25 Craziest Interview Questions of 2010

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Specializes in Geriatrics/Sub-Acute.

hey all!

i just read this on yahoo and balked!! if i had to answer these interview questions, i would never get/have a job!! these are the top 25 craziest interview questions asked in 2010!! here we are in a supposed "recession" and employers have the time to come up with this garbage! lol!! read below:

1. if you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?

2. how many ridges are there around a quarter? (reportedly from deloitte)

3. what is the philosophy of martial arts? (a spokesperson for aflac (nyse: [color=#0f55c3]afl - [color=#0f55c3]news), where this question was used, says she hopes the candidate quoted kwai chang caine from the 1970s tv show kung fu: "i seek not to know the answers, but to understand the questions.")

4. explain to me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years (reportedly from boston consulting)

5. rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird you are (reportedly from capital one (nyse: [color=#0f55c3]cof - [color=#0f55c3]news))

6. how many basketballs can you fit in this room? (reportedly from google (nasdaqgs: [color=#0f55c3]goog - [color=#0f55c3]news))

7. out of 25 horses, pick the fastest 3 horses. in each race, only 5 horses can run at the same time. what is the minimum number of races required? (reportedly from bloomberg lp)

8. if you could be any superhero, who would it be? (reportedly from at&t (nyse: [color=#0f55c3]t - [color=#0f55c3]news))

9. you have a birthday cake and have exactly three slices to cut it into eight equal pieces. how do you do it? (reportedly from blackrock portfolio management (nyse: [color=#0f55c3]blk - [color=#0f55c3]news))

10. given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum number of guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint "higher" or "lower" for each guess you make? (reportedly from facebook)

11. if you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner? (reportedly from amazon (nasdaqgs: [color=#0f55c3]amzn - [color=#0f55c3]news))

12. an apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents. how much is a pear? (reportedly from epic systems)

13. there are three boxes. one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both apples and oranges. the boxes have been incorrectly labeled such that no label identifies the actual contents of its box. opening just one box, and without looking in the box, you take out one piece of fruit. by looking at the fruit, how can you immediately label all of the boxes correctly? (reportedly from apple (nasdaqgs: [color=#0f55c3]aapl - [color=#0f55c3]news))

14. how many traffic lights are in manhattan? (reportedly from argus information and advisory services)

15. you are in a dark room with no light. you have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. what are the chances you will get a matching pair? (reportedly from convergex)

16. what do wood and alcohol have in common? (reportedly from guardsmark)

17. how do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine? (reportedly from ibm (nyse: [color=#0f55c3]ibm - [color=#0f55c3]news))

18. you have 8 pennies. seven weigh the same, but one weighs less. you also have a judges scale. find the penny that weighs less in three steps. (reportedly from intel (nasdaqgs: [color=#0f55c3]intc - [color=#0f55c3]news))

19. why do you think only a small portion of the population makes over $150,000? (reportedly from new york life)

20. you are in charge of 20 people. organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year. (reportedly from schlumberger (nyse: [color=#0f55c3]slb - [color=#0f55c3]news))

21. how many bottles of beer are [consumed] in the city [in a] week? (reportedly from nielsen)

22. what's the square root of 2000? (reportedly from ubs (nyse: [color=#0f55c3]ubs - [color=#0f55c3]news))

23. a train leaves san antonio for houston at 60 mph. another train leaves houson for san antonio at 80 mph. houston and san antonio are 300 miles apart. if a bird leaves san antonio at 100 mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the houston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide? (reportedly from usaa)

24. how are m&ms made? (reportedly from usbank)

25. what would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle? (this question comes from volkswagen (stuttgart: [color=#0f55c3]vow.sg - [color=#0f55c3]news).a spokeswoman for the company tells bnet while the question is certainly not standard, the company's business analysts often have to take over and manage projects started by other people, so this question may have been a manager's attempt to see how a job candidate would run a project they 'inherited.')

the only question i think i could answer is #25. i am horrible at being put on the spot. i have a tendency to freeze up and i doubt i could answer these on a good day, let alone during a job interview!

anyway, would you be able to answer these interview questions on the spot?

is your personality charismatic or humorous enough that you could get around giving an actual answer? lol!

what (if any) are the craziest questions you've been asked during an interview?

just thought this might make an interesting discussion. . :nurse:

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Specializes in Adult Stem Cell/Oncology.

I flew from CA to Texas for a job interview, and these were two of the questions I got:

"Tell us about a time you planned an event and how it turned out." I thought I was applying for a new grad nursing program, but apparently they were looking for a party planner instead.

"Tell us about a time when policy and procedure was unacceptable or inadequate, and what you did about it." Kind of hard to answer if you or one of your patients never had a problem with policy/procedure before!

Yeah...I did not get the job. On the bright side, I now know to expect really dumb interview questions, and if asked questions like this in a future interview, I'll just make up a nice little story on the spot. Whatever floats their boat.....

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Specializes in ED, MICU/TICU, NICU, PICU, LTAC.

Oooh I love #8!!! I would be Batman! Or Wonder Woman! Or Mr. Incredible!

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

#18 is an easy logic problem. Step 1; Put 4 pennies on each side of the scale, the lightest group contains the light penny. Step 2; divide the lighter group and put 2 pennies on each side of the scale, again the lightest group contains the light penny. Step 3; take the lightest group (2 pennies) and put one on each side of the scale.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.
Oooh I love #8!!! I would be Batman! Or Wonder Woman! Or Mr. Incredible!

Is that your answer? I would worry what would happen if you saw something shiny.

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Specializes in Critical care, trauma, cardiac, neuro.

These are great! Yes, crazy, but fun.

#10 is my favorite. The answer is 1.

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Specializes in Float Pool-Med-Surg, Telemetry, IMCU.

Wow, some of these sound like the questions on the "Critical Thinking" ATI test that I had to take my first year of nursing school. I'm a little worried that one day my patient's life is going to be dependent on me answering "Two trains going opposite directions leave their stations at 10 a.m. one going 68 miles an hour.....etc, etc.":confused:

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I worked for Capital One's Auto Finance for a while and that sounds like something they would ask in an interview (#5), but the only weird one they asked was how I felt about clowns. Turns out they do parties every week for something or another and for Halloween the whole building and some cubes turn into a haunted house of sorts.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Wow, I would be **** out of luck

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I flew from CA to Texas for a job interview, and these were two of the questions I got:

"Tell us about a time you planned an event and how it turned out." I thought I was applying for a new grad nursing program, but apparently they were looking for a party planner instead.

"Tell us about a time when policy and procedure was unacceptable or inadequate, and what you did about it." Kind of hard to answer if you or one of your patients never had a problem with policy/procedure before!

Yeah...I did not get the job. On the bright side, I now know to expect really dumb interview questions, and if asked questions like this in a future interview, I'll just make up a nice little story on the spot. Whatever floats their boat.....

I don't necessarily think those questions are dumb. The first was looking for your ability to plan something and implement it successfully, in your own opinion. The second doesn't talk about your patients having a problem. I find it hard to believe you have never found a policy or procedure to be lacking.

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Specializes in Geriatrics/Sub-Acute.
Oooh I love #8!!! I would be Batman! Or Wonder Woman! Or Mr. Incredible!

EEESH!! I think if you answered that way, they would find you to be indecisive and not hire you!! Lol!!

I had an interview the other day where I was asked what my worst quality/weakness was and I had a really hard time answering. She had to help me along quite a bit, which made me feel like I was coming off as conceited or overly confident in my abilities. The thing that made that (very easy) question difficult for me was I felt like anything I said might make her NOT want me! LOL!! So you can just imagine me trying to answer one of these questions!!! "uhm, can I google it?". :rolleyes:

(BTW, I did get offered the job!)

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And that is why, good people of the US, we are in the financial crisis and state we are in..........note that most of those questions come from big corporations, many of which have to do with finance....:uhoh3:

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