Harvard MBA Interview Guide — From an Ex-HBS AdCom (2025-2026)

Harvard Business School is one of the most competitive and sought-after MBA programs out there. If you’re lucky enough to land an interview, you’re in rarified air: only ~20% of applicants make it to where you are!

I am a former member of the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School where I spent over 8 years reviewing and evaluating applications and conducting interviews. I've evaluated thousands of candidates and know what the school is looking for and just what it takes to stand out.

Before we start, some quick facts:

• HBS Interview Acceptance Rate: ~60%
• Interviewer: Trained MBA admissions staff member
• Length: ~30 minutes
• Type: Not blind, the interviewer has read through your entire application
• Location: On-campus, in domestic or international hub cities, or via Zoom

What Makes the HBS Interview Unique?

More than almost any other school, Harvard MBA interviewers go very deep into the niche specificities of your application. They will have read through every part of your app, and they're notorious for finding one small part of it, and asking you follow-up after follow-up. Expect a lot of "Why's." They want to know not only what you did, but why and how you came to the decision that you did: your motivations, reasoning, and intentionality.

Typically the HBS interview is viewed as more "formal" than other programs like the GSB. I've found that it depends on the interviewer. Some are more rigid and intense, but other clients I've worked with have said it was much more casual and conversational. It comes down to who your interviewer is. My advice is to mirror your interviewer; if they're formal, act more formal but if they're more casual, feel free to act slightly more casual.

Expert Tip: One thing I always tell my interview clients is to read through your application in detail before the interview and think about the details several layers deep. If someone chose a random story from your app, can you speak in-detail about it? Doing a mock interview ahead of time can help a lot with this.

Harvard MBA Interview Questions

The Harvard MBA interview is designed to assess MBA applicants’ qualifications, motivations, and fit for the program. Understanding the types of questions you’ll encounter can help you prepare more effectively. Generally, standard MBA interview questions can be categorized into three main areas: Past Experiences, Present Situation, and Future Goals, and those generally extend to HBS interviews.

Your Past Experiences

Many HBS interview questions will be about your past. These are aimed at understanding your background, experiences, and the decisions you’ve made along the way. Likewise, these questions often address your academic and professional histories with the intent to uncover the rationale behind your choices and figure out how you’ll perform while in the MBA program. Questions can include (again, notice all the "Why's):

• Educational Choices: “Why did you go to X college? Why did you decide to study X at that college?”
• Career Path: “Why did you choose to work at your current company?”
• Achievements: “What is your greatest accomplishment?”
• Challenges: “Give me an example of a time when you failed.”

Your Present Situation

Present-focused questions aim to understand your current situation, including your current job role, responsibilities, and the skills you bring to the table. These questions assess your self-awareness and your ability to analyze your current professional landscape.

These questions help give the committee an idea of how self-reflective you are. They’re more qualitative/behavioral questions to see what you’re like as a person. Some questions you may encounter are:

• Current Role: “What are your main responsibilities in your current job?”
• Professional Development: “How have you grown in your current role?”
• Industry Knowledge: “What trends are you seeing in your industry?”
• Adaptability: “Give me an example of when you successfully responded to change.”

Your Future Goals and Vision

Future-oriented questions are designed to gauge your aspirations, goals, and how you envision your career progressing after you earn your MBA. These questions generally help the admissions committee understand your motivations for pursuing an MBA and how the Harvard MBA program fits into your future plans.

• Career Goals: "What are your long-term goals?"
• Why Harvard: "Why are you applying to Harvard?"
• Post-MBA Vision: "How do you see the Harvard MBA helping you achieve your career goals?"
• Teaching Style: "What is your style for teaching peers?"

Follow-Up Questions

In addition to these main categories, make sure you’re ready to answer follow-up questions. These often are designed to connect the dots between your past, present, and future so the interviewer can see a more holistic view of your journey and aspirations. Be warned: HBS interviewers love follow-up questions.

These questions often serve multiple purposes, but they mostly help the interviewer see the coherence and logical flow of your story. They can also help the interviewer clarify any ambiguities in your initial responses, explore your thought process more thoroughly, and assess your ability to think on your feet. Here’s some examples of follow-up questions you may encounter:

• If you mention a specific project you worked on, an interviewer may ask, “Can you walk me through the challenges you faced during that project and how you overcame them?”
• If your initial answer is vague or unclear, you may be asked “Could you elaborate on what specific strategies you used to achieve that outcome?”
• Some questions are also designed to test how consistent your story is. They usually sound like something along the lines of “How does your current role prepare you for your long-term goals?”

By drawing connections between your past achievements, present circumstances, and future aspirations, you’ll be able to use these questions to your advantage by providing a comprehensive view of your career trajectory. That being said, it’s crucial to stay calm and composed when delivering your answers.

Free trial!

From 356+ top coaches

+1

Access a library of videos, templates, and examples curated by Leland’s top coaches.

Get started for free

From 356+ top coaches

+1

Example Essays

Example Resumes

Application Prep

Video Courses

Example Essays

Example Resumes

Application Prep

Video Courses

Get started for free

HBS Interview Tips

1. Be Yourself

This sounds obvious, but it’s probably the most important piece of advice you’ll hear. You'd be shocked how many of my clients struggle with this one because they're so worried about the "persona" they're giving off.

One of the top priorities of the MBA admissions board is to confirm that the person they’re speaking with is the same person whose application materials they’ve poured over, so make sure you’re not misrepresenting yourself. More importantly, though, the admissions committee wants to know who you are as a human being. If you’ve gotten to this stage of admissions, it’s a signal that Harvard Business School thinks you have the intelligence and acumen to thrive in their MBA program. The interview process is all about determining whether or not you’re a fit, character-wise, so be yourself and let your personality shine through! Remember: the interview is a two-way street. They're evaluating you as a fit, but you're also evaluating them.

2. Know Your Story, and Be Able to Explain It

All interviews will be conducted by a member of the admissions committee, who will have reviewed your resume and MBA application materials in-depth beforehand. They’ll want to know about the professional choices you’ve made, so make sure you know all your own facts and figures, but as I mentioned, they’ll also want to know why you made these choices. If the HBS interviewer’s line of questioning could be boiled down to a single word, it would be that: Why? Come prepared to talk about your professional roles and the projects you worked on, and why you chose those roles and projects. Being able to explain your motivations clearly and confidently while answering interview questions will set you apart from other applicants.

3. Tell Them “Why HBS”

The next thing the admissions committee wants to know is how HBS fits into your career plan. They’re looking for candidates who have seriously envisioned themselves at HBS, understand the curriculum and experience of attending, and can concisely articulate why an MBA from Harvard will put them on the path to success. To nail this part, do your research ahead of time, so you can speak about Harvard’s classes, professors, and extracurriculars, and ensure that you can explain how those fit into your pre and post-MBA journey. (It’s helpful to set up a call with HBS alumni in advance of your interview, to get an even more in-depth view of the school.) Demonstrating a clear connection between your goals and what HBS offers is crucial to proving to HBS admissions officers that the Harvard MBA program is right for you.

4. Know Your Industry

To have a successful interview, you’ll need to come prepared to speak intelligently about your chosen path or industry, be it healthcare, tech, entrepreneurship, or anything else. Know your career vision front and back, and be able to explain ways in which the healthcare industry might change, what exciting new opportunities are popping up in the tech sector, and the challenges you might face as a startup founder. Show the AdCom that you have well-considered opinions and that you’re able to defend them.

5. Be Confident, Yet Humble

State your impressive accomplishments and stand up for your opinions, but of course, with a healthy dose of humility. Don’t exaggerate your experiences, be candid and direct, and you’ll do great. Say “thank you” after the interview, express gratitude for the opportunity to simply be there, and reiterate your interest in HBS. The AdCom wants to admit people who actually want to be there.

6. Prepare for Video

Set yourself up for success in your video interview. Make sure you’re in a clean, well-lit room with a strong internet connection. If you can place your desk in front of a plain, white wall, even better. Have any bullets or notes you’d like to refer to on-screen next to your Zoom app, in case you forget something. But always remember to maintain eye contact with your interviewer and keep things conversational, or you’ll come across as robotic and over-rehearsed.

For more tips, check out our full article on How to Nail Your Virtual MBA Interview.

7. Own the Post-Interview Reflection

After your MBA interview, you’ll be invited to share a post-interview reflection, a unique part of Harvard Business School’s application process. The reflection is due 24 hours after your interview and is designed to gauge how self-aware you are, and how well you respond on your feet. Don’t bring any prepared statements: that’s a big no-no. Instead, think about what you didn’t say in the interview that you wanted to touch on, what you might have done differently, and how you felt about the process. The best responses are authentic and sincere. Start off by thanking your interviewer, and offering a high-level reflection on how things went. Then touch on a few specific points of conversation, before sharing your overall reflection on the interview, and anything you learned during the process.

8. Practice with an expert

In the thousands of applicants that I have worked with or evaluated, the #1 thing that improves their ability to interview well is practice ahead of time. I highly recommend doing a mock interview with someone who can provide feedback based on actual knowledge of the interview process. It also just helps you get the jiggles out. If you'd like to do it with me, take a look at my HBS interview prep package.

Most Common Interview Questions of the Top 10 MBA Programs

Download our free guide to the most common MBA interview questions to be as prepared as possible to nail your interview

Submit

How to Answer the “Why Harvard?” Interview Question

We mentioned this question in passing earlier and want to emphasize just how important it is in your interview. This question is your ultimate opportunity to demonstrate both your knowledge of the program and why you believe you’re a perfect fit for it. Answering it correctly will show the HBS admissions board that you are genuinely interested in Harvard and how you will contribute to their community.

Because this question is so integral to the interview, we’ve put together some special tips to help you deliver a home-run answer that’ll be sure to impress your interviewer.

1. Highlight specific features of the program: If you’ve followed our advice from above, you’ll likely have done a lot of research into Harvard’s MBA program and the school’s overall offerings. During that process, you’ll likely find some specific elements that excite you such as a unique course, a professor who shares your academic interests, or a particular student organization. Mentioning these specifics in your answer will show that you’ve done your homework and have a genuine interest in what HBS has to offer.

These should also be unique to you. If your answer could be copied and pasted to someone else’s interview, it’s not specific enough. How will HBS help you and your goals?

2. Emphasize the community: Harvard Business School places a strong emphasis on their level of community and collaboration. Being able to reflect on how the values and culture of HBS align with your own personal and professional values in a specific way will solidify you as a good match for Harvard. However, it’s important to go beyond making general statements about shared values and whatnot. Instead, show how you will actively contribute to and enrich the HBS community through specific initiatives, clubs, or activities at the school.

3. Share a personal connection (if applicable): Do you have a friend, family member, or even a LinkedIn connection who you’ve spent some time talking with that goes to HBS? If so, make sure to mention how people in your life have influenced your perspective and desire to attend HBS. Moreover, show that your connections with these people will give you a leg up as a student at Harvard in one way or another (i.e. a current student may want you to join a club with them, or a recent alum may give you tips on how to maximize your time at HBS).

4. Show how you’ll grow: Consider sharing how the Harvard MBA program will not just advance your career but also contribute to your personal development. Talk about the leadership skills you aim to hone, the global perspectives you hope to gain, and the personal challenges you’re eager to tackle. This shows that you view the HBS experience as a holistic journey, not just a career stepping stone.

Example Answer

Here’s a sample response to the “Why Harvard?” questions that covers all of these bases:

HBS has been on my radar for a long time, particularly for its outstanding Academic Initiatives. Specifically, I’ve always been interested in Harvard’s Health Care Initiative. The prospect of being able to work in tandem with faculty and other alumni would be the perfect environment for me to explore my career interests in the health care sector. Because of this, I envision myself also joining and becoming an active member in the Health Care Club in order to both learn from my older peers and, later in my program, help pay it forward to newer students.

Besides the academic and social interests, however, I’ve also seen how an HBS education can shape a person into a force of power and positivity in the business world. I’ve mainly seen this through the example of my aunt, who attended HBS in 1998 in order to receive an MBA so that she might be eligible for a promotion in Procter & Gamble’s HR office. While her education was nothing short of amazing, she also tells me that Harvard’s community helped build her into the strong leader (and even mother) that she is today. In considering where to apply for my MBA program, her involvement in my life and the idea that I may be able to become a leader as capable as her helped put HBS at the top of my list.

Additional Sample HBS Interview Questions

Earlier, we introduced you to a few types of interview questions commonly asked in the Harvard MBA interview. Now, we’re expanding that list to provide you with even more questions pulled directly from actual HBS interviews. Read and think through the following questions so you know what to expect during your interview:

• Why did you decide to go to X college? Why did you decide to study X in that college?
• Why did you choose to work at your current company?
• What are your long-term goals?
• Give me an example of when you successfully responded to change.
• Why are you applying to Harvard?
• What is your greatest accomplishment?
• What is your style for teaching peers?
• Give me an example of a time when you failed.
• How would your closest friends describe you? Why?
• What do you think of the HBS admissions process?

Now you’re ready to tackle the Harvard MBA interview.

The HBS Post-Interview Reflection

The Harvard Business School interview is unique in that all interviewees are asked to submit a post-interview reflection after completing the interview. On its site, HBS states, “Within 24 hours of the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection through our online application system. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to interview.” For advice from an HBS admit, head here: How to Write a Powerful HBS Post-Interview Reflection.

My #1 Tip for HBS Interview Prep

In the HBS interview, the content of your answer matters less than the coherence of your decision-making logic across different parts of your life.

As a former interviewer, I can say that your interviewers are actively cross-referencing your answers against your written application and each other in real time. What they’re probing for isn’t “can you explain why you took that job?” but “does the reasoning you gave here line up with the values and motivations you claimed in your essay… and with how you described your goals… and with the way you responded to that follow-up about failure?” That is what they want to know.

In practice, this usually looks like picking a small, seemingly random detail (a line from your resume, a club you joined, a course you took) and drilling down not to test the fact itself, but to see if your underlying thought process is consistent.

If your motivations wobble (if you give one reason in your essays, another in your interview, and a third when pressed), that's when you get into trouble. But, on the flip side, if you can articulate that clear through-line that makes sense of your choices, even when they seem unrelated on the surface, you’ll stand out.

Before your interview, go through your application and connect the dots across everything. Pretend the interviewer could pick any random bullet or essay line and ask “why?” until you get to the deepest, darkest core. If your reasoning is coherent and repeatable across contexts, you’ll pass the true test that most interviewees don't even realize they're being graded on.

Recommended HBS Interview Prep Resources

Okay - now you know what you need to do, but here's how I'd recommend actually getting ready.

• First, do a mock interview. I can almost guarantee it will massively improve your performance.
• Check out this How to Ace Your MBA Interview course in Leland+. You can access it with a free trial. It's got a ton of videos and guides from other top coaches on Leland.
• Go online and read about others' experiences, with a grain of salt. Note that just because someone else faced it, doesn't mean that yours will be the same. But it can be helpful context.

The Bottom Line

Landing an HBS interview is already a huge accomplishment: only about 1 in 5 applicants get this far. From here, the key is preparation: I encourage you to know your story inside and out, anticipate those layers of “why” questions, and be ready to connect the dots between your past, present, and future. Harvard interviewers are testing not just what you’ve done, but how you think, what motivates you, and whether you’ll thrive in (and contribute to) their community.

Good luck! Please reach out if I can be helpful as you prepare for your interviews - you can book a free 15-minute intro call on my profile. I have personally seen how going to HBS changed the lives of many students and I am so excited for you.

Here are several other articles you may find interesting:

• MBA Interviews: What to Expect, How to Prepare, and How to Stand Out
• 6 Expert Tips for Nailing Your Virtual MBA Interview
• Harvard Business School MBA: Acceptance Rate, Deadlines, Cost, Requirements, & Program Overview

Interested in seeing what an MBA mock interview looks like? Check out this live mock interview with the Admissions Director of Cornell's MBA program:

Harvard MBA Interview - FAQs

What percent of Harvard MBA applicants get interviews?

• Only about 20% of Harvard MBA applicants are invited to interview, so landing one means you’re already in a highly competitive group.

Does Harvard MBA require an interview?

• Yes. Every admitted student must interview with a member of the admissions board before being offered a spot in the HBS MBA program.

What does it mean if Harvard gives you an interview?

• Getting an HBS interview means the admissions board sees real potential in your application. It’s not an offer yet, but it’s a strong signal you’re in serious contention.

What can I expect in my HBS interview?

• The HBS interview is 30 minutes with an admissions officer, who has read your full application. Expect detailed follow-ups, lots of “why” questions, and a professional but conversational tone.

How should I prep for my HBS interview?

• Know your story deeply, practice mock interviews, and review your application in detail. Be ready to explain not just what you did, but why you did it, and why HBS is the right next step.