The World’s Hardest Interview Questions Are Too Hard to Answer

Do you use brain teasers when interviewing candidates? Are your questions so ridiculously hard that you’re finding you can’t fill the position because of them? You may need to switch tactics and take a lesson from Google!

Back in 2011, Google changed their interviewing process to take out these brain teasers; in fact, some of the questions were so hard, they were eventually banned! A Seattle job coach compiled a list of these questions, and Business Insider recently revealed 17 of the hardest questions from this list.

So, we’ve got to ask, do you know the answers to these questions? And no “Googling” them to find out!

• You need to check that your friend Bob has your correct phone number, but you cannot ask him directly. You must write the question on a card and give it to Eve who will take the card to Bob and return the answer to you. What must you write on the card, besides the question, to ensure that Bob can encode the message so that Eve cannot read your phone number?
• Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?
• How many times a day does a clock’s hands overlap?
• Explain the significance of “dead beef.”
• If a person dials a sequence of numbers on the telephone, what possible words/strings can be formed from the letters associated with those numbers?

What’s the craziest question you’ve been asked, or have asked, during a job interview? Share it in our comments section below, or e-mail us, and it could be featured in the next HRSBT!

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