2010 was a tough year for all job seekers – especially those in the tech industry – and it doesn’t look like it is going to get any easier in the New Year. Economists predict only moderate job growth in 2011 – signaling continued competition for the jobs that are available. If lucky enough to snag an interview, job seekers are subject to intense scrutiny…and some weird and wacky questions to prove they are right for the job. Career and jobs community, Glassdoor.com, has combed through more than 80,000 interview questions shared by job candidates to find the top 25 oddball interview questions from 2010.
Click through for the top 25 oddball interview questions job seekers faced over the past year, according to Glassdoor.com.
“If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?” – Asked at Goldman Sachs, Analyst position.
“How many ridges [are there] around a quarter?” – Asked at Deloitte, Project Analyst position.
“What is the philosophy of Martial Arts?” – Asked at Aflac, Sales Associate position
“Explain [to] me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years.” – Asked at Boston Consulting, Consultant position.
“Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are.” – Asked at Capital One, Operations Analyst position.
“How many basketball[s] can you fit in this room?” – Asked at Google, People Analyst position.
“Out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. In each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. What is the minimum number of races required?” – Asked at Bloomberg LP Financial, Software Developer position.
“If you could be any superhero, who would it be?” – Asked at AT&T, Customer Sales Representative position.
“You have a birthday cake and have exactly 3 slices to cut it into 8 equal pieces. How do you do it?” – Asked at Blackrock Portfolio Management Group, Fixed Income Analyst position.
“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.” – Asked at Facebook, Software Engineer position.
“If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?” – Asked at Amazon, Manager position.
“An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents, how much is a pear?” – Asked at Epic Systems, Project Manager position.
“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?” – Asked at Apple, Software QA Engineer position.
“How many traffic lights in Manhattan?” – Asked at Argus Information & Advisory Services, Analyst position.
“You are in a dark room with no light. You need matching socks for your interview and you have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair? “ – Asked at Eze Castle, Quality Assurance position.
“What do wood and alcohol have in common?” – Asked at Guardsmark, Staff Writer position.
“How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?” – Asked at IBM, Software Engineer position.
“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.” – Asked at Intel, Systems Validation Engineer position.
“Why do you think only a small percentage of the population makes over $150K?” – Asked at New York Life, Sales Agent position.
“You are in charge of 20 people, organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year.” – Asked at Schlumberger, Field Engineer position.
“How many bottles of beer are drank in the city over the week.” – Asked at The Nielsen Company, Research Analyst position.
“What’s the square root of 2000?” – Asked at UBS, Sales and Trading position.
“A train leaves San Antonio for Houston at 60mph. Another train leaves Houston for San Antonio at 80mph. Houston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Houston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide?”- Asked at USAA, Software Engineer position.
“How are M&M’s made?” – Asked at US Bank, Leadership Program Development position.
“What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle?” – Asked at Volkswagen, Business Analyst position.
