Interview puzzle examples from Google and Microsoft

    As you know, leading IT corporations seek to get the best employees. The competition reaches several hundred people per place. How to select among them really the best? After all, the average mark of the certificate and a good resume really can not accurately reflect the intellectual potential of the programmer. One option is to ask non-standard puzzles, for example, how many golf balls fit on a school bus or how to measure the weight of a Boeing 747?

    We have already given examples of such problems (in the comments to that article, the habralum says that they ask such tasks at interviews not only at Google and Microsoft, but also in many Russian IT companies). Now, thanks to Business 2.0 magazine and the headhunters they interviewed, several more such tasks have become known. Here they are.

    Microsoft Eychar's favorite task is about the shape of the hatch. What should be the ideal shape of the hatch so that the lid does not fall inward? According to him, most often candidates express the idea that the hatch cannot be square, because then the lid can fall inward diagonally. Others say round caps are cheaper because they take less material. For eychar, it is important how exactly the candidates argue their answer.

    The fact is that erudite programmers know many answers in advance and tend to show their erudition. But at the interview, Eicharu does not need this. He wants to ask a question for which the answer is not known, in order to check how the programmer performs the calculations, how he approaches the solution of the problem. That's why, for example, during an interview at Amazon.com they ask how many gas stations exist in the United States? or how much does it cost to wash all windows in Seattle?

    Naturally, the candidate is required to answer as quickly as possible. He must reason and solve the problem right in front of the examiner.

    There are purely creative tasks. Programming guru Bruce Eckel loves asking candidates to describe a chicken in a programming language. Surely, such a proposal will plunge a simple encoder into a stupor. But a real programmer can solve absolutely any problem by mathematical methods.

    Another task from Eckel. You have five pirates ordered from 5 to 1 in descending order. The main pirate has the right to suggest how to distribute 100 gold coins among all. But the rest then vote for this plan, and if less than half of the pirates agree with him, then they kill him. How should a pirate distribute gold in order to maximize his share, but survive at the same time? (Hint: one pirate finishes sharing with 98% gold).

    Experts admit that by inventiveness of tasks no one can compare with Google. There puzzles are elevated to absolute. Suffice it to recall how three years ago, Google placed one of the mathematical problems on a huge poster on a California highway. Everyone who solved that problem was invited to a special site - the URL was encrypted in the task - on which an even more complicated puzzle was published. The smartest could safely send resumes to Google.

    But the candidates ’adventures didn’t end there, because a whole series of new puzzles were surely raining down on them at an interview on Google. Here is one of the most popular.You have been reduced to the size of a coin and your mass has been proportionally reduced, so that you retain the original density. Then you were thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start to move in 60 seconds. What are you going to do?

    Identifying the true social abilities of candidates is as difficult as their intelligence. For example, in aQuantive, in order to guarantee a good microclimate in the team, they invite candidates only if they have received the approval of all the people whom they met before receiving an invitation to work. As a joke, this process is compared with organ rejection (that is, the company guarantees that this will not happen).

    Finally, here are a few tasks with examples of solutions.

    How many golf balls fit on a school bus?
    Approximately 500,000, assuming that the height of the bus is 50 balls, the width is 50 balls, and the length is 200 balls.

    You were reduced and thrown into a blender, which will turn on after 60 seconds. What are you going to do?
    Several options:
    1. Use measurement divisions to get out.
    2. Try to unscrew the glass.
    3. Take a chance to fly on an air stream.

    How much does it cost to wash all windows in Seattle?
    If you estimate the number of quarters at 10,000 and 600 windows per quarter, five minutes per window at a known rate of $ 20 per hour, then it costs about $ 10 million.

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