How to Pass the Bain & Company Situational Judgement Test 2026/27

You are working as a Manager in a large supermarket. As you wander along some of the aisles you decide to spend some time observing the behaviour of customers. As you observe, you notice a customer who has walked along the same aisle twice. He appears to be looking for something but has not picked up anything. The customer walks on and away to the next aisle.
Clearly, the task at hand is very challenging. What do you do?

Option A

Nothing, the customer has probably noticed the product he might want is not on that aisle and has gone on to the next aisle where he will find it.

Option B

Approach the customer and ask them if there is anything you can help with.

Option C

Get one of your team members to go and ask the customer if they can help with anything.

Option D

Follow the customer around to see if they are actually finding the products they need. This might give some insight into whether the products are labelled clearly.

Choose one best and one worst answer
 

You are responsible for running a large-scale project introducing a solar powered plane that can fly unmanned for 6 hours. The launch date is arriving and the marketing division has aligned with what you consider to be a high-risk request from the CEO to run a live test of the new solar plane on TV. You are concerned due to the lack of resources that you have had, and also given that some of your team have been close to burnout working extremely long hours for many months. The day of the event finally arrives. On the day of the event, the media presence is greater than anticipated. The launch is successful during take-off, however, after only 40 minutes, the plane plunges and the mission fails.

The media are asking for a press conference, what do you do?

Option A

Explain the challenges you and your team have faced with being under-resourced and overworked.

Option B

Apologise and take full responsibility for the failure of the project. Defend any criticism of your team, and assure the audience that next time the mission will succeed.

Option C

Whilst your team has been overworked and under-resourced, it is directly their work that led to the project being unsuccessful. Apologise on their behalf.

Option D

Explain that the circumstances of the day were unfortunate and that you will be conducting a full investigation to understand what went wrong and who should be held responsible.

Choose one best and one worst answer

You work as an IT Specialist for a large electronics retailer. You have been made aware of certain glitches within the stock check system that manages and automatically requests deliveries to each store. Your management are concerned as this issue has never occurred before and may result in over-stocking or no stocking at all for approximately 74 stores.

You do not have much clarity on the cause of this problem. What do you do?

Option A

Identify the error logs and explore the information within. Consider the timings of the problems and when they were reported, the location of the stores, and whether these particular stores have specific exclusive products in their stock. Share this information with your team to get a quick resolution.

Option B

Contact the providers of the system and ask them to give guidance on what to do next.

Option C

Ring up each store that is affected and ask them for a detailed log of what they experienced, such that any consistent pattern may emerge.

Option D

Notify all stores via the central notification system that you plan to reboot the stock checking system, as this has previously worked with many machines that run similar software.

Choose one best and one worst answer
 

You have recently joined a FMCG organisation as a Project Manager. In the third week, you have been given some urgent work that needs to be completed within the next two months. The work will involve significant dependencies on other departments, but will have no dedicated resource other than you, meaning that most of this will have to be completed by your team in-between their normal work duties. The cost for delivery has also been explored and will need to come out of various budgets.

Clearly, the task at hand is very challenging. What do you do?

Option A

Be assertive and refuse to take on the project as it is unrealistic given the timescales and dependencies, and you do not want to be set up to fail. Management do not fully understand the details of the work required and thus it is your responsibility to manage their expectations.

Option B

Take on the work as it is a challenge, and ask the management for dedicated resource and funding. Start by working out who can do what, and take on the majority of the workload yourself.

Option C

Start by building a project plan, working backwards from the delivery date and adding ample contingency, particularly around any areas where you are dependent on other teams. Seek out members of teams who will be involved, and get commitment for their availability to factor into the plan. Set up regular update meetings and continually set the expectations of stakeholders.

Option D

Set up meetings with various individuals to determine who will form part of the delivery team. Obtain their commitment and delegate most of the accountability of the work to the volunteer leads of each department. Keep a close eye on the project and oversee the weekly deliverables.

Choose one best and one worst answer
 

You supervise a team that is responsible for auditing internal departments in order to ensure they comply with company policy and external regulations. You are heavily under-resourced as one of your original team members has recently left the company and today another member of your team has called in sick. To make matters complex, your second-line supervisor has approached you with a high priority request that needs urgent attention. You are aware that you will not be able to deliver on this alone.

Given these constraints and pressures, what do you do to move forward now?

Option A

Be assertive and push back on the request, explaining to your second-line supervisor that your team is extremely overworked, given you are now two people down.

Option B

Take on the request, explaining to your second-line supervisor that the workload is very high with limited resources, but that you will find a way to get this high priority work done. Also explain that if you run into any problems with delivering on time, you may need to reach out for their support in getting temporary help.

Option C

Take on the task and assure your second-line supervisor that you will have this done on time, even though you know that this might be unlikely. If you don’t deliver, at least you will have a good reason, and management will then support you in getting additional resources.

Option D

Explain your circumstances to the second-line supervisor and let them know you are willing to oversee the task if they can help by providing you with some resources to do this.

Choose one best and one worst answer