Victor Cheng

It’s impossible to determine the answer to these questions accurately, given the constraints, but one can estimate an answer by (1) making a few simplifying assumptions, and (2) doing math.

If you rush, you might think a question is familiar and quickly answer the question you think is being asked.

My point is, it doesn’t matter if she’s factually right unless she can explain why she’s right to the patient, using terms the patient can understand.

The same idea applies to consulting. Clients do not accept factually accurate
recommendations; they accept factually supported recommendations they can understand.

Consultants use four tools to solve clients’ biggest problems. You can use the exact same tools to tackle any type of case interview:
Hypothesis
Issue tree/framework
Drill-down analysis
Synthesis

Tells the client what to do
Tells the client what you discovered and what it means

It’s easy to understand what you’re supposed to do, but doing it under real-world conditions and stress can be difficult.

What is your hypothesis?
What data do you need to disprove it?

The hypothesis is more important than the framework.

The key is to listen to the answers you get to the first few of those 15 questions, think about what is happening (formulate a hypothesis), and then decide if continuing with a certain framework would be useful.