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Career Edge - Let's Solve A Guesstimate-2

The document describes an interview problem where an interviewee is asked to determine the best route for a consulting firm to take employees from their Nariman Point office to IIT Bombay campus in Powai in order to minimize travel time. The interviewee asks clarifying questions and breaks the problem down into key factors that affect travel time - distance and average speed. They suggest exploring both known routes and potential new routes or shortcuts to minimize distance, and considering internal factors like vehicle and driver as well as external factors like traffic and road conditions that could impact speed. The interviewer confirms this logical structuring of the problem is sufficient to determine the optimal route.

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DEVIKA ARUNGUPTA IET Lucknow Student
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100 views9 pages

Career Edge - Let's Solve A Guesstimate-2

The document describes an interview problem where an interviewee is asked to determine the best route for a consulting firm to take employees from their Nariman Point office to IIT Bombay campus in Powai in order to minimize travel time. The interviewee asks clarifying questions and breaks the problem down into key factors that affect travel time - distance and average speed. They suggest exploring both known routes and potential new routes or shortcuts to minimize distance, and considering internal factors like vehicle and driver as well as external factors like traffic and road conditions that could impact speed. The interviewer confirms this logical structuring of the problem is sufficient to determine the optimal route.

Uploaded by

DEVIKA ARUNGUPTA IET Lucknow Student
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CAREER EDGE

Let's Solve A
Guesstimate
CAREER EDGE

Case problem
ABC consulting firm wants to reach IIT Bombay from
their office in the least time possible on December 1,
2014 (the next placement season). They need you to
figure out the best route. How would you go about
this problem?
CAREER EDGE

Preliminary questions
Interviewee: ABC’s office is at Nariman Point, and IITB
is in Powai, right?
Interviewer: Yes.
Interviewee: How do they travel from the ABC office to
IITB today? Cars?
Interviewer: That is correct.
Interviewee: What would you consider the best-
possible route? The route that takes the least amount
of time to reach the destination?
Interviewer: Yes, exactly.
Interviewee: Are we open to exploring the option of
changing our mode of transport to railways and
airways? I won’t consider waterways since the
geographical features do not permit such a commute.
CAREER EDGE

Interviewer: Good question. Let’s focus on travelling by


road.
Interviewee: Do we have any constraints on the resources
we can use to reach in the least possible time?
Interviewer: We intend to use our present resources. We
have a fleet of cars.
Interviewee: Are we open to breaking the journey on
different modes of transport on the road? For example, if
there is, can we consider walking out of the traffic jam and
hiring another cab?
Interviewer: Interesting point. However, we would be using
the same car throughout the journey.
Interviewee: Given that we’re trying to optimize journey
time, I want to determine the factors affecting it first.
Interviewer: Sure, go ahead.
CAREER EDGE

Overall strategy
Interviewee: Since our overall objective is to reduce
time and
Time = Distance / Speed
We can simplify our objective to:
1. Reducing the distance travelled, and
2. Increasing the Avg. speed
We want to identify factors which can help us achieve
the above 2 sub-objectives.
CAREER EDGE

Problem structuring
Time
(to be reduced)

Distance Speed
(to be reduced) (to be increased)

Current Internal External


known routes New routes factor factor

Driver Traffic

Car Road
CAREER EDGE

Interviewee: Although an attempt has been made to


keep the solution MECE, there are scenarios (as in this
case) where this is not entirely possible in the span of
the case interview. By making intelligent segmentation,
the candidate must strive to keep it as MECE as
possible. Such problems also allow for much room for
creativity which the candidates are expected to exploit.
E.g., The above factors could include factors like the
number of signals on a route, the presence of high
traffic junctions on the way etc.
Let’s look at a distance first. Since we are restricted to
roads, I want to split roads into known routes and
new routes. New routes include
1. Any new shortcuts and
2. Any other routes are likely to be laid by Dec 1,
which might reduce our journey distance.
CAREER EDGE

Interviewer: Let’s say we have the required information.


Why don’t you tackle the other bucket - speed?
Interviewee: Sure. I want to split this bucket into 2
more parts – Internal and external factors. Internal
factors include
1. Type of vehicle (car, bus etc.)
2. Type of driver
We can split these buckets further to discuss the
characteristics of vehicles and drivers affecting speed.
Interviewer: That won’t be necessary. Move on.
Interviewee: External factors will depend on factors
outside of the ones discussed. They include:
1. Road-Roadquality, speed bumps, signals, tolls etc.
2. Traffic (pedestrian/vehicular)–Time of day, day of
the week, and other intangible factors (accidents,
strikes etc.).
Interviewer: Okay, this sounds good. We will consider
these factors the next time we come to IITB.
CAREER EDGE

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