Estimation API

A search-volume estimation by using Amazon's search API.

1. Algorithm

Scoring

• Amazon's search API returns a list of top 10 keywords by their search volume.
• To score any keyword from 0 to 100, I've simply ranked keywords by their "first letter encounter".
• Since the API only offers "keyword" and "a set of results", the only thing you can do to reduce this set is comparing them letter by letter.
• To give an example, if you search "i" on Amazon.com, it autocompletes it to "iphone charger".
• That means including of all keywords that starts with "i", "iphone charger" has a greater search-volume than other keywords that starts with i.

Searching

• Because API had to deliver a score under 10 seconds, I needed a constant algorithm.
• Since searching every letter would take so much time for long keywords, I've applied binary search.
• So every keyword can be completed on O(log n) (where n is the number of letters in a keyword)
• An example of algorithm:
• Searching for "iphone charger" would start as "iphone" -> "iph" -> "ip" -> "i"
• Single letters are scored as 100.

2. Assumptions

• Since there is no way to compare search volumes of keywords that starting with different letters, I've assumed that every starting letter is searched equally.
• If a keyword comes up in its first letter, this is a score of 100.
• If keyword doesn't come up at all, it is 0.
• Since there is also no way of comparing the score volume of n count of letter results with m count of letter results, I've multiplied every letter by 3.
• I've assumed all keywords are equally searched if they come up in the same suggestions.

3. The Hint

• I think whether the hint is true or not, it's not going to affect the output much. So I've assumed hint is correct.
• The bigger concern here is comparing the different sized keywords, rather than comparing equally-sized keywords.

4. How precise is the outcome

• It's not really precise.
• It can only be used to compare keywords with same prefixes, such as saying "iphone charger is definitely searched more than iphone 7", because they are both starting with iphone.
• Also this API is not documented via Amazon, so I wouldn't trust this outcome.

5. Docs

Please see Java interfaces for detailed explanation of what every service does.