McKinsey Solve 2024: Every REDROCK Question Explained

This video explains the Redrock Study Task (2024 version) - the second test after Ecosystem Building of the McKinsey Solve (also known as the Problem Solving Game), in terms of its interface, functions, and test contents.
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TIME STAMPS
Intro
OVERVIEW
0:15 - The second test in Solve
0:47 - 14-question consultant simulation
1:29 - Time limit is only 35 minutes
2:03 - No going back, no skipping forward
2:56 - It requires background knowledge
3:42 - In today’s video
4:21 - PART 1: STUDY
5:24 - Stage 1: Investigation
10:00 - Stage 2: Analysis
14:28 - Stage 3: Summary
PART 2: CASES
16:41 - Overview of Cases
18:36 - Case 1
19:15 - Case 2
20:28 - Case 3
24:19 - Case 4
25:25 - Case 5
26:17 - Case 6
27:27 - After the Cases
ADDRESSING COMMON CONCERNS
27:57 - How do I allocate time?
30:45 - What do I need to learn?
31:55 - Logic and business intuition
33:24 - How much do I need to practice?
34:14 - CLOSING
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[@diegonevesafonso70]

I think there was a mistake in case 4. I think it asks you to calculate the average growth seen in the last 4 periods, add 5 percentage points and use this number to calculate how much gold coins are expected for the current year. This would make necessary to use all the avg gold coins from the previous years and the 5 percentage points, right?

[@firas593]

Hi, I have passed the game and I'm very grateful for your video. I would like to point out that some of the terminology in the game is quite challenging; however, you don't need to know them, so try to simply identify what the question wants and move on.

[@srutib]

hey congrats. i have deadline in two days. please share your experience. what games did you have to solve? what location did you apply to? how did you do the redrock game, without excel or with and how did you select the questions and research journal?

[@mirraidaat]

Hi, may I ask you , how did you know that you passed successfully or no . Cuz I also got the game but I didn’t see anything that could let me know wether I passed it or no

[@siamonlemon9229]

Is the webcam required to do this test?

[@prageethprakash2383]

@@siamonlemon9229 NO

[@alexalonzo4070]

Watched this video and your older one and I did pretty well 🙌 made a sustainable ecosystem and this video helped me prepare for the math, appreciate the help man

[@DucPham-qr6oz]

So insightful! Thank you for sharing!

[@user-xw7lf7nz8h]

Thanks for sharing this informative video!

[@nguyenthuylinh7657]

What an insightful video!

[@TuanLe-iw3tw]

Great explaination!

[@user-ox1gw4vs8p]

Great! It's so helpful for my test preparation. Expect more videos like this....

[@chidoojiakor6524]

Hi, just curious to know how your test went and if you found this useful...

[@cynthiawaithira4197]

Thanks for the video! What happened to the free trial though?

[@orlevy68]

in 18:50 why didnt he doubled 0.25 by 0?

[@MConsultingPrep]

You have a really good eye ^^ We made a typo there during recording, it should have been 0 * 0.25 (= 0, not 0.25) -> correct answer is 1.3700.

[@marab5935]

Shouldn't mini case question 2 be 65%, not 55%? Since it says, the chance of finding treasure on at LEAST one island? So both islands would be ok as well?

[@VinaBay]

The test is so hard!

[@user-ki9fz4gs2y]

Thanks for the great explanation! It's incredibly helpful for me as I prepare for my first career test. I'm realizing I might be a bit late to the game, haha. The simulation is at 279 now.

[@srutib]

hey how did it go? I am preparing too but not sure what to study for redrock

[@orlevy68]

@@srutib Hi! did u had the test? can you share what did you have in REDROCK? any questions from there?

[@ahun-jn9gh]

So what is in the solve test? Ecosystem like your web and this ?

[@orlevy68]

Is it possible to copy and paste text in the REAL Redrock test? Can you select and copy text from the questions and paste it elsewhere, or is the screen locked down to prevent copying? someone knows?

[@adhametriby]

Hello, first I would like to thank you for your insightful explanation, I have one question regarding the second case question, the question is asking about the chances of finding treasure on at least one of the islands, why did we subtract the chance of having treasures on the same time😅

[@siamonlemon9229]

Is the webcam required to do this test?

[@siamonlemon9229]

Is the webcam required to do this test?

[@ApoorvaNanda]

At 12:53, why are not taking the denominator as 30 for Peasant Fortune since the total number of captures will also be increasing for the current year?

[@aqibmaqsood1755]

No Since the chances of capture are increasing by 15% and 5% not the number of ships captured. So we need to calculate the new chance of capture of red and black flags. Previously the chance was 9/24 and 6/24. The new chance would be (9*1.15)/24 and (6*1.05)/24. We use this new chance to calculate the number of ships captured in the coming year. Again its the chances not the number of ships

[@ashwinideshpande834]

Hey! At 12.53 you calculate percentage of ships captured by both flags using the original attempt numbers. However, it says that the red flags are used only after the black flags, so shouldn't the chance of successful capture by red flag be out of the remaining ships 6/15*1.05 and not 6/24*1.05? and similar for the other ship as well.

[@ashwinideshpande834]

also on case question one with weighted averages, shouldn't it be 0.25*0 for the first bit, not just 0.25+ ?

[@TheHitesh74]

This is just a guide bruh

[@antoniarijo6105]

Why at 12:53 do you multiple the 9/24 by 1.15?

[@MConsultingPrep]

The investigation states that the chance of black flag captures goes up by 15 percent -> multiply by 115% to get the new chance, but since the calculator does not support the % sign, I used 1.15 instead.

[@wandaserkowska8689]

I was doing my redrock yesterday and indeed i could type in blanks which I didnt know from the tutorial. Also by some technical glitch I wasnt able to drag results from the calculator 😮, obviously panicked. They reset my test though and attempting it again today 🤔

[@felixcristiano759]

omg how annoying - good luck!

[@srutib]

hey how did it go? I am preparing too but not sure what to study for redrock, mainly the quants and feeling really anexious

[@yingying-tz5zk]

@@srutib did you finish? could you share your thoughts with me? im preparing too, do you have excel template?

[@siamonlemon9229]

Is the webcam required to do this test?

[@jasmine83488]

Why would the second one need parentheses to work? Why are there minus signs across the equation around 26 mins?

[@MConsultingPrep]

At Case 5: new port budget = 100 - (sum of all other new budgets) i.e.: P(new) = 100 - ( (S - 6) + (T + 7) + (W - 8) ) which looks like option B, but with parentheses wrapping around the "new budgets". If you "break" these parentheses you end up with option D. You can also double-check them by plugging in the numbers given by the directions. With Option B you end up with the new port budget being 133% of the whole budget, which does not make sense logically. With Option D you the new port budget allocation is 25% of the whole budget. Hope that clarifies things up!

[@orlevy68]

so I dont understand - there is PST? the game of building ecosystem still exist? or no?

[@MConsultingPrep]

1. The Ecosystem Building game is still there. A new guide is coming btw. 2. "PST strikes back" refers to Redrock, which is similar to PST in many ways - very quant-heavy, lots of charts, etc. except RR is still easier than the PST.

[@kimhangbong]

So finally McKinsey is going back to the good old PST?

[@jomanahn8271]

could you explain case 4? you only dragged the numbers to the journal 😅?

[@MConsultingPrep]

Yes, Case 4 only requires you to drag numbers to the journal (no calculation necessary). This is the explanation from the script: Now, to answer this particular question we just need to collect the number of ships captured for year Y-1. No need to collect the data for the remaining years. This is because: 1. The question asks for just the additional revenue from the tactical changes alone, not all of the expected growth. 2. This additional revenue is expressed as being “5 percentage points” added on top of the "expected growth without the tactical changes", so 5 percent of the revenue in Year Y-1, not 5 percent of the growth. Which means we just need that year’s revenue [and the 5 percentage points] to figure out how much these tactical changes are worth in thousand gold coins. Hope it clarifies things up for you!

[@lightair2508]

Thank you very much ! But why drag the number of ships captured if only revenue matters?@@MConsultingPrep

[@MConsultingPrep]

@@lightair2508 You need the number of ships because the revenue on the table is "per ship". ^^

[@smoothpg]

@@MConsultingPrep but then you are assuming that the avg rev. per ship remains at 2.6 right? why not taking the average of the past 4 years for instance?

[@anshdutta4169]

​@@smoothpghey, I was also confused regarding this. After spending some time on this question, I understood the phrasing of this question is aimed at deceiving the interviewee. If you were asked for the revenue growth, then yes, you'd have to find the average of the past 4 year's growth and proceed from there. Let's assume that to be 'X'. However, they've only asked about the coins from the tactical change and that has been denoted by percentage points and not percentage. Hence, the value would be (revenue in year Y-1) * 5/100. However if they would have asked for the total revenue in year Y, that would have been (revenue in year Y-1) * (5+X)/100. Hope this helps!

[@nothakeem]

Still not sure as to why you selected tree map? Why not stacked bar chart (100%)? Thanks