Estimation question

Assume the US Govt wants to provide free internet storage to all its citizens. Create a program to manage it and estimate the 3 year cost for the program.

Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.

What this question tests

Structured estimation combining program design thinking with a defensible cost model over time.

Scope the program: define storage tier, like 100 GB per citizen, and eligibility, all US citizens or opt-in only.
Estimate the user base: roughly 330 million citizens, assumed with an opt-in rate around 30 to 50 percent in year one, growing over time.
Estimate per-user infrastructure cost: cloud storage cost per GB per month, applied across the storage tier and active user count.
Add program costs: initial build, ongoing engineering and support staff, and security or compliance overhead for a government system.
Project growth over 3 years, assuming rising adoption and modest unit cost decline as storage gets cheaper over time.
Sum year one through three costs into a total, stated as an order of magnitude range with assumptions clearly flagged.

Defines the scope precisely, storage tier and eligibility, before estimating cost, since these choices swing the answer by orders of magnitude.
Uses a realistic adoption curve, not assuming instant 100 percent opt-in from all 330 million citizens.
Separates infrastructure cost from program overhead, like staffing and compliance, which are easy to overlook.
States a 3 year total as a range with visible assumptions rather than one falsely precise number.

Assuming full population adoption in year one with no ramp up curve.
Estimating only cloud storage cost and ignoring staffing, support, and compliance overhead.

Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.