Top 10 Guesstimate Questions
1. What is a guesstimate?
A guesstimate is an estimate or rough calculation that is based on incomplete or approximate data, rather than on precise and accurate measurements. It is often used as a quick and informal way of estimating the size, quantity, or value of something when more precise information is not available.
Guesstimates are often used in business and finance to estimate the potential impact of a decision or to assess the likelihood of a particular outcome. For example, a company might use a guesstimate to estimate the potential sales of a new product, or to determine the likely cost of a new project.
Guesstimates are usually less reliable than more precise estimates because they are based on incomplete or approximate data. As a result, they are often used as a starting point or rough estimate, rather than a definitive answer.
2. How do you solve a guesstimate question?
You can solve a guesstimate question by breaking it down into four steps:
First, clarify any unclear terms in the query.
Second, break down large numbers into smaller, easier-to-handle pieces.
Third, use background knowledge to estimate each piece.
Finally, consolidate all the parts and present your conclusions.
3. Give some examples of guesstimate questions.
Here are some typical guesstimate questions:
What is the current number of Android phones in use in Delhi?
How many square inches of pizza do Americans consume in a day?
How much tea do people in the United Kingdom drink on any given day?
How many golf balls can you fit in a MINI Cooper?
4. What function do guesstimate questions serve in Data Science?
First, they help gauge a data analyst’s capacity to understand the situation.
Second, they show the scope of the data analyst’s ability to connect things and arrive at an answer.
Third, they measure how well the analyst can prioritize or dismiss different parameters.
Finally, they show how well the analyst can work with limited data.
5. What are the two methods of approaching guesstimate questions?
Top-down method. Start with the largest universe possible (which the guesstimate is a part of), apply sets of conditions and filters, reducing the universe’s numbers into something that works for the estimate.
Bottom-up method. Start with a low-level statistic and build your way up to an answer. For instance, if you wanted to figure out a salesperson’s monthly income, you’d figure out their weekly earnings then multiply the result by 4.
6. Explain the three different guesstimates based on how you approach a solution.
The three types are:
The Household Approach: This approach tackles household-based guesstimates.
The Population Approach: This approach handles population-related guesstimate questions, such as finding out how many people live in a given area.
The Structural Approach: This approach creates guesstimates for situations like finding out how many vehicles use a particular bridge every day.
7. How would you determine how many iPhone users exist in the United Kingdom?
First, clarify that the question includes all models of iPhone. Second, determine the population. The UK has approximately 67 million people, with about 40 percent being children and the elderly, so we won’t count them. That means we’re left with 40,200,000 potential iPhone users.
Since iPhones tend to be expensive, we’ll further eliminate anyone below the middle class. About 25 percent of the UK’s population falls into the middle-class category, and 6 percent are upper class. That gives us 12,462,000 potential iPhone users. According to current statistics, iPhones have a global market share of 22 percent, which yields a final guesstimated result of 8,844,000.
8. How many socks would you have to remove from a bag that contains blue and red socks to get a pair of matching socks?
Say you reach in and take out a red sock, then a blue one. Since the third try will give you another red or blue sock, you’ll have your pair. So, you need three attempts.
9. How many people live in your apartment building?
Your city has a standardized apartment configuration of 10-floor structures, each floor with 20 apartments. That’s 200 apartments.
The average apartment has four people living in it. So at first glance, your guesstimate would be 800 people. But not so fast! Conventional wisdom says 10 percent of a building’s apartments are unoccupied! So that means you guesstimate that 720 people live in your building.
10. How many cups of coffee do Americans drink in New York City per month?
Let’s begin by establishing that people drink fewer cups of coffee on the weekends because they don’t need the caffeine boost for their jobs. Next, we need to look up the population of NYC, which is about 9 million people.
Let’s now say that 20 percent of these people are children, and you don’t want to caffeinate children! So of the remaining number, 30 percent drink coffee every day, 20 percent drink coffee occasionally, and 10 percent drink tea instead.
Now, we assume that daily coffee drinkers could be drinking three cups of coffee a day, and the occasional coffee drinkers are happy with just two cups a week. Here’s the formula breakdown:
Daily coffee drinkers: 3 x 0.2 x 7 = 4.2
Occasional coffee drinkers: 1 x 0.2 x 1 = 0.2
Tea drinkers: 0
Total: Daily + Occasionally + Tea drinkers = 4.4 cups in a day
Per month = 4 x 4.4 x 7.2 million = 126,720,000 cups of coffee per month. That’s a lot of java!
11. How many people live in a city with a population of 1 million?
Approximately 1 million people live in a city with a population of 1 million.
12. How much would it cost to build a new office building with 200,000 square feet of space?
It is difficult to provide a precise estimate without more information about the cost of materials, labor, and other factors. However, a rough estimate might be $50-100 per square foot, which would put the cost of building a new office building with 200,000 square feet of space at $10 million to $20 million.
13. How many apples are in a bushel?
A bushel is a unit of measurement for fruits and vegetables, and the number of items it contains can vary depending on the size and type of the item. For apples, a bushel typically contains about 42 pounds or around 100-150 apples, depending on the size of the apples.
14. How long would it take to walk 1 mile at a pace of 3 miles per hour?
It would take approximately 20 minutes to walk 1 mile at a pace of 3 miles per hour. This is because there are 60 minutes in an hour and 3 miles per hour is equivalent to 3/60 = 0.05 miles per minute. Therefore, it would take 1/0.05 = 20 minutes to walk 1 mile.
