PRACTICE GUIDE ANALYSIS GROUP
Analysis Group Causal Inference & Competition Practice Test
The Analysis Group causal inference & competition screen is 22 questions in 35 minutes - about 1.6 minutes each - answered by typing the number, with no calculator. There is no negative marking, so leaving an item blank gains you nothing over guessing.
Where it sits: First online round. The practice sitting on this page runs the same item count, the same clock and the same marking rule, with questions generated by Outcry rather than taken from Analysis Group.
Outcry is not affiliated with Analysis Group and has no access to their assessment content. This guide describes an assessment format that candidates report publicly; the questions here are generated by Outcry and are not Analysis Group’s own.
What it screens
One of the largest private economic consulting firms, working on litigation, healthcare and finance engagements.
- ✓Spotting the confounder that breaks a causal claim
- ✓Difference-in-differences: what the parallel-trends assumption buys you
- ✓Market definition and the hypothetical-monopolist test
- ✓Explaining a regression result to someone hostile to it
Where it sits at Analysis Group
This is the whole sitting rather than one section of it: 22 items in 35 minutes, on one clock.
There is no going back. You answer or skip, and the next item loads, which means the decision to leave an item is final at the moment you make it.
The format
These are the numbers the Analysis Group sitting on this site runs on, matching the format candidates report.
| Questions | 22 |
|---|---|
| Time | 35 minutes |
| Per question | 1.6 minutes |
| Negative marking | No |
| Answer style | Typed numeric answer, no calculator |
| Where it sits | First online round |
What it tests, with a worked example
Every example below is generated by Outcry, drawn from the same question generators the timed drills run. None of them is Analysis Group’s.
Causal inference
Whether the effect you are shown is the effect that happened.
Example
What must an instrumental variable satisfy?
- Correlated with the outcome and the regressor
- Normally distributed with mean zero
- Correlated with the endogenous regressor, and uncorrelated with the error term
- Uncorrelated with the regressor and correlated with the error
Answer Correlated with the endogenous regressor, and uncorrelated with the error term
Relevance plus the exclusion restriction. The instrument may affect the outcome only through the endogenous variable.
Damages and counterfactuals
The but-for world, and how much of the difference the conduct explains.
Reading a regression
Coefficients, standard errors and what a control is doing to both.
Example
Order arrivals are Poisson with mean 16 an hour. What is the standard deviation of the hourly count?
- 16
- 4
- 8
- 256
Answer 4
A Poisson has variance equal to its mean, so the variance is 16 and the standard deviation is √16 = 4. Mean and variance being equal is the Poisson's signature - count data with variance well above the mean is overdispersed and is not Poisson.
Writing the rationale
The answer is the reasoning. A correct option with no argument scores poorly.
Instrumental variables
Relevance and exclusion, and which of the two an interviewer will push on.
Example
Good Base P Now P Base Q Glass 34 41 52 Freight 40 51 97 Copper 16 20 107
Holding quantities at their base-year values, what is the Laspeyres price index for the current year, with the base year at 100?
Answer 125.3
Σp₁q₀ = 41×52 + 51×97 + 20×107 = 9,219. Σp₀q₀ = 34×52 + 40×97 + 16×107 = 7,360. Index = 9,219/7,360 × 100 = 125.3. Base-year weights are what makes it Laspeyres. A Paasche index reweights on current quantities and usually comes in lower, because buyers shift away from whatever rose most.
Elasticity arithmetic
Percentage changes in both directions, done quickly and with the sign right.
What a good score looks like
On a paper of 22 questions with no penalty for a wrong answer, the only thing an unanswered question can do is cost you. These screens are usually one gate among several and are rarely reported with a threshold. What candidates do report is that the written rationale carries as much weight as the selected option.
How to train for it
- 01Learn the identification strategies by name and by failure mode: what each one assumes, and the one thing that breaks it.
- 02Write a two-sentence rationale for every answer. That is the deliverable, not the letter you picked.
- 03Name the counterfactual out loud on every question. What would have happened otherwise is the question underneath most of these, however they are phrased.
TRAIN IT HERE
The drills that match each section
Causal Confounder
Work out what drove the effect in a diff-in-diff setup with a confounder in it.
Antitrust
Market definition the way a consulting case asks it.
Twenty Backtests
Multiple-testing intuition: why the twentieth backtest always looks great.
SIT THE FULL BATTERY
All the sections back to back on one clock, marked the way the real screen marks them, with a by-skill breakdown at the end. Included with any pass.
Also reported at Analysis Group
Common questions
- Is the Analysis Group causal inference & competition test multiple choice?
- Typed numeric answer, no calculator. You type the number, so there is nothing to eliminate your way to.
- How long is the Analysis Group causal inference & competition test?
- 22 questions in 35 minutes, which is about 1.6 minutes each.
- Is there negative marking on the Analysis Group causal inference & competition test?
- No. A wrong answer costs nothing beyond the mark you would have earned, so leaving an item blank is never better than guessing at it.
- How do I practise for it free?
- Every drill linked on this page is free to play, with no account, inside a daily run cap. Questions are generated fresh each run, so there is nothing to memorise between attempts. The full Economic Consulting Analyst Screen sitting puts the sections back to back on one clock.