The McKinsey Solve assessment, explained

What Solve is, which modules your invitation’s time limit implies, how it is scored, what follows it — and an honest statement of what we can and cannot help you practice.

By the Game Assessment Prep research teamUpdated September 11, 2026How we research

The McKinsey & Company interview rounds at a glance

1Online application — Apply to a specific office and program. McKinsey reviews on a rolling basis rather than only at the deadline, so applying weeks before the closing date matters.Programs and deadlines
2McKinsey Solve — Reported to be sent after the resume screen and before live interviews for most early-career consultant-track roles. Unproctored, on a desktop or laptop, with an untimed tutorial before each task. The time limit stated in your invitation email is what tells you which modules you are getting.The modules, in detail
3First-round interviews — Reported as two interviews with business analysts, associates or engagement managers. Each pairs an interviewer-led case with a Personal Experience Interview segment, roughly 45 minutes in total.McKinsey interview questions
4Final-round interviews — Reported as two to three interviews with partners and associate partners, same case-plus-PEI structure, with cases often drawn from real client work and a higher bar on business judgment.
5Offer decision — Solve results are reported to be weighed alongside the rest of the application rather than applied as a standalone cut. McKinsey publishes no pass mark.

What games are in the McKinsey & Company assessment?

Here is the honest position, stated up front: Solve is McKinsey’s own build, unlike every vendor battery we simulate, and the only place you will see its actual interface and items is the untimed tutorial before each task in the real sitting. What we do have is practice for the two module formats on original material: a timed data study for the Redrock shape and a constraint-based team task for the Sea Wolf shape, both at /mckinsey-solve/practice, plus worked examples. We do not offer practice for the Sustainable Futures Lab or the legacy Ecosystem Building game. What follows is a description of each module so that nothing in the real sitting is a surprise, with each claim sourced and dated.

Redrock Study — current, reported in the default lineup

Category practice

Multiple sources

A data-analysis case run in phases: an investigation phase where you gather information, an analysis phase where you work with the data you collected, a report phase, and a set of short mini-case questions at the end. Harvard names it as part of the current default lineup. Candidates report roughly 35 minutes, though that figure comes from prep sites rather than from Harvard or McKinsey. Preparation that transfers: reading a data table under time pressure and pulling the one figure that answers the question, rather than working through everything on screen. We do not simulate this module.

Source: Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success (module and lineup); prep sites for the reported duration

Sea Wolf, also called Ocean Cleanup — current, reported in the default lineup

Category practice

Multiple sources

A constraint-optimization task: three contaminated ocean sites, and for each one you choose the combination of microbes whose attributes meet the target ranges, balancing desired and undesired traits. Harvard names it as one module under both names — it is not two games. Candidates report roughly 30 to 35 minutes, again a prep-site figure. Preparation that transfers: working systematically against a constraint set rather than trying combinations at random, since the process score notices which one you did. We do not simulate this module.

Source: Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success (module, names and mechanic); prep sites for the reported duration

Sustainable Futures Lab — current, but only on longer invitations

Category practice

Multiple sources

A judgment exercise of roughly 20 minutes: drag-and-drop ranking of early priorities, followed by a series of single-choice decisions. Harvard describes it as rolling out by region on the 85-minute variant, which means it is conditional rather than standard — if your invitation says 65 minutes, you are not getting it. Preparation that transfers: none that is specific; it rewards consistent, defensible prioritization rather than a trained skill. We do not simulate this module.

Source: Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success, What Is the McKinsey Solve Game (June 2026)

Ecosystem Building — legacy, occasionally still reported

Category practice

Single source

The module older guides lead with: build a sustainable ecosystem by choosing eight species that form continuous food chains and balance calories across the terrain. Harvard says it still appears in some versions but is not part of the current default lineup; prep sites report it being phased out of the standard rotation around mid-2025. Do not build your preparation around it, and be suspicious of any guide that presents it as the main Solve game — that guide is running on stale information, and whatever else it tells you probably is too. We do not simulate this module.

Source: Harvard FAS career services (still appears in some versions); PSG Secrets (prep site) for the mid-2025 phase-out

Plant Defense — historical only

Category practice

Single source

A tower-defense-style module from the earlier Problem Solving Game era. One prep site reports it was replaced by Redrock around February 2023; no university source or candidate account we could read corroborates the date. It is listed here only so you can recognize an out-of-date guide when you see one describing it as current. We do not simulate this module.

Source: PSG Secrets, McKinsey Solve game guide (prep site; sole source)

Vendor game batteries: not involved at all

Category practice

Official source

Solve is not a HireVue, pymetrics, Arctic Shores, Aon, Criteria or SHL assessment, and none of those vendors supplies it. If you have practiced pymetrics games for another employer, or HireVue games for a Shell or NATO application, none of that transfers to Solve in any specific way — the format, the scoring and the builder are all different. Practicing a vendor battery for a McKinsey application would be preparing for something McKinsey does not use.

Source: McKinsey builds and operates Solve itself; no third-party vendor appears in any official, university or press source

Good to know: Our Solve practice is format practice on original datasets, not a copy of McKinsey’s items or interface; no other game on this site is Solve practice and we do not offer any as a substitute. Your invitation email’s stated time limit is the only thing that tells you which modules you will actually sit, and McKinsey’s own tutorial before each task is the only place you will see the real interface before the clock starts. If your invitation names modules that differ from what this page describes, trust the invitation and tell us — this page is built from third-party reports and gets better when candidates correct it.

Try each game once free

Who gets the McKinsey & Company assessment?

McKinsey Solve is unusual among the assessments this site covers, because there is no vendor behind it. Most employers we write about buy a battery from HireVue, pymetrics, Arctic Shores, Aon, Criteria or SHL, and the honest practice question is which of that vendor’s modules you will be sent. McKinsey built Solve itself. Its own careers blog describes collaborating with the startup Imbellus from 2016, with the finished product deployed in Fall 2019; Imbellus’s assets were acquired by Roblox in December 2020, and McKinsey has run the assessment under its own name ever since, rebranding it from the Problem Solving Game to Solve.

That has a direct consequence for you and for us. There is no vendor hub to send you to, because McKinsey built Solve itself. What we offer instead is format practice, not a replica: our Solve practice uses original datasets and original team-building constraints so that the data-study workflow (read, compute, decide under a clock) and the constraint-team workflow are familiar before you sit the real thing. We say plainly that the items and interface are McKinsey’s own, because the point of this site is that practice matches the assessment’s demands, not its branding.

What we can do is set out clearly what is actually reported about Solve, where the reports come from, and how confident each claim is — because a lot of what circulates about Solve is out of date. Ecosystem Building, the species-and-food-chain game that most older guides lead with, has been phased out of the standard rotation. Sea Wolf and Ocean Cleanup are not two different games; they are the same module under two names. And the widely repeated pass-rate figures have no primary source behind them at all, so this page does not cite any.

One more thing to clear up before you read on: "Solve It" is a completely separate McKinsey UK case competition, not the online assessment. If you searched for one and landed on the other, the difference is explained below.

Business Analyst — US full-time (undergraduate and master’s)

The entry consultant-track role. One prep site reports that for the 2026 US cycle applications opened 1 July and closed 11 August 2026, for students graduating between December 2026 and August 2027. That is a single prep-site claim on a US-only cycle: check McKinsey’s own role page for the office you are applying to, because dates move each cycle and vary by office.

Single source

Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site, updated 11 September 2026)

Summer Business Analyst internship — US

The undergraduate internship that feeds the full-time Business Analyst role. The same prep site reports the 2026 cycle opened 1 January and closed 29 March 2026, for December 2027 to August 2028 graduates. That deadline has passed — treat it as the shape of the cycle rather than a live date, and watch for the next opening around the turn of the year.

Single source

Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site)

Sophomore Summer Business Analyst — North America

An earlier-year underclassman internship, posted separately from the main summer program each cycle. A university career-center post covering the prior (2025) cycle recorded it opening on 1 May with a 10 June deadline. That is a passed cycle from a different year and is included only to show when in the year the program tends to appear.

Single source

Source: Villanova Career Connections, 2026 MBB application deadlines (prior cycle)

Insight / Advanced Professional Degree (APD)

The track for PhD, MD, postdoc and other advanced-degree candidates. One prep site reports a 25 March 2026 US deadline, which has passed. No source we could verify establishes the next cycle’s dates.

Single source

Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site)

Early Access — incoming full-time MBA students

The track for students starting an MBA. One prep site reports an 11 May 2026 deadline extended to 15 May. Passed as of September 2026.

Single source

Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site)

Experienced hires and specialist roles

Recruited year-round on a rolling basis with no fixed deadline. Prep sites report that experienced hires and some specialists either skip Solve or receive a different screen, and that McKinsey does not publish which roles are exempt. That is exactly why this page never claims Solve is universal — if your process does not include it, nothing on this page applies to you.

Single source

Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey Solve guide (prep site)

Non-US offices (UK, EMEA, India, APAC)

Solve is reported to be used across McKinsey offices worldwide, but no non-US deadline could be verified from a reachable source. Dates vary by office and program. Use McKinsey’s own careers search for the office you are applying to rather than any date published on a prep site, including the US dates above.

No evidence found

Source: mckinsey.com was unreachable for verification on 11 September 2026

Solve It UK — a case competition, not the assessment

A separate McKinsey UK competition for students at a list of UK and Irish universities. Teams receive the case on the day and have under four hours to analyze it and pitch to a panel of judges on a real non-profit challenge; a university news piece about a winning team records over 1,000 applicants nationally. It has nothing to do with the Solve online assessment beyond the name, and preparing for one does not prepare you for the other.

Multiple sources

Source: Loughborough University news, student in winning McKinsey Solve It team (April 2024)

How does the McKinsey & Company assessment work?

Solve is McKinsey’s own assessment — there is no vendor

Official source

Solve is not a HireVue, pymetrics, Arctic Shores, Aon, Criteria or SHL product. McKinsey’s own careers blog describes building the game with the startup Imbellus from 2016 and deploying the finished product in Fall 2019. Imbellus’s assets were acquired by Roblox in December 2020 — the trade press covering that deal describes Imbellus as a builder of game and simulation-based assessments combining game-like experiences with psychometrics, and does not mention McKinsey. McKinsey has run the assessment under its own name ever since. Because there is no vendor, there is no vendor hub to practice on and no third-party module list to look up.

Source: EdWeek Market Brief on the Roblox–Imbellus acquisition; McKinsey’s own careers blog on building the game with Imbellus (link-out)

It replaced the old Problem Solving Test

Multiple sources

Tufts University Career Center describes Solve as having replaced the McKinsey Problem Solving Test (PST) and as assessing cognitive and problem-solving ability rather than business knowledge, through simulations with multiple ways to succeed. If you are reading a guide that talks about a paper or multiple-choice PST, it is describing a format McKinsey no longer uses.

Source: Tufts University Career Center, McKinsey Digital Assessment (Solve Game), March 2026

Two modules at 65 minutes, three at 85 — your invitation tells you which

Multiple sources

Harvard’s FAS career-services guide describes the current default lineup as the Redrock Study plus Sea Wolf on a 65-minute invitation, with the roughly 20-minute Sustainable Futures Lab added on the 85-minute variant, which it says is rolling out by region. Prep sites report the same split. The practical consequence is simple: the time limit stated in your invitation email is the single most reliable indicator of which modules you will sit, and it is the one thing on this page that comes from your own case rather than from someone else’s report.

Source: Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success, What Is the McKinsey Solve Game (June 2026); corroborated by MyConsultingCoach

Sea Wolf and Ocean Cleanup are the same module

Multiple sources

This trips up a lot of guides, including an earlier version of our own coverage. Harvard’s guide names it as one module — "Sea Wolf (Ocean Cleanup)" — and describes selecting the right combination of microbes for each of three contaminated sites. If a source lists Sea Wolf and Ocean Cleanup as two separate newer scenarios, it is double-counting one module, and any timing or lineup built on top of that is wrong too.

Source: Harvard FAS Mignone Center for Career Success, What Is the McKinsey Solve Game (June 2026)

Two scoring layers: a product score and a process score

Multiple sources

Candidates and university career-services guides consistently describe Solve as scoring two things — the product (whether your answers are right) and the process (how you got there: what you clicked, what you prioritized, how structured your path was). Harvard’s guide puts the consequence bluntly: correct answers reached through a chaotic, random path can still score poorly. McKinsey does not publish the weighting, the model, or a pass mark, so treat this as the shape of the scoring rather than a formula to game.

Source: Harvard FAS career services; MyConsultingCoach (prep site)

It is not confirmed to be universal

Multiple sources

Tufts’s wording is deliberately conditional: Solve "can be a part of" McKinsey’s screening process. Prep sites report that most early-career applicants who clear the resume screen receive it, while experienced hires and some specialist roles may skip it or get a different screen, and that McKinsey does not publish which roles or regions are exempt. Nobody publishes a definitive list, so this page does not claim one.

Source: Tufts University Career Center; RoadToOffer (prep site)

Legacy modules: Ecosystem Building and Plant Defense

Single source

Ecosystem Building — build a sustainable ecosystem by choosing eight species with continuous food chains and a calorie balance — is the module most older guides lead with. Harvard says it still appears in some versions but is not part of the current default lineup, and prep sites report it being phased out of the standard rotation around mid-2025. It is neither current nor fully retired, so plan around Redrock and Sea Wolf and treat an Ecosystem appearance as the exception. Plant Defense, a tower-defense-style module, is reported by one prep site to have been replaced by Redrock around February 2023 and is historical only.

Source: Harvard FAS career services on Ecosystem; PSG Secrets (prep site) for the dated change timeline

What McKinsey says about preparation, and why we are not quoting it

Single source

McKinsey publishes its own Solve FAQ, and search results indicate it says no preparation is needed, that no previous business knowledge or gaming experience is required, and that an untimed tutorial precedes each task. We could not load mckinsey.com to verify that wording directly, so we are not putting it in quotation marks. Read the FAQ yourself — it is linked here, and on a question like "am I allowed to take notes", McKinsey’s own document beats every guide including this one.

Source: McKinsey’s official Solve page and Solve FAQ PDF (link-out; not reachable for verification on 11 September 2026)

Rules during the assessment

Single source

Solve is reported to be unproctored but governed by explicit integrity rules: no applications or websites open alongside it, no AI tools, no pre-prepared notes, no screenshots or recording, and no working with anyone else. McKinsey publishes an assessment-integrity page setting these out; we could not reach it to verify the exact wording, so check it directly. The practical reading is unambiguous either way — practice with whatever you like beforehand, and sit the real thing alone.

Source: McKinsey’s assessment-integrity expectations page (link-out; not reachable for verification on 11 September 2026); summarized by RoadToOffer

No pass rate, cut score or elimination percentage exists

No evidence found

You will find "20-30% pass" and "Solve eliminates 70-80% of candidates" repeated across prep sites. We looked for the primary source and there is none — the figures appear only on sites copying one another, and McKinsey publishes no cutoff. We are not going to repeat a number we cannot trace, and you should discount any site that does.

Source: Targeted search for a primary source for McKinsey Solve pass rates, 11 September 2026

Results are weighed with the rest of the application

Single source

Prep sites report candidates hearing back on Solve within roughly one to two weeks, varying by office and volume, and describe the result as being considered alongside the resume and the rest of the application rather than as a standalone gate. McKinsey does not publish how the result is weighted. Retake and reapplication policy is not established by any source we could verify — the official FAQ is the place to check that.

Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey Solve guide (prep site)

What happens in the McKinsey & Company hiring process?

Where Solve sits in the McKinsey process

The sequence is consistent across university career-services pages and prep sites, even though the details within each stage vary by office.

1Apply online to a specific office and program. Review is rolling, not batched at the deadline.
2Resume and academic screen.
3If your process includes it, the Solve invitation arrives — reported as roughly a week after applying. The invitation states the time limit; that is your module list.
4Sit Solve unproctored on a desktop or laptop, alone, with an untimed tutorial before each task.
5First-round interviews: reported as two interviews combining an interviewer-led case with a PEI segment.
6Final round: reported as two to three interviews with partners and associate partners.
7Offer decision, with Solve weighed alongside the rest of the application rather than as a standalone cut.

Source: Harvard FAS career services; Tufts University Career Center; CaseStar (prep site) for round structure

The Personal Experience Interview (PEI), in every round

Every McKinsey interview pairs a case with a PEI segment of roughly 15 to 20 minutes. One dimension is typically probed deeply per interviewer, with 10 to 15 minutes of follow-up on a single story — which is why shallow examples fall apart here and why candidates are advised to prepare two distinct stories per dimension.

1Leadership (prep sources report this was formerly called Inclusive Leadership): setting direction, mobilizing a team, delivering through others. "Tell me about a time you led others to challenge how something was being done."
2Connection (formerly Personal Impact): influencing without authority, building trust with someone whose perspective differed from yours, changing minds.
3Drive (formerly Entrepreneurial Drive): taking initiative, setting a stretch goal, owning an outcome, building something from nothing.
4Growth (formerly Courageous Change): driving change despite resistance, learning from a failure, a time feedback changed your approach.
5Prep sources report McKinsey renamed the four dimensions in 2025 with the substance unchanged. No official McKinsey page confirms the rename, so both name sets are given here — you may meet either in a guide or from an interviewer.
6For question-level preparation, see our researched McKinsey interview-question page at /mckinsey-solve.

Source: CaseStar, McKinsey interview guide (prep site; single-source cap on the dimension names)

The case interview: interviewer-led, not candidate-led

McKinsey cases run differently from the candidate-led style most case books teach, and that difference matters more than any individual framework.

1You propose a structure, and then the interviewer directs where the analysis goes rather than letting you steer — they may put a whole branch of your structure aside to focus on one area.
2Direct mental-math and calculation questions under time pressure, often percentages of large figures.
3Market sizing and estimation.
4Brainstorming and idea generation on the interviewer’s prompt rather than your own.
5Final-round cases are reported to be drawn from real client work, with more weight on business judgment and client-readiness than on structuring mechanics.

Source: CaseStar, McKinsey interview guide (prep site)

Solve vs Solve It: two different things with one name

This name collision sends a lot of people to the wrong page, so it is worth thirty seconds.

1Solve is the online assessment described on this page: unproctored, roughly 65 or 85 minutes, sat alone after the resume screen, made of simulation modules.
2Solve It is a McKinsey UK case competition for students at a list of UK and Irish universities. Teams receive the case on the day and have under four hours to analyze it and pitch to a panel of judges, working on a real non-profit challenge. A university news piece about a winning team records over 1,000 applicants nationally.
3Preparing for one does not prepare you for the other. If you have been invited to something in person, in a team, in London, on a single day, that is Solve It.
4We have seen a GBP 1,000 prize figure attached to Solve It in secondary write-ups. The university source we checked does not state any prize amount, so we are not repeating the figure.

Source: Loughborough University news, student in winning McKinsey Solve It team (April 2024)

When is the McKinsey & Company assessment?

Every deadline we could obtain is US-only and comes from a single prep site, and three of the five have already passed as of 11 September 2026. They are shown here dated as specific cycles so you can see the shape of the year, not so you can rely on them. McKinsey’s own role page for your office is the binding source — mckinsey.com was unreachable during this review, which is exactly why nothing below carries an official label.

Cycle	Application dates	Likely assessment window	Evidence
US full-time Business Analyst, 2026 cycle (for December 2026 – August 2027 graduates)	Reported to have opened 1 July and closed 11 August 2026	Solve invitation reported roughly a week after applying; result reported in roughly one to two weeks	Single source Rolling review means applying four to six weeks before the close is materially better than applying in the final days. Single-source, US-only, and for a cycle that has now closed — re-check McKinsey’s own role page for the next one. Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site, updated 11 September 2026)
US Summer Business Analyst internship, 2026 cycle (for December 2027 – August 2028 graduates)	Reported to have opened 1 January and closed 29 March 2026 — passed	Same Solve step after the resume screen	Single source Presented as the prior cycle, not a live deadline. If you are aiming at the next summer intake, the pattern suggests watching for the opening around the turn of the year and confirming on McKinsey’s own role page. Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site)
US Insight / Advanced Professional Degree, 2026 cycle	Reported as 25 March 2026 — passed	Not separately documented	Single source The advanced-degree track for PhD, MD and postdoc candidates. Dated here as the prior cycle; no verified source establishes the next one. Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site)
US Early Access for incoming MBA students, 2026 cycle	Reported as 11 May 2026, extended to 15 May — passed	Not separately documented	Single source Included for cycle shape only. Confirm the next window on McKinsey’s own page. Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site)
UK, EMEA, India and APAC offices	Not established	Not established	No evidence found No non-US deadline could be verified from a reachable source during this review. Dates vary by office and program, and we would rather tell you that than publish a date we cannot stand behind. Use McKinsey’s own careers search for the office you are applying to. Source: mckinsey.com was unreachable for verification on 11 September 2026
Experienced hires, all regions	None — rolling, year-round	Varies; prep sites report some experienced-hire and specialist processes skip Solve entirely	Single source There is no application window to plan around. Whether Solve applies to you is answered by your own process, not by this page. Source: RoadToOffer, McKinsey application deadlines (prep site)

How to practice for the McKinsey & Company assessment

The first thing to say is what we are not going to sell you. We do not reproduce McKinsey’s items or interface, and there is no vendor hub to send you to because McKinsey built Solve itself. Any site offering you "the real McKinsey Solve games" is offering something adjacent at best. What we offer is practice for the two module formats on original datasets, at /mckinsey-solve/practice. The genuinely useful preparation for Solve is narrower and duller than the market suggests, and it is set out below.

The second thing is that McKinsey’s own position is that no preparation is needed and that a tutorial precedes each task. That is not a reason to walk in cold — knowing the module names, the phase structure and the two scoring layers removes a surprise that would otherwise cost you the first few minutes — but it is a reason to stop at familiarity rather than grinding. McKinsey publishes no pass mark, so there is no target to train toward.

Step 1

Read the time limit on your invitation first

Sixty-five minutes means Redrock and Sea Wolf. Eighty-five means those two plus the Sustainable Futures Lab. This is the only module information specific to you rather than to someone else’s sitting, and it takes ten seconds to check.

Step 2

Read McKinsey’s own Solve FAQ

It is the source that beats every guide, including this one, on the rules: what you may have open, whether notes are allowed, what the tutorial covers. We could not load it during this review, so read it yourself rather than trusting anyone’s paraphrase — ours included.

Step 3

Understand the phase structure before the clock starts

Redrock runs in phases — investigate, analyze, report, then short mini-cases. Sea Wolf gives you three sites and a constraint set. Knowing that shape means the untimed tutorial confirms what you already expect instead of teaching you from scratch.

Step 4

Work on data interpretation under time pressure

This is the one skill with genuine overlap, and it is a transferable skill rather than Solve practice: reading a table or chart and extracting the specific figure that answers the question, fast, without working through everything on the screen. Any timed numerical-reasoning practice builds it — ours included — but none of it looks like Redrock, and we will not pretend otherwise.

Step 5

Be systematic, because the process is scored too

Candidates and career-services guides consistently describe a process score alongside the answer score, and Harvard puts it plainly: a correct answer reached through a chaotic, random path can still score poorly. On a constraint task like Sea Wolf, that means working through combinations methodically rather than clicking until something fits.

Step 6

Set up real conditions and sit it alone

Desktop or laptop, quiet room, notifications off, one sitting, a stable connection. No AI tools, no second browser tab, no notes, no screenshots, nobody helping. Solve is unproctored but the integrity rules are explicit, and McKinsey publishes them.

Step 7

Prepare the interviews separately — they are the bigger lift

Solve is one 65-to-85-minute sitting; the case and PEI rounds are where most of the decision is made. Prepare two distinct stories per PEI dimension deep enough to survive 10 to 15 minutes of follow-up, and practice interviewer-led cases specifically, since the format differs from the candidate-led style most case books teach. Our researched McKinsey interview-question page is at /mckinsey-solve.

Step 8

Discount any source quoting a pass rate

The "20-30% pass" and "70-80% eliminated" figures have no primary source. A guide confident enough to publish one is a guide that has not checked its other claims either — which is how Ecosystem Building ended up leading so many Solve articles two years after it left the default rotation.

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McKinsey & Company assessment FAQ

Does McKinsey use HireVue, pymetrics or another assessment vendor?

No. Solve is McKinsey’s own assessment. McKinsey built it with the startup Imbellus from 2016 and deployed it in Fall 2019; Imbellus’s assets were acquired by Roblox in December 2020, and McKinsey has run Solve under its own name since. No third-party vendor — not HireVue, pymetrics, Arctic Shores, Aon, Criteria or SHL — supplies it, which is why this page has no vendor hub to link to.

Do you have a McKinsey Solve simulator I can practice on?

No, and we would rather say so than send you to something that only rhymes with it. Nothing in our catalog reproduces Redrock, Sea Wolf, the Sustainable Futures Lab or Ecosystem Building. The one genuinely transferable skill is reading data under time pressure, which timed numerical practice builds — but that is a skill overlap, not Solve practice, and the only place to see the real interface is McKinsey’s own untimed tutorial before each task.

Which games are in McKinsey Solve in 2026?

Candidates and university career-services guides report the current default as two modules — the Redrock Study and Sea Wolf (also called Ocean Cleanup) — on a 65-minute invitation, with a third, the Sustainable Futures Lab, on 85-minute invitations that are rolling out by region. Ecosystem Building is no longer in the default lineup, though it still appears in some versions, and Plant Defense is historical. The time limit in your invitation email tells you which set you are getting.

Are Sea Wolf and Ocean Cleanup two different games?

No — they are the same module under two names, which Harvard’s career-services guide names as "Sea Wolf (Ocean Cleanup)". You choose combinations of microbes meeting target attribute ranges across three contaminated sites. Any guide listing them as two separate scenarios is double-counting one module, and its timings will be wrong as a result.

How is McKinsey Solve scored, and what score do I need to pass?

Candidates and career-services guides consistently describe two layers: a product score for your answers and a process score for how you worked — what you clicked, what you prioritized, how structured your path was. Harvard notes that correct answers reached through a chaotic path can still score poorly. McKinsey publishes no pass mark, no cut score and no weighting. The pass-rate figures circulating on prep sites have no primary source and we do not repeat them.

Does every McKinsey applicant have to take Solve?

Not established, and we will not claim it. Tufts’s career center says Solve "can be a part of" McKinsey’s screening process, and prep sites report that most early-career consultant-track applicants who clear the resume screen receive it while experienced hires and some specialists may skip it or get a different screen. McKinsey does not publish which roles or regions are exempt.

What is the difference between Solve and Solve It?

They are unrelated beyond the name. Solve is the online assessment described on this page — unproctored, roughly 65 or 85 minutes, sat alone after the resume screen. Solve It is a McKinsey UK case competition for students at a list of UK and Irish universities: teams get the case on the day and have under four hours to analyze it and pitch to judges on a real non-profit challenge. Preparing for one does nothing for the other.

What comes after Solve?

First-round interviews, reported as two interviews with business analysts, associates or engagement managers, each pairing an interviewer-led case of roughly 25 to 35 minutes with a Personal Experience Interview segment of 15 to 20 minutes. Then a final round of two to three interviews with partners and associate partners, with cases often drawn from real client work. Our researched question page for the interview stages is at /mckinsey-solve.

When are McKinsey application deadlines?

Every date we could verify is US-only and from a single prep site, and most of the 2026 cycle has closed — full-time Business Analyst applications are reported to have closed on 11 August 2026. No UK, EMEA, India or APAC deadline could be verified, because mckinsey.com was unreachable during this review. Dates vary by office and program each cycle, so use McKinsey’s own careers search for your office rather than any date on a prep site.

Game Assessment Prep is independent and is not affiliated with McKinsey & Company or HireVue. Employer processes can change by program, role, country, and recruiting cycle. Follow your invitation over this guide. Claims were reviewed against the linked employer, vendor, and candidate sources in July 2026 and labeled by evidence strength. How we research and label claims.

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