Ride-Hailing Supply Estimate: Active Uber Drivers Serving a Mid-Sized American City

You are asked to estimate how many drivers Uber has in a mid-sized city in the United States. Lay out the structure of your estimate, the assumption behind every input and how you would check that the final number makes sense. ```hint Decide what you are counting Drivers online at one moment and drivers who work at some point during a month are very different numbers. Pick one, and think about what links the two. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does "mid-sized city" mean the city limits or the wider metro area, and is there a population you want me to anchor on? - Should the count be everyone who completes at least one trip in a month, or the number of drivers online during the busiest hour? - Is the scope rides only, or should people who only deliver food and packages through the platform count too? - If a driver also works for Lyft, should they count as one of Uber's drivers? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A precise definition of the number being estimated and a stated population anchor for the city. - An equation that turns rider demand into the driver time it consumes, with every input labeled as an assumption and given a round value. - Realistic driver time: trip length, time spent heading to pickups or waiting between requests, and the part-time hours most drivers work. - Correct arithmetic, at least one independent sanity check, and a range showing which inputs move the answer most. ### Follow-up Questions - Which input is your estimate most sensitive to, and what data inside Uber would you use to replace it? - How would you use the same model to decide how many additional drivers to attract for a Friday night? - If the interviewer meant the whole metro area rather than the city, which inputs besides population would change?