Product design question

Uber is built primarily for a core use case of pickups and drop-offs in urban and suburban environments (E.g. home/work/vacations). It doesn’t always work well at events such as concerts, sporting events, and festivals. How will you make Uber to/from large events (10K+ attendees) a magical experience for riders and drivers.

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

Product design for a known operational edge case, balancing rider experience, driver incentive, and city level logistics at scale.

Confirm the scope: a specific large event, such as a stadium concert, with a known start and end time.
Identify the two sides: riders facing surge pricing and long waits, and drivers facing chaotic pickup zones.
Prioritize the pickup zone problem first, since it is the physical bottleneck causing both delays and driver frustration.
Propose designated, app guided pickup zones with a virtual queue shown to riders before they even request a ride.
Add driver incentives, such as guaranteed minimum earnings, to ensure enough supply is pre positioned near the venue.
Define success with average wait time at large events and driver fill rate during the event's peak exit window.

Targets the pickup zone as the concrete physical bottleneck, not a vague 'improve the experience' answer.
Balances both sides of the marketplace, rider wait time and driver incentive, rather than only riders.
Proposes a specific mechanism, a virtual queue with designated zones, similar to real systems Uber has piloted at venues.
Sets a clear, illustrative target, such as cutting average post event wait time from 25 minutes to under 10.

Solves only for riders and ignores driver supply and incentives.
Proposes a solution with no way to pre position enough drivers before the event ends.

How would you predict demand for a first time event with no historical data?
How would you prevent drivers from gaming the guaranteed earnings incentive?
How would this differ for a scheduled event like a concert versus an unplanned surge like a parade?