Deloitte and Big 4 group cases

Intuition

The Big 4 (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) run consulting practices at huge scale, and their interviews often add a format MBB rarely uses: the group case. Instead of one candidate versus one interviewer, several candidates tackle a problem together while assessors watch from the side. It changes what's being tested. Solo cases measure your thinking; group cases measure your thinking plus how you behave on a team, do you lead without bulldozing, listen without disappearing, and push the group to an answer?

It's a subtler game: the candidate who "wins" the case but alienates the room often loses the offer.

Framework

What's distinctive about Big 4 / Deloitte interviews:

• Group cases. Collaborate to solve a prompt with 3–6 peers while assessors observe. They score behavior, not just answers.
• The collaboration balance. Contribute strong analysis and bring others in. Build on teammates' points, manage time, and help synthesize. Avoid both domination and silence.
• Solo cases too. Often slightly more straightforward/business-judgment-oriented than MBB; still structure, math, and recommendation.
• Written/presentation exercises. Some rounds include analyzing a pack and presenting, practice distilling data into a crisp recommendation.

Worked Example

In a Deloitte group case, your team gets a market-entry brief and 30 minutes. Strong play: early on, you propose a structure the group can rally around ("let's split into market attractiveness, our fit, and risks"); mid-way, you pull in a quieter teammate ("Priya, you mentioned regulation, where does that land?"); near the end, you volunteer to synthesize the group's view into a recommendation. You've shown analysis and leadership-through-collaboration, exactly the dual signal assessors are scoring, without ever steamrolling anyone.

The written exercise rewards the same discipline on a different surface. Given a 20-page data pack and ten minutes to present, the weak candidate walks through the slides in order, a tour, not an answer. The strong one opens with the recommendation ("Enter via partnership; here are the three numbers that drove me there"), spends one minute per supporting point, and closes with the biggest risk and how to manage it. Assessors at Deloitte and PwC mark the distillation, not the coverage, five insights beat twenty observations.

In the room

In the group room, the highest-value slots are process moves, and they come with exact lines. Early: "We've got 30 minutes, shall we structure this as market, our fit, and risks, and hold the last five to synthesize?" Midway: "Priya, you raised regulation earlier, where does that land for you?" Inviting a quieter teammate in by name is one of the strongest signals you can send. Late: "Want me to pull our threads into a recommendation?" The trap to avoid in the moment: scoring points against peers. Correcting someone sharply, repeating your idea louder, or visibly competing for airtime all read as the same flaw, assessors are scoring whether the group got better because you were in it. If your idea gets ignored, let it go or reintroduce it through someone else's point: "That connects to the margin issue from earlier…"

Pitfalls

• Treating a group case like a competition and talking over others to look dominant.
• Going quiet to avoid risk, invisibility reads as no contribution.
• Forgetting that assessors are scoring teamwork and leadership behavior, not just who has the smartest idea.