February 24, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Odd Questions
February 25, 2011 at 12:02 am
I've seen that list of question before, and there are sure some legitimate ones in there, as they are just math quizzes in disguise.
For example:
“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?”
--> math. (But I would ask a question back: minimum number of races to do what? As it is not stated what is required.)
“You have a birthday cake and have exactly 3 slices to cut it into 8 equal pieces. How do you do it?”
--> math
“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.”
--> basic math and algorithms
“If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?”
--> math
“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?”
--> this is a rather well-know riddle. It can test your ability to think about complex puzzles.
“You are in a dark room with no light. You need matching socks for your interview and you have 19 gray socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair? “
--> basic statistics
And I could go on. There are some very well known riddles in there.
On the other hand, there are some real weird questions in there. 😀
However, some of them can be used for psychological profiling (such as the superhero question and the "scale of weirdness").
I think the most "stupid/oddball" ones are for testing the reaction of the candidate.
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP
February 25, 2011 at 5:58 am
Circuit City - No longer exists. Interview for a developer position.
First mgr asked.......
If you were a color, what color would you be?
Another mgr asked......
If you were an operating system, what operating system would you be?
M
February 25, 2011 at 6:26 am
Motorola, back in the 90's. Interviewer asked: How many ping pong balls can you fit inside a 747. They weren't interested in the accuracy of the answer as much as they were interested in the methodology used to get to an answer...
February 25, 2011 at 7:23 am
I used to conduct some interviews, probably 2 of the weirdest questions we asked were
"If you could be any fish/animal what would you be and why?"
We also used to ask promising candidates
"How many piano tuners are there in city X?"
February 25, 2011 at 7:29 am
Once I received a survey and one of the questions was, "If you were a tree, what kind would you be?" Offended by this stupid question I replied, "The one over your grave."
But one place I was interviewed by a non-technical HR person who fixated on "How many Z-80 programs have you written?" I had just come off of a nine month project written in Z-80 assembler where I had written graphics routines, real-time controls, and a multi-byte integer multiply & divide package. So I tried to explain while my answer was "1", it was a massive project that required multiple disciplines to finish. "But how many Z-80 programs have you written?"
As I left the interview, I saw a former colleague in the waiting room. I knew he was going to answer "hundreds," even though from personal experience with his work I knew none of them were more than 50 instructions long. I figured he'd get the job.
February 25, 2011 at 7:31 am
When I get questions that are not related to an interview, I ask what their point is, and if I don't get a good answer, I walk out of the interview. This has happened twice to me. I am not interested in working for a company that doesn't focus directly on who I am and what I can do for them.
Brad M. McGehee
DBA
February 25, 2011 at 7:38 am
I was once asked what I saw myself doing in 5 years. I answered basically "working here at this company in the job you are interviewing me for." The interviewer refused several times to accept that answer (which was true) and so I made up something else. She then proceeded to ask why i wasn't pursuing that job instead of the one I was interviewing for.
The three biggest mistakes in life...thinking that power = freedom, sex = love, and data = information.
February 25, 2011 at 7:40 am
mike.styers (2/25/2011)
Circuit City - No longer exists. Interview for a developer position.First mgr asked.......
If you were a color, what color would you be?
Another mgr asked......
If you were an operating system, what operating system would you be?
M
Like you said, Circuit City no longer exists.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
February 25, 2011 at 8:00 am
Odd Interview question from glassdoor.com: 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?
When you are dealing with a strange question whether in an interview on a certification exam like CISSP, you should step back and try to figure out the reason why the question is being asked - what is it they are really testing? Here, I think they are looking for a demo of your problem solving techniques. Most companies today want innovative thinkers who can work "outside the box ("OTB"). Wacky questions by their very nature are OTB.
STEP 1 = DON'T PANIC Remember it is your approach rather than the right answer that is usually important. If it's a math problem and you're bad at math, you can still demo good problem solving techniques. Don’t try to do it in your head – explain the steps as you go through them. Show them that the unexpected doesn't throw you. It’s a game – play with it.
STEP 2 = Acknowledge the box. Examine and state your assumptions. Rushing immediately toward a solution without inspecting the terrain may keep you in “the box” and drive you to the wrong place. For this problem you might say “The question is vague on details. If I had enough people with enough stopwatches I could time each horse in each race and the situation would be simple. But to make it more challenging let’s assume that the only way to judge speed is to observe the winners of each race. Let’s also assume that the horses don’t get tired, never stumble and always run their best in every race.”
STEP 3 = Turn it upside down. Most brain teasers work by misdirection. By asking you to focus on the winners the problem looks like matching the best 3 from one race against the best 3 from another – but you can’t put these 6 horses head-to-head in a single race. However, if you restate the problem as “How do I eliminate the losers?”, it becomes much easier. In order pick the top 3 out of 25, I must get rid of 22. If I drop 2 per race, I need 11 races.
STEP 4 – Build a simpler model. If STEP 3 didn’t do it, try to come up with an easier problem that is similar to the one they gave you. Math problems with big numbers are vulnerable to this technique. If the problem is to guess a number from 1 to 1000, try with a smaller odd-to-even range like 1 to 6. Develop a strategy for the easy case and see if it scales up to the original.
February 25, 2011 at 8:20 am
When I'm participating in candidate interviews, I will ask more general questions where I'm not looking for a specific canned answer but instead trying to guage the depth of their experience and problem solving skills. However, my questions are still directly related to the job they're applying for. For example, their response to any of the following questions may result in a discussion that goes on for five minutes or half and hour.
Tell me about a performance related problem you've recently encountered and how you resolved it.
Describe a data model that you designed in the past.
Describe a solution you implemented that involved declaring a cursor and scrolling though a resultset.
What's the difference between a primary key, a natural key, a surrogate key, and an indentity column?
What sources of information related to database development or troubleshooting so you turn to on a regular basis?
What aspects of your last job were the most challenging?
What do you dislike about your last job?
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
February 25, 2011 at 8:30 am
Koen Verbeeck (2/25/2011)
I've seen that list of question before, and there are sure some legitimate ones in there, as they are just math quizzes in disguise.For example:
“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?”
--> math. (But I would ask a question back: minimum number of races to do what? As it is not stated what is required.)
“You have a birthday cake and have exactly 3 slices to cut it into 8 equal pieces. How do you do it?”
--> math
“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.”
--> basic math and algorithms
“If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?”
--> math
“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?”
--> this is a rather well-know riddle. It can test your ability to think about complex puzzles.
“You are in a dark room with no light. You need matching socks for your interview and you have 19 gray socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair? “
--> basic statistics
And I could go on. There are some very well known riddles in there.
On the other hand, there are some real weird questions in there. 😀
However, some of them can be used for psychological profiling (such as the superhero question and the "scale of weirdness").
I think the most "stupid/oddball" ones are for testing the reaction of the candidate.
Koen Verbeeck (2/25/2011)
I've seen that list of question before, and there are sure some legitimate ones in there, as they are just math quizzes in disguise.For example:
“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?”
--> math. (But I would ask a question back: minimum number of races to do what? As it is not stated what is required.)
“You have a birthday cake and have exactly 3 slices to cut it into 8 equal pieces. How do you do it?”
--> math
“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.”
--> basic math and algorithms
“If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?”
--> math
“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?”
--> this is a rather well-know riddle. It can test your ability to think about complex puzzles.
“You are in a dark room with no light. You need matching socks for your interview and you have 19 gray socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair? “
--> basic statistics
And I could go on. There are some very well known riddles in there.
On the other hand, there are some real weird questions in there. 😀
However, some of them can be used for psychological profiling (such as the superhero question and the "scale of weirdness").
I think the most "stupid/oddball" ones are for testing the reaction of the candidate.
I was actually given a test of about 50 such questions for one interview. I told the HR person that I'd first like to meet the person who I'd be working for if I were hired. I made a deal... I said I'd take the test if they could solve the following puzzle...
You're locked in a cell with a steel floor. At the center of the room is a pipe with massively thick walls securely welded to the floor all the way around and that's the only noticable thing there is in the cell. The only light is coming in through the bars. Inside the pipe and just out of reach of your fingers is a ping-pong ball and the hole in the pipe is just barely large enough to let the ping-pong ball in. You're given a piece of 1/4" thick 1" long piece of double braided rope and told that the ping-pong ball is attached to the key to get out and that if you can retrieve the key, you can let yourself out of the cell. How do you retrieve the key and how long will it take?
Neither the HR person nore the person I'd be working for could answer the questions in the 70 seconds I gave them (which is about how long you have to answer each question of a 50 question test in an hour). I told them both "Thank you very much" and that I didn't want to work for a company that would expect employees to pass a test when its managment couldn't answer such a simple pair of questions and left (at the time, I really needed a job, too!).
If you're a manager, make sure the test matches the job you actually want the person to do. A 50 question math test will help you find a person with very good math skills and, although math certainly does come into play, it won't necessarily help you find a good developer or DBA... at least not one with some common sense and experience.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
February 25, 2011 at 8:33 am
The strangest interview question I was ever asked was: Why do think there is such a big homeless problem in the US?
I don't remember my answer because it was so spontaneous, but they liked it. I got a job there.
February 25, 2011 at 8:42 am
A standard question for security clearance is
"Are you or have you ever been a terrorist?"
As if anyone is going to answer Yes! 😀
February 25, 2011 at 8:48 am
I'd say most of those questions are less about thinking logically and more about stress response.
During an interview with a Sprint VP I was asked the "where do you see yourself in five years" question and I responded that I didn't have a clue, that five years ago I couldn't have forseen where I was at the moment, but, wherever I wound up, I needed to be challenged, be learning something new, and have the opportunity to share that knowledge with others. He had never heard that kind of response and was impressed. I got the job!
At Harley-Davidson, we asked all candidates "If you were driving your car at the speed of light and you turned your headlights on, what would happen?" Stupid question and we almost always immediately gave some lame comment and went on with the interview.
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 136 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply