Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
Rob Long ·
Jul 20, 2010 at 7:46pm
Here's a collection of 15 questions that Google recruiters ask prospective employees.
I came across it a couple of days ago, and have been feeling stupid every since. I got a couple of them without any trouble -- weighing the eight balls and pushing the car -- but some of them just baffled me.
Of course, I'm probably the only one who had trouble with a lot of these questions.
(And yes, that is a challenge. Try them and let me know.)
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Comments :
Jun '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
I think they want to see if you can determine first, if questions even have an answer, or can be partially answered, or can be completely answered, and if completely answered, answered in some faster more elegant way than just by brute force.
Jun '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
Well, the geniuses at Google answered question #1 wrong. There are two ways to store balls in a box. Even rows of balls stacked diameter against diameter provide standard columns and easy calculations. Balls can also be stored offset or staggered: a row of three against a row of four followed by another row of three, which has the effect of absorbing more dead space and providing greater density. But I'm just a dumb ole history teacher.
May '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
Fun questions. Oh, #9, you devil!
My answer to "How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?" was pretty simple: as much as I can. In hindsight, that answer probably wouldn't fly with a liberal company.
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
The fear -- strike that -- the certainty that no company like Google would ever hire me helped spur me into an entrepreneurial path.
May '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
A few of my answers.
1) (Balls in a Bus) All of them.
2) (Washing Windows in Seattle) A dollar less than the average price charged by the other window washers.
6) (Evac Plan) What's the disaster?
14) (Database to a kid). It's like a big toybox where I can put a lot of toys and find any one I want by asking it to give me the toy in a special way.
I like tests like these. I don't often get even half of them right, but I like playing with the answers to see how creative I can be.
May '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
This takes me back to interviews in business school, circa 1988. Consulting companies would give you problems like these -- I guess a lot of them were what the link describes as Fermi problems. Memorable ones are below. The kicker was that we had to do the math in our heads, reciting our mental computations out loud.
Once interviewees got over the initial shock of being asked something like this, it was usually pretty fun. Contrast this with the students going to sales & trading interviews, where they were expected to know what pork bellies (and a few hundred other assets) closed at the previous day.
May '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
I don't think that was a Google answer, just a reader suggested one. Although you're right, the reader suggested answer is completely off base because it looks for an easy answer instead of trying to find the maximum possible. Doubt he'd get the job.
Jun '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
I think a big part of answering the questions to Google's satisfaction involves a snarky comment like the school bus/golf ball capacity. The short bus would be picking up George Bush (Good answer!) or Ted Kennedy (You fail!)
I think they were wrong on the blender answer. If the blender is empty, a person shrunk to the height of a nickel with a corresponding decrease in density could just lie down & take a nap while the blades swirled above him Unless a whirlpool of delicious strawberry smoothie was lifting him into the path of the blades, he'd survive.
Jun '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
The monopoly car being pushed to Boardwalk was a killer. This despite the fact that this scenario was played out in real life many times, as my husband always used the car and I always sent him to the poorhouse with my heartless real estate tycoon strategy. My token was always the scottie dog.
May '10
Re: Compete with the Brainiacs: Take the Google Job Interview Quiz
For #10, couldn't you just ask Bob to write his phone number on the paper and after Eve brought the note back to you, call him and confirm your number with him?