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The idea behind the questions aren't bad. The point of the questions is to see how someone works through a problem. Even if they can't figure out the answer,
by gkoberger 17y ago
The idea behind the questions aren't bad. The point of the questions is to see how someone works through a problem. Even if they can't figure out the answer, the way they try to work it out is what is important.
However, a few of these questions have been used so much they have become cliche. Rather than test how someone works through a problem, they merely tell the employer if the candidate has heard it already. Any employer who asks any of these questions is lazy, plain and simple.
That being said, here are the questions (from a later post): http://www.codeslate.com/2007/02/survivor-answers.html http://www.codeslate.com/2007/02/survivor-answers.html
- hga 17y agoThe problem is that most of the type of questions are "tricks", they require you to come up with a specific insight (or maybe do a little algebra in your head). Asking someone to do this on demand in an interview is iffy; in some jobs I'm sure that sort of puzzle solving is needed, but for most I find it a lot more apropos to ask them to do something related to the job. E.g. to attack a design problem, where I will indeed be looking at how they work through it.
- sliverstorm 17y agoEspecially so, I think, for the title question- where do you bury the survivors? I can't say for all the questions, but that one deliberately misleads and misdirects the listener. That's why it works as a joke. Could be useful to see if they can be distracted or misled, but it sure doesn't check for intelligence/insight.