Hi there,
Was it the specific meeting room you were in?
First of all, forget bottom-up/top-down. It's helpful to learn both approaches. It's very unhelpful to think, during a case "hmmm, should I use top-down or bottom-up"
You need to use the approach that just makes sense!
Here, it's clearly a bottom-up approach (again, don't need to worry about knowing that). You calculate sqm by multiplying width by length...so...you needed to literally just figure out the width of the room and the length. You could use your steps, height, etc as a proxy for a set # of meters. Then, multiply that out by how much remaining length/width was left.
(edited)
Hi Adi! I also got the same thinking with you. But sometimes, interviewer does not allow you to walk/move from your seat. They want to see the thinking structure of yours. If the floor is tiles, maybe we can estimate the length and width of each tile, but what if the floor is covered by the carpet?