The 9 Oddest Tech Job Interview Questions of 2011

You fail.
Are there any scenarios you can think of in which you *are not* in second place?

Depends what time frame we're looking at. Since you said 'just passed' we can assume that it's in the instantaneous moment you pass second place. Since D(distance from second place car)/Dtime > 0 when we take an infinitesimal time-slice after getting level with the second place car we can deduce that we're now in second place.

We cannot be in first place. Why?
It would require the first two cars to be dead-level with each other. If they were, there would no longer be a 'second place' car but instead two 'joint first places'.

If, however, you didn't mean 'just passed' then you could be in first place, but since you stated the time interval it's not possible.
 
How would I score on the world hunger question if my answer was:

1.Education
2.Population control
3.Not producing more food
 
Depends what time frame we're looking at. Since you said 'just passed' we can assume that it's in the instantaneous moment you pass second place. Since D(distance from second place car)/Dtime > 0 when we take an infinitesimal time-slice after getting level with the second place car we can deduce that we're now in second place.

We cannot be in first place. Why?
It would require the first two cars to be dead-level with each other. If they were, there would no longer be a 'second place' car but instead two 'joint first places'.

If, however, you didn't mean 'just passed' then you could be in first place, but since you stated the time interval it's not possible.

All that is perfectly reasonable except for one thing. The English language is a slippery slope and having "just passed the car in second place," he could be in third.
 
You fail.
Are there any scenarios you can think of in which you *are not* in second place?
If the then-2nd place car was tied with the 1st place car, then sure, you'd be in first place since you overtook both. But your question didn't imply that since you said "just passed the 2nd place car". I think your boss is looking for people to give the knee-jerk reaction of "1st place", which would be incorrect.
 
All that is perfectly reasonable except for one thing. The English language is a slippery slope and having "just passed the car in second place," he could be in third.
Then in that case, the 2nd place car would've passed you, not the other way around, right?
 
Depends what time frame we're looking at. Since you said 'just passed' we can assume that it's in the instantaneous moment you pass second place. Since D(distance from second place car)/Dtime > 0 when we take an infinitesimal time-slice after getting level with the second place car we can deduce that we're now in second place.

We cannot be in first place. Why?
It would require the first two cars to be dead-level with each other. If they were, there would no longer be a 'second place' car but instead two 'joint first places'.

If, however, you didn't mean 'just passed' then you could be in first place, but since you stated the time interval it's not possible.

False.

If the then-2nd place car was tied with the 1st place car, then sure, you'd be in first place since you overtook both. But your question didn't imply that since you said "just passed the 2nd place car". I think your boss is looking for people to give the knee-jerk reaction of "1st place", which would be incorrect.

We're looking for knee-jerk reactions in general.


What if you were the first place car already and you were lapping the second place car?
What if you had been lapped by the second place car and were passing it again?
 
Depends what time frame we're looking at. Since you said 'just passed' we can assume that it's in the instantaneous moment you pass second place. Since D(distance from second place car)/Dtime > 0 when we take an infinitesimal time-slice after getting level with the second place car we can deduce that we're now in second place.

We cannot be in first place. Why?
It would require the first two cars to be dead-level with each other. If they were, there would no longer be a 'second place' car but instead two 'joint first places'.

If, however, you didn't mean 'just passed' then you could be in first place, but since you stated the time interval it's not possible.

What if you're one or more laps behind?
 
False.



We're looking for knee-jerk reactions in general.


What if you were the first place car already and you were lapping the second place car?
What if you had been lapped by the second place car and were passing it again?
Then that would be a poorly worded question b/c the purpose of these questions is not to have the interviewee come back and ask for a ton of details such as "Is it a straight-line race or on an oval track containing multiple laps to complete the race?" and so on.
 
Then that would be a poorly worded question b/c the purpose of these questions is not to have the interviewee come back and ask for a ton of details such as "Is it a straight-line race or on an oval track containing multiple laps to complete the race?" and so on.

In engineering, and particularly software, the proper way to answer anything is to fully understand the question.

Otherwise you present an incomplete solution.

We are looking for the interviewee to realize they may need to ask about the requirements.
 
Then that would be a poorly worded question b/c the purpose of these questions is not to have the interviewee come back and ask for a ton of details such as "Is it a straight-line race or on an oval track containing multiple laps to complete the race?" and so on.

Exactly. There are a lot of questions where the answer is some sort of 'trick' like this. It's not too helpful because the ability to come up with a solution isn't really correlated with creativity/problem solving ability. However, there is skill in avoiding the knee-jerk reaction answer; it shows that the person has the ability to weigh up circumstances and process thoughts themselves rather than simply herding with the masses.
 
no, that is exactly the point of these kinds of questions.

Then that would be a poorly worded question b/c the purpose of these questions is not to have the interviewee come back and ask for a ton of details such as "Is it a straight-line race or on an oval track containing multiple laps to complete the race?" and so on.
 
no, that is exactly the point of these kinds of questions.

These are minimum information puzzles and indeed the point is to provide minimum information and have the candidate fill in the blanks. If you have to ask questions you're doing it wrong.
 
The saddest part about these silly kinds of questions is the number of companies who NEVER ask any kind of open ended questions.
 
The saddest part about these silly kinds of questions is the number of companies who NEVER ask any kind of open ended questions.

In many cases the point of these kinds of questions isn't the answer, it's about determining how one thinks and responds to finding solutions when a solution isn't readily apparent or easy to find. Not having simple and easy answers is a reality in lots of jobs, particularly IT.
 
Here's an old question I got asked for the planning & analysis dept of a casino company:

There are 30 prisoners in a straight line facing a wall. Everybody is wearing either a black or white hat. The prisoners can only see the colors of the hats in front of them but not of the prisoners behind them. Now each prisoner has to guess the color of the hat on his own head. Guess wrong and die. Come up with a strategy so all guesses are correct.

I failed the question, but still got hired because apparently I spoke well.
 
Wouldn't it be neither? You'd be losing the downward force of gravity on the boat, which pushes down on the surface of the water, but you'd be gaining direct displacement.

Nope.

The water level falls.

See, when the anchor is in the boat, the boat helps it displace its full weight in water, causing a higher water level.

When the anchor (or boulder, the typical version of this question involves a boulder) is dropped overboard, since the anchor sinks to the bottom we know it is more dense than the water. As such, when it is in the water it can not displace its full weight in water. Instead it only displaces its volume in water, which is much smaller.

This means the water level will drop.
 
Here's an old question I got asked for the planning & analysis dept of a casino company:



I failed the question, but still got hired because apparently I spoke well.

As the prisoner behind you what color hat you're wearing...
Last guy in line is just out of luck :D
 
In engineering, and particularly software, the proper way to answer anything is to fully understand the question.

Otherwise you present an incomplete solution.

We are looking for the interviewee to realize they may need to ask about the requirements.
Sure, for engineering, yes, you need all that back-and-forth details. But engineering projects typically are months and years in duration. An interview is typically an hour. Going back and forth with all the Q&A for 1 question will eat up a big chunk of time.

Exactly. There are a lot of questions where the answer is some sort of 'trick' like this. It's not too helpful because the ability to come up with a solution isn't really correlated with creativity/problem solving ability. However, there is skill in avoiding the knee-jerk reaction answer; it shows that the person has the ability to weigh up circumstances and process thoughts themselves rather than simply herding with the masses.
Yeah, I'm thinking that a company wants to get the biggest value for the time to see how someone thinks. Maybe not necessarily get the right answer, but show how he formulates his answer.

no, that is exactly the point of these kinds of questions.
As I mentioned to Zangmonkey, in the interest of time, it defeats the purpose to spend so much time with back-and-forth Q&A for 1 question. An interviewer will have dozens of questions he wants to ask, many of them which have "sub-questions". The last thing he wants to do is waste 5 min. or more out of an hour describing the details of 1 oddball question.

As the prisoner behind you what color hat you're wearing...
Last guy in line is just out of luck :D
And since they're prisoners who have a 50% chance of dying, what motive would they have in answering accurately?
 
you have a bathtub full of water. I give you a spoon, a cup, and a bucket. What is the fastest way to empty the tub?
 
What the hell is the solution to the 4 minute and 7 minute timers to get exactly nice minutes?
 
Actually, if you do a binary search, you'll find out the answer faster. That is, start from the 50th floor, then the 25th or 75th (depending on the result) and so on. Qualcomm should've made it a little more challenging by only giving bulbs.
The typical question is "you have two ultra tough lightbulbs that are exactly the same. There is a 100 story building, and your job is to figure out which floor the bulbs will break from when dropped out a window."

In that case, your answer doesn't work, as you would break both bulbs.

The ideal solution isn't TechLarry's either. Spoilers follow (highlight to read easily):


In TechLarry's solution, the worst case is 19 drops. An ideal solution requires only 14 drops:
Drop from floor 14, if it breaks, then 1-13
Else, Drop from floor 27 (14+13), if it breaks, then 15-26
Else, Drop from floor 39 (14+13+12), if it breaks, then 28-38
Else, Drop from floor 50 (14+13+12+11), if it breaks, then 40-49
Else, Drop from floor 60 (14+13+12+11+10), if it breaks, then 51-59
Else, Drop from floor 69 (14+13+12+11+10+9), if it breaks, then 61-68
Else, Drop from floor 77 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8), if it breaks, then 70-76
Else, Drop from floor 84 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7), if it breaks, then 78-83
Else, Drop from floor 90 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6), if it breaks, then 85-89
Else, Drop from floor 95 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5), if it breaks, then 91-94
Else, Drop from floor 99 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4), if it breaks, then 96-98
Else, Drop from floor 100, to see if it breaks at all
 
What the hell is the solution to the 4 minute and 7 minute timers to get exactly nice minutes?

run the two timers at the same time, when the 4 runs out, stop the 7
You now have a 7-minute timer with exactly 3 minutes remaining.

Reset the 4 minute times and run it along with the 7-minute timer (with 3 minutes remaining)
When time runs out, stop the 4-minute timer.

You now have a 4-minute timer with exactly 1 minute remaning.
Run this at the same time as the 7-minute timer.
You now have a 7-minute timer with exactly 6 minutes remaining

Run this with the 4-minute timer
You now have a 7-minute timer with exactly two minutes remaining

Ready?
Run this 2-minutes down, then run the 7-minute timer once more
9 minutes.


There is probably a better algorithm for this... but the approach is correct.
 
What the hell is the solution to the 4 minute and 7 minute timers to get exactly nice minutes?

Spoiler warning:

@0 (start) Flip both the 4 and 7 minute hourglasses
@4 (signaled by 4 min hourglass running out) minutes flip the 4 minute hourglass immediately (3 mins left in 7 min hourglass)
@7 (signaled by 7 min hourglass running out) flip the 7 minute hourglass (1 min left in the 4 min hourglass)
@8 (signaled by 4 min hourglass running out) flip the 7 minute hourglass, which has accumulated 1 minute of sand
@9 (signaled by 7 minute hourglass running out) - you're done

After you get to the point that you're timing one minute (between minutes 7 and 8) you can keep flipping the hourglasses and counting individual minutes off
 
run the two timers at the same time, when the 4 runs out, stop the 7
You now have a 7-minute timer with exactly 3 minutes remaining.

Reset the 4 minute times and run it along with the 7-minute timer (with 3 minutes remaining)
When time runs out, stop the 4-minute timer.

You now have a 4-minute timer with exactly 1 minute remaning.
Run this at the same time as the 7-minute timer.
You now have a 7-minute timer with exactly 6 minutes remaining

Run this with the 4-minute timer
You now have a 7-minute timer with exactly two minutes remaining

Ready?
Run this 2-minutes down, then run the 7-minute timer once more
9 minutes.


There is probably a better algorithm for this... but the approach is correct.

The question said "without the process taking longer than nine minutes" - Your process takes longer than that:
@0 - run both
@4 - rerun 4
@7 - rerun 7
@8 - rerun 4
@12 - start counting your 9 minutes
@14 - rerun 7
@21 - stop counting your 9 minutes
 
The question said "without the process taking longer than nine minutes" - Your process takes longer than that:
@0 - run both
@4 - rerun 4
@7 - rerun 7
@8 - rerun 4
@12 - start counting your 9 minutes
@14 - rerun 7
@21 - stop counting your 9 minutes

missed that, thanks.
 
Then cannon ball into it and use the bucket to scoop as much as you can out.

Bloody engineers! You hire two co-eds in teddy's to splash fight the water out. Nobody cares how long it takes.
 
There are 30 prisoners in a straight line facing a wall. Everybody is wearing either a black or white hat. The prisoners can only see the colors of the hats in front of them but not of the prisoners behind them. Now each prisoner has to guess the color of the hat on his own head. Guess wrong and die. Come up with a strategy so all guesses are correct.

Let the guy in the back of the line answer first - he counts the number of Black vs. White hats and guesses correctly. The guy next from the last goes next - knowing how many black & white hats are in front AND the color of the guy's hat behind him when he called it out - and so on.
 
There are 30 prisoners in a straight line facing a wall. Everybody is wearing either a black or white hat. The prisoners can only see the colors of the hats in front of them but not of the prisoners behind them. Now each prisoner has to guess the color of the hat on his own head. Guess wrong and die. Come up with a strategy so all guesses are correct.

Let the guy in the back of the line answer first - he counts the number of Black vs. White hats and guesses correctly. The guy next from the last goes next - knowing how many black & white hats are in front AND the color of the guy's hat behind him when he called it out - and so on.

This doesn't make sense considering we have no idea about the distribution of black and white hats....
 
bored at work so I'll answer these.

1 Zero. Facebook is located in Palo Alto so all San Francisco users would be using facebook “from” San Francisco “in” Palo Alto.

2 I’d create a Wikipedia article that states Germans are the tallest people and wait for other people to collect data to prove me wrong then analyze their data.

3 you can’t calculate the height at which the bulbs break without first knowing the Height at which the 100 floor building sits above sea level.

4 The only way to eliminate hunger is to eliminate that that requires food so destroy the world.

5 The water would lower because weight of the Chain and Anchor pressing down on the boat would create more mass in the water than the chain and anchor can being in the water because metal has more weight than water and keeping the anchor in the boat applies the weight of the chain more effectively by pressing down one the boat deceasing it’s bouncy.

6 False

7 3 flowers 1 of each

8 The same way I feel about jokers in poker

9 Access so I can shut down when people attempt to use me as an actual database.
 
The typical question is "you have two ultra tough lightbulbs that are exactly the same. There is a 100 story building, and your job is to figure out which floor the bulbs will break from when dropped out a window."

In that case, your answer doesn't work, as you would break both bulbs.

The ideal solution isn't TechLarry's either. Spoilers follow (highlight to read easily):


In TechLarry's solution, the worst case is 19 drops. An ideal solution requires only 14 drops:
Drop from floor 14, if it breaks, then 1-13
Else, Drop from floor 27 (14+13), if it breaks, then 15-26
Else, Drop from floor 39 (14+13+12), if it breaks, then 28-38
Else, Drop from floor 50 (14+13+12+11), if it breaks, then 40-49
Else, Drop from floor 60 (14+13+12+11+10), if it breaks, then 51-59
Else, Drop from floor 69 (14+13+12+11+10+9), if it breaks, then 61-68
Else, Drop from floor 77 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8), if it breaks, then 70-76
Else, Drop from floor 84 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7), if it breaks, then 78-83
Else, Drop from floor 90 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6), if it breaks, then 85-89
Else, Drop from floor 95 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5), if it breaks, then 91-94
Else, Drop from floor 99 (14+13+12+11+10+9+8+7+6+5+4), if it breaks, then 96-98
Else, Drop from floor 100, to see if it breaks at all
If the number of attempts (and therefore time) isn't an issue, then just start from floor 1 and keep working up 1 floor at a time to see at which floor the bulb breaks. Then subtract one and you found the limit. :cool:
 
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