Interview Questions › Guesstimate

Estimate how many McDonald’s burgers are sold per month in India

Estimate the total number of burgers sold across all McDonald's outlets in India per month.

Context

McDonald's operates across major metros and tier-1/tier-2 cities in India through master franchise partners (Westlife and Connaught Plaza Restaurants).

Clarifying questions to ask first

• Are we including delivery orders (Swiggy/Zomato) as well as dine-in/takeaway?
• Does this count combo meals and breakfast burgers?

How to approach it

1. Estimate total McDonald's store count in India (~450-500 outlets)
2. Segment stores by footfall tiers (High-traffic transit/mall vs Standard High-Street vs Drive-thru)
3. Calculate average daily customer transactions and burgers per order
4. Multiply by 30 days and apply dine-in vs delivery split sanity check

Framework: Total Monthly Burgers = Store Count × Daily Orders per Store × Burgers per Order × 30 Days

Sample answer

• Total stores in India: ~500 outlets
• Metro flagships (150 stores): ~1,200 orders/day
• Standard stores (350 stores): ~600 orders/day
• Average burgers per order: ~1.8 burgers

1. Weighted average orders per store: ~780 orders/day
2. Daily burgers per store = 780 × 1.8 = ~1,400 burgers/day
3. Total daily burgers across 500 stores = 700,000 burgers/day
4. Monthly total = 700,000 × 30 = ~21 Million burgers/month

Executive estimate: ~20-22 Million burgers sold per month in India across ~500 McDonald's outlets (~700k daily).

What interviewers look for

• Store Count Estimation
• Orders per Store per Day
• Burgers per Order Basket
• Monthly Aggregation & Sanity Check