Top 25 Guesstimate Questions

🛣
Top 25 Guesstimate Questions

for PM Interviews
Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 1

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Questions & Solutions
Estimate Facebook's yearly ad revenue.
This is a Fermi question. Let's go over the formula once more:
1. Ask clarifying questions
2. Catalog what you know
3. Make equation(s)
4. Think about edge cases to add to equation
5. Breakdown components of your equation
6. Review and state assumptions
7. Compute

8. Sanity Check
9. Summarize
Ask clarifying questions
Do we want to breakdown ad revenue from different sources,

e.g. News feed, Instagram, Messenger? What about by
geography, e.g. North America, Europe, Asia?
For this question, we'll assume we only want overall Facebook ad revenue,
across all properties and geographies.
Catalog what you know

So, I know that almost all of Facebook’s revenue comes from
ads. I also know that Facebook’s market cap is around 500
billion dollars, which suggests that ad revenue is some
multiple of that. In addition, I know that Facebook has
somewhere between 2 and 3 billion users, so depending on
monetization per user we can attempt a derivation of
Facebook’s ad revenue. Finally, I know that the average
revenue per user per year in North America is around $25,
but also that it's much higher in North America than
elsewhere. It's important to write down all information in your
notebook or on a whiteboard. In this case we'd write the
following:
Facebook market cap: $500B
Facebook users: ~2-3B
Avg Revenue / user (in North America): $25
Make equations

We can estimate Facebook ad revenue in two ways. We can
either calculate it bottom-up — that is, derive it from the
number of Facebook users and average revenue per user. Or,
we can start from Facebook’s market cap, which we know,
and go backwards and estimate its revenue that way. Let’s try
deriving it both ways and seeing if they converge. For the first
method, Facebook’s ad revenue can be calculated as the
number of Facebook users times the average ad revenue per
user. In the second method, we can estimate it by dividing
Facebook’s market cap by a multiple that makes sense for the
software / tech industry. Put simply:Method 1: Ad Revenue =
# Facebook users * average ad revenue per user Method 2:
Ad Revenue = FB Market Cap / x multiple
Think about edge cases

We’ll run into some potential issues. The most relevant one
being that due to the variance of buying power between
countries, each region can have massively different average
revenues per user. For example, an American is probably
more likely to buy from an ad and spend more compared to
someone from India or China, just because the average
income and average spending is much higher. So, to get a
reasonable estimation using the bottom-up method, we’ll
need to break down each component by geography.
Break down components
We'll need to break down each geographical region into two

factors: # of Facebook users per region and average revenue
per user per region. Then, we'll sum all these products
together to arrive at our estimated number. For regions, I'll

just separate users per continent.To estimate the number of
Facebook users in each country is mostly a percentage of the
population times Facebook saturation. The ARPU in each
region will be depend on the average GDP for the continent.
Here are my estimates: of users in Asia: 1 billion ARPU in
Asia: $10 of users in Africa: 300 million ARPU in Africa: $10
of users in Europe: 650 million ARPU in Europe: $20
of users in North America: 500 million ARPU in North

America: $25
of users in South America: 200 million ARPU in South

America: $10
of users in Australia: 20 million ARPU in Australia: $20
Review assumptions
Here, you should offer a quick refresher of the assumptions you made. This
accomplishes two things: first, my reiterating each assumption out loud you can
determine if any sound off. Second, by reiterating your assumptions you can see
if your interviewer disagrees with any ahead of your calculations.
To reiterate, I'm assuming around 33% Facebook saturation

in the world, since 2.5B Facebook users / 7.5B people in the
world. I'm also estimating ARPU per continent based on GDP.
Compute
So, multiplying all these numbers out gives us:Yearly ad
revenue = # Facebook users * average ad revenue per user =
(# users in Asia * Asia ARPU) + (# users in Africa * Africa
ARPU) + (# users in Europe * Europe ARPU) + (# users in NA
* NA ARPU) + (# users in SA * SA ARPU) + (# users in Aus *

Aus ARPU) = 1000M * 10 + 300M * 10 + 650M * 20 + 500M *
25 + 200M * 10 + 20M * 20 = 10000M + 3000M + 13000M +
12500M + 2000M + 400M = 40900M, or 41BSo my estimate
is around 41 billion dollars per year.
Sanity check
We can check our work by going backwards from Facebook’s
market cap. As I mentioned, its market cap is around 500
billion. Typically, software businesses are valued at a high
multiple of returns, as in between 10x to 20x. 500 billion / 10
to 20 gives us a total revenue between 25 billion to 50 billion
per year, which falls between our estimate.
Summarize
To recap, we derived how much money Facebook generates
from ads using a bottom-up strategy, segregating users into
regions and summing their estimated yearly revenues. This
gave us around 41 billion dollars of yearly ad revenue, which
we did a little sanity check on by deriving backwards from
Facebook's market cap of 500 billion dollars.
Estimate the number of trees in the city of Delhi

So we need to only consider Delhi within city limits? Yes And will we consider the
big trees and not bushes? Yes
Now inside Delhi total size is 1484 sq km means 2000000 sq km

In this, there are 2% area which is lake or water so remove that will be
(2000000-( 2000000 km*2%) )= 1960000 sq km
In this area in Delhi, we have 20 % area where it is a park that means (

1960000- (1960000*20%)) = 1568000 km area nonpark and 392000 km is a
park area
Obviously, in the park area, the density will be more than nonpark area

Say the tree vs km ratio is per km 10 trees in the park and per km 1 tree in
nonpark
So in park area 392000*10 = 3920000 trees in park 1568000 trees in non park
So total tree is = 3920000+1568000 = 5488000 trees are there in Delhi
Estimate the number of videos watched on YouTube per day.
Clarifying questions:
1. Are we estimating for the worldwide population or just the US

audience? Let’s say Worldwide
2. We are focusing on the number of videos and not on the number of views,
right? Yes, focus on the number of videos.
3. Can I assume the ads to be videos as well? No, you can ignore ads in this
estimation
Assumption: The calculations do not include the rewatch of a video per user.
Approach: I am going to take a top-down approach. I will find out the number of
YouTube users and then segment them into the amount of usage (-> low,
medium, high) to capture the initial estimate. Based on the estimate we will
perform a gut check.
The number of YouTube users: Total population = 7.5B % of the population
having internet access has reached almost 60% in 2021 = 4.5B internet users.
YT penetration stands at 40% worldwide = 1.8B YT users.
Segmentation of YT Users: Segmenting the users into high, medium, and low

users at 20%, 40%, and 40% respectively. High users = 20% of 1.8B = 360M
users spend approx. 2 hours per day on YT Medium users = 40% of 1.8B =
720M users spend approx. 1 hour per day on YT Low users = 40% of 1.8B =
720M users spend approx. 0.5 hours per day on YT
Assuming the average duration of a typical YT video = 10 mins High users:

120/10 = 12 videos => 360M_12 = 4.32B Medium users: 60/10 = 6 videos =>
720M_6 = 4.32B Low users: 30/10 = 3 videos => 720M*3 = 2.16B
Total number of videos watched on YT is 4.32B + 4.32B +2.16B = 10.8B videos.

Just by looking at this number, it does seem like a lot.
Gut Check: Knowing that a very less percentage of videos create the most
views on YT, that means a lot of these videos might be watched by users in all
these segmented categories. So, it is safe to assume that approximately half of
the videos are duplicated in our calculations.

By factoring in this information, the final count of videos watched on YT in a day
is 50% of 10.8B = 5.4B
Calculate the number of queries answered by Google per second.
Clarifications:
Mode of searches is Manual via mobile, desktop, app, web, home device.
Ignoring any robo/auto API based searches.
Geographically, we need to look at global population?
Analysis: We'll do a top-down approach.
Global Population = 7.5B

Less, Geographies excluded: China, Half of Russia (people here don't use
Google as their primary search engine); Less 1.5B (remain 6B)
Less, Only 50% people are connected to internet (remain 3B)
Less, Google market share with Bing, AOL, other regional engines: Let's
assume it to be about 70-80% = 75% (remain 2.25B)
We are left with 2.2B people who are potentially using Google search as their
primary search.
Usage Frequency
We can segment them in their frequency of usage. I would say there are 3 types
of searchers: Aggressive, Active, Passive
Passive searchers are those who don't really use internet to search on a daily
basis (like old people, kids, our mom/dads, majority of rural population).
Assuming this type represents the majority = 50% = 1.1B people
Active people would search once a day. Assumed to be 25% of population =

550M people
Aggressive searchers are super active searchers who might search 4-8 times a
day. Assumed to be 25% of the total population = 550M people
Total searches per day= 550*1 + 550*6 = 3.8B searches per day
= 3.8B / 24 hours / 60 min / 60 sec = ~ 44,000 searches per second
How many ping pong balls can fit in a helicopter?
Clarifying Questions:
1. Ping pong plastic ball, a little bit smaller than a golf ball?

2. How are we estimating the space inside?
3. Should we account for seats and equipment?
4. What's the size of the helicopter? A. I think there are the standard ones that
Police and Hospitals have?
Assumptions: -The size of the ping ball should be less than 1 inch but will keep
it at 1 for simplification -We will ignore the space inside the heli that is taken up
by seats and equipment and count everything as empty space (will add a note at
the end to account for this) -The only area that we are taking into account is the
area that is accessible inside. There is the tail and part of the helicopter that has
the engine, and machinery behind the seats that I won’t take into account.
Solution:
So to get to our answer, I would want to set my formula as the volume of the
interior of the helicopter/volume of a ping pong ball
Given my assumption 2, I would say that the height that is accessible and empty
space is 4 feet (you can never stand much in a heli and have to crouch a fair bit),
the width is probably about 4 feet and the length is about 5 feet which gives me
a volume of the interior as (4x12 inch)(5x12inch)(4x12inch) = ~50 * ~50 * 60 =
2500 * 60 = 125,000 cubic inches
Volume of a ping pong ball is 4/3_pi_(1) ^ 3 = 4/3 x 3 = 4 cubic inches
~120000/ 4 = 30,000 ping pong balls
Review and other things to mention:

My answer is probably a bit of an overestimate considering we did not account
for space taken up by seats and equipment. Also, I assumed that 4x12 was 50,
not 48. Sure I did adjust for that a bit to make my math easy at the end with
120,000. Also, I think the heli isn’t a perfect cuboid space, it's curved toward the
front so I would actually say that we should only take 70%-80% of the space and
the more accurate answer is probably ~25000 balls.
How much money does the Play Store make in a year?
I am looking for worldwide revenue
I am looking at revenue from in app purchases, subscriptions, and download

fees. I am leaving out revenue from play store apps.

There are 4B mobile users across the world and 75% of them have an android
phone. That means there are 3B android across the globe.
I would like to calculate monthly revenue first. Breaking down helps me focus on
the details.
Monthly Revenue = number of users * money spent/user * google's share (you

cannot include the total amount paid by user as revenue according to SEC)
Yearly revenue = monthly revenue * 12

I would divide the users into 4 segments based on the amount they spend on
play store per month.
$0 - 70% $1 - 20% $5 - 5% $10 - 5%
Monthly revenue = (600M * 1) + (150m * 5) + (150M * 10) = 600M + 750M +

1.5B = ~3B * 20% (Google charges between 15% to 30%) = 600 M Yearly
revenue= 12 * 600 M = 7.2B
7.2B would be an under estimate. I was expecting it to be close to $10B based

on my knowledge of google's revenue (their 10k). I think I underestimated the
number of users in $5 and $10 categories. Before recalculating I would like to
know number of users by regions. Users in western countries are more likely to
spend money on the app store when compared to users from 2nd and 3rd world
countries.
Estimate the number of Uber rides in Delhi NCR
Google Estimation Question - Estimate the number of Uber rides?

Clarifying questions and Assumptions -
Considering only Delhi NCR region, India
Calculating # no rides per day
Will consider all cab rides (Uber go, Sedan, premier, auto, bike, share, etc) but
not food delivery rides
Approach: To come to a reasonable number I will user below equation
# number of Uber rides in Delhi NCR per day = #of uber users * avg. no of rides
Now I will calculate the number of uber users in the Delhi NCR region
The total population of Delhi NCR = 20M
Internet and smartphone users = ~50% so the remaining number is 10M

Assuming the target audience which might use online cab services is 60% which
makes it 6M.
Assuming Uber and OLA being 2 major players in the NCR region with equal
market share so uber’s market share is approximately 50% which implies 3M
users of UBER in Delhi NCR
Now to calculate avg no of rides per day I will break the Uber users in the
following segments -
User Type Ride Frequency % Share
Power users users take 10 rides per week 10%
Daily users users take 5 rides per week 20%
Frequent users users take 2 rides per week 30%
casual user users take 1 ride per month 20%
Rare users users take 1 ride in a quarter 20%
Power users = 10% of 3M = 0.3M and takes 10 rides per week making ~0.42 M
rides per day
Daily users = 20% of 3M = 0.6M and takes 5 rides per week making ~0.42 M
rides per day
Frequent users = 30% of 3M = 0.9M and takes 2 rides per week making ~0.25
M rides per day
Casual users = 20% of 3M = 0.6M and takes 1 ride per month making ~0.02 M
rides per day
Rare users = 20% of 3M = 0.6M and takes 1 ride per quarter making ~0.007 M
rides per day
Total uber rides per day = Total no of rides by all different types of users
Total uber rides in Delhi NCR per day is around 1.1 M rides
Estimate Google ads revenue.

Clarifications:
1. Google ads: only includes ads shown on Google search pages. It does not
include any other ads such as display advertisement etc.
2. Google makes money everytime a user clicks on an ad.
3. Market - US

4. Monthly / Yearly - Yearly
5. Revenue in $
6. For 2020 ? - yes
7. So to state the Q again, I have to estimate Google’s annual search ads

revenue for 2020.
Ads revene =( $ads clicked everyday * avg price per ad ) * 360
$ads clicked everyday = Avg # of people searching everyday * # of searches

everyday * Avg ads clicked per search
For this I will divide users into 3 buckets.
Power search users - Do avg of atleast 5 Google searches everyday
Light users - Do average of 2 Google searches everyday

Ocassional users - Average of 3 Google searches a week.
1. Power users
Avg # of people searching everyday = Avg US pop * % using google search * %

of heavy users
Avg US pop = 300 M

% using Google search = US pop % who use internet * % using google search.
US has high internet penetration so I would take 90% of US population use

internet
Of these, Google search is market leader in search. Majority of these go on

google to search. So I would 80% of internet users use Google search.
So % using google search = .9 * .8
Of these, % power users are mainly tech savvy individuals, more young people
or tech professionals. I would assume that is 30%.
So Avg # of power users searching everyday = 300M * ( .72) * .3 = 64.8M
These power users do 5 searches everyday. Let’s assume users see 6 ads per
page, of which they click 1. Chances of user clicking on those ads on other
pages are very less so I will ignore clicks on other pages.
So I will assume user click on an average of 1 ads per search
$ads clicked everyday = 64.8M * 5 * 1 = 9,720,000 = 324M

1. Light users

of light users
Avg US pop = 300 M
We know first 2 part of expresson from power users.

Of these, % light users are users who use google search only as needed. They
are professionals, families with kids etc. I would assume majority of population
would fall in here. So % = 50%
So Avg # of light users searching everyday = 300M * ( .72) * .5 = 108M
I am assuming these users click on 1 ads too.

$ads clicked everyday = 108M * 2 * 1 = 216M
1. Occasional users

of occasional users
We know the first 2 part of expresson from power users.
Of these, % light users are users who use internet as well as google search very
rarely. Or they might be using Bing. I would assume majority of population would
fall in here. So % = 20%
So Avg # of occasional users searching everyday = 300M * ( .72) * .2 = 43.2M
I am assuming these users click on 3 ads too.
$ads clicked everyday = 43.2M * (3/7) * 1 = 9,720,000 = 18M

Now average price per ad = Ads could be as low as $1 to as high as $60. The
bidding varies a lot. But I have to make an assumption here that average price
per ad is $7
Ads revene =( $ads clicked everyday * avg price per ad ) * 360

Ads revenue = (324M + 216M + 18M) * 3 * 360 = 602640M = $602Bn
Gut check:
602Bn annual revenue for ads is very high. I believe Google’s revenue is
somewhere around 30-40Bn. So I need to reduce ads revenue by atleast 1/10. I
believe I overestimated the number of searches being done. Power users do 2
searches a day, light users do around 4 searches a week and occasional users
do 1 search a week.

So if I adjust for #of searches,
$revene for ads clicked would be: ( 129.6M + 62M + 6.2M) * 3 * 360 = $213.6Bn
This is still very high, I believe I still need to reduce the number of heavy users to
10%, light users to be 50% and occasional users to be 40%
Estimate the Number of Credit Card users in India

Are we talking about which credit cards -> Only retail
Population of India - 1.3 B Ignoring People in BPL and Lower middle class -
(30% + 20%) - 650 M Ignoring people below 18 yrs and above 60 years
(assuming retail credit cards won't be issued below legal age and retired
personnel[-30%] ) - > 200 M
I am dividing 200 M eligible population into Metro/Tier-1 , Tier-2 and Tier-2+
cities
Metro/Tier-1 -> 30%
Tier -2 -> 30%
Tier -3+ -> 40%
Penetration among Metro/Tier-1 -> 30% Penetration among Tier-2 -> 15% Tier-
3+ -> 10%
Total credit card users = 200 x [ 0.3 x0.3 + 0.3 x 0.15 + 0.4 x 0.1] = 35 M users
What is the market size for driverless cars in 2025?
Clarification Questions:
Q1 - Interviewee: In which countries have regulatory laws passed to allow

driverless cars by 2025?
Q1 - Interviewer: We'll focus primarily on the United States.
Q2 - Interviewee: Are we also considering driverless commercial vehicles

(e.g. semi-trucks)?
Q2 - Interviewer: We are considering both non-commercial and commercial

vehicles.
Q3 - Interviewee: What is the minimum cost of a driverless car in 2025?
Q3 - Interviewer: With continued innovation in manufacturing and reduced

hardware/software technology costs, the minimum cost for a driverless car in
2025 is $25,000.

Q4 - Interviewee: Are we solving for the total addressable market or sales
addressable market?
Q4 - Interviewer: We are interested in the total addressable market size.
Q5 - Interviewee: Do driverless cars incorporate accessibility features in

2025?
Q5 - Interviewer: People with disabilities can own and operate driverless

cars in 2025.
Q6 - Interviewee: Do the same taxes apply to driverless cars (e.g.

state/local-based sales tax) in 2025?
Q6 - Interviewer: The same taxes apply to driverless cars in 2025.
Assumptions:
In the United States there exists roughly 300M people.
In the United States roughly 1% of the total population are commercial gig
economy workers (e.g. Uber, Instacart, etc.).
In the United States roughly 2% of the total population are workers that
directly contribute to commercial shipping via ground transportation (e.g.
Schneider [i.e. Trucking Company], Amazon, UPS, etc.).
Based on current department of labor statistics, the median income will be

$40,000/yearly in 2025 (accounting for 3-4% inflation year-over-year).
Estimation Model:
Given the above requirements we need to solve the below equation to estimate
the total addressable market (TAM) size:
(Market for Basic Driverless Vehicles) + (Market for Intermediate Driverless
Vehicles) + (Market for Luxury Driverless Vehicles) + (Market for Commercial
Driverless Vehicles for Gig Economy) + (Market for Commercial Driverless
Vehicles for Ground Shipping) = TAM Size for Driverless Vehicles in 2025.
First let's determine how many people would be potential customers of a

driverless car of the total United States populous. I believe that the existing
market conditions would hold true (i.e. ages 15-65 are primary target
customers for cars), with the exception of people that are of the age 65-75.
People 65-75 would be able to use a driverless car and may have not been
prior due to degrading eye sight or other disabilities that come with age. With

mortality rates somewhere near 85, I think that this is a reasonable
assumption.
So our entire market size would be ages 15-75. Considering a linear

distribution that would be 60 years of being a target customer / 85 years of a
normal lifespan. We can further simplify this to roughly 75% of 300M, or
225M target customers.
Let's further refine our number to target customers that don't use public
transportation (given that most of the populous lives in high density areas
where public transportation is abundant).
Referencing my friends and family for the purpose of this estimation, about
1/4 of my friends and family that live in metro areas take public
transportation and do not own a vehicle. Considering in rural areas public
transportation isn't as available, I think 1/5 is a better average for folks that
opt out of owing a vehicle and instead use public transportation in the United
States.
To recap: Of the 225M target customers, we can deduce that only 80% of
them need a vehicle. That further refines our target customer base to
roughly 175M people.
It is my belief that the total number of cars per household will reduce due to
the availability of driverless cars. This is because a single car can
autonomously pick up and/or drop off more than one person at a time.
Let's consider the 175M target customers with the average household being
3 people. We have 60M households (roughly...Interview math, am I right?).
With the above hypothesis, we can assume that with less of a need for
owning multiple vehicles due to the invention of driverless vehicles, the
average number of vehicles per household will go from 3 to 2.
So we can expect a total market of about 40M driverless vehicles for non-
commercial use.
Now here's where things get interesting. Given the total market for
driverless cars is 40M, let's figure out how many target customers buy basic
vs. intermediate vs. luxury non-commercial driverless vehicles.
Referencing the labor statistics from earlier, we know that the median yearly
salary is $40,000. With this information we know that a large majority of our
target customers will be purchasing the basic driverless vehicle for $25,000

due to cost constraints. Let's assume that 80% of households will be able to
afford a basic driverless vehicle. Furthermore, let's assume that 19% of
households will be able to afford an intermediate driverless vehicle which are
priced at $50,000. Lastly, 1% of households will be able to afford a luxury
driverless vehicle priced at $100,000. That being said we can now calculate
the TAM for non-commercial driverless vehicles.
(80%)(40M)(25,000) + (19%)(40M)(50,000) + (1%)(40M)(100,000) = (750B) +

(400B) + (40B) = $1.2T TAM for Non-Commercial Driverless Cars
On the commercial side, we stated that 3% of the total population would be

target buyers for commercial driverless vehicles. 1% represents driverless
sedans likely to be of basic quality used by gig economy services (i.e.
$25,000 per car) and 2% represents driverless shipping vans and/or semi-
trucks for commercial ground transportation services. For commercial
ground transportation target customers (i.e. 2% of the total populous) we can
assume that 50% of purchases will be vans and the other 50% of purchases
will be semi-trucks.
Lets consider the costs for shipping vans and semi-trucks respectively. A ball
park estimate for both (given what the current costs are) is $75,000 for a
driverless shipping van and $250,000 for a driverless semi-truck. Now we
can calculate the TAM for commercial driverless vehicles.
(3M)(25,000) + (3M)(75,000) + (3M)(250,000) = (75B) + (225B) + (750B)

= $1T TAM for Commercial Driverless Cars
Putting it all together our total addressable market for driverless vehicles for both
commercial and non-commercial customers is ($1.2T - Non-Commercial
Driverless Vehicles) + ($1T - Commercial Driverless Vehicles) = $2.2T TAM for
Driverless Cars
If given more time I would consider solving for the Sales Addressable Market
(SAM). It would answer questions such as: Of the $2.2T in total market
value, what revenue can be expected in this fiscal year? This will help us
better understand how frequently customers are turning over vehicles after
purchasing a new one.
Determine the right number of photos to show in Facebook's Newsfeed.
This question could be rolled up to make it more generic i.e. what is the right
number for showing notifications( which in our case is photos) of certain types in
a social media app.

Some clarifying questions to begin with:
Is it for a mobile device or desktop app?
When we say 'photos are shown on newsfeed', does it mean any types of
photos across different feeds or photos of friends, friends of friends in the
network.
Does it mean the number of photos shown in a single post?
Does it mean how often photos are shown to the user while they scroll
Interviewer clarifies - we can assume it's friends' photos in the feed.
We take a step back and then ask why do we want to do that in the first place
and how it relates to Facebook vision, is because of any of the following:
Did we see user engagement drop recently
Did we change anything in our feed optimization algorithm
Are we seeing fewer users liking/commenting on photos
Are we seeing less photos being posted or viewed by users
Are the photos being posted and engaged with too much that it's
suppressing other feeds and impacting ad revenues
Interviewer clarifies - we have not done analysis and would like to estimate
photos shown on a news feed for a given user. We proceed anyways with what
we have.
Define the goal (again) and state it clearly - What is the right amount of
photos to be shown in a user's news feed being posted by their friends in the
network.
We will need to dig a bit in data to come up with a guestimate around it. First, I
would categorize users into personas based on their behaviors. Users are
inclined to engage with friends based what their personality type is which in turn
determines what features they use more often on the platform compared to other
features.
Some examples-
Certain users use Facebook marketplace more often to buy/sell goods Certain
users use Facebook groups more often to find rentals/share skills/organize
events etc. Certain users use messenger to directly text with a small group of

friends. Certain users love knowing what's going on with their friends, what they
are up to, where they are traveling etc.
Now every user is a little bit of all the things I mentioned above but we can still
segregate them into different personas based on the most used feature. Let's
quickly create some then :
1. Shopper
2. Feed scroller ( could have come up with a better name )
3. Organizer
4. Texter
We can ask the data science team to slice the data as per personas mentioned
above and then focus on engagement metrics by personas.
Let's take ' time spent on app per day' as an engagement metric and slice the
time by features/products used :
Shopper : 80% marketplace, 5% looking at friends' photos 10% texting ( for

buying /selling ) , 5% organizing or participating in events
Feed Scroller: 70 % looking at Friends' photos, 20% texting friends, 10%

participating in groups
Organizer : 50 % events , 30% texting, 20% looking at friends' photos.
Texter : 60% texting, 40% looking at friends' photos
Now, we know where the users are spending their time and also how much time
they spend on an app on a typical day. We then calculate the amount of time
they usually spend looking at photos.
1)Time spent on looking at photos in a day (in minutes) = aggregate time spent
for all sessions in a day X percentage of time spent looking at friends' photos.
Let's assume Texter does a 1-hour session on Facebook, spends 24 minutes(
40%) looking at photos.
2)Average time to stop and scroll through a photo on the platform, let's assume
30 seconds. The number of photos to be shown to Texter: 24 minutes divided by
30 secs i.e. no more than 48 photos in an hour.
You could be creative with metrics, ratios are calculations and propose many
different ways of doing it, it's just one of the way I can think of right now.

Next is to do this across personas and sum up the answers are average it out.
(Answer is not important )
We can also then talk about the pitfalls and disadvantages of users binging too
much on photos and related mental health implications.
We could also propose running A/B tests to further optimize our algorithms.
Estimate the weight of a school bus.

Clarifying Questions:
With or without passengers? - Without
Is this for a high school, middle school or kindergarten ?- Free to make your own
assumption
Assuming this is for kids in middle school. I will now calculate the size of the bus
based on the total capacity it can carry.
Assuming bus has 15 rows with 4 columns, such that 15 kids can sit one behind
the other, and 4 can sit in the same row, 2 on each side of the aisle.
The total capacity of the bus is 15*4 = 60 passengers.
Total capacity of the bus = 60 passengers + 1 bus driver + staff (conductor/ etc.)
= 62 people.
Average weight of 1 child = 150 lbs each Average weight of 2 adults (driver +
conductor) = 200 lbs each
Total weight of passengers and school staff on the bus = 15060 + 2002 = 9000 +
400 = 9400 lbs
Now for a compact car that can comfortably carry 4 passengers the average
weight of the car is approximately 3 times the total weight of people in the car (
34200 = 2400 lbs)
Applying the estimate to the weight of the bus, we get 3*9400= 28200 lbs

This is a rough estimate based on the total capacity a vehicle can carry, I would
weigh in factors such as the material used in construction, depending on the
metal and frame of the bus (modern architecture, lightweight metals and material
usage) I would pick a range of +-10% and say that an average school bus
weighs approximately between 25000 lbs to 31000 lbs.
Estimate the number of apps in the play store?

Is it across devices? We can assume the app download for mobiles
Are we estimating for the U.S. only? Yes
Is there any time/resource constraint I should be aware of? No
Equation: In the top of my head, I’m going to follow the top-down approach and
solve the estimation through computing equation: Number of apps in the play
store = Number of mobile users download apps from playstore (A) * average
number of apps downloaded via playstore per user (B).
Assumptions:
US population: 300M
Assumed that 90% chance of US people using Internet
There are 03 main categories of digital contents on the play store: apps,
game and additional digital contents
Calculation (A):
Among mobile users in US, there is about 50% of Android-based cell phones
and 50% of iOS-based cell phones
For Android-based platforms, the play store is pre-installed in default of the

phone's configuration. Likewise, a proportion of compatible iOS-based
phones enable users to download apps with the play store. I then break
down the chance of cell phones possibly downloading apps via play store for
Android-based and iOS-based ones of 80% and 50% respectively.
In fact, people may uninstall the downloaded app after a period of time or no
download at all for certain reasons. For this reason, I dig deeper and reduce
the chance of cell phones possibly downloading apps via play store for
Android-based and iOS-based ones of 50% and 25% respectively.

This is to insist that only apps are counted for the interview question, I hence
narrow down the objectives of play store to the apps only with probability of
1 over 3 main categories as assumed.
Penetration rate = 10%
A = 3 * 10^8 * 0.9 * (0.5 * 0.8 * 0.5 + 0.5 * 0.5 * 0.25) * 1/3 * 0.1 ~ 2M
Calculate (B): As assumed, there are on average 2 apps per phone use, which
depends on users’ needs and storage capacity of the phone.
Estimate the bandwidth of Google Maps.
Let me first ask some clarification questions / make assumptions:
1. Any specific geographic region? => USA
2. How do we measure bandwith? a. Bandwith is the maximum internet speed

required for our google maps servers to support all google maps traffic in the
USA.
3. At which point do we measure bandwith? => at the “entrance” of each

google server center
4. Do we talk about maximum bandwith required? a. Yes, the maximum BB

required to support google maps in the USA (on side of Google) Outline:
Overview Brainstorming => high-level equation => brainstorm & estimate
parts of equation => calculate => sanity check
A. Overview & Brainstorming The required BW at each server facility depends

on the number of facilities, the total traffic originating by the users (max at any
given time) and the required redundancy (in case one or more server facilities
are not connected)
B. Highlevel equation: Max BW/server center = max traffic per sec /
(#server_centers * redundancy_factor) = 6500MB/s / (5 * 0,6) = 65000MB/s /
3 = ~22000 MB/s = 22GB/s (-> this was calculated in the end)
C. I will now start to estimate the parts of the equation, starting with the
denominator. #server_centers => I think that google is operating a total of 5
server centers in the us, 2 on each coast and one in the center =>
#server_centers = 5 Redundancy_factor: The redundancy factor models the max
number of server centers that are allowed to fail, while keeping google maps
operations up. Events that could lead to a server center going dark are (1)
natural disasters, (2) construction works physically destroying a connection line,

(3) missconfigurations and (4) successful hacker attack. I think that for (1) and
(2) a tolerance of 1 server center is sufficient, where as for (3) and (4) multiple
could be affected. To take this into consideration I would like to go with 2 server
centers fault tolerance. Redundancy factor = 1-2/5 = 0.6 Max Traffic = #DAU *
(BB_per_navigation + search + image_data) / (24*3600) = 160M *(36.5 MB) /
864000 = 6500 MB/s #DAU = ppl_in_US * likelihood_of_using_maps = 300M *
0.6 = 180M Google Maps is a service that is very wide spread, it is engrained
into multiple websites, apple and android devices rely on it. I think that small
children and old people are the age groups not using google maps, while most
adults use it regularly. Kids & elderly account for ~40% of the population => 60%
of americans use google maps every day. The maximum traffic of google maps
depends on the number of users requresting navigation information. The data
requirement consists of (a) map data & image data, continuous navigation
information. It is possible to cache the area a person is currently in on the phone,
so the bulk of the data transferred regularly will be navigation information (A->B,
restaurants, etc). Additionally we need to estimate the number of users of google
maps. Starting with the average traffic requirements: BB_per_navigation =
#navigations_per_day * size_of_navigation_data = 1.5 * 1MB = 1.5MB
BB_per_search = #searches_per_day * size_of_search_data = 5 * 4MB = 20MB
BB_loading_of_image_data = #loads_per_day * #size_of_image_data (eg.
Satellite imagery) = 1 * 15MB Max_traffic = For this calculation, I am assuming a
uniform distribution of data requests (=> the amount of requests at any given
time does not depend on the time of day) #navigations_per_day = 1,5 (the
navigations per day can be anything between 0 and 4-5 max for consumers and
~20 for professional drivers, assuming that the consumers are the bulk of users,
I assume 1.55 navigations per day on average #searches_per_day = 5; I think
that consumers will do the biggest number of searches, for the purpose of
understanding an area or preparation for navigation, from my personal
experience I know, that a navigation is usually connected with more than 1
search. Therefore I would like to assume 5 searches per day (per user who uses
maps on a given day) #loads_per_day = 1; A load of image data happens, if
satellite imagery has to be loaded. By default google maps operates with
abstract map data, and the data of an area has only to be loaded if a person
moves outside of their normal area or the data has changed. Furthermore, it
depends on the technical configuration – at which granularity does maps need to
reload. Anywas, assuming that the majority of people will deviate little from their
“normal” beheviour, I think that 1 load per day suffices. Sive_of_navigation_data
= 1MB ;Navigation data needs to include target, origin and driving instruction.

This will probably be some sort of coordinates or text provided to the phone.
However, during a drive it can be reloaded and re-exchanged multiple times. A

text document has just a few kB worth of data, therefore I would like to assume
1MB of data, to account for potential reloads Size_of_search_data = 4MB;
similar to the Navigation data, this will be text base with what type of object has
been searched, what is in the area.
However, search does include image data and this will require more BW than
pure text data. Assuming 2 images per search with an average image size of 2
MB (reduced image quality) results in 4 MB per search. This is on the upper
limit, and the text information associated with search is neglicable
Size_of_image_data = 15MB ;
Here I am thinking of the satellite imagery data, and map data per se. Google
Maps satellite imagery is assembled by multiple images (compressed), the major
factor influencing this is the activity radius of a user. With the pandemic we are
very much stuck at home, but I would like to think that an average user has a
activity radius of 5km², and per km² we need 1 picture of 3MB => 15MB per
search of 5km²
D. Sanity Check: The result was 22GB/s of Bandwith are required at each

server center of google. This is extremely little for a service as widly used
as Google Maps, and I think it is unrealistic. I think the biggest weaknes is
assuming a uniform distribution of Google Maps traffic. There will be
bumps during the day, especially during commuting times.
Estimate the number of daily flights from London to Dubai
Clarifications: Is it passenger/cargo/defense Answer: Passenger
Is it direct or stops included - Direct

Last I read London had 80 M passengers annually
Per month - 6.7 M Per Day - 220 K
Assumption here - London is a hub and it has flights to all continents.

Assumptions are the split below
1. Flights to Europe -- 30%
2. Flights to USA -- 20%
3. Flights to Asia -- 30%
4. Flights to Africa -- 10%

5. Flights to Australia -- 10%
Dubai is part of Asia - 30% of 220 K is 66K Within Asia - Passengers to South
East Asia - China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan South Asia -
Passengers to India, Part of China, Passengers to Russia sub continent
Passengers to Dubai
Assumption - Based on Population and tourist activities South and South East
Asia - 60%, Australia, Russia - 15%. 25% to Dubai - 16K Passengers Dubai and
nearby has a bunch of Airports - Etihad, Qatar, Kuwait. Assuming equal split -
50% to Dubai and rest 50% (Assumption). So total passengers is 8K Size of a
dreamliner (since long haul flights) - 400 approx
Number of flights daily - 8000/400 = 20
Estimate the total internet bandwidth needed for a campus of 1000

graduate students
I'd like to start with the assumption that we are discussing about a residential
college, all students living on the campus. Also, we'll choose an IT engineering
college where the students will be technically savvy. We'll try to determine the
peak bandwidth requirement.
I'd like to breakdown the equation by:
Bandwidth required = No. of students x No. of devices x Avg.

consumption during video at 720/1080p
As per my understanding, video media takes up the most bandwidth. From

personal experience, 15-20 mbps serves the video media without buffering.
Also, not all of the students will be online at the same time. But assuming
80% of them are online at the same time (probably during evening/night).
Each student will have 2 devices on an avg. (mobile + laptop)
Fitting these numbers into the equation,
Bandwidth required = 800 x 2 x 15 = 24000 mbps = ~24 gbps

A quick gut check from my personal college experience allows me to be
confident on my answer coz we were about 2000 students total and had the
internet bandwidth of 100 gbps.
If I were to spend more time on the problem, I'd have considered academic
requirements separately. But since academic requirements usually be in the

daytime, I think the peak bandwidth calculation above should handle the load.
Please add you comments on how I could have better approached the problem
or what elements/factors I failed to touch upon.
Update: Post reading answers here, a couple of mistakes I'd like to highlight.
I didn't consider the basic fact that there will be staff as well as admin on
campus.
Though I considered 2 devices per person on an avg., it'd be incorrect to

assume that both the devices would be consuming max bandwidth at the
same time.
Pick an airport and estimated the number of people going through the
metal detectors in a day
Clarification: SF airport, Any day - ( Sunday, etc ), metal detectors are used at
check-in ( note not coming out airport) Assumption: SF airport, Sunday
Overall approach : Total number of people going through metal detector = total
number of people flying from SF airport on Sunday = Total number of flights on
Sunday * Passengers per flight
Total number of flights on Sunday = Sum of domestic flights + International
flights
Total number of domestic flights on Sunday = Flights per hour * 12 hours (
Assuming SF airport has very minimum domestic flights late at night)
Total number of flights per hour = number of runways * flight each runway can
handle per hour ( Assuming each runway can handle 2 flights per hour- as it
takes 30 mins approximates to land, park, refuel and refly )
Total number of flights on Sunday = 10 times 2 times 12 ~ 200 rounding for
calculations( Assuming 10 runways sf has )
Number of passengers per flight on Sunday = 40 rows times 6 seats each row ~
300 passengers per flight
Number of people flying out from SF on Sunday = 300 times 200 6000 domestic
& 6000 international 12000 people on Sunday
Sanity check : 7 million bay area population, Assuming 100K bay area
population travel each Sunday, Splitting it to three major airports ~ 30000 each
airport.
Estimate Google Photos storage for Pixel phones.

Q. Google photos is considering offering free storage of full file size photos for
people who buy the Pixel 3. How would you calculate the costs for 3 years?
What strategic value is this to Google?
A.
Clarifying questions: Is the free storage limited to a particular pixel model? No

What is the offer? Free media upload for 3 years Does it include videos & other
media files? Yes What is the geography in focus? Global
Solution:
Breakdown- Storage cost for 3 years = storage used (in GB) * storage cost per
GB Storage used (in GB) = No of pixel 3 users * Avg storage per user
Segmentation of pixel users in 3 categories based on consumption levels: No of

pixel users -> high med low Avg storage 300 100 50 GB (based on personal
experience and friends consumption) Percentage 10 50 40 % Weighted storage
30 50 20 GB = 100 GB
No of pixel users calculation approach: Population of the world Smartphone
penetration 40% Income cut upper income 10% Mkt share (Iphones, Samsung,
Oneplus) 3% Year 1 mkt = 7 bn = 2.8 Bn = 0.28 Bn = 0.0084 Bn = 8.4 m
Growth rate of smartphones users = 2% Year 2 mkt = 8.4*1.02 ~ 8.4 m Year 3

mkt = 8.4 m
Assuming the growth of pixel market share is negligible and also the rate at
which photos storage increases is also negligible.
For 3 years = 8.4m * 100 GB * 3 * Storage cost per GB ~ 2400m GB * $ 0.02 /
GB Total storage cost ~ 2400m * 0.02 = $ 48m
For final check, the storage cost is on a higher side, and it might be due to the
high average consumption levels assumed or the compression of photos on the
cloud.
Estimate the market size for in-flight ads market.
1. Can you please clarify inflight ads? Are you referring to the Ads shown
on the screens/TVs available for each seat on an airplane? Ans: Yes.
2. International flights or domestic? Ans: You pick. ( I picked US domestic)
3. Are you targeting any specific airline? Ans: No. All airlines.
4. Any specific type of ads such as banner ads, video ads etc? Ans: Video

We can calculate market size in two ways:
1. By calculating number of flights flying per day in the US * seat available

in each flight
2. By calculating number of people traveling domestically in the US every

year * number of flights taken by each individual
Any preference on which method I chose? Ans: No. You pick. ( I picked the
second)
Assumptions made: Each airplane has a screen for each seat (Not all
domestic airplanes have that)
Total US population = 300M
Assuming 20% of that population never travels (too old/young to travel, too
scared to travel, no opportunities available) leaves us with total 240M
people.
Out of 240M, we can categorize people into different segments.
1. Casual travelers: Travel ~3 times/yr (Meeting friends, Attending events,

family gatherings etc)
2. Family Vacationers: Go on vacations ~2 times/yr (travel with their

families)
3. Business Travelers: Travel at least 5 times/yr (regular business trips)
4. Holiday Travelers: Travel 1 time/yr (travel surge that happens during

holidays)
Thinking about these categories, we can assume ~ % of population each

category might have.
Casual Travelers = 20% of 240M = 48M

Family Travelers = 20% of 240M = 48M
Business Travelers = 30% of 240M = 72M
Holiday Travelers = 30% of 240M = 72M

There is definitely some overlap between these categories. However, a
business traveler might go on a vacation with his/her family during the year
which meant flights taken by that person would be adding to his/her
business travel. Our goal is to calculate #2 for the market size (total number

of flights taken * number of people), so even with the overlap we are not
calculating twice here.
Calculating total flights: 48x3 + 48x2 + 72x5 + 72x1 = 672M i.e ~ 670M (for
simplicity)
Avg flight duration for domestic flights in the US = 3 hrs
If an advertiser shows 1 ad/hr then there will be 3 ads per flight = 670M x 3 =
~2B Ads
Assuming the conversion rate is 10% (i.e per 100 ads shown, 1 customer is
converted), the target market size here is 10% of 2B = 200M customers
Also, assuming the company will have to pay per view and avg CLV is
~$1000, we are talking about 200M x $1000 = $200B that the company
would make over the lifetime of the customers.
i.e A company can pay max of $200B on these ads
Estimate the circumference of the earth at the Equator.
Assume that US and Japan are exactly opposite to each other. If a flight takes
18 hrs to travel between US and Japan and it moves at approx 600km/hr, then
the distance covered is 10,800 Km. This constitutes the semi arc of the circle, so
we will double is to calculate full circumference which will be 21,600 km.
Estimate the number of restaurants in San Francisco.
Clarify
Are we talking about any specific types of restaurants, e.g. fast food, fine
dining, etc.? (Interviewer: Restaurants in general)
Are we including food carts / takeaway-only places as restaurants too?

(Interviewer: Consider only dine-in places)
Are we assuming pandemic situation? (Interviewer: Pretend everything

is normal as of now)
SF has 800k residents. I'm assuming that about 50k people daily commute
to SF for work, and another 10k as visitors.
I'm assuming that visitors and workers are more likely to visit restaurants for
meals while residents are less likely.
For residents, I'm assuming families and single individuals visiting

restaurants. Including co-living as households, I assume that a large

majority of residents are in households. I'm assuming that SF has 75%
of its residents in households, or 600k residents. Assuming an average
household of 3, there are 200k households. There are 200k individual
residents.
I'm further assuming that a large number of households and

individuals do not eat out as food is expensive. I assume a demand
of 25% of households and residents respectively eating out; 50k
households and 50k individual residents, or 200k residents total.
For workers, I'm assuming that about 80% eat out while 20% bring their
own food. This makes an average of 40k individual eaters. I assume
further that 50% of these people to-go food, which leaves us with 20k
seats to serve people.
For visitors, I'm assuming that 90% eat in restaurants, so that creates 9k
seats.
Assuming an average restaurant has a seating size of 50 excluding the

restaurant staff, we would need:
(200k + 20k + 9k) / 50 = 229k / 50 = 4580 restaurants.
Caveats:
The actual number of restaurants may be higher as more people are

resorting to takeout.
The average size of households should be a bit higher than 3. When

people room together, it's usually around 4, and there are many, many
families with multiple children. Thus, the seat volume for residents would
change based on this assumption.
How much storage does Google Maps Street View take?
Clarify question and state assumptions: Streetview from my understanding is

compiled by a streetview car going out and taking multiple photos and then
Google stitches this together to give us streetview. I'm only going to look at the
streetview outdoor experience, I know for e.g Google also has full views of some
businesses, malls, museums etc so for the purposes of this I'm not going to
calculate this.
For the purposes of this is it OK if we say how much storage required to store
streetview for USA? So basically we want Cost of unit of storage for a. 1 photo x
b # of photos it takes to traverse the USA.

b= c x d where c. # of photos it takes to cover say a mile of road d # of road
miles in the USA
c - m own street. So I think my street is about 50m. I know 1mile = 1600 mts so
whatever I get for my street x by 30 to get # of photos for a mile When i look at
my street, 12 houses on each side of the street. 6 photos to cover each side of
the street so 12 in total but also you want to cover the pan and front and back.
so say for every 4 houses you need a pan photo - 20 photos in total.
c = 20 photos X 30 = 600 photos to cover a mile of road. d = # of road miles

1000 miles between seattle and LA. I think USA is probably 2.5 times wide as it
is long so 2.5 million sq miles.
Now we need to figure out how many road miles this is. I don't think all 2.5 miles
are reachable by road. I want to say 2/3 of the area is reachable by road. But
also street view I know covers more than just road. So lets say 80% of those
2.5M sq miles are reachable by street view.
2million sq miles. For each sq mile how many miles of road do we have. I'm
going to divide this up into metro and regional. And lets say it's 50/50. For 1
million sq miles of metro I think we have about 5M of road. (5 miles of road per
square mile) for 1 mllion sq miles of regional I think we have about 2M of road .
(2 miles of road per square mile)
d = Total we have 7M miles of road for 2M Square miles in the US.
b. # of photos it takes to traverse USA = 600 x 7M = 4.2B photos.
a. Cost of1GB is 2 cents p/month. And each photo is 5 mb.

So total size for 4.2B photos is 4.2B x 5mb = 21 x 10^15 (21 peta bytes)
So to figure out the cost we have (21 peta bytes / 1 GB ) X $0.02 21 x 10^ 15 /
10^ 9 x 2/10^ 2 = 42 x 10^4 = $420K p/month.
Total cost of storage for streetview in USA is $420K per month.
Estimate the total addressable market for Slack.

Clarifying questions: Assume U.S. Rephrase question: how many people would
use Slack in the U.S. every year from a revenue opportunity perspective
High level: Brainstorm all use cases, why and how would people use Slack?
How many people use slack in each use case Sum them up Revenue per
person
Use cases for where/why people use Slack:

work
school
extracurricular groups
rare: friends
Assume 300M people in the U.S. Work:
20-60 age group who work - 150M
Out of 150M, people in tech rely heavily on Slack. Assume 10% of people
work in tech in the U.S.. Hence 15M potential slack users
Other industries may use Slack too, like those who work in NFP orgs and
education. Assume an additional 10% of people. = 15M
School:
0-5 - 20M - none use Slack
5-10 - 20M - none use Slack
10-15 - 20M - 5% - 1M may use Slack
15-20 - 20M - 10% - 2M may use Slack
Extracurricular:
300M x 5% participate in extracurricular clubs/orgs = 1.5M
10% may need Slack to coordinate events. 0.15M
Total potential users = 30M + 3M + 0.15M = 33.15M = ~30M in the U.S. 1 in 10

people use Slack seems high, but keep in mind that there are overlaps. People
at school may be interning at tech company. People who use slack at work may
also use Slack for extraccurciular meet-ups.
Revenue per person: depends on organization size. Assume: Large org - $10 pp
- 40% large orgs adopt Slack = 30M x 40% x $10 = $120M Medium org - $15 pp
- 30% = 30M x 30% x $15 = 135M Small org - $22 pp - 30% = 30M x 30% x $22
= 200M
Total = 120 + 135 + 200 = $455M
Sanity check: Slack's revenue is $401M. So $455 for total addressable market
seems reasonable for the U.S. only.
How much laundry detergent is used every year around the world

Solution: World population = 8B Assuming 10% of world population does not use
detergent( using only soap or using only water)
Remaining population = 90/100 * 8B = 7.2B ~ 7B
Diving the users into 3 categories
1. Users who wash everyday
2. Users who wash twice a week
3. Users who wash once a week
Wash everyday --- Wash twice a week --- Wash once a week
Used clothes < Used clothes < Used clothes
5gm --- 10gm --- 15gm (Detergent used per wash)

35gm --- 20gm --- 15gm (Detergent used per week)
So assuming, everyday users, will have less no of clothes to wash and less
amount of detergent needed. Less no of washes ---> More amount of detergent
needed per wash
1. 15% population wash everyday (7B * 15/100 = 1.05B ~ 1B)
2. 25% population wash twice a week (7B * 25/100 = 1.65B ~ 2B)
3. 60% population wash once a week (7B * 60/100 = 4.2B ~ 4B)
Total no of weeks in a year = 52
Not sure how to proceed further but this is my calculation
1B * 35gm * 52 weeks + 2B * 20gm * 52 weeks + 4B * 15gm * 52weeks

52 ( 1 * 35 + 2 * 20 + 4 * 15)
Gut check : I think its an overestimate
How much does it cost Google to run Google Pho
Lets see, what kind of cost does google have to incur to run google photos. To
think about this clearly, I want to think as if I was going to setup Google Photos
now and it doesn't exist till today.
1. Cost for Building software and maintaining it
2. Cost for acquiring users
3. Cost for keeping the data of users safe and accessible

4. Miscellaneous
Now lets come back to today where Google photos clearly exist and I will think
about the costing in each of these sections.
1. Google photos should be a lean team with max 10 pms, 40 engineers (1:4
pm to dev ratio), 100 supporting staff (qa engineers, dev ops, other roles).
PM salary est -> 150k, Dev salary -> 250k, others -> 80k gives us 20Mil in
salaries each year.
2. Acquiring users -> Considering this cost to ~0 for google photos, most of the
cost might be coming for the OS team because this is a pre-installed app on
android devices. There are other users of the product too but they are
negligible in number.
3. Server cost -> ~2B android devices, 70% people use google photos (keep
more than 100 photos), what is the average usage. Lets think of these 70%
users as those people who are primarily using Gphotos in the phone. Also
google photos ~10 years old software.
a. How many photos i click and for how long I have been using the
software is something we need to predict now:
i. Power user (20%) [20 photos on a day level or 10000 new photos a
year] ->
1. Using for 5 years -> 60%
3. Using for 1 year -> 10%
ii. Casual user (40%) [5 photos on a day level or 2000 new photos a
year]
1. Using for 5+ years -> 60%
iii. Super casual user (40%) [1 photos on a day level or 500 new photos
a year]
1. Using for 5+ years -> 60%

This will help us get to a point where we understand the number of photos on
google photos server. We can make an assumption that each photo is 50kb is
size and get to the total storage needed to store all photos, Storage servers
have a pricing on TB level generally (google gives 50GB storage for 200/- a
month, so we can imagine that their cost will be 10% of this cost.
1. Misc cost -> 5% of the total cost.
How many productivity hours are lost per year in traffic?

Clarify
can we limit traffic to normal commute time for people going to work in their
city? Not include business travel? (Recognize traffic can mean: pick up drop
off kids; errands, grocery, shopping, social, people who drive for their job
etc.)
limit to US?
pre-covid time?
Equation
# of working people in US x # of hours commute per year per

person
# of working people in US
320M total population, 40M per age group of 10 years
working age = 20 to 70, 5 groups of 10 years = 5 x 40M = 200M
# of hours commute per year per person
average 1 hour commute per day
work 50 weeks a year, x 5 days/week = 250days
total 250 hours per year
200M x 250 hours/year = 50,000M hours = 50B hours Assume: 10% work from
home = no commute; 10% work has significant travel, exclude 20% of people
50B x 0.8 = 40B hours
If you are opening a new Walmart branch, how would you decide how
many cash registers are needed for the store?

I would start answering this Google estimation interview question by asking the
following:
1. Where are we planning to open Walmart store? Urban or Rural Area? If

Urban, then Which City?
a. Assuming Urban and say City of Toronto
Answer:-
1. Population of Canada is 30M.
2. As the two most populous provinces are Ontario and British Columbia, we can
assume that each have population of around 30% ~ 10M.
3. Out of this 10M Ontario Population, most would be concentrated in and

around GTA, so assuming GTA Population of 70% ~ 7M
4. GTA has 5 regions, Dividing the population equally, indicates Toronto’s

population will be around ~1.5 M
5. As per world population, around 70% of people are between age of 15 and 65,
14% are above 65 and 16% below 15. Keeping same percentage, we can
assume that ~1M people are of shopping age or would go for shopping alone.
6. Following are the big retailers or competitors of Walmart –
a. Loblaws
b. Canadian Tire
c. Whole Foods
d. Freshco
e. Costco
f. Longos etc.
7. Assuming a consumer has 10 different choices, we can have this small table
of % split (Need to provide reasoning for the split, i.e. Loblaws, Whole
Foods are expensive compared to Walmart, Costco needs Membership etc)
Loblaws 10%
Freshco 20%
Costco 15%
Whole Foods 10%
Longos 15%

Walmart 20%
Others 10%
8. So, Walmart would be serving around 20% or 200,000 people in Toronto.
9. Generally 1 region has around 3-4 major cities, and we can assume that 1 city
will have around 2-3 Walmart.
10. Assuming each Walmart supports equal distribution of customers, 1 walmart

will be supporting around 70,000 – 100,000 customers.
11. Out of this 100,000 customers, we can assume that people go to Walmart
atleast once every 2 week, so that is 50,000 customers shopping at Walmart at
any given week. (* I would challenge myself on this)
12. Most of these customers will be shopping after office hours or during
weekends. Assuming 70% shop on weekend and distribution is uniform every
week, so we have around 35% shopping on a Saturday or Sunday.
13. So, around 20,000 Customers will be shopping on Saturday on Sunday.
14. Walmart stays open from 7:00 AM till 11:00 PM and most of the crowd will be
coming during 11:00 AM (because people wake up late on weekends) to 6:00
PM (People want to spend evenings at club or movies or entertaining
themselves) so, we can assume that 60% of 20,000 customers come during
these hours, i.e. 12,000 customers between 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
15. Doing a uniform distribution of hours, we can say that 1500 customers per
hour
16. Let’s assume each person spends half hour at Walmart, so that is 600
people going to cash counter every half hour or ~ 20 people per minute.
17. 1 cash counter takes approx. 2 min to bill a customer, so applying little’s law,
we will have a queue of 40 customers.
18. If 10 customers per queue is acceptable, we should have 4 operating cash

terminals in Walmart.

🔥 I am Malay Krishna, lead product manager at Vyapar, India's fastest
growing business management software. I mentor aspiring product
managers in their journey of cracking product manager interviews.
I have a built a mock interview led, personalised 1:1 program for product
managers that helps candidates with the following;
CV Reviews
Building a Portfolio
Assignments by Potential Recruiters
1:1 Live Mock Interviews for Every Product Module (Not Much Gyaan,
Focus on Practical Application in Interviews)
Unlimited Warzone Interviews (Mock Interviews just before your Actual

Interview)
Endless Job Application Support & Mentorship
If you think this is something that interests you, I would love to get
on a call with you and explain the program in detail. You can block
time with me by clicking on this link.

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Top 25 Guesstimate Questions

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 1

Assignments by Potential Recruiters

Unlimited Warzone Interviews (Mock Interviews just before your Actual

Endless Job Application Support & Mentorship

Questions & Solutions

Estimate Facebook's yearly ad revenue.

This is a Fermi question. Let's go over the formula once more:

1. Ask clarifying questions

2. Catalog what you know

4. Think about edge cases to add to equation

5. Breakdown components of your equation

6. Review and state assumptions

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 2

Ask clarifying questions

Do we want to breakdown ad revenue from different sources,

Catalog what you know

Facebook market cap: $500B

Facebook users: ~2-3B

Avg Revenue / user (in North America): $25

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 3

Think about edge cases

Break down components

We'll need to break down each geographical region into two

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 4

of users in Europe: 650 million ARPU in Europe: $20

of users in North America: 500 million ARPU in North

of users in South America: 200 million ARPU in South

of users in Australia: 20 million ARPU in Australia: $20

To reiterate, I'm assuming around 33% Facebook saturation

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 5

Estimate the number of trees in the city of Delhi

Now inside Delhi total size is 1484 sq km means 2000000 sq km

In this area in Delhi, we have 20 % area where it is a park that means (

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 6

Estimate the number of videos watched on YouTube per day.

1. Are we estimating for the worldwide population or just the US

Assumption: The calculations do not include the rewatch of a video per user.

Segmentation of YT Users: Segmenting the users into high, medium, and low

Assuming the average duration of a typical YT video = 10 mins High users:

Total number of videos watched on YT is 4.32B + 4.32B +2.16B = 10.8B videos.

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 7

Calculate the number of queries answered by Google per second.

Geographically, we need to look at global population?

Analysis: We'll do a top-down approach.

Global Population = 7.5B

Less, Only 50% people are connected to internet (remain 3B)

Active people would search once a day. Assumed to be 25% of population =

= 3.8B / 24 hours / 60 min / 60 sec = ~ 44,000 searches per second

How many ping pong balls can fit in a helicopter?

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 8

3. Should we account for seats and equipment?

~120000/ 4 = 30,000 ping pong balls

Review and other things to mention:

How much money does the Play Store make in a year?

I am looking for worldwide revenue

I am looking at revenue from in app purchases, subscriptions, and download

Top 25 Guesstimate Questions for PM Interviews 9

Monthly Revenue = number of users * money spent/user * google's share (you

Yearly revenue = monthly revenue * 12

$0 - 70% $1 - 20% $5 - 5% $10 - 5%

Monthly revenue = (600M * 1) + (150m * 5) + (150M * 10) = 600M + 750M +

7.2B would be an under estimate. I was expecting it to be close to $10B based