Charles River Associates Case Interview Practice: Free Case and Prep Resources
CRA's Prepare to Apply & Interview page is its named interview resource: an experience interview, plus a case interview that tests how you approach a problem with limited information, with no single correct answer and no published practice cases. Unlike McKinsey, whose sample cases include suggested answers, CRA leaves the practice to you, and the format varies by practice.Charles River Associates (opens in a new tab), read ; McKinsey (opens in a new tab), read
Try a free Charles River Associates-style case now: Pulsepoint Sepsis Test. No card, no signup.
Free, no signup: 2 worked cases with model answers. Free, no card: your first full practice case with an AI interviewer. Paid: Pro $49/month for every case.
Updated ·By Esteban Ronsin·Founder · former Deloitte and Accenture Strategy consultant
Built and reviewed with former McKinsey, BCG and Bain consultants and interviewers.
Free Charles River Associates interview prep resources
Charles River Associates interview prep resources: what you get, whether it is free or paid, and the link
Resource
What you get
Free or paid
Link
CRA: Prepare to Apply & Interview
CRA's own interview tips: telephone, in-person and virtual formats, the experience interview, the case interview on limited information, timed assessments and group interviews
Free. Published by Charles River Associates, checked Nov 11, 2026
Practice cases for Charles River Associates interviews7 cases
7 library cases matched to Charles River Associates' case types, run out loud with an AI interviewer or step by step and scored on 7 skills; start with MedSuite Technologies Hospital Software Pricing
Free + paid. The case overview is public; a free account includes 1 full AI-graded case in voice or guided mode; Pro ($49/month) adds every case
Corbelworks: pricing case with answers Industry: B2B software. Difficulty: hard.1 math question.
Should a construction software company price its new scheduling app per seat, per project or in tiers, and at what price? 6 questions, 3 exhibits, a model answer for each
Free. The whole case and every model answer, no account; the practice button opens a live case like it
Dunmore Cargo Bikes: market sizing case with answers Industry: Mobility. Difficulty: easy.1 math question.
How big is the annual US market for electric cargo bikes sold to urban delivery couriers, and is it big enough for a $10 million revenue goal? 5 questions, 1 exhibit, a model answer for each
Free. The whole case and every model answer, no account; the practice button opens a live case like it
Consulting fit and behavioral questions answered out loud, with follow-up probes and structured feedback
Free + paid. 1 behavioral or Learning Mode session with a free account; Behavioral Unlimited ($39/month, behavioral and PEI only) or any Pro plan adds more
Firm-style cases are practice cases written for Road to Offer or adapted from university consulting club casebooks, not the firm's own cases. Road to Offer is independent and not affiliated with Charles River Associates.
Try a free Charles River Associates-style case now: no card, no signup
An original practice case written by Road to Offer in a Charles River Associates-style format, not Charles River Associates' own case. Everything stays in your browser.
Pulsepoint Sepsis Test: Pricing a rapid blood test for hospital labs
A pricing case with limited information, the kind of problem CRA says its case interview uses, and close to the pricing-model case an antitrust intern described. CRA has no published sample case and no separate Management Advisory interview guide, so this is the closest honest practice, set in life sciences. The full version is MedSuite Technologies, a library pricing case on a healthcare product, not a CRA case. Charles River Associates (opens in a new tab), read
1Step 1: Read the case
Pulsepoint, a medical diagnostics company, has built a rapid blood test that spots sepsis in under an hour. Hospitals today send blood to an outside lab. Pulsepoint's CEO asks what it should charge per test at launch in the US. How would you work it out?
2Step 2: Ask clarifying questions
Open a question to hear the interviewer's answer.
Who buys the test and how is it used?
Interviewer: Hospital labs buy it and run it in the emergency department on patients who might have sepsis. It replaces the outside lab test.
What does the hospital pay for the outside lab test today?
Interviewer: About forty dollars per test, and results take most of a day.
What does it cost Pulsepoint to make and ship one test?
Interviewer: About twelve dollars. Fixed costs are covered by other products, so ignore them.
Does the test save the hospital money, and where?
Interviewer: Yes. In about one in ten tested patients the result arrives a day earlier than it would have, which saves one day in intensive care, worth about fifteen hundred dollars.
What is the goal, and are there competitors?
Interviewer: Maximise profit per test over the first year without losing the hospital's adoption. One rival has a slower rapid test; it is not listed in the data you have so far.
3Step 3: Structure your answer
Take two minutes. Say how you would set a launch price: what you need to know, in what order, and what the answer would look like.
2:00
Show what a strong structure covers
Plays back the goal: a price per test, for hospital labs in the US, to maximise first-year profit while keeping adoption.
Sets the floor and the ceiling: the cost to make a test is the floor, and the value to the hospital is the ceiling.
Values the test for the hospital: the outside test it replaces, plus the intensive care days saved, per test.
Looks at alternatives and competitors: the outside lab price and the rival rapid test decide how much of the value Pulsepoint can keep.
Thinks about demand: how many tests a hospital runs, how sensitive it is to price, and what a pilot price could teach.
Names what would change the answer: the share of patients where the test saves a day, contract length and how fast hospitals adopt.
4Step 4: The interviewer's next question
One in ten tested patients saves one intensive care day worth fifteen hundred dollars. The test replaces a forty dollar outside test and costs twelve dollars to make. What is the most a hospital should pay per test, and what price would you propose?
Show what a strong answer does
Value per test from the saved day is 10% × 1,500 = 150 dollars; add the forty dollars it replaces and the ceiling is about 190 dollars, against a floor of 12. A strong answer does not price at cost plus a margin: it proposes a price well below the ceiling, around 100 dollars, so the hospital keeps a clear gain, says what it would test next (the one in ten, the rival's price) and states the answer in one line.
CRA's application advice says to explain why you want economic consulting and how it differs from finance and general consulting, and not to reuse a generic investment banking or strategy cover letter. Source: Charles River Associates, read (opens in a new tab)
A Finance analyst described a mix of behavioral questions and case studies that also tested her understanding of analyst work and use of common financial data and statistical software. Source: Charles River Associates, read (opens in a new tab)
Each arrow opens the source: Charles River Associates, read Nov 11, 2026.
CRA's interview pages, item by item
Everything CRA publishes to prepare for its interviews, each opened on 11 November 2026. CRA has no practice cases; the first item is its named interview resource, and each line is our summary of the item's own page. Read on Charles River Associates' site .
CRA's interview pages, item by item: level, area and what each one is, linked to Charles River Associates' page
Resume and cover letter advice, telephone, in-person and virtual interview tips, the experience interview, the case interview on limited information, timed assessments and group interviews.
The first round is on campus or virtual, the second generally in an office; the process varies by office and practice; internship timing; where CRA recruits.
A former intern's four sessions of about thirty minutes, including a pricing-model case with statistics and econometrics, and the advice to follow your train of thought.
AI does not make hiring decisions; candidates may use it to assist, not replace their voice, and must turn AI applications off in virtual and live interviews.
The practice list candidates apply to: Antitrust, Energy, Finance, Financial Economics, Forensic Services, Intellectual Property, Labor, Life Sciences, Marakon, Risk, Investigations & Analytics and Transfer Pricing.
Marakon's focus areas: CEO advisory, corporate strategy, M&A and divestitures, business unit strategy, resource allocation and organizational design.
Worked: The pricing-model case (antitrust intern interview, reported), in The reported steps: reason aloud, use statistics, ground it in economics
An antitrust intern wrote that a senior staff member gave him a hypothetical competition case about building a pricing model, where statistics and econometrics were central and the reasoning mattered more than the exact answer. CRA publishes no figures, so this walk-through follows only the steps the account describes. Read the official case (opens in a new tab)(read )
How you might work it is ours, not Charles River Associates' answer key.
1
Say what is being priced and who reacts
Restate the product, the market and who could respond to a price change (buyers, rivals). In competition work the interviewer wants to see you think about how others react, not only about the client's costs.
2
Name the data you would want
Prices and quantities over time and across products or regions, costs and any event that moved prices. Say what you would ask for if you could not have it.
3
Describe the statistical model in plain words
Explain that you would estimate how quantity changes when price changes while holding other drivers fixed, for example with a regression, and say which controls you would add and why.
4
Tie the result to an economic fact
Read the estimate in business terms: how sensitive buyers are to price, and what that implies for the client's best price or for a harm claim. The reported advice is that sound logic backed by economic facts matters more than the exact answer.
5
Show the math and name the limit
Do the arithmetic aloud, state the assumption most likely to be wrong, and say how the answer moves if it changes. CRA's page asks you to show your math.
Method: Candidates report; not on the firm's pages
What Charles River Associates looks for, in its own words
CRA's Management Advisory posting for 2027 graduates asks for curious and analytical thinkers who bring creative approaches to non-standard problems, and a clear interest in consulting. Source: Charles River Associates, read (opens in a new tab)
Each arrow opens the source: Charles River Associates, read Nov 11, 2026.
The Charles River Associates interview process, and what trains each step
1
Apply to a practice and an office
CRA asks for a one-page resume and a cover letter that says why you want consulting and CRA; for multi-practice or multi-office roles, name the practices and offices you would consider. A Talent Acquisition team member emails you if your background matches the role.
CRA says assessments may cover numeracy, writing and critical thinking, and are usually timed, so track your start and finish times. Its pages do not say which roles get one.
CRA says the first round is on campus or virtual and that the process varies by office and practice group. A Finance analyst wrote on CRA's site that hers was thirty minutes with two staff, checking skills, interest in economic consulting and practice fit.
CRA describes an experience interview (your experience, skills and goals, with prompts such as "Tell me about a time when you have...") and a case interview that tests how you approach a problem with limited information: there is usually no single correct answer, so explain your reasoning and show your math.
CRA says second-round interviews generally take place in one of its offices, where you meet several consultants and colleagues over coffee or lunch. A Finance analyst described four back-to-back interviews and a lunch with junior staff; an antitrust intern described four sessions of about thirty minutes. CRA gives no offer timeline; the Finance analyst says an interviewer phoned her with the offer, then a formal letter followed.
Missing from Charles River Associates' pages: a Management Advisory interview guide, a sample case or answer key, how long each interview lasts, who leads the case, how answers are scored, which roles get an assessment, how many rounds each office runs and when offers are made.
11 Charles River Associates-style interview questions
In our words, not CRA's, grouped by the interview parts CRA names: the experience interview, the case on limited information, the Management Advisory sectors (Life Sciences and Energy) and the timed assessment, with what a strong answer does.
Experience interview
CRA: questions about your experience, skills and career goals, including prompts such as "Tell me about a time when you have...".
1Why economic consulting, and why CRA rather than a strategy firm or a bank?
What a strong answer does: Names what CRA's practice does (data and economics applied to a client's question), one project of yours that used the same skills, and how the work differs from finance or strategy, in under a minute.
2Walk me through a course project or job where you worked with data and what you concluded.
What a strong answer does: Gives the question, the method, one number and the conclusion, then ties the method to the practice's work. An antitrust intern was asked how his classes and research linked to the practice.
CRA: there is usually no single correct answer, so explain your reasoning and show your math.
4A manufacturer of hospital equipment asks how to price a new product with no direct competitor. How do you set the price?
What a strong answer does: Sets a floor (cost) and a ceiling (value to the buyer against what it replaces), then shares the value, asks about rivals and says how a pilot would test it.
5You have prices and quantities for a product across twenty regions over five years. What would you do to learn how demand reacts to price?
What a strong answer does: Says it would estimate quantity against price controlling for income, season and other drivers, notes that price and demand can move together for other reasons, and states what it would check.
6Two competing suppliers want to merge. What do you look at first?
What a strong answer does: Defines the market, looks at the combined share and how close the products are, asks whether buyers can switch and whether new entrants would come, then says which fact would change its view.
CRA's services site names Life Sciences and Energy as the sectors for its management consulting; the jobs page puts these roles under Management Advisory.
7A drug maker is deciding the launch price of a specialty medicine. What do you need to know?
What a strong answer does: Looks at the patients who benefit and what the alternatives cost, who pays and how access works, the cost to make and serve, and the price range that keeps the product used.
8A utility's fast-charging network lost money after a grid tariff change. How do you find the cause and a fix?
What a strong answer does: Splits profit into price, volume and cost, isolates the cost that changed (peak power charges), checks which customer segment carries it and proposes pricing or load changes with their effect.
9How big is the US market for home batteries, and how would you decide whether to enter it?
What a strong answer does: Sizes it from households that want backup or time-of-use savings times adoption and price, cross-checks against installer capacity, then states what the entry decision rests on.
CRA: assessments may cover numeracy, writing and critical thinking, and are usually timed.
10A price rises from 80 to 92 and quantity falls from 500 to 470. Did revenue go up, and by how much?
What a strong answer does: Computes 80 × 500 = 40,000 and 92 × 470 = 43,240, so revenue rose by 3,240 or about 8%, and notes demand fell about 6% against a price rise of 15%.
Easy ways to lose a Charles River Associates interview
Preparing for the wrong CRA interview
CRA says its process varies by office and practice group. Find out whether you are interviewing for an economic practice or a Management Advisory role before you pick your practice cases. Source: Charles River Associates, read (opens in a new tab)
Sending a generic strategy cover letter
CRA's advice warns against reusing a generic investment banking, strategy consulting or investment management cover letter; explain why economic consulting and why this practice. Source: Charles River Associates, read (opens in a new tab)
Hunting for the exact answer
CRA says the case usually has no single correct answer and that you should explain your reasoning and show your math. A silent, perfect number scores worse than a clear method. Source: Charles River Associates, read (opens in a new tab)
Each arrow opens the source: Charles River Associates, read Nov 11, 2026.
A Charles River Associates prep plan, day by day
The order follows Charles River Associates' own pages; the timing is our suggestion.
Days 1 and 2
Read CRA's own pages and pick the practice
Read the interview page and FAQ, then the page of the practice you apply to (Energy and Life Sciences for Management Advisory) and the AI recruiting page.
Start with CRA's own page, Prepare to Apply & Interview: it says the case interview tests how you handle limited information, that there is usually no single correct answer, and that you should explain your reasoning and show your math. Then find out which practice you are applying to, because CRA says the process varies by office and practice group: economic consulting practices lean on experience questions and quantitative reasoning, and the Management Advisory roles in Energy and Life Sciences are strategy consulting. On Road to Offer a free account includes 1 full AI-graded case, such as MedSuite Technologies, a pricing case; Corbelworks (pricing) and Dunmore Cargo Bikes (market sizing) are worked cases with a model answer for every step and need no account; case math, chart and market sizing drills cover the numbers. Firm-style cases are practice cases written for Road to Offer or adapted from university consulting club casebooks, not the firm's own cases.
Where can I practice CRA-style case interviews for free?
CRA publishes no practice cases of its own, only interview tips and two past recruiter webinars. On Road to Offer, the sample case on this page (pricing a new hospital test) runs in your browser with no account, and your first full case is free with a free account, no card. Corbelworks (a pricing case) and Dunmore Cargo Bikes (market sizing) are free to read in full with a model answer for every step, no account. None of them is a CRA case; they are general practice cases chosen for the pricing, sizing and energy and life sciences questions CRA's practices work on.
Does CRA run case interviews?
Yes, but the format depends on the practice. CRA's interview page lists an experience interview and a case interview that tests how you approach a problem with limited information. Candidate accounts on CRA's own site describe a pricing-model case with statistics and econometrics in the Antitrust practice and a mix of behavioral questions and case studies in Finance. CRA's careers pages do not describe the Management Advisory interview separately, so ask your recruiter what to expect.
Is CRA a management consulting firm?
Partly. CRA's careers site lists economic practices such as Antitrust & Competition Economics, Finance and Forensic Services next to Energy, Life Sciences and Marakon, and its services site says CRA and its subsidiary Marakon do management consulting, with Life Sciences and Energy as named sectors. The jobs page lists Management Advisory analyst and associate roles. CRA's own application advice says to explain why you want economic consulting and how it differs from finance and strategy consulting, so say which side you are applying to.
What are CRA's practices and which one interviews like a strategy case?
CRA's careers page lists Antitrust & Competition Economics, Energy, Finance, Financial Economics, Forensic Services, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment, Life Sciences, Marakon, Risk, Investigations & Analytics and Transfer Pricing. The jobs page puts the Energy and Life Sciences strategy roles under Management Advisory. CRA does not say which practice uses which case; expect questions tied to the practice you apply to, which an antitrust intern also wrote.
How many interview rounds does CRA have?
CRA says the first round is on campus or virtual and the second round generally takes place in one of its offices, and that the process varies by office and practice group. A Finance analyst described a thirty-minute first round with two staff, then four back-to-back interviews and a lunch in Boston. An antitrust intern described about two hours in four sessions of about thirty minutes.
Is the CRA case interview candidate-led or interviewer-led?
CRA's pages do not say. The antitrust intern's account describes working through a pricing-model case with a senior staff member while explaining the reasoning. Practise both: offer a short structure first, then answer one directed question at a time with a number.
Does CRA have an online test or assessment?
CRA says assessments may cover numeracy, writing and critical thinking, and are usually timed. It does not say which roles get one or give a sample. Practise quick math, chart reading and a short written summary under a clock; Road to Offer has no CRA test simulator, so the closest practice is the case math and chart drills.
Can I use AI in a CRA interview?
No. CRA's recruiting page says it expects you to turn off all AI applications during virtual and live interviews, to answer honestly if asked about your AI use in the application process, and to use AI only to assist your application materials, not to replace your voice.
Does CRA publish case interview guidance or sample cases?
Not sample cases. It publishes interview tips, a candidate-written FAQ and two recruiter webinars: Acing the Job Interview (17 October 2024) and Case Closed: Demystifying the Case Interview (3 September 2025), whose page says the recruiting team will teach how to approach case-style questions. Neither page contains a worked case, and both dates have passed. Unlike McKinsey, whose sample cases include suggested answers, CRA leaves practice cases to you.
When does CRA recruit interns and graduates?
CRA's FAQ says internship postings typically go up in mid-August and internship recruiting usually ends in March, and that it recruits at several schools in the US and UK. A 2027 graduate Management Advisory posting says resume review begins on 31 August and continues on a rolling basis. Check the posting for your office.
What should I put in a CRA cover letter?
CRA says to explain your interest in the role, consulting and CRA, give examples of your strengths and, for multi-practice or multi-office roles, name the practices and offices you would consider. Its application advice adds that a strong application answers why economic consulting and what in your experience shows you can do the work, and warns against reusing a generic investment banking or strategy consulting letter.
