Strategy& Case Interview Guide: How to Prepare for PwC's Strategy Interview in 2026

Strategy& confuses people before they even apply. Is it PwC? Is it Booz? Is it the same as PwC Consulting? Candidates who can't answer those questions tend to show up with the wrong preparation, and the interview catches it fast. A Strategy& partner will often open with something like "Our client's margins trail its peers by four points. The CEO wants a cost program. Where would you start?" They want to see whether you'll cut everything evenly or work out which costs actually make the client competitive.

This guide covers the Strategy& case interview in 2026: where the firm came from and why that shapes the cases, how the interview process runs, which case types show up most, a full worked example, the fit interview, and a four-week prep plan built on what learning research says about getting good at this quickly.

If you're new to case interviews, read our case interview frameworks guide first. This article assumes you know the basics and adds the Strategy& layer on top.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

• Strategy& is PwC's strategy consulting business. It was Booz & Company until PwC acquired it in 2014. It hires and interviews separately from PwC's broader management consulting practice, and the case bar is noticeably higher.
• Cases are mostly candidate-led, usually one case plus fit questions per interview, across two rounds. Some offices add a written or presentation case in the final round.
• The firm has a house philosophy. Its "capabilities-driven strategy" and "Fit for Growth" cost approach show up, directly or indirectly, in how partners judge your recommendations.
• Cost and growth cases dominate, often in consumer goods, industrials, energy, healthcare and the public sector. The Middle East and German-speaking offices are among the firm's largest.
• The fit interview is not a formality. Expect "Why Strategy& and not MBB?" and "Why Strategy& and not PwC Consulting?" Have a specific answer to both.
• Generic MBB prep gets you most of the way. The last stretch is learning to tie every recommendation back to what the client is genuinely good at.

What Is Strategy&? (And Why the History Matters)

You can't answer "Why Strategy&?" well without knowing where the firm came from, and the history also explains the kind of cases you'll get.

From Booz to PwC

Booz Allen Hamilton was one of the oldest management consulting firms in the world, founded in 1914. In 2008, its commercial consulting business split off as Booz & Company, while the government-focused business kept the Booz Allen Hamilton name. In 2014, PwC acquired Booz & Company and renamed it Strategy&.

Today Strategy& sits inside the PwC network as its global strategy consulting brand. Depending on the country, it operates either as a distinct business with its own recruiting or as the strategy practice within PwC's advisory arm. Titles and career tracks vary by region, so check the posting for the office you're targeting.

Where Strategy& Is Strongest

• Consumer goods and retail: portfolio strategy, brand rationalization, go-to-market
• Industrials and automotive: a strong legacy from Booz's German business
• Energy, utilities and resources: particularly in the Middle East
• Healthcare and pharma: commercial strategy, operating models
• Public sector and government transformation: large national programs, especially in the Gulf states
• Cost transformation: the "Fit for Growth" practice is one of the firm's signature offerings

The Ideas the Firm Is Known For

Strategy& has a recognizable point of view, and partners care about it more than candidates expect.

Capabilities-driven strategy. Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi, both from the Booz/Strategy& lineage, wrote The Essential Advantage (2010) and Strategy That Works (2016). Their argument is that companies win by having a clear "way to play" in the market, a small system of three to six distinctive capabilities that support it, and a product and service portfolio that fits those capabilities. Companies get into trouble when they chase every growth opportunity and end up good at nothing in particular.

Fit for Growth. The firm's cost methodology, set out in the book Fit for Growth (Couto, Plansky and Caglar, 2017), separates "good costs" that fund differentiating capabilities from "bad costs" that don't. The idea is to cut hard where costs don't help you win and reinvest some of the savings where they do. It's a deliberate rejection of the across-the-board 10% cut.

You don't need to name-drop these books. But if your cost recommendation protects what makes the client competitive and your growth recommendation builds on capabilities the client already has, you're speaking the firm's language without saying it.

The Strategy& Interview Process in 2026

The process differs by region more than at MBB, so take this as the common pattern and confirm the details with your recruiter.

Step 1: Application and Screening

You apply online with a CV and, in many offices, a cover letter and transcripts. Referrals help. Strategy& is smaller than PwC's other consulting businesses, and a consultant who vouches for you can get your CV a closer read.

Some regions route candidates through PwC's online assessments before any interview. These usually include numerical reasoning, logical reasoning and sometimes a situational judgment or game-based test. If your office uses them, a few days of timed practice on chart reading and number series is enough for most candidates.

Step 2: First-Round Interviews

Expect two interviews of 45 to 60 minutes, usually with associates, senior associates or managers. A typical interview runs:

• 10 to 15 minutes of fit questions on your CV and motivation
• 25 to 35 minutes on a case, usually candidate-led
• 5 minutes for your questions

Step 3: Final Round

The final round is usually two to three interviews with directors or partners. Partner cases are less scripted and often come from the partner's own work. They're also more likely to end with a judgment question ("Would you actually recommend the CEO do this?") than a clean numerical answer.

Some offices, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, use a written or presentation case in the final round. You get a short pack of data or slides, work on it for 30 to 60 minutes, then present a recommendation to one or two interviewers. If your office uses this format, practice it specifically. Reading ten exhibits under time pressure and picking the three that matter is a different skill from talking through a verbal case.

Typical Timeline

US and UK campus recruiting follows the usual fall cycle. In the Middle East and much of continental Europe, Strategy& hires year-round, and experienced hires make up a large share of each intake.

What Strategy& Case Interviews Actually Look Like

Candidate-Led, With a Strategy Bias

You're expected to structure the problem, ask for data, do the math and drive toward a recommendation. Interviewers will step in, but they mostly want to watch you lead.

Partners Push on the "Why This Client?"

At many firms, a sensible generic recommendation passes. At Strategy&, partners often push one step further: why is this the right move for this particular client? A recommendation to enter a fast-growing market is weak if the client has no capability that gives it an edge there. Candidates who ask early on "What is this company known for? What does it do better than competitors?" tend to stand out, because the answer shapes everything that follows.

Market Sizing and Estimation

Estimation questions come up both on their own and inside cases. "How large is the market for home EV chargers in Saudi Arabia?" is typical of Middle East offices. Our market sizing questions guide covers the method. The Strategy& addition is the "so what": once you have a number, say what it means for the client's decision.

Common Strategy& Case Types (With Example Prompts)

These are the patterns that come up most in candidate reports, roughly in order of frequency. Treat any precise percentage you see online as a guess.

1. Cost Transformation

"A consumer health company's operating margin trails its peers by four percentage points. The CEO wants a cost program. How should she approach it?"

This is the firm's signature case type. Break costs into buckets, size each one, benchmark against peers, and then separate the costs that support what the company is good at from the ones that don't. We go through this case in full below.

2. Growth Strategy and Portfolio Choices

"A mid-sized food manufacturer has 40 brands across 12 categories. Growth has stalled. What should it do?"

The trap is to propose more growth initiatives. The better answer is often to narrow the portfolio around the brands and categories where the client has a real edge, then invest behind them.

3. Market Entry

"A European industrial equipment maker is considering entering the Gulf market. Should it, and how?"

Standard market entry logic applies: market attractiveness, competition, the client's ability to win, entry mode and economics. In Middle East offices, expect local specifics such as localization requirements, government as a major customer, and partnering with local firms.

4. Operating Model and Public Sector Transformation

"A national government wants to restructure its healthcare system to cut waiting times by 30% within five years. Where would you begin?"

These cases are common in Gulf offices and reward clear structure more than industry knowledge. Split the problem into demand (patient volumes, mix), capacity (beds, staff, facilities) and process (scheduling, referrals), and find the bottleneck before proposing fixes.

Worked Example: The Consumer Health Margin Gap

Here's how a strong candidate might handle the cost transformation prompt above. The numbers are illustrative.

The Opening

Don't open with "I'll look at revenue and costs." Open with a working hypothesis and a structure:

"Before cutting anything, I'd want to know which costs fund what makes this company competitive, because an even cut across the board could damage the brands that drive growth. My plan is to size the gap, break the cost base into categories, benchmark each against peers, and then decide where to cut hard and where to protect or reinvest. Can you tell me what this company is known for in the market?"

The interviewer tells you the company wins through a few strong consumer brands and good pharmacy relationships.

The Data

• Revenue: €3.0bn
• EBIT margin: 9% (€270m). Peer average: 15%. CEO target: 13% within three years.
• Cost base (as a share of revenue):
  • Cost of goods sold: 45% (€1,350m)
  • Marketing: 20% (€600m)
  • Sales force: 10% (€300m)
  • General and administrative (G&A): 11% (€330m)
  • R&D: 5% (€150m)
• Peer G&A averages 7% of revenue
• 14 brands. The top 4 generate 70% of revenue but receive only 45% of marketing spend.

The Math

First, size the target:

• Margin gap to target: 13% − 9% = 4 percentage points
• 4% × €3.0bn = €120m of annual savings needed

Check that the cost categories add up: 1,350 + 600 + 300 + 330 + 150 = €2,730m, and €3,000m − €2,730m = €270m of EBIT. The numbers reconcile, which is worth saying out loud.

Now look for the gap:

• G&A: 11% vs 7% for peers. Bringing G&A down to 8% (leaving some room for the client's smaller scale) saves 3% × €3.0bn = €90m.
• Procurement on COGS: a 2% saving on €1,350m = €27m.
• Total: €90m + €27m = €117m, close to the €120m target.

Then address the tempting option. A flat 10% cut to marketing would save €60m. But marketing funds the brand strength the company competes on. And the spend is spread thinly: the four brands that make 70% of revenue get only 45% of the budget. The better move is to keep the marketing budget flat and shift money from the long tail of smaller brands to the top four.

The Recommendation

"The client needs about €120m of savings to reach a 13% margin. I'd get almost all of it from two places that don't touch its competitive strengths: bringing G&A from 11% to 8% of revenue, which is €90m, and a procurement program on materials worth about €27m. I would not cut marketing, because brand strength is how this company wins. Instead I'd hold the budget flat and move spend from the ten smaller brands to the four that make 70% of revenue, and I'd look at selling or harvesting some of the tail brands. The main risk is execution on G&A, since cutting three points of overhead usually means restructuring shared services, so my next step would be a function-by-function G&A benchmark."

That answer is quantified, prioritized, tied to the client's way of winning, and it names a risk and a next step. In a Strategy& interview, the line "I would not cut marketing, because brand strength is how this company wins" often does more for you than the arithmetic.

The Fit Interview at Strategy&

What Interviewers Look For

Strategy& interviewers tend to look for:

• Structured communication: can you tell a two-minute story with a clear point?
• Ownership: did you drive the result, or were you nearby when it happened?
• Client presence: could they put you in front of a senior executive in your first few months?
• Collaboration: Strategy& often staffs work alongside PwC teams, so people who work well across groups do well.

"Why Strategy&?"

This is the question that catches people. You need to answer two hidden questions at once.

Why not MBB? "I didn't get an MBB interview" is honest but won't help you. Better reasons are specific: smaller teams and earlier responsibility in your target office, a practice where Strategy& is particularly strong, or the firm's capabilities-driven approach to strategy if you've actually read about it and it fits how you think.

Why not PwC Consulting? Show you understand the difference. Strategy& focuses on strategy questions, and the broader PwC network then helps clients implement them. If you want to work on the strategic question itself, say so, and say why.

Ground the answer in something real: a conversation with a Strategy& consultant, a strategy+business article that changed how you think about a problem, or a project of yours that connects to one of the firm's practices.

Strategy& vs. MBB vs. PwC Consulting vs. Other Tier 2 Firms

The practical takeaway: MBB preparation transfers almost entirely. Add extra reps on cost and portfolio cases, and practice linking every recommendation to what the client is good at. If you're also interviewing at Kearney or Roland Berger, you can share most of your prep across all three.

How to Prepare Efficiently: What Learning Research Says

Most candidates read a guide, do 30 or so cases with friends, and hope it clicks. Research on how people build expertise suggests a few changes that make those hours count for more.

Learn to See the Deep Structure, Not the Surface

In a well-known study, Chi, Feltovich and Glaser (1981) asked physics experts and novices to sort physics problems into groups. Novices sorted by surface features: problems with springs together, problems with inclined planes together. Experts sorted by the underlying principle, such as conservation of energy. Ambrose and colleagues build on this in How Learning Works, arguing that how you organize knowledge decides whether you can use it.

Case interviews work the same way. A novice sees "a pharma case" or "a retail case." An expert sees "a cost case where some costs are strategic," which is the same problem whether the client sells cough syrup or car parts. After each practice case, write one sentence naming the underlying problem type, not the industry. After 15 cases, you'll start recognizing structures in the first minute, and that's exactly the moment Strategy& interviewers pay most attention to.

Try Before You're Taught

Make It Stick (Brown, Roediger and McDaniel) describes the generation effect: trying to solve a problem before being shown the solution leads to better learning, even when your first attempt is wrong. For case prep, that means attempting a structure for a new case type before reading how a guide would structure it. Then compare. The gap between your version and the model answer is where the learning happens.

The same book reports that retrieval practice, recalling material from memory instead of re-reading it, produces much better retention a week later. Drawing a cost tree from memory beats reading one for the fifth time.

Watch Out for "What You See Is All There Is"

Daniel Kahneman, in Thinking, Fast and Slow, describes a bias he calls WYSIATI: "what you see is all there is." People build confident stories from the information in front of them and rarely ask what's missing. In a case, this shows up as a candidate who builds a whole recommendation from the first exhibit without asking for the data that could overturn it.

Strategy& partners reward the opposite habit. Before your recommendation, ask yourself one question: "What data would change my answer?" In the worked example above, it was the split of marketing spend across brands. Without it, cutting marketing looked as reasonable as cutting G&A.

Plan Your Prep Time With the Outside View

Kahneman also describes the planning fallacy: people consistently underestimate how long tasks will take because they plan from the best case instead of looking at how long similar tasks took others. Case candidates do this all the time ("I'll be ready in two weeks"). Take the outside view. Most people who get strategy offers report four to eight weeks of serious preparation. Plan for that, and treat anything faster as a bonus.

Kasie is built around these principles. The AI interviewer runs candidate-led cases, pushes back the way a partner would, and scores you separately on structure, math, business judgment and synthesis, so you can see which skill is holding you back instead of just adding to your case count.

A 4-Week Strategy& Prep Plan

This assumes about 1 to 1.5 hours a day. If you have more time, add cases in weeks two and three.

Week 1: Foundations

• Learn the profit tree, cost tree, market entry and M&A structures. Practice drawing each from memory, without notes, until it takes under a minute.
• Read two or three Strategy& or strategy+business articles in your target practice. The next day, summarize each in five bullet points from memory.
• Do 3 to 4 cases, including at least two cost cases. For each, try your own structure before looking at any model answer.
• Draft your "Why Strategy&?" answer, covering both "why not MBB" and "why not PwC Consulting."

Week 2: Volume With Feedback

• Do 5 to 6 cases and mix case types from now on. Mixing forces you to identify the problem type yourself, which is the skill interviewers test first.
• After each case, write one sentence naming the deep structure ("cost case with strategic costs," "growth case where the portfolio is the problem").
• Add one estimation question a day, finishing each with a "so what."

Week 3: Partner Simulation

• Do 4 to 5 cases with messy or incomplete data.
• Before each recommendation, ask "What data would change my answer?" and request it.
• If your office uses a written or presentation case, run two full timed rehearsals.
• Do two complete mock interviews with fit plus a case.

Week 4: Sharpen and Rest

• Do 2 to 3 cases targeting your weakest remaining skill.
• Rehearse 60-second syntheses on old cases: answer first, supporting numbers second, risks and next steps last.
• Run through your fit stories out loud.
• Take the day before your interview off. A rested brain does better math than a tired one with one more case behind it.

If you don't have a reliable practice partner, our guide to practicing case interviews alone covers drills that work solo. Kasie lets you run a full case at any hour with feedback on each skill, which helps most in weeks two and three, when you need lots of reps and honest feedback at the same time.

Final Checklist

• Can draw a profit tree, cost tree and market entry structure from memory in under 60 seconds
• Completed at least five cost cases, including one where some costs should be protected
• Practiced at least five estimation questions, each ending with a "so what"
• Can explain what Strategy& is, how it relates to PwC and how it differs from PwC Consulting
• Have a specific "Why Strategy&?" answer covering MBB and PwC Consulting
• Have five fit stories rehearsed out loud
• Confirmed whether your office uses an online assessment or a written case
• Practiced a 60-second synthesis, answer first

Mistakes That Sink Strategy& Candidates

Cutting Costs Evenly

A 10% cut across every category sounds decisive and tells the partner you haven't thought about what the client needs to keep. Separate strategic costs from the rest before proposing anything.

Recommending Growth the Client Can't Win

"Enter the fastest-growing market" is only a good answer if the client has some reason to win there. Tie growth recommendations to existing capabilities, or say clearly which capabilities the client would need to build or buy.

Stopping at the Number

Calculating €117m of savings isn't the end of the case. Say what it means, what you'd do first and what could go wrong. For more patterns like this, see our list of common case interview mistakes. And if nerves tend to scramble your math in live interviews, our guide to managing case interview anxiety has practical techniques.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Strategy& the same as PwC?

Strategy& is part of the PwC network. It's PwC's strategy consulting business, formed when PwC acquired Booz & Company in 2014. In most regions it recruits separately from PwC's broader consulting and advisory practices, and its interviews focus more heavily on strategy cases.

Is the Strategy& case interview harder than PwC Consulting's?

Usually yes. PwC's management consulting interviews tend to mix lighter cases with competency-based questions. Strategy& interviews look more like MBB interviews: full candidate-led cases, partner rounds and a high analytical bar.

Are Strategy& case interviews candidate-led or interviewer-led?

Mostly candidate-led. You structure the problem, ask for data and drive toward a recommendation. Interviewers step in to redirect or push back, especially in partner rounds, but they expect you to lead.

How many interview rounds does Strategy& have?

Usually two: a first round with consultants or managers and a final round with directors or partners, for four to five interviews in total. Some regions add a PwC online assessment before the first round, and some offices use a written or presentation case in the final round.

What types of cases does Strategy& ask?

The most common are cost transformation, growth and portfolio strategy, market entry, operating model and public sector cases. M&A and due diligence cases also come up, since PwC's deals business sends Strategy& a steady flow of work. Estimation questions come up both on their own and inside larger cases.

How long should I prepare for a Strategy& interview?

Most successful candidates prepare for four to eight weeks and complete 25 to 40 cases. The quality of each case matters more than the count: mixed case types, specific feedback and partner-level difficulty will move you further than a long list of easy reps. AI practice tools like Kasie are useful for getting structured feedback between sessions with human partners.

Related Articles:

• Case Interview Frameworks: The Complete Guide
• Kearney Case Interview Guide
• Roland Berger Case Interview Guide
• Market Sizing Questions Guide
• How to Practice Case Interviews Alone
• Common Case Interview Mistakes