Interview difficulty
The hardest interviews aren’t at tech companies. They’re at McKinsey and on trading floors.
Consulting firms and quantitative trading shops hold 14 of the 25 hardest spots. Google, in 19th place, is the first Big Tech company on the list.
Candidates who interviewed at McKinsey rate the process 3.78 on a 1-to-5 scale, the highest of any company with at least 300 rated reports in Dataford’s data. The median company sits at 3.0.
Consulting and trading dominate the rest of Dataford’s ranking of the hardest companies to interview at. McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, A.T. Kearney, Bain and AlixPartners represent consulting; Jane Street, Citadel Securities, G-Research, Hudson River Trading, Citadel, WorldQuant, Akuna Capital, Two Sigma and Flow represent trading. Together they hold 14 of the 25 places.
Roblox (7th), Canonical (10th) and SpaceX (16th) are the highest-ranked technology companies. Google, at 3.35, is the first of the biggest tech employers, in 19th place, and Meta is 25th at 3.33. Amazon (3.21), Apple (3.16) and Microsoft (3.13) miss the list.
A steep top, then a plateau
McKinsey stands apart. The next seven companies range from 3.46 to 3.68, and from 19th place down the ratings bunch between 3.33 and 3.35. The McKinsey figure is averaged over 1,000 candidates and Google’s over 2,337, so neither is a small-sample quirk.
| # | Company | Group | Difficulty | Reports | Offer rate | Positive | Median pay | Work-life |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McKinsey | Consulting | 3.78 | 1,000 | 28% | 58% | – | – |
| 2 | Juspay | Other | 3.68 | 515 | 15% | 59% | – | 3.8 |
| 3 | Jane Street | Trading | 3.54 | 627 | 8% | 70% | – | 4.2 |
| 4 | The Boston Consulting Group | Consulting | 3.49 | 541 | 29% | 63% | – | 3.1 |
| 5 | Citadel Securities | Trading | 3.49 | 534 | 12% | 53% | – | 3.3 |
| 6 | A.T. Kearney | Consulting | 3.48 | 527 | 48% | 69% | – | 2.6 |
| 7 | Roblox | Other | 3.47 | 757 | 16% | 49% | $231,405 | 3.8 |
| 8 | Bain | Consulting | 3.46 | 875 | 33% | 72% | – | – |
| 9 | G-Research | Trading | 3.45 | 350 | 15% | 50% | – | – |
| 10 | Canonical | Other | 3.44 | 520 | 8% | 12% | $146,317 | 3.2 |
| 11 | Hudson River Trading | Trading | 3.43 | 531 | 6% | 46% | – | 3.9 |
| 12 | Citadel | Trading | 3.41 | 751 | 12% | 44% | – | 2.9 |
| 13 | Clipboard Health | Other | 3.41 | 500 | 7% | 13% | – | 3.7 |
| 14 | WorldQuant | Trading | 3.41 | 329 | 31% | 52% | – | 4.3 |
| 15 | Akuna Capital | Trading | 3.39 | 650 | 9% | 41% | – | 3.9 |
| 16 | SpaceX | Other | 3.38 | 624 | 22% | 48% | $154,000 | 2.4 |
| 17 | Two Sigma | Trading | 3.37 | 695 | 11% | 44% | – | 4.2 |
| 18 | Zoho | Other | 3.36 | 502 | 16% | 71% | – | 4.0 |
| 19 | Other | 3.35 | 2,337 | 21% | 65% | $259,475 | 4.3 | |
| 20 | AlixPartners | Consulting | 3.35 | 487 | 39% | 51% | – | 2.5 |
| 21 | Databricks | Other | 3.34 | 528 | 21% | 43% | $252,262 | 3.2 |
| 22 | Meesho | Other | 3.34 | 526 | 19% | 58% | – | 3.7 |
| 23 | Flow | Trading | 3.34 | 494 | 16% | 55% | – | 4.0 |
| 24 | Arcesium | Other | 3.34 | 442 | 30% | 57% | – | 3.5 |
| 25 | Meta | Other | 3.33 | 1,743 | 20% | 57% | $360,236 | 2.7 |
Consulting and trading firms shaded, following the post’s grouping. Difficulty is the mean candidate rating, 1 (very easy) to 5 (very difficult). Most consulting and trading firms publish no pay bands, hence the blanks. Click a column to sort. Source: Dataford.
Hard is not the same as hostile
Difficulty and odds move separately. A.T. Kearney ranks sixth on difficulty and still extends offers to 48 percent of candidates who report back. Hudson River Trading ranks 11th and converts 6 percent.
Candidate experience varies even more. At Bain (72 percent), Zoho (71 percent) and Jane Street (70 percent), most candidates describe a hard interview as a positive one. At Canonical (12 percent) and Clipboard Health (13 percent), almost none do.
Share of candidates describing the interview as positive
Selected companies from the 25 hardest. All have difficulty ratings of 3.35 or higher.
Where pay is published, Meta leads the list with a $360,236 median tech salary, followed by Google ($259,000), Databricks ($252,000) and Roblox ($231,000).
How the numbers work
Difficulty is the mean of candidate ratings from 1 (very easy) to 5 (very difficult), among companies with 300 or more rated reports. Positive is the share of reports rated a positive experience. Reports are candidate-written and self-selected. The consulting and trading grouping follows the Dataford post. See the original post for the full method.