Updated 28 September 2026
Some candidates in 2026 report a third game after Red Rock and Sea Wolf, called Sustainable Future Lab. Few have described it in detail, so treat everything here as provisional.
It appears as the third game in an 85-minute sitting and runs for about 20 minutes. Candidates name it without saying much more; the fuller descriptions come from prep providers, who describe a text-based judgement test set in a sustainability programme: first a ranking of possible actions, then around a dozen situations involving a team and its stakeholders, each with several possible responses. Some describe the later situations as depending on earlier answers.
Prep providers also describe a longer "Lab Leader" variant with researchers and workstations. We have found no candidate report confirming it, so it may be a pilot.
There are no numbers to crunch. What seems to count is whether each response serves the situation: dealing with what matters most first, bringing in the right people, and being consistent from one decision to the next. No single style, always collaborative or always decisive, fits every situation.
Because it comes last, you will be tired. Keep an even pace: 20 minutes for about thirteen decisions leaves roughly a minute and a half each.
Practise it on a clock before the real thing: the free demo is a complete 35-minute Field Study, our version of the research game, with six cases at the end.
Play the free demoCasesTrain is an independent practice tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to McKinsey & Company. McKinsey, Solve and the game names are used only to describe the test; they belong to their owners. What is written here comes from candidates' own public reports and McKinsey's public FAQ, and may change.