Behavioral Interview

Across official materials and candidate feedback, PwC emphasizes collaboration, integrity, client service mindset, adaptability, ownership, and practical problem solving. Interviewers are assessing whether you are someone they would feel comfortable staffing on a client project, working with senior stakeholders, and trusting to deliver high-quality work under real-world constraints. Compared to pure strategy firms, PwC places more weight on professionalism, reliability, and execution.

How to answer for PwC:

Simple frameworks work best. STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and CAR (Context, Action, Result) are both effective. For PwC, CAR often keeps answers tighter and more outcome focused, which aligns well with the firm’s emphasis on delivery, client impact, and lessons learned.

Example outline 1: Working with multiple stakeholders

Prompt: “Tell me about a time you worked with different teams or stakeholders to deliver a project.”

• Context – Briefly describe the project, your role, who the stakeholders were, and why coordination or alignment was challenging.
• Action – Spend most of your answer explaining what you personally did: how you clarified expectations, communicated tradeoffs, managed priorities, and kept people aligned despite constraints.
• Result – Share the outcome in concrete terms, such as improved efficiency, meeting a deadline, or positive client or stakeholder feedback, and one specific learning about working in complex environments.

Example outline 2: Handling pressure or change

Prompt: “Tell me about a time you had to adapt to a sudden change or tight deadline.”

• Context – Explain what changed, why it mattered, and what was at risk if the situation was not handled well.
• Action – Walk through how you reassessed priorities, adjusted your approach, communicated with others, and stayed focused on execution.
• Result – Conclude with what was achieved and what the experience taught you about resilience, adaptability, or managing ambiguity in a consulting-style setting.

How to prepare your stories

Build a bank of seven to ten flexible stories that can be reused across questions. Make sure they cover leadership, teamwork, conflict, impact, failure, learning, and ownership. Tag each story with PwC-relevant themes such as collaboration, trust, client focus, and practical execution, then practice telling each story in two to three minutes using CAR or STAR and focusing on what you did and what changed as a result.

PwC Case Interview

PwC case interviews are typically interviewer-led or semi-structured and focus on applied business problems rather than abstract strategy. Cases often resemble real client scenarios involving operations, process improvement, technology enablement, risk management, or organizational change. The goal is to assess how you structure ambiguous problems, reason through tradeoffs, and turn analysis into realistic, implementable recommendations. Interviewers evaluate your ability to break down problems logically, perform basic quantitative analysis, interpret data, communicate clearly, and think about execution and next steps. Practical judgment and client readiness matter as much as pure analytical rigor.

Common industries: Expect a mix reflecting PwC’s client base, including financial services, healthcare and life sciences, consumer and retail, industrials, technology, energy, and public sector. Common case themes include cost reduction, operating model design, finance or risk transformation, digital enablement, and post-merger integration support.

Length: Single interviews are commonly around 45 to 60 minutes, with the case discussion taking roughly half of the time. Final round or assessment day formats may include two to three interviews back to back, sometimes with a group exercise or short presentation. Formats vary by office, practice, and role.

Interviewer or Candidate Led: PwC cases are usually interviewer-led. The interviewer guides you through specific questions, data points, or exhibits, but you are still expected to be structured, ask clarifying questions, and explain your thinking clearly. Being comfortable responding to prompts while maintaining a coherent overall structure is key.

Quants and Exhibits: Quantitative work typically involves straightforward but time-pressured math such as cost breakdowns, margin analysis, breakevens, utilization, or simple growth calculations. Exhibits may include tables, charts, process flows, or summary dashboards. Calculators are rarely allowed, so consistent practice with mental math and exhibit interpretation is important. Many candidates struggle not because the math is complex, but because speed and accuracy drop under interview pressure, which can distract from otherwise solid problem solving.

Tips to Prepare

Landing an offer at PwC is tough. But with the right preparation, you can dramatically increase your odds.

1. Case Library – Real PwC-style cases with guided answers and data exhibits.
2. Case Math Drills – Targeted quantitative practice modeled after PwC's difficulty.
3. Exhibit Analysis Drills – Learn to extract insights quickly from charts and data tables.
4. Brainstorming & Market Sizing Drills – Build structured creativity and estimation speed.
5. Networking Hub – Find partners to practice cases and behavioral questions with, globally.