20 Toughest Interview Questions Heard At Apple, Google and Twitter

Neurofreeze said:
That one is actually transcribed poorly.

The actual question, or at least the original riddle, is, "How do you cut a circular cake into eight equal pieces with only three cuts?"

Still one of the easiest questions of the bunch, but the way the article worded it made it sound absolutely trivial.
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when worded that way it does get a little harder. not enough to make it a hard question to answer as you started, but does make it less trivial than presented.
 
Exavior said:
Because people lie.
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Worse yet, they lie to themselves. An old buddy left us for NASA, but it was hilarious as he only lasted two weeks, and always was a bit of a tard. Turns out he really did think that because he did basic things like reset SAP passwords and enter server addresses and what not, that he was a "SAP Administrator that configured servers". Technically its not a lie, but yeah their expectations where no where near his implied skillset, LOL!
mope54 said:
In this post he claims that, not only do Blacks score poorly across all standardized tests, but that this "fact" demonstrates their validity and that any "deficiencies" need to be addressed are culturally based. His conclusion is that Blacks are culturally unmotivated to apply themselves to their work and that they perceive deadlines as unimportant.
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You realize you are picking and choosing between posts on different pages talking about different things.....
1) There is no need for quotations around "facts". It is a fact that blacks score poorly across the standardized tests I listed. An opinion would be creating a hypothesis about why, but the non-airquote facts are documented as I said on standized school provided state tests, ACT, SAT, and IQ tests. It doesn't mean the tests are all flawed, that was my point.
2) I am not the one that linked to a rediculous article that brought up race out of the blue to channel the discussion in that direction, and I am annoyed where social engineering gets in the way of objective standardized testing methodology, as I believed was the case with such spurious nonsense as its not my first time hearing such nonsense.
3) The cultural comments were regarding the post where someone else said things as simple as the color green, a circle, or the number 17 are technically cultural constructs that some cultures may not understand. At no point did I somehow imply black people don't know what a circle is... wtf? Thats a separate discussion, and my retort is that any culture so backwards as to lack an understanding of colors, basic preschool shapes, and numbers (whatever hypothetical BS culture that is) is going to have a measurable mental deficiency, and the test will only illustrate that. I don't believe the IQ test is culturally biased in any real sense, such as having questions that require say a knowledge of American pop culture to answer. The question: "What was Babe Ruth known for", isn't a good memory test because a genius level Chinese guy may have no clue who that was, but there are no such culturally biased questions on the primary accepted IQ testing standards in distribution.
mope54 said:
I think the real question is why you, a mid-level manager at best, continue to argue against your entire upper management
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Will you stop with this childish plurality debate tactic? That is something children use when they can't defend their position, so they create this image of "well EVERYONE is wearing this to school dad" to validate their case. Besides, its a fiction bullshit falacy since the flack I got was from the recruiting manager in HR I run these things by to ensure we don't endanger the company legally. Some things that seem like innocent and pertinent questions should be phrased carefully.

So pull your skirt back down honey, you can't go to school like that even if everyone is doing it. ;)
 
Very few companies will issue IQ tests for the sake of legal protection. From your posts it sounds like this is a practise that you came up with yourself.

Have you consulted with the HR department, or been advised by legal? It could well put you at greater risk if people believe you are hiring on merits other than which applicant is best for the job.
 
Well, if the prospect-corp
- flies me out 1st class
- good hotel and dining
- extra day to tour the city...

... then I really don't mind investing a few hours in their HR/recruiting adventure (e.g. silly questions). Some of them are fun and a good measure of test-taking skills. Sort-of like spending time at a chess game - etc. ... though with a lousy opponent.

However, I now focus my efforts with mid-size companies.
- no silly interviews...
- practical

It's very odd though that, as a consultant, I never need to pass through the otherwise tedious hiring process. Maybe that's why it's typically the specialized consulting team/person whose hired to get the actual work done.
 
jimmyb said:
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Co

Thinking that issuing IQ tests will offer legal protection sounds severely misinformed.
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Christ, everything is racist now. *bonks head on table* And what does this even mean:
"Congress has now provided that tests or criteria for employment or promotion may not provide equality of opportunity merely in the sense of the fabled offer of milk to the stork and the fox."
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Milk fox what who?
Black applicants, less likely to hold a high school diploma and averaging lower scores on the IQ tests, were selected at a much lower rate for these positions compared to white candidates.
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Da fug, how is that racist requiring a minimal level of formal education (highschool is FREE) and giving preference to employees (regardless of race) that scored highest on standardized tests? That is the definition of NOT RACIST, since you're looking merely at results blindfolded and not at the color of skin. My brain... owwwwww....
 
jimmyb said:
From your posts it sounds like this is a practise that you came up with yourself.

Have you consulted with the HR department, or been advised by legal?
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We don't issue them at all, but I suggested it as a means to expand the interview in an objective and quantifiable way to go along with the existing quiz I made and regular face-to-face interview process, and it was shot down. We do issue a work related short proficiency quiz that is directly related to the daily tasks for the position, and that was a huge help as prior to that we had hired some full on retards based on their assurances of a high level of proficiency in various fields.
 
Ducman69 said:
We don't issue them at all, but I suggested it as a means to expand the interview in an objective and quantifiable way to go along with the existing quiz I made and regular face-to-face interview process, and it was shot down. We do issue a work related short proficiency quiz that is directly related to the daily tasks for the position, and that was a huge help as prior to that we had hired some full on retards based on their assurances of a high level of proficiency in various fields.
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Right now it is a buyer's market not a seller's market for most jobs, so for Exempt employees you could ask them to do almost anything to verify their employability (including asking them to do work for a short period of time for free ... a day maybe) ... if you are hiring hourly workers there are rules preventing that so testing could be used (although unless the job specifically entails pattern recognition I would think a complex test in their field would be more useful ... and still legal)

Ultimately I blame most bad hiring decisions on bad interviewing skills in the hiring company ... if interviewers ask the right behavioral questions with the right verification of detail they should be able to weed out most of the disreputable candidates
 
Shit questions like that may impress recent college grads, to me at my stage in life they seem like a tremendous waste of time (and reality agrees with me). All these questions are used for is to create the kind of media buzz they actually create and make the company that asks them appear hip and now.

Screw that, be serious or gtfo.
 
Forgot to add: Performance based hiring. It's a simple concept, companies that use it hire good people and have low turn-over.
 
jimmyb said:
They are some of the most highly paid and sought after jobs in tech. I'm sure you know better than them though.
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Yeah, I do. You know the number 1 reason why the western world is losing its competitive edge? We hold bullshit artists and smooth talkers in higher regard than people who can actually get things done.

People who can answer most of these "high-power questions" with flying colors are bullshitters first, thinkers second, and doers third.

How about 'Can you do the job? Prove it.' Not that it requires anything special to work in financial services shuffling other people's money around and pocketing a percentage. At this point contempt for the financial services industry, as well as "Big-Data" fad companies, is extremely justified.
 
Ducman69 said:
3) The cultural comments were regarding the post where someone else said things as simple as the color green, a circle, or the number 17 are technically cultural constructs that some cultures may not understand. At no point did I somehow imply black people don't know what a circle is... wtf? Thats a separate discussion, and my retort is that any culture so backwards as to lack an understanding of colors, basic preschool shapes, and numbers (whatever hypothetical BS culture that is) is going to have a measurable mental deficiency, and the test will only illustrate that. I don't believe the IQ test is culturally biased in any real sense, such as having questions that require say a knowledge of American pop culture to answer. The question: "What was Babe Ruth known for", isn't a good memory test because a genius level Chinese guy may have no clue who that was, but there are no such culturally biased questions on the primary accepted IQ testing standards in distribution.
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That's quite an accomplishment to have made those comments at 7:45 yesterday morning a full six hours before Gigantopithecus posted his comment about cultural issues with IQ tests.

No, you have the facts backwards again. You initially posted that black people score lower on standardized tests across the board (and you continue to repeat that spurious claim to support your inaccurate assessments about black people, in general) because you think they're lazy and don't care about finishing tasks on time :roll eyes:

Gigantopithecus and I responded to your nonsense by correcting your misunderstanding about IQ tests and what they can and can not measure.
 
mope54 said:
That's quite an accomplishment to have made those comments at 7:45 yesterday morning a full six hours before Gigantopithecus posted his comment about cultural issues with IQ tests.

No, you have the facts backwards again. You initially posted that black people score lower on standardized tests across the board (and you continue to repeat that spurious claim to support your inaccurate assessments about black people, in general) because you think they're lazy and don't care about finishing tasks on time :roll eyes:

Gigantopithecus and I responded to your nonsense by correcting your misunderstanding about IQ tests and what they can and can not measure.
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Although Ducman is more than capable of defending his position I don't see his interest in IQ testing as having racial overtones ... I don't agree with using IQ testing myself but I am not opposed to testing, in general, as a weeding out element to focus hiring on the best candidates
 
"If you were given a box of pencils, list 10 things you could do with them that are not their traditional use."

Job: Google Administrative Assistant
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mope54 said:
You initially posted that black people score lower on standardized tests across the board (and you continue to repeat that spurious claim to support your inaccurate assessments about black people, in general) because you think they're lazy and don't care about finishing tasks on time :roll eyes:
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Don't be a douchebag, I said no such thing. But I suppose if you can't argue based on merit, then a useless character assasination putting words in people's mouths is the next obvious choice... :rolleyes: Wasn't it you that said that all jews should be put in ovens? I'm not saying you did, just asking questions.... what a fun debate tactic. *sigh*
 
kbrickley said:
Although Ducman is more than capable of defending his position I don't see his interest in IQ testing as having racial overtones ... I don't agree with using IQ testing myself but I am not opposed to testing, in general, as a weeding out element to focus hiring on the best candidates
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Of course it doesn't form the basis of why he thinks it's a valid test of intelligence or why he wants to use it on prospective employees. I never made that claim.

His interest in using IQ tests for employment are a separate issue from his racists beliefs that blacks score poorly on IQ tests because they're lazy and don't care about deadlines.

He's now trying to subvert the discussion and redirect it from his racist comments, but unlike the inflammatory drivel he posted recently about statements I never made, his comments about IQ tests, race, and culture are right here in this thread:

Ducman69 said:
The problem with IQ tests are people that don't like the implications of the test as a matter of principle, especially the fact that african-americans tend to score quite poorly as a group average, but that's true of all standardized tests from state level proficiency tests to ACT and SAT tests for college applications, demonstrating it is valid and there is a defficiency in some testing groups that needs to be addressed, not all standardized testing brought into question. The only cultural factors involved in IQ testing are those that are involved in timed testing in genera. For people that come from a culture where time and deadlines are unimportant or who are unmotivated to apply themselves in testing will do poorly, but these type of cultural traits are undesirable in virtually every business environment where time is money and self-motivation to achieve customer driven metrics is crucial.
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I suppose one could interpret his statements to be discontinuous and that he really isn't ascribing lack of motivation or adherence to deadlines to black culture, but the way he structured that paragraph certainly tends to dispute that interpretation.
 
Ducman69 said:
Don't be a douchebag, I said no such thing. But I suppose if you can't argue based on merit, then a useless character assasination putting words in people's mouths is the next obvious choice... :rolleyes: Wasn't it you that said that all jews should be put in ovens? I'm not saying you did, just asking questions.... what a fun debate tactic. *sigh*
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I'm merely quoting your own words, which is something you won't be able to do in order to make up that inflammatory sentence that I never wrote nor even came close to writing.
 
mope54 said:
His interest in using IQ tests for employment are a separate issue from his racists beliefs that blacks score poorly on IQ tests because they're lazy and don't care about deadlines.
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Typical "you're a racist" argument. Just had to point that out. Carry on.
 
wabbitseason said:
You know the number 1 reason why the western world is losing its competitive edge? We hold bullshit artists and smooth talkers in higher regard than people who can actually get things done.
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Do have literally any evidence to support this claim?
 
We are getting off track ... bottom line, interviewing is as much of an art as a science ... personally I consider these cutesy questions as more of an interview gimmick than an actual benefit ... if the job requires specific knowledge or you want to measure the level of exposure someone has had to a particular tool (like statistics, for example) there is nothing wrong with giving them a specific question to measure their level of knowledge (they did this when we were interviewing engineering candidates for Intel, back in the 90s)

The more technically specialized the role the more technical the interview is likely to become ... a good interview will likely hit a candidate from several different angles ... a quality manager might have questions related to their knowledge of Lean or Six Sigma ... technical folks would tend to ask technical questions related to the position or field (how would you troubleshoot this sort of problem, how would you solve this sort of issue, etc) ... managers would focus on their team skills and fit with company culture (tell me about a time you had a difficult deadline, tell me about a time when you needed to make sacrifices for the job, etc) ... the combination of results from a good team will almost always result in the best candidates being offered a position
 
Ducman69 said:
Christ, everything is racist now. *bonks head on table*
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Did you even read the about the case? The company had a specific policy of not hiring blacks outside of the labor department and *selectively* used IQ and diploma requirements as a means to enforce this. Yes this is racist.

And by "now" I guess you mean 1972.

Ducman69 said:
And what does this even mean:

Milk fox what who?
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I guess you aren't familiar Aesop's fables, nor could be bothered to read the embedded link.

Ducman69 said:
Da fug, how is that racist requiring a minimal level of formal education (highschool is FREE) and giving preference to employees (regardless of race) that scored highest on standardized tests?
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1) Again, go back and read the link. It was not applied regardless of race - it was applied selectively.
2) If the test or requirement isn't applicable to the job, as was deemed true in this case, then using it as a requirement when it disproportionately affects a certain group of people is unfair. I want you to think really hard about why this is true. It was a unanimous decision.
 
One note, the use of the behavioral interviewing type questions allowed me to filter out an extremely bad candidate once and pick up an extremely good one once

The bad one responded to a question about "tell me when you did something to go that extra mile in support of a project", to which he responded on how when a line was having problems running he disabled the safety systems which kept shutting down the line ... innovative, yes ... desirable to work in a factory, NO ... I did not recommend we hire that person

The good one responded to a question about "tell about a time when your observational skills were particularly helpful". he responded with an account of how he was helping his uncle plow his field and how he drove over something that cut the oil line ... he noticed the oil gauge dropping (it had analog gauges) and was able to shut down the engine before it started running without oil (saving further damage to the tractor) ... we made that person an offer and he become one of the better operators on the floor

An IQ test (or any other test) wouldn't really have helped us weed out the bad one or find the good one ... only asking the right interview questions and probing for the right responses would do that ;)
 
It's no secret that certain demographics statistically score lower on some tests due to statistically lower quality K-12 education.

You will find plenty of evidence in college admissions that admission standards are lowered for some demographics to comply with Affirmative Action requirements. I am reasonably sure that there were recent court cases about it that may even have gone all the way to the Supreme Court. If memory serves right it was the University of Michigan or one of those that argued that all of this is total BS and they should just be able to admit people based on merit rather than filling a quota.
 
dr.kevin said:
yeah, I would fail the first round. I can't answer that shit. I wouldn't even get the secretary job.



1. Stab people in the eye.
2. I can't think of anymore.
3. nope. drawing a blank.
4. nothing's coming to me.
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5. Emergency (or elective I suppose) tracheotomy.
6. Twirl it into your hair to keep it out of your way.
7. Place them on the floor for the next person to walk in to slip on.
8. Burn them in the case of a power outage.
9. Scribble them on some paper, and whip up a "lead organ" circuit.
10. Throw them up into the drop-ceiling due to boredom.
 
dr.kevin said:
yeah, I would fail the first round. I can't answer that shit. I wouldn't even get the secretary job.



1. Stab people in the eye.
2. I can't think of anymore.
3. nope. drawing a blank.
4. nothing's coming to me.
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Play darts
See how many in a row I can get stuck in a cieling
Have pencil fights like in school
challenge someone to a duel (with dull pencils, of course)
widdle it into a bobcat
 
OEM said:
challenge someone to a duel (with dull pencils, of course)
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Have you ever considered that it would actually be a lot more painful to get poked in the eye with a dull pencil rather than a sharp pencil? With a sharp pencil it's one quick sharp pain and it's done. With a dull pencil you have the agony of prolonged pain as the pencil pusher is trying to pop your eye out.
 
I've actually been stabbed in the eye with a sharp pencil, your argument is invalid!

Also, put those goofy looking erasers on the end to make it softer.
 
One also has to wonder if it's a box of regular wooden pencils, or mechanical pencils. When dueling one has to consider splintering, sharp metal, injectability post insertion, and other possible advantages to each format. Also the metal that houses the eraser on a wooden pencil could be used to scrape in the event that the eraser should break off. With the mechanicals, is it a pushbutton type, or top/eraser click type? Many things go into pencil dueling that I don't think many people consider. It's a real shame!

(that's the correct answer to that question by the way)
 
Actually, you would probably be graded fairly highly if you answered with that.
 
IQ tests are frankly garbage. Throughout my career and in college i took many. On one i scored as high as 148, on others as low as 105 which is a SIGNIFICANT shift all taken within a few years of each other.

Its a known fact that the people who score highest on IQ tests are those that study explicitly for them.

It reminded me of the GRE i had to to take to get into graduate school. It had stupid little College Algebra word problems, that i hadnt seen in years, I had already taken Calc I,II,III Differential Equations and Linear Algebra for my undergraduate degree yet if i didnt study specific strategies on how to solve these stupid basic math problems that are WAY below my level of knowledge i wouldnt have gotten the score i needed
 
257Tony said:
Manholes aren't drilled, they use precast boxes and pipe, then are back filled with dirt and gravel. Don't call us, we'll call you :D
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History, i doubt they used precast boxes much to make old sewer pre 20th century. Then again i've seen stairwells instead of just ladders and the manhole cover being square or octagon as well. Likely it's various circumstances that lead to round manhole covers being common place.

Flogger23m said:
What variant? How much fuel? How many passengers? What seating layout? How much cargo is on board? Is it pulling negative Gs? :p
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You think much like i do my first question to that question is well you're leaving out alot of variables else it just seems like a shot in the dark.

Ultima99 said:
"How would you solve problems if you were from Mars?"

Reply: How do you take yourself seriously asking such asinine questions?
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Reply: I'm unable to represent the answer with this primitive human body.

BallerX said:
Clearly, the most creative way to destroy a clock would be to push Flavor Flav off a cliff.

Hire me Google. I think on the outside of the boxes. :p
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Depends what you mean by break a clock, am i being insidious about this? if so what kind of clock is this, if mechanical i'll just take it apart and heat up and ruin a spring put it back together and watch it run slower. If electrical i'll replace any parts with subpar parts so it becomes a fire hazard. Really without knowing my motivation for breaking this clock what's how do i know what direction i should take breaking it. If my only motivation is to impress you why do i believe that breaking a clock creatively will impress you, what sort of weirdo am i?
jojo69 said:
dafuq?
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The answer is D each row and column contains / \ | -. D is the only answer that continues that, although that's the simple answer there might be an accidental patter in the other answers.

Neurofreeze said:
That one is actually transcribed poorly.

The actual question, or at least the original riddle, is, "How do you cut a circular cake into eight equal pieces with only three cuts?"

Still one of the easiest questions of the bunch, but the way the article worded it made it sound absolutely trivial.
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Easy it into 8 pieces, doesn't matter because all the pieces of cake are equally delicious.
 
Semantics said:
Easy it into 8 pieces, doesn't matter because all the pieces of cake are equally delicious.
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Are they? Where's the icing? Are there multiple layers of different flavors? Is there a hardened crust? Any food-based decoration on top? Cakes are complex creations, and hard to get all pieces to be of equal deliciousness :p
 
It's also wise to avoid the part of the cake where the gravel was dumped in.
 
Neurofreeze said:
That one is actually transcribed poorly.

The actual question, or at least the original riddle, is, "How do you cut a circular cake into eight equal pieces with only three cuts?"

Still one of the easiest questions of the bunch, but the way the article worded it made it sound absolutely trivial.
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what's the answer to that? fold it in half and cut two diagonals with a vertica line?
 
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