You have now learnt about the different types of guesstimate questions that are asked across interviews, jobs and even competitions. While there is a step-by-step approach that you will follow to solve guesstimate questions (something that you will learn and practice through examples in the upcoming sessions), it is important to also have some data and numbers handy.
Why though?
When you are solving guesstimate questions, you learnt that an integral part of solving such questions is making assumptions. When you make assumptions, having some data (numbers or factual data) will help you get started in solving your guesstimate question.
You are often asked questions like ‘How many people wear red in a day in Mumbai’. Without knowing things like the population of Mumbai or the ratio of males and females, you might find it difficult to solve this guesstimate question. This is where factsheets come in handy.
Some of the general data that factsheets provide you with while solving guesstimate questions are:
- Population figures
- Demographic data (age groups within the population, sex ratio, rural/urban divide etc)
- Financial data (revenue, profit figures)
- For products like Twitter and social media apps: daily/monthly active users
Here is a factsheet containing some key data for you to solve guesstimate questions. You can reference these while going through and practising guesstimate questions and also during your assignment later.
Do remember the following things with respect to factsheets:
- The figures within the factsheet are not the exact data but are taken from recent sources. You can use this data to easily solve guesstimate questions.
- For your convenience, when solving guesstimate questions, you can use numbers and percentages which would make your calculations easier.
For example, 25% of 1.3 billion = 325 million might complicate your calculations rather than 25% of 1.2 billion = 300 million. (with respect to the population of India)
If the ratio of males to females in a particular city is 62% and 38% respectively, you can use them as 60% and 40% as these numbers will make your calculations easier (say while using the population of a city).