McKinsey Solve 85 vs 95 Minutes: What Your Invitation Tells You

What candidates describe in the 30-minute Sustainable Futures Lab

Here's what candidates describe. 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 who says the new SFL "lasts 30 minutes" and has "a much more complex interface".
• 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 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, then the 30-minute SFL. Prepare for that version specifically, not the 20-minute one:

• Budget the clock. 30 minutes across the three simulated days candidates describe is 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 version you're invited to. Our SFL simulator has a switch between the 20- and 30-minute versions, so your practice runs match your invitation. Get fluent with the daily loop and the clock before test day.

Where SolvePrep stands: our updated Sustainable Futures Lab simulator runs both versions. Flip the switch between the 20-minute and the 30-minute version, so you practice for the test you're actually invited to (timed practice on both SFL versions). As with every Solve game, McKinsey doesn't publish its scoring, so our scores are a training model, not McKinsey's. Every change we make goes on our dated What's New log.

You can also practice all three Solve games on the clock.

McKinsey Solve 95 minutes: FAQ