MINI GUESSTIMATE BOOK

PREFACE

This mini guesstimate book has been prepared by Case Club IIT Madras.

About the book -

This material is specifically curated by the members of Case Club IIT Madras and the mentors of
Consult 101, who have received placement offers from the best consulting companies on IIT
Madras campus.

The material primarily aims to introduce students the concepts of guesstimates by actually
giving examples of questions asked in placement and intern interviews. The book does not cover
the theory but for understanding what a guesstimate is, you can check out Case Interviews
Cracked YouTube videos.

How to use this book?

We highly recommend not just reading the structure presented, but actually solving the given
questions with your case groups. Your structure may not match ours but that’s completely fine.
You can refer to our structures in case of any confusion or lack of clarity. To understand how to
exactly practice these guesstimates within your case group, we strongly recommend you to
check out our YouTube playlist (Case Club IITM).
FROM THE AUTHORS

Dear Readers,

The first edition of this book has been typed by us with an intention to introduce you to some basic
guesstimates that are generally asked in placements and internship interviews. We would like to mention that
we are no experts in solving cases but that is the main clue, you don’t have to be an expert to solve these
questions, it is more of logic and common sense and anyone can become great at this with practice.

We suggest you actually solve all the questions and not just have a look at them. It will be highly beneficial if
you solve these guesstimates within your case group and try replicating an interview room scenario. The better
you become at creating structures, the more efficient and confident you will become.

We have also included a worksheet towards the end. These are some questions related to daily life that you can
pick up and solve. We urge you to think of similar questions and solve them on your own. Don’t consider solving
guesstimates just as a preparation for interviews but take it as your first step towards developing a structured
thought process that will help you solve real life problems throughout your career and beyond!

Founders, Case Club IITM

Aayush Raj & Rohan Ghanty
 GUESSTIMATE GENERAL TIPS

SOURCE - IIM AHMEDABAD CASE BOOK

 GENERAL NUMBERS

SOURCE - CASE STUDIES & GUESSTIMATES BY DATA MONK

GUESSTIMATE #1
ESTIMATE THE NUMBER OF DELIVERIES MADE BY AN AMAZON EXECUTIVE PER DAY
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. Delivery or Return? 2. Which area of bangalore? 3. Which day? Regular?

4. End consumer → Household or business?

No of deliveries

# Trips Deliveries/trip

Working hours time/trip Packing fraction Bag Capacity

Volume of bag Avg Volume/parcel

Hub → Area time/delivery Area → Hub

Reach location Sorting/Picking Transaction

GUESSTIMATE #2
HOW MANY BURGERS DOES MCDONALD'S MAKE IN A DAY?
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. Just burgers or other items too? 2. Regular McD outlet? 3. Regular day/holiday?
4. Dine-in/delivery/takeaway or all?

No of burgers

Dine-In / hr Take Away

Outlet capacity Fraction occupied # people/table #burgers/person Peak hours Non peak hours

**The fraction occupied will vary from Time to prepare 1 No of people visiting
peak to non peak hours order every hour

Cooking time Assembly Packaging

GUESSTIMATE #3
WHAT IS THE REVENUE OF A GENERAL CINEMA THEATRE
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. Revenue from only ticket sales? 2. Which days - weekday or weekend?

Revenue

Tickets Food
Ads

Average people in Fraction buying

Ticket Price # shows/day
hall food

Average people # shows/day Cost of 1 Coke

Total Seats Occupancy in hall and 1 Popcorn
GUESSTIMATE #4
HOW MANY LOCAL TRAINS ARE NEEDED IN MUMBAI?
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. Only local trains? No national railways?

# Local trains

Fraction of population that

# people that can travel in 1 train
travels in local

Total population Capacity of 1

# bogeys
bogey

Lower Class Lower Middle Upper Middle Upper Area of bogey Area reqd by 1 person
GUESSTIMATE #5
HOW MANY RED COLORED SWIFTS ARE THERE IN MUMBAI?
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. Should we also cars parked in garages? 2. Should we include second hand market?

# Red Swifts

# households that can afford Fraction of cars this household Probability of Fraction of red
# cars/household has in swifts price range swifts
a car swift

# Companies Cars in swifts range # Colors Probability of Red

**NOTE :
The number of households that can afford a car would vary in each category (Poor, lower
middle, upper middle and rich). Same goes for fraction of their cars in swifts range.
For ex : An upper middle class may have 2 cars in swifts range while rich class would only
prefer 1 or 0 in this range.
GUESSTIMATE #6
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE USING ZOOM RIGHT NOW IN THE WORLD?
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS
1. Have to consider only people using it for professional purposes? Not friends and home?
2. Have to consider a weekday working condition?

# Zoom Users

Fraction of people in parts of

world where it is working hours
right now

Europe Africa Asia

% of work time
spent in meetings % of work time
% of people with
spent in meetings % of work time
white collar jobs % of people with
in Europe Zoom’s Market spent in meetings
white collar jobs % of people with
Share in Europe in Africa Zoom’s Market white collar jobs
Share in Africa in Asia Zoom’s Market
Share in Asia
GUESSTIMATE #7
HOW MANY HEATERS ARE SOLD IN INDIA EVERY YEAR?
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. Type of heaters (geyser/room/car)? 2. First hand/second hand? 3. Personal use?

# Heaters sold every year

# heaters currently owned Replacement %

Growth %

% that households that need # heaters / 1 / Avg Lifetime

Population
heaters household
** This is the formula
Population growth Climate change %

**Climate change here means with

increasing global warming, use of
Lower Class Lower Middle Upper Middle Rich
heaters would reduce

**No of heaters depends on income

classification
GUESSTIMATE #8
WHAT IS THE FLEET SIZE OF AN UPCOMING CAB SERVICE AT MUMBAI
AIRPORT SHUTTLING TRAVELLERS HOME?
 PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS

1. Any specific customer segment? 2.To and Fro Shuttle Service?

3. International and Domestic Terminals?

# of flights % of occupancy # of traveller

business leisure

# of flights
# of runways Avg. group
per hour
size
Avg. group
size

% of cab
% share # of cab drivers
Fleet Size % of cab
requests
drivers
WORKSHEET

TRY PRACTISING THESE QUESTIONS WITH YOUR CASE GROUP BY REPLICATING AN INTERVIEW ROOM

FOR MORE DETAILS ON HOW TO PRACTICE GUESSTIMATES AND TO SEE MENTORS SOLVING GUESSTIMATES LIVE IN AN
INTERVIEW SESSION PLEASE CHECK OUR YOUTUBE PLAYLIST OF RECORDED GUESSTIMATES :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcGL4S_Fms&list=PLSuxaCon2g3k6sqFrYN7sRnYSGrqoTD9K&index=1

1. Estimate the number of laptops sold in India every year.

2. Estimate the number of cricket balls in India at this very moment.
3. Estimate the number of chocolates consumed in Mumbai per day.
4. Estimate the number of consult enthusiasts across top 5 IITs.
5. Estimate the revenue of a typical IIT-JEE coaching class in a year. (Ex - FIITJEE).
6. Estimate the monthly electricity consumption in India.
7. Estimate the number of athletes that take part in a single edition of Olympics.
8. Estimate the number of people online on Whatsapp right now.
9. How many T-shirts are sold on Amazon everyday.
10. Estimate the number of marriages in India every year.