off the wall job interview questions

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cubanb

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I have an interview tomorrow with a national investments company and my recruiter told me to be prepared for one or two off the wall questions that test if you can think on your feet.

The example she gave me was: Why are manhole covers round?

The answer: Any other shape and the cover could fall in on workers.Circle cant fit in at any angle.


Does anyone else have experience with these sorts of questions? Does anyone else know any that might come up?

Thanks!
 
Situational questions such as:

You and another man running in different positions of a running track in pitch black darkness. What steps would you take to find him?

For example if you say that you'll stand on the same spot and reach out your arms in hopes of him running into you, the interviewers will give you another scenario where you don't have any arms. If you say you'll call out his name for him to find your position, another scenario would be that the other man is deaf. It will go on and on.
 
You may be asked on the spot:

20 men and one male driver are in a bus. At the first stop, 6 men get off and 3 women get in. At the second stop, another 2 men get off and 5 more women get in. On the final stop 1 women get in and 5 children gets in.

What is the driver's name?

:lol :)
 
Oh yeah, I've had some crazy questions. Here's one of my interviews:

Inter: "If I gave you a baby tiger what would you do with it?"
me:"What?"
inter: "If I gave you a tiger what would you do with it?"
me: "Serious?"
inter: "Yes, completely."
me: "Um....okay.....I'd....I'd teach it to dance."
inter: "Why?"
me: "Have you ever seen a tiger dance?"
inter: "No"
me: "Me neither. But man it must be cool."
inter: "0_o"

Luckily that person had very little to do with the hiring decision. Later when I asked her why she asked me such a crazy question she said it was supposed to see what kind of person you were, if you said you'd care for it then you were a nurturer, if you said raise it and sell it then you were driven by money. Also if you go into a lot of details then you're logical etc...etc... When she asked why I answered it the way I did all I could say was that stupid questions deserve stupid answers.
 
Isn't there some kind of famous riddle about dividing up gold bars? It used to get asked by programming/tech companies as a test of logic/math...

EDIT: Oh wait, here it is. Commonly used question from Microsoft, apparently:

-You've got someone working for you for seven days and a gold bar to pay them. The gold bar is segmented into seven connected pieces. You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day. If you are only allowed to make two breaks in the gold bar, how do you pay your worker?
 
NinSoX said:
You may be asked on the spot:

20 men and one male driver are in a bus. At the first stop, 6 men get off and 3 women get in. At the second stop, another 2 men get off and 5 more women get in. On the final stop 1 women get in and 5 children gets in.

What is the driver's name?

:lol :)
Click to expand...

That joke works when you say "you are driving a bus", or at least give some indication of the driver's name.

Pablo friggin Escobar could be driving. How would I know?
 
I doubt I'd put up with that kind of bullshit in an interview.
In the one for my current job, they pulled out a laptop and had me perform some tasks as I would to show a user how to do something. When I booted it up and tried to use the track-pad, it didn't work. I calmly asked if this was part of the test. My now-boss looked startled and said "Uh yes, of course!" and I proceeded to do everything without a mouse. Doesn't sound like much, but it was pretty damn funny at the time.
 
The most common questions are what i consider "unusual" because, its like they are seeing how well you can lie...which is what successful business is predicated on anyway I suppose.

"If you caught a co-worker stealing what would you do"

-Extortion/Black Mail if I didn't like them, not a damn thing if i did.

"What does good customer service mean to you"

-Not laughing at, patronizing, cussing out, nor ignoring customers when they ask dumbass/irrelevant/self-explanatory questions or issues.

"If you had a personal problem with a co-work how would you handle it"

-Ignore them, cuss them out, do damage to their person or personal property..it just depends on the severity of the problem
 
arnoldcop.jpg


"Who is your daddy, and what does he do?"
 
border said:
Isn't there some kind of famous riddle about dividing up gold bars? It used to get asked by programming/tech companies as a test of logic/math...

EDIT: Oh wait, here it is. Commonly used question from Microsoft, apparently:

-You've got someone working for you for seven days and a gold bar to pay them. The gold bar is segmented into seven connected pieces. You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day. If you are only allowed to make two breaks in the gold bar, how do you pay your worker?
Click to expand...
That involves trading of some sort, right?
 
I never figured it out....lemme see.

Divide gold into 1 piece hunk, 2 piece hunk, 4 piece hunk.

Day 1: Give employee 1 piece hunk. (Employee has 1 piece)
Day 2: Trade 2 piece hunk to employee, he gives you 1 piece hunk. (Employee has 2 pieces)
Day 3: Give 1 piece hunk to employee. (Employee has 3 pieces)
Day 4: Trade all previous hunks for 4 piece hunk. (Employee has 4 piece)
Day 5: Give 1 piece hunk to employee. (Employee has 5 pieces)
Day 6: Trade 2 piece hunk to employee, he gives you 1 piece hunk. (Employee has 6 pieces)
Day 7: Give 2 piece hunk to employee. (Employee has 7 pieces)

I hate riddles like that, since you have to assume things beyond the scope of the question (employee won't spend anything).
 
border said:
I never figured it out....lemme see.

Divide gold into 1 piece hunk, 2 piece hunk, 4 piece hunk.

Day 1: Give employee 1 piece hunk. (Employee has 1 piece)
Day 2: Trade 2 piece hunk to employee, he gives you 1 piece hunk. (Employee has 2 pieces)
Day 3: Give 1 piece hunk to employee. (Employee has 3 pieces)
Day 4: Trade all previous hunks for 4 piece hunk. (Employee has 4 piece)
Day 5: Give 1 piece hunk to employee. (Employee has 5 pieces)
Day 6: Trade 2 piece hunk to employee, he gives you 1 piece hunk. (Employee has 6 pieces)
Day 7: Give 2 piece hunk to employee. (Employee has 7 pieces)

I hate riddles like that, since you have to assume things beyond the scope of the question (employee won't spend anything).
Click to expand...

Exactly why it's stupid.
 
I don't understand. Is there any specific reason why you can't just give the employ the entire gold bar at the end of the seven days?
 
Steriletom said:
I don't understand. Is there any specific reason why you can't just give the employ the entire gold bar at the end of the seven days?
Click to expand...
because the rules state he gets a piece every day.
 
Ecrofirt said:
because the rules state he gets a piece every day.
Click to expand...
They should state that at the end of each day the number of gold pieces he has should be equal to the number of days worked.....
 
that's a whack question, wtf

I think I'd just be as intimidating as possible when I said whatever I said that totally blew the interview. :p
 
A neat variation on that question is one I got at my IBM interview.

You have a traditional two-pan set of scales, with which you need to be able to measure out weights from 1g to 250g in 1g increments. What is the minimum set of weights required to do this?

Another question that other people got at the same set of interviews:

On a standard 8x8 chess board it is possible to carry out a "knight's tour" - start with a knight on one of the spaces and using standard moves (one square in one direction, then two square at right angles to that) to visit every space on the board once and once only.

Is this possible on a board that has one of the corner squares cut off?

Is this possible on a board that has two opposite corner squares cut off?

Regarding these questions in general, if anyone's using them to see if you get the 'right' answer then they suck at interviews. The idea is to hit someone with a question they haven't seen before and see how they go about solving the puzzle.
 
God, these interview questions make me so glad I'm going into film and not programming or engineering.
 
No word play with this one, just logic so don't start reading it really closely to see if there's any gotchas in the text!

4 people want to cross a bridge: they all start on the same side. It is night time, there is only one flashlight and only 2 people can cross the bridge at once (a party crossing the bridge must have the flashlight with them). The people walk across the bridge at different speeds, one of them takes 1 minute to cross, another takes 2 minutes, another person takes 5 minutes and another person takes 10 minutes. If two people go together, they go at the slower pace. What's the shortest amount of time it will take to get all people to the other side.

17 minutes

I think I posted mine years ago, but then again, Iapetus re-used his so I guess there's no harm :)
 
SFA_AOK said:
No word play with this one, just logic so don't start reading it really closely to see if there's any gotchas in the text!

4 people want to cross a bridge: they all start on the same side. It is night time, there is only one flashlight and only 2 people can cross the bridge at once (a party crossing the bridge must have the flashlight with them). The people walk across the bridge at different speeds, one of them takes 1 minute to cross, another takes 2 minutes, another person takes 5 minutes and another person takes 10 minutes. If two people go together, they go at the slower pace. What's the shortest amount of time it will take to get all people to the other side.

17 minutes

I think I posted mine years ago, but then again, Iapetus re-used his so I guess there's no harm :)
Click to expand...

Presuming one of the two people who crossed to the other side has to come back (with the flashlight) surely the answer is
19 minutes, 17 minutes would allow no time for anyone to come back across (unless im just being stupid)
 
Phantom said:
Presuming one of the two people who crossed to the other side has to come back (with the flashlight) surely the answer is
19 minutes, 17 minutes would allow no time for anyone to come back across (unless im just being stupid)
Click to expand...
exactly what I was thinking.

1+10 go across = 10 minutes.
1 comes back = 1 minute
1+5 go across = 5 minutes
1 comes back = 1 minute
1+2 go across = 2 minutes

10 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 2 = 19
 
Phantom said:
Presuming one of the two people who crossed to the other side has to come back (with the flashlight) surely the answer is
19 minutes, 17 minutes would allow no time for anyone to come back across (unless im just being stupid)
Click to expand...

It's 17.

1 min + 2 min cross (2 mins)
2 goes back (2 mins)
5 min + 10 min cross (10 mins)
1 goes back (1 min)
1 + 2 cross (2 mins)

The trick is to make the slowest people cross together.
 
silvon said:
It's 17.

1 min + 2 min cross (2 mins)
2 goes back (2 mins)
5 min + 10 min cross (10 mins)
1 goes back (1 min)
1 + 2 cross (2 mins)

The trick is to make the slowest people cross together.
Click to expand...
ah, I hadn't thought of that.
 
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