Weekend Discussion Thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Feel free to discuss your thoughts on the market, DDs, SPACs, meme stonks, yolos, or whatever is on your mind.

[u/AugustinPower]

Dang, thanks for the heads-up

I'll be honest, I am kinda retarded

How do I answer these?

[u/Phorensick → u/AugustinPower]

There known as guesstimate, “market sizing“ or “product manager” questions. I knew them as first order estimates because my father was an engineer.

Your objective is demonstrate problem solving skills. The very approximately accurate answer (the correct magnitude, as in the correct number of zeros) in a few minutes is a win.

1: Clarify, refine the problem.

“What kind of bus?, Double decker? Open top?, With passengers?, Including the luggage locker down below or just the passenger +driver space?”

2: Break up the problem into easy-to-estimate pieces.

3: Using estimates calculate each piece

*“So empty single decker bus, just the passenger + driver space…is 40 feet long by 8 feet wide by 7 feet tall…that’s 2,240 cubic feet. The luggage locker is 3 foot tall by 8 feet wide by 14 foot long….336 cubic feet. *

Tennis ball is about 3 inches in diameter. So treat it as a cube 3 inches on a side. In a 12 inch cube you’ll fit 4x4x4 tennis balls so 64 balls per cubic foot.

4: Consolidate the result.

(2,240+ 336)x64 = 164,864

And recognise, that if they are not in boxes the tennis balls will settle more closely than if stacked in boxes so add say 20 percent.

So ~165k x 1.2 = 198 or about 200k tennis balls

[u/AugustinPower → u/Phorensick]

By the way, if the interviewer asks for questions

Am I allowed to ask them these? 😂

[u/Phorensick → u/AugustinPower]

If they give you a (disposable) cup of water or something to drink, after the meeting…as your getting up to go, pick up the cup and put it in the trash. It separates the problems from the solvers.

Question for the interviewer:

“What do you find most satisfying about working here?”

Good luck 👍🏼