My Critical Answers Versus Weird Job Interview Questions in 2010

In this post, I am going to share my answer toward the so-called "Weird Job Interview Questions in 2010". These questions are directly taken from other website* without modified. Some questions are not answered in this post since they can be found in the book entitled "How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers". Nevertheless, based on my personal limited knowledge, I have answered nine questions as follow:

1. "How many basketball[s] can you fit in this room?"
- Asked for a people analyst position at Google
My Answer: One, because one basketball is enough for 10 people to play and a room, typically, smaller than a basketball game field.

2. "Given the numbers 1 to 1,000, what is the minimum number of guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint 'higher' or 'lower' for each guess you make."
- Asked for a software engineer position at Facebook
My Answer: The MINIMUM number of guesses, of course, is ONE.

3. "If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?"
- Asked for a manager position at Amazon.com
My Answer: 5622 games. Let the first one to fight with the 2nd one. The winner fights with the 3rd player. The winner fights with the 4th player, and so on.

4. "If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?"
- Asked for an analyst position at Goldman Sachs
My Answer: I will just tell the person who put me in the blender very politely that: "Hey, guy. You should take a video of me and then upload it to Youtube now!!". Guess what, supposedly, I will be taken out from the blender automatically and become the next super star.

5. "How many ridges [are there] around a quarter?"
- Asked for a project analyst position at Deloitte
My Answer: I have no idea about this question. However, based on internet sources, the answer should be 119.
(Source:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110107072919AANThzc
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/87412)

6. "Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are."
- Asked for an operation analyst position at Capital One
My Answer: Supposedly, the answer is 10. Because I am trying to figure an answer for this kind of question.

7. "If you could be any superhero, who would it be?"
- Asked for a customer sales representative position at AT&T
My Answer: Superhero? In fact, I believe everyone is a superhero. So, I just want to be myself.

8. "How do you weigh an elephant without using a weight machine?"
- Asked for a software engineer position at IBM
My Answer: In fact, this question is quite similar to a question I heard from the China history. The idea is using the Archimede's principle, that is, put the elephant on a boat or ship. Then, mark the level of the water. Lastly, ask your friends go on the boat one after another until the mark is reached the surface of the water. The total weight of the friends on the boast is equal to the elephant. 

9. "Out of 25 horses, pick the 3 fastest horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?"
- Asked for a software developer position at Bloomberg LP Financial
My Answer: I think the answer should be just 5 races. Just record the time of each horses in all 5 races. Then we would supposedly be able to know the 3 fastest horses based on the recorded time.

That's all for today. More fascinating articles and sharing will be updated from time to time in Xaivier Blog. So, you are welcome to subscribe our feed, look at our sitemap or simply visit our Homepage.

Answered by: Xaivier Chia

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Note:
*These questions are directly taken from
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/Google-Facebook-IBM-and-Others-Weird-Job-Interview-Questions-in-2010-612784/?kc=EWKNLEDP01052011A

Creative Thinking: Test Yourself with Tough Interview question (mathematic 2)

You are given one 3 litre container and one 5 litre container.

This is one of the tough interview questions which I have found. It will basically test your logic thinking and lateral thinking skills via mathematic approach. The question is:

How to use this two containers to measure 4 litre water accurately and what is it minimum step to achieve it.

Note: There is no any label on the container and it is impossible for you to obtain 1.5 litre water in half full 3 litre container. It is because all of them are in strange shape.

ANSWER:

3 steps only.

1. Fill-in 3 litre container full then drop this 3 litre water in the 5 litre container.

2. Repeat it but there will remain exactly 1 litre water in the 3 litre container when the 5 litre container is full.

3. Empty the 5 litre container and drop the remainder 1 litre into it follow by 1 full 3 litre water.

Creative Thinking: Test Yourself with Tough Interview question (mathematic)

This is one of the tough interview questions which I have found. It will basically test your logic thinking and lateral thinking skills via mathematic approach. The question is:

If you got 8 balls, one of them has 9.8g and the remainders are 10g,

You are given one balance. What is the minimum try needed for you to find out the 9.8g ball?

ANSWER:

Minimum try is two only.

Explanation:

1. Separate 8 balls into 2 groups, 6 balls and 2 balls, respectively. Putting the first group in three to three balls arrangement in the balance for its first try.

2. If the first group is unbalance, the second group is surely in balance. Then process to test the less weight part of the balance by using one to one ball arrangement in the balance for its second try then you know which one have different weight.

3. However, if the first group is balance, then what you need to do is just test the second group for the second or last try.