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Oliver Wyman Case Interview Examples: A Worked Practice Case

Oliver Wyman cases are candidate-led, heavily quantitative, and often rooted in financial services. Work through a full Oliver Wyman-style insurance 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 16 min read

Candidate-ledYou drive the case

2 roundsTypical for entry-level roles

Quant-heavyMath has to be automatic

Written casePossible in the final round

Start the practice case Read the Oliver Wyman interview guide

Format

What makes Oliver Wyman cases different

Oliver Wyman is known for deep industry expertise, especially in financial services, and its cases are often more numbers-heavy than MBB cases. You lead the case, and interviewers give less structure than you might expect from Bain or BCG.

The math has to be automatic

Oliver Wyman cases stack calculations quickly, and you are expected to handle them without losing the thread of the case. Fast, accurate math frees you to focus on what the numbers mean.

Less hand-holding

With less structure from the interviewer, you need to decide what to analyze next and say why. Keep checking your progress against the client's question.

Industry depth helps

Financial services is the firm's largest practice, so banking and insurance cases are common. Knowing how an insurer or bank makes money gives you a real head start.

Oliver Wyman publishes its own practice cases on its interview preparation page, including Supermarket Pharmacy, Dairy Farm, and Poseidon Water Park. Work through those alongside the case below.

Case types

Case types Oliver Wyman candidates report

These five themes cover most Oliver Wyman cases. Each example prompt below is an original Oliver Wyman-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 regional bank's credit card business has become unprofitable. Why?
How to structure it: Split profit into interest and fee income, credit losses, funding cost, and operating cost, then compare by customer segment.
Math to expect: Revenue and loss per account, loss rates, and segment profit.

Practice case

Worked practice case: Shieldline Insurance

This is an original case written in the style Oliver Wyman candidates describe: a financial services problem, a segment exhibit, two rounds of pricing math, and a recommendation built on the numbers. 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.

Financial servicesInsuranceAbout 25 minutes

Shieldline Insurance: why is it losing money?

Your client is Shieldline, a US auto insurer with 1 million policies. For the past two years it has paid out more in claims and expenses than it collects in premiums. The CEO has asked Oliver Wyman to find out why and to recommend how to return to profit. How would you approach this?

If you ask clarifying questions, the interviewer shares:

Shieldline sells directly to customers online and by phone.
Its total premiums and claims have both grown over two years.
Competitors in its states are profitable.

0 of 6 steps revealed

Structure the problem

Take about 2 minutes

Interviewer: How would you structure this?
An insurer makes money when premiums cover claims and expenses. I would break the problem into those three parts, by customer segment:
- Premiums: price per policy, number of policies, and mix of customers.
- Claims: how often customers claim and how much each claim costs.
- Expenses: the cost of selling and administering each policy.
Since competitors are profitable, my hypothesis is that Shieldline is mispricing a specific segment rather than facing a market-wide problem.

Why it works: it uses the insurer's own profit formula and turns the clarifying fact about competitors into a sharp hypothesis.
Read the segment exhibit

Take about 3 minutes

Interviewer: Here is Shieldline's data by driver age. Which segment is losing money, and how much does it lose each year?

Exhibit 1: Shieldline policies by driver age

Segment Policies Premium per policy Claims cost per policy

Under 25 200,000 $2,000 $2,600

25 to 60 600,000 $1,200 $840

Over 60 200,000 $1,000 $800

Expenses are $300 per policy in every segment. Illustrative data for practice.

Annual loss on under-25 drivers ($M)
Profit per policy is premium minus claims minus $300 in expenses:
- Under 25: $2,000 minus $2,600 minus $300 is a loss of $900 per policy. Across 200,000 policies, that is a $180M loss.
- 25 to 60: a $60 profit per policy, or $36M in total.
- Over 60: a $100 loss per policy, or $20M in total.
Overall, Shieldline loses about $164M a year, and young drivers account for more than all of it. Their claims alone cost 30% more than their premiums.

Calculating profit per policy for every segment, then scaling up, is exactly the disciplined math Oliver Wyman interviewers want to see.
Test a price increase

Take about 3 minutes

Interviewer: Shieldline could raise under-25 premiums by 20%, to $2,400. It expects 15% of young drivers to leave. Assuming claims per remaining policy stay the same, what would the segment lose?

Annual loss on under-25 drivers ($M)
Add telematics

Take about 4 minutes

Interviewer: Shieldline could offer young drivers a telematics device that tracks driving. Half would sign up, and their claims would be 30% lower. The device costs $50 a year per user. Keeping the $2,400 premium for everyone, what does the segment now lose?

Annual loss on under-25 drivers ($M)
Brainstorm other levers

Take about 2 minutes

Interviewer: Beyond pricing young drivers, what else could Shieldline do to improve profitability?
- Claims: use data to flag likely fraud, steer repairs to lower-cost partner garages, and settle simple claims faster to cut handling cost.
- Mix: spend more marketing on the profitable 25 to 60 segment, and review pricing for over-60 drivers.
- Expenses: push more sales and service online to bring the $300 per policy down.
- Risk transfer: buy reinsurance for the most volatile parts of the book while the fixes take effect.
Make the recommendation

Take about 1 minute

Interviewer: The CEO asks for your recommendation. What do you say?

Segment	Policies	Premium per policy	Claims cost per policy
Under 25	200,000	$2,000	$2,600
25 to 60	600,000	$1,200	$840
Over 60	200,000	$1,000	$800

Math

Oliver Wyman case math quick check

Oliver Wyman cases are more quantitative than most. Try these four without a calculator, and aim for under a minute each.

An insurer collects $500M in premiums, pays $380M in claims, and spends $140M on expenses. What is its combined ratio (claims plus expenses as a share of premiums)?

Combined ratio (%)

A credit card portfolio has $2B in balances and loses 3% to defaults each year. What are annual losses?

Losses ($M)

A theme park has 1.5 million visitors who spend $80 each on average. What is its revenue?

Revenue ($M)

A product's price rises 20% and volume falls 10%. By how much does revenue change?

Revenue change (%)

Other formats

Written case and conversational interviews

The written case

Some Oliver Wyman final rounds include a written case. You work alone through a set of charts and data, build a short presentation, and then discuss your conclusions with an interviewer. Much of the challenge is sorting through exhibits quickly, so practice finding the key number in each chart and deciding what matters for the recommendation.

Conversational interviews

Oliver Wyman also uses conversational interviews about your experience and motivation. The firm puts real weight on culture and personality, so be ready to talk naturally about what you have done, why consulting, and why Oliver Wyman in particular, ideally tied to an industry practice that interests you.

The exhibit drills are good preparation for the written case.

Prep plan

A two-week prep plan for a Oliver Wyman case

Days 1 to 3
Learn how banks and insurers make money, then practice structuring financial services cases. Start with the frameworks guide.
Days 4 to 6
Drill math every day until per-unit profit, percentages, and price-volume changes feel automatic.
Days 7 to 8
Practice market sizing, which often appears in the first round.
Days 9 to 11
Run full candidate-led cases with a partner, including Oliver Wyman's official practice cases. Redo Shieldline from memory and time yourself.
Days 12 to 14
Do one timed written case, prepare your conversational interview stories, and have a specific "Why Oliver Wyman?"

Keep preparing

Oliver Wyman interview guideRounds, formats, and what interviewers look for. Oliver Wyman application deadlinesDates and timeline for the next cycle. OC&C case examplesA worked commercial strategy case. Roland Berger case examplesA worked industrial strategy case.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Are Oliver Wyman case interviews candidate-led?

Yes. You are expected to drive the case from structure to recommendation, with less guidance from the interviewer than at many firms.

What kind of cases does Oliver Wyman give?

Profitability, market sizing, investment, and growth cases are common, and financial services cases appear often given the firm's largest practice.

Does Oliver Wyman publish practice cases?

Yes. Its interview preparation page has several official practice cases, including Supermarket Pharmacy, Dairy Farm, and Poseidon Water Park.

Does Oliver Wyman use a written case?

Some final rounds include a written case, where you analyze charts and data on your own and then discuss your conclusions.

How many rounds does Oliver Wyman run?

Most entry-level processes have two rounds, with two interviews in the first round and up to three in the final round.

Is the Shieldline Insurance case a real Oliver Wyman case?

No. It is an original practice case written to match the style Oliver Wyman candidates describe. All numbers are illustrative.

Sources

Oliver Wyman, Interview preparation. oliverwyman.com. Accessed October 2026.
Hacking the Case Interview, Oliver Wyman Case Interview: Step-By-Step Guide. hackingthecaseinterview.com. Accessed October 2026.
IGotAnOffer, Oliver Wyman Case Interview: Ultimate Guide. igotanoffer.com. Accessed October 2026.
MyConsultingOffer, The Oliver Wyman Case Interview. myconsultingoffer.org. Accessed October 2026.

Case Prep is an independent practice platform and is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Oliver Wyman. The Shieldline Insurance case, example prompts, and all data on this page are original teaching material.