15 Ridiculously Hard Job Interview Questions From Top Employers Like Google, Goldman Sachs - HuffPo

[WillyT]

15 Ridiculously Hard Job Interview Questions From Top Employers Like Google, Goldman Sachs
The Huffington Post | Nicole Hardesty
First Posted: 12-30-10 11:34 AM | Updated: 12-30-10 11:49 AM

<snip>

As tough as the job market has been in 2010, many top-flight employers aren't trying to make the interview process any easier. With the jobless claims at their lowest level in more than two years, job seekers, encouraged by the prospect of an improving economy, are dusting off their interviewing skills for the new year.

Job site Glassdoor.com has sifted through 80,000 interview questions shared by job seekers providing us with some of the most odd and difficult questions asked by top-flight employers this year.

Think you're smart enough to work at Goldman Sachs or Google? Check out the questions to see just how far out the box employers are expecting their interviewees to think. Which questions are expected and which are just too odd?

Goldman Sachs - Analyst position

“If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?”

<snip>

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/30/job-interview-questions_n_802658.html#s217038&title=Goldman%20Sachs%20-%20Analyst%20position%20

:wtf:

I think I'd just punch him, and head for the nearest bar!

Gawd, how I hate HR people.

:banghead:

:beer:

[DavidDvorkin]

1. "Fortunately, I've never been faced with that situation in any of my previous jobs."

"I did, however, deal well with the real situations I was actually faced with."

[Rex]

2. Why are they still in business again!? Oh right, the can't fail and have

immunity from criminal activity. Must be nice. Fuck them I wouldn't want to work for a criminal enterprise.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hello_Kitty]

6. What do you do the other 2/3?

And what's going on at your company that so many people are needing help with job searches?

[Lisa0825]

7. The other 2/3 of the day I process hires, do reference checks, background checks,

schedule new employee orientations, review resumes, route them to hiring managers, etc.

But we are expected to be a public face of the organization, and in that regard we are to be as helpful as possible to all applicants.

We employ about 12,000 people and get about 20,000 applications a month, so if even a small percentage calls for advice or assistance, that is a lot of calls.

[Toucano]

9. Ooh. It a bad kitty! n/t

[WillyT]

13. Apparently... Part Of It Is Spent Posting On DU

:evilgrin:

:hi:

[Lisa0825]

16. I am off this week, silly! LOL

But I will confess to posting during downtime/breaks :-)

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. 1/3 of the money your employer pays you is spent helping people with their job search?

Seriously?

HR encounters two kinds of people;
a) employees
b) job applicants

If applicants can't write a resume or fill out an application, isn't that something that you'd want to know?

[Hello_Kitty]

39. The only time companies help employees look for jobs is when they're RIF-ing them.

That company must be doing a lot of layoffs.

[Lisa0825]

59. Actually you are wrong. And in additon....

I was laid off along with 2500 others because of a hurricane shutting us down a couple years ago. We have hired most of those folks back now that we got our funding back.

You seem very bitter. You should keep in mind that HR people are mostly liberals too. It's a field that attracts people who like dealing with people and like to help people. Even in the certification I am studying for they said if you are guessing an answer, to guess on the "touchy-feely side".

[Hello_Kitty]

60. "You seem very bitter" is not a very tactful thing to say.

I hope you don't act like this on your job.

[Name removed]

61. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Alameda]

51. actually, HR does a lot more than that.

[Lisa0825]

58. I fill a lot of entry level positions....

CNAs, unit clerks, transporters, etc. Many of these folks have very little experience with computers. They may be great applicants wh just don't know how to present their best profile. So I talk to them, help flesh out their resumes, and walk them through any glitches with their online apps.

We even go to job fairs every month of the year, despite the fact that we get more applicants than we need already, just to meet the public and talk to them about how to get their best chance, what jobs they should apply for, etc. I gave out 250 business cards last year at job fairs. Few people bother to follow up, but I talk to each one who does.

We even take walk-ins when people drop by and ask for input. There is a LOT HR does aside from what some people assume.

[Luciferous]

4. Call me crazy, but I think interview questions should actually be

relevant to the job for which you are interviewing... but maybe that's why I'm still unemployed.

:)

[coalition_unwilling]

62. My favorite job interview question (and answer): Q; What kind of

birth control do you use?

A: What kind of birth control would the company like me to use?

Related to me by a female friend some years ago in Madison, Wisconsin.

[Brickbat]

5. These aren't hard questions, they're stupid questions meant to keep employees and potential

employees in line.

[greyl]

22. You're fired!

For example, to answer the apples and oranges question, choose a fruit from the box incorrectly labeled as apples & oranges.

[krispos42]

151. That assumes that there is 1 each of an "Apples", "Oranges", "Apples and Oranges" labels.

That wasn't in the question, though... for all we know they were labeled "Reduncible Spoons". :D

[Dulcinea]

102. This should be titled "15 Stupid Interview Questions."

Good thing no one asked me anything like that...I'd be tempted to say, "Who gives a shit?"

[Tesha]

128. The answer to your question is, of course, ...

"The people who, for some stupid reason, gave ten seconds
thought to hiring you. But since you obviously don't 'give a
shit', neither do we, so let's not waste any more of each other's
valuable time."

Tesha

[DireStrike]

131. That's a good answer, especially on the "wasting time" part.

You're really defending this type of interviewing tactic?

[Tesha]

134. Yes.

I want to work with creative people who aren't constrained
to thinking in an extremely linear, entirely predictable fashion.
Many of the real challenges we face require highly-imaginative,
creative solutions; there's no "textbook" answer yet because we
need you to *INVENT* the textbook answer.

If you've read my other replies in this thread, I don't
necessarily care about the exact content of your answers to
these "off-the-wall" questions but I want to see and understand
how you think about them.

And frankly, a lot of DUers clearly haven't got what it takes
(and prove this again and again on any thread that involves
any technical/scientific content).

Tesha

[NJCher]

150. I agree

I read these questions and thought they would not only be easy but fun to answer. I would have no problem with most of them. I especially liked the one about the pencil and the blender.


Cher

[Posteritatis]

8. "What is the philosophy of martial arts?" has to be the dumbest one on the list

That's not a "hard" question, it's one whose basic assumptions are too broken to really warrant any kind of response.

A good chunk of the rest look like attempts to ballpark figures on the fly based on what you know of the industry and the location. The Google one wouldn't even necessarily require a ballpark guess; if someone knew the room size reasonably well a standard Google employee could probably get that one pretty close in a few moments.

[hfojvt]

27. everybody knows that one anyway

strike hard, strike first, no mercy.

[TeeYiYi]

30. Wow. Glad I read your response...

I would have said "perseverance, self control, indomitable spirit"...

As always, more than one way to look at things. :)

TYY

[immoderate]

33. I would have said, "avoid conflict."

That's what a tai kwon do master told me.

--imm

[Alameda]

48. same thing my Aikido teacher taught us.

[mudplanet]

135. Same here. Your feet are you most powerful weapon - pick 'em up and put 'em down

as fast as you can.

[hfojvt]

67. mine is official though

it's from the movie "The Karate Kid"

of course, that was the philosphy of the evil sensei, I cannot remember what the good guy said except "wax on", and "wax off".

[immoderate]

136. "Focus! -- Daniel-san."

--imm

[demwing]

161. And I was thinking "Wax on, wax off..." /nt

Or maybe "Pick up the jacket, put it on, take it off, hang it up, throw it down. Pick up the jacket..."

[boppers]

85. Almost, you got the first and the second part mixed up.

That answer, BTW, would have gotten a big thumbs up from the product engineering department at my current gig, where the unofficial team name is "Cobra Kai".

[superduperfarleft]

100. "Sweep the leg!" n/t

[Tesha]

120. You get points for a "Karate Kid" reference. (NT)

[diane in sf]

76. depends if the basketballs are inflated or deflated...

[dbmk]

96. Theres a trap you would have to avoid in the bball question

Its a bit harder than simple stacking and a step beyond just dividing the measurements of the room and multiplying, seeing as you can stack them in a crystaline(?) structure.

Which I suspect would be the actual answer they would be looking for. Not the actual number.

[Statistical]

99. Bingo. We use questions like that in our interview process.

We are looking for logic skills. Of course my profession software development is basically "problem solving". Finding someone who can think logically and come up with a SOLUTION is more important than the answer.

Even if they gave an answer like say 4840 my next question would be how did you arrive at that.

[sylvi]

104. I would have given a Conan-like answer

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women."

LOL

[LiberalFighter]

10. How many of those ridiculously hard interview questions had legitimate answers?

The basketball question I would had asked with or without the box. The guessing the correct number in least tries should be able to figure out.

[greyl]

18. It's also about the reaction to the questions, patience with complexity, and

how they're thought through.

edit: like with the basketball question, it's about knowing what additional information/variable one would need to know to answer the question.

[bluestate10]

43. Exactly. nt.

[aePrime]

79. Guessing the correct number

You can guess the correct number in no more than 10 tries, if you do it correctly.

ceil(log2(1000))

It's a divide and conquer algorithm (binary search). Always guess the middle of the available range.

[AdHocSolver]

81. The question listed was poorly worded.

The original question was:

Facebook - Software Engineer position

“Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make.”

The MINIMUM number of guesses is ONE should you happen to guess correctly on the first try (unlikely, but possible). If you do a binary search, dividing the range of your guesses in half each time, then you should be able to determine the selected number in no more than ten guesses (2 to the 10th power is 1024).

Either the job seeker got the wording of the question wrong, or the interviewer didn't ask the question correctly. In either case, unlike the other examples, this is not a stupid question. A knowledgeable computer programmer would at least understand the relevance of the question.


I thought of a good answer to another stupid question, which would show insight by the job candidate to an astute interviewer, assuming the interviewer actually had this answer in mind.

Epic Systems - Project Manager position

“An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents, how much is a pear?”

A good answer by a person seeking this position would be that there is insufficient information and more research is needed.

The rest of the questions seem designed to merely rattle candidates who were already no longer being considered for these positions before the interviews were even completed.

[Madam Mossfern]

123. Actually, if it was an oral interview question...

the correct answer would be "two".

[aePrime]

126. I read the question

I am not sure why you are trying to correct me.

I answered the intended question, perhaps not the worded question. I would have done the same in the interview, even if I had noticed the odd wording. Confronting an interviewer over such minutia is usually not good job-seeking behavior.

I am a computer scientist; there is need to explain neither the math nor the algorithm to me, especially since I got the math correct in my initial post.

[petronius]

130. Never mind, read the wrong post...

Oops!

[namahage]

145. How is ensuring that you are giving the answer the interviewer is looking for,

rather than what you THINK they're looking for, confrontational or poor job-seeking behavior?

Of course, if you said something like "That's stupid, obviously the minimum is one, DUH" then I could see how that might limit your chances...

[Prometheus Bound]

11. Isn't the obvious answer "Ask for help"?

[Tesha]

21. No, although that may be a legitimate answer.

The likely-correct answer is that if square law and cube-law
are still operating, you can jump out of the blender (since you
now have proportionally more strength-to-weight by the same
ratio with which you were shrunk). Even if the top is on, a
few jumps might knock the top off.

Tesha

[TeeYiYi]

31. What if the blades were running?...

TYY :hi:

[bluestate10]

45. Great answer. I would not have arrived at that one. nt.

[krispos42]

153. I'd have used my pocket reduncible spoon

Which is as probable as a shrink ray.

[bluestate10]

44. No, that is the last answer a person should give. nt,

[Prometheus Bound]

115. No, depends on the interviewer.

If it is the CEO, for example, hiring you for a senior position, she may want to get to know you, beyond possibly prepared answers. So these unusual questions are just a way to get you talking, to find out how you think, to see if you will fit in. If she believes strongly in the importance of teamwork, for example, she may be interested in the fact that you aren't too proud to ask for help when things get difficult.

The point is, there is no right or wrong answer. But it does start a conversation and the interviewer may gradually get a feeling for your values, attitudes and intelligence, and most importantly, whether you will fit in.

Well, that's my opinion anyway.

[Tesha]

118. If you were interviewing with me, "Ask for help?" would be a fine first answer, but...

...I'd expect it to be quickly followed-up with some sort of
more-technical answer. And you'd get a lot of points if, in
between "Ask for help?" and the technical answer, you said
something like "And call Oprah's booking agent?"

That three part answer would show me that you have:

o (Part 1) A certain modesty about your abilities and
willingness to depend on the team around you and
call for their help when needed,

o (Part 2) A quick wit (with a good sense of self-deprecating
humor), and

o (Part 3) The ability to propose real solutions to challenging
problems.

In Part 3, I'd award more points for creativity and ability to
see the problem "as a whole" than for whether any given
solution was technically correct or not; we'd doubtless
discuss your various proposals at some length so I could
see if you could self-evaluate the pros and cons of each
proposal.

Frankly, all that would tell me a lot more about you than
a dry discussion of fully-abstract constructors and destruc-
tors
in C++ and whether you know every last rule about their
usage and implementation.

Tesha

[Hannah Bell]

65. I think the only dignified answer is the first poster's: "Fortunately, that's never happened in my

previous jobs."

and not likely to.

I'd sooner keep my dignity than answer stupid questions like that.

The first poster's answer mocks the question without being overt or rude about it.

and it deserves to be mocked, as do the interviewers who would ask such twaddle.

[Name removed]

90. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hannah Bell]

93. lol. it's an asshole question, devised by assholes. they deserve to be mocked.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

111. Hence, the defense thereof you see above. -nt

[petronius]

12. Some of those are kind of fun - and the basketballs, high/low guessing,

mixed fruits, and horse race questions might imply something about thinking styles.

I cracked up a bit at the 'making < $150k' question, when I saw it was a sales position I guessed that the answer they'd want is very different from mine...

[krispos42]

149. Inflated or flat?

Would have been my follow-up question. :-)

[Toucano]

14. I love the apple one.

“An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents, how much is a pear?”


Answer: A nickel.

[hootinholler]

25. I must be dense.

Why a nickle? I don't think there's enough information to give a real answer.

-Hoot

[Snotcicles]

34. The answer is one. Had they asked "a pair" it would have been two. nt.

[eppur_se_muova]

38. I would have said "two". :^D nt

[DireStrike]

132. Huh? A pair of apples costs 40 cents, oranges 80 cents, and grapefruit $1.20.

There's no other "smartass" way to answer that one, that I can see. I definitely don't see where a nickel comes from.

[niyad]

147. my immediate response: a pair of what???

[silverweb]

15. Idiotic.

Maybe this is their way of looking for "outside-the-box" thinkers?

I got asked in an interview years ago what I would do, step by step, if the building was on fire. I was applying for a data entry position, nothing related to management, security, or safety. I still don't know if they were looking for common sense or creativity, but fortunately ended up taking a different job.

[greyl]

17. Nicole Hardesty must be a bonehead. nt

[keroro gunsou]

19. ok so i'm the size of a pencil

has my overall mass and body strength been corespondingly adjusted downwards? if not, bust my way out. if so, ask for help.

[WillyT]

20. I Wanna Know Who Put My Pencil-Ass IN The Blender !!!

And WHY???

Talk about a hostile work environment!

:wtf:

:evilgrin:

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. 1) Place your hands against one side, and your feet against the other. 2) climb out.

Now, my question for you; Do you press charges?

In a prior life in geek world, I used to ask managerial applicants "Who's the best Star Trek captain, and more importantly, why?"

The solvable questions were easy. I can see the value of most of them in an interview. If the interviewer listens carefully they will obtain insights on how logical the applicant is and their perspectives on life.

I like "What's happened in the US in the last 10 years.", but if asked that question, I'd probably not be hired except by a liberal nonprofit.

[boppers]

86. We still use the Star Trek captain question.

:)

We generally hire Picards and Ciscos.

[Tesha]

121. The answer I'd offer is "In what situation?"

Clearly, each Star Trek Captain had their own strengths and weaknesses
and what you'd want is the best captain for the current situation.

Kirk: Bold, out-of-the-box action required
Spock: Logical reasoning to reach the solution
Sulu: Loyalty to associates
Pike: A binary answer to your question ;)
What's-his-name-from-the-planet-killer-episode? Can't think
of a use for him right now unless you need someone to run around
shouting "We're all gonna *DIE!!!!*.

Janeway: Independent resourcefullness and a "won't-quit" attitude

Cisco: (Didn't watch enough DS9 to really assess)

Picard: An overall well-balanced approach, a strong willingness to listen to
and act on the advice of his subordinates, an incredibly-strong team-builder
and negotiator. A great CEO?

What's-his-name from "Enterprise": Ehhh, didn't care much for him.

Tesha

[boppers]

143. A stellar answer to give!

It demonstrates knowledge and awareness of a variety of leadership *and* a decent amount of geek cred.

[Tesha]

156. "A stellar answer -- humour! -- Ahhh, Ahh, Ahhhhh!"

[Matariki]

122. I'd rather work for a company creative enough to come up with their own questions

instead of recycling these cliché, idiotic faux psychological interview questions.

[boppers]

142. We thought we had invented the question.

I'm guessing many others did, too.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

112. What about “Why do you think only a small percentage of the population makes over $150K?”

Crap, I'd be SO blacklisted it wouldn't even be funny.

[pipi_k]

26. So I'm the size of a pencil....since nobody said

I don't have arms, this is what I do...

I stand on the top of the blender blade with my arms outstretched and turned to maximize upward air lift...wait for the blender to be turned on, and then whirl out the top like a helicopter.

[anamandujano]

29. Be careful not to slip off the blade.

I thought of that one too but I think I either rock back and forth to try to knock it on its side or since the handle on mine is hollow, crawl in there and wait for the evil doer to open the top. As I always carry a pencil in my purse, I would then jab them in the eye and while they were screaming crawl to safety behind the pepper grinder.

[MH1]

40. great answer

:)

[NJCher]

152. you just woke up my cat!

...with the loud guffawing caused by your answer!


Cher

[Me.]

28. Drank?

"“How many bottles of beer are drank in the city over the week.”

[AsahinaKimi]

32. I caught that too...

Should be "drunk". And, how many traffic lights in Manhattan? Seriously, I don't live there, how the hell should I know? I have no clue how many are in San Francisco!

[immoderate]

35. They are looking for Fermi math.

Enrico Fermi had a theory that in any complex mathematical calculation, that broad assumptions and round numbers would converge on the right answer because if you compile enough errors, they cancel each other out. It really works.

I gave my math students a question: How many movie theaters are there in the US? Each one of them chose a different reasoning. Almost all of them arrived at the same answer. It is truly amazing.

--imm

[bluestate10]

49. If time efficiency is paramount, the Fermi method is not plausible.

Most sane people can arrive at a "right" answer if they guess enough time and error track. But if the goal is to make a time efficient determination whether something is possible within a given span of time or condition, guessing is not a good method.

[immoderate]

63. Fermi was pretty fast.

It was either Richard Feynman or Arno Penzias who describes Fermi at the first atomic test. He dropped bits of confetti and calculated from their angle of deflection, if the device delivered the projected amount of energy. To Fermi, all numbers had a one and optional zeros.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean. Guessing requires feedback to be useful. What are you left with?

--imm

[bluestate10]

72. Getting an answer right via guessing does require feedback.

And tracking of guesses so that the same wrong guess can't be made twice. The issue that I have with the method is time consuming for complex problems, although I admit that determining the sequence of events that have to take place for a nuclear explosion to happen is as complex a problem as there is.

[Hippo_Tron]

168. Is the answer about 3000?

That's what I read when I Googled it and actually did get that answer with one method. My city has roughly 500,000 people and roughly 5 movie theaters depending on how you define the city vs the greater metro area. So if you assume one theater for every 100,000 people is standard, you get 500,000.

But honestly I've been conditioned not to solve problems in this manner. The thing I remember learning in school from these types of problems is to never assume that just because your city has one theater per hundred thousand people that the rest of the country has a theater per every hundred thousand people.

[Me.]

56. Some Info

Q: How many traffic signals are there in New York City?
A: As of January 2006, there were 11,871 signalized intersections Citywide, including 2,795 in Manhattan, 4,100 in Brooklyn, 2,942 in Queens, 1,536 in the Bronx, and 500 in Staten Island.

[krispos42]

154. And how many per intersection?

Gotcha! :D

[Recovered Repug]

139. For the traffic lights question,

I would have answered three - red, yellow and green. Those are the only lights - just repeated a bunch of times. My guess is it's to demonstrate if the person over thinks the problem.

[Retrograde]

80. One question I always asked candidates:

How many barbers are there in the US? I don't know (and don't really care) but the answers gave me some idea of how the person went about solving problems. Among the approaches:
--"Do hair stylists and salons count as well?"
--"Since barbers are licensed, call the license boards and ask them how many"
--"There are X in this town of whatever population, so scaling up to the whole country"
--"Assume half the population is male, and half of them see a barber once a month, then we'd need X people to provide services"
--"That's a stupid question"

[gkhouston]

36. "Is that your company's usual process for downsizing its workforce"? n/t

[DaveinJapan]

37. Blender Answer: First I'd Avada Kedavra the motherfucker who done it to me

then I'd simply disparate, unless the blender was under an anti-disapparation charm in which case I'd turn the blade mechanism into a port key and go back to Hogwarts.

Then I'd ask the interviewer if they had any more stupid questions.

[eridani]

94. If they are looking for creative people, then you just got hired n/t

[Tesha]

117. The first part of your answer would win you points with me.

The second part of your answer would end your chances with me.

I'd consider the interview (and that question) a success in that it
helped successfully separate the wheat from the chaff.

Tesha

[demwing]

163. You do realize, don't you?

That your name appears three times in each of your posts? (Posted by Tesha, signed by Tesha, sig line by Tesha)

My interview question for you: "Why do you feel the need to repeat your name on DU?"

[Tesha]

165. I do it just so you have to suffer. (NT)

[demwing]

169. Oh! Too bad then, as you've failed in both your interview, and your goal

I was hoping for a snappy answer, full of wit...

[Tesha]

170. Life is like that sometimes... (NT)

[demwing]

171. Funny, you don't seem to like the attention turned back on you...

why is that Tesha, Tesha, Tesha?

[bluestate10]

41. The questions test two features that an employer wants in top flight

employees. The first is reasoning ability, ie, how does a person when given some information determine whether there is enough information to draw a conclusion and how does the person go about arriving at the conclusion. The second type of question tests a person's ability to understand that given the amount of information given, an answer to a question can't be arrived at, ie, does a person admit that the question can't be answered or do they bullshit around and waste time. Depending upon the job, how a person handle the question is paramount to determining whether that person is a suitable hire.

BTW. The Goldman Sachs question can be answered, but a suitable hire would work to establish other conditions that exist within the blender as well as get information about the blender. For instance, if a person is shrank to the size of a pencil and put in a deep, empty blender that has smooth walls, that person is in deep dodo. But if the person is put in a blender that is filled with liquid, swimming to the top becomes possible, if put in a blender with solids in it, a base for getting to the top edge of the blender could exist.

[Alameda]

53. hmmm....and just how would the pencil do that? No arms, no legs,

can't bend....? Just curious. I think it's a stupid question.

[Mariana]

57. The question has the person shrunk to the SIZE of a pencil

not turned into one.

[Still a Democrat]

42. “Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses ...

“Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make.”

Answer: One

Note: "minimum" numbers guesses

[bluestate10]

52. Yes, one can guess the right number of the first try.

But, the maximum number of guesses depend upon the person guessing and how organized and rational that person is.

[toddaa]

71. It's a Software Engineering job asking a simple Binary Search question

O(log N)

[Statistical]

140. that isn't minimum that is the maximum.

I am not sure if the question as listed is a typo or they were being meta-clever.

[Lucky Luciano]

107. They most likely mean the minimum number of guesses required

so that you get the correct answer with probability 1.

[Still a Democrat]

46. The horse racing question seems awfully complex

Assuming no timekeeping and just comparative races, that could get hairy.

[bluestate10]

54. That is why.

A desirable hire would ask more questions to establish the constraints under which an answer is arrived at. Randomly assuming could lead one far afield.

[Tess49]

75. Without timekeeping, it would be 6 races. Five races with 5 horses

in each race. Put the winner of each of the five races in a final 6th race to get the top three.

[namahage]

88. Nope.

What if the three fastest horses in the group of 25 all raced each other in race #1? How would only racing the #1 horse allow you to find the next two fastest (which, apparently, you just eliminated)?

You are, however, pretty close. You do indeed need to have 5 races each with 5 different horses, and then race the winners against each other in race #6. The question is how many MORE races do you need?

[dbmk]

92. Actually more than that

Its a pretty good question for the position. It is very far from ridiculous.

Because it will take more than 6 races. Assuming that there would be no timekeeping (seeing as that would make the separations into smaller raes irrellevant): What if the fastest 3 horses is in your first race?

If you only picked the winner in each race, you could potentially weed out the 2nd and 3rd fastest.

Its a pretty good test of systematic thinking and avoiding "quick logic" traps.

So 5 races of 5 horses. Keep top three in each. Then you race the no 1s against each other. You can then ignore all the horses from from the original races of the two slowest horses there. And you now know the fastest horse and can weed out no 3 from all but that horses race. And you can take out no 2 from the 3rd fastest no 1's race as well.

So you are left with 1,2,3 from one race, 1 and 2 from another and 1 from the third. 6 horses. And you know the fastest horse - so you race the 5 others to find 2 and 3.

7 races in total.

[Art_from_Ark]

97. 5 races would do it

Just time all the horses in each race, and take the three top times (assuming that the horses all ran the same distance in each race, on the same track)

[Statistical]

141. Most likely the exact question was without timing (comparative only).

Thus in each race you know the order of the horses but not exact time.

Got an answer for that one?

[demwing]

164. I think just the opposite

25 horses, only 5 per race = 5 races.

Time each horse in their respective race, sort all by lowest time, take the lowest three times, there's your fastest three horses.

[Still a Democrat]

47. What the heck is the answer to the boxes of fruit question?

:wtf:

[bluestate10]

55. One would need to establish more parameters.

For example, can you use sense of smell, or sense of feel? A questioner is looking more for how a person being interviewed establishes a base for answering the question than any thing else.

[Telly Savalas]

64. No. Simply label all 3 boxes "fruit".

They'd be correctly labeled. The question didn't establish the level of specificity the labels must have.

[greyl]

69. First choose a fruit from the box incorrectly labeled as apples & oranges.

Easy as pie after that.

[ManiacJoe]

70. Since you know all boxes are wrongly labeled,

pick from the box labeled "mixed". Since you know it is not mixed and now know which single fruit is in it, the other two boxes can be determined based on what they cannot contain due to the wrong labels.

[Capitalocracy]

78. Simple elimination

In more detail, if the box labeled mixed has an apple, the box labeled orange has mixed and the box labeled apple has oranges. If the box labeled mixed has an orange, the box labeled apple has mixed and the box labeled orange has apples.

So I guess that's one hurdle I can clear to work for Apple. Now all I need is several years of education I can't afford and relevant experience :(

[FreeState]

82. Nope - you can't look in the box so you have no idea if it's a box of both or one

The answer is always apples and pears - thats whats in the other two boxes. It's impossible to answer what fruit is in each box without looking in the box or being given more information.

[Capitalocracy]

83. That's why you take a fruit from the box labeled mixed

If all boxes are mislabeled, the box labeled mixed can't have both. So you pull a fruit from that box, and as I posted above, you can determine what's in the other boxes, because that box can only have one type of fruit.

[namahage]

89. If, of course, the boxes were conveniently labeled

"apples", "oranges", and "mixed", and not all labeled "pears" or something equally wrong.

Problem is that all we are told here is that the labels misrepresent the actual contents of the boxes. That doesn't necessarily mean that each of the three labels correctly correspond to one of the boxes.

I'd imagine getting that part cleared up first, as well as what constitutes "correct" labeling (as one poster mentioned, labeling them all "fruit" would be technically correct labeling), might be necessary.

[Dead_Parrot]

91. Indeed.

If the three boxes are incorrectly labelled "Cheeseburgers", "Sweet and Sour Pork" and "Pizza", and you reach in a find an orange, the only thing you can be certain of is that you're in the wrong restaurant.

[Spirochete]

105. But you can't. can you?

Of the two boxes left - one marked "apples" and the other marked "oranges", one will contain the mixed fruit, and you don't know which one...

[namahage]

106. If the three boxes are labeled "apples,""oranges," and "mixed",

and each box is labeled incorrectly, then yes, you can do it by pulling only one fruit from the "mixed" box.

Say you pull an apple. Since obviously the box is not mixed (the box is labeled wrong) and not oranges (you just pulled an apple), the box labeled "mixed" contains apples.

You now have two boxes labeled "apples" and "oranges" unaccounted for. You also know that you need to find out which box contains oranges and which is mixed (since you just found the apple box).

Which box, then, are the oranges in--the one labeled "apples" or the one labeled "oranges," if we know that the label on the box is wrong?

So now we know that the apples are in the "mixed" box, and the oranges are in the "apples" box, and we can conclude that the one remaining box (labeled "oranges") contains the mix.

Obviously, the analysis is similar if you pull an orange.

[Still a Democrat]

113. So it is possible

Thanks for getting me up to speed!

[fishwax]

124. well, that works if there actually is a box labeled "mixed"

we know the boxes are wrongly labeled, but we don't know what the labels are. If the labels are "apples," "oranges," and "mixed" then that solution works, though ...

[Madam Mossfern]

125. I would say

"apples and/or oranges"
Why are we labeling the box anyway, and why can't we look?

[lonestarnot]

50. Now if you were a pencil you'd want to be sharp, so maybe you wouldn't want out. You may just want

to position yourself for sharpening. :shrug:

[Zanzobar]

66. I hope I would say something like...

Wow! For the first time I have a bona fide woody!

[Lady President]

68. Which state would you kick out?

These are real questions one of the managers on my floor asks:

1. If you had to kick out one state in the U.S. which would it be?

2. What kind of dog best represents you?

3. How many gallons of paint can you fit in a standard 2-car garage?

These are questions for a purchasing job. I would leave the interview. I would figure it was a sign that I would not mesh well with the boss. The manager thinks it's hilarious to watch the people squirm.

[bluestate10]

73. The last two questions are reasonable, the first not.

The type of dog that you envision you resemble would tell me a lot about your level of determination and fearlessness. The paint question would give me insight into how you reason through problems. The state question is political, depending on a person's political bent, any given state can be chosen with reasons why it should be thrown out.

[Canuckistanian]

74. The basketball question is relevant, I think

How fast can you make an off-the-cuff estimate simply by knowing an approximate appraisal of the size of the room (by looking) and the size of a basketball (needing just under a cubic foot of space).

Respondents could be judged on how close they could get to the REAL answer.

Mind you, I don't think many People Analysts at Google would use physical dimensions in their job very often.

[boppers]

84. You wouldn't have gotten the job.

A basketball is only a cubic foot when it's in a cubic box. Take away the box, and they can be more tightly packed as spheres.....

Oh, and if you deflate the basketballs first, you've reduced the volume needed to maybe a tenth, and you can pack them much tighter.

They're also referencing a rather geeky joke, to see if you're cultural match (and if you know the joke)...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow

[Tesha]

129. So one answer (for your *FIRST* approximation) is...

..."Assume a cubical basketball".

Tesha

[begin_within]

77. If I was desperate enough to consider working for Goldman Sachs, I'd just let the blender run.

[RandomThoughts]

87. Fun survey, although not applying for a job, they can send me a box of cash if they want.

I don't worry about the label, but it should be correctly filled.


“If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?”
The blender blades when hitting the pencil representation of me would shatter the blender.

“What is the philosophy of Martial Arts?”
Inner peace.

“Explain to me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years.”
They took my beer and travel money, and many experiences.

“Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are.”
Relative to what?

“How many basketballs can you fit in this room”
As many as needed, or as many as I want to.

“Out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?”
Let the accountant do that one.

“Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make.”
Depends on the person that is thinking of the number. Seems they got that backwards, the minimum would be 0, in temporal sequence -1 if you give them the number to ask you in advance.

“An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents, how much is a pear?”
More then I got, but not more then I can afford.



“There are three boxes, one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. The boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of the box it labels. Opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. By looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly?”

LOL, zinger on Goldmans In that question, if I don't see whats in the box, why would it matter the label. Also about concepts in some businesses. If you don't see it wrong, it is not wrong. Lack of concept of absolute right or wrong.

“How many traffic lights in Manhattan?”
depends how fast I want to go.

“What do wood and alcohol have in common?”
irrelevant question, look at the guy that needs some help.

“Why do you think only a small percentage of the population makes over $150K?”
Depends on your view, most in their group would say that they know how to use it best, others would say because they want to make the money, and put effort in, it happens. Because only a few know there are no limits if you put your mind to it, stuff like that, it is true in a way, but the real question is why a money centric question?

“How many bottles of beer are drank in the city over the week.”
Between 4 and 20 less then should be drank.

“How are M&M's made?”
Not enough info to make that question relevant.

“What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle?"
Have a pizza.

[Warren DeMontague]

95. Here's what I would say: "Wow! What a coincidence! My deepest erotic fantasy

is to be shrunk to the size of a pencil, and put in a blender...

get out? ...Good God, Man!!! How do I get IN?"

[-..__...]

98. "What is best in life"?

Employers have always asked the difficult questions... even thousands of years ago...

[Silent3]

101. SIZE OF a pencil, not turned into a pencil!

Reading over this thread, and responses over at HuffPo, it's amazing how many people quickly blur the idea of being the size of a pencil into the idea of being a pencil itself.

I have to interview people now and again at work. I'm probably not a great interviewer because I prefer to be friendly rather than aggressively seeking to find people's weaknesses. I often think a candidate did well with me, but then I compare notes with someone else who interviewed the same person, and they'll have a laundry list of shortcomings I never spotted.

That said, I'd have to say that IF I ever did ask this kind of annoying interview question, and the first thing the candidate did was confuse being the size of a pencil with being a pencil itself, that alone wouldn't decide the interview for me, but it would be a strike against the candidate for very sloppy thinking.

[tabasco]

103. My density would be much higher if I were the size of a pencil.

I would push on the side of the blender and tip it over to escape.

DO I GET THE JOB CLEANING SHITTERS?

[Buns_of_Fire]

108. Questions intended to determine if you can "think outside the box" are fine and dandy...

...until you start thinking outside the interviewer's box. At that point, things go downhill pretty quickly.

My first question would be, "How much of a kickback are you willing to give me for hiring you?" There. Short, simple, to the point. The American Way.

My, my. And to think American universities award degrees for this type of stuff. Explains a lot. The paradigms shifted and I was reactive when I should have been proactive, prohibiting me from maximizing my potential and realizing the optimal benefits to be derived from the situation. So to speak.

I shoulda known that dishwashing job was a reach too far.:shrug:

[Warren DeMontague]

109. Isn't being shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender kind of a metaphor

for the corporate experience, in the first place? :shrug:

[anamandujano]

110. for the win

Although it would be fun to see the confused looks on their face, if you really wanted the job you'd go to plan b. I'm sure you have a good one.

[kgnu_fan]

114. Twisted questions for Twisted people, they all deserve stupid torturous questions

[Cleita]

116. I have had some really stupid questions asked of

me in job interviews. At times I could barely contain myself from laughing in the interviewer's face, however, I don't think I could do it with those questions. I would tell them how stupid I thought they were and how inappropriate for assessing a person's job skills, education and rightness for the job at hand. I would also ask them to stop insulting me with such nonsense.

[Tesha]

119. Laughing at my question would be fine.

Who knows, maybe I think it's a funny/ridiculous/absurd
proposal as well.

*HOWEVER*, telling me it was a stupid question or *RUDELY*
telling me how inappropriate it is for assessing your obviously-
superior skills would cause me to instantly flip my mental switch
from "possible hire" to "what an *******" and we would spend the
rest of the interview asking you increasingly-harder technical
questions that would allow me to easily-justify black-balling
you at the interview review meeting.

(Note that I've left open the possibility that you could tell me
*POLITELY* that you think my question is inappropriate for
assessing your skills. In that case, what I'd be looking for is
a well-reasoned argument and that would win you points.
But please be certain that I don't get the impression that
you're simply "dodging" the question.)

Most of the extended interviews I've participated in (as either an
interviewer or the interviewee) have also included a segment called
"lunch". One of the reasons for that segment is to assess whether
or not the candidate is a well-balanced person or some sort of
malevolent *******. And yes, I've known people to "fail lunch".

Tesha

[Cleita]

127. I'm never rude but I do speak my mind.

Frankly, by the time I get to that point, I'm in a frame of mind that I don't care if you offer me a job or not because I'm having my doubts as to whether I want to work for a company that allows such nonsense from people in charge and who would be in charge of me.

[DireStrike]

133. Ah, ok then. That's reasonable.

Obviously it's never a good thing to yell at or ridicule the interviewer, regardless of how stupid the question is.

I don't know a lot of high level interviewers, but I suspect you might be alone in highly rating an applicant who got into a discussion about the merits of the question.

[RobinA]

144. I'm Fairly Sure

that by the time the person got rude, he/she would have flipped HER mental switch from "I might want this job" to "How soon can I get outta here, I'm not working with these toxic jerks." I've had several interviewers fail the interview myself. One was particularly nasty, but ended up offering me the job. Not for a million dollars.

[Tesha]

158. That's an important point!

The candidate is interviewing the company (and, especially, the
"hiring manager") as well. It's well within your rights to draw
conclusions as well from how the interview is conducted. There
have been times I wish I, as a candidate, had been paying more
attention to those clues myself.

Tesha

[Locrian]

137. basketballs in a room

inflated or de-flated?

[Tesha]

138. That would be a fine question to ask. (NT)

[niyad]

146. my response: "goodness, I didn't realize management issued hallucinogenics to the staff"

[jmowreader]

148. I think I've told this one before, but it's good anyway...

We had to guard our airfield at Fort Hood, and every night a different 12 people were chosen to do it. They actually picked 13 names and we competed to be "supernumerary." The Supernumerary got to go home instead of walking guard, and he got the next day off too. The competition was an inspection. The Officer of the Day would look at everyone and ask questions. One day the OD was one of our pilots. Great guy. Anyway, he asked each soldier two questions we could answer, and one we couldn't: "How many parts are in a Mohawk?"

This is a Mohawk...



Naturally, none of us were airplane mechanics so none of us actually knew how many parts are in a Mohawk. One guy said "a lot," one said "a million," I said "as many as it needs," and so on. Then we got to the last guy, who'd been in the unit all week and didn't know what a Mohawk was. He thought it was this...



and, quite correctly, said "Sir, you don't part a Mohawk."

He wasn't the supernumerary.

[krispos42]

155. Assuming that my molecules shrunk... choke to death rather quickly.

I don't think my tiny avioli in my lungs could deal with oxygen molecules suddenly 10x their regular sizes. And if my lungs could... my red blood cells certainly couldn't.


That scene in "Inner Space" nonwithstanding.

[Tesha]

157. Full marks! An interesting approach to the hypothetical!

And extra credit for knowing the plural word "alveoli"!

Tesha

[Vinca]

159. I would bang my head against the side of the blender,

inform everyone I was a bankster and demand to be let out and paid richly for the inconvenience.

[muriel_volestrangler]

160. Sad that Huffington Post thinks some of those questions are 'ridiculously hard'

or off-topic. The ones for the software positions are very much on-topic (might be tricky to do the horse race one in your head, but they may just be looking for how well you can explain your approach out loud), and many others are reasonable questions to hear someone talk on, even if there isn't a 'right' answer. "Explain what happened in this country over the past 10 years" looks like a political minefield, though - it comes off as "can you hide your political opinions enough to be able to fit in here?"

[Tesha]

162. That might be exactly why it would be asked!

> it comes off as "can you hide your political opinions enough to
> be able to fit in here?"

That might be exactly why it would be asked! Perhaps the interviewer
knows that you'll have to work with Sam the Tea-Partier and your
skills at navigating this sort of topic will be important to your
success! ;)

Or maybe the question is trying to suss out just how big a "system"
you can think about?

Tesha

[jmowreader]

166. The pencil/blender one is too easy

A standard number-two pencil is a little over 7 inches long.

A standard blender jar is about 9 inches high.

If I were shrunk to 7 inches tall and put in a 9-inch blender jar, I could stand on the blades, reach up and push the lid off, then jump up, grab the rim and pull myself out of the blender.

My favorite is the one that asks on a scale of 1-10 how weird you are.

[upi402]

167. I pray to CheezaChryyyssss!

and pop a Bob Dole Viagra, elongating the lead in my pencil enough to hop right out! Yay boner from Bob Dole!