Big 4 Interview Questions: KPMG, Deloitte, EY, PwC

This post lists the Big 4 interview questions candidates report being asked at KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC in campus and off-campus interviews. You get 31 real questions grouped by HR openers, behavioural rounds, and situational questions, plus sample strong answers and notes on what each Big 4 firm tests.

Table of Contents

• Big 4 Interview Questions by Round: What to Expect
• HR Opener Big 4 Interview Questions
• Behavioural Big 4 Interview Questions: Tell Me About a Time
• Situational and Firm-Specific Big 4 Interview Questions
• Firm-Wise Notes for Big 4 Interview Questions
• How to Prepare for Big 4 Interview Questions
• FAQs on Big 4 Interview Questions

Big 4 Interview Questions by Round: What to Expect

Candidates report a consistent structure across the four firms. The HR round screens for communication, motivation, and fit. The technical round tests the knowledge for your service line (audit, tax, or advisory). The partner or director round is a judgment and maturity check built on the behavioural and situational questions. The 31 questions below are the actual ones reported across firms, reworded slightly for clarity. For service-line-specific technical questions, see our statutory audit interview questions, FP&A interview questions, and M&A interview questions for CAs.

HR Opener Big 4 Interview Questions

These set the tone of the interview. Candidates report that a weak opener makes the rest of the conversation an uphill climb.

Introduction and motivation

• Walk me through your resume.
• Tell me a little about yourself / your background.
• Why KPMG / Deloitte / PwC / EY? (EY was formerly branded E&Y in India.)
• Why audit / tax / advisory?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?

Sample strong answer to “Why this firm?”: pick one firm and give a researched, specific reason: its strength in the service line you want, a campus interaction you found meaningful, and how that connects to your articleship experience. Interviewers hear generic praise daily; specificity is what scores.

For “walk me through your resume”, use a 90-second arc: where you started, the two or three most relevant experiences, and where you are headed, ending on the role you are interviewing for.

Personality and fit

• What is your biggest weakness / strength?
• What do you like to do for fun?
• What is your greatest achievement (or what are you most proud of)?
• If your friends could pick 3 words to describe you, what would they be?
• What city would you prefer to live in?
• What would you change about your school’s academic program?
• What sets you apart from the rest of the candidates?

Sample strong answer to “biggest weakness”: name a real, non-fatal weakness and the system you built to manage it, for example: “I used to over-check my own work and slow down delivery, so during articleship I built a self-review checklist for each audit area.” Never pick a weakness that is a core job requirement.

Career and logistics

• What do you like best about a career in public accounting?
• Are you interviewing with other firms?
• Do you like to travel?

For “are you interviewing with other firms”, honesty with tact works: confirm you are exploring options but explain why this firm is your preference, with a reason. Big 4 audit and advisory roles genuinely involve travel, so answer based on your real willingness.

Behavioural Big 4 Interview Questions: Tell Me About a Time

The Big 4 hire heavily on competencies, and candidates report this “tell me about a time” block as the core of the HR and partner rounds. Answer every one with the STAR structure: Situation, Task, Action, Result, keeping each story under two minutes.

Leadership and ownership

• Tell me about a time when you had to be a leader.
• Tell me about a goal you had and how you achieved it.
• Tell me about a time when you improved a process (or came up with a creative solution).

Teamwork and conflict

• How well do you work in a team setting?
• Give me an example of a time when you were working in a team and a team member was not meeting their responsibilities (and how you handled it).
• Tell me about a time when you disagreed with someone in your group.
• Give me an example of a time when you disagreed with a superior.

For disagreement questions, the panel tests professional courage with diplomacy: show you raised the issue with evidence, listened to the other view, and accepted the final call once made. Describe resolving the disagreement, not winning it.

Pressure, failure, and ethics

• Tell me about a time when you had to overcome an obstacle to get something done.
• Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure with strict deadlines.
• Tell me about a time when you failed or made a mistake and how you handled it.
• Tell me about a time when you had to prioritise your responsibilities.
• Tell me about a time when someone asked you to do something unethical.
• Give me an example of a time when you were in a moral dilemma and how you handled it.

Sample strong answer to the pressure question: anchor it in articleship busy season, the most credible pressure story a CA fresher has. Describe the situation (a statutory audit with a fixed board-meeting deadline), what you did (replanned the work, flagged the risk to your senior early, focused extra hours on the critical areas), and the result (report signed on time, documentation complete). Specific stakes beat general claims.

For ethics questions, the expected answer is unambiguous: you refused, escalated through the proper channel, and documented it. Firms test this because integrity failures are existential for an audit firm.

Clients and decisions

• Tell me about a time when you had to handle a difficult or angry customer / client.
• What is the most difficult decision you have ever had to make at school / work? How did you arrive at your decision?

Situational and Firm-Specific Big 4 Interview Questions

• What is your take on (a current event, such as the Fed’s stimulus program or the overall health of the economy)?

This question checks commercial awareness, not economics expertise. Pick one recent development you genuinely followed, state what happened in two lines, and give a view on what it means for the firm’s clients. One prepared current-affairs take, refreshed the week of the interview, covers it.

Firm-Wise Notes for Big 4 Interview Questions

Candidates report that the question bank above is common across KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC, but the emphasis shifts by firm: Deloitte interviews lean on the motivation questions, PwC panels are reported to probe articleship depth hardest, EY interviewers frequently use the ethics questions as a signature block, and KPMG rounds are described as the most conversational. Treat these as tendencies reported by candidates, not official policy, and prepare the full bank regardless of the firm.

How to Prepare for Big 4 Interview Questions

1. Build a bank of 8 to 10 STAR stories from your articleship: leadership, conflict, pressure, failure, ethics, client handling. One solid story can answer multiple prompts.
2. Script the three openers: your 90-second introduction, why this firm, why this service line. They shape the first ten minutes, which shape everything after.
3. Prepare your service line’s technical core: the 31 questions above are the HR and behavioural layer, so pair them with technical preparation, such as our statutory audit questions for assurance roles.
4. Prepare one current-affairs view: read one business newspaper the week before the interview and form a clear opinion on the biggest story affecting the firm’s clients.
5. Rehearse out loud: behavioural answers that read well on paper ramble when spoken. Practise each STAR story until it lands in under two minutes.

For company-specific context, review the official guidance on the ICAI website.

FAQs on Big 4 Interview Questions

Are Big 4 interview questions the same across KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PwC?

Largely yes for the HR and behavioural rounds: candidates report the same core question bank at all four firms, with differences in emphasis rather than content. The technical round differs by service line, not by firm.

How many rounds do Big 4 CA fresher interviews have?

Candidates typically report two to three rounds: an HR screening, a technical round with a manager or senior manager, and a final partner or director round. Campus processes sometimes compress these into a single day.

What is the most commonly asked Big 4 interview question?

“Tell me about yourself” (or “walk me through your resume”) opens nearly every reported interview, and “why this firm” follows close behind. Script both before you prepare anything else.

Do Big 4 firms ask technical questions to CA freshers?

Yes, in the technical round, and the questions target your service line: Ind AS and SAs for audit, direct and indirect tax provisions for tax, valuation and modelling for advisory. Pair this page with the service-line question banks linked above.

Next step: browse more real interview experiences in our Interview Prep section, and use the free Study Timetable Generator to plan your Big 4 interview preparation around the rounds above.