20 Guesstimate Questions to Crack Product Manager Interview

‘How many dentists are there in Mumbai?’ You may find this question bizarre. But to your surprise, such guesstimate questions are an all-time favourite of interviewers.

In addition to analytical questions, in a Product Manager interview, you will most likely be asked a guesstimate question to test your logical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

A guesstimate question in a PM interview helps the recruiter understand if you can think like a Product Manager, develop the correct approach to answer, estimate and present the answer convincingly.

To crack a Product Management interview, answering an estimation question correctly is as important as answering a technical PM question. 

Like Product Manager design interview questions, to develop the correct approach for estimation questions, you’ll have to practice, A LOT. In this blog, we bring to you the list of 20 guesstimate questions to practice for your next Product Manager interview.

This is in continuation with our series on common Product Manager interview questions. 

Let’s get started

20 Estimation Questions for Product Manager Interview

1. How many queries does Google answer per minute?
2. Estimate the storage needed for all the data on Google maps?
3. Estimate the number of people active on Flipkart app.
4. What is the market size of smartphones in India?
5. Estimate the number of Uber rides in New Delhi.
6. Can you estimate the number of passengers flying from IGI airport?
7. How many pizzas does Dominos deliver everyday?
8. Estimate the revenue of Gmail.
9. How many bars of soap are used in India every year?
10. How will you estimate the weight of a truck?
11. How many iPhones are sold in the US every month?
12. How many people visit the Taj Mahal every year?
13. How would you estimate the cause for a fall in Amazon Prime viewership?
14. Guesstimate the number of trees in Hyderabad.
15. Guesstimate the market size of Netflix?
16. What will be your approach for estimating the per day revenue of YouTube in Asia?
17. Estimate the number of jobs posted on LinkedIn per day. 
18. How many engineers are there in the US?
19. Estimate the market size of electric cars in 2024 in India.
20. Guesstimate the number of Reddit users in India. 

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Tips to Answer a Guesstimate Question in a PM Interview

A guesstimate question in a PM interview helps the recruiter understand if the candidate possesses the right skills to hold the position of a Product Manager. Here are some tips by product leaders to keep in mind while answering an estimation question in a Product Manager interview. 

1. While answering guesstimate questions display your logical thinking and problem solving capabilities. 
2. Ask questions to know what exactly you have to calculate. If you’re making any assumptions tell the interviewer about them along with reasons. 
3. Decide and make a flowchart of your approach – the top-down or bottom-up approach. In a top-down approach, you work on the vision given to you in the question. You develop your objectives, ideas and roadmap to attain that vision.
4. On the other hand, In a bottom-up approach, you work on ideas, feedback and data to build a product or develop features to ease pain points. 
5. Once your approach is good to go, start calculations. Remember to use easy and round numbers for calculations. For instance, in place of a 9.5 use 10. It’s easier to use in calculations.
6. Check both your approach and math again. Present your assumptions, approach and calculations to your interviewer. 
7. The answer you come up with will most probably be incorrect. So, be prepared to accept in advance. The idea of a guesstimate question in a PM interview is not to get the correct answer, rather a correct approach.

We hope you found these Product Manager estimation interview questions helpful. Select any question of your choice and share the answer in the comments below.

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