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The value of puzzles in interviewing is never about reaching the solution. It is about seeing how candidates deal with tricky situations that stretch them a bit

The value of puzzles in interviewing is never about reaching the solution. It is about seeing how candidates deal with tricky situations that stretch them a bit, because that happens all the time on the job. It should almost always be done interactively, so you can see what clarifications and extra information they ask for, when and how they give up, and if they're dumb enough to say HR violations out loud (it does happen). This does require a rather skilled interviewer, so the benefits may well not be worth it. But it can be very interesting information to have.

teekert 1y ago
Or whether you watch Veritasium and just know you can jump out of that blender because weight scales with the cube of height and muscle power scales quadratically.
frankharrison 1y ago
They don’t really tell you how someone works or thinks though. They just show you that the candidate thinks in one of a certain number of ways. If they can’t answer it could be down to a range of factors, that one hadn’t foreseen. The “thinking ways” that allow one to solve the problem can be considered to be socio-normative and neuro-typical; normally these fit white patriarchal modalities. The mental modalities that make it harder to solve such problems are those related to sequence memory weaknesses, comprehension weaknesses, stress factors, attention weaknesses, social differences, exposure, culture, education. So dyslexics, ADHD, Autistics, socio deprived (poorer backgrounds), may struggle with tums like this that assume a consistent world view - when in fact they likely have other strengths in problem solving. It’s not a one size fit all. Additionally like IQ, ability to solve these types of problem is down to either natural ability or practise in the domain - that is you can increase your IQ by training against the core elements IQ tests look at. I tend to get candidates to take me through something they know well, or love, or have solved, and then I ask them about how they did it. This shows me genuinely how good they’ll be at the job in hand.. and is why my teams are actually diverse.

teekert 1y ago

Or whether you watch Veritasium and just know you can jump out of that blender because weight scales with the cube of height and muscle power scales quadratically.

frankharrison 1y ago

They don’t really tell you how someone works or thinks though. They just show you that the candidate thinks in one of a certain number of ways. If they can’t answer it could be down to a range of factors, that one hadn’t foreseen. The “thinking ways” that allow one to solve the problem can be considered to be socio-normative and neuro-typical; normally these fit white patriarchal modalities. The mental modalities that make it harder to solve such problems are those related to sequence memory weaknesses, comprehension weaknesses, stress factors, attention weaknesses, social differences, exposure, culture, education. So dyslexics, ADHD, Autistics, socio deprived (poorer backgrounds), may struggle with tums like this that assume a consistent world view - when in fact they likely have other strengths in problem solving. It’s not a one size fit all. Additionally like IQ, ability to solve these types of problem is down to either natural ability or practise in the domain - that is you can increase your IQ by training against the core elements IQ tests look at. I tend to get candidates to take me through something they know well, or love, or have solved, and then I ask them about how they did it. This shows me genuinely how good they’ll be at the job in hand.. and is why my teams are actually diverse.