The 25 Weirdest Interview Questions

[Andy Nguyen]

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

2. How many ridges are there around a quarter? (Reportedly from Deloitte)

3. What is the philosophy of martial arts? (A spokesperson for Aflac, where this question was used, says she hopes the candidate quoted Kwai Chang Caine from the 1970s TV show Kung Fu: "I seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.")

4. Explain to me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years (Reportedly from Boston Consulting)

5. Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are (Reportedly from Capital One)

6. How many basketballs can you fit in this room? (Reportedly from Google)

7. 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? (Reportedly from Bloomberg LP)

8. If you could be any superhero, who would it be? (Reportedly from AT&T)

9. You have a birthday cake and have exactly three slices to cut it into eight equal pieces. How do you do it? (Reportedly from Blackrock Portfolio Management)

10. Given the numbers 1 to 1000, 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? (Reportedly from Facebook)

11. If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner? (Reportedly from Amazon)

12. An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents. How much is a pear? (Reportedly from Epic Systems)

13. 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 its box. 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? (Reportedly from Apple)

14. How many traffic lights are in Manhattan? (Reportedly from Argus Information and Advisory Services)

15. You are in a dark room with no light. You have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair? (Reportedly from Convergex)

16. What do wood and alcohol have in common? (Reportedly from Guardsmark)

17. How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine? (Reportedly from IBM)

18. You have 8 pennies. Seven weigh the same, but one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the penny that weighs less in three steps. (Reportedly from Intel)

19. Why do you think only a small portion of the population makes over $150,000? (Reportedly from New York Life)

20. You are in charge of 20 people. Organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year. (Reportedly from Schlumberger)

21. How many bottles of beer are [consumed] in the city [in a] week? (Reportedly from Nielsen)

22. What's the square root of 2000? (Reportedly from UBS)

23. A train leaves San Antonio for Houston at 60 mph. Another train leaves Houson for San Antonio at 80 mph. Houston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100 mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Houston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide? (Reportedly from USAA)

24. How are M&Ms made? (Reportedly from USBank)

25. What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle? (This question comes from Volkswagen. A spokeswoman for the company tells BNET while the question is certainly not standard, the company's business analysts often have to take over and manage projects started by other people, so this question may have been a manager's attempt to see how a job candidate would run a project they 'inherited.')

the-25-weirdest-interview-questions-of-2010: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

 

[ThinkDifferent]

Your list is missing the most weirdest of them all.

How can 3 men and 1 woman have mutually safe sexual (heterosexual) intercourse with using just two condoms? Assume no condom can break or leak and that you can't wash a used one.

this is a genuine interview question which can be found in Crack's book.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Yes, I have seen that question posted here before
Quantitative Interview questions/answers - Page 24 - Forum | Quant Network

 

[euroazn]

Your list is missing the most weirdest of them all.

How can 3 men and 1 woman have mutually safe sexual (heterosexual) intercourse with using just two condoms? Assume no condom can break or leak and that you can't wash a used one.

this is a genuine interview question which can be found in Crack's book.

But what's the answer :-k
:P

 

[tobias elbert]

Your list is missing the most weirdest of them all.

How can 3 men and 1 woman have mutually safe sexual (heterosexual) intercourse with using just two condoms? Assume no condom can break or leak and that you can't wash a used one.

this is a genuine interview question which can be found in Crack's book.

Haha...good one. First guy puts on two so each condom has an unused surface. Second guy uses the outer condom. Third guy turns the first guy's inner condom inside out and then puts the second guy's on top :D

 

[pruse]

Haha...good one. First guy puts on two so each condom has an unused surface. Second guy uses the outer condom. Third guy turns the first guy's inner condom inside out and then puts the second guy's on top :D

Now generalize!

 

[D C]

Now generalize!

the condoms, the women or the men? Or a combination of any two?

 

[Lyosha]

I did not want to know that last question...

 

[D C]

lol

 

[boneil]

If any of you care, I'm bored in class and I'll go through some of my first thought processes for answering these questions. I welcome criticism/other theories.

1. If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?
Probably not strong enough to snap the blades, so building something with those materials likely out of the question. I would probably wait until the person tried to make something, then either swim up to the top if it was liquid, or climb up and out if it was solid.
If outside involvement wasn't allowed, I have no idea.

2. How many ridges are there around a quarter? (Reportedly from Deloitte)
Estimate diameter, I would say like 2.5 or 3 cm. Multiply by pi, so like 9cm circumference. Guesstimate 2 ridges per mm and I would say 180 ridges.

3. What is the philosophy of martial arts? (A spokesperson for Aflac, where this question was used, says she hopes the candidate quoted Kwai Chang Caine from the 1970s TV show Kung Fu: "I seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.")
Dumb question.

4. Explain to me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years (Reportedly from Boston Consulting)
Y2K scare, 9/11, 2 wars, a few non-war involvements, 2008 credit crunch ----> recession, I turned 19.


5. Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are (Reportedly from Capital One)
Depends on what is the weird end and what is the normal end, doesn't it?

6. How many basketballs can you fit in this room? (Reportedly from Google)
Guesstimate diameter of a basketball, hopefully the room is square, guesstimate dimensions and use dat multiplication.

7. 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? (Reportedly from Bloomberg LP)
Run 5 original races with all of the horsies
Run the winners of all 5 races, pick the winner as the fastest horse
Run the 4 other original winners, as well as the 2nd place of the group with the fastest horse, pick winner as 2nd fastest
Run 4 others still in that top group and: 3rd place of the 1st place horse's original group if the 2nd place horse won, or the 2nd place of the 2nd place horse's original group if one of the 4 other groups won. Pick winner as 3rd fastest.

8. If you could be any superhero, who would it be? (Reportedly from AT&T)
Green Lantern, another dumb question. If I have to explain to you why I have no interest in working at your firm. Green Lantern would beat the shit out of any other superhero.


9. You have a birthday cake and have exactly three slices to cut it into eight equal pieces. How do you do it? (Reportedly from Blackrock Portfolio Management)
If you can stack the cakes: 2 slices to cut into fourths, stack the fourths on top of each other and cut all the way down to make 8ths
If you can't stack: 2 slices to cut into fourths, like up the fourths front to back and cut all the way down the line

10. Given the numbers 1 to 1000, 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? (Reportedly from Facebook)
Too lazy

11. If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner? (Reportedly from Amazon)
Depends on the format of the tournament.

12. An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents. How much is a pear? (Reportedly from Epic Systems)
ln(20+(40/60))

13. 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 its box. 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? (Reportedly from Apple)
Look into the box labeled apples&oranges. If it's an orange, then that's the orange box, the one labeled apples must be the a&o box and one labeled oranges must be the apples box. Same thing for if you see an apple, just flipped.

14. How many traffic lights are in Manhattan? (Reportedly from Argus Information and Advisory Services)
Something to do with estimating cross streets, how many lights are at each intersection. Then deal with that weird space north of Harlem.

15. You are in a dark room with no light. You have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair? (Reportedly from Convergex)
(25C2 + 19C2) / (44C2)
or
First step decomposition:
Case 1) Draw a black sock: 24/43 probability of drawing another and making a pair, divide by 2

Case 2) Draw a grey sock: 18/43 probability of drawing another and making a pair, divide by 2
21/43

16. What do wood and alcohol have in common? (Reportedly from Guardsmark)
Combustible, originally very useful for human survival, contain carbon, hydrogen probably some other elements.
Dumb question

17. How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine? (Reportedly from IBM)
Simply ask it how much it weighs. Elephants aren't as self-conscious about weight

18. You have 8 pennies. Seven weigh the same, but one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the penny that weighs less in three steps. (Reportedly from Intel)
Simple.

19. Why do you think only a small portion of the population makes over $150,000? (Reportedly from New York Life)
How much time ya got, buddy?

20. You are in charge of 20 people. Organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year. (Reportedly from Schlumberger)
Meh.

21. How many bottles of beer are [consumed] in the city [in a] week? (Reportedly from Nielsen)
However many I consume plus 10

22. What's the square root of 2000? (Reportedly from UBS)
2000 = (4*100*5)
root(20000 = root(4)root(100)root(5) = 20root(5)

23. A train leaves San Antonio for Houston at 60 mph. Another train leaves Houson for San Antonio at 80 mph. Houston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100 mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Houston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide? (Reportedly from USAA)
Meh.

24. How are M&Ms made? (Reportedly from USBank)
Stupid.

25. What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle? (This question comes from Volkswagen. A spokeswoman for the company tells BNET while the question is certainly not standard, the company's business analysts often have to take over and manage projects started by other people, so this question may have been a manager's attempt to see how a job candidate would run a project they 'inherited.')

the-25-weirdest-interview-questions-of-2010: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

 

[Yike Lu]

17. How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine? (Reportedly from IBM)
Simply ask it how much it weighs. Elephants aren't as self-conscious about weight

Ever heard of Archimedes?

 

[joel_b]

7. Define fastest. If it's just finish time, you only need 5 races to know the 3 fastest horses, based on the constraints.

 

[D C]

Ever heard of Archimedes?

"Eureka!"

 

[koupparis]

Don't we need the density of the elephant to use Archimedes' principle?

 

[Yike Lu]

Ok, I just confused myself twice.

 

[koupparis]

How about we put the elephant on skates, push him with a known force, and measure his acceleration?

 

[pruse]

the condoms, the women or the men? Or a combination of any two?

Given \(k\) condoms and one woman at their disposal, what is the greatest number of men that may have safe sex with the woman?

 

[Ohad]

Given \(k\) condoms and one woman at their disposal, what is the greatest number of men that may have safe sex with the woman?

Zero, she is such a slut that condom won't protect you from all of her diseases

 

[D C]

Given \(k\) condoms and one woman at their disposal, what is the greatest number of men that may have safe sex with the woman?

k+1 men

 

[pruse]

k+1 men

Nope. More.