What Solve is
A set of ecology-themed games, not a test of business knowledge. You analyse a field study on an island, choose microbes to clean up contaminated ocean sites, and on longer invitations you lead a research team through a series of judgement calls. McKinsey reviews the result together with the rest of your application. It publishes no pass mark and no score scale.
You may also see it called the Problem Solving Game, the McKinsey Digital Assessment, or the Imbellus game, after the company that built the first version. They're all this test. The names and what changed in each era has the history.
The three current games
The fourth game you'll read about, Ecosystem Building, was dropped from the live assessment in 2025. We keep a legacy version as a reasoning drill and label it as retired.
What your invitation length tells you
The total time in your invitation email is the best clue to which games you'll get. These come from prep sites and candidate reports; McKinsey's own page doesn't list them.
| Invitation | Games | How sure |
|---|---|---|
| 65 minutes | Red Rock Study, then Sea Wolf | Consistently reported |
| 85 minutes | Red Rock, Sea Wolf, then the original 20-minute Sustainable Futures Lab | Widely reported since March 2026 |
| 95 minutes | Red Rock, Sea Wolf, then the redesigned 30-minute Sustainable Futures Lab | Candidate-reported since September 2026 |
Each game has its own clock, so time saved in one can't be spent in another. What your invitation length means goes through each case and where the reports disagree.
Scoring
McKinsey doesn't publish how Solve is scored. Prep sites and candidates consistently describe two parts: whether your answers were right, and how you worked your way to them. A practice score tells you how well you've learned a recreation of the game, not how McKinsey would score you. McKinsey Solve scores separates what's known from what's guessed.
If you have a week
Read the guide for each game on your invitation, play each simulator once slowly to learn the screens, then spend the middle of the week on the specific traps: percentage points and subgroups in Red Rock, the averaging rule and undesired traits in Sea Wolf. Do one timed run of everything in order near the end, and rest the day before. The McKinsey Solve guide lays out the week day by day, and free McKinsey Solve practice lists what you can use without paying anyone, including other sites.
Also applying to Bain or BCG?
Their screens are different tests, not versions of Solve. Bain uses a timed aptitude test on one of two platforms; BCG's varies by office. Start with the three MBB online assessments compared, then the Bain and BCG pages.
SolveForge is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to McKinsey & Company. Our simulators are recreations built from public descriptions of the games, not the real assessment. "McKinsey" and "Solve" are trademarks of their respective owners. Practising here does not guarantee any assessment result.