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Job Interview Questions That Mean You’re Not Getting Hired…And One That Means You Are

63 points by bdfh42 18y ago

fbbwsa 18y ago
Wow! Insightful! I guess I happen to be the very rare counterexample in that at some point in every interview process I've been through, I've been asked questions like the ones the author says won't get me hired. And I've never been asked "can you do this job?" (not so bluntly anyways, though obviously you are evaluated on that to some degree) Those questions don't mean you are not getting hired at all. They are (for better or for worse) standard practice by HR personnel. They might not tell you anything about a candidates capacity to do a job, but a lot of times personality fit is just as important. And I can tell a lot about a person by their answers to really stupid questions (even if they are canned, planned out, rehearsed responses). I want to work with cool people and have the pleasure of doing so. If competency was the only factor my firm asked for when hiring, I'd probably be working somewhere else. Ability is a necessary, but insufficient condition for employment, in my opinion. THATS why the employers ask you the questions that "Mean You're Not Getting Hired"
- Retric 18y ago
  The real question is not can you do this job but are you useful aka worth the time and money it's going to take to employ you. Which is the point of the other questions. Basically, they want to know how useful you are for this job and if this project tanks are we going to need to fire you or can you be used to do some other task.
vlad 18y ago
Not insightful at all.
- nihilocrat 18y ago
  Yeah, a lot of this stuff seems sort of obvious, but if it's so obvious that these questions are bullshit, why do interviewers keep asking them? Thankfully, any smart interviewer already knows this. Being asked these questions is a sign you might not want to work for these people because they are not very smart and/or don't think about the things that they say. To be honest, in the interviews where I thought "wow, these people know what they're doing", they did not ask these questions.
  - vlad 18y ago
    Quite often, the most random and insight-free blog posts containing no substance or logical deduction are upvoted because of a strong title. For some reason, some readers try to pull out whatever tiny bit of insight that the article might contain, to make up the for the time lost reading it. I say, write it off as a loss and move on. There are no logical deductions to see in the article. What does it matter if a certain question shows up in an interview? Why try to analyze every word? In the end, you either did well, or you didn't, and they either did well, or made a bad impression on you. Just answer the question and remain friendly whether you still think you're interested in them or not--not all questions are going to be highly technical. At the end of the day, it's just another person sitting across the table.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
- gaius 18y ago
  When I interview people I have a form from HR I need to fill in and some of those are on it as mandatory questions. I tick the box and move on quickly.
- msluyter 18y ago
  While I agreed with the article that most of the questions are pointless or at the very least suboptimal, I disagree that they imply that you're not getting hired. I think I've gotten some variant of "what are your weak points" in every interview I've been on (and I've been hired on several occasions. ;)). And I've sometimes asked the "I see you worked at company X doing Y... tell me about that" type of question as a sort of warmup before asking more technical questions. Finally, I don't think the "how many gas stations are there" type of questions are totally pointless (though I don't generally ask them.) They reveal something about how a candidate attempts to solve problems, and the one thing you don't want to see is the candidate simply say "I have no idea..." without at least trying. I think there is a danger if a company over relies on such questions, however.
- mikeryan 18y ago
  Pretty damn true. I've done my share of hiring in the last couple of years, allow me to opine on this post. "Tell me about yourself." Common question, usually my first question with candidates just to let them talk a bit about themselves and let them tell me what they feel is important. It also just breaks the ice even with a (hopefully) easy question. It doesn't mean you're not getting hired. "What are your biggest flaws?" - I don't use this, its a bullshit question and I don't know anyone who does. No one in their right mind is going to tell you the truth. "What are you strengths" is however a decent question, like "tell me about yourself" it allows the interviewee to tell you something about themselves that you may have missed. "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" - Not actually a dumb question, most people don't use it correctly. The answer to this question can be useful from a "goodness of fit" perspective. Do their goals align with how your organization works? This isn't a make or break question but it can get interesting answers. "Tell me about a time when you..." - Sorry this is the main type of question you should b e asking. This is the opportunity to ask the question "how are you going to solve the problems that we're going to give you?" "How many gas stations are in the United States?" - Ya crap question, but some engineering managers like them.
  - njharman 18y ago
    > "Tell me about a time when you..." - Sorry this is the main type of question you should b e asking. This is the opportunity to ask the question "how are you going to solve the problems that we're going to give you?" Probably what you really want is someone who solves problems not someone who can eloquently describe problems and their solutions, under pressure, in a few minutes or less. That question is a classic example of testing the wrong thing. It's better for you to describe an actual problem and have them solve it or discuss how they would go out solving. Which btw is typically a needed skill (being able to reason out and weigh solutions with a team)
    - dhimes 18y ago
      kinda like: "how many gas stations are there in the US?" Can you make quick estimates and assumptions to arrive at a conclusion?
    - 18y ago
time_management 18y ago
How many gas stations are in the US? Correct answer: Over 9000.
jjs 18y ago
The question that most highly correlates to getting hired is: "Hey, friend-or-acquaintance, my team at BigCo is hiring. Are you interested?"
- iron_ball 18y ago
  The OP mentioned this up front; the interview process is only necessary if your network falls through.
  - nostrademons 18y ago
    Many places will interview you anyway, just so they can justify to themselves that they really were thorough. My first job out of college, they made me an offer at the beginning of the interview process, because I'd interned with them before and they had a fairly good idea what I could do. The rest of the interviews were basically get-to-know-the-people-hired-after-your-internship. Also, at bigger companies, your referral may not be from the group or specialty you'll actually be working with, and so you'll have to go through the interview process itself to make sure they can stand you. My Google application process was like this, and my IBM one would've been had I pursued it. It's still a big positive, that someone in the company is willing to vouch for you.
  - azanar 18y ago
    The interview process, or some sort of skills assessment process, is still necessary even after the referral. Otherwise, you run the risk of hiring someone akin to the boss' nephew who claims web programming skills, but has never been in the same room as someone who has those skills. Relying on friends and colleagues for advice on who to hire is good, but it can turn bad if that is the only data point you rely on.
sdfx 18y ago
"How many gas stations are in the US? [...] the best response is to compliment the interviewer on offering such an interesting and intriguing question, then say 'I don’t know.' Offer to research the answer and get back to her or him." Actually, this is a fermi problem. [1] The purpose of this question is to figure out if someone can break a question down into parts and estimate reasonable values. But even more so, it is supposed to test whether you are enthusiastic about strange and puzzling problems. [2] Whether you think these questions are stupid or not, the right answer isn't "I give up, just google it", but rather "let me make some assumptions and calculate a value based on some estimates" Having said that, I think the number is arround 100,000 [3] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem [2] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html [3] http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi975.htm http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi975.htm
- jimbokun 18y ago
  Interesting. My first guess was 300,000. The town I grew up in is about 1,000 people, and has a gas station. Most of the small towns around that one of comparable size also have a gas station. So I figured if the population is about 300,000,000 and people per gas-station is about 1,000, then there are about 300,000 gas stations in the U.S.
  - sdfx 18y ago
    This is the way I would answered in an interview as well. I guess it heavily relies on the type of town you are from. Even smaller towns in remote areas tend to have a gas station. But I think whats important is not your answer, but how you came to the number, and 3x off is actually not bad for something you don't know anything about.
  - dhimes 18y ago
    I came to 200,000 by guessing how many were in an area served by one high school, and trying to remember how many high schools are in the US. Odd, but I figured a high school grouping would be some indicator of economic activity and thus civilian gas needs.
jimbokun 18y ago
"You are sitting at home when your kitchen sink springs a leak that you can’t fix. You reach for the phone book and call a plumber. When the plumber arrives you ask “before you get started, could you tell me where you see yourself in five years?” Your 1987 Impala has finally bit the dust. You call a tow truck to haul it away to be crushed or recycled. Before turning the keys over to the driver you ask “What are your biggest flaws?” *You and your family are taking a trip by plane. You are all a little nervous, as most people are when flying. To assuage your fears to walk up to the pilot and ask him “How many crosswalks are in New York City?”" Certainly puts things in perspective. This seems an excellent criterion for determining what are good and bad interview questions, assuming that your goal is actually to hire someone to do a job.
- lacker 18y ago
  That's an impossible test. What would you ask an airplane pilot to ensure he's a skilled pilot? No magic question will let a random unskilled person effectively interview for a technical position.
  - plinkplonk 18y ago
    "No magic question will let a random unskilled person effectively interview for a technical position." Exactly! Maybe pilots should interview pilots about the nuances of piloting (and once that talk is over, probably ask him to fly with the interviewer in teh copilot role) and leave out the "where do you see yourself in five years" type questions?
andreyf 18y ago
Following this advice will work if you're hiring contractors to do a specific project. But when you're building a company, you're looking for generally smart, enthusiastic people that will be able to do the jobs that need to be done now, and also the jobs that will need to be done when the current projects are done, or when they decide to move to a different team. A super-hacker-who-can-do-the-job might be useful to hire for a specific project, but will they be a useful employee when the company decides to change directions or technologies?
RK 18y ago
One of my most interesting interviews was at a defense contractor. "Can you do this job?" was a very difficult question to get at, because they couldn't even tell me what the job was! As you might imagine, they had to use a lot of very general language. I did get an offer from them in the end.
danw 18y ago
“Tell me about yourself” is a hugely useful question. It gives you a chance to take control of the interview and steer it towards the areas you perform best or can talk about most persuasively.
geebee 18y ago
I don't like asking "what's your greatest weakness". However, other people on my team have insisted on asking this question during interviews. In this case, I use it to gauge how an applicant handles a somewhat inappropriate question that he/she probably shouldn't answer honestly.
nostrademons 18y ago
The first question my Google phone interviewer asked me was "So...tell me about yourself." One phone interview, 4 in-person interviews, about 2 dozen emails back-and-forth with my recruiter, one hiring committee, several VPs, and a couple days held up on Larry Page's desk later, I was hired. It's a conversation starter. It gives them a baseline to open things up. Your answers after that, once you've gotten into the swing of things, determine whether you'll be hired. Also, an interviewer will almost never ask you "Can you do this job?" or "What does this job entail?" How do they know you're being truthful, or even if you are, how do they know that you're not just wrong? It's your responsibility to show the answer to these, through the questions you ask your interviewers. Nearly all interviewers will ask "Do you have any questions for me?" - that's your chance to show that you're interested in the meat of the job itself.
- tocomment 18y ago
  Mine didn't go so well. They flew me out there, then on interview day all of the managers were "busy" so I met with two guys and that was it. 12 hours of flying and two missed days of work for a two hour interview :-(
  - nostrademons 18y ago
    Ouch. That sucks. I'd think that HR would be very careful about making sure the interviewers are actually available before bringing you out. With mine, there was some concern that it might actually get pushed past Thanksgiving due to lack of interviewer availability (thankfully not, and they got it in front of the hiring committee before the break). My experience with Google HR in general was very positive, though of course "all's well that ends well", so my perspective might be a bit biased.
    - tocomment 18y ago
      Luckily I like traveling and met with a friend out in SF so I guess still a good experience. After that they referred me to YouTube (is that where they send the second class programmers?) I had one phone interview and he asked me to come up with an algorithm to do something tricky (forget exact question) but it turns out I can't program in my head over the phone. I emailed him the solution later but I guess it didn't help.
teamonkey 18y ago
"Can you do this job?" "Yes, that's why I applied for the job."
mattmaroon 18y ago
"What are your biggest flaws?" My only flaw is that I don't have any flaws.
- greendestiny 18y ago
  I'm so awesome that it makes other people feel inadequate. Sorry.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    That's better.
amrithk 18y ago
Great post. I have been asked the same questions in many of my interviews before.
dustineichler 18y ago
Interesting... I just interviewed today at a startup that was very different from anything previous. It was actually good, but they asked at least 2 of the questions listed in the article.
coliveira 18y ago
I agree that many of the interview questions traditionally used are silly. But it difficult to avoid them if you want to be successful in the job search process.
grouchyOldGuy 18y ago
I've been on both sides of the interview table. I've always particpated as part of a team when interviewing, and I've asked the technical questions while others threw the "soft" questions ("What is your biggest flaw?", etc.) I've cared less about what they said but rather how they said it. Did they come across as arrogant, thoughtful, easily flustered, etc.? How they responded was more useful that what they responded.

63 points by bdfh42 18y ago

Wow! Insightful! I guess I happen to be the very rare counterexample in that at some point in every interview process I've been through, I've been asked questions like the ones the author says won't get me hired. And I've never been asked "can you do this job?" (not so bluntly anyways, though obviously you are evaluated on that to some degree) Those questions don't mean you are not getting hired at all. They are (for better or for worse) standard practice by HR personnel. They might not tell you anything about a candidates capacity to do a job, but a lot of times personality fit is just as important. And I can tell a lot about a person by their answers to really stupid questions (even if they are canned, planned out, rehearsed responses). I want to work with cool people and have the pleasure of doing so. If competency was the only factor my firm asked for when hiring, I'd probably be working somewhere else. Ability is a necessary, but insufficient condition for employment, in my opinion. THATS why the employers ask you the questions that "Mean You're Not Getting Hired"

Retric 18y ago
The real question is not can you do this job but are you useful aka worth the time and money it's going to take to employ you. Which is the point of the other questions. Basically, they want to know how useful you are for this job and if this project tanks are we going to need to fire you or can you be used to do some other task.

vlad 18y ago

Not insightful at all.

nihilocrat 18y ago
Yeah, a lot of this stuff seems sort of obvious, but if it's so obvious that these questions are bullshit, why do interviewers keep asking them? Thankfully, any smart interviewer already knows this. Being asked these questions is a sign you might not want to work for these people because they are not very smart and/or don't think about the things that they say. To be honest, in the interviews where I thought "wow, these people know what they're doing", they did not ask these questions.
- vlad 18y ago
  Quite often, the most random and insight-free blog posts containing no substance or logical deduction are upvoted because of a strong title. For some reason, some readers try to pull out whatever tiny bit of insight that the article might contain, to make up the for the time lost reading it. I say, write it off as a loss and move on. There are no logical deductions to see in the article. What does it matter if a certain question shows up in an interview? Why try to analyze every word? In the end, you either did well, or you didn't, and they either did well, or made a bad impression on you. Just answer the question and remain friendly whether you still think you're interested in them or not--not all questions are going to be highly technical. At the end of the day, it's just another person sitting across the table.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
gaius 18y ago
When I interview people I have a form from HR I need to fill in and some of those are on it as mandatory questions. I tick the box and move on quickly.
msluyter 18y ago
While I agreed with the article that most of the questions are pointless or at the very least suboptimal, I disagree that they imply that you're not getting hired. I think I've gotten some variant of "what are your weak points" in every interview I've been on (and I've been hired on several occasions. ;)). And I've sometimes asked the "I see you worked at company X doing Y... tell me about that" type of question as a sort of warmup before asking more technical questions. Finally, I don't think the "how many gas stations are there" type of questions are totally pointless (though I don't generally ask them.) They reveal something about how a candidate attempts to solve problems, and the one thing you don't want to see is the candidate simply say "I have no idea..." without at least trying. I think there is a danger if a company over relies on such questions, however.
mikeryan 18y ago
Pretty damn true. I've done my share of hiring in the last couple of years, allow me to opine on this post. "Tell me about yourself." Common question, usually my first question with candidates just to let them talk a bit about themselves and let them tell me what they feel is important. It also just breaks the ice even with a (hopefully) easy question. It doesn't mean you're not getting hired. "What are your biggest flaws?" - I don't use this, its a bullshit question and I don't know anyone who does. No one in their right mind is going to tell you the truth. "What are you strengths" is however a decent question, like "tell me about yourself" it allows the interviewee to tell you something about themselves that you may have missed. "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" - Not actually a dumb question, most people don't use it correctly. The answer to this question can be useful from a "goodness of fit" perspective. Do their goals align with how your organization works? This isn't a make or break question but it can get interesting answers. "Tell me about a time when you..." - Sorry this is the main type of question you should b e asking. This is the opportunity to ask the question "how are you going to solve the problems that we're going to give you?" "How many gas stations are in the United States?" - Ya crap question, but some engineering managers like them.
- njharman 18y ago
  > "Tell me about a time when you..." - Sorry this is the main type of question you should b e asking. This is the opportunity to ask the question "how are you going to solve the problems that we're going to give you?" Probably what you really want is someone who solves problems not someone who can eloquently describe problems and their solutions, under pressure, in a few minutes or less. That question is a classic example of testing the wrong thing. It's better for you to describe an actual problem and have them solve it or discuss how they would go out solving. Which btw is typically a needed skill (being able to reason out and weigh solutions with a team)
  - dhimes 18y ago
    kinda like: "how many gas stations are there in the US?" Can you make quick estimates and assumptions to arrive at a conclusion?
  - 18y ago

time_management 18y ago

How many gas stations are in the US? Correct answer: Over 9000.

jjs 18y ago

The question that most highly correlates to getting hired is: "Hey, friend-or-acquaintance, my team at BigCo is hiring. Are you interested?"

iron_ball 18y ago
The OP mentioned this up front; the interview process is only necessary if your network falls through.
- nostrademons 18y ago
  Many places will interview you anyway, just so they can justify to themselves that they really were thorough. My first job out of college, they made me an offer at the beginning of the interview process, because I'd interned with them before and they had a fairly good idea what I could do. The rest of the interviews were basically get-to-know-the-people-hired-after-your-internship. Also, at bigger companies, your referral may not be from the group or specialty you'll actually be working with, and so you'll have to go through the interview process itself to make sure they can stand you. My Google application process was like this, and my IBM one would've been had I pursued it. It's still a big positive, that someone in the company is willing to vouch for you.
- azanar 18y ago
  The interview process, or some sort of skills assessment process, is still necessary even after the referral. Otherwise, you run the risk of hiring someone akin to the boss' nephew who claims web programming skills, but has never been in the same room as someone who has those skills. Relying on friends and colleagues for advice on who to hire is good, but it can turn bad if that is the only data point you rely on.

sdfx 18y ago

"How many gas stations are in the US? [...] the best response is to compliment the interviewer on offering such an interesting and intriguing question, then say 'I don’t know.' Offer to research the answer and get back to her or him." Actually, this is a fermi problem. [1] The purpose of this question is to figure out if someone can break a question down into parts and estimate reasonable values. But even more so, it is supposed to test whether you are enthusiastic about strange and puzzling problems. [2] Whether you think these questions are stupid or not, the right answer isn't "I give up, just google it", but rather "let me make some assumptions and calculate a value based on some estimates" Having said that, I think the number is arround 100,000 [3] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem [2] http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html [3] http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi975.htm http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi975.htm

jimbokun 18y ago
Interesting. My first guess was 300,000. The town I grew up in is about 1,000 people, and has a gas station. Most of the small towns around that one of comparable size also have a gas station. So I figured if the population is about 300,000,000 and people per gas-station is about 1,000, then there are about 300,000 gas stations in the U.S.
- sdfx 18y ago
  This is the way I would answered in an interview as well. I guess it heavily relies on the type of town you are from. Even smaller towns in remote areas tend to have a gas station. But I think whats important is not your answer, but how you came to the number, and 3x off is actually not bad for something you don't know anything about.
- dhimes 18y ago
  I came to 200,000 by guessing how many were in an area served by one high school, and trying to remember how many high schools are in the US. Odd, but I figured a high school grouping would be some indicator of economic activity and thus civilian gas needs.

jimbokun 18y ago

"You are sitting at home when your kitchen sink springs a leak that you can’t fix. You reach for the phone book and call a plumber. When the plumber arrives you ask “before you get started, could you tell me where you see yourself in five years?” Your 1987 Impala has finally bit the dust. You call a tow truck to haul it away to be crushed or recycled. Before turning the keys over to the driver you ask “What are your biggest flaws?” *You and your family are taking a trip by plane. You are all a little nervous, as most people are when flying. To assuage your fears to walk up to the pilot and ask him “How many crosswalks are in New York City?”" Certainly puts things in perspective. This seems an excellent criterion for determining what are good and bad interview questions, assuming that your goal is actually to hire someone to do a job.

lacker 18y ago
That's an impossible test. What would you ask an airplane pilot to ensure he's a skilled pilot? No magic question will let a random unskilled person effectively interview for a technical position.
- plinkplonk 18y ago
  "No magic question will let a random unskilled person effectively interview for a technical position." Exactly! Maybe pilots should interview pilots about the nuances of piloting (and once that talk is over, probably ask him to fly with the interviewer in teh copilot role) and leave out the "where do you see yourself in five years" type questions?

andreyf 18y ago

Following this advice will work if you're hiring contractors to do a specific project. But when you're building a company, you're looking for generally smart, enthusiastic people that will be able to do the jobs that need to be done now, and also the jobs that will need to be done when the current projects are done, or when they decide to move to a different team. A super-hacker-who-can-do-the-job might be useful to hire for a specific project, but will they be a useful employee when the company decides to change directions or technologies?

RK 18y ago

One of my most interesting interviews was at a defense contractor. "Can you do this job?" was a very difficult question to get at, because they couldn't even tell me what the job was! As you might imagine, they had to use a lot of very general language. I did get an offer from them in the end.

danw 18y ago

“Tell me about yourself” is a hugely useful question. It gives you a chance to take control of the interview and steer it towards the areas you perform best or can talk about most persuasively.

geebee 18y ago

I don't like asking "what's your greatest weakness". However, other people on my team have insisted on asking this question during interviews. In this case, I use it to gauge how an applicant handles a somewhat inappropriate question that he/she probably shouldn't answer honestly.

nostrademons 18y ago

The first question my Google phone interviewer asked me was "So...tell me about yourself." One phone interview, 4 in-person interviews, about 2 dozen emails back-and-forth with my recruiter, one hiring committee, several VPs, and a couple days held up on Larry Page's desk later, I was hired. It's a conversation starter. It gives them a baseline to open things up. Your answers after that, once you've gotten into the swing of things, determine whether you'll be hired. Also, an interviewer will almost never ask you "Can you do this job?" or "What does this job entail?" How do they know you're being truthful, or even if you are, how do they know that you're not just wrong? It's your responsibility to show the answer to these, through the questions you ask your interviewers. Nearly all interviewers will ask "Do you have any questions for me?" - that's your chance to show that you're interested in the meat of the job itself.

tocomment 18y ago
Mine didn't go so well. They flew me out there, then on interview day all of the managers were "busy" so I met with two guys and that was it. 12 hours of flying and two missed days of work for a two hour interview :-(
- nostrademons 18y ago
  Ouch. That sucks. I'd think that HR would be very careful about making sure the interviewers are actually available before bringing you out. With mine, there was some concern that it might actually get pushed past Thanksgiving due to lack of interviewer availability (thankfully not, and they got it in front of the hiring committee before the break). My experience with Google HR in general was very positive, though of course "all's well that ends well", so my perspective might be a bit biased.
  - tocomment 18y ago
    Luckily I like traveling and met with a friend out in SF so I guess still a good experience. After that they referred me to YouTube (is that where they send the second class programmers?) I had one phone interview and he asked me to come up with an algorithm to do something tricky (forget exact question) but it turns out I can't program in my head over the phone. I emailed him the solution later but I guess it didn't help.

teamonkey 18y ago

"Can you do this job?" "Yes, that's why I applied for the job."

mattmaroon 18y ago

"What are your biggest flaws?" My only flaw is that I don't have any flaws.

greendestiny 18y ago
I'm so awesome that it makes other people feel inadequate. Sorry.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  That's better.

amrithk 18y ago

Great post. I have been asked the same questions in many of my interviews before.

dustineichler 18y ago

Interesting... I just interviewed today at a startup that was very different from anything previous. It was actually good, but they asked at least 2 of the questions listed in the article.

coliveira 18y ago

I agree that many of the interview questions traditionally used are silly. But it difficult to avoid them if you want to be successful in the job search process.

grouchyOldGuy 18y ago

I've been on both sides of the interview table. I've always particpated as part of a team when interviewing, and I've asked the technical questions while others threw the "soft" questions ("What is your biggest flaw?", etc.) I've cared less about what they said but rather how they said it. Did they come across as arrogant, thoughtful, easily flustered, etc.? How they responded was more useful that what they responded.