A colleague estimates "two weeks". React.
Answer it out loud before you open anything. The value of the flags below is in comparing them to what you actually said — including whether you asked who uses it before naming what you would build it with.
In sprint planning, an engineer estimates the online store's "returns and refunds" feature at two weeks. The product manager writes it in the roadmap. The interviewer hands you the estimate and asks what is wrong with it and what you would do instead.
React to this
Say what you would question, what you would keep, and what you would need to know first.
Sprint planning note (illustrative): Feature: Returns & refunds Estimate: 2 weeks Owner: J. Notes: "should be straightforward, mostly CRUD + a refund API call" Roadmap, updated by PM: "Returns & refunds — ships end of month." Not in the note: partial returns, restocking, who approves, the provider's refund window, what happens to a refund if the original payment was split across two cards, reporting.
What it is really testing
Whether the candidate treats estimation as decomposition, communicates uncertainty as a range with reasons, identifies the piece whose unfamiliarity widens the range, and orders the work so the riskiest piece is learned about first.