cswork / libraryOpen practice workspace

Interview questions · Lyft

Compute Poisson supply–demand match probability

This question evaluates understanding of probability distributions and stochastic modeling—specifically Poisson processes, the Skellam distribution for differences, expectation of minima, and probabilistic capacity planning within the Statistics & Math domain.

In a city-day of a two-sided marketplace, customer demand D ~ Poisson(8) and supplier capacity S ~ Poisson(6), assumed independent. (a) Compute P(S >= D). Express it exactly using the Skellam distribution for (S − D) and provide a numerical approximation to 3 decimals. (b) Derive E[min(S, D)] and the expected fill rate E[min(S, D)] / E[D]. You may use identities involving E[|S − D|] if helpful, or propose a simulation strategy with error bounds. (c) On weekends, demand rises to D ~ Poisson(9). By how much must capacity increase (i.e., find the smallest nonnegative δ such that S' ~ Poisson(6 + δ)) to achieve P(S' >= D) ≥ 0.90? Provide the smallest integer δ that satisfies the constraint, and justify your method (closed-form, normal/Skellam approximation, or simulation with confidence).

Community answers

Nothing here yet.

Join in on CSWork →