Roland Berger interviews are tough. Candidates are evaluated using case study interviews, behavioural interviews, and sometimes a reasoning test and group case presentation.
This might sound intimidating, but don't worry, we've helped thousands of candidates land jobs at top consulting firms. This guide gives you everything you need to know to prep for your Roland Berger interview.
Here's an overview of what we'll cover:
- Roland Berger has offices in over 30 countries
- Roland Berger interview process overview
- Roland Berger case interviews
- Top behavioural interview questions
- Preparation tips for Roland Berger case interviews
Ready? Let's get started.
Click here to practice with Roland Berger ex-interviewers
1. Roland Berger has offices in over 30 countries ↑
In 1967, a young man called Roland Berger founded a small consultancy firm in Munich, Germany. Twenty years later, it was the largest consultancy in the country and had also set up offices in Italy and Brazil.
The firm is still headquartered in Munich, but it now has offices in over 30 countries and is engaged in every major international market. Roland Berger was ranked #13 in Vault's Top 50 Consulting Firms 2023.
The firm is not as large as McKinsey, BCG, or Bain. However, Roland Berger is still considered one of the world's leading consultancies and has annual revenues of ~$800 million. Between 2010 and 2013, Roland Berger was considering a potential merger with Deloitte or sale to EY. Neither of these deals was successful, and so Roland Berger continues to operate independently and is wholly owned by the firm's partners.
You can learn more about Roland Berger's journey on the Our History page of their website.
Next, let's turn our attention to an overview of Roland Berger's interview process.
2. Roland Berger interview process overview ↑
The specific process that you'll encounter when interviewing with Roland Berger will vary based on the role you're applying for and your geographic location. As a result, it can be helpful to ask your contact at Roland Berger for some specific details on the process.
With that said, the typical interview process for Roland Berger looks like this:
- Resume and cover letter screening
- Online reasoning test (some candidates)
- Interview stage:
- 2 case interviews
- 1 behavioural interview
- 1 written or group presentation (some candidates)
Let's take a closer look at each stage.
*Please note that some Roland Berger offices do in-person interviews and some do them online. Check with your recruiter or an HR contact at the firm.
2.1 Resume and cover letter screening
First, recruiters will look at your resume and assess if your experience matches the open position. This is the most competitive step in the process—we’ve found that 90% of candidates don’t make it past this stage.
You can use this free consulting resume guide and this free consulting cover letter guide to help tailor your application to the position you’re targeting.
If you’re looking for expert feedback, you can also get input from our team of ex-MBB recruiters, who will cover what achievements to focus on (or ignore), how to finetune your bullet points, and more.
2.2 Roland Berger online reasoning test
If your resume passes the screening stage, you may be invited to take an online test.
The test is about 90 minutes long and is made up of a series of questions that are similar to those used on the McKinsey PST, BCG Potential Test, or GMAT. Roland Berger's test is split into the following 3 sections:
- Numerical reasoning - Mathematics and quantitative reasoning questions.
- Verbal reasoning - Language comprehension questions.
- Abstract reasoning - Pattern recognition and logic questions.
You can find plenty of websites where you can take similar tests for free, and we recommend you do so several times before doing the real thing. You need to get a high score in order to make it to interview stage.
2.3 Roland Berger interviews
If you pass the resume and cover letter screening, you'll be invited for interviews.
If you're a graduate or junior candidate, you may be invited to a full day of interviews at one of Roland Berger's offices. This is known as an "assessment centre" or "super day, where the firm interviews large groups of candidates on the same day.
The assessment centre usually begins with a company presentation from current Roland Berger employees, followed by a Q&A session where you can ask the presenters questions. To help you come up with quality questions to ask, check out our guide about asking good questions in your consulting interviews. After the initial presentation, you will face case and behavioural interviews.
Depending on the role and office location where you're applying, you may also face an individual or group presentation. This type of interview will require you to analyze a set of provided case materials, prepare a presentation, and present your findings to a panel of interviewers.
If you're a more experienced candidate, or the region you're applying to doesn't run assessment centres, you may simply have multiple rounds of interviews, rather than it all being packed into a single day.
Either way, you can expect to face three or four interviews of 1-hour duration. These will include case study interviews and at least one behavioral interview.
Let's dive deeper into those now, starting with case interviews.
3. Roland Berger case interviews ↑
Case interviews at Roland Berger are candidate-led, which is the same style used in a BCG or Bain case interview. This is different than firms like McKinsey that use interviewer-led cases.
For a candidate-led case interview, there are 7 types of questions you need to prepare for:
- Situation
- Framework development
- Framework exploration
- Quant question – Data provided
- Quant question – No data provided
- Creativity question
- Recommendation
If you learn how to consistently crack each type of question individually, then you will be able to consistently crack case interviews as a whole.
Now, in order for this to work, you’ll need to have a deeper understanding of what each question type looks like, so you can identify them.
To help with that, you can see examples of each question type in the below video:
You'll need to be confident answering each type of question. Learn more about how to do this, and how to prepare, in our free case interview guide.
You should also watch this video from Roland Berger with some tips on how to approach your case interview.
Roland Berger also offers some case interview examples on its website:
- Roland Berger case interview example 1 (part 1)
- Roland Berger case interview example 1 (part 2)
- Roland Berger case interview example 2
In addition to the various case question types mentioned above, you should also expect to see market sizing questions during your Roland Berger interviews. Learn more about them and learn an answer framework in our ultimate guide to market sizing. You can then practise using our long list of market sizing questions.
3.1 Roland Berger case presentations ↑
Roland Berger will also sometimes ask candidates to perform a group case presentation. For this type of interview, you will be assigned to a small team with other candidates. Then you will have to work together to analyse case materials, prepare a PowerPoint, and deliver your presentation to a panel of interviewers.
Your interviewers will probably ask you some follow-up questions or challenge your findings. As a result, you will also need to be prepared to respond to their points. To learn how to prepare for this type of interview, you can check out our free group case interview guide.
In certain situations, you may have to do a case presentation individually, instead of with a group. Regardless of whether you will need to prepare the presentation individually or in a team, you should also review our free written case interview guide. That guide is written with BCG and Bain in mind, but the tips and preparation plan in sections 2 and 3 should still be a great resource for your Roland Berger preparation.
4. Top behavioural interview questions ↑
To prepare for behavioural interviews at Roland Berger, you should try to anticipate the types of questions you'll encounter, and prepare answers for them in advance.
You can expect to encounter two main categories of behavioural interview questions at Roland Berger:
- Fit questions. These are generic questions such as “Why consulting?” or “Why Roland Berger?”
- Personal Experience Interview (PEI) questions: These are questions such as “Tell me about a time when you led a team through a difficult situation.” Or “Tell me about a time where you had to manage a team conflict”
Here are the top 5 fit and PEI questions you should prepare for at Roland Berger and other firms:
Top 5 fit questions:
- Why Roland Berger instead of MBB?
- Why consulting?
- Walk me through your resume
- Tell me about something not on your resume
- Tell me about your greatest accomplishment
Top 5 PEI questions. Tell me about a time when ...
- You led a team through a difficult situation
- You worked in a team and had to manage a conflict
- You had a disagreement with a colleague / boss
- You had to change someone's / a group's mind
- You overcame a really difficult challenge
Don't fall into the trap of under-preparing for these types of questions. While they may seem easier than the case interviews, they are extremely important to get right.
You’ll need to prepare several ”stories” or “examples” from your personal and professional experience to demonstrate that you have the traits that Roland Berger is looking for.
Use our guide to become an expert at answering consulting fit / PEI questions.
5. Preparation tips for Roland Berger case interviews ↑
Now that we've covered case interviews and behavioural interviews, which are the core of the Roland Berger interview process, consulting interviews, let's go through some essential tips for your Roland Berger interview preparation.
5.1 Learn the case interview essentials
The best starting point for your case interview prep is our case interview prep guide. It'll take you through all the different types of questions you may be asked in your case interview, show you how to draw from different frameworks to structure your answer, and give you example cases to practise with.
5.2 Become really confident at maths
You don't have to have a perfect GPA or GMAT score to succeed at case interview maths. However, during your Roland Berger interview, you will be expected to quickly perform accurate mental maths.
With some time and intentional effort, you can develop impressive maths skills, and learn to confidently solve questions with a structured approach. In our experience, the most successful applicants begin their interview preparation by practising maths skills.
If you want to learn more about the type of maths problems used in Roland Berger case interviews, check out our free guide to case interview maths.
5.3 Research the firm
Roland Berger interviewers want to hire candidates who are deeply motivated to work for their firm. Make sure you're up to date in the latest developments in the area of the company you're applying to join.
Here are some useful links to get you started:
In addition, do some networking so that you can show you've made the effort to reach out to current staff.
5.4 Practice makes perfect
During case interview preparation, the quality of your preparation is just as important as the quantity of time that you dedicate. It's better to do 20 cases thoughtfully than to rush through 40 cases.
We recommend that you keep a notebook where you record improvement opportunities and specific things you did well for each case.
The notebook and self-evaluation will help you to be more strategic (and efficient) with your preparation. It's also a good idea to go back and re-do old cases. For example, after you have done case #20, you could go back to case #1, to make sure you are not repeating the same mistakes.
The minimum preparation time required to succeed in case interviews is probably around 30 hours. However, if you don't prepare thoughtfully, it may take much longer. So take notes, be strategic, and keep practising!
5.5 Practise with peers
Once you're in command of the subject matter, you'll want to start practising cases. But by yourself, you can’t simulate thinking on your feet or the pressure of performing in front of a stranger. Plus, there are no unexpected follow-up questions and no feedback.
If you have friends or peers who can do mock interviews with you, that's an option worth trying. It’s free, but be warned, you may come up against the following problems:
- It’s hard to know if the feedback you get is accurate
- They’re unlikely to have insider knowledge of interviews at your target company
- On peer platforms, people often waste your time by not showing up
For those reasons, many candidates skip peer mock interviews and go straight to mock interviews with an expert.
5.6 Practise with experienced case interviewers
In our experience, practising real interviews with experts who can give you company-specific feedback makes a huge difference.
Find a Roland Berger consulting interview coach so you can:
- Test yourself under real interview conditions
- Get accurate feedback from a real expert
- Build your confidence
- Get company-specific insights
- Learn how to tell the right stories, better.
- Save time by focusing your preparation
Landing a job at a top consulting company often results in a $50,000 per year or more increase in total compensation. In our experience, three or four coaching sessions worth ~$500 make a significant difference in your ability to land the job. That’s an ROI of 100x!
