Consulting · Interview
McKinsey CCN Research Intern Interview: PST & Case Prep
Plenty of people want to apply for McKinsey CCN Research Intern, but firsthand accounts online are scattered and it's hard to piece together the full shape of the selection process. This piece was written after I participated in the 2026 CCN Research Intern recruiting process and helped conduct interviews for the new batch of interns. Looking back at my own 2025 preparation from that vantage point, I think the direction I took was already very much on track.
What CCN Research Intern Is and How the Process Works
CCN stands for Client Capability Network, which is the Research and Information team at McKinsey's Taipei office. Research Intern is the internship role on that team. The application path is roughly: submit resume, enter R1 written tests, pass and receive an invite to Interview Day (two rounds of in-person interviews), then wait roughly a week for a call with the offer.
R1: PST and Information Synthesis
R1 is a written test with two components that are completely different in nature and need to be prepared separately.
The first is the PST, Problem Solving Test. It tests analytical speed, not depth. So instead of chasing complete understanding of every question, practice picking out the key points and managing your time — running out of time hurts more than getting answers wrong.
The second is Information Synthesis, a test specific to CCN. It targets the core daily skill of a Researcher: finding what actually matters in a flood of information, fast. I helped set the questions for the 2026 round, so I can't get into format specifics here. But one thing is worth saying: if you've done serious case prep, this component will feel familiar.
Interview Day: Two Back-to-Back In-Person Rounds
After passing R1, Interview Day takes place on the 47th floor of Taipei 101. Two back-to-back rounds, both in-person, no written component.
The two rounds are each designed with a different emphasis and assess you from different angles. The full picture only comes together on the day. Prep direction is in the resources section below.
Language: both rounds are a mix of Chinese and English, with the proportion depending on the interviewer's communication style. It's not fixed as all-English or all-Chinese.
There's no break between the two rounds, and I didn't eat anything in between either. Getting from the lobby to the 47th floor requires two elevator transfers, so build in extra time. I'd recommend arriving ten minutes before your scheduled time.
How to Use the Prep Resources
The two stages call for different things, so prepare them separately. Here's how I've organized the resources I used in 2025, split into three groups by stage.
R1: PST and Information Synthesis
McKinsey provides three official PST practice tests as free downloads: Practice Test A, Practice Test B, and Practice Test C. If you want more, there's also a BCG online case prep PDF. If four isn't enough, GMAT logical reasoning and data interpretation questions have meaningful overlap with PST question types.
On Information Synthesis: I helped set the questions for the 2026 round, so I can't describe the format or specific prep approach in detail here. That said, candidates who've done serious case prep tend to have a real edge on this stage.
Interview Day Prep
Interview prep comes down to two things: being able to reason through a business problem clearly, and being able to tell your own story clearly.
On the business logic side, at minimum work through the example cases on the McKinsey careers page: the feel is very close to the actual interview. Get MECE solid, then make sure you can say the foundational business vocabulary in English: revenue, cost, profit, market size, market share. One level up: 4P (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), 4C, and terms like competitive landscape, supply, and demand are worth keeping in memory. No need to memorize lists — just keep them accessible so they come out naturally. If you have room, one or two BCG-style interviewee-led cases are worth the practice.
On the personal story side, scripting and memorizing isn't the right approach. Organize a few specific past experiences into versions you can talk through in three to five minutes, covering the common dimensions: leadership, impact, and entrepreneurial drive. For this part, benchmarking against the McKinsey BA interview standard is a useful reference point for the expected depth.
My Actual Daily Tools
I used ChatGPT voice mode the most. For working through estimation problems in English, I could talk out the logic while it responded, which forced me to say the reasoning out loud. Having it play interviewer and push back with follow-up questions was also helpful for building spoken fluency and on-the-spot response.
I also took one or two sessions on AmazingTalker to get a feel for solving problems live in an interview setting, and another couple for Business English speaking practice. When it comes to picking a tutor, an overseas tutor who specializes in Business English is plenty. There's no need to pay the premium for ex-MBB branded coaching: the ROI on that just isn't there.
It's also worth following the social media of NTU or NCCU consulting clubs (or the NTU exchange board). They're usually first with recruiting timelines and format updates, faster than official websites. Occasionally other useful job search information shows up there too.
What It Takes to Do Well in This Internship
Having gone through the full selection process, I have a clearer sense of one thing: what CCN Research Intern is actually looking for is not the person who scores fastest on the PST or knows the most case frameworks, but a specific combination of resourcefulness and ownership.
Resourceful means that when you face an ambiguous problem, you find a way forward yourself rather than waiting for someone to tell you what to do next. Research work is inherently like that: nobody puts the answer in front of you; you need to know how to find the problem first. Ownership means treating what's in your hands as yours, not just completing what you were assigned but pushing it to a quality result, regardless of scale.
Both of these come through in interviews, and they're even more visible in the actual work. Technical preparation can be caught up on, but these underlying qualities don't develop quickly. How well you can hold your own once you're in depends on them more than you might expect.
This matters especially for people coming from non-business backgrounds. My degree was in political science, and going into the interview I had almost no exposure to business case frameworks. What I found later was that social science training gives you something that converts: breaking down systems, asking the right questions, finding causality in messy information. In a different application context, that instinct is very close to what Resourceful actually requires. The technical vocabulary can be caught up on; the underlying habit of finding the right problem is harder to develop quickly. If you're coming from a non-business background, try translating that into an edge rather than treating it as a gap to patch.
If you're curious about what the internship itself involves, I wrote about that in A Political Science Student's Year at McKinsey.