There’s a scene in the 2013 move “The Internship” where the two laid-off sales guys (played by Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson) are asked one of those legendary Google brain teaser interview questions.
The question was: You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
Answer: Lots of variants but one is that you jump out. According to the square-cube law your strength-to-mass ratio should have changed, allowing you to be much stronger for your size and jump really high, like an insect.
That’s a real question that Google once asked people. Google has reportedly banned the brain teaser portion of its interview process now but that doesn’t mean that interviews with today’s biggest tech companies have gotten easy.
We’ve scoured job-hunting site Glassdoor.com and interview training site Impact Interview and found a number of difficult questions that other tech companies have actually asked.
Question from Salesforce.com
REUTERS/Erik De Castro
Salesforce.com Customer Service Analyst interview question:
“How would you direct traffic in the result of a catastrophic earthquake?”
Possible answer: This clearly falls into the “brain teaser category” looking for problem-solving skills, as we can’t think of a case where a customer service analyst will be asked to become a traffic cop after an catastrophic earthquake.
Have fun with the answer, while explaining how you help people avoid torn up streets and drive to safety.
Question from Microsoft
Kyle Russell/Business Insider
Microsoft management position interview question:
“What is a product you love but is marketed very badly? How would you market it differently?”
Possible answer: Probably NOT wise to choose: “Windows Phone” or “Microsoft Surface.” Just sayin.
Question from Amazon
Amazon
Amazon Product Management interview question:
“Jeff Bezos walks into your office and says you can have a million dollars to launch your best entrepreneurial idea. What is it?”
Possible answer: Well Bezos likes newspapers (he bought the Washington Post and he’s an investor in Business Insider) and he likes clocks (he’s spending $42 million on one that’s supposed to last for 10,000 years), so if you were trying to impress Bezos, those two areas could be good.
Question from Texas Instruments
Flickr/SuperFantastic
Texas Instruments Senior Analog Design Engineer interview question:
“How do you deal with difficult people?”
Possible answer: The obvious rules apply: be polite, don’t take the bait, focus on the task not the person, use humor appropriately and pick your battles.
We’ll also give a shout-out to the suggested answer posted on Glassdoor in response: “Ignore them.”
Question from Verizon
flickr via Kim Piper Werker
Verizon Customer Support Analyst interview question:
“If a coworker steals a pen, would you report him, would you keep quiet?”
Possible answer: They might be looking for “Yes. I’d report him immediately.”
But it might be wise to say something like this, “Stealing is a pretty serious accusation and I wouldn’t make it lightly. If I was absolutely sure that a coworker was stealing, I would always report it.”
And it might be tempting (but inadvisable) to retort: “It’s pretty hard to tell one pen from another. Does the company want to me to keep watch for suspected pen thieves?
Question from NetApp
Shutterstock
NetApp Account Manager interview question:
“What kind of tree are you?”
Suggested answer on Glassdoor.com: An oak.
Question from Citrix
20th Century Fox
Citrix Senior Accountant interview question:
“Does your current employer know you are looking for work?”
Possible answer: My current employer knows that I work hard, that I’m ambitious, and am looking to advance my career.
Question from Juniper Networks
REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Juniper Networks’ Executive Assistant interview question:
“What is your least favorite thing?”
Possible answer: Traffic jams. Nobody likes traffic jams.
Question from Apple
Flickr/col_adamson
Apple Intern Interview question:
“What’s the most creative way you can break a clock?”
Possible answer: Remove all the hands.
Question from Intel
Flickr / Okay City
Intel Software Engineer interview question:
“What makes you frustrated at work”
Possible answer: I wouldn’t describe myself as a person who gets frustrated at work. I really love what I do.
Question from Red Hat
Wikimedia Commons
Red Hat Senior Consultant interview question:
“How much does a 747 weigh?”
Possible answer: Would that be basic empty weight? Max takeoff weight? Max taxi weight? Or max landing weight? Maximum takeoff weight is almost 1 million pounds, Boeing says.
Question from Intuit
Screenshot
Intuit Group Manager Small Business Division interview question:
“If you had to do your taxes in 24 hours, how would you do them?”
Easy answer: TurboTax (the tax software that Intuit makes).
Question from Facebook
Screenshot/Lund University
The words most commonly cited in the study’s Facebook status updates
Facebook Safety Analyst, Community Operations interview question:
“Name three characteristics you would want in a team.”
Possible answer: Hard-working, cheerful, lovers of status updates.
Question from LinkedIn
LinkedIn Senior Data Scientist interview question:
“Which part of our product you dislike most? Then can you think of the reasons why we decided to make it that way? And how would you quantify its badness (goodness)? How would you fix it? And why it will fix it?”
Possible answer: Well, Buzzfeed once did one of those Worst Things About LinkedIn lists, maybe we should rethink some of those.
Question from Twitter
Twitter Operations and Tools Domain Specialist interview question:
“How do you define abusive use and violation of privacy? What do you do if you find one?”
Possible answer: Being harassed on Twitter (or anywhere) isn’t fun. I’d like to see us come up with stringent guidelines for users who grievously violate Twitter’s terms of service policies.
via Hard Tech Company Interview Questions – Business Insider.
Hard Tech Company Interview Questions
