Think You Can Answer Google's Job Interview Questions?

by Amar Toor on November 8, 2009 at 08:45 AM

Many of us are fascinated by Google's super laid-back, just-wanna-have-fun work environment, especially when juxtaposed with its massive financial success. The company having long been considered one of the world's best employers, ~~dorks~~ people like us have always wondered what it takes to land a cushy position in those San Francisco offices. Now, thanks to the release of some alleged sample interview questions, we know. You've just got to know the "significance of dead beef."

Well, that, and a host of other really weird things (e.g., How many piano tuners are there in the world? How many golf balls can fit inside a school bus?). The interview does have its fair share of typically techie, super-complex questions -- the kinds of things you'd expect most Google geniuses to know -- but the oddball questions are by far the most fascinating. That being said, we're not so much intrigued by their impossible difficulty (Asking impossible questions can give you a feel for someone's thought process.) as we are by their tinges of quirky humor. We don't know this for certain, but we assume that the Google execs would probably approve of anyone who would appreciate the weird sense of humor underscoring these questions and would answer accordingly. Above all, the queries give some insight into that rare breed of brilliant yet zany person that Google is clearly seeking.

All that being said, these questions scare the bejeesus out of us. Good luck to anyone brave enough to sit through this assault. But remember kids, if worse comes to worse, you could always just slip in a homemade promotional video. Impossible, after all, is nothing. [From: Seattle Interview Coach, via The Awl]

Tags: employment, funny, google, google corporate, GoogleCorporate, job interview, JobInterview, jobs, top, weird

Comments

Tired_Nov 8th 2009 2:51PM

Neutral

I'd take one egg and drop it off the first floor. If it didn't break then, I'd go down and get it, and then drop it off the second floor, continuing the process until I broke the egg. I would then repeat the process with the second egg. This wouldn't really be a valid statistical sample, given only two data points, but I would average the two to determine how many floors the average egg (in my sample) would survive. The actual number of drops required is left as an exercise for the reader (hope you like stairs).

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EALNov 9th 2009 4:34AM

Neutral

It does'nt say anything about boiling them up nefore hand. hehehe

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mmscichowskiNov 8th 2009 3:03PM

Neutral

It isn't really a difficult question, just one with a variable answer.

the eggs are identical...

start at the first floor, if it doesn't break take that same egg and move to the next floor.

So on and so forth until it breaks...the floor before the egg broke after dropping from, is the highest floor you can drop the egg from for it not to break.

The question being how many drops you need to make, the answer is between 1-100 and is based on whether both eggs are hard or soft.

My guess you won't get passed the first floor...

But I am sure that is the kind of critical thinking they are aimed at discovering their interviewees to possess.

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ChristopherCambellNov 8th 2009 3:51PM

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@mmscichowski:

One major factor that you fail to recognize is that with every dropping of the egg, the shell is going to be weakened. Thus if you drop one egg five times and then it breaks on the sixth floor, the number of stories it can fall without breaking might not have been originally five, but simply because it has been weakened by so many consecutive falls.

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Kasey MactigheNov 8th 2009 9:52PM

Neutral

well if you use both of those logical points, you can come up with an answer. You take one egg and keep moving up a floor until it breaks. To test if any specific floor is THE last floor, you take the second egg and drop it from the floor in question. If it doesn't break, you probably have found the one.

Also, another piece of information that people have thusfar managed to overlook was that of eggs sometimes being fragile and other times being strong. This particular pair of identical eggs could either be weak or strong, but not both. Therefor, this pair of eggs will not be able to represent all eggs, merely just the pair. If multiple test cases were run with other pair of identical-yet different from the other pairs of -eggs, then a hypothesis could be reached, but this would just create another statistic. There is no factual answer.

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jurist96Nov 9th 2009 12:53AM

Neutral

First we must answer...what is an egg?

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NickNov 9th 2009 3:05AM

Neutral

How many piano tuners are there in the world?

The answer: Zero

You don't tune a piano, you 'temper' it

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CoopNov 9th 2009 12:06PM

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I'm pretty sure an unboiled egg wouldn't survive a 1-storey drop onto any uncushioned surface. Next. . .

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DavidJan 12th 2010 5:40PM

Neutral

minimize the number of drops necessary.

Groups of 10 first, then subdivide. The solution is guaranteed in 17 drops.

I can get it down to a guaranteed max of 14 drops.

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coryApr 16th 2010 2:57PM

Neutral

To Nick's point:

What's the difference between a piano and a tuna?

...
...
...
you can Tune-a piano but you can't Tuna-fish!

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