Charles River Associates Case Interview: Format, Economic Cases, and Prep Guide (2026)

Charles River Associates conducts real case interviews—not just behavioral screens. The CRA case is a guided economics exercise that tests your ability to apply microeconomic reasoning to competition and financial disputes, often using methodology from actual CRA engagements.

If you've prepared exclusively for strategy consulting cases, you need a targeted recalibration for CRA. Here's the complete picture.

What CRA Actually Does

CRA's work divides into three main practice areas:

The case interview you'll receive almost certainly comes from one of these practice areas. Tailor your prep to the practice you're interviewing for.

Interview Process: Two Rounds

Round 1: Phone/Virtual Screen (~60 minutes)

Conducted by 1-2 analysts. Two sections:

Behavioral segment (20 minutes):

• Walk me through your resume / most analytical project
• Why economic consulting vs. strategy consulting?
• Why CRA specifically?
• Tell me about a time you worked with complex data

Case segment (40 minutes, 2 cases): Two short economic cases (15–20 minutes each). These are guided—the interviewer presents a scenario and walks you through 3–4 specific questions. You're expected to reason through each question out loud.

Round 2: Superday (~2 hours, plus dinner)

Night before: Dinner with 2 associates (informational, but you're still being evaluated for culture fit).

Day of:

• 3 behavioral interviews (30 minutes each)
• 1 writing sample (you may be given a brief article or data table and asked to summarize key findings)
• 1 case interview (30–45 minutes, more in-depth than Round 1 cases)
• Lunch with 1st-year analysts (conversational; culture fit evaluation)

What CRA Case Interviews Actually Look Like

The Guided Case Format

Unlike McKinsey or BCG where you structure the entire problem yourself, CRA cases are interviewer-led with specific questions:

"We're going to discuss a competition case. Our client is a pharmaceutical company facing an antitrust investigation. Question 1: How would you define the relevant market for this drug? Question 2: Given these market share figures (interviewer provides data), is this market concentrated? Question 3: What data would you need to estimate the price effect of the alleged anticompetitive conduct?"

You respond to each question with clear, structured economic reasoning.

Sample CRA Case: Airline Merger Analysis

Background: Two regional airlines want to merge. CRA has been hired by one airline's legal team to prepare an analysis for the DOJ merger review.

Q1: How do you define the relevant market?

Strong answer: The relevant market has both a product dimension and a geographic dimension. The product market is commercial air travel; we'd need to assess whether other modes of transport (rail, driving) are substitutes on these routes. The geographic market is likely route-specific—each city-pair is potentially its own market because passengers on a Boston–New York route aren't substitutes for passengers on a Boston–Chicago route.

Q2: Interviewer provides: Route A has HHI of 2,800 pre-merger; merger would increase HHI by 400 points. How do you interpret this?

Strong answer: An HHI above 2,500 indicates a highly concentrated market. DOJ merger guidelines flag increases above 200 points in highly concentrated markets as presumptively harmful. A 400-point increase in an already-concentrated market creates a strong presumption of competitive harm—this is likely to attract significant DOJ scrutiny and require either divestiture remedies or an efficiency argument.

Q3: What data would you need to estimate the price effect of the merger?

Strong answer: Four key data requirements:

1. Historical route-level pricing data (fare by route, before/after comparable mergers)
2. Demand elasticity estimates (how sensitive passengers are to price changes)
3. Diversion ratios (what % of passengers on merged routes would switch to each other's flights vs. driving/rail)
4. Cost data (to evaluate efficiency claims)

Economics Knowledge to Prepare

If you studied economics at the undergraduate or graduate level, most of this is review. If you're coming from finance or engineering, focus on the competition economics concepts—they show up in nearly every CRA case.

CRA vs. Analysis Group: Key Differences

See our Analysis Group case interview guide for the AG-specific approach.

Writing Sample Preparation

CRA's superday often includes a writing sample. You'll be given a brief document (news article, data table, or short report) and asked to summarize the key findings or provide a short analysis.

Tips:

• Lead with the headline finding, not context
• Use numbers precisely—don't say "revenues increased"; say "revenues increased 23% in Q3 2025"
• Be concise: 3–5 sentences is usually appropriate
• Identify 1–2 limitations or caveats in the data

This is directly analogous to what CRA consultants do when summarizing expert report findings for lawyers who need concise technical takeaways.

Preparation Plan

Checklist

Execution checklist

• Review microeconomics: market definition, HHI, elasticity, Nash equilibrium

  CRA case questions directly test these concepts—vocabulary matters

• Prepare 3 analytical research stories (STAR format with technical depth)

  Behavioral interviews focus heavily on your quantitative and analytical experience

• Practice explaining technical concepts in plain language

  CRA consultants regularly explain economic findings to lawyers and executives who aren't economists

• Read 2-3 CRA published economic analyses

  Understanding what CRA's output looks like helps you speak specifically about why you want to work there

• Prepare a specific 'why CRA' answer mentioning the practice area you're targeting

  CRA assigns you to a practice on day one; they want to know you understand and want their specific type of work

• Practice the writing sample format: headline finding, specific data, concise 5-sentence summary

  The superday writing sample catches candidates who think in paragraphs, not conclusions

Connect to Broader Case Prep

While CRA cases differ from strategy consulting, core intellectual skills still apply:

• MECE principle for structuring economic arguments
• Issue tree case interview for decomposing competition problems
• Case interview communication tips for delivering economic reasoning clearly
• Behavioral interview consulting for the substantial behavioral component

Test Your Knowledge

Test yourself

1 / 3

Question 1 of 3

In a CRA competition economics case, you're asked whether a merger is likely to harm consumers. The first thing you should establish is:

• AWhether the merged company will be profitable
• BThe relevant product and geographic market definition
• CWhether the clients have a good reputation
• DHow many employees the merged company will have

Sources and Further Reading (checked March 25, 2026)

• CRA Official Careers — Interviewing at CRA: crai.com/careers/blogs/interviewing-cra
• CRA Official — Analyst Application Process: crai.com/careers/blogs/insight-cras-analyst-application-process
• Hacking the Case Interview — CRA Guide: hackingthecaseinterview.com/pages/charles-river-associates-case-interview
• Management Consulted — CRA Profile: managementconsulted.com/charles-river-interview
• Wall Street Oasis — CRA Interview Reports: wallstreetoasis.com/company/charles-river-associates/interview