Case solver
Practice for the case round of a product manager interview. Piko sets a case, or you paste one you were given, and you solve it the way an interviewer runs it: one step at a time, each scored against four checks you can read before you answer, and a model answer shown beside yours only once you have finished.
- Asks for
- Nothing, if you let Piko set the case — or the case you were given, pasted
- Your level, so the case and the scoring fit it
- Optionally, the company, so the case is set around what they make
- Gives back
- A case of the kind you choose: design, improvement, metrics, root cause, strategy or estimation
- Answers to your clarifying questions, as the interviewer would give them
- A score for every step against four checks, with one thing to try
- A model answer beside yours once you finish, and the three things to work on first
- Plan
- Free
- Use next
- Interview prep, CV maker, Personal development plan
What it gives you
Step 2 of 6 · Users · 7 / 8 Names more than one group of people ....... Met Picks one and says why that one ............ Met The reason comes from the case ............. Met Says which facts are guesses ............... Partly “Heaviest takeaway spenders” is said as a fact. Nothing in the case says so. One thing to try: “I’d assume most takeaway spend comes from 25 to 34 year-olds. It’s the first thing I’d check in the spending data.”
How it works
Case rounds are lost on structure rather than ideas. A candidate with good instincts jumps to a solution before saying who it is for, ranks ideas without saying what they ranked them by, or quotes a market size as if it were known. The interviewer is marking exactly those moves, and they are hard to see in your own answer.
So each kind of case is split into the steps an interviewer expects — clarify, users, pains, ideas, prioritise, measure for a product design case; check the data before explaining it for a root-cause case — and each step is scored on four named checks. The verdicts are the model’s; the score is added up in code, so the same answer always gets the same score and a better one always scores higher.
Only when every step is done does the model answer appear, beside yours, step by step. It uses only the case and what the interviewer told you when you clarified; any figure it adds is marked as an assumption, which is also the habit it is trying to teach.
Who it is for
A PM with a case round coming up who wants to find out where their structure slips before an interviewer does.
Where it stops
It is written practice, not a live mock interview: nobody pushes back mid-answer, and there are no hints. It cannot know how a particular company marks its cases, and the model answer is one strong answer, not the only one — where you made a different sound choice, the checks are what matter.
Questions people ask
Why are the steps scored separately?
Because that is where marks are lost. An answer that is good overall can still skip saying who it is for, or rank ideas without criteria, and a single overall impression hides that. Four named checks a step make the slip visible, and because the points are added up in code, scoring the same step again after you change it shows whether the change helped.
Can I use a case I was actually given?
Yes. Paste it as it was given — a take-home or one you remember from an interview — and Piko reads which kind of case it is, which you can change before you start. It also writes what a reasonable interviewer would say to the questions the case leaves open, so the Clarify step works the same way as with a case Piko set.
When do I see the model answer?
Only after every step is scored. Seeing a strong answer first is the fastest way to stop practising and start memorising, and a memorised answer falls apart at the first follow-up question. Once you finish, it sits beside yours step by step, with every figure it did not get from the case marked as an assumption.
Run it on your own work
Case solver needs an account, because it writes against what you give it and remembers what you have told it before. It runs on the Free plan. Or see what the plans cost first.