Interview Playbook / Consulting

How KPMG Interviews in 2026: Process, Questions & What They Score

HOW TO READ THIS PLAYBOOK

Compiled from 16 public sources: candidate interview reports, coaching guides, and KPMG's own hiring pages. Interview processes change and vary by role, team, level, and region. This is one well-documented shape of KPMG's interviews to prepare against, not a script of what your interview will be. Confirm specifics with your recruiter. SupaCV is not affiliated with or endorsed by KPMG.

High confidenceLast verified JUL 202616 sourcesSources

KPMG is one of the "Big Four" professional services firms, hiring primarily into three business lines: Audit, Tax, and Advisory (which spans Strategy/Deal Advisory/Management Consulting and Risk/Technology consulting). The interview process and its emphasis differ meaningfully by business line and by country/office: Audit and Tax interviews skew heavily behavioral/fit with lighter technical probing, while Advisory/Strategy interviews add case-interview and written-case components similar to other strategy consultancies. Across all lines, KPMG explicitly ties behavioral evaluation to its five published corporate values. Because KPMG operates roughly 80 offices in the US alone (and many more globally) with no single centralized public process, there is real regional and business-line variation - the process below is a composite of commonly reported patterns, not one universal script. Overall reported difficulty is moderate (Glassdoor lists a 2.82/5 difficulty rating and 72.9% positive experience), and the average total hiring timeline is roughly 4 weeks (Glassdoor reports ~28 days average across all roles, though it varies by level - e.g., ~23 days for interns, ~26 for Audit Associates, ~42 for Senior Associates - and can stretch to a couple of months in some processes).

The Process

  1. 1

    Online application · 5-10 minutes to submit

    Resume/CV and cover letter submitted via KPMG's careers portal; candidates are generally limited to one active application at a time.

  2. 2

    Online assessment (mainly campus/graduate hires) · ~90 minutes for the core assessment, generally untimed but recommended in one sitting; Launch Pad-style events run from a few hours to a half-day depending on office

    A scenario-based digital assessment (associated with KPMG's graduate 'Launch Pad' experience in some markets) blending numerical reasoning (data tables/charts/graphs, calculator allowed), situational judgment questions scored against KPMG's internal competency framework, and critical-thinking items delivered via video, podcast, email, and article-style prompts rather than plain multiple choice. Some offices add a separate written test plus a short recorded video-interview component, and a virtual or half-day 'Launch Pad' event with a group exercise, an individual interview, and staff Q&A.

  3. 3

    Recruiter/HR phone screen (or 'pitch call') · 15-30 minutes

    A recruiter call to check role/industry fit, motivation for KPMG and the specific business line, and basic background; also used to help match candidates to a department.

  4. 4

    First-round interview(s) · 30-45 minutes per interview

    Usually 1-2 virtual/video interviews with a manager or senior associate. For Audit and Tax, these are predominantly behavioral (STAR-format) with light technical/fundamentals questions. For Advisory/Strategy, this round adds a candidate-led case discussion and/or market-sizing question alongside behavioral questions (roughly 25-50% case, 50-75% behavioral by some prep-firm estimates).

  5. 5

    Written case exercise (Advisory/Strategy roles) · 45-60 minutes to prepare, plus 15-20 minutes to present and take questions

    Candidates review a business document packet (roughly 10-20 pages) and prepare a structured recommendation (slides or whiteboard), then present and field questions. Prep sources flag this as the highest-volume and most commonly under-prepared component of the Advisory process.

  6. 6

    Final round / assessment day · Half-day to full day; individual interviews ~30-45 minutes each

    One or more additional interviews with senior managers, directors, or (at some offices) a partner, typically run as a half-day or full-day 'assessment day' with 2-3 interviewers. Weighted more heavily toward values/fit (some estimates put this at 75-85% behavioral) and broader business judgment; may include a second case or panel Q&A. Not all offices run a distinct partner round.

  7. 7

    Decision and offer · Days to ~2 weeks after final round

    Feedback and offer decisions are typically communicated within days to about two weeks of the final interview; some graduate programs impose a short (e.g., two-day) offer response deadline.

Evaluation Framework

KPMG's five global values

Integrity - "We do what is right"Excellence - "We never stop learning and improving"Courage - "We think and act boldly"Together - "We respect each other and draw strength from our differences"For Better - "We do what matters"

Verified independently against KPMG's own published career/about pages (e.g. kpmg.com/ie and kpmg.com/at 'Our Values' pages, KPMG UK's 'Living Our Values' careers content) - the five names and exact quoted taglines in the draft match KPMG's current official list with no omissions or additions. Multiple independent interview-prep sources (e.g. hackingthecaseinterview.com, blog.theinterviewguys.com) confirm KPMG's behavioral interviews and online situational-judgment assessment are scored against this same value set, with some interviewers naming the value directly in the question (e.g. 'Tell me about a time you demonstrated courage'). It is a genuine corporate values list rather than a formal 'leadership principles' interview rubric in the Amazon sense, so how explicitly individual interviewers name-check it will vary. Separately, KPMG's case interviews follow a general 'candidate-led case' format (you clarify the objective, build a structure, request data, and present a recommendation) that is a widely reported practice across prep sources rather than a KPMG-trademarked framework name.

Sample Interview Questions

Behavioral / values-fit (all business lines)9 questions
  • Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult team member.
  • Give an example of when you had to think on your feet to get out of a difficult or awkward situation.
  • Describe a time you demonstrated a new or different way of thinking.
  • Describe your relationship with your current or former manager, and a problem you encountered in your role and how you approached it.
  • Tell me about a time you had to deliver difficult feedback to a peer or superior.
  • Describe a situation where you had to work with someone whose values differed from your own.
  • Give an example of when you went beyond what was asked of you on a project.
  • Tell me about a time your team faced a significant setback - what was your role in recovering?
  • Why KPMG, and why this specific service line (audit / tax / advisory)?
Case & business problem-solving (Advisory / Strategy / Deal Advisory)6 questions
  • Estimate the market size for residential solar panels (market-sizing case).
  • A consumer-goods company wants to expand into a new market - assess feasibility and recommend an entry strategy.
  • A client's profitability has declined - diagnose the likely causes and recommend a fix (profitability case).
  • Review this business document packet on a merger/acquisition and present your findings and recommendation (written case).
  • How would you structure an approach to deciding whether a client should launch a new product line?
  • Walk me through how you would prioritize which of several workstreams to tackle first on a client engagement.
Technical - Audit & accounting fundamentals6 questions
  • Walk me through the three financial statements and how they connect to each other.
  • What is the difference between accrual-basis and cash-basis accounting?
  • Explain the fundamental accounting equation and the dual-aspect concept.
  • What is the difference between profit and gain?
  • Describe a time you used technology to solve a problem in your work or studies.
  • How would you approach an audit engagement where you suspect a discrepancy in the client's records?
Technical - Tax fundamentals6 questions
  • Walk me through how taxable income is computed for an individual (note: specific frameworks like 'five heads of income' are jurisdiction-specific, e.g. India, and won't apply everywhere).
  • What is a deferred tax liability and how does it arise?
  • Explain the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion.
  • What is the difference between GST and other indirect/service taxes in markets where both exist?
  • What is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and when does it apply?
  • Why tax, specifically, versus audit or advisory?

Coach's Tips

Prepare 2-3 STAR-format stories mapped explicitly to each of KPMG's five values (Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, For Better) - multiple prep sources report interviewers scoring behavioral answers against this named framework, and some even ask for a value by name, so stories that map cleanly to a specific value stand out.

If interviewing for Advisory/Strategy, do not neglect the written case exercise - prep sources consistently flag it as the highest-volume and most under-prepared component: practice synthesizing a 10-20 page document into a slide-based or whiteboard recommendation within 45-60 minutes, then presenting it in 15-20 minutes under questioning.

For the online assessment stage (common in graduate/campus hiring), practice scenario-based numerical reasoning with multi-format data exhibits (bar/line/pie charts, tables) under a calculator-allowed, roughly 90-minute format, plus situational-judgment questions - these are not standard timed multiple-choice tests and reward comfort with ambiguous, workplace-style prompts.

For Audit and Tax roles, expect the bar for technical depth to be lower than for Advisory - interviewers weight cultural fit, teamwork, and 'why this service line' motivation heavily, but still be ready to explain basic accounting/tax fundamentals (e.g., the accounting equation, accrual vs. cash basis, how taxable income is computed) without hesitation.

Confirm the exact format with your recruiter rather than assuming a universal pipeline - reported processes vary by office and country, ranging from a lean 2-round loop to a 3-round process that adds a partner or director interview, and case-interview weighting for Advisory can range from roughly 25% to 50% of interview time depending on the office.

Budget realistically on timeline: plan for roughly 4 weeks from first contact to offer decision (Glassdoor's reported average is about 28 days across all roles, though it runs shorter for interns/associates and longer for senior hires), and note that graduate-program offers can carry short (e.g., 48-hour) response deadlines.

Common questions

How many stages are in KPMG's interview process?+

KPMG's process has 7 stages, in order: Online application, Online assessment (mainly campus/graduate hires), Recruiter/HR phone screen (or 'pitch call'), First-round interview(s), Written case exercise (Advisory/Strategy roles), Final round / assessment day, Decision and offer.

What framework does KPMG use to evaluate candidates?+

KPMG evaluates candidates against KPMG's five global values: Integrity - "We do what is right", Excellence - "We never stop learning and improving", Courage - "We think and act boldly", Together - "We respect each other and draw strength from our differences", For Better - "We do what matters".

What kinds of questions does KPMG ask?+

KPMG's question bank spans 4 categories: Behavioral / values-fit (all business lines); Case & business problem-solving (Advisory / Strategy / Deal Advisory); Technical - Audit & accounting fundamentals; Technical - Tax fundamentals.

How reliable is this KPMG interview playbook?+

This playbook is high confidence, compiled from 16 public sources, and last verified July 7, 2026. It describes one well-documented shape of KPMG's interviews, not a guarantee of what any individual loop will look like.

Sources

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