Test Prep
First-round assessments, for real
Banks, asset managers, and consulting firms don't just interview you — increasingly the first real filter is a game-based psychometric test (Pymetrics) or a timed recorded video (HireVue), before you ever speak to a human. This page covers all three phases: what each firm type's process actually looks like, a technical/case question bank, and practice for the two assessment formats themselves.
The process, by firm type
Investment Banking
Bulge Bracket Investment Banks
The largest global banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi). High-volume recruiting, heavily standardized process, recruiting timelines that now run up to 18 months ahead of the actual start date.
- 1.Online application + resume screen
- 2.Online assessment — numerical/logical reasoning, sometimes a recorded one-way video round (HireVue-style)
- 3.First-round interview — behavioral + technical, phone or video, 30-45 minutes
- 4."Superday" — 3-5 back-to-back interviews in one day: behavioral/fit, technical, sometimes a case or modeling test
Acceptance rates at top banks for these programs are commonly cited as below 1%. Fit and technical are both real bars — a strong technical answer with a flat, generic "why banking" answer can still lose to a strong all-rounder.
Investment Banking
Elite Boutique & Middle-Market IB
Smaller, advisory-focused firms (e.g. Evercore, Lazard, Moelis, PJT, and regional middle-market shops). Smaller classes, often more technically demanding interviews since there's less brand-name draw doing the work for them.
- 1.Resume screen — networking and referrals matter more here than at bulge brackets
- 2.First round — usually more technical, faster-paced, less scripted than a bulge bracket's standardized round
- 3.Final round — partner/MD interviews, heavy emphasis on genuine interest in advisory work and the specific firm
Boutiques often expect you to already know the technicals cold by first round, since there are fewer rounds total to figure out if you're capable. "Why this boutique, specifically" is asked more seriously here than "why banking" in general.
Asset Management
Asset Management (Buy-Side)
Firms managing others' money in public or private markets (e.g. BlackRock, Fidelity, Wellington, T. Rowe Price, hedge funds). Buy-side: analyzing markets and portfolios, not executing deals — a different day-to-day than banking.
- 1.Resume screen + online assessment — often HireVue or a traditional phone screen rather than a heavy numerical test
- 2.First round — more market- and analytical-thinking focused than IB's deal-execution focus: stock pitches, macro views, portfolio construction logic
- 3.Final rounds — often includes a live stock pitch or investment memo, presented to real portfolio managers
AM interviews reward having genuine, current opinions on markets — being able to pitch a real stock (long or short) with real numbers is worth more here than reciting DCF steps. This site's own Company Profile and Pitch Builder modules are direct practice for this.
Management Consulting
McKinsey, BCG & Bain (MBB)
The three most selective global strategy consultancies. Case interviews are the entire game here — technical finance knowledge matters far less than structured problem-solving under pressure.
- 1.Resume + cover letter screen
- 2.Online assessment — McKinsey uses its own "Solve" game-based assessment (not Pymetrics); BCG uses a chatbot-based online case tool; Bain uses its own set of online test types
- 3.First round — typically 2 case interviews + 1 behavioral/fit interview
- 4.Final round — typically 2-3 more case interviews, often with senior partners
McKinsey's case style is interviewer-led (a structured sequence: framework, then a chart, then math, then brainstorming). BCG and Bain are interviewee-led — you drive the structure, the interviewer mostly just feeds you data when you ask for it. These are genuinely different skills to practice, not just "cases" generically.
Management Consulting
Big 4 & Other Consulting
Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG advisory arms, and other consultancies (Accenture, and specialist/boutique strategy firms). Larger classes than MBB, broader range of case difficulty, heaviest real-world use of HireVue of any firm type.
- 1.Online application + assessment (numerical/verbal reasoning is common)
- 2.HireVue-style recorded video interview — Big 4 firms are the heaviest users of this format in the entire recruiting landscape
- 3.Case + competency interview — usually 1-2 rounds, cases tend to be more business-operations focused (less abstract than MBB's classic market-sizing style)
- 4.Assessment centre (common at Big 4 in some regions) — group exercise + case + interview, all in one day
Because HireVue plays such a large role here, practicing answering out loud (or in writing first, then out loud) matters more for this firm type than almost any other — a strong written answer that you haven't rehearsed saying can come across flat on video.
Technical & case question bank
Accounting and three-statement questions, valuation/technical questions (DCF, LBO, M&A, options, fixed income, FX), and consulting-style case and deal questions — filter by category or firm type below. Full context for each topic lives in Lessons.
15 questions
Pymetrics — the real games
Pymetrics (now owned by Harver) is a set of 12 short neuroscience-based games used as a first-stage filter by firms including JPMorgan, Unilever, Mastercard, Blackstone, PwC, Bain, and Accenture (office-dependent). McKinsey does not use Pymetrics— it uses its own game-based tool called “Solve” instead. Below are all 12 real games and what each measures; the Balloon Game (the clearest one to simulate honestly) is playable.
Balloon Game
playable belowRisk tolerance
Inflate a virtual balloon in small increments. Each pump adds a small amount to your banked total for that balloon, but the balloon can pop at any time, losing everything pumped into it so far. Cash out any time to lock in that balloon's total and move to the next one. Real users: JPMorgan, Unilever, Mastercard, and others.
Money Exchange Game (Trust)
Trust & fairness
You're given a small sum and decide how much to send to an anonymous counterpart; whatever you send gets multiplied, and the counterpart decides how much to send back. Measures your baseline trust in a stranger's reciprocity.
Money Exchange Game (Reciprocity)
Fairness & generosity
The reverse role of the trust game — you're the one deciding how much to send back after receiving a multiplied amount. Measures how fairly you treat a counterpart when you hold the power in the exchange.
Keypress Game
Sustained attention
Press a key as fast as possible when you see one shape, and withhold pressing for a different shape, over several minutes. Measures sustained attention and impulse control under monotony.
Digits Game
Working memory
A sequence of digits flashes briefly; you type back as much of the sequence as you can recall, with sequences growing longer. A fairly direct working-memory span test.
Arrows Game
Attention & focus
Identify the direction a central arrow points while ignoring flanking arrows pointing a different direction (a classic "flanker task"). Measures selective attention under distraction.
Lengths Game
Perception
Quickly judge which of two lines is longer, repeated rapidly. Measures perceptual speed and accuracy under time pressure.
Cards Game
Reward sensitivity
Choose cards from different decks with different, initially-unknown risk/reward profiles across many rounds — a version of the well-known Iowa Gambling Task. Measures how you learn from wins and losses over time.
Tower Game
Planning
Rearrange stacked disks across pegs to match a target configuration in the minimum number of moves (a version of the Tower of London task). Measures forward planning ability.
Hard or Easy Game
Motivation & effort
Repeatedly choose between an easy, low-reward task and a hard, high-reward task. Measures how reward size changes your willingness to exert effort.
Stop Game
Impulse control
Respond quickly to a repeating stimulus, then withhold your response entirely when a stop signal appears. A classic "stop-signal task" measuring impulse inhibition.
Faces Game
Emotional recognition
Quickly identify the emotion shown in a series of human facial expressions. Measures speed and accuracy of emotional recognition.
Current pot: $0
HireVue — write it before you say it
HireVue is timed, one-way recorded video — real users include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, and (heaviest of all) the Big 4 consulting firms, where it often fully replaces a first-round human interview. You can't practice video here, but you can do the part that actually matters most: knowing exactly what you want to say before the camera starts. Draft and time your answers below — they save to this browser.
Motivational · asked at: Bulge Bracket Investment Banks, Elite Boutique & Middle-Market IB, Asset Management (Buy-Side), McKinsey, BCG & Bain (MBB), Big 4 & Other Consulting
Why do you want to work at this firm specifically, and not one of our competitors?
Name something real and specific — a deal, a fund, a practice area, a person you've spoken to — not "strong culture" or "great people," which every firm claims about itself.