PwC Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Q1. Why you moved from one company to another?
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Q2. Why consulting?
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Q3. Why PwC?
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Q4. The most interesting project, and what optimization I had done there, what more could have been done?
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Q5. Estimate the number of pasta sauce bottles that are sold in a month in Mumbai.
Ans. 
Estimating the number of pasta sauce bottles sold in a month in Mumbai.
• Consider the population of Mumbai and the average consumption of pasta sauce per person.

• Research the market share of different pasta sauce brands in Mumbai.

• Analyze the sales data of pasta sauce in supermarkets and grocery stores in Mumbai.

• Take into account the demand during festive seasons or special events.

• Consider the popularity of pasta dishes an
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Q1. Reduce costs for an automobile company.
Ans. 
Implement lean manufacturing principles to reduce production costs.
• Analyze the current production process to identify areas of waste and inefficiency.

• Implement just-in-time inventory management to reduce inventory holding costs.

• Optimize the supply chain to minimize transportation and logistics costs.

• Invest in automation and technology to improve productivity and reduce labor costs.

• Implement energy-saving measures to re...read more
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The client is the CEO of the pharmaceutical company making generic drugs. The client is contemplating the acquisition of another smaller player in the market specializing in the same domain which is also making generic drugs. What operational synergies should be considered for the M&A case?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: I summarized the case and reiterated the objective of laying out the various parameters that should be considered for M&A and make an informed decision for the acquisition based on operational synergies of the two companies. I also asked if I need to look into anything else.

I: Correct. No need to look into anything else.

C: Will the smaller player add any additional service or product line to the existing one?

I: No

C: I shall solve this case by value chain analysis algorithm and try to look into the operational synergies across each segment of the value chain.

I: Great. Please proceed.

C: I made the entire value chain and started to explain each segment of it.

I: Let's focus on sourcing and list down its components.

C: I enlisted a number of factors like raw material sourcing partners and how we can collaborate with the sourcing partners of both the companies, how economies of scale can be brought into the sourcing of raw material, MRO products, and packaging services.

I: Let’s into the direct and indirect costs of the company.

C: I listed all the direct and indirect costs and explained how synergy can be brought into these costs. Also, I explained how distribution channels can be integrated and how the network of small company can be leveraged to venture into markets which were not touched by the company.

I: Do you know about any statistical technique to locate the DC and other facilities.

C: I explained the considerations to be taken while locating any facility, how cost changes with an increasing number of facilities. Then talked about network analysis to locate a higher concentration of customers and the location of facilities optimally, near to the dense clusters.

Q1. My introduction.
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Q2. Why after doing electrical engineering, did I switch my career into consulting and asked about my association with different firms.
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Q3. My expectations from the firm and how do I see career growth in this sector?
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Q4. The most interesting projects I worked on.
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Q5. What was my biggest achievement.
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Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
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Q2. What are your 3 weaknesses?
Ans. 
I tend to overthink, struggle with public speaking, and can be too detail-oriented.
• Overthinking can lead to analysis paralysis, but I am working on trusting my instincts more.

• Public speaking makes me nervous, but I have been taking steps to improve my presentation skills through practice and training.

• Being detail-oriented can sometimes cause me to lose sight of the big picture, but I am learning to prioritize tasks and
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Q3. Why Consulting? And why Operations consulting particularly?
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Q4. Why PwC?
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Q5. Tell me more about your primary project. What was the problem statement and how did you approach it?
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Q6. Describe a project apart from your main project that you believe was impactful.
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Q7. Explain the end-to-end operations of your plant.
Ans. 
Our plant's end-to-end operations involve raw material procurement, production, quality control, packaging, and distribution.
• Raw materials are procured from approved suppliers and undergo quality checks before being used in production.

• Production involves various stages such as mixing, blending, filling, and labeling.

• Quality control checks are conducted at every stage to ensure compliance with industry standards.

• Packagi...read more
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Q8. Describe an incident where you were under a lot of pressure but had to deliver results.
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Q9. Describe an incident where you were required to adapt to changes very quickly. How did you accept those changes?
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What is the total area impacted by PepsiCo in India?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Categorized it into PepsiCo owned operations & Franchises. Within each category further classified into agricultural area, cold storages, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, distribution centers and PepsiCo's offices.

I: Focus on the agricultural activities.

C: Categorized it into land under Potato cultivation (Contract Farming & Independent sources), rice, corn & gram cultivation for other food products and water from areas around beverage plants.

You are a company that provides warehousing services in North & Central America. But you want to expand your operations in Southern regions as well, so you decide on merging with another similar company that is a major player in the market, second only to you. How would you go about the whole merger? Cover all aspects - Legal, Operational etc.
Followed the basic M&A framework. Dived deep into operational issues that could arise (the Interviewer wanted to check my understanding of warehousing & logistics). Was asked to discuss inventory management too.

Part 1: A state in Southern India is facing the issue of drying up of its lakes at a very high rate. An MP suggests that they should cover the lakes with giant sheets of thermocol since it is an insulator it would prevent evaporation of water. They implement this at a particular lake, where they find that the sheets keep getting blown away by the wind and the thermocol is unable to serve its purpose. How should the MP proceed if he wants to use these sheets? Devise a business plan for him to present at the budget meeting.

Part 2: Guesstimate the total budget needed for implementing this across 10 lakes each being 200m wide and 1km long?
Started with the harmful impact of thermocol on aquatic life. Suggested that we could use some spacing between the sheets for sufficient oxygen supply.

Asked questions around wind speed and general weather conditions.

Found out that it is a windy area. Therefore, suggested that we use floats or anchors to keep the sheets in place.

For budget, assumed the sheets to be as big as the ones available in the market. Found out the number of sheets required. Assumed a price for each sheet and then found out the total budget for sheets. Further, found the cost of the floats/ anchors based on the cost of per unit material they are made up of.

Q1. What do you know about consulting & why do you want to join PwC?
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Q2. What is your understanding about the role?
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Q3. Explain the audience & customer strategies you used in your work ex.
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Q4. Tell me something about yourself apart from CV.
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Q5. What skills have you learned in your work-ex & how will you apply them at PwC?
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Q6. Have you ever managed a team/people?
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Q7. How do you manage conflict in a team?
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Q8. How do you make sure your point is heard across in a discussion?
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Q9. Have you ever faced a challenging situation?
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Q10. List out some points of learning from the two companies you have worked with. How different was the experience, what did you notice about the two industries?
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An AI Solutions Provider is facing profitability issues. Help!
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

I: Our client who is an AI solutions provider is recently facing profitability issues.

C: Clarified the problem statement and asked since when the client was facing profit issue & by how much.

I: Profits have fallen by approx. 20% in the last 1 year.

C: When we say the profits are declining, is it revenue which is getting impacted or the costs are rising for the firm.

I: Primarily, it is a revenue side problem.

C: Where is the client based out of, how long has it been in the market?

I: Client is based out of the US, is an established player in the AI industry with a good client base.

C: How is the industry trend? Since it is an AI solutions provider, I believe the industry would be growing – has there been a new competitor which has entered?

I: Great, as you rightly pointed out, the industry is growing but we are facing issues.

C: When we say AI solutions provider, what does the company essentially do & who are the customers & where are they located?

I: It caters to AI technology requirements of industries, they serve a wide range of businesses mainly in the US - Retail, Manufacturing, Logistics, IT.

C: What are the different product offerings & revenue streams of the company?

I: There are a wide range of products which the company offers, major revenue streams of the company come from a) Selling hardware b) Contract or subscription basis c) Services.

C: Is the drop across all these buckets or should we focus on a particular segment first?

I: Focus on the services side.

C: Revenue from services only comes from customers having a contract or subscription or there are also companies with which we have a service only relationship?

I: We only offer services to companies with which we have a contract.

C: Within services these can be the possible segments where the company needs to look at in terms of improvement: - Maintenance - Data & Insights - Complaint Resolutions - Technology Upgrade. Have I missed anything?

I: These are all valid in the given context, you have rightly pointed out some of the possible reasons which are leading to a downfall in services revenue. Technology upgrade & complaint resolutions are something which the firm is struggling with. Can you frame some solutions to the problem statement?

C: As far as our discussion goes, the client is primarily facing problems in the services domain and needs to retain services from its existing partners. I suggest below pointers as solutions:

- Strengthen feedback mechanism for queries & complaint resolution.
- Make a separate department to identify current advancement in technology & incorporate those suggestions in current service offerings.
- Establish a ticketing system to see what the possible queries in different industries are (manufacturing, retail, IT etc.), automate some processes to improve the resolution efficiency.
- Speak to BD team & identify partner issues in real time so that there is no lag in information flow across product & market.

Market Estimation & Pricing of a Food Delivery Service in Pune.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: The food delivery service is a personal venture (from home) or we are looking at an established restaurant entering food delivery?

I: It is a personal venture, to be carried out specifically from home & to serve the local population (typical dabbawalla or tiffin system).

C: First, I would like to estimate the market size for the service & then would move to the pricing part.

I: Please go ahead.

C: Assuming the owner is living in a 5000 (population) strong locality, we will segment the population basis demographic factors: Occupation. Divided the locality into 4 parts - a) Family b) Students (age>15 yrs.) c) Working people living alone d) Others.

Since Pune is a Corporate hub & also has many colleges and institutes, I took an appropriate % for each of the mentioned buckets.

Family - 40%
Students - 20%
Working People living alone - 20%
Others - 20%

Primarily, our target market is students & working people living alone, which constitutes 40% of the locality = 40% (5000) = 2000 Total potential consumers for our business = 2000.

Now, I followed the awareness - consideration - conversion framework.

Owner, through his own contacts & referrals, can reach out to roughly 200 people without any promotion activities (banners, paid posts etc.)

Through promotion he can further reach out to 400 more.

Hence total size with awareness about the service = 600.

Further, segmented the awareness pool into people who are a) satisfied with their food service, b) not satisfied & c) do not have any regular system & rely on office & online orders. For the sake of simplicity, assumed this to be equal % i.e., 1/3 (600) = 200 for each segment. Only people who are not satisfied would be willing to try our offering, hence Consideration = 200.

Finally, they would evaluate multiple alternatives. Asked a question about the no of competitors to which the interviewer asked me to use my knowledge about the area.

As Pune has multiple food delivery alternatives, I assumed it to be a competitive market & only 25% of the consideration pool would finally convert as customers. Hence, 50 people per day would be our customers initially.

Pricing: Did a cost based & substitute-based pricing here. Calculated price per meal breaking down into segments:

1. Raw material/ Material 2. Labor 3. Logistics 4. Promotion Cost per standard meal (regular ingredients) came out to be around Rs 80, adding a profit % of 20, gave the final price ~ Rs 100.

I: Okay, now that you have the no of consumers you would have for the service can u think of increasing customers for this business?

C: Gave ideas around menu diversification as we were primarily focused on students & working population gave ideas which would suit their requirements.

- For working people: Fresh menu kind of service where they would get healthy food.
- Students - Protein rich diet (nonveg).
- Promotions: Leverage Social Media, ask customers to post positive reviews, have a good feedback mechanism & focus on quality packaging as its important for people who travel for work.

Calculate the volume of paint needed to pain a Boeing 747.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Asked whether we must paint the jet only on the outside or completely.

I: Only on the outside.

C: Approach - We will calculate the total surface area of the jet, dividing it into constituent parts - (Cabin - Cylinder, Cockpit - Hemisphere, Wings - Triangle, Stabilizers (for brand logo) – Triangle).

Used my height as reference to calculate the radius of the cabin (3 meters), length of the cabin = 70 meters, assumed wings to be equilateral with 30 meters side, stabilizers ~ 1/4th size of wings, cockpit - hemisphere with radius 2 meters).

Used formula is for Surface area (Hemisphere, Cylinder, Triangle).

Assumed 1 sq meter of area to consume 200 ml of paint & multiplied the total surface are by 200 to get volume of paint in ml.

Q1. Tell me about yourself.
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Q2. Why consulting?
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Q3. What are your 3 skills which can be useful while working in PwC?
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Q4. How did you manage a conflict while leading a team?
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Q5. What do you know about cloud applications, CRM, IT?
Ans. 
Cloud applications, CRM, and IT are all related to technology and software used in businesses to manage customer relationships and data.
• Cloud applications refer to software that is hosted on remote servers and accessed through the internet.

• CRM stands for customer relationship management and refers to software used to manage interactions with customers and potential customers.

• IT, or information technology, encompasses a...read more
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Q6. What do you think constitutes IT of a company?
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IT of a company includes all hardware, software, and network systems used to manage and process data.
• Hardware such as servers, computers, and mobile devices

• Software such as operating systems, productivity tools, and custom applications

• Network systems such as routers, switches, and firewalls

• Data storage and backup solutions

• IT support and maintenance services

• Examples: Microsoft Office Suite, Salesforce CRM, Cisco network
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What are the different factors that should be considered for IT integration while merging two companies?
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: First thing that should be considered is the data of two companies such as employee data, customer data, vendor data etc.

I: What factors need to be considered while integrating data?

C: Integration depends on how it is stored, if it is in cloud or on-premises data center, if the same cloud provider data could be migrated, if different data need to be exported and imported. Data models might be different for the same entity type as employee data fields. Then, the kind of databases being used become relevant, such as the use of SQL or not. This will also determine the time and cost of integration. One thing that needs to be considered is the privacy laws in different countries as some countries might require the data to be stored in the same country as the GDPR law.

I: Okay. What are the other bottlenecks other than data?

C: Infrastructure will be a factor like servers, data centers, etc. Companies might have different infrastructure requirements. One may be completely in cloud while other on premise or a combination of the two. So, decisions need to be taken regarding what to use and which one to use. Some might be obsolete and can be sold off.

I: What do you think about applications?

C: Companies might have different applications being used by different departments such as ERP, CRM, HRM etc. Some might be cloud applications and some installed in local data centers. The license needs to be changed or updated, some applications need to be removed and employees need to be trained. So, data associated with these applications also needs to be moved.

I: You almost covered the basic buckets. Read more about IT Due diligence and see what you have missed.

There are two companies A and B. Company B is divesting a vertical to company A. Company B came to PwC to help them in their divestiture. How will you go about it? Company B has 20 SaaS applications, 20 Vendor Applications (On-Premises), and 20 Company Applications (On-Premises) that need to be migrated.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: According to me IT can be divided into broadly 3 buckets – Infrastructure, Applications, and Data and People. Under Infrastructure come the servers, data centers (power and cooling systems), networking equipment’s, user workstations, meeting room equipment’s like projector, mouse, laptops, and all cables. Under Applications come all the applications being used by employees, vendors, customers and all the automation tools. Employee applications include enterprise applications like ERP, CRM, HRM, applications used by Accounting and Finance teams, customer service tools, other applications like IDE for developers, third party applications integrated by using Open APIs, payment gateways etc. Also, if it is a tech company there would be projects which are being developed by the R&D team. The data associated with all these applications is either stored in a public cloud, private cloud, on premise data center or workstation of an employee – all need to be considered.

Also, the licenses of the 3rd party applications need to be re-negotiated and the owner changed. Third come the people who run and maintain all the applications. Technicians who maintain the servers, developers who build and support applications, the IT guy who provides the necessary devices and fixes them on time, all constitute the people of an IT company with the CTO and CIO at the top depending on the hierarchy of the company.

I: There are two companies A and B. Company B is divesting a vertical to company A. Company B came to PwC to help them in their divestiture. How will you go about it? Company B has 20 SaaS applications, 20 Vendor Applications (On-Premises), and 20 Company Applications (On-Premises) that need to be migrated.

C: The 20 SaaS applications should support multi tenancy so that a new tenant needs to be created for company A and all data needs to be transferred to the new tenant DB. Company B our client can now reduce its OPEX (Operational Expenditure) as SaaS applications usually charge by the no. of users and the number of resources used. Here both are getting reduced, so a new deal needs to sign with the SaaS application providers.

I: What about On-Premises ones?

C: The 20 vendor applications need to be installed in Company A on premise and corresponding data needs to be moved. If not on premise, they can migrate it to cloud. As company B is also using the applications, a new deal can be signed with the vendor or if we do not require the on-premises data centers which were previously used, company B can sell it off depending on the new capacity requirement. Company A might require some time to migrate so it cannot be done strictly on day 1, hence, a TSA can be signed so that company B allows company A to use its resources by paying a premium to company B.

I: If company A is using the company A data centers according to the TSA what are the disadvantages for company B?

C: Previously all the resources were being used by company B. Now since it shares the resource servers, storage needs to be given to company B. If virtualization is not there, under-utilization of resources will take place.

I: Okay. We can stop with the case. Tell me What are your 3 skills which can be useful while working in PwC?

C: One, problem solving skills that I have developed with my 3 years of work ex. Second, knowledge on different technologies and expertise in working cloud and third, being a people’s person, I will be able to handle different clients and my experience being part of pre-sales demos will help in communicating with clients.