Actuarial interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV — and where are you on exams?
2. Tell me about a difficult quantitative or judgmental call you've owned.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why actuarial — and why insurance?
5. Which actuarial seat would you want — pricing, reserving, valuation, or capital — and why?
6. Why the firm?
7. How would you describe the firm's book and the actuarial function in your own words?
8. How does the actuarial function actually drive value at a carrier?

Technical concepts to master

• Reserving fundamentals

  Case + IBNR + IBNER · Loss triangles + LDFs · Best estimate + range · Reserve roll-forward + development

• Reserving methods + judgment

  Chain ladder · Bornhuetter-Ferguson · Cape Cod / Stanard-Buhlmann · Stochastic methods

• Pricing fundamentals + GLMs

  Pure premium = frequency x severity · GLMs (Poisson + Gamma) · Premium build + target loss ratio · Rate indication + filing

• Capital + regulatory + valuation

  US Risk-Based Capital (RBC) · Solvency II SCR + ORSA · Embedded value + VNB (life) · Statutory vs GAAP vs IFRS 17

Practical drills

• Accident year cumulative paid losses ($m): AY1 at 12mo = 100, 24mo = 150, 36mo = 165, 48mo = 170. AY2 at 12mo = 110, 24mo = 165. AY3 at 12mo = 120. Assume the tail beyond 48mo is negligible. (a) Compute age-to-age factors. (b) Compute cumulative LDFs. (c) Project ultimate losses for AY2 and AY3. (d) Compute IBNR for AY2 and AY3 assuming case reserves of $20m for AY2 and $80m for AY3.
• You're the pricing actuary for the firm on a personal-lines product. Walk me through how you'd build the rate indication and take it through a state filing. Be ready to be probed on GLM choice, on-level adjustments, and how you'd handle a regulator objection.
• the firm has launched a new long-tailed commercial line. Year 1 earned premium is $50m; expected loss ratio (from pricing + industry) is 65%. Reported losses at 12 months are $5m; the industry chain ladder suggests a 12-month reporting pattern of ~25% (LDF_12 ~ 4.0). Recommend a year-1 ultimate and IBNR, and defend your method choice.

Smart-question anchors

• Lines + seats - the lines the team supports, the pricing / reserving / valuation / capital seats, and what the role would specifically own
• Valuation basis + systems - statutory / GAAP / IFRS 17 / SII; actuarial systems (Prophet / AXIS / ResQ / Igloo); analytics / ML maturity
• Recent reserve / rate actions - any material development, rate filings, or capital actions and what they signal about the book
• Capital + ORSA - the carrier's capital framework, ORSA cadence, and how the actuarial team feeds it
• Exam support + progression - study support, exam time, mentor pairing, and how juniors progress from ASA / ACAS to FSA / FCAS

Sourced from

Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) — research forums + reserving / pricing literature · MockInterviewPro — Reserving Actuary Interview Questions · Milliman — Casualty actuarial language + insurance valuation methodology · American Academy of Actuaries — Regulatory capital + ORSA · CFA Institute / AnalystPrep — Analyzing Insurance Companies · Be An Actuary / SOA / CAS — exam pathways