Odd Ball Interview Questions

clade

clade

clade

Associate
Joined
26 Nov 2003
Posts
947
Location
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
I came across this today and wonderd if anyone else has had any random questions given to them in interviews and how hard you have tried to answer them without looking like a spanner?

Taken from link:

  • “How many basketballs can you fit in this room?”
  • "How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?”
  • “You have 8 pennies, 7 weigh the same, one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the one that weighs less in less than 3 steps.”
  • 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 the box it labels. 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?”
Click to expand...
 
8 pennies, split into two piles of 4, keep the four that weigh least... step 1
take the four, split into two piles of 2, keep the two that weight least.. step 2
take the last two, split and weigh.. the result is obvious.. step 3

This is actually quite a simple logic question..
 
clade said:
“You have 8 pennies, 7 weigh the same, one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the one that weighs less in less than 3 steps.”
Click to expand...

Ceryndrion said:
8 pennies, split into two piles of 4, keep the four that weigh least... step 1
take the four, split into two piles of 2, keep the two that weight least.. step 2
take the last two, split and weigh.. the result is obvious.. step 3

This is actually quite a simple logic question..
Click to expand...
 
True, the point was: do you really expect it to be in an interview?

another one that I didnt put in thats a logic question was

“Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ for each guess you make.”
Click to expand...
 
I can't see how the last one is possible, pulling one fruit out of one box doesn't give you enough information to explictly identify each box correctly.
 
Nothing surpises me with high tech companies. It’s not new and has been done before. Some of these are asked to put people out of their comfort zone and see how they react. They may not be looking for an answer but just want to see how you think on your feet.
 
simulatorman said:
Nothing surpises me with high tech companies. It’s not new and has been done before. Some of these are asked to put people out of their comfort zone and see how they react. They may not be looking for an answer but just want to see how you think on your feet.
Click to expand...

Yep, the answer in unimportant in a lot of cases, they just want to see how you react and if you try to logically work something out.
 
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 the box it labels. 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?”
Click to expand...



Well the boxes have been labelled incorrectly, so you open box "oranges and apples" and pull out say an orange, you then label this box Orange.
You then know that the 2 boxes that are left are either "both" or "apples". Given the labels are incorrect you just switch the labels that are left.

simple
 
Jokester said:
In that case it's not possible to do it in less than 3 steps!

And yeah, the minimum number of hints would be one, assuming you didn't guess it right with the first guess.
Click to expand...

it says number of guesses not hints :p


But then again it says you get a hint for each guess you make which would mean the answer could be 1000/not possible as you'd have to get it wrong every time :p
 
Jokester said:
I can't see how the last one is possible, pulling one fruit out of one box doesn't give you enough information to explictly identify each box correctly.
Click to expand...
1. Based on the premise that all the boxes are labelled incorrectly, the box labelled 'apples and oranges' must contain only apples or only oranges.

2. Upon taking a piece of fruit from the 'apples and oranges' box, you can label that box correctly

3. You are left with two boxes, one stating 'apples only', the other 'oranges only'. Both are incorrect; so if in step 2 you found the apples only box, you know that one of the remaining boxes must be 'oranges only'. It cannot be the one labelled 'oranges only', so it is the other box, and by deduction the remaining box must be 'apples and oranges' :)
 
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 the box it labels. 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?”
Click to expand...

Send them without checking and blame a colleague when the error is discovered by the customer
 
Jokester said:
I can't see how the last one is possible, pulling one fruit out of one box doesn't give you enough information to explictly identify each box correctly.
Click to expand...

Take a single piece of fruit out of the one marked "Apples and Oranges". Let us assume we've picked up an apple. Now, this box can't have both apples and oranges in it as that would make it correctly labelled, so this box must contain just apples.

This leaves us with the box marked "Apples" and the box marked "Oranges". One of these must only contain oranges, which obviously can't be the "Oranges" box, so the "Apples" box must be the one that contains only oranges. This leaves the "Oranges" box which must contain both apples and oranges.
 
Morba said:
Yep, the answer in unimportant in a lot of cases, they just want to see how you react and if you try to logically work something out.
Click to expand...

Sometimes an answer that is not even an attempt to work out the question will do.
 
You can do the last one, since the boxes are labelled wrong to begin with you take the piece from the box marked mixed and whatever you pick out that box has to be full of those.

Then from there the box marked with the fruit you didn't pick up has to be the mixed one, and so the last one is the fruit you didn't pick up.

Edit: Beaten...
 
Last ones about thinking outside of the box.

I'm guessing they want you to attempt to think of possible ways and not instantly dismiss any solution.

edit: ah yes looking above the devils in the detail, important part being that none of the labels are correct. doh failed!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom