Strategy& · Live Interview
Strategy&'s first-round live interview is where strong written applications become offer pipelines or go nowhere. Below: the real questions Strategy& asks, what they're testing for, and how to practise live until it feels routine.
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The format
The primary gatekeeper between the automated screening tools and the final Assessment Centre. Candidates who place in the top percentiles of the online assessment and video are short-listed for this live round.
Almost always virtual via a live video platform (typically Google Meet or Cisco WebEx, integrated into PwC's recruitment infrastructure). Phone or in-person first rounds are rare and usually reserved for infrastructure failures or specialised off-cycle routes.
Interview 1 is typically a Senior Associate or Manager; Interview 2 a Manager or Director. Partners are reserved almost exclusively for the final Assessment Centre.
Each session is one-on-one, so you interact with two different interviewers across the stage.
Duration. Two separate, back-to-back 45-minute interviews (90 minutes of live evaluation) with a 5 to 10-minute logistical buffer between them.
Rounds at this stage. One block of two interviews on the same day, scored aggregately after the fact. You do not need to pass the first to unlock the second.
Format breakdown
Phone, video, and in-person each have distinct mechanics. The interviewer scoring rubric is the same, but the operational preparation is different.
Rare, used mainly as a contingency for severe broadband failure. Without visual cues, signposting is your primary tool: explicitly vocalise pauses ('I am going to take 60 seconds to structure my thoughts, then walk you through a three-part framework') and speak at a measured 130 to 150 words per minute.
The default. PwC uses enterprise web-conferencing (predominantly Google Meet or WebEx); you receive the link via the Workday portal about 48 hours before the slot. Keep HD video on for both 45-minute blocks, have clean A4 paper and a pen ready, and flag when you look down to write.
For explicit or fast-track off-cycle routes, at 1 Embankment Place, London, WC2N 6RH, above Charing Cross station. Arrive 15 minutes early and clear ground-floor security. In-person rounds often shift the case to a physical whiteboard: stand, draw the issue tree in clear macroscopic blocks and hold a 45-degree body angle so you never fully turn your back.
Question categories
Question types cycled through the interview. For each, a real example, what the firm is screening for, plus weak and strong answer signals.
Tests deep, structural alignment with Strategy&'s operating model and the Capabilities-Driven Strategy heritage, not a recycled MBB answer.
“Why pursue a career in strategy consulting specifically, rather than investment banking or a corporate graduate scheme?”
What they test. Genuine understanding of the strategist role versus adjacent paths.
Weak answer. 'Consulting is prestigious and I like solving problems.'
Strong answer. Explains the appeal of high-level strategic positioning tied to execution, drawing on a specific personal inflection point.
“Why Strategy&? What differentiates us from pure-play boutiques or the MBB firms in London?”
What they test. Structural alignment with the firm's identity.
Weak answer. 'It is a top-tier firm and part of PwC with a huge global footprint.'
Strong answer. Anchors on strategy-through-execution and the Capabilities-Driven Strategy lens, referencing a recent UK report where the recommendation scaled a client's proprietary capability rather than generic cost-cutting.
“Which of Strategy&'s published UK reports or thought-leadership pieces have you read, and how does it shape your view?”
What they test. Detailed engagement with the firm's actual work.
Weak answer. 'I have seen you do lots of interesting projects.'
Strong answer. Names a specific report or partner publication and connects its argument to how Strategy& adds value in the UK market.
“Why our London office rather than a regional hub, and which sector practice interests you most?”
What they test. Commitment to the London ecosystem and a specific practice.
Weak answer. 'London is a great global city.'
Strong answer. Ties London's role as the centre of the Deals and CDD practice to a named sector (TMT, Energy, Consumer Markets) and a live commercial trend.
Scored strictly against the five PwC Professional dimensions, looking for low-ego collaboration, resilience and commercial level-headedness.
“Tell me about a time you managed a significant conflict within a project team or working group.”
What they test. Conflict resolution through objective, data-driven means.
Weak answer. 'My team was arguing, so I assigned tasks and we got a first-class mark because I resolved it.'
Strong answer. A full STAR account: a 50/50 team deadlock resolved by designing a weighted prioritisation matrix on regulatory speed, cost and addressable market, then volunteering to pull the underlying data.
“Describe a high-stakes decision you had to make without all the necessary data.”
What they test. Structured judgement under ambiguity.
Weak answer. 'I just guessed and hoped for the best.'
Strong answer. Uses proxy metrics or expert input to build a working hypothesis, validates it with a stakeholder, and notes the data limitation.
“Give an example of a time you failed to meet a deadline or objective. What did you change?”
What they test. Accountability and an applied lesson.
Weak answer. Blames a teammate.
Strong answer. Owns the miss and details the changed process that prevented a repeat.
“Walk me through persuading a highly sceptical stakeholder to change their perspective.”
What they test. Influence through evidence rather than authority.
Weak answer. 'I argued until they gave in.'
Strong answer. Addresses the underlying concern with objective data and co-creates a solution, keeping the relationship intact.
Checks narrative synthesis: a logical path to consulting delivered in about 120 seconds without droning.
“Walk me through your CV, highlighting the inflection points that prepared you for Strategy&.”
What they test. Thematic cohesion and self-awareness.
Weak answer. 'I studied Economics, did a banking internship, some charity work, and now I am here.'
Strong answer. A three-chapter story (academic, professional, leadership) each quantified, with a clear inflection point where strategy beat routine operational work.
“I see an internship at Company X. What was its core business model and who were its main competitors?”
What they test. Genuine understanding of your own experience.
Weak answer. Vague description of tasks.
Strong answer. Crisp articulation of the business model, competitive set and your specific contribution.
“Which achievement on your CV required the highest degree of personal resilience?”
What they test. Depth behind a listed accomplishment.
Weak answer. A high-level mention with no obstacle.
Strong answer. A concrete challenge, the actions taken and the quantified outcome.
“Explain your transition from an engineering or humanities focus to a business application.”
What they test. Coherence of your career logic.
Weak answer. 'Banking pays better.'
Strong answer. Connects analytical skills to unstructured corporate problems and a deliberate move toward strategy.
Tests macroeconomic literacy: whether you read the FT or Economist analytically or just memorise headlines.
“Advising a UK supermarket like Sainsbury's or Tesco, what three structural trends would you warn the board about over 3 to 5 years?”
What they test. Structured, actionable commercial insight.
Weak answer. 'Inflation is making everything expensive so they are losing money.'
Strong answer. Names discounter market-share erosion, fulfilment-automation capex and upstream supply-chain instability, then recommends scaling loyalty data (Nectar insights) into high-margin personalised promotions.
“How do rising interest rates affect the commercial due diligence workflow inside the Deals practice?”
What they test. Linking macro conditions to deal work.
Weak answer. 'Deals get harder when rates go up.'
Strong answer. Explains how higher debt costs compress leverage and entry multiples, sharpening scrutiny of a target's cash-flow resilience during CDD.
“Pick a recent UK corporate acquisition. Walk me through the rationale and the execution risks.”
What they test. Live deal tracking.
Weak answer. A vague reference to a big deal.
Strong answer. Covers the strategic logic, synergy assumptions and integration or regulatory risks with specifics.
“How should a high-street fashion brand adapt its supply chain against Shein or Temu?”
What they test. Applied operating-model thinking.
Weak answer. 'They need to be cheaper and faster.'
Strong answer. Structures the response around sourcing, speed to market, inventory model and brand positioning rather than a single lever.
The highest bar in the live round: candidate-led cases testing MECE issue trees, mental arithmetic, the Capabilities-Driven Strategy lens and a firm recommendation under time pressure.
“A UK passenger rail operator's profitability has dropped 15% despite stable volumes over 24 months. How would you structure the investigation?”
What they test. First-principles profitability structuring.
Weak answer. 'Cut staff or raise ticket prices.'
Strong answer. Splits the problem into revenue (yield per passenger, product-mix shift from peak season tickets to off-peak leisure, ancillary retail rentals) and costs (fixed track-access charges, rolling-stock leasing, variable energy and labour), then asks whether the driver is top-line mix or cost inflation.
“Estimate the UK fast-casual dining market and outline how you would evaluate a 120-site target for a PE buyer.”
What they test. Market sizing plus competitive evaluation.
Weak answer. A number with no assumptions.
Strong answer. Builds the estimate from UK population baselines and spend per head, states assumptions, then evaluates the target's competitive position and exit route.
“A B2B SaaS provider's churn has doubled from 4% to 8%. At £500 average monthly contract value, calculate the impact on lifetime value and isolate why customers leave.”
What they test. Case maths plus a structured issue tree.
Weak answer. Loses track of the arithmetic.
Strong answer. Talks through the LTV impact of doubled churn out loud, then structures retention drivers across product, service reliability, pricing and competitor moves.
Assesses emotional regulation and the capacity to improvise when a structured playbook fails.
“I think your framework for this case is completely wrong and we have to start again. How do you react?”
What they test. Poise and the ability to pivot fluidly.
Weak answer. 'Sorry, I thought it was good; I do not know what else to look at.'
Strong answer. Accepts the data point calmly, reframes toward external market dynamics and starts mapping the competitive landscape without losing composure.
“You have 60 seconds to explain blockchain or AI to an 85-year-old who has never used a computer.”
What they test. Communication flexibility and empathy.
Weak answer. Jargon delivered more slowly.
Strong answer. A clear everyday analogy that keeps the core mechanics intact.
“What is the angle between the hour and minute hands at exactly quarter past three?”
What they test. Calm mental arithmetic on an abstract prompt.
Weak answer. Freezes or guesses randomly.
Strong answer. Reasons that the minute hand is at 90 degrees and the hour hand has moved a quarter of the way past three, then states the small resulting difference.
Technical depth
Strategy& is a pure-play strategy firm, but because it sits within PwC and features a dominant Deals practice, the technical bar spans consulting core, a conceptual finance layer and commercial technology fluency. Legal mechanics are out of scope.
The single most critical component. Do not spit out generic frameworks like Porter's Five Forces verbatim; custom-tailor buckets to the prompt (for a retailer going online, use terms like digital customer acquisition cost, last-mile logistics and high-street cannibalisation). Know UK baselines cold: population about 68 million, average household about 2.4 people, London about 9 million, life expectancy about 80 years. Break-even volume is fixed costs divided by the price minus variable cost; ROI is net financial gain divided by total capital invested, times 100. Write formulas in words first, round sensibly and sanity-check the final number.
Conceptual, not a three-statement modelling test. Understand how revenue flows down to EBITDA and net income, that companies are valued as a multiple of EBITDA (for example a 12x EBITDA multiple), and that private equity uses debt to magnify equity returns, so targets need stable, predictable cash flows to service that debt.
Treated as a business-strategy problem, not coding. Understand cloud economics (shifting capex to opex), legacy-IT drag (why old banks struggle to launch products on ancient core systems) and data monetisation, and how digital assets drive corporate valuation. You do not need Python or systems architecture.
Intermediate: interpret chart exhibits, spot trends in data matrices and isolate anomalies under pressure, for example calculating a division's CAGR from a revenue and margin matrix and identifying which unit drags overall performance.
The rubric
The interviewer is checking against a scorecard. Knowing the categories is half the battle.
Aggregation. Both interviewers independently input 1-to-5 scores and notes into the HR portal, then a calibration meeting reconciles them with the recruitment team.
Pass threshold. You typically need a 4 (Strong Pass) or 5 across the core criteria. A single 2 in a technical category, such as a mental-arithmetic breakdown or an unstructured framework, is an automatic rejection regardless of strong behavioural answers.
Weighting vs other rounds. The live round determines 100% of the progression decision; the earlier psychometric and video scores are set aside as screening tools, though the full file is reviewed before a final offer. On a split (one 4, one 2), the severity of the low score decides, and a Director's assessment carries more weight on a marginal issue.
How to practise
Conversational mocks that read your CV, ask Strategy&-specific questions, push back when answers are weak, and produce a scored report.
Lazard · IB Analyst
Technical Interview · CV-aware
Interviewer
I see from your CV you completed Spring Week at Lazard. Walk me through a deal you observed during that placement.Interviewer
You mentioned trading comps. Walk me through how the peer set was selected, what criteria were used, and were there any borderline cases?Full report when you end
Why candidates fail
Specific failure patterns documented across past applicants. Most are avoidable with focused preparation.
Framework dumping
Forcing a memorised, cookie-cutter framework onto a bespoke case. Interviewers spot it instantly and penalise it.
Mental-maths breakdown under stress
Losing zeroes converting millions to billions, or dropping decimals during a compounding calculation.
Passive candidate syndrome
Waiting for the interviewer to feed data instead of driving the candidate-led case and proposing the next step.
Poor currency and market baselines
Using US population figures or USD in a UK case rather than the UK baseline and GBP.
Vague, unquantified STAR stories
Behavioural answers with no data-backed result, or too much time on team dynamics rather than personal impact.
Failing the client-ready presence test
Excessive fillers, weak eye contact with the camera, or defensiveness when an assumption is challenged.
What works
Concrete moves drilled by candidates who clear the cut, drawn from applicant accounts and recruiter feedback.
Flawless case signposting
Structure every response clearly ('I have isolated three drivers: first, raw-material inflation; second, labour inefficiency; third, capacity utilisation. Let's take the first.').
Dynamic hypothesis revision
Propose a clear hypothesis early and update it seamlessly as new data is revealed.
Proactive sanity checking
Pause after a calculation to test it against reality ('85% market share for a mid-sized challenger feels too high; let me re-verify my population baseline') before the interviewer flags it.
Tailored Strategy& motivation
Show a clear grasp of the firm's identity within the PwC network and reference specific recent UK insights or frameworks.
Seamless visual-to-verbal transition
Manage notes cleanly on video, signal when you look down to write, and present crisp summaries of your written structure.
Low-ego collaboration
Treat the case as an active working session with a colleague rather than a rigid examination.
From past applicants
Anonymised candidate accounts of how recent Strategy& applicants handled the live round. Each covers prep, the experience, and the outcome.
LSE undergraduate (core consulting track)
Prep. Drilled issue trees and mental arithmetic, and prepared a Capabilities-Driven Strategy motivation answer.
Experience. Two 45-minute WebEx interviews with a 10-minute break. A TMT Manager skipped introductions, drilled a boutique banking internship on the CV, then gave a telecom churn case; the candidate drew an issue tree around retention costs, competitor pricing and reliability, and talked through every step of an LTV calculation out loud. A Director then gave a qualitative pharmacy acquisition case, answered around operational integration and digital capabilities rather than price.
Outcome. Received an Assessment Centre invite within 48 hours.
Oxbridge postgraduate (Deals Strategy practice)
Prep. Prepared structured STAR stories with hard data metrics and practised market sizing.
Experience. Two Managers from the PE CDD team. Interview 1's behavioural portion focused on conflict resolution; Interview 2 was a classic CDD case sizing the UK commercial waste-management market by bucketing businesses by size and multiplying by annual waste spend, then calculating a division's CAGR from an exhibit. The interviewer pushed back hard that the cost assumptions were too optimistic; the candidate took the feedback, adjusted the hypothesis out loud and updated the recommendation.
Outcome. Progressed to the final round.
What gets you through
FAQ
After passing the online assessment you receive an automated Workday notification with a self-service scheduling calendar of 90-minute morning or afternoon slots. Slots open on a rolling basis, so book quickly.
A laptop or desktop with an HD webcam, reliable microphone and stable broadband (at least 10 Mbps recommended). Download the standalone Google Meet or WebEx app rather than relying on the browser to avoid lag.
Treat it exactly like an in-person interview at the London office: professional business attire, a tailored suit or blazer.
Raise the camera to eye level with a stand or books, and look into the lens rather than at the interviewer's image so it reads as direct eye contact.
Do not bluff. Pause, acknowledge the ambiguity and ask a direct clarifying question, for example whether 'ancillary revenue' means property rental or passenger parking.
No. Calculators, spreadsheets and online tools are prohibited; all quantitative work is mental arithmetic or mapped on blank A4, and you are graded on working through it transparently out loud.
Keep clean A4 and a pen beside you and flag clearly when you look down ('I am going to map out the cost breakdown on paper now, about 45 seconds, then I will walk you through it').
State them in your Workday application or email the UK student recruitment team before scheduling. Requests are handled confidentially and passed to interviewers, for example extra preparation time.
Rejoin via the original link, or dial in using the numbers in your confirmation email. If you cannot reconnect within about three minutes, message your recruitment contact to reschedule.
Typically 3 to 7 days, with an Assessment Centre invite by phone or a portal status update.
The other rounds
Live interview is one of four rounds. Practise each one free on Intervyo.
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Intervyo is not affiliated with or endorsed by Strategy&. Interview questions are sourced from past applicants and the firm's published guidance; verify on the firm's careers site. Sector: Strategy Consulting.
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