Estimation question
Estimate the number of televisions in Delhi.
- Park+
- Estimation
- Hard
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What this question tests
Estimation with household and demographic reasoning: can you build a defensible number from population, household size, and device penetration assumptions.
How to approach it
- Start with Delhi's population, assume roughly 20 million people including the broader metro area.
- Estimate household size, assume an average of 4 people per household, giving roughly 5 million households.
- Estimate TV penetration, assume 80 percent of households own at least one television given how common TVs are in urban India.
- Estimate average TVs per owning household, assume 1.3, since many households now own a second TV in a bedroom.
- Multiply: 5 million households times 80 percent times 1.3 gives roughly 5.2 million televisions.
- State the answer as an estimate in the range of 5 to 6 million, and name household size and penetration as the most uncertain inputs.
What a strong answer includes
- Builds the estimate in clear layered steps, population to households to penetration to TVs per household.
- Uses locally reasonable assumptions, urban Indian household size and penetration, rather than generic global averages.
- Names the most uncertain input explicitly instead of presenting the final number as precise.
Common mistakes
- Estimating per person instead of per household, which inflates the number since TVs are shared.
- Giving a single overly precise number with no visible reasoning chain.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would this estimate change if you included smart TVs and monitors used as TVs?
- What data source would you use to sanity check this if you had access to one?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 2: Data fluency: SQL, logs, and reading the truth yourself
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop