Estimation question
You have a grocery delivery service that delivers food within 24 hours. How many trucks would you need to operate it?
Practice this question out loud. An AI interviewer asks it, follows up like a real interviewer would, and scores your answer. Type or speak.
Start a mock interview on this question · Mock interview from a job description
What this question tests
Operational estimation combining order volume, truck capacity, and delivery time windows.
How to approach it
- Estimate daily order volume for the service, for example a mid size city serving 10,000 orders a day.
- Estimate deliveries per truck per day, based on stops per route and hours of operation, for example 40 deliveries across an eight hour shift.
- Divide daily orders by deliveries per truck to estimate the base truck count needed, 10,000 divided by 40 equals 250 trucks.
- Adjust for the 24 hour delivery window, which allows spreading deliveries across a longer period than a single shift, potentially reducing peak truck need.
- Add a buffer for peak demand periods and truck downtime, then state the final estimate as a range.
What a strong answer includes
- Shows the calculation chain explicitly, order volume divided by per truck daily capacity, rather than guessing a truck count directly.
- Accounts for the 24 hour window specifically, noting deliveries can be batched across two shifts, changing the truck count versus a same day two hour service.
- States a final range with a maintenance and peak buffer added, for example 250 base trucks plus 15 percent buffer gives roughly 290 trucks.
Common mistakes
- Ignoring the 24 hour window and calculating as if this were an instant or same day service.
- No stated assumption for deliveries per truck per shift.
- Giving one precise number with no buffer for peak days or truck downtime.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would this change during a holiday demand spike?
- How would route density in a dense city versus a spread out suburb change your truck count?
More estimation questions
- YouTube Red is a premium service without ads. Assume that 1.5% of initial YouTube user base signs up for the service. What is the lifetime revenue Google generates from those users?Google · Estimation · Hard
- How much would it cost to set up WiFi in New York?Google · Estimation · Medium
- How many dentists are there in New York?Google · Estimation · Easy
- How many Pianists are there in New York city?Google · Estimation · Easy
- Estimate the total number of videos on YouTube.Google · Estimation · Easy
- How many airports are in the US and in the World?Google · Estimation · Easy
More questions from these companies
- Google PM interview questions
- Amazon PM interview questions
- Lyft PM interview questions
- Uber PM interview questions
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