the bank and is close to breaking the terms of its bank loan. The board has brought in A&M to stabilize the business. What would you do first?

If you ask clarifying questions, the interviewer shares:

Summit holds $40M of inventory, and about 20% of it is slow-moving.
The bank has not yet called the loan but is watching closely.
About 30 stores lose money every month.

0 of 6 steps revealed

Structure the problem

Take about 2 minutes

Interviewer: How would you approach this?
In a turnaround, survival comes first, so I would work in three time frames:
- The next 13 weeks: how long the cash lasts, and which levers raise or save cash fastest.
- The next 6 to 12 months: fixing the business itself, including money-losing stores, excess inventory, and costs.
- Stakeholders throughout: keeping the bank, suppliers, landlords, and employees on side while the plan takes hold.
Why it works: it puts cash first and organizes everything by urgency. That is exactly how A&M approaches a real turnaround.
Read the cash flow exhibit

Take about 3 minutes

Interviewer: Here is Summit's typical weekly cash flow. How many weeks of cash does Summit have left?

Exhibit 1: Summit Outdoor weekly cash flow ($M)

Item Per week

Cash in from sales 6.0

Payroll -2.5

Inventory purchases -3.2

Rent -1.0

Other operating costs -0.8

Net cash flow -1.5

Starting cash: $18M. Illustrative data for practice.

Weeks of cash
Pull the fastest lever

Take about 3 minutes

Interviewer: If Summit cuts inventory purchases by 25% starting now, how many weeks of cash would it have?

Weeks of cash
Turn inventory into cash

Take about 2 minutes

Interviewer: Summit could sell its slow-moving inventory, 20% of the $40M, through liquidators at 60% of cost. How much cash would that raise?

Cash raised ($M)
Manage the stakeholders

Take about 3 minutes

Interviewer: Who do you need to talk to in the next two weeks, and what do you ask for?
- The bank: share a 13-week cash forecast and the plan, and ask for a temporary waiver on the loan terms. Lenders support plans they can see and track.
- Suppliers: ask key suppliers for longer payment terms, but carefully. Pushing too hard can lead them to stop shipping, which would make things worse.
- Landlords: negotiate rent reductions or early exits on the 30 money-losing stores.
- Employees: communicate clearly with store and head office teams, and keep the people most critical to the turnaround.
A&M work is as much about managing people under pressure as about the numbers. Flagging the risk of pushing suppliers too far shows real judgment.
Make the recommendation

Take about 1 minute

Interviewer: The board asks for your plan. What do you tell them?

Item	Per week
Cash in from sales	6.0
Payroll	-2.5
Inventory purchases	-3.2
Rent	-1.0
Other operating costs	-0.8
Net cash flow	-1.5

Math

A&M case math quick check

A&M math centers on cash: burn rates, runway, working capital, and margins. Try these four without a calculator, and aim for under a minute each.

A company has $9M in cash and burns $0.6M a week. How many weeks of cash does it have?

Weeks

A retailer's cost of goods sold is $120M a year, and it holds $30M of inventory. How many times a year does inventory turn over?

Turns per year

A company spends $2M a week on supplier purchases. If it pays suppliers three weeks later than it does today, how much cash does that free up one time?

Cash freed ($M)

Revenue is $200M, and EBITDA margin rises from 8% to 11%. How much does EBITDA increase?

EBITDA increase ($M)

Practice groups

How cases differ by practice group

A&M hires into specific groups, and the interview reflects the work each one does. Ask your recruiter which group you are interviewing for and prepare accordingly.

Restructuring: distressed companies. Expect liquidity, cash flow, and stakeholder questions like the case above.
Private Equity Performance Improvement (PEPI): improving companies owned by private equity funds. Expect EBITDA improvement and operational cases.
Transaction Advisory (TAG): financial due diligence for deals. Expect more accounting and financial statement questions alongside or instead of a classic case.
Industry groups, such as Consumer and Retail: operational cases grounded in the specific industry.

Across all groups, interviewers want resilience and comfort with pressure, since A&M teams often work inside companies in crisis. Prepare a story about delivering under real pressure, and a specific answer to why turnaround work appeals to you.

Prep plan

A two-week prep plan for a A&M case

Days 1 to 3
Learn the basics of turnarounds: cash burn, runway, working capital, and the main levers to raise cash quickly.
Days 4 to 6
Drill math daily, especially weekly cash flows, inventory turns, and margin changes.
Days 7 to 8
Practice structuring cases by urgency rather than by framework. Start with the frameworks guide, then adapt it.
Days 9 to 11
Run full candidate-led cases with a partner, including at least two turnaround or PE cases. Redo Summit Outdoor from memory and time yourself.
Days 12 to 14
Prepare for your practice group's technical questions, your pressure story, and a specific "Why A&M?"

Keep preparing

A&M interview guideThe process round by round, by practice group. A&M salariesPay by level, compared with MBB. EY-Parthenon case examplesA worked private equity diligence case. Kearney case examplesA worked operations and cost case.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Are A&M case interviews candidate-led?

Yes, generally. You are expected to set the structure, ask for data, and drive toward a recommendation.

What kind of cases does A&M give?

Turnaround, liquidity, cost reduction, private equity performance improvement, and due diligence cases are all common, depending on the practice group.

Do I need finance knowledge for A&M interviews?

You should understand cash flow, working capital, and EBITDA. Transaction advisory roles may also ask accounting and financial statement questions.

How is A&M different from strategy firms?

A&M focuses on turnarounds, restructuring, and performance improvement rather than corporate strategy. Its cases favor practical, cash-focused answers over broad strategic frameworks.

How many rounds does A&M run?

Most entry-level processes have two to three rounds, each mixing a case with behavioral questions.

Is the Summit Outdoor case a real A&M case?

No. It is an original practice case written to match the style A&M candidates describe. All numbers are illustrative.

Sources

Hacking the Case Interview, Alvarez & Marsal Case Interview: The Ultimate Guide. hackingthecaseinterview.com. Accessed October 2026.
Road to Offer, Alvarez & Marsal Case Interview guide. roadtooffer.com. Accessed October 2026.
Casebasix, Alvarez & Marsal Case Interview. casebasix.com. Accessed October 2026.

Case Prep is an independent practice platform and is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Alvarez & Marsal. The Summit Outdoor case, example prompts, and all data on this page are original teaching material.