I was asked a series of brainteaser interviews at a university interview.
It was immediately clear that the purpose of the questions wasn't really to see if I knew the answers, but to see how I responded when asked about something I didn't (immediately) know the answer to.
Isn't this a perfectly legitimate way to try to see how a candidate might deal with solving problems they don't know the answers to?
Ironically one of the interviewers (a somewhat crusty old astrophysics professor) later became my physics tutor, and continued to ask us brainteaser questions during tutorial sessions.
For instance, I dimly recall us being asked to "estimate the change in the length of the Earth's day if all the cars in the UK were to drive on the right-hand side of the road instead of on the left"...
It was immediately clear that the purpose of the questions wasn't really to see if I knew the answers, but to see how I responded when asked about something I didn't (immediately) know the answer to.
Isn't this a perfectly legitimate way to try to see how a candidate might deal with solving problems they don't know the answers to?
Ironically one of the interviewers (a somewhat crusty old astrophysics professor) later became my physics tutor, and continued to ask us brainteaser questions during tutorial sessions.
For instance, I dimly recall us being asked to "estimate the change in the length of the Earth's day if all the cars in the UK were to drive on the right-hand side of the road instead of on the left"...