capital one case study pdf

Capital One Case Interview (Questions, Process, Prep)

Today we're going to cover everything you need to prepare for your Capital One case interview.

If you're a business analyst, senior data analyst or strategy analyst, and you're not used to case interviews, they can be challenging. That's why we've put together the ultimate guide to the Capital One analyst interview to maximise your chances of success.

Here's an overview of what we'll cover:

• Assessment tests
• Case interviews
• Product questions
• Behavioural questions
• Preparation tips

Click here to practise 1-on-1 with case interview experts

NB: If you're a software engineer interviewing at Capital One, check out our engineering interview guides .

1. Capital One: doing things differently

Capital One is unique. As of the time of this article, it's the 13th largest bank ($450bn in assets)  in the United States, behind firms like  Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan , and Morgan Stanley , despite being founded as a single-business  bank in 1994. The business was initially only focused on credit cards but now include the following 3 verticals:

• Credit Cards
• Consumer Banking
• Commercial Banking

The company's success has been driven largely by its clever use of data . They've developed sophisticated strategies for identifying and directly marketing to profitable customers. This has created a competitive advantage vs. traditional banks, which have historically focused on broad (rather than targeted) marketing.

Capital One also has their own  strategy group , which essentially serves as an internal consulting firm.

Although Capital One is a top player in the banking industry, their unusual history and technology focus, has created a unique culture. It has more of a "tech firm" feel, than you'd expect from a giant financial institution. Another notable area where Capital One is different from their peers, is in their interview process.

2. Capital One interview process

The type of work (and the nature of the interview) you can expect at Capital One varies across group and role. They hire for roles ranging from call center reps, to software engineers and business analysts.

This guide is primarily written for business analyst candidates, but most of what we say here is applicable for anyone with a case interview at Capital One, including senior data anlaysts and strategy analysts.

The application process includes 4 main stages:

• Resume & cover letter submission
• Pre-interview online assessment tests
• First-round interview

Power Day of 3-5 interviews

Let's take a closer look at each step in the Capital One interview process.

2.1 Resume & cover letter submission

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 resume guide  and this  free cover letter guide  to help tailor your application to the position you’re targeting. 

And if you’re looking for expert feedback, you can also get input from our  team of  expert recruiters , who will  cover what achievements to focus on (or ignore), how to get more impact from your bullet points, and more.

2.2 Capital One online assessment tests

After the initial application, you'll face the   online assessment tests.

For the business analyst position, the BA quantitative assessment usually consists of 11 questions that aim to assess basic analytical skills. You'll be given a data set and you'll need to use a spreadsheet to solve mathematical and analytical problems.

Example Capital One online assessment question

• Ali and Sophie are budding musicians who have been playing Thursday night shows at a local live music venue. The venue told them that over the course of the last four weeks, they’ve had 900 tickets sold for their shows. They are curious to see how many people are repeat fans, coming to more than one show. The venue’s recent customer survey says that 60% of fans have come once, 30% have come twice, 6% have come three times, and 4% have come four times. How many unique people have seen an Ali and Sophie show during this time period?

2.3 First round mini case interview

If you pass the online assessment, you make it to the first round 'mini case interview', which will be conducted via phone or video call. Be ready to hit the ground running in this interview, don't expect much "getting to know you" discussion because they usually get straight to the case. This interview will normally last 30 minutes.

2.4 Final round Power Day

The final round, often referred to as a "Power Day" or a "Super Day", is  a series of 3-5 back-to-back interviews .

For the role of business analyst, you can expect two case interviews and one product interview, with behavioral questions thrown in at the start of each interview.

If you're interviewing for a more technical role, such as senior data analyst, you will face a technical interview such as coding or a data challenge, one case interview and one behavioral interview.

Now you know the interview process, let's go deeper into what questions you can expect to face.

3. Capital One interview questions

In this section we'll take a look at the type of questions you can expect to face in your Capital One interview. We'll start with the most important, and the most challenging: case interview questions.

3.1 Capital one case interviews

Case interviews are the most important part of the Capital One interview process. The company has published a video tutorial, which shows the style of their case interviews.

We've embedded it for your reference below. It's a great resource, but it's pretty long (about 20 minutes), so we've also summarised the key take-aways and added some additional commentary below.

Capital One case interviews include 3 sections:

• Business situation and framework
• Quantitative question
• Recommendation

Each section of the case interview has particular things you'll need to prepare for. Let's look at each one in-depth.

A. Business situation and framework

The first several minutes of the interview will cover the business scenario and case framework. This typically begins with the recruiter providing a brief statement about the business or industry where you'll focus for the case. In the sample case (in the video), you're the CEO of Ice Cream Corporation. 

Typically, the recruiter will end their opening statement with a broad question. For example: "What are the key factors you would consider when developing a strategy to grow profits for Ice Cream Corporation?" For this stage of the interview, you should have two objectives.

First, you should ask clarification questions to make sure that you understand the situation correctly. For instance, in the video above the first candidate asks exactly what role the CEO has with regards to "pricing" and to "sales". Many candidates skip that initial step, but it's actually essential because it will help you put together a more relevant framework.

Second, once you fully understand the situation and question the interviewer is asking you, you should put a simple case framework together to answer the interviewer's question. The objective of this framework is to identify and communicate key areas that you will consider to answer the interviewer's main question. For instance, the candidates in the video mention areas including pricing, number of markets, number of competitors, their size, etc.

If you're familiar with the different types of case interviews, you'll notice that Capital One uses the interviewer-led approach. This is similar to the method used by McKinsey in their application process .

That said, we still recommend that you try and drive the case forward yourself to a certain extent, by communicating the implications of your answer with the interviewer. This will show them that you're able to think a few steps ahead and take an active approach to problem-solving.

B. Quantitative question

The second stage of the interview is heavily focused on maths skills. The recruiter will provide you with some data, and ask you to perform calculations.

In the sample case, you're asked to calculate total monthly profit for Ice Cream Corporation, given the following data:

• Price per carton = $5
• Cost per carton = $1
• Demand = 100 cartons/month

It's important to ask questions at this stage, as the recruiter may have additional data which they have not yet provided. The video shows a great example of this, when the candidate asks how much of the cost is variable vs. fixed cost. 

• Variable cost per carton = $1
• Fixed cost per carton = $0

At this point, the calculation is straight-forward.

• ($5-$1) X 100 cartons = $400 profit

Make sure you talk through your logic, to show the recruiter your problem-solving skills. This will also help them to steer you back on track, if you've misheard any of the data.

Don't expect all of the calculations in your interview to be this simple. There are 2 additional examples provided in the video, which include elasticity of demand and break even calculations. These require a little extra work, but your approach will be the same:

• Understand the data provided
• Ask for more information when necessary
• Lay out your approach
• Perform the calculations

In our experience, the best candidates brush up ahead of their interview, so they can   have confidence in their maths skills . If you do the same, this will give you a polished reaction during interviews, which recruiters will notice. Compared with the case interviews used at consulting firms, the case interviews at Capital One tend to have a greater focus on quantitative questions. So you should expect to spend more time on these types of quant problems during your interview, and less time on other areas, like creative brainstorming.

C. Recommendation

In the final stage of the interview, you'll be expected to make and defend a recommendation. To form your recommendation, draw on the calculations from the previous stage (e.g. the results of the break-even analysis). Consider the numbers, use your intuition, and make a decision . 

For example, this might be your conclusion: "since frozen ice cream is a non-perishable, I think it would be reasonable to expect most of the additional sales from a promotion, to come from stock-up behavior. I'd recommend looking for other opportunities to increase sales."

The specific strategy you suggest, is less important than your logic and ability to defend it . Expect the recruiter to question your approach. For a recommendation like this, they may ask you to explain how you would go about identifying other opportunities.

Additional tips for your Capital One case interview:

• Don't be surprised if you're given a case from outside the finance industry
• Take notes on the information provided by the recruiter.
• Ask for a minute to organize your thoughts when needed.
• Talk through your thought process, show your work as you do it.
• If you don't understand a topic, ask the interviewer for clarification.
• Call out important assumptions.
• Notice directional cues, as the recruiter may want to steer the conversation.
• You're usually allowed a calculator, so bring one that's easy to use

3.2 Capital One behavioural and fit interview questions

In addition to case interviews, Capital One also uses behavioural questions/interviews, like most companies do. While you may not get a whole interview devoted specifically to behavioral questions, you can expect to face them at the start of your case and product interviews.

Behavioural interview questions asked at Capital One fall into two main categories:

• Fit questions. These are generic questions such as “Why financial services?” or “ Why Capital One? ”.
• Personal Experience Interview (PEI) questions. These are questions such as “Tell me about a time when you lead a team through a difficult situation.” Or “Tell me about a time where you had to manage a team conflict”

We've written extensively about   fit / PEI questions   in another guide. But in summary here are the top 5 fit and PEI questions you should prepare for at Capital One, or other firms.

Top 5 fit questions:

• Why Capital One?
• Why financial services?
• 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 failed at work
• 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 led a team through a difficult situation

Capital One is known to favor the STAR method when it comes to answering behavioral questions. So, for your interview, plan to answer behavioural questions using the following format:

• S - Situation

This approach will help you to answer each question in a clear, and methodical way, which are great qualities to demonstrate when interviewing with Capital One. 

3.2.1 "Why Capital One?" interview question

You're almost guaranteed to be asked this question, so let's dive a bit deeper into how you should answer it. Here are 3 ways to make your answer stand out:

Name-drop: Before the interview, make an effort to meet with or call one or more current employees of the firm. Ask them what it’s like working there, why they chose Capital One and what is unique about it. This will give you good, specific talking points for your answer, and mentioning their names shows the interviewer that you’ve put in effort to get to know the company.

Be specific. Test out your answer by swapping another bank’s name with the one you’ve got in mind. If your answer could also apply to this other bank, then you need to fine tune it.

Keep up with recent activity : Being aware of the latest deals and developments in the department you’re applying to will give you an idea of what kind of projects you’ll get to work on, and whether they sound interesting to you. Bringing them up in the interview will show the interviewer that you’ve done your research and stay up to date on market news.

Example answer: "Why do you want to work at Capital One?"

“I want to work at Capital One for three main reasons. First, I want to work in a very data-driven environment and to have access to a vast amount of data when working strategically. I've been really impressed with Capital One's pioneering use of data and machine learning in the banking sector, which has helped it gain market share across its verticals.

Second, I've also been impressed with Capital One's strategy regarding a banking-as-a-service model and embedded finance. I saw an interview with Richard Fairbank (CEO) talking about how all banks needed to collaborate with fintech apps to provide instantaneous results for customers, rather than working in silos, and I thought he articulated a really strong vision.

And finally, I’ve had a few conversations with Seth White and Tamara Grey, associates in the McLean office, both of whom gave me a great impression of the firm as a whole. Seth in particular encouraged me to apply to the Travel team, as we share a similar educational background, and he was complimentary of the opportunities he’s been given to succeed."

See more details on how to answer the "Why this company?" interview question .

3.3 Product questions

If you're interviewing for a business analyst role, one of your Power Day interviews will be a product interview. Compared to the very quantitative case interviews, the product interview is a lot more qualitative and you'll need to think more creatively.

In almost all the interview reports we've seen over the last year or so, the candidate was asked to improve a product in some way. We recommend you read our article on How to answer product improvement questions to help you structure your response.

Example Capital One product questions from business analyst candidates:

• Describe 12 uses for an alarm clock
• How would you redesign an alarm clock?
• What is the customer base for this product?
• Describe 10 ways to improve an umbrella
• How would you improve this water bottle?
• What's your favorite product and how would you improve it?

4. How do I prepare for a Capital One case interview?

Here's how we recommend you prepare for your Capital One case interview. First, use Capital One case studies to research the company. Second, become really confident at maths. Then, learn a consistent method to approach case interview problems. Fourth, practise a lot and learn from your mistakes. And finally, do mock interviews to hone your case interview technique.

4.1 Use Capital One case study examples for research

Case interviews require no prior knowledge. However, you can bet that overall your interviews at Capital One will go a lot better if you go in having done some research on the company and the wider financial industry.

Capital One shares some case studies on its website, which are well worth looking over. Also take a look at some of the articles on Capital One's insights center . Elsewhere in the media, we liked this piece on how Capital One uses data to get an advantage .

If you're coming from a finance background, you may already have a good knowledge of Capital One's place in the sector. If not, check out Investopedia for a brief summary.

4.2 Become really confident at maths

You don't have to have a perfect GPA or GMAT score to succeed at case interview maths. And in any case, during your Capital One interviews, you will be allowed to use a calculator. That said, it will help if you're confident performing mental maths quickly and accurately.

In order to do this, it’s essential to know the formulas for common metrics, like return on investment or breakeven point. And it’s also helpful to know a few maths shortcuts to help you solve problems more quickly. To learn more about these topics, check out our free guide to case interview maths . 

In our experience, the most successful applicants start their interview preparation by practising maths skills, so make sure you prioritise this step.

4.3 Develop a consistent method to crack cases

One of the biggest challenges of interviewing with Capital One  is solving cases that you’ve never seen before. Each case can be difficult, and you’ll have to perform well across multiple case interviews in order to get an offer.

As a result, it’s critical for you to have a consistent approach for solving cases. Capital One  uses interviewer-led case interviews, which can be broken down into the following types of questions:

• Framework development
• Quant question – Data provided
• Creativity question

If you can crack each type of question (within a case), then you can crack the overall case.

Use this list of example case interviews to practice with. The companies listed here are consulting companies rather than banks, but doesn't matter as case interviews use examples from all sorts of industries, not just the one you're interviewing for.

4.4 Learn from every mistake you make

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!

4.5 Do mock interviews

How you solve each case is important, but your interviewers will also be evaluating how you COMMUNICATE your answers. It's important to speak in a structured way that makes it easy to clearly understand your points.

The best way to hone your communication skills is to practise interviewing out loud, and you can do that in three main ways:

• Interview yourself (out loud)
• Practise interviewing with friends or family
• Practise interviewing with ex-interviewers

Practising by yourself is a great way to get started, and can help you get more comfortable with the flow of a case interview. However, this type of practice won’t prepare you for realistic interview conditions. 

After getting some practice on your own, you should find someone who can do a mock interview with you, like a friend or family member.

We’d also recommend that you practise 1-1 with ex-interviewers from top consulting firms . This is the best way to replicate the conditions of a real case interview, and to get feedback from someone who understands the process extremely well.

Click here to book your mock case interview.

That's all you need to know about the Capital One case interview, from all of us at IGotAnOffer, good luck!

Hacking the Case Interview

Capital One uses case interviews to identify promising candidates to hire for many of their business roles, including their business analyst, data analyst, and strategy analyst roles.

In a Capital One case interview, you’ll be placed in a hypothetical business situation and asked to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem.

Capital One’s use of case interviews may be surprising to some people because case interviews   are typically used in consulting interviews. Capital One is a bank and financial institution, not a consulting firm.

However, there are two reasons why Capital One uses case interviews.

The first reason is that compared to other traditional banks, Capital One likes to position itself as a data company that happens to be in the financial services industry. There is a heavy emphasis on using data to drive business decisions. Therefore, case interviews are an effective way to assess problem solving and quantitative thinking.

The second reason is that Capital One hires a lot of former consultants from top consulting firms such as McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. A lot of the business divisions at Capital One are run by former consultants who run their teams like a consulting team. Capital One wants to hire people that can do the same type of work that consultants do .

For business analyst, data analyst, and strategy analyst roles, there are typically two rounds of interviews. 

• Capital One first round interview : one 30-minute case interview. There will be minimal time for any behavioral or fit interview questions.
• Capital One final round interview : three to four 30-40 minute interviews. One interview will be focused on behavioral or fit interview questions while all the other interviews will be focused on Capital One case interviews.

In order to receive your Capital One job offer, you will need to nail all 3 to 4 of your case interviews.

If you have an upcoming Capital One case interview, we have you covered. In this article, we'll go through in detail:

• What qualities do Capital One case interviews assess?
• Differences between Capital One and consulting case interviews
• How to solve Capital One case interviews
• Capital One case interview tips
• Capital One case interview examples
• Recommended Capital One case interview resources

If you’re looking for a step-by-step shortcut to learn case interviews quickly, enroll in our case interview course . These insider strategies from a former Bain interviewer helped 30,000+ land consulting offers while saving hundreds of hours of prep time.

What Qualities do Capital One Case Interviews Assess?

Capital One case interviews assess four main qualities: logical and structured thinking, quantitative skills, communication skills, and business judgment.

Logical and structured thinking : Capital One looks for candidates that are organized and methodical problem solvers.  

• Can you structure complex problems in a clear, simple way?
• Can you use logic and reason to make appropriate conclusions?

Quantitative skills : Capital One looks for candidates that have strong analytical skills to solve complex business problems and make important business decisions

• Can you read and interpret data well?
• Can you perform math computations smoothly and accurately?
• Can you conduct the right analyses to draw the right conclusions?

Communication skills : Capital One looks for candidates that can communicate in a clear, concise, and persuasive way.

• Can you communicate in a clear and concise way?
• Are you articulate and persuasive in what you are saying?

Business judgment : Capital One looks for candidates with strong business instincts that help them make the right decisions and develop the right recommendations.

• Do you have a basic understanding of fundamental business concepts?
• Do your conclusions and recommendations make sense from a business perspective?

Differences between Capital One and Consulting Case Interviews

There are three main differences between Capital One and consulting case interviews. Capital One case interviews focus on quantitative analysis, Capital One allows calculators, and Capital One cases may require some basic understanding of their financial products.

1. Capital One case interviews focus on quantitative analysis

Traditional case interviews have a balance between answering qualitative questions and solving quantitative problems. Capital One case interviews almost exclusively focus on the quantitative aspects of case.

Let’s consider a case interview in which you are trying to decide whether a friend should open up a mini-golf course as an investment.

In a traditional case interview, you would look into both qualitative and quantitative factors to make a recommendation. You would look at the market attractiveness, the competitive landscape, your friend’s capabilities, and the expected profitability.

For a Capital One case interview, you will focus almost exclusively on the expected profitability. Your framework would look at the expected revenues and expected costs of opening a mini-golf course to see what annual profits would be.

If annual profits are high, you would recommend opening a mini-golf course. If annual profits are negative or low, you would not recommend opening a mini-golf course.

In a Capital One case interview, you may cover some qualitative factors at the end of your calculations when you are discussing risks, but the qualitative factors will not be a critical component of solving the case.

Since most Capital One case interviews come down to setting up and solving math equations, they can be simpler and more straight forward than traditional consulting case interviews.

2. Capital One case interviews allow a calculator

Another big difference between Capital One case interviews and traditional consulting case interviews is that Capital One allows candidates to use calculators.

While this may sound like this makes the case interview easier, that is not necessarily the case. Since you are allowed to use a calculator, you’ll typically be dealing with bigger and messier numbers during a Capital One case interview.

While traditional case interviews use round numbers that are easy to work with, Capital One case interviews use large and more precise numbers. This makes some calculations too tedious to solve by hand, which is why you are allowed to use a calculator.

3. Capital One case requires may require familiarity with financial products

Traditional case interviews don’t require any specialized knowledge in order to solve the case. You do not need to research any industries beforehand.

While this is generally true for Capital One case interviews, it does help to be familiar with how basic financial products work. In your final round interviews, you may be given a case focused on credit cards or checking and savings accounts.

If you understand how these financial products work, you’ll have an easier time with the case interview and the interviewer will not need to explain as much background information to you.

Here are the basics of what you should know.

Credit cards generate revenue through an annual fee, interchange, and interest.  

• An annual fee is a fee that the cardholder must pay in order to keep the credit card active
• When a cardholder uses their credit card at a merchant, the merchant pays the credit card company a small percentage of the transaction amount. This is known as interchange and covers the cost of transaction and the cost to handle fraud.
• Credit card companies charge interest on balances that are not fully paid off at the end of the billing cycle.

The major costs of credit cards are service costs and charge offs.  

• Service costs include the costs to keep the credit card active and the costs to provide support to the cardholder
• Charge offs occur when a cardholder can no longer pay their credit card debt and the credit card company fails to recover the amount of money the cardholder has borrowed on the credit card

Checking and savings accounts are simpler to understand. The bank makes money by lending a portion of the money that customers have deposited into their accounts. They give customers a small amount of interest for their deposits.

The interest rates that banks charge for loans are much higher than the interest rates that the bank pays to customers for their deposits, which is how banks make money.

How to Solve a Capital One Case Interview

There are six steps to solving a Capital One case interview:

• Take notes on the case background information
• Synthesize the information and verify the objective of the case
• Ask clarifying questions
• Create a framework
• Perform calculations
• Discuss the implications of your answer
• Deliver a recommendation

1. Take notes on the case background information

Capital One case interviews begin with the interviewer giving you the case background information. Let’s say that the interviewer reads you the following information:

Interviewer : As an investment, your friend is considering opening up a mini-golf course. Should they do it?

As the interviewer reads you the case information, take notes. It is important to understand what the objective is.

2. Synthesize information and verify the objective of the case

After the interviewer finishes giving you the case information, confirm that you understand the situation and objective. Provide a concise synthesis like the following:

You : To make sure I understand correctly, our friend is considering opening up a mini-golf course as an investment. The goal of this case is to decide whether they should open up a mini-golf course.

Interviewer : Exactly. That is correct.

3. Ask clarifying questions

Next, you’ll be able to ask clarifying questions . Try to limit your questions to only the most critical questions that you need answers to in order to solve the case.

You : Before I begin structuring a framework, can I ask what our friend’s financial targets are for the investment?

Interviewer : Your friend is hoping to make at least $200,000 in profit in the first year.

4. Create a framework

Next, lay out a framework for how you are going to solve the case. A framework is simply a tool that helps you structure and break down complex problems into simpler, smaller components.

For this Capital One case interview example, your framework may look like the following:

You : To determine whether or not our friend should open a mini-golf course, we will need to calculate the expected annual profit. To do this, we need to calculate expected revenues and expected costs.

To calculate revenues, we need to estimate how many people will visit the mini-golf course per year. 

We can calculate this by estimating the number of people that come per hour and multiply this by the number of hours per day the mini-golf course is open. To annualize this, we can multiply by the number of days per year the course is open

If we know the number of annual visitors, we can multiply by the price that the mini-golf course charges for admission to get total annual revenue.

To calculate costs, we need to add up all of the different costs associated with running a mini-golf course. The major costs that come to mind are construction costs, rent, and staff costs to operate the mini-golf course. There are also other minor costs such as the costs of golf balls and golf clubs.

Interviewer : That approach makes sense to me.

5. Perform calculations

Once you have presented your framework to the interviewer and the interviewer has approved of your approach or given you feedback, you will move onto doing calculations.

When you are performing calculations, make sure you are walking the interviewer through each step. You do not want to be doing calculations in silence.

By walking the interviewer through each step of your math, the interviewer can easily follow what you are doing and provide suggestions or further information to help you.

Interviewer : Let’s move onto the calculations. I have the following information for you.

You : Let’s calculate revenue first. The mini-golf course is open 12 hours per day.

From 10AM – 5PM, the mini-golf course gets 10 visitors per hour. This gives us 70 visitors over seven hours. From 5PM – 10PM, the course gets 50 visitors per hour. This gives us 250 visitors over five hours. So, the mini-golf course gets 320 visitors per day.

The course is open 360 days per year, so 360 days times 320 visitors gives us 115,200 visitors. If each visitor pays $15 for admission, that is $1,728,000 in revenue per year.

Looking at costs, rent is $24,000 per month or $288,000 per year. 

There are 12 staff members at all times. They work 12 hours per day at $12 per hour. This gives us $1,728 in staff costs per day. Multiplying this by 360 days, this gives us $622,080 in staff costs per year.

Adding construction costs, equipment costs, rent costs, and staff costs gives us a total cost in the first year of $1,525,080.

Therefore, profit in the first year is $1,728,000 minus $1,525,080, which is $202,920. 

6. Discuss the implications of your answer

When you have finished your calculations, discuss the implications of your answer. How do the results of your calculations help you answer the overall case question? What are other considerations you should take into account?

Interviewer:  How would you interpret your answer?

You : Since profit in the first year is $202,920, this just meets our friend’s financial objective of reaching $200,000 in profits in the first year.

However, I noticed that construction costs and equipment costs are a one-time fixed cost. Although there will probably be future maintenance costs, our friend would not incur $615,000 of these costs again in the following years. I’d expect profits in year two and beyond to be much larger than the first year.

I also noticed that the mini-golf course employs 12 people at all times. Is there a reason for this? I’m wondering if there are opportunities to use machines to replace some of the repetitive and manual tasks that these employees do. This may further increase profits by decreasing costs.

7. Deliver a recommendation

At the end of the Capital One case interview, the interviewer will prompt you for a recommendation. Make sure to structure your recommendation so that it is clear and easy to follow. You can use this simple, but effective structure:

• State your recommendation
• Provide 2 – 3 reasons that support your recommendation
• Propose next steps

Here is an example of what a recommendation could look like:

Interviewer : Thanks for all of the work that you have done so far. What is your final recommendation?

You : I recommend that our friend should open up a mini-golf course. There are two reasons that support this.

One, the mini-golf course is expected to generate $202,920 in profits in the first year. This meets our friend’s financial objective of having at least $200,000 in profits in the first year.

Two, profits in year two and beyond will be much higher because our friend will not incur another $500,000 in construction costs or $115,000 in equipment costs. There will still be maintenance and repair costs, but profits could be as high as $817,920.

For next steps, I’d want to determine if our friend has the capabilities to successfully run and operate a mini-golf course. I’d also want to look at competitors to see how strong they are. They may try to take away visitors and revenues from our friend’s golf course.

Interviewer : Thanks for the recommendation. This concludes the case interview.

Learn the basics of Capital One case interviews in 30 minutes

We've summarized all of the basics of case interviews in a 30-minute video below. We highly recommend that you watch the video in its entirety.

Capital One Case interview Tips

Follow the five tips below to avoid making common mistakes in Capital One case interviews.

Tip #1: Share your thinking and reasoning out loud

Many candidates make the mistake of not communicating what they are thinking or doing. Remember, you get no credit for great ideas if they are not communicated to the interviewer.

When creating a framework for the case interview, walk your interviewer through it. When performing math calculations, walk your interviewer through each step.

For each decision that you make, communicate why you are making that decision so that the interviewer can understand the approach and rationale that you are using.

This way, the interviewer can give you credit for your ideas and thinking. Additionally, the interviewer may offer you suggestions or guidance to help you solve the case. The interviewer cannot provide you with support if they do not know what you are thinking or planning to do.

Tip #2: There is not always one correct answer

Like most case interviews, there is not always one correct answer. For the same Capital One case interview, two candidates can give completely opposite recommendations and still both receive job offers.

Although math calculations typically only have one right answer, there are many ways to interpret the final figure that you have calculated. As long as your recommendation is supported by data and evidence, your recommendation will be accepted by the interviewer.

Tip #3: Stay organized when working with a lot of data

Capital One case interviews will have a lot of data and information in the form of tables, charts, and graphs. When working with a lot of data, it is important to stay organized.

Make sure you do your calculations on a separate sheet of paper to keep your calculations separate from your notes and framework.

As you calculate different numbers, circle important numbers that you are likely to use over and over again. This makes your numbers easier to find and will prevent you from having to recalculate a figure that you have already calculated.

Draw a box around your final calculated answer to distinguish it from your other numbers and calculations.

Tip #4: Check your units

Make sure to check the units of the data you are working with.

Capital One case interviews often include data that have different units. For example, revenue may be given in terms of revenue per week while costs may be given in terms of costs per month.

Whenever you perform calculations, make sure the numbers are in the appropriate units. Working with the wrong units will make your answer wrong by orders of magnitude.

Tip #5: Know how to use a calculator quickly and efficiently

Capital One case interviews are one of the few interviews where you are allowed to use a calculator. You will most likely need to use the calculator during the interview when you are given large numbers that are tedious to calculate by hand.

Capital One is strict on only allowing standard, non-scientific calculators. Therefore, become familiar with using this type of calculator, which can only perform basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

These calculators have much less functionality than scientific calculators, so it may take some practice to get used to using them.

Capital One Case Interview Examples

Capital One provides a video explaining their case interview process. They also provide examples candidates answering case interview questions. The video is embedded below:

Below are some Capital One case interview questions that candidates have received in the past.

Example #1 : An arcade is considering whether they should be open on Tuesdays, the day of the week in which they typically see the lowest number of customers. We'll start by brainstorming the primary drivers of revenue and costs for an arcade and then calculate expected profits on Tuesdays to make a decision.

Example #2 : What is the typical annual profits of a movie theater? Let's brainstorm what the major sources of revenues are and what the major cost items are. Afterwards, I'll provide you with some data to calculate annual profit.

Example #3 : Let's calculate the average profit per credit card opened. What are the major revenue sources stemming from credit card use? What are the major costs?

Example #4 : A new credit card that is launched typically sees a spike in charge-offs (money lost because the credit card owner cannot make their payments) after 6 to 9 months of launch. What can banks do to: 1) reduce the amount of charge-offs and 2) reduce the spikiness of when they happen?

Recommended Capital One Case Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to learn the most robust, effective case interview strategies in the least time-consuming way:

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with former consulting interviewers
• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

Learn Case Interviews 10x Faster

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How to prepare for a virtual case interview

Contemplating a job change or interviewing for a new job can be stressful, but with the advent of social distancing due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19), norms around a lot of jobs, including the interview process, have transformed. We’ve moved the majority of our workforce to working from home , and with the health and well-being of our candidates, associates and communities in mind, we’ve transitioned to virtual interviews as well. In this new, and hopefully temporary, normal, we want to help you navigate the interview process and feel confident throughout your journey to join us here at Capital One. To help navigate that change, we’re offering some suggestions to support candidates who will participate in case interviews virtually. We’ve already covered our top tips to ace your case interview , but you may be wondering how to tackle a virtual case with confidence.

The primary difference between an in-person and virtual case is, of course, that your case interviewer won’t be in the room with you. Most likely, you’ll be connected virtually via a Zoom video conference call, so you’ll still be able to see your interviewer and show your work. Setting up your interview environment, confirming your technology is working properly and getting yourself in the right frame of mind are just some of our tips for how to prepare for any virtual interview . To make the virtual case interview as smooth and as comfortable as it would at one of our interview suites, here are our top tips to help you with your virtual case interview.

Getting case materials

Your case interviewer may have materials—like a copy of the case, a handout or design challenge—they will need to share with you. Your virtual case interview will most likely be set up via a Zoom interface, so your interviewer will set up a digital instance of the case documents using their internet browser window or an application like Word or Google docs. They’ll then share their screen with you within the Zoom meeting. If you have trouble seeing any documents, be sure to let your interviewer know so they can resize it for you.

Showing your work, virtually

Your case interviewer is trying to understand how you think, so you should be prepared to show visuals as well as talk through your approach to problem solving. Your virtual case interview will most likely be set up via a Zoom interface—once you’re in the Zoom meeting, you can use the Whiteboard feature, a Word document or a Google sheet to take notes and share your work. An added benefit of using the Whiteboard feature in Zoom is that it has both text and drawing capabilities. To access the Whiteboard, or share your screen so your preferred digital tool is visible, select Share Screen at the bottom of your Zoom meeting window, then select Whiteboard or the application window.

It’s important to note that these features really only work on a computer—if you need to complete your case interview via a video interview on your mobile phone , you’ll need to use paper and a pen to take notes and write down your work. You can hold up your paper to the camera so your interviewer can see your work or take a photo of your paper and send it to them. In an in-person case interview, you typically would be provided with paper and pen, but since they can’t be provided to you in a virtual interview, be prepared by having them on hand.

Take time to organize your thoughts

When you’re not sitting in the same room as your interviewer, you may feel added pressure to fill the silence or answer quickly—be sure to ask for a minute to organize your thoughts and start developing a framework for problem solving.

Showing your thought process—structure matters more

Like with any case interview, the framework is critical to conveying how you approach problems, how you structure your thoughts, and how you take in information and prioritize the inputs. Structure matters even more when you’re casing virtually because having a structured framework will help you create and communicate a clear and direct solution to the problem. Breaking down your plan of action using numbers will make it easier for your interviewer to follow along—for example, “First, I’d consider X. Second, I’ll calculate Y. And finally, I’ll determine Z.” As you’re analyzing the data, be sure to reference the framework you’ve communicated as your anchor point as you work through each area of focus.

Simplify & confirm understanding

Virtual case interviewing can put your communication skills to the test even more so than in a face-to-face interview. It will be harder to read each other’s body language and for you to share what you’ve written on paper, so clear and structured communication becomes much more important.

Here are five tips to help you communicate more effectively during your virtual case interview:

• As the case is presented to you, listen carefully to the information provided, and then summarize the problem statement as you understand it to make sure you are aligned on the inputs and objectives. Be sure to ask clarifying questions—your interviewer will provide additional information as they are able to.
• Formulate clear and simple hypotheses to help your interviewer follow your train of thought more easily. As you identify areas for additional analysis, ask for additional data to quantify your analysis. Be clear about any assumptions you’re making and walk your interviewer through any calculations as needed.
• Over-communicate with your interviewer and speak clearly, specifically, and explain your thought process and problem solving throughout each stage of the interview.
• Be prepared to answer plenty of follow-up questions because your interviewer will want to ensure they understand your thought process and solutions.
• Check in with your interviewer as you’re explaining to confirm they are able to hear you well and are able to follow your explanations.
• If you experience technical problems or a lagging video or audio, try to stay calm and discuss with your recruiter ways to remedy the situation. If all else fails, interviewers will have your contact information and they'll contact you directly via phone to help you troubleshoot any Zoom or connection issues.
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Capital One case interview

Capital One Financial Corporation is one of the few non-consulting firms famous for using case interviews in the recruitment process.

Lately, I’ve getting a lot of questions on Capital One case interviews from people with various backgrounds and goals, so today I’ll invite you all to tackle this topic with me, and learn how Capital One cases differ from their consulting counterparts.

Capital One hiring process

What is capital one .

Capital One is the 5th biggest commercial bank in the US, with 396M USD in total assets. Capital One specializes in 3 main products: credit cards, retail banking, and commercial banking services. Typically, an employee at Capital One is paid an average annual salary of $101,500, with precise figures ranging from $63,000 to $150,000 depending on his/her position.

Capital One recruitment process includes 4 rounds : (1) resume & cover letter, (2) online assessment test, (3) video interview, (4) Power Day. The whole process typically takes t wo to three weeks. An essential part of last two rounds is the case interview – where candidates are required to solve simulated business problems in about 20-30 minutes.

At Capital One, the position most similar to consulting – which we will talk about in this article – is the Analyst position in Business, Finance, Operation, and Data. It is this position that’s required to go through the case interview process already mentioned.

There is only one reason for Capital One to use this unique selection tool in their recruitment: Capital One has an in-house strategy division – that operates as internal consultants for the bank, planning strategies that help Capital One differentiate itself from other competitors in the market.

To be a part of this division, the employees must be very well-qualified with problem-solving, communication, and analytical skills, along with creativity, positivity, and flexibility. And there is no comprehensive way to recruit such a talent like this, but Case Interview.

Understanding the fundamental concepts behind a recruitment process is a good start, from then on, forms the right mindset, prepares thoroughly, approaches the case properly, and is ready to win the game!

Now, go with me and I will show you.

Capital One – Resume screening

Most people get rejected during resume screening – yet most people don’t spend enough effort on perfecting their resume. Since the result-oriented and peculiar nature of consulting resumes are also helpful in other areas, I would advise you to read this comprehensive guide on resume writing . Here’s the short version of the guide:

Your resume must vigorously address three attributes of leadership, achieving, and problem-solving, by covering these three factors.

• Content: display the most valuable achievements, and strengthen them with quantitative results rather than merely job description
• Language: professional and straight-to-the-point
• Visual: consistent, easy to read; using a consulting resume template is highly recommended.

Keep in mind that every firm has its own “scoring standard” to mark your paper, and you only have one side of the A4 page to prove “I am the one you’re looking for.” Therefore, ensure that you do understand Capital One’s recruiting metrics and utilize every single space to be directly tied to those values.

Capital One – Online assessment test 

There are 3 tests that you need to complete in this online psychometric assessment, which lasts 60 to 90 minutes:  Behavioral Test, Verbal Test , and Numerical Test .

Behavioral test

The online assessment starts with the Behavioral Test. The test consists of multiple-choice questions presenting hypothetical scenarios with common problems in the workplace. Your job is to figure out the most suitable answer (e.g. Most and Least effective response in the situation for situational judgment questions) to the situation among a few possible options.

The purpose of this test is that the recruiters want to know your working style and experience, how you might cooperate with co-workers, and how you contribute to the working environment here.

You work as an advisor in a call centre. Two days ago, you took a call from a customer who needed some specialist advice that was outside your area of expertise. At the time, you were unable to get hold of the internal specialist who would be able to help the customer with their query, so you promised that you would have someone call them back within 24 hours to help them.

You have just realised that you got caught up on other calls, and forgot to send a request to the specialist to contact the customer. You have not heard anything more from the customer since they called two days ago though.

A. Immediately call the customer back, explain your mistake and promise that you will ask a specialist to call them immediately. B. Add a note to the customer’s file saying the query wasn’t followed up but the customer has not been in touch, so the need has likely passed. C. Call the specialist to explain what you have done and apologise to them, but ask whether they could call the customer now. D. Tell your manager what has happened and ask them to contact the customer to apologise on your behalf and see if they still need the help.

You are working as a sales assistant in the technology department of a large department store. You are helping a customer who is interested in purchasing a laptop, and when another customer approaches you, they look very upset. They interrupt your conversation and demand a refund on a fan they had purchased earlier in the week, that isn’t working properly.

As you scan the shop floor to see if another colleague can help the second customer while you finish with the first customer, you quickly realise there isn’t anyone in your eyesight.

A. Apologise to the second customer and explain you are already helping someone but promise that you will assist them immediately afterward. B. Politely ask the first customer you are speaking to if they can wait a moment while you try to resolve the issue for the customer who is upset. C. Apologise to both customers and explain that you will go and find another colleague who can help the second customer resolve their issue. D. Suggest that you call one of the store supervisors and ask them if they can come to your department to help the second customer with their complaint.

Verbal reasoning

Capital One recruiters place high interest in applicants who show a high aptitude for verbal reasoning. So expect that you will be tested with your comprehension ability towards written materials.

The test consists of several short texts and a concluding statement, followed by multiple-choice questions, mainly in the TRUE, FALSE, or CANNOT BE DETERMINED BASED ON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED format. If you have ever taken any type of passage-based standardized testing, then you can get familiar with Capital One’s Verbal Reasoning.

One keynote to take : the answers are only based on the information provided – no past experiences or knowledge involved. Therefore, make sure to focus on only the context given by the test and solve the issue.

Here are a few examples of verbal reasoning questions from SHL.

Many organizations find it beneficial to employ students over the summer. Permanent staff often wish to take their own holidays over this period. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for companies to experience peak workloads in the summer and so require extra staff. Summer employment also attracts students who may return as well-qualified recruits to an organization when they have completed their education. Ensuring that the students learn as much as possible about the organization encourages interest in working on a permanent basis. Organizations pay students on a fixed rate without the usual entitlement to paid holidays or bonus schemes.

Statement 1: It is possible that permanent staff who are on holiday can have their work carried out by students.

A. True B. False C. Cannot Say

Statement 2: Students in summer employment are given the same paid holiday benefit as permanent staff.

Statement 3: Students are subject to the organization’s standard disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Statement 4: Some companies have more work to do in the summer when students are available for vacation work.

Answer - Statement 1

This statement is true  (Option A) as the passage states: “Many organizations find it beneficial to employ students over the summer. Permanent staff often wish to take their own holidays over this period.”

Answer - Statement 2

This statement is false (Option B) as the passage states: “Organisations pay students on a fixed rate without the usual entitlement to paid holidays or sick leave.”

Answer - Statement 3

We cannot say whether this statement is true or false (Option C) as the passage does not make reference to the discipline or grievance procedures for students.

Answer - Statement 4

This statement is true (Option A) as the passage states: “Furthermore, it is not uncommon for companies to experience peak workloads in the summer…”

Numerical reasoning

Numerical reasoning is a fancy term for math tests. You are applying to a bank, for the analyst position. 100% you will need math.

The test includes a total of 30 questions in 35 minutes, based on the format of Cappfinity – a world-leading strengths-based assessment specialized for organization recruitment – which focuses on math questions.

• Statistical tables, charts, and graphs
• Basic mathematical operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
• Simple calculations: ratios, percentages, etc.

Most of the time, these questions are usually carried out in the form of multiple-choice questions. This is a good point. Because even if you don’t know the exact answer, you can always have a back-up plan: guessing and eliminating the wrong ones .

What’s more? You can use a calculator.

Here are a few examples of numerical questions from SHL:

Question 1: Which newspaper was read by a higher % of females than males in Year 3?

A. The Tribune B. The Herald C. Daily News D. Daily Echo E. The Daily Chronicle

Question 2: What was the combined readership of the Daily Chronicle, the Daily Echo, and The Tribune in Year 1?

A. 10.6 B. 8.4 C. 9.5 D. 12.2 E. 7.8

Question 3: In Year 3, how much more than Italy did Germany spend on computer imports?

A. 650 million B. 700 million C. 750 million D. 800 million E. 850 million

Question 4: If the amount spent on computer imports into the United Kingdom in Year 5 was 20% lower than in Year 4, what was spent in Year 5?

A. 1,080 million B. 1,120 million C. 1,160 million D. 1,220 million E. 1,300 million

Answer - Question 1

To answer this question, you need to compare the data in the column ‘Percentage of adults reading each paper in Year 3’ from the Newspaper Readership table. The only newspaper with more female than male readers is the Daily Echo. Therefore, the answer is D

Answer - Question 2

To answer this question, you need to look at the data in the “Year 1 Readership (millions)” column from the Newspaper Readership Table.

To calculate the combined readership for the three newspapers mentioned, add the readership numbers.

Therefore, the solution to this answer would be calculated as follows:

The Daily Chronicle readership = 3.6 million Daily Echo readership = 4.8 million The Tribune readership = 1.1 million

⇒ TOTAL READERSHIP = 9.5 million

Therefore,  the answer is C.

Answer - Question 3

To answer this question, you need to look at the figures from Germany and Italy for Year 3 in the ‘Amount Spent on Computer Imports’ graph.

Germany spent 1,400 million Euros and Italy spent 700 million Euros.

To work out how much more Germany spent than Italy, simply calculate the difference (1,400 million – 700 million), which leaves 700 million euros.

Therefore, the answer is B.

Answer - Question 4

To answer this question, you need to look at the figures from the UK in Year 4 from the ‘Amount Spent on Computer Imports’ graph.

From here, we can see that 1,400 million euros was spent in Year 4.

To calculate the amount spent on computer imports in Year 5, we need to calculate 20% of 1,400 million:

1,400 (million) x 0.20 = 280 million (this is 20% of 1,400 million) 1,400 million – 280 million = 1,120 million.

Capital One – Video interview

Another part of the online assessment round is online interview. You might be in either a video interview on conference tool Zoom, or have a phone interview, which is said as more common to Capital One.

Capital One video interview process

This round covers both fit questions and case questions.

First, you will start with fit questions. They are used to verify your work history, availability, salary expectations, and skill sets. Especially for this part, keep your answers highly structured while displaying the 3 main attributes – leadership, achieving, and problem-solving. Try story-telling techniques as I explained here.

Next is a short case interview. It is where you are going to analyze a hypothetical business situation and give recommendations on how to proceed with the plan, which I will explain in more detail later. A proper case interview prep takes about 1-2 months at least, so it will only do you good to start as soon as possible. Get off on the right foot with my all-in-one guide right here, you can ace this round.

Tips for a successful Capital One video interview

Here is a checklist for a successful online interview:

• Practice first: make sure that you fully understand the context of the interview and go through all possible questions beforehand; have mock interviews with yourself or friends;
• Keep your answers short (but not too short): prepare your scripts in advance, decide whether you tend to be a “drag on” or “cut short” type, then adjust accordingly with you under-time-pressure practice
• Technical setup: find a quiet and private place, away from any possible interruptions; make sure the spot having enough light; check all the technical work such as connection, computer micro, audio, and webcam; close all the unnecessary web browser tabs and applications so that you only focus on your interview; set the phone to silent;
• Materials: have a copy of resume and any other notes for reference; bring a notepad and a pen/pencil aside to take note;
• Dressing: wear professionally, avoid too bright colors.

Once you pass the Online Assessment Round and are shortlisted for the position, you will be contacted for a sit-down interview – the Power Day. A typical interview contains 2 parts: behavioral interview and of course, case interview.

Depending on the nature of the position and its seniority, you may be in one of three forms of interview: 

• One-on-one interview, with a departmental manager
• Panel interview, with departmental managers and HR personnel
• Group interview

Capital One – Behavioral interview (Power Day)

While video interviews or phone screenings will focus more on an applicant’s previous experience and approach toward their work, this Behavioral interview will be more concerned with the job seeker’s behavioral characteristics and his/her work ethics. At this section, Capital One looks for 3 attributes in their candidates:

• Leadership: the ability to influence people, and work effectively in teams
• Achieving: the willingness to go beyond what is asked, and strive for the best results
• Problem-solving: the ability to break down problems in a structured, top-down approach

The questions asked at Capital One will fall into two main categories:

(a) Motivational questions, ask you to explain why you are applying to this specific industry and this firm. Normally, the interviewers may want you to connect the unique features, projects, and people of Capital One to your future plan and personal values, showcasing that you are ready for long-term commitment

• Why do you want to work for Capital One?
• Why are you applying for this job?
• What do you know about Capital One?

(b) Personal Experience Interview (PEI) questions , test how you behave in particular situations in the firm’s working environment. No matter what the questions might be, you must cover all the three attributes above with authentic, engaging, convincing stories.

• Discuss a time when you had to address a difficult customer. 
• What are your strengths/weaknesses?
• If we give you a book containing 100 accounts, how would you organize it?
• How would you motivate an employee who was not performing their duties?
• Name a time you had to learn something new.

In this section, you can use the  STAR format (Situation – Task – Action – Result) to plan for the behavioral question clearly and methodically.

Capital One – Case interview (Power Day)

What is case interview.

A case interview is a job interview where the candidate is asked to solve a business case or problem. It is the cornerstone of consulting recruitment playing a decisive role in final results, however is also used as a significant hiring process of Capital One. Case interviews are modelled after the course of actions real consultants do in real projects, where candidates are tested with the ability to think analytically, probe appropriate questions, and make most client-friendly pitches. Therefore, excellent performance in this section means that you are a good analyst for Capital One.

Here are a few example case questions: 

• “We have a restaurant called “In-and-out Burger” with recently falling profits. How can you help?”
• “The CEO of a cement company wants to close one of its plants. Should they do it?”
• “A top 20 bank wants to get in top 5. How can the bank achieve that goal?”

Generally, there are 2 styles of conducting case: Candidate-led and Interviewer-led. At Capital One, they use the Interviewer-led style , of which the interviewer controls the process. However, I heartfeltly advise you to ignore this and try to control the case as if it’s candidate-led . It shows you having that leading and proactive personality, which is highly interested by Capital One recruiters.

Capital One case interview example

Looking at this tutorial, two features set Capital One case interviews apart from their consulting cousins:

• Very math-intensive. As I had mentioned before, you are applying to a bank. You are expected to excel in doing mental math and understanding the numerical content. So you would want to double your preparation in the math aspect of case interviews. 
• Surprisingly non-MECE. Perhaps because they are not a consulting firm, structure and MECE are not as important. When I watched their tutorial video, I couldn’t help but see a lot of obvious non-MECE holes in their illustrative cases. However, should we not use structure and MECE anymore? Well, the answer is, you’d better ignore this difference, and keep pretending as if you are interviewing with a highly structural-minded firm. Structure will become your habit and you will do fine in every case regardless of which firm you apply to.

Chances are, you don’t have a lot of time and the topic of case interview is too big. So, my advice here is to apply the 80-20 principle, learn the most time-effective principles of case interviews, just enough to do well. Spend the time that you saved on math.

Capital One case interview question

There are 9 types of question in Capital One case interviews:

This means the question types at Capital One are quite similar to consulting interviewer-led cases – and that means you can use consulting prep materials to prepare for Capital One case interviews, too.

Here are a few articles I’ve written on these question types:

• Case Interview Questions
• Market Sizing and Guesstimate Questions
• Brain Teaser Interview Questions

How to prepare for Capital One interviews

Step 1: familiarize with interviewer-led case examples.

Expose yourself to as many interviewer-led cases as possible. Use materials from this updated list of 35 case interviews examples from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Other. Or check out our Case Interview E2E Secret Program – complete, detailed feedback, all in video format.

Step 2: Practice consulting math

Master your math, especially mental math. It might be difficult, but you can practice and get used to the question format. Here are a few tips:

• Use your head. Practice mental calculations, everyday. This helps speed up your mathematical process as well as improve the accuracy over the time.
• Flatten the learning curve: At the start, a piece of scratch paper and a 5% margin of error really help; once you are confident, discard the paper and narrow down the margin.
• Establish a Routine: It might seem hard to stick to the plan at first. However, once you’ve overcome the inertia, you can literally feel the improvement.

Visit this  in-depth consulting math article and train our Mental Math methodology to ace the test efficiently.

Step 3: Develop business intuition

You can improve your natural sense of the business world by reading consulting publications from McKinsey Insights, BCG Perspectives, and Bain Publications; train case interview questions occasionally; and apply what you read into real-life circumstances at the workplace – “What senior managers are doing?” “What’s the rationale for their decision, and how has it impacted the organization?”

Step 4: Learn the case interview question types

Master each and every question type I have mentioned before, start from basic to more complex and less predictable ones. In our Case Interview Questions, each type is well explained with tips and techniques to deliver ideal answers. Key takeaways: treat them like mini-cases, be structured, always use the MECE approach.

Step 5: Perform mock interviews

The best way to get good at something is to do it.

Find yourself a former consultant to help you practice; they’ve been through countless case interviews, both real and mock, they know what’s required of a candidate, so they’re the best people to run your simulations with.

Fortunately, MConsultingPrep does offer a coaching service where you can choose a highly experienced coach. They will provide you with their insider knowledge of how to stand out in a case interview. Your meeting with coaches will be tailored to your specific wishes and you’ll get detailed feedback on your weak areas.

Study your cases down to the smallest details. Replay them over and over and over again, take notes of the interviewer’s feedback, and look for other areas you can improve.

Bonus: Dress Code

Not the utmost, but is crucial to make a good impression.

• For gentlemen: Tie and suit, always. Think of the well-groomed gentleman walking down the streets from “The Wolf of Wall Street” or “Suits” – that’s how you want to look. Remember to choose a tie and dark socks that match your suit also.
• For ladies: wear a skirt at a medium length, not too tight, and keep heels at a sensible height.

And, that’s it. Keep your chin up and rock the interview. Good luck!

Want a more in-depth look into details in interview-led cases and other secrets to smash through any case interview? Check out our End-to-End Secrets Program , all in one package! 

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A case interview is where candidates is asked to solve a business problem. They are used by consulting firms to evaluate problem-solving skill & soft skills

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• Assignment: Machine Learning

Capital One: Transforming traditional banking to an AI-first experience

Capital One’s history of adopting an information-based strategy is helping it achieve an unassailable competitive lead as an AI-first financial services firm leveraging machine learning for delivering superior customer experience.

Ever since Capital One Financial Corp. was founded as a credit card company in 1988, it has focused on leveraging data analytics to understand consumer spending patterns. As a diversified bank with more than 65 million customers, Capital One has been a pioneer in digital technologies. It was the first bank to appoint a chief data officer in 2002 and by 2011, was conducting 80,000 big data experiments a year.

Capital One has leveraged these historical strengths to become an AI-first company in the past ten years and transformed itself into an agile, cloud-native, large-scale engineering organization.

Capital One’s holistic AI-powered approach

Today, Capital One applies AI/ML to almost every facet of its business; from customer-facing personal assistants, to call center operations, and even pre-emptive maintenance of its digital assets apart from credit decisioning.

Real-time, Intelligent, Automated Customer Experiences

Eno by Capital One, was the banking industry’s first, natural language SMS chatbot that has evolved into a multichannel solution with numerous capabilities. It helps customers check their bank balances, track purchases, pay bills online, connect with spending, and proactively monitor their accounts and keep them secure.

Pathways to a Just Digital Future

One of the recent additions to Eno is a fraud detection engine. Eno automatically alerts customers about potential frauds in real-time, and if required, locks their card. Eno uniquely communicates these decisions proactively and allows customers to respond in their own terms and words. This unlocks a critical network effect of customers training Eno with more data about their intentions, which in turn improves the algorithms, leading to lesser frauds and a better, seamless customer experience.

Enhancing user experience around virtual card numbers through EDGE ML

While making online purchases, the Eno browser extension binds a unique virtual card number (VCN) to a specific merchant in lieu of the customers’ physical card numbers. Each VCN mapped to a specific merchant provides safety to customers against original physical card details being leaked in case of a breach. Eno browser is required to identify payment pages and fields using rules and autocomplete payment processor patterns. However, non-standardized HTML markups on payment pages of different merchant sites make it necessary for Eno’s rules to be configured for each merchant site. Capital One’s Eno team solved this problem by creating two models; one detects when the customer is on a payment page so that the Eno browser extension can be popped up, and the second classifies input fields within the payment page so that the Eno browser extension can automatically fill in the appropriate payment information.

These models have enabled Capital One to seamlessly extend their VCN to a large number of online sites thereby improving response times while preserving customer privacy and security.

Using ML for quick turnaround during mobile app failure

Capital One Mobile App is an integral part of the firm’s strategy to deliver seamless, digital services to its millions of customers. This requires the firm to be highly responsive in resolving technical failures to minimize credibility loss in such an eventuality.

To achieve the same, Capital One has created an ML-based intelligence layer on top of its industry-leading monitoring tools observing mobile app failures. Capital One mobile app is essentially a complex interconnected system built as a mesh of APIs, microservices, databases, and compute & storage infrastructure. Monitoring tools capture these components’ health but store that data in a siloed manner. So, Capital One’s ML team created an inference engine by integrating these siloed datasets from different monitoring tools and linking it with appropriate metadata to help engineers identify the failed component with its reason. This enabled them to reduce the turnaround time for resolving incidents by up to 50%, thereby giving Capital One a major competitive advantage.

Machine learning for anti-money laundering

As per the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimate, 2.7 percent of global GDP is being laundered. Capital One, like many other traditional banks, used rule-based, deterministic tools to monitor transactions for money laundering. However, this required the AML team to constantly keep adding parameters and conditions for triggering alerts, making it difficult to maintain the system. Also, these alerts weren’t prioritized for investigators based on contextual parameters which needed machine learning intervention.

Capital One formed a multidisciplinary team of AML experts and data scientists to train a random forest model on a hundred thousand past investigations and validated it using a several hundred features based on customer and transaction attributes linked to money laundering activities. The model processes a customer’s identifiers to generate a score that represents the likelihood of a customer’s activity being suspicious and allows AML teams to prioritize alerts for further investigations.

This replaces the traditional first-in, first-out workflow with a risk-based investigative procedure that leads to better, more efficient investigative results.

To reduce false positives, Capital One team used diversified AML team from five different countries to train the model representatively. This combined with monthly model monitoring, strict QA standards, and cross-testing are used to continually improve its performance and stability.

Currents Challenges & Recommendations

Given the highly regulated nature of their sector, ensuring transparency and explainability in their evolving deep learning models, especially in credit decisioning, is a key challenge. To address the same, internally, they can have explainability experts embedded in each product team, whereas externally, they can be involved in cross-industry explainability forums collectively working on visualizing deep learning models, and collaborating with regulators.

Another challenge is further entrenching ML operations as business-as-usual across the organization. To foster this AI-first culture, they can launch a skill development programs to equip their product managers with the necessary skills to identify opportunities for AI deployment and become model owners in collaboration with data scientists.

Capital One’s relentless focus on becoming an AI-first company has pushed the frontiers in automating important operational steps demonstrating significant efficiency gains. Going forward, as increasingly more self-evolving deep learning algorithms take charge of critical decision-making, Capital One needs to build a broader industry consensus and sensitize advocacy groups and regulators on the future of AI in banking and financial services. Capital One needs to reposition itself from a leader to an industry orchestrator.

(1) https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomdavenport/2019/07/10/from-analytics-first-to-ai-first-at-capital-one/?sh=779f61c2f1bf

(2) https://www.capitalone.com/tech/machine-learning/

(3) https://medium.com/capital-one-tech/this-is-machine-learning-at-capital-one-9329838cbcd0

(4) https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-rctom/submission/machine-learning-in-credit-assessment-at-capital-one/

(5) https://www.capitalone.com/tech/machine-learning/product-management-machine-learning-program/

(6) https://www.capitalone.com/tech/machine-learning/new-forrester-report-on-operationalizing-machine-learning/

(7) https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/capital-one-machine-learning/

(8) https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2011/October/illicit-money_-how-much-is-out-there.html

(9) https://www.capitalone.com/tech/machine-learning/machine-learning-in-the-enterprise-lessons-from-the-front-lines/

(10) https://medium.com/capital-one-tech/using-machine-learning-to-re-think-the-customer-experience-paradigm-a58ce380b8be

(11) https://www.capitalone.com/tech/machine-learning/edge-machine-learning-eno-virtual-card-numbers/

(12) https://www.capitalone.com/tech/machine-learning/how-machine-learning-can-help-fight-money-laundering/

(13) https://www.capitalone.com/tech/machine-learning/automated-detection-diagnosis-remediation-of-application-failure/

Student comments on Capital One: Transforming traditional banking to an AI-first experience

Thank you for sharing! I enjoy learning about how deeply AI/ML is rooted in Capital one by getting to know that you can basically find AI/ML-enabled technologies in every part of its business. This has led me to think about how they attract these talents in the industry as I am not sure if the bank is the first thing that a data analyst would think about when recruiting.

Thanks for the post, Anand. Capital One is certainly a leader in FinTech. Eno sounds very interesting – one number per merchant definitely mitigates fraud and risk. I’m assuming it’s also great for free trial subscription services, especially those that may be hard to cancel as I’m guessing you could easily close the virtual card to stop a service from repeatedly charging you. P.S: Fun fact – “Eno” is One spelled backwards.

Thanks for the post, Anand. I am a Capital One customer and can attest to their seamless integration of tech in their financial product offering. An additional service they have which I use weekly and I am sure has some level of AI/ML integration is Capital One Shopping, a Chrome plug-in that screens every single e-commerce checkout page you navigate into in order to offer you discount codes and alternative sites with cheaper prices. It is one of my favorite Capital One products. It allows Capital One to collect massive amounts of data from customers browsing the internet, which can then be leveraged by advertisers to provide targeted discounts and convert high-likelihood shoppers.

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Cloud Migration Case Study: How Capital One Successfully Transitioned to the Cloud

In the digital age, businesses need to adapt to remain competitive, and a significant part of that adaptation involves embracing new technologies. Capital One, a leading financial institution, stands as a noteworthy example of a company that has capitalized on the transformative power of cloud technology. With this migration, the bank successfully streamlined its operations, improved its services, and enhanced the customer experience.

A Cloud-First Approach

Capital One was among the first banks to embrace a "cloud-first" approach, in part to foster innovation and agility within the organization. The financial behemoth partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its cloud services, ensuring a robust, reliable, and secure platform for its operations.

The migration was systematic and well-orchestrated. High-priority applications were identified and transitioned to the cloud, focusing on customer-facing systems for optimal impact. The company's mobile banking app and customer account platforms were some of the first to make the leap, demonstrating the firm's commitment to customer-centric digitization.

Efficiency, Scalability, and Cost Savings

Cloud migration provided Capital One with significant advantages. Firstly, operational efficiency saw a substantial boost. The agility of cloud computing allowed for quicker deployment of updates and new features, directly benefiting customers. Scalability, another boon of cloud computing, meant the company could easily adjust its resource usage based on demand, ensuring optimal performance at all times.

The financial aspect was not neglected, either. Shifting to the cloud resulted in tangible cost savings. Capital One was able to reduce its data center footprint from eight in 2014 to zero in 2020, significantly cutting infrastructure and maintenance costs.

Driving Innovation

Perhaps the most transformative impact of Capital One's cloud migration lies in its ability to drive innovation. Cloud-based operations have unlocked new opportunities for the bank, particularly in areas such as machine learning and real-time data processing. By harnessing these technologies, the bank can provide more personalized customer experiences, more precise risk assessments, and improved fraud detection.

Adapting to Change

Despite its size and standing in the banking sector, Capital One's approach to cloud migration provides an important lesson for businesses of all sizes and industries. It underlines the importance of embracing change and leveraging new technologies to improve operations and services.

As technology advances, a company's ability to adapt and leverage these advances becomes increasingly crucial. At Thinklogic, we understand this reality. Our team helps businesses navigate the complexities of digital transformation, whether it's developing custom web-based software applications or facilitating a smooth transition to the cloud. We believe that the right technology solutions can enhance growth and efficiency and are committed to ensuring your business reaps these benefits.

Conclusion: Capital One's Triumph in Cloud Evolution

Capital One's cloud migration journey underscores the transformative potential of cloud technology. By adopting a cloud-first strategy, the bank has not only improved its operations but has also driven innovation and enhanced the customer experience.

Cloud migration may seem like a daunting task, but with the right strategy and the right partners, it can open up a world of opportunities.

Ready to embark on your own transformative digital journey? Reach out to our experts and let's innovate together. Connect with us now at https://www.thinklogic.com/connect.  

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