4 ms·

Google stopped asking brainteaser questions like that because they found no correlation in its hiring usefulness.

kerng 8y ago
I think it's true for majority of questions (apparently leetcoding is the new thing at Google and also FB). IMHO interning for a few weeks is the best for both sides - unfortunately it doesnt scale.
- kabdib 8y ago
  Interning "for a few weeks" means that you miss out on candidates who already have perfectly good jobs. These are often the folks that you are trying to hire. So imagine how a candidate reacts to, "Well, while we know you're happy where you are, what would you think about quitting your current job so you can try out a position at our company for a few weeks?" (Note that candidates can't use vacation time just to do a try-out, for legal reasons, and may be reluctant to use up all their vacation time in any event). Having a trial period puts all the risk on the candidate, and guarantees you're filtering out people that you'd otherwise want.
BurningFrog 8y ago
I'll be the obligatory ex Googler claiming Google never did ask brainteaser questions, or at least they were long gone by 2006.
- 13of40 8y ago
  Puzzle questions were definitely against company policy and at least ones unrelated to coding were rare by that time at Microsoft, too.
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  Wouldn’t the current niche clever dynamic programming problems google asks you to work out on a whiteboard be classified as brain teasers? Sure, it’s much easier to prep for via the cracking code interview book, but is still not something you would encounter in the wild.
- compsciphd 8y ago
  I was asked to estimate Pi using a unit circle (diameter = 1) inscribed in a unit square (side = 1) around 2012-2013. In a manner that would have a controllable amount of precision. They wanted monte carlo (more darts, more precision), I went riemann sums (smaller delta x, more precision). It totally through me off my game for the rest of the interview as I was constantly thinking about it. while not quite a traditional brain teaser, there are a couple of insights one has to get to solve it 1. ratio of circle area to square = pi/4 (but remember, you don't know pi yet, just that it exists, the point is to estimate it) 2. a way to make use of that ratio (i.e. monte carlo, pick a random 2d point (on both x,y from -0.5 to 0.5) if the distance from (0,0) is greater than 1, it is only added to the square, otherwise it gets added to both. combine the 2 insights and you get pi ~ 4*circle/square (as mentioned I went with riemann sums, where I calculated the area under the curve of the circle's arc in one quadrant, but same idea you get pi ~ circle_arc_area/.25) those 2 points aren't quite obvious (I went riemann sums as area questions made me think calculus and went totally down that rabbit hole), and in 30-40 minutes of brainstorming (first 10-15 minute discussion about the person, then actual interview question, then 5+ minutes for any questions you have for the interviewer) can be difficult for many people to get. The problem can then be, many people can't just stop thinking about a problem they struggled with and will continue to process it (hurting their following interview Qs), i.e. even if that interviewer thought I did sufficiently, I believe it hurt me on the following Qs as I couldn't just let it go, which in the real world is how I think many people work. If they are struggling with how to solve something, they are dealing with it even when they are supposedly focused on other things (say in meetings, eating lunch....)
  - BurningFrog 8y ago
    Unless you were interviewing for a mathematician position, I agree that's a garbage programming interviewing question. It's focused on your math skills far more than your programming skills. If it's a "brainteaser" is I guess a matter of definition. Look, I'm sure people are asked bad questions at all times in all companies, but the policy at Google was clearly to not do that. At least when I was there 2006-2009.

I think it's true for majority of questions (apparently leetcoding is the new thing at Google and also FB). IMHO interning for a few weeks is the best for both sides - unfortunately it doesnt scale.

kabdib 8y ago
Interning "for a few weeks" means that you miss out on candidates who already have perfectly good jobs. These are often the folks that you are trying to hire. So imagine how a candidate reacts to, "Well, while we know you're happy where you are, what would you think about quitting your current job so you can try out a position at our company for a few weeks?" (Note that candidates can't use vacation time just to do a try-out, for legal reasons, and may be reluctant to use up all their vacation time in any event). Having a trial period puts all the risk on the candidate, and guarantees you're filtering out people that you'd otherwise want.

BurningFrog 8y ago

I'll be the obligatory ex Googler claiming Google never did ask brainteaser questions, or at least they were long gone by 2006.

13of40 8y ago
Puzzle questions were definitely against company policy and at least ones unrelated to coding were rare by that time at Microsoft, too.
seanmcdirmid 8y ago
Wouldn’t the current niche clever dynamic programming problems google asks you to work out on a whiteboard be classified as brain teasers? Sure, it’s much easier to prep for via the cracking code interview book, but is still not something you would encounter in the wild.
compsciphd 8y ago
I was asked to estimate Pi using a unit circle (diameter = 1) inscribed in a unit square (side = 1) around 2012-2013. In a manner that would have a controllable amount of precision. They wanted monte carlo (more darts, more precision), I went riemann sums (smaller delta x, more precision). It totally through me off my game for the rest of the interview as I was constantly thinking about it. while not quite a traditional brain teaser, there are a couple of insights one has to get to solve it 1. ratio of circle area to square = pi/4 (but remember, you don't know pi yet, just that it exists, the point is to estimate it) 2. a way to make use of that ratio (i.e. monte carlo, pick a random 2d point (on both x,y from -0.5 to 0.5) if the distance from (0,0) is greater than 1, it is only added to the square, otherwise it gets added to both. combine the 2 insights and you get pi ~ 4*circle/square (as mentioned I went with riemann sums, where I calculated the area under the curve of the circle's arc in one quadrant, but same idea you get pi ~ circle_arc_area/.25) those 2 points aren't quite obvious (I went riemann sums as area questions made me think calculus and went totally down that rabbit hole), and in 30-40 minutes of brainstorming (first 10-15 minute discussion about the person, then actual interview question, then 5+ minutes for any questions you have for the interviewer) can be difficult for many people to get. The problem can then be, many people can't just stop thinking about a problem they struggled with and will continue to process it (hurting their following interview Qs), i.e. even if that interviewer thought I did sufficiently, I believe it hurt me on the following Qs as I couldn't just let it go, which in the real world is how I think many people work. If they are struggling with how to solve something, they are dealing with it even when they are supposedly focused on other things (say in meetings, eating lunch....)
- BurningFrog 8y ago
  Unless you were interviewing for a mathematician position, I agree that's a garbage programming interviewing question. It's focused on your math skills far more than your programming skills. If it's a "brainteaser" is I guess a matter of definition. Look, I'm sure people are asked bad questions at all times in all companies, but the policy at Google was clearly to not do that. At least when I was there 2006-2009.