A: Invent a dog spacesuit
January 26, 2016 6:01 AM Subscribe
41 of the trickiest questions Google will ask you in a job interview
The 11 hardest Google job interview questions
17 bizarre job interview questions Facebook, Google and other top companies have asked candidates
10 Ridiculous Google Interview Questions the Company Is Rumored to Have Banned
How to Solve Google’s Crazy Open-Ended Interview Questions
The 11 hardest Google job interview questions
17 bizarre job interview questions Facebook, Google and other top companies have asked candidates
10 Ridiculous Google Interview Questions the Company Is Rumored to Have Banned
How to Solve Google’s Crazy Open-Ended Interview Questions
I always mess up when they ask me why I'm not helping the turtle on its back.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:11 AM on January 26, 2016 [50 favorites]
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:11 AM on January 26, 2016 [50 favorites]
> You’re the captain of a pirate ship, and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up....
Pffft. That's not a tricky question. This is a tricky question.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:13 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Pffft. That's not a tricky question. This is a tricky question.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:13 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"
omg are they going to disrupt the lumber industry?
posted by indubitable at 6:14 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
omg are they going to disrupt the lumber industry?
posted by indubitable at 6:14 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
The secret to a dog spacesuit is getting the pants jussssst so.
posted by ian1977 at 6:15 AM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by ian1977 at 6:15 AM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
For the, "How many vacuums are sold", what sort of answers are they expecting? Snarky, "let me google that for you" or vague, "Enough to satify demand but less than that which would result in the number of unsold ones that would cause a company to fail"?
posted by Slackermagee at 6:18 AM on January 26, 2016
posted by Slackermagee at 6:18 AM on January 26, 2016
"Define 'evil.'"
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:19 AM on January 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:19 AM on January 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
"How many roads must a man walk down?"
posted by SassHat at 6:23 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by SassHat at 6:23 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
I sort of get sad reading these, mostly because my partner had a young Francophone software dev guy in his old office who wrote some code that really made Google pay attention and offer him a job. Only he had never been out of Quebec, much less Canada, and didn't speak English very well. He didn't get the job so these questions make me wonder if it was because he didn't really understand what interview questions were being asked of him in a language he didn't speak natively. (He was super bummed and a very nice young man.)
posted by Kitteh at 6:24 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 6:24 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
When I interviewed at Google they didn’t bother with any of these bullshit questions. Hard questions? Yes. But they were at least questions related to the kind of work I might have done if they’d made me an offer. (Spoiler: they didn’t.)
posted by pharm at 6:25 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by pharm at 6:25 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
I'm not even sure what "If you wanted to bring your dog to work but one of your team members was allergic to dogs what would you do?" is for a question. Like, is it just there to weed out the people who say "I would bring the dog to work, but ..."? Because otherwise, I have nfi why anyone would ask it.
posted by frimble at 6:29 AM on January 26, 2016 [14 favorites]
posted by frimble at 6:29 AM on January 26, 2016 [14 favorites]
I am an academic who works with a lot of people who study this stuff. Puzzles are not indicative of job performance (and Google knows this now, they don't ask them). Worse, they introduce all kinds of bad bias.
The best approaches are thought to be open-ended discussions of past behavior on jobs, work samples/tasks, and consistent questions asked of multiple people with a clear framework for evaluation. Super boring, but much better.
posted by blahblahblah at 6:31 AM on January 26, 2016 [13 favorites]
The best approaches are thought to be open-ended discussions of past behavior on jobs, work samples/tasks, and consistent questions asked of multiple people with a clear framework for evaluation. Super boring, but much better.
posted by blahblahblah at 6:31 AM on January 26, 2016 [13 favorites]
Do people still want to work at Google?
posted by smackfu at 6:32 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by smackfu at 6:32 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
That's what the dog spacesuit is for!!! To contain the allergens.
posted by ian1977 at 6:32 AM on January 26, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by ian1977 at 6:32 AM on January 26, 2016 [10 favorites]
My assumption is that the dog question is about showing whether you're entitled enough to think that you deserve a lot of resources devoted to bringing your dog to work and hence likely to be a good fit.
Obviously, it would be unimaginative to say "Assuming that my coworker was meaningfully allergic and didn't work off site, I would leave my dog at home because the amount of resources needed to engineer a solution would be a real waste, it's not even clear that my dog wants to come to work, and the space suit/saran wrap type solutions probably wouldn't be very fun for the dog. Also, most people don't bring their dogs to work and the world does not end."
posted by Frowner at 6:33 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
Obviously, it would be unimaginative to say "Assuming that my coworker was meaningfully allergic and didn't work off site, I would leave my dog at home because the amount of resources needed to engineer a solution would be a real waste, it's not even clear that my dog wants to come to work, and the space suit/saran wrap type solutions probably wouldn't be very fun for the dog. Also, most people don't bring their dogs to work and the world does not end."
posted by Frowner at 6:33 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
"Well, we work at an internet factory, so how would they even be able to tell if my pet is a dog?"
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:33 AM on January 26, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:33 AM on January 26, 2016 [8 favorites]
The dog question is probably the equivalent of those entry level retail aptitude test questions that ask stuff like, "Is it ethical to take money from the register if you are an otherwise honest employee who still makes the company a profit?"
A dog isn't the same as theft, but it's essentially a handy way to say, "I'll probably make selfish decisions and then rationalize them."
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:39 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
A dog isn't the same as theft, but it's essentially a handy way to say, "I'll probably make selfish decisions and then rationalize them."
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:39 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
The FBI used to have a question: Do you plan to overthrow the United States by violent or peaceful means?
Half of the applicants thought it was multiple choice.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:43 AM on January 26, 2016 [35 favorites]
Half of the applicants thought it was multiple choice.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:43 AM on January 26, 2016 [35 favorites]
I wonder if you could cause a cataclysmic Google system crash by countering all of the interviewer's questions with "But why does the porridge-bird lay its eggs in the air?"
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:45 AM on January 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:45 AM on January 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
After getting hit with one of these types of questions, I've learned that the best idea is to answer these questions with more questions, and, if this is Microsoft, be super-duper aggressive about it.
"Invent a dog spacesuit."
"Why would you ask me to invent a dog spacesuit? I'm a computer engineer, not a spacesuit expert. What is it about this organization that it needs me to do this? Have you ever tried to do this before -- put a non-expert in charge of a life-threatening project? How'd that work out for you? Have you ever considered hiring a spacesuit expert or giving the project to a spacesuit-making vendor? Or, perhaps this is one of those questions with no real answer? What do you hope to get out of this exercise, exactly? Has it ever worked well? Is HR putting you up to this? What do you think of an organization that puts so much effort into this when hiring is the most important thing you could go here? Anyway. The dog. Poodle? Labrador? Border collie? I understand it when you say that doesn't matter, but do you regularly start projects without asking for a detailed product vision from stakeholders? No? So, why are we failing to do that now?"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:49 AM on January 26, 2016 [44 favorites]
"Invent a dog spacesuit."
"Why would you ask me to invent a dog spacesuit? I'm a computer engineer, not a spacesuit expert. What is it about this organization that it needs me to do this? Have you ever tried to do this before -- put a non-expert in charge of a life-threatening project? How'd that work out for you? Have you ever considered hiring a spacesuit expert or giving the project to a spacesuit-making vendor? Or, perhaps this is one of those questions with no real answer? What do you hope to get out of this exercise, exactly? Has it ever worked well? Is HR putting you up to this? What do you think of an organization that puts so much effort into this when hiring is the most important thing you could go here? Anyway. The dog. Poodle? Labrador? Border collie? I understand it when you say that doesn't matter, but do you regularly start projects without asking for a detailed product vision from stakeholders? No? So, why are we failing to do that now?"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:49 AM on January 26, 2016 [44 favorites]
Yeah, they haven't asked these as interview questions for at least five years, when it became apparent that they didn't have any predictive value for their engineers. I'd expect to see these sort of articles, but with a title prepended with FWD: fwd: re: fwd LOL u won't believe this. It's downright bizarre that they're still being reported as part of Google's greater hiring strategy. Part of me thinks that the idea of sneaky-riddles-as-means-to-prove-your-intelligence is now self-perpetuating enough to be a meme independent of Google, since it appeals so strongly to the prototypical sufferer of Engineer's Disease.
posted by Mayor West at 6:50 AM on January 26, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Mayor West at 6:50 AM on January 26, 2016 [8 favorites]
Design a dogsuit for allergic coworkers.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:52 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:52 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
(I interviewed for Google last year. It, uh, didn't go well, but I blame it on a combination of communicative difficulties [if the guy had told me wanted me to write min-max, I would have written goddamn min-max], and the fact that I was biting my tongue to keep from giving smartass answers to interview riddles they weren't asking. "OK, now how would you solve this iteratively?" "No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death!")
posted by Mayor West at 6:53 AM on January 26, 2016
posted by Mayor West at 6:53 AM on January 26, 2016
I thought Google decided these questions were rubbish and stopped asking them.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:05 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 7:05 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
Whenever I read about unusual job interview questions, I think of Monty Python's interview sketch.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 7:13 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 7:13 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
"Why are you wearing those stupid glasses and are they recording?"
posted by colie at 7:15 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by colie at 7:15 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
The FBI used to have a question: Do you plan to overthrow the United States by violent or peaceful means?
They used to ask the same thing on the green visa waiver form that us Brits no longer have to fill in... I used to wonder if anyone ever ticked "yes".
(Mind you, I never was sure what "moral turpitude" was, but since I've never been convicted of anything*, I felt fairly safe ticking "no" to that one)
* so far
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 7:15 AM on January 26, 2016
They used to ask the same thing on the green visa waiver form that us Brits no longer have to fill in... I used to wonder if anyone ever ticked "yes".
(Mind you, I never was sure what "moral turpitude" was, but since I've never been convicted of anything*, I felt fairly safe ticking "no" to that one)
* so far
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 7:15 AM on January 26, 2016
I interviewed for Google last year and got asked 13 of these questions. But when I drove past the address the next day there was nothing there but weeds. "Hey," I asked an old-timer (maybe 35, even 40 years old) in an Uber Black Star Hire Rocking Chair on a triple AirBnB'd porch nearby. "What happened to the company asking questions about astrodogs that used to be here?" He looked at me a long time, squinting through the vape from his pipe. Then he carefully removed the pipe from his mouth and said, "Company's been dead and and gone these fifteen years, son. You'd best be off before it gets dark." I raced home on my hoverboard and checked my email archives. There was the message inviting me to the interview. I hadn't read it all the way to the bottom before since I'm a Millennial and it was so much longer than a Snapchat caption. But I did now. And that's when I saw it:
"Sincerely, PETS.COM"
posted by No-sword at 7:17 AM on January 26, 2016 [51 favorites]
"Sincerely, PETS.COM"
posted by No-sword at 7:17 AM on January 26, 2016 [51 favorites]
Yeah, as a list of farcical brain teasers I suppose these things have entertainment value.
To quote the head of Google's people ops, Laszlo Bock in the NY Times (June, 2013):
Q. Other insights from the studies you’ve already done?
A. On the hiring side, we found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time. How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.
Besides, most of these come from waaaay before Google. How Would You Move Mount Fuji? which was based on Microsoft's puzzle questions was published in 2004 , the same year Google had its IPO when Google had 3,000 employees, 1,000 of which were developers - so it's not like many people were even really looking at Google as a possible employer.
The estimation questions originate, as far as I can tell, in management consulting interviews for companies like Bain or McKinsey. I have no idea whether they still use them, but I saw estimation questions in consulting interview guides that go back to the 90's.
That said, I have been asked these questions in interviews for the last 3 jobs I got so while they're useless it seems like not everyone has received the memo yet so it doesn't hurt to have answers ready. Also you should know how to do things with balls and scales.
posted by GuyZero at 7:31 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
To quote the head of Google's people ops, Laszlo Bock in the NY Times (June, 2013):
Q. Other insights from the studies you’ve already done?
A. On the hiring side, we found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time. How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.
Besides, most of these come from waaaay before Google. How Would You Move Mount Fuji? which was based on Microsoft's puzzle questions was published in 2004 , the same year Google had its IPO when Google had 3,000 employees, 1,000 of which were developers - so it's not like many people were even really looking at Google as a possible employer.
The estimation questions originate, as far as I can tell, in management consulting interviews for companies like Bain or McKinsey. I have no idea whether they still use them, but I saw estimation questions in consulting interview guides that go back to the 90's.
That said, I have been asked these questions in interviews for the last 3 jobs I got so while they're useless it seems like not everyone has received the memo yet so it doesn't hurt to have answers ready. Also you should know how to do things with balls and scales.
posted by GuyZero at 7:31 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
The FBI used to have a question: Do you plan to overthrow the United States by violent or peaceful means?
Oh man, that green card question sheet. No, I was not a member of the Nazi party in Germany in the late 30's. (yes, the question was very specific). Have I been a prostitute? No. Do I plan to practice polygamy? Well, I won't actually do it, I guess I might practice a bit. Have I ever tortured someone? Wait, let me get my trombone.
posted by GuyZero at 7:34 AM on January 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
Oh man, that green card question sheet. No, I was not a member of the Nazi party in Germany in the late 30's. (yes, the question was very specific). Have I been a prostitute? No. Do I plan to practice polygamy? Well, I won't actually do it, I guess I might practice a bit. Have I ever tortured someone? Wait, let me get my trombone.
posted by GuyZero at 7:34 AM on January 26, 2016 [6 favorites]
Why would you ask me to invent a dog spacesuit?
It's a trick question and usually what the interviewer wants is for you to turn it around and ask a lot of questions back to them.
Some insane interviewers will expect you to be a canine spacesuit designer though, so yeah, brush up.
posted by GuyZero at 7:36 AM on January 26, 2016
It's a trick question and usually what the interviewer wants is for you to turn it around and ask a lot of questions back to them.
Some insane interviewers will expect you to be a canine spacesuit designer though, so yeah, brush up.
posted by GuyZero at 7:36 AM on January 26, 2016
For the, "How many vacuums are sold", what sort of answers are they expecting?
Seriously, to estimate.
The population of the US is 350M, give or take. That's roughly 88M households. (Actually 123M apparently by googleing, but whatever). A vacuum cleaner lasts on average 10 years. So The US annual sales of vacuum cleaners would be 8.8M.
Actual retail vacuum cleaner sales in the US in 2010 were 26M units apparently, but seriously, no one cares what answer you give, just that you know the estimating process.
posted by GuyZero at 7:40 AM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
Seriously, to estimate.
The population of the US is 350M, give or take. That's roughly 88M households. (Actually 123M apparently by googleing, but whatever). A vacuum cleaner lasts on average 10 years. So The US annual sales of vacuum cleaners would be 8.8M.
Actual retail vacuum cleaner sales in the US in 2010 were 26M units apparently, but seriously, no one cares what answer you give, just that you know the estimating process.
posted by GuyZero at 7:40 AM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
I guess a position for Fermi estimator is open?
posted by thelonius at 7:43 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 7:43 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
I guess a position for Fermi estimator is open?
Oh yeah, these things have a name. Sadly, no, I know the exact number of fermi estimator positions and it's zero.
posted by GuyZero at 7:47 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
Oh yeah, these things have a name. Sadly, no, I know the exact number of fermi estimator positions and it's zero.
posted by GuyZero at 7:47 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
Questions like these are why I just ask people to renounce their religion, or to smoke.
posted by uphc at 7:49 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by uphc at 7:49 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Brain teasers are a good interview tactic in the absence of more job-relevant practical evaluation opportunity and when you need to validate the IQ and general knowledge of liberal arts / econ types and their ability to be calm, effective communicators in a high-stress situation.
Google doesn't really need to do any of those things -- coding whiteboard exercises are more job-relevant, a Stanford or Berkeley EE or CS degree validates IQ plenty well, and high-stress communication ability isn't a particularly critical skill set.
(I don't need to brain teasers in my interviews because I have them do a take-home practical exercise if they seem promising... but frankly I might save some candidates a lot of pain if I added brain-teasers to the first-round interviews, as I'd bet that most people who totally flop the investment analysis exercise would also flop a brain-teaser.)
posted by MattD at 7:51 AM on January 26, 2016
Google doesn't really need to do any of those things -- coding whiteboard exercises are more job-relevant, a Stanford or Berkeley EE or CS degree validates IQ plenty well, and high-stress communication ability isn't a particularly critical skill set.
(I don't need to brain teasers in my interviews because I have them do a take-home practical exercise if they seem promising... but frankly I might save some candidates a lot of pain if I added brain-teasers to the first-round interviews, as I'd bet that most people who totally flop the investment analysis exercise would also flop a brain-teaser.)
posted by MattD at 7:51 AM on January 26, 2016
How many beans make five?
And if I put them on a plate?
posted by Segundus at 7:56 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
And if I put them on a plate?
posted by Segundus at 7:56 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
high-stress communication ability isn't a particularly critical skill set.
Google has 20K R&D employees and 17K sales people. And you think they don't communicate with anyone?
Feel free to insert the numbers for whatever other big company you like better.
posted by GuyZero at 7:58 AM on January 26, 2016
Google has 20K R&D employees and 17K sales people. And you think they don't communicate with anyone?
Feel free to insert the numbers for whatever other big company you like better.
posted by GuyZero at 7:58 AM on January 26, 2016
So now I have to estimate how many people work in the bouncy castle industry? What is this, sone kind of Google interview?
posted by No-sword at 8:27 AM on January 26, 2016
posted by No-sword at 8:27 AM on January 26, 2016
Shoot the hostage.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:29 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 8:29 AM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
It always amazes me that one of the most important decisions companies make - whom to hire - are based on received wisdom about how to do it, like asking brain teasers.
We actually know a lot about interviewing in the social science literature.
We know that unstructured interviews, where everyone asks whatever questions they want, are actually worse than no interviews at all.
We know that adverse interviews where you try to stress people out are not predictive of actual work performance (Hence, dumb brainteasers are dumb, or even worse, asking "What is your biggest weakness?").
We know cultural fit is important, but it often ends up just being a cover for bias, which results in too much in-firm similarity, and reduces innovation (in addition to potential racism/sexism/classism).
The best way to interview is with a structured interview style - ask questions about past situations and future scenarios and push for detailed answers. Coordinate on questions being asked with a team of other interviewers (never just one person). Have a common scoring system that all interviewers use to evaluate questions. You can include some testing for particular job skills or traits if you have a reason to do so. Discuss it objectively at the end using the scoring system. This is what Google does now.
A big thing is that you actually want people to leave interviews wanting to work for your company, not hating you.
posted by blahblahblah at 8:45 AM on January 26, 2016 [26 favorites]
We actually know a lot about interviewing in the social science literature.
We know that unstructured interviews, where everyone asks whatever questions they want, are actually worse than no interviews at all.
We know that adverse interviews where you try to stress people out are not predictive of actual work performance (Hence, dumb brainteasers are dumb, or even worse, asking "What is your biggest weakness?").
We know cultural fit is important, but it often ends up just being a cover for bias, which results in too much in-firm similarity, and reduces innovation (in addition to potential racism/sexism/classism).
The best way to interview is with a structured interview style - ask questions about past situations and future scenarios and push for detailed answers. Coordinate on questions being asked with a team of other interviewers (never just one person). Have a common scoring system that all interviewers use to evaluate questions. You can include some testing for particular job skills or traits if you have a reason to do so. Discuss it objectively at the end using the scoring system. This is what Google does now.
A big thing is that you actually want people to leave interviews wanting to work for your company, not hating you.
posted by blahblahblah at 8:45 AM on January 26, 2016 [26 favorites]
The best use of these questions is so I know to nope out early on interviews where I am asked them, as they always come from self-satisfied white C-Bro-Os (or aspiring managers) who think asking them makes them a Disruptor.
Nope sir. It's ERP software, we're not putting dogs in space here.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:54 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
Nope sir. It's ERP software, we're not putting dogs in space here.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:54 AM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
The only link I read was the 11 hardest list, and it seemed to me that most of the silly seeming questions were just roundabout ways of seeing whether a candidate can estimate well. Can you scale your sense of golf balls enough reasonably guess how many are in a school bus, can you take what you know about your surroundings (how many petrol stations do you pass on your way to work) and scale that up to the size of the US, etc.....seems pretty useful if approximating and scaling is a necessary skill at goog.
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:58 AM on January 26, 2016
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:58 AM on January 26, 2016
It warms my heart that I'm not the only Google rejectee in this thread. All my questions were relevant to the position, it's been a long time since any smart company has used these pointless questions. Anyway, I now have an even better job in a different field than the Google position I interviewed for, so suck it!
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:04 AM on January 26, 2016
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:04 AM on January 26, 2016
coding whiteboard exercises are more job-relevant
More relevant, maybe, but still a horrible way to conduct an interview. Want to see a candidate write code? Have them bring their laptop, or have one available for them, with the editor/IDE of their choice and internet access. You still won't get quality code from them, but it'll be better than anything you'll get on a whiteboard.
posted by asterix at 9:06 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
More relevant, maybe, but still a horrible way to conduct an interview. Want to see a candidate write code? Have them bring their laptop, or have one available for them, with the editor/IDE of their choice and internet access. You still won't get quality code from them, but it'll be better than anything you'll get on a whiteboard.
posted by asterix at 9:06 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
oh my god how do i bluff my idiot way into one of these interviews for the sole purpose of talking at great and exhaustive and delighted length about soviet space dogs.
them: ma'am please can you just answer the question
me: part of successfully solving problems is studying the failures of your predecessors, how do you not know this
them: uhhh
me: the next interviewer will be studying your responses, please speak clearly
posted by poffin boffin at 9:14 AM on January 26, 2016 [14 favorites]
them: ma'am please can you just answer the question
me: part of successfully solving problems is studying the failures of your predecessors, how do you not know this
them: uhhh
me: the next interviewer will be studying your responses, please speak clearly
posted by poffin boffin at 9:14 AM on January 26, 2016 [14 favorites]
What is your favorite Google product, and how would you improve it?
READER MOTHERFUCKERS
BRING IT BACK
/still bitter
posted by obfuscation at 9:19 AM on January 26, 2016 [23 favorites]
READER MOTHERFUCKERS
BRING IT BACK
/still bitter
posted by obfuscation at 9:19 AM on January 26, 2016 [23 favorites]
Yeah I've also interviewed at Google and they just asked a bunch of programming and algorithms stuff. Some of them pretty hard or open-ended but these things are long gone.
posted by atoxyl at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2016
posted by atoxyl at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2016
coding whiteboard exercises are more job-relevant
Fizz Buzz, moahfockas, can you do it?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:42 AM on January 26, 2016
Fizz Buzz, moahfockas, can you do it?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:42 AM on January 26, 2016
Asking brain teasers proved useless in weeding out Replicants.
posted by I-baLL at 9:46 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by I-baLL at 9:46 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer?"
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:13 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:13 AM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
41 of the trickiest questions . . . The 11 hardest Google job interview questions . . . 17 bizarre job interview questions . . . 10 Ridiculous Google Interview Questions . . . How to Solve Google’s Crazy Open-Ended Interview Questions . . .
Dear HR:
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck,
If a woodchuck would chuck wood?
How much butter could a butterfly fly,
If a butterfly could fly butter?
How do I spell "relief"? I guess:
R - O - L - A - I - D - S
The answer my friends is blow it out your ass,
The answer is "blow it out your ass".
Tip o' the topper to the late Dow Thomas
posted by Herodios at 10:19 AM on January 26, 2016
Dear HR:
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck,
If a woodchuck would chuck wood?
How much butter could a butterfly fly,
If a butterfly could fly butter?
How do I spell "relief"? I guess:
R - O - L - A - I - D - S
The answer my friends is blow it out your ass,
The answer is "blow it out your ass".
Tip o' the topper to the late Dow Thomas
posted by Herodios at 10:19 AM on January 26, 2016
The FBI used to have a question: Do you plan to overthrow the United States by violent or peaceful means?
Oh man, that green card question sheet.
Relevant: "Welcome to the United States" (from The Yellow Shark (Zappa))
Bum-bah! Bum-bah! Bum-ba-a-ah!
Laugh now . . .
posted by Herodios at 10:29 AM on January 26, 2016
Oh man, that green card question sheet.
Relevant: "Welcome to the United States" (from The Yellow Shark (Zappa))
Bum-bah! Bum-bah! Bum-ba-a-ah!
Laugh now . . .
posted by Herodios at 10:29 AM on January 26, 2016
The question about explaining HTML5 to your grandmother pisses me right off. Who's to say grandma is not a developer or other wise technically astute? Gee, I wonder why there's bias against women and old people in the tech industry.
My grandbaby is 1.5 years old and the cutest of all patoots.
posted by theora55 at 10:31 AM on January 26, 2016 [9 favorites]
My grandbaby is 1.5 years old and the cutest of all patoots.
posted by theora55 at 10:31 AM on January 26, 2016 [9 favorites]
During my application process at Amazon, I was asked how I'd write an optimized program to return the "nth prime number." My answer was, "I wouldn't, I'd just pre-generate them all and return the value in that row of a dataset."
posted by synthetik at 11:19 AM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by synthetik at 11:19 AM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
The questions in "10 ridiculous..." is interesting. From Software Engineer, 1 is bizarrely a riddle about Monopoly apparently. 2 is a pretty simple encryption analogy. 3 is a decent brain teaser, but even if you didn't get it right would indicate how inclined you are to optimizing sorting or searching algorithms. 4 I had to google (heh) and apparently means a lot to people who work a lot in Hex. So all in all 1 ridiculous question (unless it's some kind of control or red herring, to make the interviewee wonder if all the questions are garbage) and 3 kind of useful questions.
That said, the questions for the other positions mean very little to me, but I'm closer to a software engineer than manager, so maybe they make sense to a manager type? I can imagine how some of them would.
posted by jermsplan at 11:54 AM on January 26, 2016
That said, the questions for the other positions mean very little to me, but I'm closer to a software engineer than manager, so maybe they make sense to a manager type? I can imagine how some of them would.
posted by jermsplan at 11:54 AM on January 26, 2016
I believe the best possible interview for software developers is to sit down with the candidate for a couple of hours and work together on either one of their personal projects or a bug/feature for an open source project.
There are many many HR and PR reasons why this is very hard to do in a large company, and I know many candidates hate the idea, but it has worked great for me on both sides.
Hell, I got my best job ever when I showed up for an interview on a Friday. They asked me if they could postpone it because they were having a crisis with a bad live push. I had nothing better to do, so I started working on my own stuff, got bored, started asking questions and ended up helping a little bit with their crisis. Crisis solved we went out for a beer and some food that evening.
I knew I would like the company and they would like me at 2 in the morning on Saturday, drunk and eating curry with half the engineers.
Now I do structured interviews, covering specific rubrics and with standardized metrics. I open with questions about performance and difficult decisions in past jobs, then move to a non tricky technical question. I am not allowed to let the candidate use a computer, but I offer to Google any questions they have.
I have asked the same question to 37 candidates, and I frequently go back to compare my score to other interviewer's, and adjust my own scoring for the future.
At this point I can tell with over 70% confidence if I will recommend someone for hiring 5 minutes into the technical question, and I have about 20% false positives (I recommend, they get no offer) and 30% false negatives (I reject, they get offer). My metrics are slowly but steadily improving.
I do all this because I know I have unconscious biases, and metrics are the only tool I know how to use against them.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 12:02 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
There are many many HR and PR reasons why this is very hard to do in a large company, and I know many candidates hate the idea, but it has worked great for me on both sides.
Hell, I got my best job ever when I showed up for an interview on a Friday. They asked me if they could postpone it because they were having a crisis with a bad live push. I had nothing better to do, so I started working on my own stuff, got bored, started asking questions and ended up helping a little bit with their crisis. Crisis solved we went out for a beer and some food that evening.
I knew I would like the company and they would like me at 2 in the morning on Saturday, drunk and eating curry with half the engineers.
Now I do structured interviews, covering specific rubrics and with standardized metrics. I open with questions about performance and difficult decisions in past jobs, then move to a non tricky technical question. I am not allowed to let the candidate use a computer, but I offer to Google any questions they have.
I have asked the same question to 37 candidates, and I frequently go back to compare my score to other interviewer's, and adjust my own scoring for the future.
At this point I can tell with over 70% confidence if I will recommend someone for hiring 5 minutes into the technical question, and I have about 20% false positives (I recommend, they get no offer) and 30% false negatives (I reject, they get offer). My metrics are slowly but steadily improving.
I do all this because I know I have unconscious biases, and metrics are the only tool I know how to use against them.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 12:02 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
"Seriously, to estimate."
While I can see at least a little value in that kind of question if it was relevant (time estimation always being a tricky thing) what the hell would a question like:
How would you solve homelessness in downtown San Francisco?
provide? The only reasonable answer would be a discussion on why it is such an intractable problem with steps at mitigation rather than "solving".
I had an interview at a trucking company that asked me something similar and it was just foolish IMO. Though maybe I'd feel different if I'd got the job.
posted by Mitheral at 12:06 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
While I can see at least a little value in that kind of question if it was relevant (time estimation always being a tricky thing) what the hell would a question like:
How would you solve homelessness in downtown San Francisco?
provide? The only reasonable answer would be a discussion on why it is such an intractable problem with steps at mitigation rather than "solving".
I had an interview at a trucking company that asked me something similar and it was just foolish IMO. Though maybe I'd feel different if I'd got the job.
posted by Mitheral at 12:06 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Let me reiterate that all these questions are now actually banned from actual google interviews contrary to the headlines, so if the questions don't seem to make any sense then you're reading them correctly.
posted by GuyZero at 12:30 PM on January 26, 2016
posted by GuyZero at 12:30 PM on January 26, 2016
I interviewed at Google in April of 2013 and it consisted of literally nothing but 3 hours of Fermi estimations, with 4 different people. One of them didn't even bother to greet me, just walked in and started reading questions off a sheet of paper. It was super baffling and completely turned me off working there.
Would be curious to see how the process is now if they've really changed it.
posted by skintension at 12:49 PM on January 26, 2016
Would be curious to see how the process is now if they've really changed it.
posted by skintension at 12:49 PM on January 26, 2016
It just hit me that there are some serious parallels between running for president and interviewing for a job.
A LOT of these questions have nothing to do the job a person is interviewing for. I know that the answers are supposed to give the interviewer some kind of incite into the candidates thought process or something but I really doubt the ability of most of these questions to actually do that. And, there are tons of reasons why a person might be able to give a good, thoughtful answer (like not being a native English speaker) or their answer might actually be REALLY clever but the interviewer doesn't pick up on or doesn't understand why.
So really, you're getting asked a bunch of questions that don't matter and have nothing to do with the job you might be asked to do but you need to answer them as well as you can so that you can start doing the job and demonstrating the skills that actually lead to success.
posted by VTX at 1:27 PM on January 26, 2016
A LOT of these questions have nothing to do the job a person is interviewing for. I know that the answers are supposed to give the interviewer some kind of incite into the candidates thought process or something but I really doubt the ability of most of these questions to actually do that. And, there are tons of reasons why a person might be able to give a good, thoughtful answer (like not being a native English speaker) or their answer might actually be REALLY clever but the interviewer doesn't pick up on or doesn't understand why.
So really, you're getting asked a bunch of questions that don't matter and have nothing to do with the job you might be asked to do but you need to answer them as well as you can so that you can start doing the job and demonstrating the skills that actually lead to success.
posted by VTX at 1:27 PM on January 26, 2016
It's a trick question and usually what the interviewer wants is for you to turn it around and ask a lot of questions back to them.
Some insane interviewers will expect you to be a canine spacesuit designer though, so yeah, brush up.
posted by GuyZero at 7:36 AM on January 26
Oh, I understand that. I was once asked to redesign a Boeing 747 and the interviewer was completely serious about it.
From talking to people, I've learned that what I suggested -- to challenge the premise of the question itself in its context with the interview -- is considered an anathema by HR, but some interviewers would actually appreciate it.
As in, if you really did ask a Javascript dev to redesign a Boeing 747, this is what they really should say:
"I don't know anything about aeronautics. Me and my business unit are completely and utterly unqualified in this area. The very existence of the request and that we're talking about it is unproductive. We're wasting time and money. It calls into question our supervisor's competence at his/her job. The only rational response is immediate push-back, a demand to reevaluate priorities and for us to carry on with our current tasks."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:30 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
Some insane interviewers will expect you to be a canine spacesuit designer though, so yeah, brush up.
posted by GuyZero at 7:36 AM on January 26
Oh, I understand that. I was once asked to redesign a Boeing 747 and the interviewer was completely serious about it.
From talking to people, I've learned that what I suggested -- to challenge the premise of the question itself in its context with the interview -- is considered an anathema by HR, but some interviewers would actually appreciate it.
As in, if you really did ask a Javascript dev to redesign a Boeing 747, this is what they really should say:
"I don't know anything about aeronautics. Me and my business unit are completely and utterly unqualified in this area. The very existence of the request and that we're talking about it is unproductive. We're wasting time and money. It calls into question our supervisor's competence at his/her job. The only rational response is immediate push-back, a demand to reevaluate priorities and for us to carry on with our current tasks."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:30 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
Cool Papa Bell: I would recommend you for Immediate Hire and then ask you to be my supervisor.
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 1:36 PM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Doroteo Arango II at 1:36 PM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]
Great. Let me know when you're done moving Mt. Fuji.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:30 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:30 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]
I guess a position for Fermi estimator is open?
You jest, but if the question was "how many servers will we need to launch our new service" or "how many servers will we need next year", they're useful exercises.
posted by pwnguin at 4:31 PM on January 26, 2016
You jest, but if the question was "how many servers will we need to launch our new service" or "how many servers will we need next year", they're useful exercises.
posted by pwnguin at 4:31 PM on January 26, 2016
Answer Key:
Question 1: Your mom
Question 2: Bring dog in dog sized hamster ball with HEPA filter
Question 3: threaten to expose the real identities of all trolls unless they paid up.
Question 4: like Siri right?
Question 5: Kick you in the balls and run in order to ensure I have a clear path to the exit.
Question 6: Before or after your funeral?
Question 7: No but it is probably racist.
Question 8: Ahhh my eyes!!!
All other questions will be answered with duh followed by an eye roll.
posted by humanfont at 4:50 PM on January 26, 2016
Question 1: Your mom
Question 2: Bring dog in dog sized hamster ball with HEPA filter
Question 3: threaten to expose the real identities of all trolls unless they paid up.
Question 4: like Siri right?
Question 5: Kick you in the balls and run in order to ensure I have a clear path to the exit.
Question 6: Before or after your funeral?
Question 7: No but it is probably racist.
Question 8: Ahhh my eyes!!!
All other questions will be answered with duh followed by an eye roll.
posted by humanfont at 4:50 PM on January 26, 2016
I think I would tell most people asking these kinds of questions to fuck right off.
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:20 PM on January 26, 2016
posted by RustyBrooks at 5:20 PM on January 26, 2016
How would you solve homelessness in downtown San Francisco?
The only reasonable answer would be a discussion on why it is such an intractable problem with steps at mitigation rather than "solving".
It's only "intractable" in the U.S. - other countries have largely solved problems like this, so perhaps the question was trying to find out how parochial/cosmopolitan the interviewee was.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 5:31 PM on January 26, 2016
The only reasonable answer would be a discussion on why it is such an intractable problem with steps at mitigation rather than "solving".
It's only "intractable" in the U.S. - other countries have largely solved problems like this, so perhaps the question was trying to find out how parochial/cosmopolitan the interviewee was.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 5:31 PM on January 26, 2016
Interview questions like this explain the preponderance of man-splaining blowhards in power. Yay! Patriarchy!
posted by advicepig at 6:27 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by advicepig at 6:27 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ooh! Google interview failure stories! I have one. Here are the only questions I got asked by a very high-powered Google exec in an admin assistant interview. It should be mentioned that I casually knew this exec, which landed me the interview. I should have been suspicious that he would have time for a very low-level admin interview.
Question 1.
I need to cut this short to fly to West Point. Do you want to come with us?
Later, a follow-up phone call:
Question 2.
Tell me a secret about yourself no one knows.
Question 3.
Did you think I was attractive when you walked in?
I asked him what his wife thought of him calling me. I never heard from him again and, needless to say, never heard from Google again. Yes, this happened in the actual Google offices.
posted by Yoko Ono's Advice Column at 7:01 PM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
Question 1.
I need to cut this short to fly to West Point. Do you want to come with us?
Later, a follow-up phone call:
Question 2.
Tell me a secret about yourself no one knows.
Question 3.
Did you think I was attractive when you walked in?
I asked him what his wife thought of him calling me. I never heard from him again and, needless to say, never heard from Google again. Yes, this happened in the actual Google offices.
posted by Yoko Ono's Advice Column at 7:01 PM on January 26, 2016 [5 favorites]
I interviewed at Google in April of 2013 and it consisted of literally nothing but 3 hours of Fermi estimations, with 4 different people. One of them didn't even bother to greet me, just walked in and started reading questions off a sheet of paper. It was super baffling and completely turned me off working there.
15 months later, four hours of coding questions and non-coding algorithm questions, one with an open-ended estimation/heuristic component but it was explicitly about scaling a software system. It was kind of brutal because of the length but not that different from other technical interviews (and they're not the only company that does interviews that long).
(Of course this was for a programming position - I can't speak to anything else. And I think the interviewers were selected based on what I had said I could do/was interested in. And no I didn't get the job.)
posted by atoxyl at 2:55 AM on January 27, 2016
15 months later, four hours of coding questions and non-coding algorithm questions, one with an open-ended estimation/heuristic component but it was explicitly about scaling a software system. It was kind of brutal because of the length but not that different from other technical interviews (and they're not the only company that does interviews that long).
(Of course this was for a programming position - I can't speak to anything else. And I think the interviewers were selected based on what I had said I could do/was interested in. And no I didn't get the job.)
posted by atoxyl at 2:55 AM on January 27, 2016
Yoko Ono - maybe he'll OD on a yacht someday. Unless it was that guy.
posted by atoxyl at 3:05 AM on January 27, 2016
posted by atoxyl at 3:05 AM on January 27, 2016
I thought Amazon needed the dog spacesuits for their workplace?
posted by sweetmarie at 4:12 PM on January 27, 2016
posted by sweetmarie at 4:12 PM on January 27, 2016
No reason to bring the dog to work, especially given coworker allergies. If the dog NEEDS attention then take time out of the office. But there's a difference between want and need.
Maybe I'm more an IBM kinda guy. Currently on my third day working from home tending to a sick dog.
posted by raider at 4:35 PM on January 27, 2016
Maybe I'm more an IBM kinda guy. Currently on my third day working from home tending to a sick dog.
posted by raider at 4:35 PM on January 27, 2016
Tell me a secret about yourself no one knows.
"I killed a man in Reno just to watch him die."
"Isn't that a Johnny Cash lyric?"
"Is it?"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:40 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
"I killed a man in Reno just to watch him die."
"Isn't that a Johnny Cash lyric?"
"Is it?"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:40 PM on January 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm not even sure what "If you wanted to bring your dog to work but one of your team members was allergic to dogs what would you do?" is for a question. Like, is it just there to weed out the people who say "I would bring the dog to work, but ..."? Because otherwise, I have nfi why anyone would ask it.
I'm guessing this would be the incorrect answer.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:37 PM on January 27, 2016
I'm guessing this would be the incorrect answer.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:37 PM on January 27, 2016
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posted by entropone at 6:08 AM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]