How Would You Answer Ten Ridiculous (but real!) Interview Questions

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This Shortlist article lists ten dumber than soap interview questions which, for some inexplicable reason, recruiters think it’s a good idea to ask. I was just wondering how you guys would answer them.

  1. How many tennis balls are used during the course of Wimbledon?
  2. Estimate the total number of cars in the UK.
  3. How many calories in a grocery store?
  4. How would you sell a fridge to an Eskimo?
  5. What would you take with you to a lonely island and why?
  6. Is Batman a superhero?
  7. You have 17 red and 17 blue balls, and you remove two at a time. If the two are the same colour, add in one extra blue ball. If they are different colours, add in one extra red ball. What colour is the final ball removed?
  8. What cartoon character would you be and why?
  9. What is the wildest thing that you have ever done?
  10. What was your opinion of the film Blair Witch Project?

I can see the validity of (4) and (7), given that they’re generally asked at sales jobs and software jobs respectively, but as far as I can tell the others are all basically nonsense. I’ve no idea how I’d answer them if I was asked. How about you?

2

All of these demonstrate critical thinking skills, how you react under pressure to ridiculous questions (imagine a client asking a dumb question. The recruiter is going to want to know if you can react in a positive manner) and your creativity. They may seem dumb, but they can give an employer an insight into your skillset and how you would fit into the company.

They don’t care what your answer is. They care HOW you answer it.

3

I would answers any of the m with “Thank for your time but I have decided to consider other options.” If anyone was asking me these kinds of questions for any of the types of jobs I would ever be applying for would be a big red flag.

4

I answered Sponge Bob for one interview.

Bastard told me to go back to my Pineapple and that not to call them…they would call me.:mad:

5
  1. Well, there’s no final ball removed, since you specify that balls are removed two at a time. Are you asking the color of the final ball remaining?
6

Even #2 I could see as a legit question for some sort of marketing or sales position within the auto industry. Hell, I guess all of them could be legit questions depending on the industry in which you’re interviewing.

If I were asked an asinine question like the number of tennis balls used at Wimbledon I’d take a stab at it. But if there were a laundry list of them I might eventually ask what’s the point of all this?

I’ve only had one interview, and it was a phone interview, where there was a series us of stupid questions that didn’t make any sense. Eventually I refused to answer and thus ended the interview. Never heard back from them.

7

I’d be hoping for question #4, which I could turn to my advantage.

Answer: Eskimo is a derogatory term, and I will be reporting you to HR and corporate HQ unless you make me a really good offer.

8

The first three are Fermi Problems designed to test your reasoning and estimation skills by using a piece of trivia that nobody knows off-hand.
7) is just a logic puzzle, not really a programming problem

The others are just “get to know you” questions to determine your fit at the company; I guess you don’t want to use questions that people have already prepared for to reduce the amount of canned answers. Lots of candidates look good on paper and have really great answers for “Tell me about a time that you dealt with a teamwork problem”, and “What is your greatest strength/weakness”, but cannot improvise a similarly fitting answer on the spot.

9

Some of these involve too much trivia to be a good measure of pure critical thinking skills in my opinion but I will give it a try.

  1. I don’t know that much about tennis in general or Wimbleton in particular so I just have to guess 100. Balls need to be replaced every few matches but I don’t know how many matches there are in Wimbleton.
  2. There are about 60,000,000 people in the UK. They don’t have as many cars personal cars per capita as the U.S. but there are still a lot of commercial vehicles. The per capita figure is probably less than 1 per person overall. I will say 35,000,000
  3. Grocery stores vary a lot in size but the typical U.S. ones carry about 15,000 individual items but only some of those are food. A given store will carry about 5000 different food items and have an average of about 10 of each in stock at a given time. The average calorie content of those items is about 600 calories so 50,000 x 600 = 30,000,000 calories.
  4. I would tell the Eskimo that he really needs a device that keeps food safely cool but prevents it from freezing.
  5. A satellite phone with a solar charger. Just because I am stuck on a lonely island doesn’t mean I have to stay there.
  6. Batman is not a superhero because he doesn’t have any superpowers. He is just an eccentric rich guy that likes to dress up. Liberace wasn’t a superpower either for the record.
  7. Red
  8. Bugs Bunny because he is one cool rabbit.
  9. I request to speak to my attorney.
  10. Terrible and boring movie.
10
  1. None-They are all new.
  2. 1 billion…rounded up to the nearest billion.
  3. None-You are not supposed to eat grocery stores.
  4. Mail Order.
  5. Another island, because the first island is lonely.
  6. No, because he has no super powers.
  7. It would depend on the order you removed them.
  8. The Purple Man, so that I could tell you that you are hiring me.
  9. I would need signed releases from seven different governments to tell you.
  10. The perfect sound system betrayed the fact that it wasn’t an actual home movie from the very beginning, ruining it for me.
11

I wasn’t prepared for question #6.

Regards,
Shodan

12

Even in Alaska and Siberia it can get hot enough in summer to spoil food.

13

Number 7 is by no means a nonsense question, and it has a simple and obviously verifiable answer: Red. As given, if you remove a single red ball (and a blue one with it) you promptly put a red ball back; otherwise you are either removing no red balls or two. Hence it is never possible for you to have an even number of red balls remaining, and if you continue for long enough you must be left with one red ball.

Number 4? You would explain that you can sell them a storage container which will allow things kept in it to be cool rather than frozen solid. Alternatively, assuming that like many Eskimos these days they live in modern-style housing with electricity, you will sell it to them as you would to anyone else. We shouldn’t let our thinking be too constrained by overly-simplistic stereotypes.

I could probably find some answers to the others but who wants to listen to a laundry list of my cleverness?

14

I was once asked in an interview: “If I were to ask you how many gas stations there are in the United States, how would you estimate that?”

I responded: “To tell you the truth, I’d probably just Google it.”

It was an in-house interview; when it was over I went back to my desk and googled it, emailing the total to my interviewer. I didn’t get the position. I could never figure out what did me in.

15

Without reading any other responses:

1) How many tennis balls are used during the course of Wimbledon?
I hate tennis and I hate the people who play it. Golf, too. But if everyone is paying attention, they should be able to get by with one.

2) Estimate the total number of cars in the UK.
Hmm: Population of about 120 million, car ownership likely in the 25-30% range, I’m gonna go with about 20 million.

3) How many calories in a grocery store?
Oh, trillions.

4) How would you sell a fridge to an Eskimo?
Offer a reasonable installment plan.

5) What would you take with you to a lonely island and why?
Etch-a-Sketch. I think I’d be pretty good at it with minimal distractions.

6) Is Batman a superhero?
Not only is he, I’d say he is the only true superhero. Calling Superman “brave” for letting bullets bounce off his chest, an act that involves no actual risk on his part, is a bit misleading. I’m a little concerned about the whole “child endangerment” thing, you know, all those Robins, but it’s not like the cops are training our next generation of vigilantes!

7) You have 17 red and 17 blue balls, and you remove two at a time. If the two are the same colour, add in one extra blue ball. If they are different colours, add in one extra red ball. What colour is the final ball removed?
Blue, of course. There is no scenario presented that could involve all red balls, but there are several that could result in all blue.

8) What cartoon character would you be and why?
It’s been said that every known culture has its version of the same primal story, which is the story of Popeye. I’m all about the John W. Campbell.

9) What is the wildest thing that you have ever done?
Once, me and my buddies stayed up past ten o’clock drinking soda! I’m talking cheap generic Safeway soda, none of this fancy Pepsi stuff.

10) What was your opinion of the film Blair Witch Project?
I really wish that girl had blown her nose before the most famous image of it was shot.

16

4) How would you sell a fridge to an Eskimo?
I’d sell him a house in Florida first.

17

My answers as if I was in an interview:

  1. How many tennis balls are used during the course of Wimbledon?
    A) I would have to do some research before I could answer this. I don’t know whether balls are re-used or if they’re replaced after every play, and I’m not sure about the average scores or numbers of plays per game.

  2. Estimate the total number of cars in the UK.
    A) I would tend to assume it’s roughly equal to one car per legal driver. Some people collect cars and would have more, and a few people would share cars or do without, but I wouldn’t expect it to be too far off that estimate.

  3. How many calories in a grocery store?
    A) Assume 100,000 square feet. Assume 30% of that is shelves. Assume 10 kg of dry weight foot per sqft of shelving. Carbs and protein are 4000 kcal/lb and fats are 9000 kcal/lb So we’ll use an average of 5000.
    0.3 x 100,000 x 10 x 5000 = 1.5 billion, but that’s too many significant digits, giving the answer false precision. Call it 2 billion.

  4. How would you sell a fridge to an Eskimo?
    A) They don’t live in snow all year round. It’s a way to preserve food during the summer months.

  5. What would you take with you to a lonely island and why?
    A) My wife. I married her for a reason!

  6. Is Batman a superhero?
    A) Yes. While he does not have super powers, being a hero is a measure of what you do, not what you are. Batman does super-heroic things, therefore he is a superhero.

  7. You have 17 red and 17 blue balls, and you remove two at a time. If the two are the same colour, add in one extra blue ball. If they are different colours, add in one extra red ball. What colour is the final ball removed?
    A) If I remove them two at a time, there should not be a “final ball removed”. In any end scenario, the exercise ends with two balls removed and single ball put back in.

  8. What cartoon character would you be and why?
    A) It’s hard to think of a specific character, but it would undoubtedly be a character from Japanese animation. They retain the stylistic and creative elements of animation bit the Japanese don’t limit animation to children’s shows.

  9. What is the wildest thing that you have ever done?
    A) I dropped acid once. Of course, this was high school chemistry and it was a beaker of sulfuric acid, but everyone got a good laugh out of it when the teacher yelled “Dracoi dropped acid!”

  10. What was your opinion of the film Blair Witch Project?
    A) Good concept and story, but I don’t personally appreciate the found-footage style of movie. It’s a good way to produce films on a tight budget and it was a revolutionary idea at the time, but the shaky footage and low-quality images make it a less enjoyable movie for me.

18

Right. People who know software will recognize this as a stack or queue underflow situation. The interviewer is setting up a scenario where there is exactly one ball in the container but the operation to be performed is “remove two balls”. That can’t be done and will likely trigger some sort of exception.

Not all Eskimos live in year-round cold climates. Perhaps your marketing plan is to target Eskimo graduate students at Florida State or something.

19

  1. How many tennis balls are used during the course of Wimbledon?
    As many they need.

  2. Estimate the total number of cars in the UK.
    Do you count Matchbox? Lesney was the largest manufacturer of cars in the world.

  3. How many calories in a grocery store?
    None. You can’t eat the store, only the things inside it.

  4. How would you sell a fridge to an Eskimo?
    As a way to keep food from freezing.

  5. What would you take with you to a lonely island and why?
    A tablet, solar power station, and satellite Internet connection.

  6. Is Batman a superhero?
    Sure. He’s trademarked as one.

  7. You have 17 red and 17 blue balls, and you remove two at a time. If the two are the same colour, add in one extra blue ball. If they are different colours, add in one extra red ball. What colour is the final ball removed?
    Impossible to say; there are probabilities, but you can’t have a definitive answer.

  8. What cartoon character would you be and why?
    The Roadrunner.

  9. What is the wildest thing that you have ever done?
    Answering this question.

  10. What was your opinion of the film Blair Witch Project?
    Never saw it.

20

1) How many tennis balls are used during the course of Wimbledon?

I have the vague idea that Wimbledon has something to do with tennis.

2) Estimate the total number of cars in the UK.

170 million
3) How many calories in a grocery store?

0 unless you count the groceries inside it

4) How would you sell a fridge to an Eskimo?

“It’ll keep your food safe from deepfreeze damage, by maintaining it as a specific temp”

5) What would you take with you to a lonely island and why?

Depends on whether my visit to this lonely island has a built-in method of getting home afterwards or if I have to get myself home somehow.

6) Is Batman a superhero?

Yep.

7) You have 17 red and 17 blue balls, and you remove two at a time. If the two are the same colour, add in one extra blue ball. If they are different colours, add in one extra red ball. What colour is the final ball removed?

One of each.
8) What cartoon character would you be and why?

Marcie, from Peanuts. I always had a bit of a thing for Peppermint Patty.

9) What is the wildest thing that you have ever done?

I wanted to attend a college that my folks didn’t want to pay tuition for, so I hitched from New Mexico to New York and lived a year as a homeless person then got into school via grants based on income.

10) What was your opinion of the film Blair Witch Project?

Decent, good use of mood creation… I found the jerkiness and confusion more annoying than scary though.