Estimation question

Estimate the amount of gasoline consumed in 24 hours a day.

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

Whether the candidate can build a clean top-down estimate using population, vehicle ownership, and average consumption assumptions.

State the scope: assume US gasoline consumption unless told otherwise, and confirm that with the interviewer.
Estimate the number of registered gasoline vehicles, for example roughly 250 million in the US, as a stated assumption.
Assume an average of 25 miles driven per vehicle per day and 25 miles per gallon fuel efficiency.
Multiply: 250 million vehicles times 1 gallon per day (25 miles divided by 25 mpg) gives roughly 250 million gallons per day.
Sanity check against a known figure, noting that real US daily consumption is around 350 to 370 million gallons, and adjust assumptions if asked to refine.

States every assumption explicitly (vehicle count, miles per day, fuel efficiency) before multiplying.
Sanity checks the result against a rough known number instead of stopping at the raw calculation.
Offers to refine by segmenting vehicle types (trucks versus sedans) if asked for more precision.

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