

Crazy Questions at Google Job Interview - deltapoint
http://tihomir.org/crazy-questions-at-google-job-interview/
You must know the answers!
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ivankirigin
I got an offer from Bloomberg right out of college before going to my masters.
The last interview was fairly grilling, in a social way, not technical
questions.

The hardest question after I mentioned my interests in business was why I
wouldn't start a company right after getting a job. At the time I answered
truthfully: I thought I needed experience at a real job before knowing what it
takes to start a company.

Since then, I'm convinced I could have had a fair shot at success by starting
a company on the spot.

So the biggest question I would be asking if I were Google: why don't you want
to work for yourself right away?

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savrajsingh
Google is like Microsoft 20 years ago. Everybody should read "How Would You
Move Mount Fuji" -- a detailed book on the topic of IQ, puzzles, and job
interviews.

[http://www.amazon.com/How-Would-Move-Mount-
Fuji/dp/031677849...](http://www.amazon.com/How-Would-Move-Mount-
Fuji/dp/0316778494/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4092533-0204619?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190087721&sr=8-1)

Microsoft has, of late, moved away from these sorts of questions because they
don't really translate into job performance, from what I understand. ;)

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davidw
I heard a funny one about someone who created a popular programming language
and now works for a large company (not Guido/Google, sorry), from the horse's
mouth:

After a few of these questions, he stops the interviewer and says - listen,
you guys are interested in Flub, and use Flub a lot - do you want to hire me,
or not?

------
joe
The parting line confirms my suspicion that marketing and SEO types secretly
worship/unconsciously patronize Googlers and their ilk. Frankly, I don't care
whether or not I have what it takes to work at Google.

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allenbrunson
oh, man. i HATE questions like this. i know they're checking to see if you're
game and up for a hard challenge, but personally i'm just thinking that they
want to make me dance, and my brain rebels at such shenanigans. most of the
smart people i know love to dig into challenges like this, and i'm sad that i
don't. as much as i'd like to work at google, i think questions like this
would cause me to get up and walk out of the interview.

------
garret
Here's another version of #9: <http://www.xkcd.com/blue_eyes.html>

~~~
oditogre
I don't get either one. The announcement just seems redundant. Everybody
already knows that there is at least 1 so-and-so. In fact, everybody already
knows that there is more than one. I can't see how the announcement adds
knowledge.

~~~
shawndrost
SPOILER

It took me a long time to articulate what new information was being given;
much longer than answering the question itself. The trick is to imagine a
smaller scale. Lets say there were three each of brown- and blue-eyed people.
And let's call the blue-eyed people 1, 2, and 3. Everyone knows that everyone
sees at least one blue-eyed person, so no new information, right?

Look at this fact: before the announcement, 1 doesn't know if 2 knows if 3
sees a blue-eyed person. (2 knows if 3 sees a blue-eyed person, because 2
knows that 1 has blue eyes, but 1 doesn't know any of that.)

Then, after the announcement, the first night passes and 3 doesn't go home --
so now 1 knows that 2 knows that 3 sees a blue-eyed person. That's the new
knowledge.

To finish the riddle, now 1 can reason like this: if my eyes are brown, then 2
knows her eyes are blue, because 2 knows 3 sees a blue-eyed person. (That's
the new knowledge.) So if 2 goes home, my eyes are brown. And if my eyes are
blue, then 2 will know that 3 sees a blue-eyed person that isn't me, and 2
won't go home. Either way, 1 goes home the 3rd night. And 2 and 3 are actually
in the same position, and they go home too.

(It seems like the brown-eyed people go home the next night, but I forget and
am too lazy to think about it rigorously again.)

If you want to analyze this for n=4, start with this fact: 1 doesn't know if 2
knows if 3 knows if 4 sees a blue-eyed person. Don't try this if you're
sleepy.

~~~
greendestiny
Another way to think about it: forget about how many people there are in
total, I can observe x blue eyes. Let m be the minimum globally known number
of people with blue eyes. After the announcement m = 1.

On that day (and any subsequent) if your x < m you know you have blue eyes. If
at the end of the day noone leaves, m must be at least m + 1.

~~~
eru
Spoiler: Knowing Mathematical induction
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_induction>) really helps.

It was not that hard at all.

~~~
eru
To correct myself: It was a little bit harder than it seemed at first. I
forgot to prove that my solution was optimal.

------
defen
Am I missing something obvious about #14? Or is it something dumb like "Don't
tell your friend when your birthday is"?

~~~
dfranke
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. My best guess is that the question is
mistranscribed, and the orginal version was something inspired by the birthday
paradox (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox>).

------
mdemare
Some of these questions are simply stupid. I mean, if I'd be shrunk to the
size of a nickel, I would have bigger problems than imminent blending.
Assuming constant cell size, which cells would I lose? Or do they shrink the
atoms too? Wouldn't the required pressure needed to pump blood through my
veins go up? Terrible, terrible question (for computer scientists at least,
might be great for biologists).

But I think 9, 13 and 16 are predictive of certain logic skills that you'd
need for e.g. debugging. I hate to say that I failed 13 - the answer is so
simple.

------
donna
Makes me tip my head. In what way does it help Google HR evaluate talent by
answering these questions? Curious...

~~~
rms
It lets them eliminate everyone except people who are really good at answering
these types of questions. I've heard that Larry and Sergey have proudly stated
that they wouldn't make it through Google's current hiring process.

~~~
donna
Guess Google is not looking for talent that compliments the founders. Seems
like a crazy strategy to me.

~~~
rms
But everyone that works for Google is obscenely, certifiably smart. It's not a
bad trade-off.

~~~
run4yourlives
I've always wondered though, does smart == innovative?

~~~
aswanson
If it did they wouldn't be interviewing. They'd be starting up. They may be
missing balls,perspective, or both.

------
brianmckenzie
I'm curious as to how long you'd have to answer all these. Many are pretty fun
to think about, but I'd be pissed if they only gave me 60 seconds to answer
some of them.

------
kingkongrevenge
My response to a lot of these would be to ask the interviewer if he was
joking.

There is absolutely no value in making wild-ass guesses about window washing
costs and global piano ownership. Who cares.

The pirates would divide up the money equitably because game theory is full of
shit and that's not how people think, or pirates vote.

Likewise, nothing happens in the cheating village cause who wants to be the
rat? Or they conspire and pin it on an asshole.

It's very hard to find a shirt? You have too many shirts. Give some to
goodwill. Only a queer would have a shirt organization system.

~~~
run4yourlives
I'd give you points for the way you answered the shirt question at least.

