What Is the McKinsey Solve Game and How to Prepare, Practice & Pass (2026)

The McKinsey Solve Game is the gamified online test you have to pass before McKinsey will invite you to a case interview. It does not look like a normal aptitude test. You build food chains, clean up oceans, and make calls under a ticking clock. And most people who sit it do not get through.

This guide walks you through what the McKinsey Solve Game is in 2026, how the McKinsey Solve Game works, what it measures, and exactly how to prepare, practice, and pass. We pulled the details from official McKinsey sources, recent candidate reports, and coaches who have worked inside the firm, then checked them against the versions of the test going out right now. Whether you want to join McKinsey or just sharpen your problem-solving skills, you will leave knowing what to expect and how to train for it.

What Is the McKinsey Solve Game?

The McKinsey Solve Game is an online assessment that candidates complete on their own, usually in about 65 to 85 minutes. It is a gamified test that replaces older numerical and verbal reasoning tests, and it gives McKinsey a window into your natural problem-solving approach. You do not need consulting experience or business knowledge to play it. You just need to think clearly under pressure.

You will see it called several things. The McKinsey Solve Game, the McKinsey Problem Solving Game, the Problem Solving Game or PSG, McKinsey Solve, McKinsey's assessment game, and the McKinsey Digital Assessment all point to the same screening test. Older guides also call it the Imbellus game, after the company that first built it. They are the same thing.

Two features set the Solve assessment apart from a paper test. First, it is adaptive and scenario-based, so the world reacts to your choices, and there is rarely one "right answer." Second, the software tracks how you play. Tracking is the heart of how the game challenges candidates.

A short history: from Imbellus to McKinsey Solve

McKinsey did not build this test in-house. The assessment was created by Imbellus, a Los Angeles startup founded in 2015 by Rebecca Kantar to measure how people think rather than what they have memorized. McKinsey began piloting the Imbellus test around 2017 to replace the old McKinsey Problem Solving Test, the multiple-choice McKinsey problem-solving test that screened candidates for years before it.

In November 2020, Roblox acquired Imbellus's intellectual property, and the founding team moved over with it. McKinsey kept using the assessment and, around 2022, rebranded it under its own name as Solve. That is why you will still see "Imbellus" in older prep articles, even though the company no longer operates on its own. The product was renamed.

Since then, the test has kept evolving. The Redrock Study arrived in 2023 to replace the older Plant Defense game. The Sea Wolf game (also called Ocean Cleanup) was added in 2024. And in early 2026, McKinsey began rolling out a new third module called the Sustainable Futures Lab.

Why Does McKinsey Use Solve?

McKinsey runs the Solve assessment for one practical reason. The firm receives far more applications than it could ever interview, and case interviews are expensive to run. Solve lets McKinsey screen a huge pool quickly and pass the strongest thinkers through to the next round.

There is a fairness argument too, and it is genuine. A multiple-choice test rewards preparation, test-taking tactics, and a bit of luck, which tends to favor candidates who already have access to good coaching. By measuring how you reason inside an unfamiliar simulation, McKinsey aims to level the playing field and reduce the bias baked into traditional standardized testing. The gamerewards clear thinking, which is the thing the firm actually wants to hire for.

In short, the game gives McKinsey objective data on how you approach problems, so the firm can make fairer hiring decisions and widen the range of people it brings in.

Read: McKinsey Case Interview Guide: Questions, Examples, & Tips

Where the Solve Game Fits in the McKinsey Interview Process

The Solve assessment sits early in the McKinsey interview process. The recruitment process runs roughly like this:

1. Application and initial resume screening - You submit your resume and cover letter. If you clear this first cut, you move on.
2. McKinsey Solve Game - You receive an email invitation with a unique link, typically with a short deadline of around 3 to 7 days to complete the test.
3. Case interviews and Personal Experience Interviews (PEI) - Strong Solve performers are invited to interview rounds that combine McKinsey-style case studies with fit and behavioral questions.
4. Offer - Candidates who clear the interview rounds receive an offer, which may be followed by references or background checks, depending on the office and role.

A few things to know about the invitation. Once you click your link, you run a quick tech check, schedule a time slot, and then play during that slot. Many candidates report only a few days between the invite and the deadline, so it pays to prepare before you even apply. Do not treat your resume and your Solve test scores as a trade-off where one can rescue the other. McKinsey looks at both, so both need to be strong.

Explore: Step 2: Getting through the interview process at McKinsey, BCG and, Bain

How the McKinsey Solve Game Works in 2026

Here is the most important 2026 update, and the one most guides still get wrong. The McKinsey Solve Game is no longer built around the Ecosystem Building game for most candidates. The current default lineup is the Redrock game and the Sea Wolf game, with a new third module appearing for some candidates.

Your invitation email tells you which version you are getting, and the total time is the clearest signal:

You do not choose your format. McKinsey assigns it based on your region and the role you applied for. As of 2026, the Sustainable Futures Lab has been reported on 85-minute invitations in regions including the US, Canada, Germany, the Middle East, and parts of Southeast Asia, with the rollout widening. If your email says 65 minutes, you will not see it, and you should put Redrock and Sea Wolf first.

The Ecosystem game (also called Ecosystem Building or Ecosystem Management) has not vanished entirely. Some longer test versions still include it, and it remains one of the best-known scenarios. But it is no longer guaranteed, so do not build your whole prep plan around it the way older guides suggest. We still walk through the ecosystem game below, because understanding it builds the exact skills the current core games reward.

Time does not roll over between games. If you finish one game early, those spare minutes are gone, and the next game still gives you its own fixed limit. The tutorial period at the start of each game is untimed, so use it fully.

How Hard Is the McKinsey Solve Game?

It is hard, and the difficulty is real, even though it looks like a video game. Reports vary, but a large majority of candidates do not pass, and even strong applicants stumble when they go in cold. Estimates of the pass rate cluster well below half, often cited around 20 to 30 percent, though McKinsey does not publish official figures, so treat those numbers as directional.

The difficulty rarely comes from raw intelligence. It comes from unfamiliar mechanics, genuine time pressure, and the fact that you are being judged on your process while you scramble to learn the interface. That is exactly why preparation moves the needle. You already cleared the resume screen to get here. Do not get cut at the game stage simply because you did not practice.

How the McKinsey Solve Game Is Scored: Product and Process Scores

One thing that surprises almost everyone about how McKinsey evaluates the Solve assessment. It does not just check whether your final answers are correct. It uses a two-part system of product and process scores.

• Product score - This is the quality of what you submit. In the ecosystem game, it is whether your food chain survives. In Redrock, it is the accuracy of your calculations and your final report. Your final answers matter, but they are only half the picture.
• Process score - This is what makes the Solve Game different from a normal test. The software records every click, drag, and decision. It watches how you gather information, how often you backtrack, how you prioritize, and how long you spend on each step. The process score measures your problem-solving process.

Your final score combines both. Correct answers reached through a chaotic, random path can still score poorly. A clear, structured approach can score well even when a few answers are off. This is exactly why preparation matters. Aside from training to get answers right, you are also training to demonstrate clean, deliberate reasoning under time pressure.

McKinsey does not publish the exact algorithm or release your score to you. You only learn whether you've advanced. Reports from coaches and candidates suggest the games carry meaningful weight individually, so a strong run in one game can offset a weaker run in another, but consistently low performance across games makes it hard to progress. Treat any specific percentile benchmarks you see online as estimates rather than confirmed cutoffs.

What Skills Does the McKinsey Solve Game Assess?

McKinsey and Imbellus have described the qualities the Solve assessment measures as cognitive constructs, which is a fancy way of saying the parts of your thinking the firm wants to see. The five that come up most consistently are critical thinking, decision making, metacognition, situational awareness, and systems thinking. Here is what each one means inside the game.

• Critical thinking - Careful, goal-directed thinking. You start each scenario with an objective and a mix of relevant and irrelevant information. Critical thinking skills show up in how well you focus on the goal and pull out the data that actually matters. Strong critical thinking is what lets you cut through all the data to find the few important data points that drive the answer.
• Decision making - The game watches you weigh trade-offs and commit to actions with incomplete information. It rewards candidates who make sound, structured decisions, even ones that turn out slightly wrong, over candidates who simply guess well.
• Metacognition - Thinking about your own thinking. This is your ability to step back, notice gaps in your understanding, and adjust your strategy as you go. Consultants work on unfamiliar problems constantly, so the firm wants people who can learn and adapt quickly.
• Situational awareness - Understanding your environment and anticipating what happens next. In the ecosystem game, that means reading the terrain and predicting how species will interact before you commit. It is the skill of forecasting outcomes from the conditions in front of you.
• Systems thinking - Working with interconnected parts where changing one element affects the whole. A coral reef, a food chain, and an ocean treatment plan are all systems. McKinsey serves clients embedded in complex systems, so it wants people who can reason inside that complexity.

The good news is that these skills overlap. Training one tends to lift the others, so you do not need to drill every micro skill in isolation to improve.

How to Prepare for the McKinsey Solve Game

You cannot memorize your way through Solve, because every candidate gets a unique version, and the game scores your process as well as your answers. What you can do is build the underlying skills and get fluent with the mechanics so you are not learning the interface for the first time on test day. Here is how to prepare effectively.

1. Start early and check your invitation format

Begin before you apply if you can, since the deadline after your invite is often only a few days. The moment you receive your invitation, read the total time. A 65-minute test means Redrock and Sea Wolf. An 85-minute test adds the Sustainable Futures Lab. That single detail tells you where to spend your prep time.

2. Sharpen your data interpretation

The core games lean heavily on reading charts, tables, and dense text quickly and pulling out the relevant data points. Practice skimming data sets for the few numbers that matter and capturing them cleanly.

Try: timed data exercises such as GMAT Integrated Reasoning, or open data sets from sources like Kaggle, where you push yourself to surface the key insight fast.

3. Drill the math behind Redrock and Sea Wolf

Redrock rewards quick, accurate basic operations, percentages, ratios, and growth rates. Sea Wolf rewards fast averaging and constraint checking. None of it is advanced, but speed and accuracy under pressure are everything.

Try: short daily mental math sets, then practice running the same calculations through a basic on-screen calculator so the format feels natural.

4. Train judgment for the Sustainable Futures Lab

If you are on the 85-minute version, practice making a sequence of decisions where each choice changes what comes next, and work on staying consistent rather than chasing the cleverest single answer. A simple personal decision framework (what matters most, what trade-off am I accepting, does this stay consistent with my last call) goes a long way.

Try: scenario-based decision games and structured case practice where you have to commit and then live with the consequences.

5. Build systems thinking and strategic prioritization

Both core games are exercises in managing limited resources and balancing short-term and long-term effects. Strategy games are a genuinely useful way to build this instinct.

Try: a resource and systems game like SimCity or Civilization, plus business case studies that force you to allocate scarce resources and prioritize.

6. Practice calm decision-making under the clock

The timer is what breaks most people. Train yourself to make deliberate choices while the clock runs.

Try: setting hard time limits on practice tasks, and using simple focus techniques like steady breathing to stay composed when the pressure spikes.

7. Run realistic simulations and review your mistakes

Reading about the games is not enough. Most coaches agree that a handful of full, timed simulations, followed by an honest review of where you lost time or points, beats grinding through dozens of low-quality mocks. Quality and reflection matter far more than volume. You do not need 15 to 25 mock runs per game, which is overkill. A few focused, well-reviewed runs build real readiness.

Read: How to Prepare For Your Management Consulting Interview

Get expert help

Working with a coach who knows the McKinsey interview process can compress your prep dramatically. A good coach spots the specific habits costing you points and gives you targeted feedback you cannot get from a guide alone. If you want one-on-one support, Leland's McKinsey coaches include former consultants and interviewers who can help you train for the Solve assessment and the case interviews that follow.

Breakdown and Tips for Each McKinsey Solve Module

Below is a walkthrough of every game you might face, starting with the two current core games, then the new Sustainable Futures Lab, and then the ecosystem game that still appears in longer versions and trains the right instincts.

Redrock Study Game

The Redrock game (also written Red Rock, and sometimes called the Redrock Island case study) is a data-heavy case delivered through the game interface. It usually carries a 35-minute limit and is the game most candidates find hardest. The scenario in 2026 is framed around a business or wildlife research study, and your job is to work through the data like a junior analyst.

Redrock has two parts, and Part 1 has three phases:

Part 1: The study

• Investigation phase - You read the case and pull the relevant data points into an on-screen Research Journal by dragging and dropping them. This is critical because any data you do not save here disappears in later phases. You can rename and reorder the cards in your research journal, and labeling them clearly will save you time later. Only a small share of the information on screen actually matters, so collecting the right numerical data points and textual data points is the whole game in this phase.
• Analysis phase - You answer quantitative questions by dragging your saved data points into an in-game calculator. You will need solid basic operations plus percentages, ratios, and growth rates. Use the in-game calculator rather than your own, because the software logs your process and that feeds your process score. Save every answer back into the journal, since you will need it again.
• Report phase - You complete a textual and graphical report. The written part asks you to fill in blanks with your calculated numbers and comparison words like higher or lower. The visual part asks you to pick the correct chart type and build it from your results.

Part 2: Cases

After the study, you face a set of short cases (commonly around six, though candidates have reported up to ten across versions). Each is a standalone question tied to the same theme but not connected to the main study. They mix word problems, formula questions, verbal reasoning, and data visualization. You solve them in order without skipping. This stretch is stressful because candidates think they are nearly done and then have to race the clock, so plan to leave a good chunk of your 35 minutes for it.

What it measures: numerical reasoning, reading comprehension, information filtering, data visualization, and how cleanly you turn a pile of raw information into an organized answer.

Tips:

• Read the objective first and let it tell you which data points to collect. Do not hoard everything.
• Rename your journal cards so you can find the right number instantly in the analysis phase.
• Do every calculation in the in-game calculator so your process is captured.
• Budget your time across both parts before you start, and protect time for the cases.

Sea Wolf Game (Ocean Cleanup)

The Sea Wolf game, also known as Ocean Cleanup or Ocean Treatment, was introduced by McKinsey in 2024 and is now a core part of the Solve assessment. It typically runs about 30 to 35 minutes. This is an optimization puzzle, and once you understand the math, it is one of the most learnable games in the test.

Your task is to treat three ocean sites by selecting the right combination of microbes for each one. For every site, you build a team of three microbes whose combined profile matches the site's requirements as closely as possible. You repeat the process for all three ocean sites using a fresh set of microbes each time.

How the pieces work:

• Attributes - Three numerical values, each from 1 to 10, such as permeability, mobility, or energy.
• Traits - Binary characteristics that are either present or absent, and when present can be desirable or undesirable.
• Site requirements - Each site sets a target range for each attribute, one desirable trait, and one trait to avoid. Not every site shows all of them.

The winning conditions for a site:

• The average of each attribute across your three microbes falls inside the site's target range.
• The undesirable trait is absent from all three microbes.
• The desirable trait appears in at least one of the three.

How treatment effectiveness is scored. Each site is scored out of 100 percent:

• 60 percent for the three attribute averages landing in range, worth 20 percent each.
• 20 percent for including at least one microbe with the desired trait.
• 20 percent for keeping every undesirable trait out.

A perfect 100 percent is not always possible with the microbes you are dealt, so aim for the highest achievable combination rather than chasing perfection.

Tips:

• When you filter the prospect pool, pick one attribute with a target range far from the midpoint of 5.5, which makes it easy to rule microbes out, and prioritize the desirable trait if both traits are shown.
• Reject any microbe carrying the undesirable trait. It can cost you a fifth of the site's score on its own.
• Favor microbes that satisfy at least two of the three attribute ranges.
• The math is simple averaging, so pen, paper, and a calculator are enough. Some candidates use an Excel solver, but it is not required.

Sustainable Futures Lab (New for 2026)

The Sustainable Futures Lab, often shortened to SFL, is the newest McKinsey Solve module, rolled out in early 2026. It appears on 85-minute invitations and is the third game after Redrock and Sea Wolf. If your invite says 65 minutes, you will not face it, so check before you spend prep time here.

SFL is different in kind from the other games. It is a roughly 20-minute judgment exercise rather than a math or optimization task. You read one connected scenario built around a sustainability theme, complete a drag-and-drop ranking of early priorities, and then work through a series of single-choice decisions (candidate reports describe around 13 questions in total). Each choice shifts the situation, and a consequence screen follows your answers, so later questions build on earlier ones. It feels closer to a developing case than to a set of disconnected multiple-choice prompts.

McKinsey is not scoring these answers as simply right or wrong. The module tracks how consistently you reason as the scenario evolves. The traits it appears to measure are prioritization, decision making under uncertainty, interpreting messy information, balancing trade-offs, and managing teams and stakeholders.

Because SFL is so new, McKinsey has not confirmed exactly how heavily it counts, and the rollout is still partial. Treat the specifics as evolving and verify against your own invitation. The smart move is to prepare a flexible decision framework rather than trying to memorize answers, since there is nothing fixed to memorize.

Tips:

• Decide your prioritization logic before you start, then apply it consistently across every screen.
• Reread how each consequence changes the situation before you answer the next question.
• Stay consistent. The game rewards a coherent point of view more than a clever one-off choice.

Ecosystem Building Game (Still in Some Longer Versions)

The ecosystem game, also called Ecosystem Building, Ecosystem Creation, or Ecosystem Management, is the most famous Solve scenario. It is no longer guaranteed in 2026, but it still appears in some longer test versions, and it trains the systems thinking and calculation habits that the core games reward, so it is worth understanding. It carries a 35-minute limit.

You are placed in an environment, often a mountain ridge or a coral reef, and asked to build a sustainable ecosystem by choosing eight species from a larger pool. To do it, you have to satisfy three things at once:

• A continuous food chain - Every species needs a food source, working from producers like plants and coral up through herbivores, carnivores, and apex predators.
• A calorie balance for every predator and prey pair - Each species has calories it needs and calories it provides. A species survives only if it gets enough energy and is not eaten to extinction by its predators.
• A location match - Each location has terrain specifications, and each species has a required range for those conditions. Miss the terrain requirements and the species dies.

The main challenge is information overload mixed with deliberate distraction. You face data on many species, several terrain variables, and eating rules, and some of it is there purely to pull your attention away from what matters.

How to approach it:

• Pick the location - Record the terrain specifications and calorie data for producers. Most terrain variables stay constant across species, and only a couple actually change, so focus on the ones that vary and ignore the decoys.
• Build the food chain - Start from an apex animal with a low calorie requirement and work down, or build bottom up from producers using each species' food sources. Favor species that provide high calories and need few, which leaves surplus energy and room for all eight species.
• Sanity check - Confirm every species fits the location, the chain is continuous, and no species is starved or eaten to extinction. Fix any link that fails.

Tips:

• Use scratch paper or a spreadsheet from the start. The bookkeeping is the hard part, not the biology.
• Do not rely on real-world ecology knowledge. The game's rules are self-contained, and prior assumptions will mislead you.

Retired McKinsey Solve scenarios

You will run into older guides describing games that are no longer in use. For clarity, the Plant Defense game (a turn-based puzzle defending a plant from invaders) was retired and replaced by Redrock in 2023. Earlier beta scenarios, including disaster management, disease management, and migration management, are also no longer part of the test. If a resource centers on the plant defense game or those beta scenarios, it is out of date.

Final Tips to Pass the McKinsey Solve Game

You have the full picture now. Here are the habits that consistently separate candidates who pass the McKinsey Solve assessment from those who do not.

• Treat your process as the product - The game measures how you think, so make your reasoning visible and orderly. Collect data deliberately, calculate using the tools provided, and avoid frantic backtracking.
• Manage time per phase - Set internal limits for each stage, especially the Redrock cases, and stick to them.
• Filter ruthlessly - Across all the data on screen, only a small slice matters. Identifying the significant data points fast is the whole skill in Redrock's investigation phase.
• Stay flexible - There is rarely one right answer. Pivot when the scenario shifts rather than forcing your first plan.
• Use the tutorial - It is untimed. Take notes and walk in knowing the controls cold.
• Prepare your setup - Use a fast computer with a stable connection, an external mouse, and a quiet room. Run the tech check the moment you get your link, so any issues surface early. The test runs on a PC or Mac, and sound is not required.

Final Thoughts

The McKinsey Solve Game is not a test you can cram for the night before, and it is not the video game it pretends to be. It is a measure of how you think when the clock is running, and the information is incomplete. The candidates who get through are rarely the ones who guessed the most answers right. They are the ones who stayed structured, filtered the noise down to the data points that mattered, and kept their reasoning consistent from one screen to the next, because that process is exactly what McKinsey is scoring.

The 2026 version raises the stakes a little. With Redrock and Sea Wolf as the core games and the Sustainable Futures Lab now appearing on longer invitations, knowing which format you are facing and training the right skills for it is half the battle. You already cleared the resume screen to get here. A few focused, well-reviewed practice sessions are usually all it takes to walk in calm and prepared rather than decoding the interface for the first time under pressure.

If you want personalized feedback on your problem-solving approach or want to run through mock case interviews and brain teasers with a former MBB consultant, work with a top management consulting coach on Leland who can help you prepare with precision and confidence.

Also, check out our management consulting bootcamp and free events for more strategic insights!

See: The 10 Best Consulting Coaches for Case Interviews & Resumes

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McKinsey Solve Game FAQs

Is the McKinsey Solve Game the same as the Problem Solving Game or the Imbellus game?

• Yes. McKinsey Solve, the McKinsey Problem Solving Game, PSG, the McKinsey Digital Assessment, and the Imbellus game all refer to the same screening test. Solve is the current official name.

Will McKinsey decide on my application using only the Solve Game?

• No. McKinsey has stated that Solve results are considered alongside the rest of your application and any other assessment results. It is significant, but it is not the only factor.

How long is the McKinsey Solve Game in 2026?

• Most candidates get a 65-minute test with Redrock and Sea Wolf. Some get an 85-minute test that adds the Sustainable Futures Lab. Tutorial time is not counted toward those limits.

What are the games in the McKinsey Solve Test right now?

• The two core games are Redrock Study and Sea Wolf (Ocean Cleanup). The Sustainable Futures Lab is a third module rolling out on 85-minute invitations. The Ecosystem Building game still appears in some longer versions, but is no longer guaranteed.

Can you fail the McKinsey Solve Game?

• Yes. Most candidates do not pass. A weak performance usually means no interview invitation, and many candidates wait several months to a year before reapplying, depending on region and program rules.

How long after the Solve Game do you hear back?

• Often, within one to two weeks, though it varies by recruiting cycle, location, and applicant volume. Campus programs sometimes release invites in batches. If you have not heard from them after about two weeks, a polite follow-up with your recruiter is reasonable.

Do you need business knowledge to pass?

• No. The Solve assessment is built to test cognitive skills. You do not need consulting experience or even video game experience to do well.

What equipment do I need?

• A PC or Mac that meets the tech check requirements, a stable internet connection, and ideally an external mouse. Phones and tablets are not supported. Sound is optional.

Is it worth practicing if McKinsey says no prep is needed?

• Yes. McKinsey says no specific preparation is required, but in practice, the format is unfamiliar, and the clock is unforgiving. Practicing the mechanics and drilling the underlying skills meaningfully improves how most candidates perform.