Wheat Harvest Optimisation Case

Strategy / Data Analytics Power Day case. A second case round, distinct from the amusement-park one. The prompt is brief — a high-frequency analyst case about wheat harvest economics or scheduling. Expect the same structured-thinking format as the amusement-park case. Requirements Set-up: optimise some axis of a wheat harvest — typical framings are scheduling the harvest across multiple fields of different yields, deciding when to harvest given weather risk, or pricing wheat futures against storage cost. This case surfaces in the BA / SDA Power Day rotation and runs 45 minutes. Notes The exact prompt variant is not pinned down; treat this as a structured-thinking exercise and apply the same skeleton as the amusement-park case: decompose the objective, identify levers, propose a decision rule, then sanity-check with numbers. Common framings the interviewer can extend into: Harvest scheduling: given N fields with different yields and a fixed crew, in what order do you harvest to maximise revenue before weather risk? → greedy by yield_per_day_remaining_window. Harvest timing: a single field whose yield grows with time but whose loss probability grows faster after a threshold. → expected-value optimisation with a stopping rule. Storage vs sell-now: held inventory accrues storage cost but futures lock in price. → break-even analysis on storage cost vs forward price minus spot. The graded signal is the same as on any C1 case: structure first, then numbers, then sensitivity. Preparation Drill the three framings above so the candidate can pivot quickly once the interviewer pins down which variant they want. Practise the stopping-rule framing — it generalises to any "when to sell / when to harvest / when to upgrade" decision and shows up across analytic case rounds. The prompt spec is thin; if this round comes up live, ask 2-3 clarifying questions before drawing any framework. Capital One grades the clarification reflex here.