1. Dashboard 1
  2. Consulting Q&A 2
  3. How many active internet website there is on internet? 3
2

How many active internet website there is on internet?

brainteaser estimation guess-estimates

Hello everyone,

I got this question in an interview and was stuck on how to solve it

How would you approach this problem?

Hello everyone,

I got this question in an interview and was stuck on how to solve it

How would you approach this problem?

 Recent activity on Oct 11, 2017
2.1 k Views
2 answers
  • Upvotes
  • Date ascending
  • Date descending
Best Answer

Hi, thanks for your question. I think the case is essentially testing your ability to segment a massive concept like 'internet websites' to its components. Below is my answer for this case:

Assume one website represents one particular entity (e.g. LinkedIn is one website and not multiple web pages)

No. of active internet website = [No. of government websites (e.g. US Department of Justice, Ukraine's Telecommunications Commission etc.) + No. of Private Sector websites (e.g. Facebook, McKinsey, UBER etc.) + No. of NGO websites (e.g. Oxfam, Red Cross etc.)] x 1.1 (10% for others that don't fall into this category like random personal websites you're developing out of interest, school work, pilot project etc.)

No. of government websites = No. of countries x Average no. of industries per country

No. of Private Sector websites = Average no. of companies x No. of industries

  • If more detail is required, average no. of companies can be broken down to family businesses, SMEs, and large corporations. I would advise you to size based on a medium-sized country and just use that to multiply by the total number of countries

No. of NGO websites - Similar as No. of Private Sector websites

Hope this helps in any way and happy to get comments/feedback on this - thanks!

Hi, thanks for your question. I think the case is essentially testing your ability to segment a massive concept like 'internet websites' to its components. Below is my answer for this case:

Assume one website represents one particular entity (e.g. LinkedIn is one website and not multiple web pages)

No. of active internet website = [No. of government websites (e.g. US Department of Justice, Ukraine's Telecommunications Commission etc.) + No. of Private Sector websites (e.g. Facebook, McKinsey, UBER etc.) + No. of NGO websites (e.g. Oxfam, Red Cross etc.)] x 1.1 (10% for others that don't fall into this category like random personal websites you're developing out of interest, school work, pilot project etc.)

No. of government websites = No. of countries x Average no. of industries per country

No. of Private Sector websites = Average no. of companies x No. of industries

  • If more detail is required, average no. of companies can be broken down to family businesses, SMEs, and large corporations. I would advise you to size based on a medium-sized country and just use that to multiply by the total number of countries

No. of NGO websites - Similar as No. of Private Sector websites

Hope this helps in any way and happy to get comments/feedback on this - thanks!

(edited)

2
Book a coaching with Vlad

97% Recommendation Rate

388 Meetings

7,305 Q&A Upvotes

USD 299 / Coaching

Choose a time slot
View profile of Vlad

Hi,

I would try this:

  1. 1M words in English language
  2. 60% or 600k are nouns
  3. 1.2 M if every word has multiple forms (e.g. dog / dogs)
  4. How often do I see a single-word web-sites? Probably 1 in 50
  5. How many domain zones? .com is probably 60% of the internet

You can take it from here and add as many assumptions as you want (e.g. different languages, word permutations, etc). I think this case is more about the approach rather than having precise numbers.

Best

Hi,

I would try this:

  1. 1M words in English language
  2. 60% or 600k are nouns
  3. 1.2 M if every word has multiple forms (e.g. dog / dogs)
  4. How often do I see a single-word web-sites? Probably 1 in 50
  5. How many domain zones? .com is probably 60% of the internet

You can take it from here and add as many assumptions as you want (e.g. different languages, word permutations, etc). I think this case is more about the approach rather than having precise numbers.

Best

1

Related BootCamp article(s)

Typical Question Types in Written Tests

Questions among all tests can be categorized in math, GMAT-style, chart reading and brain teaser questions. Each type needs to be approached differently.

Brain Teasers

Learn how to tackle brain teasers and what purpose they serve in consulting case interviews

1 Q&A

Related case(s)

Brain Teasers - U2 Concert

Solved 9.6k times
Brain Teasers - U2 Concert Number sequence Situation: “You and I will take turns saying numbers. The first person will say a number between 1 and 10. Then, the other person will say a number that is greater than the first number. The difference between both numbers must be between 1 and 10. We will keep going back and forth in this way until one of us says the number 50. That person wins. You will start.”   Question: What number should you start with? U2 Concert Situation:  U2 has a concert that starts in just 17 minutes. To get there, all the band members must cross a bridge. Since the bridge is old, a maximum of two people can cross the bridge at any one time. To make matters worse, it is dark and there is only one torch. Anyone crossing the bridge must carry a torch. The torch cannot be thrown across the bridge. Instead, someone must walk it back to the other side. Each band member walks at a different speed. If two members cross at the same time, both must walk at the speed of the slower band member. Bono takes 1 minute to cross. Edge takes 2 minutes to cross. Adam takes 5 minutes to cross. Larry takes 10 minutes to cross. Question: Can the band make it to the concert in time? How will they manage this? Buckets Situation: You have a 5-gallon bucket and a 3-gallon bucket. (Assume that you have an unlimited supply of water and that the buckets do not have any markings for measurement. Question: How can you get 4 gallons of water into the 5-gallon bucket? Cigars Situation: A homeless man collects cigar butts. He uses 5 cigar butts to make a new cigar. Today, he has collected 25 cigar butts. Question: How many cigars can he smoke?
4.3 5 402
| Rating: (4.3 / 5.0) |
Difficulty: Intermediate | Style: Brain Teaser | Topics: Brain teaser

Number sequence Situation: “You and I will take turns saying numbers. The first person will say a number between 1 and 10. Then, the other person will say a number that is greater than the first number. The difference between both numbers must be between 1 and 10. We will keep going back and forth ... Open whole case

Brain Teasers - Motel

Solved 8.5k times
Brain Teasers - Motel Motel Situation: Three friends check into a motel for the night. The clerk tells them the bill is $30, payable in advance. They each pay the clerk $10 and go to their room. A few minutes later, the clerk realizes he has made an error and overcharged the trio by $5. He asks the bellhop to return $5 to the 3 friends who had just checked in. The bellhop sees this as an opportunity to make $2 as he reasons that the three friends would have a tough time dividing $5 evenly among them; so he decides to tell them that the clerk made a mistake of only $3, giving a dollar back to each of the friends. He pockets the leftover $2 and goes home for the day! Question:  Now, each of the three friends gets a dollar back, thus they each paid $9 for the room which is a total of $27 for the night. We know the bellhop pocketed $2 and adding that to the $27, you get $29, not $30 that was originally spent. Where did the other dollar go? Murder Situation: The midnight train is coming down the mountains. Art Farnanski seems to be sleeping in his seat. At the station, all the passengers get off the train except one. The conductor comes and taps him on the shoulder to let him know they have arrived. Art Farnanski does not answer. He is dead. Hours later the four people that had shared the train compartment with the dead man are at the police station. The man in the dark suit: "I'm innocent. The blonde woman was talking to Farnanski." The blonde woman: "I'm innocent. I did not speak to Farnanski." The man in the light suit: "I'm innocent. The brunette woman killed him." The brunette woman: "I'm innocent. One of the men killed him." Question: The police detective comes up to you and says: “I know that four statements are wrong and four are true. Who killed Farnanski? (Only one person is guilty).” Trees Statement: You have 10 trees and you have to plant them in five rows, but each row must contain 4 trees. Question: How is this possible?
4.6 5 451
| Rating: (4.6 / 5.0)
Difficulty: Intermediate | Style: Brain Teaser | Topics: Brain teaser

Motel Situation: Three friends check into a motel for the night. The clerk tells them the bill is $30, payable in advance. They each pay the clerk $10 and go to their room. A few minutes later, the clerk realizes he has made an error and overcharged the trio by $5. He asks the bellhop to return $5 ... Open whole case

Brain Teasers - Pirates

Solved 7.1k times
Brain Teasers - Pirates Pirates Situation: Five pirates are trying to split up 1000 gold pieces. The rules are as follows: Pirate #1 must divide the gold up in such a way that a majority of the pirates (including himself) agree to. If he does not get a majority vote, he will be killed, and pirate #2 will get to propose a solution to the remaining 3 pirates, and the same rules will follow. This continues until someone comes up with a plan that earns a majority vote. The pirates are infinitely greedy, infinitely ruthless (the more dead pirates the better), and infinitely intelligent.                        Question: What is the highest amount of gold pieces that pirate #1 can keep and what would his proposal be?             Chicken Situation: A man is traveling with a fox and two chickens, if he leaves the fox alone with the chickens the fox will eat the chickens. He arrives at a river and needs to cross it. He finds a small boat that can carry only him and one animal.          Question: How does he get himself, the fox and the two chickens across the river safely?
4.5 5 405
| Rating: (4.5 / 5.0)
Difficulty: Intermediate | Style: Brain Teaser | Topics: Brain teaser

Pirates Situation: Five pirates are trying to split up 1000 gold pieces. The rules are as follows: Pirate #1 must divide the gold up in such a way that a majority of the pirates (including himself) agree to. If he does not get a majority vote, he will be killed, and pirate #2 will get to propose ... Open whole case

Brain Teasers - Firefighter

Solved 6.6k times
Brain Teasers - Firefighter Firefighter Situation: A firefighter stood on the middle rung of a ladder, spraying water on a burning house. He then climbed up 6 rungs before the heat of the flames caused him to come down 10 rungs. After some minutes he was able to climb 18 rungs to the very top of the ladder. Question: How many rungs did the ladder have? Bartender Situation: There are two twin old men that go into the same bar every day. The bartender at the bar hates one of the twins, but there is only one way he could tell the difference between them: The one that he hates drinks very slowly and the one that he likes drinks fast. One day the bartender decides to kill the one that he hates. So when they came in that day he put the same amount of the drink in their cups, the same amount of ice, and the same amount of poison. When they are both done with their drinks the one that the bartender hates dies, but the one he likes lives. Question: How is this? Hats Situation: There are 4 people sitting in a row, trying to win a riddle. The one in front was wearing a red hat. The second from the front was wearing a blue hat. The third from the front was wearing a red hat. The last was wearing a blue hat and is blind-folded. Each of them was informed that they are all wearing a hat, the last person is blind-folded and that there are 2 red and 2 blue hats. They can only see the persons in front of them and are not allowed to turn around and see behind them. Question: The one who guesses the color of his hat wins the prize. Who is it?  
4.5 5 65
| Rating: (4.5 / 5.0) |
Difficulty: Intermediate | Style: Brain Teaser | Topics: Brain teaser

Firefighter Situation: A firefighter stood on the middle rung of a ladder, spraying water on a burning house. He then climbed up 6 rungs before the heat of the flames caused him to come down 10 rungs. After some minutes he was able to climb 18 rungs to the very top of the ladder. Question: How m ... Open whole case

Brain Teasers - Lethal Duel

Solved 5.9k times
Brain Teasers - Lethal Duel Duel Situation: Three men, Adam, Bertie and Charlie, agree to take part in a lethal three-way duel. They each have a pistol and several rounds of ammo, and they draw lots to see who will shoot first and who second. Then they stand an equal distance apart, and they take turns to fire. When it is a player's turn, he can take one shot at any target of his choice. Then, the turn passes to the next player. The duel continues until only one player is left alive. For simplicity, we can ignore the possibility of a player becoming injured and unable to shoot: a player is either alive or dead. We also assume that each player chooses to play in such a way as to give himself the best chance of winning. Now Adam and Bertie are crack shots and will always get a kill, but Charlie is only a moderate shot and will only get a kill two thirds of the time. All three men know this. Question: Of the three men, who has the best chance of winning the duel? Murder Situation: A man was found murdered on Sunday morning. His wife immediately called the police. The police questioned the wife and staff and got these alibis: The Wife said she was sleeping. The Cook was cooking breakfast. The Gardener was picking vegetables. The Maid was getting the mail. The Butler was cleaning the closet. Question: The police instantly arrested the murderer. Who did it and how did they know? Boxes Situation: Three closed boxes have either white marbles, black marbles or both, and they are labeled white, black and both. However, you're told that each of the labels is wrong. You may reach into one of the boxes and pull out only one marble. Question: Which box should you remove a marble from to determine the contents of all three boxes?
4.5 5 85
| Rating: (4.5 / 5.0) |
Difficulty: Intermediate | Style: Brain Teaser | Topics: Brain teaser

Duel Situation: Three men, Adam, Bertie and Charlie, agree to take part in a lethal three-way duel. They each have a pistol and several rounds of ammo, and they draw lots to see who will shoot first and who second. Then they stand an equal distance apart, and they take turns to fire. When it is a ... Open whole case

Similar questions

How many miles of road are there in the US?
Estimate the number of houses in the US?
Estimate the number of self-driving cars (SDC) needed for the US?
Estimate the number of uber rides?
Estimate the number of planes that are in the air in an hour?
How many ATMs are there in X airport?
Are Estimations/Market Sizing questions still being used?
How to estimate number of mortgage loans issued in UK per year?
Estimate the number of videos seen per day on Youtube?
What is the best approach to tackle a guesstimate?
Ask new question