2 ms·
From my limited anecdotes of the time, I believe Google actually did it. We're not talking about programming-related brain teasers here, we're talking about non
by potatolicious 14y ago
From my limited anecdotes of the time, I believe Google actually did it. We're not talking about programming-related brain teasers here, we're talking about non-programming ones.
e.g., "3 light bulbs in a room" and "family crossing the bridge" being the classic examples.
- papsosouid 14y agoI've heard the same thing, always from unreliable "I heard" sources. I've never heard anyone who actually did interviews or was interviewed say that.
- coliveira 14y agoI was interviewed by Google and had to answer this "brain teaser" kind of questions. So, no, it is not just folklore.
- papsosouid 14y agoCan you be specific with some examples? As demonstrated elsewhere in the thread, some people perceive the same questions as appropriate and others perceive them as "brain teasers".
- debacle 14y agoNever heard the family crossing the bridge one. Which one is that?
- potatolicious 14y agoYou have a bridge that can only take a certain amount of weight at once without collapsing. It's dark at night and you have only one flashlight. A flashlight is required to cross the bridge, which is traversable in both directions. You have a family of people of varying weights (the exact numbers you'd have to look up) - determine the optimal way for the family to make it across the bridge.
- debacle 14y agoThanks. I don't think that's a bad one. In fact, like the Towers of Hanoi, I think it has enough parallels with computer science and engineering to be a good interview question.
- usea 14y agoIndeed, it is a specific instance of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem