Recent Estimation Interview Questions

Mayank M. - "Clarifying questions- Are we considering only the viewing + upload or all the services like ads, payouts etc? -- only streaming + uploads. Are we considering any specific platform like App, website or everything? --- All. Are we talking about just the tech part or should we consider the ops cost as well? ---consider everything. High level equation- Since we want to calculate the cost of running youtube for a day , we need to consider the following verticals- **Vide"See full answer

Gabe M. - "My stab at this (feedback welcome): Total distance for last car 500 meters: Assuming mostly standard cars, average car length + gap = 5 meters. Acceleration time total 505 seconds: first car reacts slowest, accelerate in 10 seconds. Every other car needs 5 seconds (can see ahead). Takes 90 seconds to cover 500m: to cover 500m that means 90 seconds (20kph = 10km in 30min = 1km in 3min = 500m in 1.5m) A bit under 10 minutes = 90s + 505s. Probably a bit less as last car"See full answer

Andrew B. - "Assumptions: We're looking only at a single large dealership in San Jose, per the question, not all large car dealerships New cars already come with tires; the dealer does not have to purchase them separately A couple of different ways I might approach this: Approach 1: Estimate based on # cars serviced per day Dealer intakes 10 cars for servicing per hour (based on anecdotal observation) 100 cars serviced per day (assuming service dept. open 10 hours per day) Cars that need onl"See full answer

Kartikeya N. - "Clarifying questions What do we mean by bookings? Is it nights booked or transactions?: Nights booked Are there any constraints like platform or anything else while calculating the nights booked? : No If a user books a night but does not show up, do we still count him? : Yes If a user cancels before turning up, do we not count him? : Yes Expedia operates globally. Its major markets are Europe, USA, Asia, Africa etc. We will take the following high level approach **Total population →"See full answer

Ama M. - "Answering only estimation portion for practice (for some reason after submitting the formatting is unorganized) clarification and assumptions can I assume this grocery store location is called Greens can I assume that self-checkout means that customers checks out without assistance? can I assume that cashier checkout means that cashier assists customers with checkout? can I assume that ratio means how man self-checkouts should be place at this grocery store compare"See full answer

Nishtha - "How much does the Empire State Building weigh? I will estimate the weight of the Empire State Building using a structured approach. I’ll start with clarifying questions, define an equation, make reasonable assumptions, perform calculations, and address trade-offs and potential errors. Clarifying Questions To refine the scope, I considered: How many floors does the Empire State Building have? What is the area per floor? What materials are used (e.g., steel, concrete)"See full answer

Darpan D. - "Clarifying and Assumptions Is there any specific geography we need to restrict to? Assumption: Total worldwide. Is there any specific segment we need to restrict to? Assumption: All segments. Number of users Total worldwide users: 300,000,000 Storage per user Slice the users into 3 segments. Low users 80% Free tier 2 GB per user available Using the 80-20 rule for segmentation. Medium users 10% Basic paid tier 2 TB per user available Usi"See full answer

Saleel P. - "This is my first attempt at an estimation question, any feedback is appreciated. I'd like to clarify if AirBNB's core services would include user reservations on its web/mobile platform on a per night basis. I'd also assume if we would to estimate the topline revenue (or gross merchandise sales) without factoring operational expenses and taxes. I'd also clarify if basing my estimation on revenue from its largest marketplace, US, is reasonable. Population of US - 350 MM Avg Household size - 2.5"See full answer

Raul K. - "No of Cars in 1 year = [ Total Road Length] / [Distance Covered by 1 Self Drive Car in One Year] Clarifying Question - How does Mapping work? I assume the car has a bunch of cameras and the car needs to go via a road each once to do the mapping for Google Street view. Is that correct? Assumption Google Street view required cars to go via road once and then use camera for mapping Assumption for average speed of the car - This can vary if the car is on the highway Assumption of Area of"See full answer

Karthik T. - "Clarifying questions : I would like to confirm what type of parking spots we are talking about, should we assume cars ? Assumption : Cars Is it referring to only parking spots in non-residential complexes or public places or does it include residential too ?Assumption : both Assumptions : Places where we could see parking spots Shopping malls Parking in the park Residence spots Legal parking spots Variables in play Population = assuming a family of 4 => population / 4 (nu"See full answer

Glados - "Prompt - annual cost of managing Google photos (note - I believe Google doesn't ask estimation question anymore, not sure who/here/how this was asked) We will go over what Google photos is, its users, how they use photos, what costs are incurred, estimation - base case then scale it out, gut check the answers, and arrive at an estimate Google photos is a photo and video storage service. Its users are Content creators/users Google (hosting) Other service providers that provide value-add"See full answer

Kartikeya N. - "Clarifying questions By mutual follows, we mean that both of them follow each other on Tiktok, correct? : Yes We want to know an average number for the same, ie mean and not median or any other value, right? : Yes Shall we consider the global audience or that of a particular country? : Global Can we assume the time setting of this question as of 2025?: yes Here’s how I will tackle this question. > We will first estimate the total number of Tiktok users. Then we will try to"See full answer

Navin T. - "Clarification Questions : Do all 10000 persons need Email access, or is 10000 people the colony's size? : Yes, 10000 people will use emails. As I am a PM for Gmail, I assume we are focusing just on email as a form of communication: Yes. Are there any requirements on the size of attachments allowable in the emails? : I will leave it up to you. Understand the user behavior -> Identify key metrics -> Make quantitative estimation -> Understand plans -> Propose network bandwidth. User b"See full answer

Kartikeya N. - "Clarifying questions: Can I assume the timeframe to be today, ie Dec 2024? : Yes What country are we targeting? Lets say it is India. When we say "Use google search to find a new job" do we mean to say that they use Google search in their job search process or also convert and actually find a job? : The former. I am assuming we are only considering when someone directly searches jobs on Google and not searches for some job search portal on google: Yes. How long should the search"See full answer

Kartikeya N. - "Clarifying Questions How do we define restaurants? Do only delivery/ pick up outlets qualify? : No. Consider only places where people can sit and eat Do restaurants within hotels count? : No Should I include cafes too? : Yes Can I assume the year to be 2024?: Yes Are we looking at specific areas within Bangalore or entire city ? : Entire city Here's how I will approach this question. I will divide Bangalore into places with High, medium and low population density. This is a relat"See full answer

Sid S. - "· Scoping the problem: · What kind of aeroplane - wide / narrow body, single/double deck. Assume normal domestic US plane with about 150 seating capacity Will the plane be empty(no passengers or luggage) - assume yes Will we only fill the cockpit, passenger area and cargo hold or do we need to consider wings, engines, etc - assume no We will consider the theoretical limit and ignore any inefficiencies in arranging the balls Breaking the problem down: Considering the interior o"See full answer

Volderdore - "Population of Bangalore - 1.4 cr On an average 4 people live in 1 householde=> 1.4cr/4 => ~35L HouseHolds Out of the 35L Household, 30% household fall below poverty line are not interested in ordering online due to their own personal reasons prefers to visit to the hotel directly and eat instead of ordering online => Thus remaining is ~25L households out of the 25L households, assuming at least 20% of the households place one order on average on any given day will lead to 5L orders"See full answer