Working for Google is a dream many IT experts, product managers, salesmen, engineers or graphic designers live with. This giant is well known not only for its spectacular working conditions it offers to their employees, but also for the terrific interviews they manage to provide to their potential future team members. And well… the interview questions should be a little bit more … original, since Google wants to live to its reputation and develop constantly.
Therefore, they need well-prepared specialists, creative and spontaneous people who are willing to spin their brains and give the most pertinent, correct and insightful answers to the questions they are asked. Over the years, there were a lot of articles concerning some interview questions that are so out of the box, few people actually managed to deal with. Let’s not forget though that are thousands of job applications waiting for a spot and the company managers are browsing through hundreds of eligible candidates in order to find the right “nooble” – as the beginners are called and, who knows, future department CEO’s and geniuses. So let’s see some of the hardest and most tricky questions Google asked its candidates along the years. The answers, however… well… that’s up to you. Some tips? Sure, who doesn’t need them?
1. What is the following number in this sequence: 10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66 … ?
Tip: spell the words out loud and think about counting the letters…
2. How many times a day your watch pointers overlap?
Tip: You don’t have to be Doctor Who to figure this one out, but take a good look at your watch and remember there’s something about the eleventh hour. Was that Shakespeare or just hard-core physics?
3. Using an hourglass of 4 minutes and another hourglass of 7 minutes, count 9 minutes without exceeding a total time of 9 minutes
Tip: You may have solved this in school, but then it was about pouring water. This is pretty much the same if you remember that the last minute counts the most, along with your hand speed when turning the hourglass upside down.
4. A man parked his car near a hotel and lost his entire fortune. What happened?
Tip: He wasn’t playing poker…
5. How many piano keys are in the world?
Tip: Liked physics in school? Did you ever hear of a Fermi problem?
6. Why are street manholes covers round?
Tip: think about these while you are pondering on the answer: the wheel was invented for some good reason, hole diameter counts and compression of the earth may have some rules of its own
7. You are in a car with a helium balloon tied to the floor. The windows are closed. When you accelerate the car what happens to the balloon – moves forward, moved backward or does it hold its position?
Tip: Again, physics 101. Just remember that helium is a gas much lighter than air. Universal laws applied correctly and there you go, full speed ahead!
8. Can you swim faster in water or in syrup?
Tip: What kind of syrup, asked the Myth Busters…
9. Add any standard arithmetic signs to this equation to make it true: 3 1 3 6 = 8
Tip: Math signs were taught in school for a reason
10. You are shrunk to the height of a 2p coin and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
Tip: Jump?
Well, as much fun as we may have had with these questions, they are hard, legit and their answers may be some pages long. Sometimes, the interviewer doesn’t want an exact, correct answer, but definitely wants to hear and witness your thinking process, your multiple solutions you come up with, the supplemental questions you will ask back, your computer skills and so on. Remember, Google wants high-end expertise, imagination, intuition and fast decision making. Are you suitable?
