What are the main case interview frameworks?

The most common ones are profitability, market entry, market sizing, M&A, pricing, and growth strategy, each a starting shape for a specific type of business problem.

Do interviewers expect a memorized framework?

No. Most interviewers explicitly want to see you build or adapt a structure for their specific case, not recite a generic template. Cases are often designed so a standard framework doesn't fit cleanly.

Case Interview Frameworks: What They Are and Why They're Not Enough

Case interview frameworks are standard starting structures for common business problems -- profitability, market entry, market sizing, and a handful of others. Every case prep guide teaches them. Almost none of them teach what to do when the case doesn't fit.

The standard frameworks

Profitability — split into revenue and cost, then their drivers, to find where a profit problem actually lives.
Market entry — should a company enter a new market, and how?
Market sizing — estimate a large, unknown number by breaking it into estimable pieces.
M&A — should a company acquire another, and what's the deal actually worth?
Pricing — how should a product be priced, and by what logic?
Growth strategy — organic vs. inorganic growth, new customers vs. new products.
Competitive response — how should a company react to a competitor's move?

Why frameworks alone aren't enough

Two candidates can both "know" the profitability framework. One recites revenue-minus-cost and starts guessing at numbers. The other adapts the framework to the specific business in the case — a subscription company's profitability tree looks different from a retailer's — and structures it live in front of the interviewer. Interviewers are trained to notice the difference, and cases are often deliberately built so a generic framework doesn't map cleanly, specifically to filter out memorization.

What interviewers are actually evaluating

Not "did you name the right framework," but: can you take an unfamiliar problem and build a MECE issue tree for it, out loud, in real time? The named frameworks above are useful because they're a fast starting point — not because reciting them is the goal.

How to actually use a framework

Start from the closest standard framework as a first draft, not a final answer.
Adapt it immediately to the specifics of the case in front of you — the industry, the business model, the actual question asked.
Push one or two branches deeper, wherever the case's clues point.
Say your structure out loud before diving into numbers — this is what interviewers are grading.

For the mechanics of doing this live, see How to Structure a Case Interview.

Practice adapting, not just recalling

The gap between "knows the frameworks" and "passes the case" is practice building and adapting trees under pressure. Meceify is a free canvas built for exactly that: build your first tree →