M&M Case

Case Prompt

20 M&Ms make up a 3 ounce bag. There are six colors of M&Ms: yellow, red, green, blue, brown, orange. They all cost the same to produce. Research indicates that customers have no preferences of color. Color is added on at the end of the mfr process. They are mixed in the same ratio that they are produced.

Capacity of adding color: 3 tanks hold the 3 primary colors: yellow, red, blue. 1 remaining tank used to mix colors to prepare: green, brown, orange. Each of the 4 tanks has equal capacity. The 1 mixing tank pulls yellow, red, and blue as needed from the same supply that fills the three primary tanks. They only refill the primary tanks when all three have emptied. Tanks are allowed to run out before they refill for batch control purposes.

Proportion to mix brown: 2/3 yellow, 1/6 red, 1/6 blue. Proportion to mix green: 1⁄2 yellow, 1⁄2 blue. Proportion to mix orange: 1⁄2 yellow, 1⁄2 red.

How many M&Ms of each color go into a 3-ounce bag?

KPMG Case Study Overview

In this sweet KPMG case study, you will face some challenging math. Make sure to read the prompt carefully, as this tricky case requires a lot of attention to detail.

The Profitability Framework may aid you as you build out a structure for the case, but don’t restrict yourself to the standard frameworks. Create the structure that will best enable you to crush the case.

The qualitative difficulty of the case is 1/4, which makes it a case like what you would see in a KPMG first round. However, the case is quant-heavy, so expect to do some heavy lifting there. There are no math diagrams needing to be analyzed.

KPMG Interview Tips

What does KPMG look for in its case interview candidates? Quant proficiency and attention to detail.

If your mental math abilities aren’t where they need to be, take some time to do drills using our free math drills.

Make the most of this KPMG case study by identifying 1 area of weakness that you can work on going forward.

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