Funny Interview Questions

[Sai Surya]

Hello All,

I recently attended an interview. I found the questions were funny. Just thought of sharing with you.

Interviewer: If we give you a module which consists of new technology, how will you proceed with it?

My answer: I will first understand the module and learns the technology and develops the code after doing design ASAP.

Interviewer: What will you do if we give you one day for doing all this?

My answer: I will do it one day.

Interviewer: What will you do if you are not able to complete in one day?

My answer: If the work is not getting completed after end of the day, I will request for some more time.

Interviewer: What if we insist you to complete it on the same day?

My ansser: I will spend 24 hrs and complete it. I am ready to cook food at office and work as if I am working in call center. (I am getting irritation at this point).

Interviewer: What will you do if no documentation is available for this new technology?
My answer: I will ask for knowledge transfer from my seniors.

Interviewer: What will you do if no one had worked on this technology before?
My answer: I will request for some more time to acquire knowledge and complete the work.

Interviewer: What if we force you to complete the work in one day without documentation, support?
My answer: If you can atleast give me a computer to do things, I know how to do it without documentation, support and time.

Is it really worth asking this kind of questions? What a person can do if he needs to work on new technology, with no documentation, no support and no time? I am not God, ofcourse, I am developer. Am I wrong with my answers?

[Vikrant Pandit]

The only reason I can think of is that he was trying to frustrate you ... .perhaps trying to test your patience levels ...
Anyways .. I think you replied very well
[ February 20, 2007: Message edited by: Vivek Pandey ]

[David O'Meara]

What if we cut off both your arms and poke out one eye (the left one) and ban toilet breaks during work hours?

[Deepak Bala]

What if we cut off both your arms and poke out one eye (the left one) and ban toilet breaks during work hours?

I will use my legs to code, wear a diaper, use my right eye and finish the work in 24 hours with google's help. SIR YES SIR !

[Zip Ped]

Nice post. I have given quite a few interviews but never had to face the same kind of questions as you did.

[Tim LeMaster]

My answer would be "I would question the motivation and logic behind such decisions" and if pressed further "At some point given enough obstacles, I would fail".

Plain and simple you are not superman, not everything is possible. I don't understand why you are afraid to tell them you are not God? Personally given your answers I would hesistate to trust your evaluations of level of difficulty or time to complete. To me he was trying to see what you would do in the face of something impossible. Your response was not to admit it would be impossible, trouble telling truth to power.

[Rohit Nath]

Interviewer: What if we force you to complete the work in one day without documentation, support?

Ideal Answer: Goto Hell! :roll:

I think this is the answer he is waiting to hear...
Ya, I find some interviewers really try to take advantage that they are the "interviewer" and the other is the "interviewee".

I like interviews to be more of a knowledged discussion between two professionals and not a round of "let me see how I can put you in a fix!".

Whenever I walk into an interview I expect the other person to respect me as another professional! Period.

[Rohit Nath]

Originally posted by David O'Meara:
What if we cut off both your arms and poke out one eye (the left one) and ban toilet breaks during work hours?

Is that what happened to the moose in the top left corner ^^^^^^^?
My oh my..!

[Nitin Nigam]

I think the interviewer was trying to see how you respond to sudden unwanted situations. And how long you can avoid panic.
But then there is no sure shot way of answering such question. If you show that after some point you will fail to handle this, one may perceive you as panic-man. On the other hand if you keep saying that you will try to work it out till the end, you may sound artificial, because practically, in the scenario depicted no one can deliver. No Documentation, No Support, New Technology, 24 hrs time boundation.. its all too close to comfort.

[Arjunkumar Shastry]

Originally posted by Sai Surya:
Interviewer: If we give you a module which consists of new technology, how will you proceed with it?

I will first evaluate whether that technology is suitable for that problem.(and whether its going to help in my career!!)

Interviewer: What will you do if we give you one day for doing all this?

I will do it.(Whether its complete or incomplete is a different matter)

Interviewer: What will you do if you are not able to complete in one day?

I will serve a worldwide notice that 96 hours means one day.

Interviewer: What if we insist you to complete it on the same day?

This depends on definition of day.Considering my worldwide clout,world will agree that 96 hours means one day.

Interviewer: What will you do if no documentation is available for this new technology?

I require no documentation.I have that rare talent.

Interviewer: What will you do if no one had worked on this technology before?

I can't help.Its their loss.I will get the crdit for working on it first time.

Interviewer: What if we force you to complete the work in one day without documentation, support?

I will update my resume.

[Arjunkumar Shastry]

Whenever somebody starts asking with "what if... or imagine",answer what you want.

[Pradeep bhatt]

Non sense interview questions.

[Rohit Nath]

Originally posted by Pradip Bhat:
Non sense interview questions.

Not completely nonsense.
The main objective of such questions is to test if you are realistic about meeting deadlines and how well you cope in Estimating the ETC(Estimated time of completion) of the task.

An important skill is to say "NO" when expectations exceed realistic timelines. They are expecting you to say "NO"! Althought it would be an "NO"
taken in the postitive sense.

(Though some of the questions are just too exhagerated and rediculous!)

[Pradeep bhatt]

Not completely nonsense

Looks like these stupid things have become normal.

[Rohit Nath]

Originally posted by Pradip Bhat:

Looks like these stupid things have become normal.

"It is not completely stupid!" (Ok leme explain)

Possible answers..

Interviewer: If we give you a module which consists of new technology, how will you proceed with it?

My answer: Learn technology on the fly..(as is expected from todays IT professionals) as soon as possible and understand the module. If possible I would like to get trained in that technology if training provided by company.

Interviewer: What will you do if we give you one day for doing all this?

My answer: I will estimate the ETC(Estimated time of completion) and if I think the time given is less than my estimated time I will inform you and try and extend the ETC.

Interviewer: What will you do if you are not able to complete in one day?

My answer: My first priority to complete the task withing the ETC if I am not able to complete within that time my attemp would be to get it done ASAP without further extending the ETC any longer. Also I would inform about this extended ETC to the concerned authority I am reporting to.

Interviewer: What if we insist you to complete it on the same day?

My ansser: To be honest if I am not able to deliver on time I would prefer to inform you in advance that the expected time of completion does not match with my estimated ETC rather than accepting do deliver and later failing to do so.

Interviewer: What will you do if no documentation is available for this new technology?
My answer: Now this is a stupid question. A new technology with no documentation?

Interviewer: What will you do if no one had worked on this technology before?
My answer: Take it as a good learning experience and I think it is always good to work on the latest technology.

Interviewer: What if we force you to complete the work in one day without documentation, support?
My answer: I will try my best given all above facts!

[Pradeep bhatt]

Interviewer: What will you do if no documentation is available for this new technology?
My answer: Now this is a stupid question. A new technology with no documentation?

This one is not stupid. There are many new open source tech where there is no or very little documentation. I was working on Service Mix ESB and docs were bad.

[Pradeep bhatt]

If someone give good answers to the above questions, does it mean that he/she will be actually complete the work in a day without docs/supports.

[Pradeep bhatt]

I will update my resume.

What will one write for one days work.

[Chetan Parekh]

I guess we required Head First : How to conduct interview.

[Rohit Nath]

Originally posted by Pradip Bhat:
If someone give good answers to the above questions, does it mean that he/she will be actually complete the work in a day without docs/supports.

ha ha... You really dint follow did you?
There is no good or bad answer.. Also it is not about getting work done in one day.
Its all about being clear that...
Hey dude..if you need me to get this stuff done in one day then be informed that this is my estimate and this is when I think it will get done. Ill try to get this thing done but If I dont complete today then dont come and knock on my door tomorrow morning..!
(Ofcourse we should say this in a "PROFESSIONAL" language... )
Ok thats bit on an overkill, please for gods sake dont do any of this..
Cheers!

[Deepak Bala]

This is snow balling into meaninglessness. May be its time for a new forum

[Mark Herschberg]

[Edited to fix typos]

Interviewer: If we give you a module which consists of new technology, how will you proceed with it?

My answer: I'll review the requirements for the module, learn the technology and then confirm that it's the correct technology for job. Very often new technology is overused because it's "cool" even when not appropriate, this called the "new buzzsaw" problem, somewhat akin to the "golden hammer" problem.


Interviewer: What will you do if we give you one day for doing all this?

My answer: Hope that it takes a day to complete. I'll provide an estimate at the start and if I think it will be longer than one day, I'll let you know.


Interviewer: What will you do if you are not able to complete in one day?

My answer: If it's because I'm incapable of completing it in one day but believe that someelse else could, likely sometime in the early afternoon I'll realize this and ask for help. If it's not realistic for anyone to complete it in one day, then I will raise the concern along with my estimate.


Interviewer: What if we insist you to complete it on the same day?

My answer: There is a principle called the engineering triangle consisting of time, resources, and scope. You can pick any two. Here you are trying to contrain all three and that is not realistic. I would address the issue of constraints with the appropriate party.


Interviewer: What will you do if no documentation is available for this new technology?

My answer: Seek out information, from the web, or from others both inside the company and out. I would also raise a concern about using undocumented technology.


Interviewer: What will you do if you can't find any information on this technology? (Note: I changed the wording to be equivalently responsive to my prior answer.)

My answer: I will seriously question the desire to use the technology in light of this limitation. If we must, then I will make sure we include learning time in the estimate. I will also look for other ways to reduce risk in the project to trade-off the increased technology risk.


Interviewer: What if we force you to complete the work in one day without documentation, support?

My answer: I'd probably deliver a substandard product and would quit over my frustration with the incompetent management.

:-)


--Mark
[ February 22, 2007: Message edited by: Mark Herschberg ]

[Rachil Chandran]

really great answers Mark.
Suddenly the questions that looked absolutely ridiculous, now (with these answers) looks like an intelligent conversation (ok maybe a wee bit weird still )

[Kj Reddy]

Good answers Mark, your answers made the questions more meaningful.

Unfortunately in some of the interviews I observed that the interviewer target is making the person to loose their patience. I observed this with some of my fellow interviewers too.

[Nitin Nigam]

Interviewer:What if i ask you to work on new technology?
Me:It will be nice to have exposure to new technology.(I will have another thing to brag about in my resume.)
Interviewer:What if there is not any support/documentation?
Me:I can still do it. In my previous project i was working alone(Because nobody was able to understand what i said, and i was not able to interpret what was written in documentation).
Interviewer:What if there is only 24 Hr time?
Me: So what? I can still deliver it.(Then it will be your headache to listen to client's complains) You see, the mighty aussies, after 5 back to back defeats,they are going to World Cup without any time to improve.
Interviewer:What??? They lost the last match also???
Me: Not yet..Game is in progress..Its a close match.Can go either way.
Interviewer:My God!!! What has happened to ausies?
Me: Dunno..may be they were getting bored of winning every time.
Interviewer:So what's the score?
Me: last 5 overs remaining New Zealand need 40 runs ..blah blah blah..
Interviewer:Which site do you see the live scorecard?
Me: espnstar.com
Interviewer: Damn ... espnstar.com is blocked in my office. Cant even track the score once i am in the office.
Me:What espnstar.com is blocked in your office? Damn!!! I guess we should end here.
Interviewer: Ya you wont like in here. By the way is there any position open with your current employer?
Me: Ohh yes...why not they are looking for.....blah blah blah... Ok so tell me what would you do if your manager gives you unrealistic deadlines, no support, non-sufficient resources etc etc....
Interviewer:Ummm.. thats a real tricky one...

[ February 22, 2007: Message edited by: Nitin Nigam ]

[ February 22, 2007: Message edited by: Nitin Nigam ]
[ February 22, 2007: Message edited by: Nitin Nigam ]

[Pradeep bhatt]

Things are getting really bad. People ask cricket questions instead of technical.

[Kj Reddy]

Originally posted by Pradip Bhat:
Things are getting really bad.

I feel lot of interviewers need training on how to conduct an interview. In some of the interviews I feel that they don't even look into resume before taking the interview.

[Srikanth Basa]

Originally posted by Pradip Bhat:
Things are getting really bad. People ask cricket questions instead of technical.

These kind of questions (on sports) are generally used to check your communication skills.
[ February 22, 2007: Message edited by: Srikanth Basavaraju ]

[Pradeep bhatt]

Originally posted by KJ Reddy:


I feel lot of interviewers need training on how to conduct an interview. In some of the interviews I feel that they don't even look into resume before taking the interview.

Yes they don't. This is more true in services company recruitment. They have walk-ins and hundreds attend the interview. One example is My friend went for Architect's position (8 yrs exp)and he was asked devloper questions.He had made it clear the position he was interested to the consultant.

[Pradeep bhatt]

Originally posted by Srikanth Basavaraju:


These kind of questions (on sports) are generally used to check your communication skills.

[ February 22, 2007: Message edited by: Srikanth Basavaraju ]

You can test communication skills even when asking technical questions and general discussion like sports, stock market should be reserved at the end of the interview.

[Sylvia Wang]

I think the interviewer is not stupid, what Rohit Nath mentioned is right.

they're testing the interviewee when and how would they say NO if they need to.
That's important to a manager, as they also don't want you just to take anything give to you and work work work until you can't handle it and call out for HELP just before the deadline. that's a nightmare for a manager too.
They would feel better if you let them know in advance that how realistic the deadline is, and how risky if they push for that deadline.

[william gates]

It all depends on the interviewer.. Some people are just a-holes plain and simple. Some read questions from books, others like to talk, some don't know what job they are interviewing you for and so on.
While there might not be anything called a "stupid" question, the fact is, communication skills are about the stupidest thing an interviewer can determine in an hour or less...

I've been on more than a few interviews where the person could not speak english, yet they were the ones judging me on my ability to speak it..makes sense to me.. Not.

I've been asked questions like "if I won the lottery," what would I do?

I've sat in as the "tech" person and watched others interview people... Like I said, some people should not be interviewing anybody. And this is coming from both sides of the fence.

For me, if there is no right or wrong answer to a question, then it's a bad question. Because in reality, there is always a right and a wrong. What you say may not be what somebody else beleives and vice versa.

Maybe it's unrealistic to finish this task in one day, but the fact is there are many managers and HR people who have no clue what IT does and therefore assume you should finish this task in one day because so and so who did something totally different finished in one day.

It's just in the fact that you hope you are on the same path as the one hiring. If somebody asks tons of "no win" questions, in the end, when they ask me if I have any questions and i have no desire to work for this company, i'll ask my own what if questions. Most times they don't like it.

[Mark Herschberg]

Originally posted by william gates:
While there might not be anything called a "stupid" question, the fact is, communication skills are about the stupidest thing an interviewer can determine in an hour or less...

Next to general intelligence I think communication skills are the most important thing to determine during an hour. I don't want someone on my team who can't communicate with other people in the company, because I've never hired for any role who works alone.

--Mark

[Nitin Nigam]

Originally posted by william gates:
For me, if there is no right or wrong answer to a question, then it's a bad question. Because in reality, there is always a right and a wrong. What you say may not be what somebody else beleives and vice versa.

I dont think so. There are many sensible question that can be answered in many ways and all of them can be right. Such questions are asked to check the attitude of the person. Just like the half filled glass of water question. You might say its half filled, uou might say its half empty. Both are correct answers, but its your attitude that determines which one you choose to answer.

[william gates]

Like i said, communiation skills are needed, but when half the time a person doing the interviewing either can't speak english or is a shy person, it's a bad bad way to judge somebody else on their communication skills. And that happens all the time.

As far as no right or wrong questions, you made my point.. If i think one way and you think another, while both answers could be correct, most people do not think this way. If you think answer A is right, but I think answer B is right, you better hope I'm not a know it all a-hole who refuses to accept your solution. And if you've worked in any industry for long enough, there are tons and tons of people like this..

While no right or wrong tech questions can be defended, somebody asking a no win general questions just opens too many cans of worms..

Like I said above, If i think i'm right and you are wrong, yet you defend yourself, i'm probably going to not give you a good review and therefore you probably won't be hired..

Yeah it's one thing to talk to tech guys about solutions, but the fact is, most interviewers aren't tech guys, don't understand tech, don't care to and in the end, you saying your right isn't getting you anywhere but out the door with no job offer.

Open ended tech questions is one thing, but i've learned from being on both sides of the fence, most times somebody asks non-tech open ended questions usually isn't planning on hiring you anyway.