Kapoor made her acting debut in the 2010 drama Teen Patti, alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley and R. Madhavan. She played the role of a college girl. The film received generally negative reviews, though her performance was better received. Preeti Arora, writing for Rediff.com stated that: “[t]hough a bit raw, she has a lot of potential.” Nikhat Kazmi reviewed: “Shraddha Kapoor makes an interesting debut as the edgy youngster who sheds her specs for sleaze, with alacrity.” Kapoor was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, but the film failed to do well at the box office. After her debut, she signed a three-film deal with Yash Raj Films and featured in their 2011 teen comedy Luv Ka The End, with Taaha Shah. Kapoor portrayed the lead role of a teenage student who plots against her boyfriend after he cheats on her. The film underperformed at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics. However, Kapoor’s performance received a positive critical reception. Taran Adarsh wrote: “Shraddha is a revelation, catching you unaware with a confident performance. She’s electrifying in the sequence when she breaks down after getting to know the true intentions of her lover.” For her performance, Kapoor received the Stardust Searchlight Award for Best Actress. Kapoor was subsequently offered the lead female role in Aurangzeb as a part of her deal with Yash Raj Films. However, she signed on to Vishesh Films’ Aashiqui 2 instead, thereby cancelling the three-film contract with Yash Raj Films.

In 2013, Kapoor found her breakthrough role in Mohit Suri’s romantic musical drama Aashiqui 2, the sequel to the 1990 film Aashiqui. She was cast as Aarohi Keshav Shirke, a small-town bar singer who becomes a successful playback artist with the help of a popular male singer (played by Aditya Roy Kapur). The film was a major box office success with a global revenue of ₹1.09 billion (US$15 million). Film critic Anupama Chopra called Kapoor a “real triumph” and added that her “porcelain face has a haunting vulnerability.” However, Vinayak Chakravorty of India Today wrote that she “looks pretty [though] fails to add […] spark.” Kapoor received several nominations in the Best Actress category, including one at the Filmfare Awards. That year, she also appeared in a guest appearance for the romantic comedy Gori Tere Pyaar Mein, playing the fiancée of Imran Khan’s character.

Kapoor has established herself as one of the most popular celebrities in India. In 2013, a poll conducted by the Indian edition of FHM ranked her fifth in their listing of the world’s sexiest actresses. In 2014, she was placed at the sixth position and the following year she was placed at the second position in McAfee’s most searched celebrities poll. Google Trends also noted that Kapoor is one of the most searched Indian actresses between 2014 and 2015. Rediff.com placed her in their listing of the top 10 Bollywood actresses in 2014. Kapoor was placed seventh on The Times of India’s listing of the Most Desirable Women in 2014 and 2015. In 2015, the Indian edition of the International Business Times press positioned her fourth among the top actresses and Rediff.com featured her among the top earners.

In 2015, Kapoor starred in a sequel to the dance film ABCD: Any Body Can Dance, entitled ABCD 2, she portrayed the role of a hip-hop dancer who competed in an international hip-hop competition alongside her childhood friend Suresh Mukund (essayed by Varun Dhawan). In preparation for her role, she learned different genres of dance form from choreographers Prabhudeva and Remo D’Souza. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, the film earned ₹1.57 billion (US$22 million) worldwide to become her most widely seen film to that point.

In addition to acting in films, Kapoor has supported charitable organisations, performed for stage shows and sang in her films. She has also ramp walked in the Lakme Fashion Week for various fashion designers and has been the cover model for several magazines. Kapoor is the brand ambassador of several products, including Lakmé, Veet, Lipton, Marico’s Hair & Care and many others. Bollywood Hungama named her “one of the most wanted names” in the advertising industry. Later, in March 2015, she launched her own line of clothing for women, named Imara, in association with Amazon.com.

Kapoor did her schooling at Jamnabai Narsee School and at the age of 15, she shifted to the American School of Bombay, where she was schoolmate with actress Athiya Shetty and actor Tiger Shroff. In an interview with The Times of India, Shetty revealed that they all used to participate in dance competitions. Believing herself to be competitive at the age of 17, Kapoor played soccer and handball as she thought these games were challenging. When interviewed by The Hindustan Times in 2016, both Kapoor and Shroff admitted that they had a crush on each other in school, but never proposed to each other.

Kapoor began 2016 by featuring as star Tiger Shroff’s love interest in the action drama Baaghi, about a pair of rebellious lovers set against the backdrop of a martial arts school. The role required her to practice Kalaripayattu (a martial art originating in the south of India). Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express considered her character in it to be dated, but thought that she played the romantic and action sequences “well enough”. Commercially, the film performed well and collected a total of ₹1.26 billion (US$18 million). Kapoor’s final release of the year was the rock musical drama Rock On 2, a sequel to 2008’s Rock On!!. She was cast alongside Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal and Prachi Desai. She played the role of Jiah Sharma, an introverted singer and keyboard player, who suffers a neglectful relationship with her father. To prepare, she spent time reading books in isolation and undertook vocal training under the singer Samantha Edwards. Namrata Joshi of The Hindu disliked the film and considered Kapoor’s performance “self-consciously meek and submissive”. Rock On 2 did not recoup its ₹450 million (US$6.3 million) investment.

In 2016, Forbes magazine featured her as one of the most successful Asians under the age of 30 and the previous year, the Indian edition of the magazine featured her in their annual Celebrity 100 list with a total earning of US$1.3 million per year. The same year, she became the third most followed Indian actress on Instagram with a total number of over 10 million followers. Kapoor has also gained recognition for her dressing sense. Various media outlets have praised her sense of style, and has been considered for ramp walks by several fashion designers. In 2016, she was featured among the highest paid actresses of Bollywood with a total earning of ₹50 million (US$700,000) per film. In 2018, Eastern Eye featured her as one of the eight sexiest women in Bollywood. In 2020, Kapoor became the fourth most followed Indian on Instagram with over 50 millions followers.

In 2017, Kapoor starred in Shaad Ali’s romantic drama Ok Jaanu, reuniting with Aditya Roy Kapur. A remake of Mani Ratnam’s Tamil romantic drama O Kadhal Kanmani, the film was produced by Karan Johar under the banner of Dharma Productions. Kapoor next appeared in the romance Half Girlfriend, in which she was paired opposite Arjun Kapoor. It was based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel of the same name, and reunited her with director Mohit Suri. In a review of the latter film, Raja Sen of NDTV considered it to be a “preposterously dimwitted romance” and criticised Kapoor as “shrill and insubstantial”. Later in 2017, Kapoor appeared in Apoorva Lakhia’s Haseena Parkar, a biopic of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim’s sister, who ran a crime ring of her own. Kapoor played the titular role, alongside her brother Siddhanth Kapoor, who essayed Ibrahim’s character. The film met with negative reviews; Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost considered Kapoor’s performance to be as “bland as the screenplay”, adding that “she tries to appear mature and menacing, but the effort shows too much”. None of her 2017 releases performed well at the box office.