Jane Street Estimathon

Today, I competed in the Jane Street Estimathon, an exhilarating mix of maths, logic, and wild guessing—all packed into a relentless 30-minute sprint. My team, unfortunately named Sudoku Who (yes, branding is not our strong suit), consisted of myself and three others whom I had never met before. Despite being the smallest team in the competition, we performed surprisingly well, holding our own against larger groups with more collective brainpower.

The Estimathon is a game of approximation, where teams tackle seemingly impossible questions by making their best mathematical estimates. The challenge lies in balancing speed and accuracy—spend too long refining an answer, and you run out of time; move too fast, and your guesses could be wildly off the mark. With only 30 minutes on the clock, the pressure was on.

From the moment the timer started, we dove straight into the problems, rapidly sketching out calculations, debating estimates, and making bold leaps of logic. Every second mattered, and there was no time to second-guess ourselves. We had to decide which problems to prioritise, which ones to approximate quickly, and which ones deserved a bit more attention. The questions were as bizarre as they were intriguing:

Here’s a rundown of the problems we tackled for you to try :

1. The least integer n such that the sum of the digits of 2025^n is at least 2025.

   
   

2. Total value of spare change left behind in TSA metal detector bins in 2023.

   
   

3. Total length of wiring in the original Apollo command module, in feet.

   
   

4. Number of espressos Sabrina Carpenter could buy with her Spotify streaming profits for "Espresso."

   
   

5. Surface area of a sphere of gold worth as much as it cost to build the Vegas Sphere.

   
   

6. Number of canoes sold in the U.S. in 2012.

   
   

7. 2025th-smallest integer whose digits have a product of exactly 20 or 25.

   
   

8. Total delay minutes across all Alaska Airlines flights departing Sea-Tac.

   
   

9. Area of the triangle whose vertices are the WNBA arenas with the highest attendance.

   
   

10. Number of pianos produced in the U.S. in the 1800s.

    
    

11. Water capacity of a Sikorsky S-70 FIREHAWK times its fuel capacity.

    
    

12. Cost of taxidermying a full hippo.

    
    

13. The smallest product of two consecutive answers from the first 12 problems.

    
    
    
    

Despite our small team size, we managed to put up an impressive fight, throwing out reasonable estimates while also making some audacious leaps of faith.

More than anything, the Estimathon showed me how much fun it is to engage with uncertainty and apply mathematical reasoning in unexpected ways. Each problem was a test of creativity, resourcefulness, and the ability to make sense of limited information. Working with my team was a fantastic experience, and I was amazed at how quickly we developed a rhythm despite having never met before.

All in all, the Jane Street Estimathon was a blast, and I’d absolutely do it again