Interviews and Answering Logic Questions

cazs

Curious now, what was the brain teaser they asked?

Hominu

I helped interviewing 3 shortlisted people recently, one of which had a very sound knowledge and could just jump in and do the job and another 2 which knew less and would require training.

In the end we ended up employing a guy that needed more training, as his personality and attitude seemed better and was deemed a better fit for the existing team. It was decided that the knowledgeable guy may have turned out to be a bit arrogant, for lack of a better word as throughout the interview he only seemed to care about his way of solving the problems.

Malthusian

cazs wrote: »

Curious now, what was the brain teaser they asked?

This one, maybe?

You have 3 jars that are all mislabeled. One jar contains Apples, another contains Oranges and the third jar contains a mixture of both Apples and Oranges.

You are allowed to pick as many fruits as you want from each jar to fix the labels on the jars. What is the minimum number of fruits that you have to pick and from which jars to correctly label them?

I got it wrong because of a classic failing of mine - not reading the question properly. My answer was four, but that was because I'd overlooked the importance of the fact that all the jars are mislabelled, which means the answer is one - you only have to pick one fruit from the Apples & Oranges jar and then the rest fall into place.

And even if the labels on the jars aren't telling you anything, the minimum is three. But only if you pull two fruits from one jar and happen to get the apples & oranges jar and don't get two of the same fruit by bad luck. The fact that the possible solution was so messy and dependent on luck should have clued me into the fact that I'd missed something.

I'd say the question tests attention to detail as much as logic. But the problem with all these types of question is revealed in the bit on the website that says "This is the most commonly asked interview puzzle". Your interviewers could be forgiven for thinking that if someone gets it right it's because they've done it in an interview before or have seen it on Facebook.

Lorian

If that was the question then I'd answer - None. I'd look though the glass in the jar, check the colours and label them accordingly. Anything else results in spoilt product. I know I wouldn't get the job, that's fine.

marliepanda

Forever wrote: »

I went for an interview, and I had to do a logic test regarding 3 jars of jellybeans. I have been tutoring A level statistics and probabilities recently, so I immediately set to solving it in this way, and got the answer right! However, one of the interviewers spluttered that no one ever gets this question right.

On reflection after the interview, I got the impression that they suspected that I already knew the answer, and that I hadn't worked it out at all.

Today, I got a rejection email.

I feel kind of miffed if they thought I already knew it (I hate to say this, but I did wonder if it had something to do with being an older woman rather than a young geeky looking lad - but I could be wrong). On the other hand, I find it funny that you get these types of questions right, and then they reject you anyway! :rotfl:

I'll have to remember to deliberately get it wrong next time!

Back to the OP for one second, but why are you assuming this one question was so important? Was it the only question asked?

Maybe you got everything else wrong or answered the other questions they had unsatisfactorily.

Seems weird you think theyd have given you the job based on one question.

FBaby

They probably wanted to see how people react when face with a project they have no control over.

Maybe with your explanation, you can across as a bit full of yourself and that went against you. It is a shame they used a situation that was easy for you, you probably would have done better with one you were totally clueless about!

getmore4less

Forever wrote: »

I went for an interview, and I had to do a logic test regarding 3 jars of jellybeans. I have been tutoring A level statistics and probabilities recently, so I immediately set to solving it in this way, and got the answer right! However, one of the interviewers spluttered that no one ever gets this question right.

with a good interviewer that knows what they are doing every applicant will get the right answer even if they need help.

you listen to the applicant and see if they are getting the question, understand why they may be struggling and give hints to lead them to the correct answer.

There is no need to humiliate and make candidates feel inadequate

one issue with logic based question is you can get a lot better and quicker if you practice.

Ronaldo_Mconaldo

So what was the answer to this test, how did you do it?

YouAsked

getmore4less wrote: »

with a good interviewer that knows what they are doing every applicant will get the right answer even if they need help.

you listen to the applicant and see if they are getting the question, understand why they may be struggling and give hints to lead them to the correct answer.

There is no need to humiliate and make candidates feel inadequate

one issue with logic based question is you can get a lot better and quicker if you practice.

Sometimes, that might be appropriate, but other times it could be useful to an interviewer to see how a person reacts - do they ask for help, do they give up etc. It's weird to give a question that "no-one ever gets right" though!

It's highly unlikley the OP won't have got the job because they answered a logic question correctly! As suggested, it could have been because thought processes/logic weren't explained, or the explanation wasn't clear, or it was dull, or maybe that question was only one part of the process and the OP didn't do so well on the others.

dcouponzzzz

On the apples and oranges Q, I'd be stating the new labeling depends on the needs of the audience or client. The fact that they're mislabled currently is not specified as a restriction or what the current labels say, so print new labels.

One option would be to just add the label 'Apples', 'Oranges', 'Apples&Oranges' to the respective jars. It doesn't say they need to be exclusively one product.

If they do need to be separated, the question doesn't specify how many items there are in the jars, so assuming the jars had an equal total in each I'd answer 1/6 of the total in either Apples or Oranges should be relocated from the mixed jar to a jar of the same type as those removed.

Final suggestion would be to pour everything in to one jar and label as 'Apples & Oranges'.

I don't know the right answer, but I'd hope the considerations I'd made would show the ability to present multiple solutions to a single problem depending upon the needs of the requester and the time/resources available.