And You Thought Your Interview Was Tough! 25 Most Bizarre Interview Questions

by | Career Advice | 0 comments

When you are preparing for a big interview, one crucial element for success is to rehearse answering the basic questions typically asked in interviews.  Although we sometimes assume interviewers to be creatures of habit and predictability, we all know that they can occasionally stray from the “Big Book of Interview Questions,” and just as soon as you feel you’ve immaculately recited the answer to “What is your biggest strength?,” the interviewer will jolt you with a real humdinger.  Unfortunately, there is little preparation for such questions (unless you have an uncanny knack for ESP), so it is important to enter an interview as confident as possible so you are able to knock any curveball they throw at you out of the park.

So why do interviewers do this to us?  Interviews are stressful enough, with their dreadful, awkward moments that induce new unbecoming habits you never knew you had, like nail-biting, stuttering, leg twitching, hair twirling, etc.  The mere thought of interviews can unravel even the most composed individual, so why the cruel and unusual punishment of trick questions and absurd inquiries that leave you scratching your head and yearning for a large rock to crawl under?  Well, before you sulk in self pity on the car ride home from a tough interview, just be happy you weren’t the interviewees in THESE interviews.
Below are the top 25 weirdest interview questions of last year, according to a Yahoo Finance article.  And you thought the “Master of Inquisition” at YOUR last interview was tough!  We know interviews are no laughing matter, but these bizarre interview questions help us see the jocular side of an employment obligation more dreaded than trips to the dentist.
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? (Aflac)
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)
6. How many basketballs can you fit in this room? (Reportedly from Google)
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;)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)

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)
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)
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)

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