Post-humous/In-Memoriam Neil Peart-inspired Microsoft Interview Question

Estimate the total number of times Neil Peart struck a percussive instrument in his lifetime.

Your answer should be in the form of a single number. "Struck" means "hit" here, with a drumstick, brush, hand, and/or foot pedal. A percussive instrument is anything that made noise when struck.

It may be helpful to consider data points such as: total number of albums Rush produced, average number of tracks on each album, total number of Rush tours, the average duration of his live drum solo, the average duration of their live sets, time in rehearsal and practice (that'll be a wild-assed guess right there), as well as work prior to joining Rush.

Here are some helpful numbers:

• He began playing when he was 14 years old.
• He joined Rush when he was 22.
• First recorded drum solo: 1974.
• He retired when he was 65 (that's 43 years as a member of Rush).
• Number of Studio albums‎: ‎19. Of Video albums‎: ‎13. Of Live albums[1]: ‎11. Compilation albums*‎: ‎11
• Number of live shows while on tour: 2,277
• His live drum solos were, give or take, about 4 minutes, 30 seconds long... but could last upwards of ~9 minutes.

Personally, I don't even have an order-of-magnitude guess. Was it O(millions), O(10s of Ms), O(100s of Ms), or O(billions)?

If you start to consider live shows only, it looks a little like so:

• ( 32 songs/tour * 4.5 minutes/song ) + 5 minutes of drum solo = 149 minutes total playing time per live show
• ( 149 minutes total per show * 2,277 shows ) = 339,273 total live show playing minutes
• If you try to count the bass drum kick only, if the average song was 100bpm, that's 33,927,300 total kicks during all of those live shows. If the average song was 110bpm, that's 37,320,030 kicks.

That's only counting one foot.

The challenge is quite clear. Just trying to estimate a single drum solo would be quite a trick. Neil Peart Drum Solo - Rush Live in Frankfurt

I can easily imagine, that, if the estimated 33M number is correct, that the total live show percussive hits, across his entire career, could [safely] be upwards of 250M-500M.