Communicating while Solving a Guesstimate

As you start getting a hang of how to solve guesstimates, you will encounter an even bigger issue, and that is, how to communicate your solution to the interviewer. Guesstimates in general are not a test of how accurate your answer is but how detailed and creative your process to reach the answer is.

In this segment, you will understand how to communicate a guesstimate:

That certainly was helpful. Remember the following details in order to ensure a seamless experience for both you and the interviewer:

Voice your approach

This is perhaps the most important aspect of solving a guesstimate. Be in constant communication with the interviewer but at the same time do not ramble just to fill in gaps in communication. It is perfectly normal to take a moment to think and then give a structured response rather than making stuff up as you go.

Open to feedback 

Communication is a two-way street. Always be open to criticism. Interviewers for the most part are helpful and willing to at least nudge you in the right direction. Of course, there might be cases where the interviewer is just trying to test you and in such cases, it is necessary to stand your ground but more often than not any feedback received from an interviewer is helpful and should be incorporated.

Having covered all the basic elements of a guesstimate, in the next segment, we will try to recap everything we have learnt so far and prepare ourselves to go through an actual guesstimate simulation.