Bain case interview: 4 practice cases with worked examples (2026)

The Bain case interview is a business problem of about 30 to 40 minutes, usually candidate-led, inside an interview that also covers fit. You hear a short prompt, ask clarifying questions and lay out a structure. Then you drive: you say which part of the problem to look at next, ask for the data, run the numbers and finish with a recommendation. Most candidates face two rounds, commonly two interviews in the first and two or three in the final, often with partners. Some offices send an online test after you apply, and some use a written case in the final round. Formats vary by office and year, so check your invitation.

Candidate-led changes what the interviewer is listening for. The data exists, but you get it only when you ask for the right thing at the right time. Your structure is therefore the plan for the next half hour: it has to say where you will start and why, and each finding has to move you to the next question. A candidate who waits to be handed exhibits looks passive at Bain, even if every calculation is right.

Four cases in our library follow the Bain style: candidate-led, built around a decision with a number attached, and closed with a recommendation to a board, founders or a fund. Each has a guided walkthrough with feedback on every answer, and each can be run live with the AI interviewer.

All four are medium difficulty. Start with Meridian: it is free, the maths is simple and the structure is the classic market entry tree. Leave Wrenfield until you are comfortable with payback, because its last steps turn a valuation into a bid.

The three firms test the same core skills: structure, maths, chart reading and a crisp recommendation. What differs is who holds the pen and what gets probed hardest. The table below is a generalisation; interviewers and offices vary, and every firm has moved its format over time.

Meridian Coffee enters India

The prompt. Meridian Coffee runs 410 stores across the United States and has never operated outside North America. The board is considering India and wants to know whether to enter, and if so, how. Ask what success means and you learn the board's rule: new stores must pay back within four years.

A fitting structure. Four branches. Is the market attractive: size, growth, where demand sits, competition? Can Meridian win: brand, product and price fit, sourcing, sites? Do the economics work: store revenue, contribution, investment and payback against four years? How should it enter: own, franchise, joint venture or acquire? Start with the market.

The calculation. Nearly all organised cafe spend comes from the target segment, so turn the market into behaviour. Target segment: 500m × 9% = 45m people. Spend per person: $1.4bn ÷ 45m ≈ $31 a year. Visits: $31 ÷ $3.10 ≈ 10 a year, less than one a month. Growth is real, though: compounding 11% for five years takes $1.4bn to about $2.4bn.

BainMeridian Coffee enters IndiaMarket Entry · Medium

Meridian Coffee enters India

Free. Finish it: where the outlets are, the store payback, a traffic sensitivity and the entry mode.

Interviewer

Meridian Coffee operates 410 stores across the United States and has never operated outside North America. The board is considering entering India and has asked us whether they should, and if so, how. Where would you like to start?

Start the caseGuided, step by step

BrightPath Tutoring has stalled

The prompt. BrightPath is an online tutoring marketplace connecting school students with subject tutors. After three years of 60%+ annual growth, revenue has been flat for five quarters and the founders want growth back. Ask how it makes money: a 22% commission on sessions averaging $28, a price that has not moved. Ask what they plan: a launch in a new country.

A fitting structure. Revenue = sessions × $28 × 22%. Split it into new-student revenue (marketing spend ÷ acquisition cost, conversion) and returning-student revenue (retention, sessions per student, price). Add the supply side, because a marketplace has tutors too. Park the new country as an option to test once the core works.

The calculation. Q1 to Q5: total revenue went from $5.6m to $9.0m a quarter, up 61% in a year, the growth the founders remember. Q5 to Q9: new-student revenue rose 25% ($1.6m to $2.0m) while returning-student revenue fell about 5% ($7.4m to $7.0m). With more students joining every quarter, the returning base should be growing. It is shrinking.

BainBrightPath Tutoring has stalledGrowth Strategy · Medium

BrightPath Tutoring has stalled

Finish it: acquisition cost, cohort retention, why students leave and what to tell the founders.

Interviewer

BrightPath is an online tutoring marketplace connecting school students with subject tutors. After three years of 60%+ annual growth, revenue has been flat for five quarters. The founders want to get back to growth. Where do you want to start?

Start the caseGuided, step by step

Wrenfield Capital eyes a budget gym chain

The prompt. Wrenfield Capital, a mid-market private equity fund, has been offered Strata Gyms, a chain of 120 budget gyms, for $600m. The seller's plan shows EBITDA more than doubling in five years. Should Wrenfield buy, and at what price? Ask about the fund and you learn it holds for five years and needs 2.5x its money, and that $600m is 12x today's $50m of EBITDA, against 9x to 11x in recent deals.

A fitting structure. Build towards a price. The market: budget segment growth and whitespace for new sites. The standalone business: site economics, churn, central costs. The value creation plan, lever by lever: new sites, a premium tier, cost. Then year-5 EBITDA × exit multiple, the multiple of money and the most Wrenfield can pay.

The calculations. Site costs are almost all fixed and members pay $25 a month with no contract. Breakeven: $900k of cost ÷ $300 a member a year = 3,000 members, so a mature site at 5,000 is 2,000 members clear. Operating leverage: 10% fewer members (500) costs 500 × $300 = $150k, a quarter of site EBITDA.

BainWrenfield Capital eyes a budget gym chainM&A · Medium

Wrenfield Capital eyes a budget gym chain

Finish it: membership by opening cohort, new-site payback, adjusted EBITDA and what to bid.

Interviewer

Our client, Wrenfield Capital, is a mid-market private equity fund. It has been offered Strata Gyms, a chain of 120 budget gyms, for $600m, and the seller's plan shows EBITDA more than doubling in five years. Wrenfield wants to know whether to buy Strata and, if so, what it should pay. How would you approach this?

Start the caseGuided, step by step

Copperleaf Snacks faces a cost squeeze

The prompt. Copperleaf is the number three crisp brand in its market, sold mainly through supermarkets. Ingredient and energy costs have jumped, and on current prices operating profit falls from $30m to $12m this year. Raise the price, shrink the bag, or change promotions and mix? Ask whether rivals face the same cost: the top two hedged their oil and are holding prices.

A fitting structure. Size the hit first. Then put every option on one footing, gross profit after the shopper's volume response (margin per bag × bags), before weighing shopper, retailer and competitor reactions and combining levers into one plan.

The calculations. Copperleaf sells 120m bags a year at an average net price of $1.50. The hit: $0.15 × 120m = $18m. Gross profit falls from 120m × $0.50 = $60m to 120m × $0.35 = $42m, down 30%, and operating profit falls 60%. Oil alone is $0.10, two thirds of the increase. A 10% list price rise is exactly $0.15 a bag, so it covers the cost only if no shopper walks away.

BainCopperleaf Snacks faces a cost squeezePricing · Medium

Copperleaf Snacks faces a cost squeeze

Finish it: the promotion mix, the volume response to each option and the plan you would take to retailers.

Interviewer

Copperleaf is the number three crisp brand in its market, sold mainly through supermarkets. Ingredient and energy costs have risen sharply, and on current prices its operating profit will fall from $30m to $12m this year. The team is debating a price rise, a smaller bag at the same price, or changes to its promotions and mix. What should Copperleaf do?

Start the caseGuided, step by step

Fit. Bain is widely described as weighing fit as heavily as the case. In most offices each interview includes questions about you: why consulting, why Bain, a time you led or influenced a team, a setback and what you learned. Some offices also run a separate experience interview. Prepare 6 to 8 true stories, each with a number and a clear role for you; our fit interview lesson shows how to build them.

The online test. Some Bain offices send an online assessment after you apply, run on SOVA or TestGorilla; your invitation says which. Candidates report short reasoning sections on numbers, patterns and sometimes passages, then situational judgement and a work-style questionnaire, with speed counting alongside accuracy. Sit our Bain SOVA simulation at least once before the real thing.

The written case. Some offices, often in final rounds, hand you a pack of slides and data, give you time alone with it, then ask you to present or discuss your answer. Reports differ on length and format, so ask your recruiter. The skills are those of a live case done on paper: find the few slides that matter, do the maths neatly, and lead with the answer.

• Can you open a candidate-led case by saying where you will start and why, in one sentence?
• Do your clarifying questions find the client's decision rule: a payback hurdle, a return target, a growth goal?
• Can you work out a payback, a breakeven volume and a multiple of money without notes, in under two minutes each?
• After every number, do you say what it means for the decision before moving on?
• Can you push back on a client's favourite idea with a number, politely?
• Can you give a 60-second recommendation: answer, three reasons with numbers, risks, next steps?
• Do you have 6 to 8 fit stories, each with a number and a clear role for you?

1. Read a worked example above and redo the first exhibit's maths yourself before reading ours.
2. Run the case guided: every question gives feedback and a model answer, so you learn the shape of a strong response.
3. A few days later, run it live with the AI interviewer, out loud and timed at 30 to 35 minutes.
4. Score yourself against the self-check, then drill whatever slowed you down.
5. Move to the next case. Once all four feel natural, switch to cases in other firms' styles in the case library.