How to read exhibits in case interviews?

Agrim Gupta
Sep 25, 2023
8 min read

Updated: Oct 22, 2023

In the high-stakes world of management consulting interviews, your ability to swiftly decipher charts, graphs, and data can be the golden ticket to your dream job. Dive into our comprehensive guide on 'How to Interpret Charts and Data in Consulting Case Interviews'. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, we'll unveil the secrets of making sense of those daunting exhibits, turning them into powerful insights. Ready to level up your case interview prep? Read on!

Section 1: Why do we have exhibits in the first place?

In case interviews, candidates are shared case information through various exhibits in the form of charts, graphs, and tables. Before we learn how to interpret them, let us understand their purpose.

What’s NOT the purposes of exhibits?

Exhibits do not necessarily mean to push the candidate towards doing math
Exhibits do not necessarily mean to confuse the candidate with unnecessary information and send them on a wild goose chase

What’s the purposes of exhibits?

Exhibits allow the interviewer to test the candidate’s ability to absorb large amount of information and draw useful insights relevant to the case
Exhibits allow the interviewer to also test the candidate’s resourcefulness, awareness, presence of mind, and ability to solve a problem with only the given information
Exhibits convey a large amount of information to the candidate in short time, without verbalizing it
Exhibits contain quantitative and/or qualitative information to help the candidate in solving the case (fully or partially) and move forward in the right direction.

Section 2: What do interviewers want to hear?

With the purpose of exhibits sorted, lets understand what does an interviewer want to hear over an exhibit? We will learn through an example exhibit from a full case.

You can find this case on the CaseCracker case library (link here) - name of the case is BoxxFitness Gyms. This case has 5 complex exhibits to test all your exhibit-reading skills - and each exhibit has a model response for your learning as well.

We will pick Exhibit 1 from the BoxxFitness case and walk through the model response. However, We need to introduce you to the case first for your covenience

Case Prompt: Our client is the CEO of BoxxFitness - a leading gym chain in the US with over 1,500 gyms. BoxxFitness is a premium gym concept with an annual membership fee that is 2-3x higher than most mainstream gyms. Each gym has a limited number of membership slots. Each member gets a dedicated locker, unlimited personal training, unlimited classes, unlimited equipment usage.

Case problem: In the last 3 years the chain has seen a decline in its profit margin

Case question: Can you identify the potential reasons for this decline?

Exhibit 1: The following

So what do interviewers really want to hear? Well, basically 3 things – inferences, insights, and implications. Let us look at them in detail:

Level 1 - Inferences

These are basic factual & descriptive observations from the exhibit. They should cover the case context and the exhibit facts. They are a necessary hygiene check in the interpretation process. They indicate to the interviewer that you are able to read & understand exhibits.

Some samples of Level 1 statements based on the above exhibit include:

What is the exhibit about? e.g. “This graph tells us the last 5-years of historical revenue for the US Gym market (case context) in billions of US dollars, split across 4 price-based market segments (case context, exhibit facts)”
What is happening in the graph overall? e.g. “Overall industry is growing by approx. 8% per year in the last 5 years (exhibit facts)”
Other high-level details: “Luxury segment is doubling in last 5 years from $2Bn to $4Bn” (exhibit facts), “Mainstream segment is growing by the largest amount ($7Bn) in 5 years” (exhibit facts)

Level 2 - Insights

These are second-order derivations moving beyond the level 1 observations. The insights establish relations between different data points in the exhibit. They indicate to the interviewer that you are able to link multiple data points in the exhibit and synthesize something that may not be immediately obvious. Level 2 will require you to sometimes do basic mental math (such as calculating year-over-year growth, fractions, percentages, totals, etc.). While Level 1 is based on only the exhibit, Level 2 brings the client and client’s problem into focus by connecting data points.

Some samples of Level 2 based on the above exhibit include:

What are some specific trends/patterns? e.g. “Premium segment (focus on client) is growing slower (case context) than other segments at nearly 5% per year (exhibit facts)”
What are the outcomes from these trends? e.g.“Premium segment’s share (focus on client) has shrunk from 23% to 20% (exhibit facts) due to this slower growth (case context)”

Level 3 - Implications

Level 3 is the most important ingredient to your success with exhibits. It is also not an easy ability to master. There is no fixed recipe or checklist for Level 3, but a candidate can develop this ability with practice and guidance from a competent coach on PrepLounge. For Level 3, the candidate has to leverage their Level 1 & Level 2 statements, combine them with business acumen, and try to generate & solve hypotheses that address the case question and try to solve the case problem. I will repeat, with Level 3, you must always think about solving the case question and driving the case forward

Some examples of Level 3 based on the above exhibit include the following:

Sample 1: Since the premium segment is growing slowly (ref. Level 2), there might be some adversarial pressure on our client (hypothesis based on business acumen), thus affecting the profit margin (case problem). We could investigate further on how our client is performing within the segment to validate if this could be a valid reason for profit decline (case question)
Sample 2: Faster growth rate of Luxury and Mainstream segments (ref. Level 1) indicates evolving customer preferences (business acumen). It seems that premium gym seekers are becoming increasingly divided and are either upgrading or downgrading (hypothesis based on business acumen). Let us try to validate if customer preferences are changing and leading to a profit decline (case problem) – do we have any information about it? (driving the case)
Sample 3: If indeed customer preferences are changing for the worse (case problem), perhaps our client would like to explore these faster growing segments (driving the case)

Section 3: What to do in an interview?

We now understand what are the rights and wrongs when dealing with exhibits in a case interview. Let us now look at a checklist that can help you become better at it. This is a good starting point to follow for candidates who are struggling with exhibits. As you practice and become better, feel free to make it your own.

Step 1: You are presented with an exhibit (graph, chart, table etc.)

Step 2: Relax and take a deep breath. Avoid feeling overwhelmed. Resist the urge to start speaking something immediately. Avoid trying to look and process and too many things at once.

Step 3: Ask the interviewer for a bit of time to “read and understand the exhibit”. There is no fixed time – 10, 20, 30 seconds – as much you need, but don’t take an eternity.

Step 4: Observe Level 1 details one-by-one & carefully, and try to figure out what the exhibit is all about. The exhibit may not be precisely what you had asked the interviewer – so best to look at it afresh. You could and should look at the chart title, axis titles, axis scale, units of the quantities, legend, series titles, labels and other such elements.

Step 5: Ask any questions, doubts, clarifications about the exhibit that you may have.

Step 6: After clarifying your doubts, spend a few seconds in thinking about how does this exhibit help you in solving the case and then try to formulate Level 2 statements and try to figure out some Level 3 implications.

Step 7: Speak out Level 1 details to the interviewer. You don’t need to speak out all of them – only those bits that you may find relevant to solving the case.

Step 8: Start speaking out Level 2 details – one-by-one. Again, use your better judgement in selecting which Level 2 details to observe and speak. The best ones are those that are useful for solving the case and also lead up to your Level 3 details.

Step 9: Finally close-out the exhibit reading by suggesting your chosen Level 3 statements. The statements may lead to a move forward in the case, could lead to a another deep-dive exhibit, or could lead to the final solution of the case.

Section 4: Mistakes by Candidates

4A. Basic mistakes / Hygiene checks

4A1. Not understanding the exhibit:

Sometimes, parts of the exhibit may not be fully clear upfront. In such situations, many candidates never really clarify their doubts. They either assume some explanations of their own for the unclear bits, or simply ignore it. Both ways are equally dangerous.
So if you are unclear about something – please clarify it with the interviewer until you fully understand the exhibit.
If you do not ask, the interviewer will assume that you have fully understood the exhibit and shall expect an analysis accordingly.
This mistake indicates ineffective communication & presence – which is a key pillar in interview evaluation.

4A2. Errors in reading the exhibit:

Candidates may mis-read chart elements such as legend, axes titles, chart title, axes values, units of measurement, and so on (e.g. market share vs share of wallet, cumulative customers vs new customers, etc.).
Candidates may also mis-read the magnitude of the numbers (e.g. millions vs thousands).
Further, candidates may mis-speak some terms (e.g. dollars vs pounds, 2011 vs 2001 etc.) – either a slip of tongue or nervousness.
These mistakes indicate ineffective communication & presence and show that the candidate is not well prepared.

4B. Technical mistakes

4B1. Lack of Level 2 statements:

If the candidate is not able to connect the dots and draw out advanced insights, it is a potential red-flag.
It shows poor insight generation skills – a key pillar in interview evaluation.

4B2. Lack of Level 3 statements:

Having Level 3 statements can vastly and definitively increase your chances of success.
It shows to the interviewer very clearly that you are reaching into the ‘so-what?’ of the problem.
A lack of Level 3 statements shows poor problem solving skills – a key pillar in interview evaluation.
Demanding interviewers may even consider lack of Level 3 a red-flag or deal-breaker.

4C. Process related mistakes:

4C1. Not driving the case forward / not being solution oriented:

In the live case example above we saw that part of the Level 3 statements were devoted to driving the case forward and moving towards the solution.
This is very important not just for candidate-led cases, but also for interviewer-led cases. Because in real-life, all cases are run by the consultant. The consultant is supposed to find potential solutions to the problem, select the best solution, and propose it to the project manager. A consultant should not expect end-to-end guidance at every step and needs to be independent, resourceful, and always driving forward towards the solution.
Hence, if the candidate does not show this drive, then it indicates poor practicality and effectiveness – a key pillar in interview evaluation.
It leaves a bad mark on their skillset and shows they need more preparation.
Demanding interviewers may even consider this a red-flag or deal-breaker.

4D. Communication mistakes:

4D1. Over-communicating:

Some candidates like to launch a detailed commentary of every pixel they see on the exhibit. They feel it shows good exhibit reading skills.
Such candidates end up exhausting their 2-3 minutes of exhibit interpretation time in only Level 1 and some Level 2 statements. They hardly ever get to Level 3.
They also end up confusing the interviewer with observations that the interviewer does not need to hear.
All this indicates poor communication & presence and poor practicality & effectiveness.

4D2. Under-communicating:

Some candidates are on the other side of the spectrum – they don’t elucidate and verbalize enough.
They may make some observations, but not say them out loud. Such candidates often say that they “thought about it” – but they didn’t say it.
This includes even Level 2 and Level 3 statements.
If you don’t say it out loud, the interviewer would not know that you observed it or thought about it, and hence the interviewer might mark you down on that bit.
Consulting is a profession built on communication and under-communicating indicates poor communication & presence and poor practicality & effectiveness.