5 Equations in 5 Days
This article compliments content in my interview prep newsletter to address people’s fear and confusion around estimation questions, a common issue with Google interviews. Click here to sign up for my interview prep newsletter, check out the link below.
On to the exercise….
How does it work? Each day I will suggest a different prompt. The goal is to come up with two equations for each prompt. (You always need a backup in case they ask for another approach. You rarely have to run through the math for both, but you do need to have an equation/framework for two approaches.)
For Example:
Prompt: Estimate the number of people with no use of at least one of their arms or legs at any given point in time in the US.
Option 1: High-Level: % of population w/limitation *(total population)
Broken down: % of pop. w/broken limb*(total pop) + % of pop. w/permanenty injury (pop) + % of pop. born w/defect
The difficult part is making assumptions about population %
Option 2: x/100 people I know w/limitation * total population
Check back to this page every weekday (Week of August 7) for a new prompt. I have hidden the prompt suggestions for each day so you can use the page at your own pace and not see the prompt before you are ready to work on it. Click on the + when you are ready to tackle the drill.
If you want inspiration and background, check out this article, where I explain the estimation prompt. I will launch a course later this week and will share the link here.
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How many iPhone and Android phones are there in the world?
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How many game consoles are sold each year?
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How much revenue does YouTube make per day?
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Estimate the storage space required to host all images on Google Street View?
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Estimate how much Gmail users cost Google?
