Free Case Interview Practice: 18 Firm Cases in Order (2026)

Free case interview practice starts with the 18 cases McKinsey, BCG, Bain and Deloitte publish on their own sites, then university casebooks, then one full case run out loud with feedback. This page lists them in the order to do them, shows what is free at each source, and links a first case you can open now.

Every firm link below was opened on 8 November 2026. Where a firm page did not show something, this page says so rather than guessing.

What is the best order to practice free cases?

Start with the shortest firm cases that show their answers, then move to harder formats and finish by running one case out loud. The order below is our suggestion for your first ten reps; no firm publishes a recommended sequence.

1. Bain, Coffee Shop Co.: whether to open a coffee shop, with market sizing and break-even. It shows a worked answer after each question, so you learn what a good answer looks like.
2. Bain, FashionCo: why a fashion retailer's revenue declined for five years and which option to recommend. Same format, a different case type.
3. McKinsey, Electro-Light: launching a flavored sports drink with less sugar. A product launch is easy to structure from scratch.
4. McKinsey, Beautify: whether to train in-store beauty consultants to sell through virtual channels.
5. McKinsey, Diconsa: using a rural store network in Mexico to offer basic financial services, for the Gates Foundation.
6. McKinsey, Talbot Trucks.
7. McKinsey, transforming a national education system: the broadest prompt of the five, so it comes after you have a structure habit.
8. One case from Deloitte's Case Prep Tool: ten cases, 15 to 20 minutes each. Pick the one nearest the work you want.
9. BCG's online case practice PDF: the Med-Lines case in the format of BCG's online case.
10. A full case out loud, with someone or something listening.

Reading a case is not the same as running it. For rep ten, open this one and say your structure before you scroll.

Tacotle is a medium-difficulty BCG-style profitability case with 8 interviewer questions and 5 exhibits; candidates finish it in a median 28 minutes, per the case page. You can run it out loud with an AI interviewer or step by step; graded runs need Pro, and you can start free with daily drills, a free resume review and Casey's first 2 questions with no account. Open it from its page, or browse the whole case library.

Which free case interview practice comes from the firms themselves?

Four firms publish free preparation material, but only McKinsey, Bain and Deloitte list practice cases on their own pages. BCG's page links a free job simulation and tips, and BCG's practice material sits in a separate PDF.

A few details from the pages themselves. McKinsey lists Beautify, Diconsa, Electro-Light, Talbot Trucks and a national education case, and says to listen carefully and give tailored solutions instead of standard frameworks. Bain's careers page offers Coffee Shop Co. and FashionCo with tips for in-person and virtual interviews. Deloitte sorts its ten cases by audience: three for advanced degree students (Finance Strategy for a federal health agency, LeadAuto market expansion, and a talent management case) and seven for undergraduates, including Recreation Unlimited, a ransomware attack, a data exfiltration case, an AI and automation case and two valuation cases.

Two caveats. Deloitte's list leans toward public sector, cyber, forensic and valuation work, so choose the case closest to the role you are applying for. And the BCG PDF carries a 2016 copyright line, a 2019 file name and a French media URL, so treat it as a format guide for the online case, not a current description of every BCG step. For firm-by-firm walkthroughs with solutions, see our McKinsey, Bain, BCG and Deloitte practice case guides.

Are free MBA casebooks good practice?

Yes, as volume and for exhibits, if you check the edition and whether each case has an answer. Casebooks are written by student consulting clubs, so quality varies from case to case and firm formats are only approximated.

Five casebooks are free in our vault after you create a free account, listed here from our own casebook vault guide:

The free consulting case book vault holds the PDFs. Older editions such as Yale's 2013 book still teach structure and math, but industries and exhibits look dated, so run them after a recent casebook, not before. Some school casebooks are limited to current club members, and we do not distribute those; the vault guide says which.

How do you practice free cases without a partner?

Run each case alone out loud, against a timer, with the answer closed until you commit to a recommendation. A solo rep takes about 30 minutes in our suggested split: roughly 25 minutes on the case, then 5 minutes to score yourself and pick one drill.

1. Read only the prompt. Ask your clarifying questions out loud, then structure for 60 to 90 seconds before you write.
2. Do the math on paper and say the result with its meaning, not just the number.
3. End with a one-sentence recommendation, one risk and one next step.
4. Open the answer and mark the first place your reasoning diverged. That gap is your next drill.

The solo practice guide has the full method, and the free case interview tools page maps drills and calculators to each weak skill. If you would rather use a person, the practice partner guide covers where to find one. Our guide to free AI tools for case interview prep covers what general chatbots do and do not do for a case.

What is free on Road to Offer, and what costs money?

Ten cases are free to read in full, you can start free with daily drills and Casey's first 2 questions, and graded case practice needs Pro. Road to Offer has 92 practice cases, of which 82 can be run out loud with an AI interviewer and all 92 step by step, per the live case library (checked 8 November 2026).

Every case has a public page with its prompt and key facts, so you can judge a case before you sign up. The case library shows which ones are free to read. For money-back terms and what each plan includes, read the conditions on /pricing before you buy.

How many free cases do you need before an interview?

There is no official number; many prep guides cite 30 to 50 cases, which we treat as a rough range, not a requirement. What matters is whether you can handle an unfamiliar case from structure to recommendation without a framework crutch.

A practical rhythm, as our estimate: two or three firm cases for format, a casebook set for volume, and in the last two or three weeks two full cases a week with feedback. Stop adding cases when new ones stop teaching you something. At that point, work the weakest skill with drills, then retest on a fresh case. Our case interview examples page solves twelve cases in full if you want to see answers in a single place.

When is free practice not enough?

Free practice stops being enough when you cannot tell why a case went wrong. Reading answers shows what a good answer looks like, but it does not show your own mistakes in structure, math, charts or the recommendation.

If that is you, add feedback. The options differ by job: a human coach for final-round judgment, a peer for live practice, an AI interviewer for repeatable reps, a course for sequence. Our comparison of consulting prep platforms and the page on AI mock interviewers compared by price set them side by side, with dated prices. Free sources remain the right place to start: use them until you hit the same mistake twice, then pay for the specific help that fixes it.

Sources (checked 8 November 2026)

• McKinsey interviewing page and the five sample case pages: mckinsey.com/careers/interviewing
• Bain case interview page, Coffee Shop Co. and FashionCo: bain.com/careers/hiring-process/case-interview
• BCG case interview preparation page: careers.bcg.com/global/en/case-interview-preparation
• BCG online case practice PDF (Med-Lines, 37 pages): media-publications.bcg.com/france/Preparation-Etude-De-Cas-En-Ligne-2019.pdf
• Deloitte Case Prep Tool: usrecruiting.deloitte.com/case-prep-tool
• Road to Offer case library and Tacotle case page: roadtooffer.com/case-library, roadtooffer.com/case-library/tacotle
• Road to Offer pricing: roadtooffer.com/pricing
• Casebook editions and case counts: our free casebook vault guide

McKinsey's pages were read in a browser because they block automated fetches. Deloitte's tool was read for its case list and description; we did not run each case.