Here are examples of some questions asked by top companies and various interviewers:
These questions were compiled by glassdoor.com based on 1000 of inteview questions:
- Amazon.com asks, if you had 5,623 players in a tournament, how many games would you need to play to determine a winner? Answer 5,622
- Microsoft asks, why is a manhole cover round? Easier for a person to enter the hole.
- Google asks, how many backetball can fit in this room? First determine area of room Length x Width x height and then determine area of basketball. Divide the are of the basketball into the area of the room to determine number of basketball.
- Facebook asks, given the numbers 1 to 1,000, 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? Answer 1 (1 and 1000 chance)
- Goldman Sacks asks, if you were shrunk to the size of a pencil end put in a blender, how would you get out. Answer I would jump and knock over blender. ( Analyst position)
- Deloitte asks, How many ridges [are there] around a quarter? Answer 119 based on anti- acounterfiet measure and to assist the blind (Project analyst)
- Aflect asks, "What is the philosophy of Martial Arts?" Answer self defense (sales associate)
- Boston Consulting ask, "Explain [to] me what has happened in this country during the last 10 years." Answer Obama elected first black president, Housing and financial meltdown 2008, war on terror 9/11/01, Natural disaster Hurrican Katrina Hatian Earth quake, Global warming, Enron whitecollar crime, (Consultant position)
- AT&T asks, "If you could be any superhero, who would it be?" Answer Superman (sales rep)
- Blackrock Portfolio Management Group asks, "You have a birthday cake and have exactly 3 slices to cut it into 8 equal pieces. How do you do it?" Answer cut two pieces in to 8 equal parts and eat the third
- Epic Systems asks, An apple costs 20 cents, an orange costs 40 cents, and a grapefruit costs 60 cents, how much is a pear?" (project management)
- Apple asks, "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 the box it labels. 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?" (software QA engineer)
- Argus Information & Advisory Services asks, "How many traffic lights in Manhattan?" ( analyst)
- Eze Castle asks, "You are in a dark room with no light. You need matching socks for your interview and you have 19 grey socks and 25 black socks. What are the chances you will get a matching pair?" (Quality assurance)
- Guardsmark asks, "What do wood and alcohol have in common?" (staff writer)
- IBM asks, "How do you weigh an elephant without using a weigh machine?" (software engineer)
- Intel asks, "You have 8 pennies, 7 weigh the same, one weighs less. You also have a judges scale. Find the one that weighs less in less than 3 steps." (systems validation)
- NY life asks, "Why do you think only a small percentage of the population makes over $150K?" (Sales agent)
- Schlumberger asks, "You are in charge of 20 people, organize them to figure out how many bicycles were sold in your area last year." (Field engineer)
- The Nielsen Company asks, "How many bottles of beer are drank in the city over the week?" (research analyst)
- UBS asks, "What's the square root of 2000?" (sales and trading)
- USAA asks, "A train leaves San Antonio for Huston at 60mph. Another train leaves Huston for San Antonio at 80mph. Huston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Huston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide?" (software engineer)
- US banks ask, "How are M&M's made?" (program development)
- Volkswagen asks, "What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria from your uncle?" (
