How would you answer this question in your Personal Fit interview? Receive feedback on your answer and browse through the Q&As to review the approaches of other applicants and experts.
How would you answer this question in your Personal Fit interview? Receive feedback on your answer and browse through the Q&As to review the approaches of other applicants and experts.
It is one of the most popular Fermi questions and you could face it during the 1st round, when math and problem-solving skills are usually tested deeply. I will propose a quick solution, in order to give later some detailed considerations.
Let's estimate the number of windows in Seattle.
-> 1M residents x 40 window facades, we have a total of 40M facades to clean.
Now let's evaluate the charge per facade.
-> in an hour: $15 / 60 facade, that gives 25 cents per window facade.
--> Therefore to clean all the windows of Seattle you could charge $10M ($0,25 x 40M).
Remember: in consulting nobody knows the number of windows in Seattle and maybe neither in window-cleaning companies :) What will be valued is not the accuracy of this type of numbers, but the reasoning you make behind them and your common sense (you should always wonder if numbers you estimate have sense or not). In addition, when you complete an estimation (e.g. the no. of residents in Seattle) you can ask the interviewer whether you can proceed with that number or she has something more accurate.
The solution proposed will be considered great and will allows you to pass the round. But in order to really crack it and impress the interviewer, you should be more curious, proactive and come up with creative considerations, potentially based on personal experience. Some examples:
1 Estimate windows in seattle
2 estimate price per window including labor & material
3 calculate price
100000
100 mln USD because it is enough for me for the rest of my life and I would clean them till I die..
estimate manhours/ building type
estimate amount of buildings by splitting into homes, apartments and 'work' (any office type space and other buildings). estimate amount of homes by households, split into home and apartments, then office by employment ratex capacity per building.
total cost
then think about willingness to pay and how much can we charge
Pro Fenster 10 Dollar
I want to look at the area's minimum wage per hour. Then, I would like to know the average wage for cleaning companies per hour to benchmark the price. third, I would like to know how long it take to clean the windows
20$ per window
50M
10 for each window
10 dollar per window
10M
1000 $
10M
30000000 USD
1000000
na
5 Mio
Ich würde es nicht machen wollen. Unabhängig davon, wie viel Geld mir gezahlt werden würde
Population & residence in Seattle → How many windows in general
Average wage → willingness to pay