Most Common Interview Questions

[n45048]

After reading one of those "news" articles today on some of the most common interview questions, it got me thinking about the jobs I've had in the past and some of the more ridiculous questions I've been asked in an interview.

I'd have to say one that immediately comes to mind was "If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?" as if the interviewer had some weird degree in psychology and could tell everything anything about me based on my response.

Yeah, I've heard the argument that it's supposed to gauge the applicants ability to think on their feet. I call it a load of horse shit (maybe I should have answered "horse"). There is no right or wrong answer and the question is as meaningless as any response to it.

What unusual or crazy questions have you been asked?

[coppice]

If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?

I would be a homo sapien, because I am the product of rumpy pumpy between two other homo sapiens.

[george graves]

Q: Do you work well under pressure?
A: I've been tested to withstand 14.7 PSI on a daily basis.

[German_EE]

"Where do you see yourself in X years time"?  The electronics industry changes from month to month and if I could predict five years into the future I would be playing the stock markets instead of attending job interviews.

"What is your greatest weakness"? Well, that would be my passionate desire for Sigorney Weaver's company, either that or my chronic kleptomania.

"What is your greatest strength"? Being able to answer silly interview questions without beating to death the person responsible.

"What is your favorite color"? Blood red, especially when lit by moonlight. Did you know that blood when lit by moonlight is quite black Mr Interviewer?

"What is your favorite computer language"? Solder (thank you Bob Pease)

"You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that"? Because I like freshly roasted tortoise.

And now a real one......................

"The stock control system has crashed, the yard is filled with delivery trucks waiting to load up and nothing is moving in or out of the warehouse, what do you do"? The correct answer here is 'ask for help' because the company needs the system up and running as quickly as possible and delays will cost much more than emergency assistance from a qualified database administrator.

[george graves]

Here another read:  http://www.wired.com/2014/08/how-to-solve-crazy-open-ended-google-interview-questions/

[Scrts]

I had a very interesting interview in Imagination Technologies when I had to solve how to save a game of chess using the minimum possible amount of bits in the memory.

[opty]

When they start asking questions like that I usually just leave, especially if it is my future boss who is asking. A job interview is as much about the candidate evaluating the company as it is about the company evaluating the candidate.

Being more on the software developer side I'm always put off when I'm asked to 'write a simple program doing...' during interview. I literally left once.

But then other people claim it is a good way of checking competencies.. (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html)

I'm still waiting for the day when someone will ask me for my github user name.

[HighVoltage]

If someone would ask me such a question and takes it to that level, I would turn it around and ask the interviewer even stranger questions.

[T3sl4co1l]

One I've heard of for EEs: a BJT, collector to +5, base to GND, emitter to -5 through a resistor.  Label all node voltages and currents.  Bonus points: note possible features, issues, instabilities, etc.

Another: basic op-amp (inv, NI) stages.  Design a gain of X, [non]inverting stage, etc.

Tim

[Marco]

I had a very interesting interview in Imagination Technologies when I had to solve how to save a game of chess using the minimum possible amount of bits in the memory.

That's just nasty, real code or pseudo code with some hand waving?

[zapta]

When they start asking questions like that I usually just leave

which suggests that the question is a good prima donnas filter. It's not about the answer, it's about the attitude.

[zapta]

One I've heard of for EEs: a BJT, collector to +5, base to GND, emitter to -5 through a resistor.  Label all node voltages and currents.  Bonus points: note possible features, issues, instabilities, etc.

NPN or PNP?

I give extra points when the interviewee state explicitly the assumptions he uses.

[Neganur]

And what does all this have to do with the tasks you're hired to do...?

I regularly scratch my head over those stories. I don't think I've ever heard one of those questions in an interview. It's either a real written test before you actually get interviewed or some very specific questions regarding the task they hire you for.

[FrankBuss]

I'm still waiting for the day when someone will ask me for my github user name.

Once Google contacted me for hiring, and one reason they said was because of my Github projects. It was tempting to go to the interview, but being a freelancer is still better. But I told the recruiter that I'll contact him again when I don't get any more freelancer projects.

[corrado33]

Here another read:  http://www.wired.com/2014/08/how-to-solve-crazy-open-ended-google-interview-questions/

I feel like if someone has to be taught how to guestimate, then they probably shouldn't be an engineer. 

This may be from my very limited job interview experience (went back to grad school for a reason.), but I get annoyed when people ask "What can you do for this company" for an entry level job. Honestly, nothing. You're going to do what you're told and complete menial tasks until you're promoted. You're not going to HELP the company at all, you're simply going to enable it to operate for as long as you work there. Now, that's a perfectly reasonable question for someone trying to land a higher position. I just think it's a way of coaxing awkward answers out of interviewees. "I uh... can uh... improve efficiencies with my light speed hands?" 

[Scrts]

I had a very interesting interview in Imagination Technologies when I had to solve how to save a game of chess using the minimum possible amount of bits in the memory.

That's just nasty, real code or pseudo code with some hand waving?

No code required. Tell the number of bits. They want to see how you iterate each time and try to push for less bits. They're software company mostly, so expect to show that you're talented. Everything happens on a white board.
So:
1) there are 64 cells in the chess board and 6 different playable figures, plus you have to bear in mind, that there are empty cells. And of course black and white figures.
2) so at the beginning of the game you have 32 used cells and 32 empty cells. See where you can start to reduce the memory usage? SO begin with that...
3) Try to squeeze more
4) Even more...
5) And what's the result?

The interviewers work with you. They throw you some hints and check how you respond. They say, that they're interested how you work in a team and what questions do you ask your team?

I didn't perform well TBH, probably because it was my second interview that day or just I wasn't so smart on stress, however when going back on the train I've managed to come to a result of 120bits.

Can someone do better?

[atferrari]

"Where do you see yourself in X years time"?  The electronics industry changes from month to month and if I could predict five years into the future I would be playing the stock markets instead of attending job interviews.

"What is your greatest weakness"? Well, that would be my passionate desire for Sigorney Weaver's company, either that or my chronic kleptomania.

"What is your greatest strength"? Being able to answer silly interview questions without beating to death the person responsible.

"What is your favorite color"? Blood red, especially when lit by moonlight. Did you know that blood when lit by moonlight is quite black Mr Interviewer?

"What is your favorite computer language"? Solder (thank you Bob Pease)

"You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can’t, not without your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that"? Because I like freshly roasted tortoise.

And now a real one......................

"The stock control system has crashed, the yard is filled with delivery trucks waiting to load up and nothing is moving in or out of the warehouse, what do you do"? The correct answer here is 'ask for help' because the company needs the system up and running as quickly as possible and delays will cost much more than emergency assistance from a qualified database administrator.

Sense of humor or realistic? I enjoyed it anyway.

[ajb]

I didn't perform well TBH, probably because it was my second interview that day or just I wasn't so smart on stress, however when going back on the train I've managed to come to a result of 120bits.

Can someone do better?

Okay, you managed to nerd snipe me for the last hour, but after getting stuck at 160, I gave up and consulted the internet.  According to people who know the rules of chess better than I do, the number of board positions is ~4x10^40, or ~135 bits, before accounting for pawn promotion (which I forgot you could even do!).   Some estimates are apparently even as high as 10^52 (175 bits), if you account for promotions.  How the heck do you get 120?

[helius]

But if the requirement is "save a game of chess", then a single board position isn't sufficient. That's because according to the rules, any past position can't be repeated more than twice.

[nctnico]

I'm still waiting for the day when someone will ask me for my github user name.

Once Google contacted me for hiring, and one reason they said was because of my Github projects. It was tempting to go to the interview, but being a freelancer is still better. But I told the recruiter that I'll contact him again when I don't get any more freelancer projects.

That is most likely the day recruiters won't be interested in you as well 

The interviews I f*** up are usually the ones where they ask me questions with lots of specific jargon.

[Scrts]

I didn't perform well TBH, probably because it was my second interview that day or just I wasn't so smart on stress, however when going back on the train I've managed to come to a result of 120bits.

Can someone do better?

Okay, you managed to nerd snipe me for the last hour, but after getting stuck at 160, I gave up and consulted the internet.  According to people who know the rules of chess better than I do, the number of board positions is ~4x10^40, or ~135 bits, before accounting for pawn promotion (which I forgot you could even do!).   Some estimates are apparently even as high as 10^52 (175 bits), if you account for promotions.  How the heck do you get 120?

I need to think around this again, just remembered that it was 120 AFAIK.
However, are you sure you're talking about chess and not checkers? I don't know chess rules to be honest...

[Rerouter]

another interesting one to an interveiw i have seen,

Q: hold your hand / arm out straight and keep your fingers as still as you can.

it was a test to rule out people with hands too shaky to solder SMD parts

[German_EE]

For those of you who are curious about the interview questions I posted. All questions are real but the answers are from various sources:

"Where do you see yourself in X years time"?  Silly question, silly answer.

"What is your greatest weakness"? A very common question, I often incorporate Ms Weaver into an answer but I advise you not to mention kleptomania 

"What is your greatest strength"? Another common question, what the hell do they expect us to say?

"What is your favorite color"? I was asked this in an interview for Data General. The answer is a line from 'Manhunter' directed by Michael Mann (a rather good movie) but I advise you not to use it.

"What is your favorite computer language"? If interviewed for a hardware position 'solder' is the best answer you can give. It's got me at least two jobs, maybe more.

If you can't understand the turtle question you're probably a replicant. Stand by to be retired.

The final question was asked at my girlfriend's interview and "get help" was the answer she gave. She got the job.

[max666]

"If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?"

I would say a circus lion, because then I would be able to enjoy jumping through ridiculous hoops, like answering interview questions on what animal I would like to be.

When I was studying, I applied for a part time job as a janitor and first thing the interviewer said was "You didn't send in a resume ...". Are you kidding me! You want my resume to see if I'm qualified to change light bulbs? ... bumptious idiot.
Worst thing is I got the job and also took the job 

[helius]

In the not-too-distant future the interview will start by asking "Are you an android or a lesser, carbon-based life form?"