McKinsey Solve 85 vs 95 Minutes: What Your Invitation Tells You
If your McKinsey Solve invitation says 95 minutes, you're most likely getting the new, longer Sustainable Futures Lab. Candidates describe it as about 30 minutes instead of 20, set around a small research team rather than a chain of linked questions. Your invitation's stated length is the best clue you get before test day. Here's how the three lengths map, as far as candidate reports go:
| Your invitation says | Games candidates report | Sustainable Futures Lab |
|---|---|---|
| About 65 minutes | Red Rock Study (35 min) + Sea Wolf Game (30 min) | Not included |
| About 85 minutes | Red Rock Study + Sea Wolf Game + Sustainable Futures Lab | Standard version, 20 minutes |
| About 95 minutes (reported since late August 2026) | Red Rock Study + Sea Wolf Game + Sustainable Futures Lab | Team-management version, about 30 minutes |
One caveat before you plan around that table. McKinsey hasn't confirmed the 95-minute row, and some coaches read 95 as 85 minutes of games plus a 10-minute buffer. We don't think that holds up. One of the first candidates to report a 95-minute invitation said the email listed instruction time separately. Less than three weeks later, another poster answered that same thread: there's a new version of the SFL, and it lasts 30 minutes. Still, no candidate we've found has described both in the same sitting, the 95-minute invitation and the new SFL. So treat the mapping as the best reading of the evidence, not a rule.
What candidates describe in the 30-minute Sustainable Futures Lab
Evidence first, because the public record is still thin. We went through the public consulting forums we could access for August 1 to September 25, 2026, and found four candidate posts that bear on the new format:
- Two candidates whose invitations said 95 minutes. The first posted on August 24.
- One poster who says the new SFL "lasts 30 minutes" and has "a much more complex interface" (they don't say whether they sat it themselves).
- One who describes the scenario itself: an island, four researchers and four workstations, played across an onboarding stage and then Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.
That last account, from a candidate who sat it, is the only first-hand description of the mechanics we can find. So: three simulated days, four researchers, four workstations. That comes from one candidate, and it matches what prep sites tracking the format describe. The same candidate found the instructions hard to follow ("all text rather than hands-on like the other 2 games") and got a survey of about 20 questions afterwards, focused on the new SFL.
Prep sites add two more mechanics: what you decide and learn carries forward from one day to the next, and the board reshuffles each morning, so yesterday's placements don't simply stand. Both are plausible. Neither appears in any candidate account we've found yet, so we're not presenting them as reported. If you've sat the 95-minute version and can confirm or correct either one, tell us at info@solveprep.com. Verified corrections get logged with a date.
The standard SFL is a different animal: about 13 linked questions in 20 minutes, starting with a priority ranking, all on-screen text. In the one detailed account of the new version, it plays out with a four-person team over three simulated days.
What McKinsey has said about the new version
McKinsey confirms a new version of Solve is in pilot (McKinsey, July 2025). It hasn't published a name, mechanics or scoring for it. Its official Solve FAQ says only that "the length of your Solve assessment is outlined in your invitation email" (McKinsey's Solve FAQ). That's why the invitation is the signal to read.
Is 'Lab Leader' the official name for the new Sustainable Futures Lab?
No. McKinsey has not published a name for the 30-minute version of the Sustainable Futures Lab; its invitations and FAQs describe the assessment only by duration. 'Lab Leader' was coined in September 2026 by a third-party prep site, Solve Games Guide, as the label for its own simulator of the format. On this page we call it the 95-minute Sustainable Futures Lab, or the team-management version, because that's what candidates describe: an invitation stating 95 minutes, and a scenario in which they lead a four-person research team over three simulated days. If you've seen 'Lab Leader' elsewhere, it refers to the same thing.
How to prepare for the 85- and 95-minute Solve
65 minutes. Two games, and no one has reported a change to either in any version. Put your hours into the Red Rock Study and the Sea Wolf Game; the full prep guide covers both games.
85 minutes. Add the standard SFL: a priority ranking, then linked team decisions, in 20 minutes (how the standard Sustainable Futures Lab works). The part candidates underestimate is consistency. In our State of Solve study, SFL candidates on our simulator lose 60.7% of the available consistency points (95% CI 59.4–62.0). That's the worst-performed component anywhere in our Solve data. Judging one scenario well is the easy part. Holding a line across all of them is where points go.
95 minutes. Red Rock and Sea Wolf, same as above. The SFL is the part you can't rehearse precisely, because nobody outside McKinsey has its mechanics pinned down. That includes us. What the accounts do support:
- Budget the clock. If the reports are right, 30 minutes across three simulated days leaves roughly ten minutes a day, less whatever onboarding takes.
- Read the instructions once, slowly. The candidate who described the scenario found them all text. If that holds, don't expect the game to teach you by doing.
- Track each researcher as you go. In a multi-day game, "who was struggling yesterday" is exactly the kind of thing memory drops under time pressure.
- Practice the format, not anyone's model of it. McKinsey hasn't published the spec, so any simulator of the new version, ours included, is a model. Use practice to get fluent with the daily loop and the clock, and expect McKinsey's screens to differ.
Where SolvePrep stands: our Sustainable Futures Lab simulator now runs both versions, the standard 20-minute one and the 30-minute team-management version from 95-minute invitations (timed practice on both SFL versions). McKinsey hasn't published the new version's mechanics or scoring, so ours is modeled on public descriptions of the format, and it will change as more candidate accounts come in. Every change goes on our dated What's New log. Treat it as practice for the format and the clock, not a copy of McKinsey's scoring.
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McKinsey Solve 95 minutes: FAQ
Which version of the Solve will I get?
Whichever one your invitation's length points to. You don't choose it, and there's no reported way to ask for one or the other. A 65-minute invitation has no SFL, an 85-minute one has the standard SFL, and a 95-minute one most likely has the 30-minute team-management version.
Is the 85-minute version being retired?
Not as far as anyone can see. A candidate reported an 85-minute, three-game Solve as recently as September 24, 2026, a month after the first 95-minute reports. Both versions appear to be running in parallel. McKinsey hasn't said whether that will last.
How long is the new Sustainable Futures Lab?
About 30 minutes. That rests on one poster's account and on the arithmetic: 95 minutes, minus Red Rock's 35 and Sea Wolf's 30. The standard SFL is 20 minutes.
Is the new Sustainable Futures Lab scored?
Assume it is. McKinsey publishes no scoring model for any Solve game. One candidate got a feedback survey about the new SFL afterwards and wondered whether it was a trial. Nobody outside McKinsey knows how it's weighted, so prepare as if it counts.
Does SolvePrep simulate the 95-minute version?
Yes. Our Sustainable Futures Lab simulator runs the 30-minute team-management version as well as the standard 20-minute one, alongside Red Rock and Sea Wolf. McKinsey hasn't published the new version's mechanics or scoring, so ours is modeled on public descriptions of the format, and we update it as new candidate accounts come in.
Written by Tom Prescott, founder of SolvePrep. Last reviewed: September 25, 2026.