This lesson teaches how to interpret charts and exhibits in a case interview and convert them into business-relevant insight.
Many candidates can read numbers but still underperform on exhibits.
They describe what the chart says without explaining:
Interviewers are not looking for data narration. They are looking for interpretation.
A good exhibit read has three parts:
You do not need to mention every number. You need to identify the signal.
When the interviewer gives you a chart or table:
Always connect the exhibit back to the case question.
What type of exhibit is this?
Look for:
What is the most important thing the interviewer should take from the exhibit?
What does that mean for the case?
Good exhibit work usually points to the next analytical step.
Suppose the chart shows:
A weak read:
“Premium is down and discount is up.”
A stronger read:
“The main issue appears to be mix deterioration rather than total customer loss. Overall volume is stable, but the decline in premium customers likely hurts profitability more than the discount growth helps it. I would next want to understand whether pricing, service quality, or competition is driving the premium segment decline.”
A strong candidate:
A weaker candidate often:
Reading the chart is not the same as analyzing it.
Large percentage changes and large absolute changes are not always the same thing.
The key point is often in the pattern, not in the most dramatic single number.
The interviewer wants to know what the data means for the client problem.
Imagine a chart shows that sales are growing, but profits are shrinking.
List three possible implications that could explain that pattern.
A useful template is:
The main takeaway from this exhibit is ___. That matters because ___. Based on this, I would next want to investigate ___.
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