Estimation question

How many elevators should an average office building have?

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 building occupancy, traffic patterns, and elevator throughput.

Define average office building, for example 20 stories with 200 people per floor, and state the assumption.
Estimate total occupants, 20 floors times 200 people equals 4,000 people.
Estimate peak demand, the share of occupants arriving within a five minute morning window, commonly 12 to 15 percent.
Estimate single elevator capacity per five minutes, based on trip time and passengers per trip, for example 10 trips times 12 people equals 120 people.
Divide peak demand by per elevator capacity to estimate elevators needed, then round to a sensible number.

Uses a standard traffic planning approach, sizing for peak morning arrival load, not average all day usage.
Shows the math clearly, 4,000 people times 13 percent peak equals 520 people needing transport in five minutes, divided by 120 per elevator gives about four to five elevators.
States the estimate as a range and names building height and trip time as the biggest levers.

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