If having an interviewer ask you a brain teaser question during a job interview feels like a (jerk) move, science backs up your intuition. How you answer a brain teaser says almost nothing about how you will perform on the job, but it says a lot -- and none of it good -- about the interviewer who enjoys asking the question. Imagine you're in a job interview. The interview starts with an exchange of some of the most common interview questions and answers. Then the interviewer shifts to asking a few of the most frequently-asked behavioral interview questions. Makes sense: Your achievements, your accomplishments... what you've done in the past is a reasonably reliable indicator of what you will do in the future. But Then the Interviewer Asks a Brain-Teaser Question. Maybe it's, "How many soccer balls would fit into the Empire State Building? " (A lot. ) Or, "Why is a manhole cover round? " *(Plenty of answers to that one; one good one is because a round cover can't fall through a properly-sized round hole. )
Sometimes employers ask interview questions that are a challenge to answer. Many companies, especially those involved in IT and management consulting, include brain teaser questions in their job interviews. But don't worry too much about them. Candidates can't prepare answers for all the possible questions that interviewers ask during a job interview, especially some less common and unusual questions. Learn what interviewers are looking for when they ask odd questions and what you can do to get them to remember you. Why Interviewers Ask Brain Teaser Questions An interviewer might ask you, "How much toilet paper will it take to span the state of New Jersey? " or, "What animal best represents who you are? " You don't need to try to have answers prepared in advance for brain teasers. You won't know what you'll be asked, and sometimes these questions don't have a right or wrong answer. The interviewer is trying to see your response under stress and watch you logically work through a problem.
Worse yet, many reach instinctively for their phones. Don't do these things. Of course your interviewers know that you've never tried to pack the Empire State building with jelly beans, so you have no direct experience with this process. (You've also probably never built a bicycle. ) Just walk your listeners through the steps you would take if confronted with this task. If you don't currently have the information you need, explain what you might do to get it. Whatever the brain teaser question requires, you have it Your first thought may be panic, followed by "Oh no, that sounds like math! I'm terrible at math! Game over! " or "I didn't understand ANY of those jargony words and acronyms! I don't belong here! " But if these thought rise up, don't let them shut you down. You DO have math skills, and you CAN understand your interviewer's nonsense words if you calm down and search for context clues. You're just as prepared as the next candidate, so make use of what you have. Ask for paper if you need it Drawing, sketching, listing, or calculating something on paper may move you toward an answer.
Or, "If you have a 3-gallon jug and a 5-gallon jug, how would you measure out exactly 4 gallons? " (If you're into that kind of thing, the answer is below. ) If it feels like the interview just went off the rails, the researchers agree: "Brain teaser interview questions are an example of aggressive interviewer behavior that lacks evidence for validity and is unsettling to job applicants... narcissism and sadism explain the likelihood of using brainteasers in an interview. " Narcissistic, sadistic... sounds like good descriptions of a (jerk) move to me. To arrive at that conclusion, researchers gave study participants a list of interview questions to choose from. Some were conventional. Some were behavioral. And some were brain teasers. The participants that chose brain teasers were more likely to be "socially inept, narcissistic, sadistic, and callous... and were much more likely to believe they could rely on their intuition to select the best candidate. " Which makes sense: A narcissist is a much more likely to think he can just "tell" who the best candidate is.
2. Break the question down into parts then give an estimate of the number that would fit into a bucket. Then break down the different spaces in a Mini into say, front of car, back of car, in the boot, on the roof. Then all you have to do is to estimate how many buckets would fit into each of these four spaces. 3. Typically some clarification of the question will be allowed. This does not mean that you should criticise the question – or say that it is impossible to answer! What you will not be given is any guidance about how to answer or how "good" your answer is. Some final tips to remember – You are being tested on thinking creatively when put under pressure. Feel free to spend time thinking through your answer. – Talk through your reasoning as you go since it is how you get to the answer and not the answer itself which is of interest to the interviewer. Any brain teaser question requires thinking through several stages of reasoning. – It's thinking outside of the box that's needed so aim to come up with some unusual lines of thinking.