20 Craziest Job Interview Questions and the Right Answers

MoneyWatch ^ | May 30, 2011 | Lynn O'Shaughnessy

[Slings and Arrows]

Nobody has to tell you that it’s a rough job market. So when you do finagle a job interview, you’ll want to shine.

-snip-

Procter & Gamble: Sell me an invisible pen.

Facebook: Twenty five racehorses, no stopwatch, five tracks. Figure out the top three fastest horses in the fewest number of races.

Citigroup: What is your strategy at table tennis?

Google: You are climbing a staircase. Each time you can either take one step or two. The staircase has n steps. In how many distinct ways can you climb the staircase?

Capital One: How do you evaluate Subway’s five-foot long sub policy?

Gryphon Scientific: How many cocktail umbrellas are there in a given time in the United States?

Enterprise Rent-A-Car: Would you be okay hearing “no” from seven out of 10 customers.

Goldman Sachs: Suppose you had eight identical balls. One of them is slightly heavier and you are given a balance scale. What’s the fewest number of times you have to use the scale to find the heavier ball?

Towers Watson: Estimate how many planes are there in the sky.

Lubin Lawrence: If you could describe Hershey, Godiva and Dove chocolate as people, how would you describe them?

Pottery Barn: If I was a genie and could give you your dream job, what and where would it be?

Kiewit Corp.: What did you play with as a child?

VWR International: How would you market a telescope in 1750 when no one knows about orbits, moons etc.

Diageo North America: If you walk into a liquor store to count the unsold bottles, but the clerk is screaming at you to leave, what do you do?

Brown & Brown Insurance: How would you rate your life on a scale of 1 to 10?

[taxcontrol]

You are reading too far into the question. It does not ask you to guarantee the correct answer. So it is quite possible to put two balls on, one being heavier and finding the heavier one on the first try.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

"Lubin Lawrence: If you could describe Hershey, Godiva and Dove chocolate as people, how would you describe them?"

Moe, Larry and Curly. Throw in Nestles and add Shemp.

Stupid question!

[eastforker]

Nope, once. put 4 balls on each side, remove one from each side untill the heavy side ballances when it does the one you removed is the heavy one. Technicaly you only used the scale once.

[dfwgator]

"Goood night...ding ding ding ding....Good night...ding ding ding..."

[FroggyTheGremlim]

"With this telescope, you can view naked girls bathing from 300 yards away.”

Except they'd be upside down.

[Pete]

But what if the lighter group was the heaviest ball & the three lightest balls. you would have eliminated it on the first try.

My understanding is that there are eight balls all identical except one is heavier. So there are no "lightest" balls. There are 7 that weigh the same and 1 that is heavier.

[Dead Corpse]

It's two. Unless the difference in size is discernible by other means ie; it's bigger than the rest.

3 compared to 3. If equal, it's one of the 2 left over.

If not... Of the heavier set of 3, again weigh 2. Use same logic as above. If 2 are equal, it's the third you left out.

[glock rocks]

Naw, more like "Here, hold my beer."

[eastforker]

see my 63.

[AFreeBird]

It’s an invalid question. If the balls are said to be “identical” then one cannot be heavier than all the rest.

[no gnu taxes]

I remember that brain teaser as follows:

A lieutenant has a sergeant, and 2 privates working for him. He has to put up a 100 foot flagpole into a 10 foot deep hole and the only tools he has are a 50 foot piece of rope, a 25 foot piece of rope, and a candle? How does he accomplish his task?

Answer: Sergeant, get that flagpole up NOW!

[Chandalier]

If they are identical, how can one be heavier? Answer is: zero

[Darksheare]

Oops, launched my beer..

[Betis70]

Yeah I would say that too, but I also noticed that the Q doesn’t say ‘evenly divisible by 225’.

So it would be 1.

[AFreeBird]

Okay, how many times without a balance scale? Just a single pan produce like scale.

I say 3.

[jurroppi1]

Aren’t the balls identical? If they are identical, then the answer must be none. They can’t all be both identical and one be slightly heavier...

[CharlieOK1]

very good! :)

[RetSignman]

[BALLANCE SCALE]

Spelled correctly, how many L’s are there in the two words BALLANCE SCALE?

[Truthsearcher]

Facebook: Twenty five racehorses, no stopwatch, five tracks. Figure out the top three fastest horses in the fewest number of races.

7 races.

[Dead Corpse]

This is why I hate posting from work. By the time I get my post completed, everyone else has already posted what I was thinking...

Oh to live amongst such admirable Hobbits...