The Hardest Job Interview Questions—And How to Ace Them

How many people would use a drug that prevents baldness? Name as many uses for a brick as you can in one minute. If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and dropped in a blender, how would you get out? Major companies are asking challenging job interview questions like these. Here’s how to prepare. [jump]

Glassdoor has listed the 25 most difficult companies to interview for and revealed daunting questions like these that candidates are actually asked. These questions go beyond the typical job interview questions (which are challenging in their own right) to really stump you and test your mettle.

The good news is that interviewers aren’t really looking for one perfect answer (few people know exactly how many hotels are in the US, as one Google interviewer was asked), but rather want to see how you think, your creative problem-solving skills, and how you react under pressure. More examples recently asked include:


“Interview me and then tell me if you would hire me” – ThoughtWorks talent scout candidate (Porto Alegre, Brazil).

“Estimate how many windows are in New York” –Bain & Company associate consultant candidate (Boston).

“Give 2-3 negative points of diversity in a company” –Shell Oil supply chain graduate candidate (location n/a).

Mint notes that questions like “Why don’t you go to law school?” are sometimes asked to try to rattle candidates.

So the first thing you should do when interviewing is make sure you stay calm and don’t panic, no matter what the interviewer throws at you.

And whatever you do, don’t say “I don’t know” even if the question seems impossible. Instead, think through the problem out loud so the interviewer can see your thought process, and break it down into little parts or steps so you can come up with a solution. JLBender gives a couple of examples on HubPages:

Q. You have nine balls and one is lighter than the others. How do you find the lightest ball in two attempts?
This can be easily solved if you break down the steps to finding the answer. The first step is to divide the balls into sets of three and weigh each set. You will then know which set has the lightest ball. The second step is to weigh two of the three balls in the lightest set. If one weighs less than the other, you have found your ball. If they are equal, the ball you did not weigh is the lightest.

For the crazy trapped-in-a-blender question above, offer multiple strategies. For example, trying to jump from the blender blades or running from one side of the glass to the other to knock it over and escape.

Brush up on other brainteasers (Glassdoor has a list of hundreds of them, and you can also view companies’ sample interview questions) and sharpen your creative problem-solving skills so that interview will (hopefully) be a breeze.

Top 25 Most Difficult Companies To Interview; Consulting Firms Lead The Way | Glassdoor via Mint and CNN

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