The Only Case Interview Frameworks Guide You'll Ever Need

The Problem with Traditional Frameworks

Let's be honest: the internet is flooded with case interview frameworks. Profitability frameworks, 3Cs, 4Ps, Porter's Five Forces, MECE trees—the list goes on. But here's what nobody tells you:

Memorizing frameworks won't get you hired.

In fact, rigidly applying memorized frameworks is one of the most common reasons candidates fail. Interviewers can immediately tell when you're forcing a situation into a pre-made box.

What Actually Works: The CaseMap™ Approach

Instead of memorizing frameworks, focus on understanding first principles. Every business problem, no matter how complex, can be broken down into a few core questions:

1. Revenue Questions

• Where does the money come from?
• Who are the customers?
• What's the pricing strategy?
• What's the volume?

2. Cost Questions

• What are the major cost categories?
• Which costs are fixed vs. variable?
• How do costs compare to competitors?

3. Market Questions

• How big is the market?
• Is it growing or shrinking?
• Who are the competitors?
• What's our position?

4. Capability Questions

• What does the company do well?
• What are the gaps?
• What resources are available?

Building Your Own Frameworks

Here's the secret: great candidates build custom frameworks for each case. They combine elements from their knowledge base in ways that specifically address the problem at hand.

Example: "Our restaurant client's profits are down"

A memorized framework might say: "Let's look at revenues and costs."

A custom framework might say:

"Given this is a restaurant, I'd like to explore three areas:

• Revenue drivers: Customer traffic, average ticket size, and mix of dine-in vs. delivery
• Cost structure: Food costs, labor, and rent as the big three
• Competitive dynamics: What's happening in the local market?

I'll start with revenues since that's typically where restaurants see the most variability. Does that approach work for you?"

See the difference? The custom framework shows you understand the specific context.

The Three Frameworks You Actually Need

While we discourage rigid framework memorization, there are three mental models worth internalizing:

1. The Profitability Equation

Profit = Revenue - Costs
Revenue = Price × Volume
Costs = Fixed + Variable

This is basic but essential. Most cases involve unpacking this equation.

2. The Value Chain

Understanding how a business creates value from raw inputs to final customer helps you identify where problems might occur:

Suppliers → Production → Distribution → Marketing → Sales → Customer

3. The Hypothesis Tree

Instead of exploring everything, form a hypothesis and structure your analysis to prove or disprove it:

Hypothesis: "Profits are down due to rising food costs"
├── What % of costs are food?
├── How have food prices changed?
├── Have we changed suppliers?
└── What are competitors doing?

How to Practice Flexibly

• Start with the question, not the framework

- What is the client actually trying to solve?

- What's unique about this situation?

• Draw from multiple sources

- Combine elements that make sense

- Adapt based on interviewer feedback

• Stay conversational

- Present your approach as a starting point

- Ask if anything is missing

- Be willing to pivot

• Focus on insights, not structure

- A perfect framework with no insights = rejection

- A messy framework with great insights = offer

Common Framework Mistakes

The Bottom Line

Frameworks are tools, not rules. The best candidates use them as starting points and adapt fluidly based on the specific case and the data they uncover.

Master the underlying logic, not the surface structure, and you'll outperform candidates who've memorized every framework in every case book.