eSarcasm: The 12 Craziest Google Interview Questions
Ptr
· 1 month ago
1. Is Tiger driving the buss ? Not a spelling error.
5. Duck ... You are as thin as a nickel, the blades will spin over your head. .... Assuming a Sunbeam 4141, the Mother of all Blenders.
pavan
· 2 days ago
Golf balls are not allowed in a school bus
potatoboy
· 2 months ago
I just read this, and so without looking anything up, I'll attempt real answers. 1) Assume a school bus is 30 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet, and 144 golf balls fit in 1 cubic foot. I come up with 155,520 2) I would charge $20 per hour. 3) I have only seen a few in my life. So my life x the area I live in x same area in the rest of the world = 30,000. 4) The queen kills her husbad the king 5) Since your mass and density are the same, you can either jump out or punch the glass. 6) There are 360 degrees in a cirlce. There are 12 hours. The hour hand has moved 1/4th of one hour, or 7.5 degrees. 7) N! It's a factorial equation. 8) Square ones could turn on an angle and fall in; round ones can't 9) He is playing Monopoly, and hit Boardwalk that has someone else's hotel. 10) Profit. Live beef costs money to raise- loss. 11) Too long to go into here, but it involves ferries and airlifts, not just roads. 12) Take 3 balls, and another 3; put two to the side. Weigh three against three. If one side is heavier, focus on those three. Re-weigh two of those, which will tell you which of those three is heaviest (if the two are the same, the one not weighed is heaviest). If the three and three weigh the same, weigh the two you first set aside. How'd I do? =)
rjquilantang
· 2 months ago
For No. (5), If you were shrunk to a size of a nickel and kept your original density, you wouldn't have much material for brains, bones and all. So you'll do exactly NOTHING. For No. (7), isn't there just 1 way to merge any number of companies? So I think the answer is 1. The N is just there to fool you.
---Just my two cents.
JordanLapp
· 1 month ago
4 is wrong, because the queen of the village "visits" which excludes her from the original question. 10 is wrong too. 0xdeadbeef is the seed for the C rand() function (it's in hex, get it?)
Alec
· 1 month ago
I don't think we are giving this guy credit for his answers, he did awesome.
zelrik
· 1 month ago
For 1) I d say more like 1 M from the top of my head assuming the bus is 2x2x10 m^3 and a ball is like 4x4x4cm^3/2 (divided by about 2 because it's a sphere : 4/3 pi D^3/8 /D^3 = 2 where D is the size of one side of the cube or diameter of the sphere). 1m^3 is like 1 000 000 cm^3 so 40/32x10^6. It's very rough since I dont have the correct dimensions.
For 7) it's certainly not N! it's more like ~(N!)! but I think a detailed calculation is needed.
davetan
· 2 months ago
I am intrigued and not interested in repeating the obvious answers so here are my offbeat responses:
1. How many golf balls can you fit in a school bus? Depends on how many kids are in it.
2. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle? Whatever the lowest window washing firm bid I can find is +10 to 20% markup. Then have them do it.
3. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world? I'm sure one of the piano tuners associations has an estimate. So it is simply a matter of calling them up (assuming a Google search doesn't reveal the number.)
4. Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?
Nothing. Everyone already knows that everyone is cheating and has deliberately kept quiet so that no proof is possible.
5. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do? Meh, you could jump out of there with the dramatically increased strength to weight ratio, but you might want to just cry and let yourself get chopped up since no woman would date a 3/4 inch tall man.
6. If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? Not enough info to answer because you also need the distance between the clock face and each hand. We do live in a 3D world. The 2D answer is 7.5 degrees.
7. Suppose we have N companies, and we want to eventually merge them into one big company. How many ways are there to merge? Virtually infinity if you consult different attorneys.
8. Why are manhole covers round? Everyone knows round covers prevent the cover from falling in. The question is why do they need to do that? The answer is because people can be stupid and get the city into nasty lawsuits if they weren't protected by idiot proof round covers.
9. A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened? The car got impounded when he couldn't pay the parking. The wife got mad when she found out (suspected adultery at the hotel too) and filed for divorce. Between the wife attorneys and fines all the money was lost.
I got bored after this. Seriously, design an evacuation plan for SF during an interview? Delegate to experts who know how to do it.
For the real answers, Potatoboy seems to have got most of them right.
I can go with potatoboy on everything except #10 seeing as Google is a computer company not to interested in livestock, I'm going to say dead beef has nothing to do with cows but rather is an easily remembered Hexadecimal number.
bufancy
· 2 months ago
Answer for all the questions: Google it!
potatoboy
· 2 months ago
Well, since I am intrigued by dead beef, and am not geeky enough to know, I looked it up. Here it be:
DEADBEEF ("dead beef") is used by IBM RS/6000 systems, Mac OS on 32-bit PowerPC processors and the Commodore Amiga as a magic debug value. On Sun Microsystems' Solaris, it marks freed kernel memory. On OpenVMS running on Alpha processors, DEAD_BEEF can be seen by pressing CTRL-T.[3]
Gosh, now why didn't I know that off the top of my head?
I'm sure I'd be hired to sweep...
aaronnaas
· 1 month ago
8. Why are manhole covers round?
The better response is a reversal back at the interviewer: "So they won't fall in. There's another shape with that same feature, do you know it?" Actually there are many. I had heard this retort, and figured it out on my own.
Faltriwall
· 1 month ago
any 3 d object that has a perfect circle as it's largest 2d cross section i.e. cone sphere etc
aaronnaas
· 4 weeks ago
Actually, there are 2D shapes that qualify, other than a circle. Consider a 3 cornered shape.
Quote: "A round manhole cover cannot fall through its circular opening, whereas a square manhole cover may fall in if it were inserted diagonally in the hole (A _Reuleaux_ triangle or other _curve of constant width_ would also serve this purpose, but round covers are much easier to manufacture.) In reality, however, the existence of a "lip" holding up the lid means that the underlying hole is smaller than the cover, so that other shapes might suffice."
Name
· 1 month ago
the village question: think instead of a village of 2 women and their husbands (last names A and B). A knows Mr B cheated, but when Mrs B doesn't fly into a rage and kill her husband, the only logical conclusion is that B think's A's husband is the bad boy. When B doesn't die that day, her husband is confirmed unfaithful and she kills him. B is thinking similarly, so Mr B dies the 2nd day, too. For three couples, A spends a day oblivious thinking B 'oughta know', but if her husband is faithful, that'd explain B not killing her husband. On the 2nd day, when A doesn't kill her husband, B realizes that it is because A first waited for C and then for B. Day 3, all the husbands die. For a hundred couples, day 100 is a bloodbath.
zelrik
· 1 month ago
hmm I see. Actually I found a better explanation,
If they are 100 and just one husband is unfaithful, First day : Then the wife sees 0 unfaithful other husbands and kill her own.
if it's 2 out of 100 : Then nobody dies on the first day since the 2 wifes see at least one unfaithful husband. The second day, they figure it out.
3 out of 100 : after the 2 first days, if nobody dies it's more than 2 unfaithful husband then, so if they see only 2, then their own must die.
4... same, if they see only 3 that are still alive, their own is guilty.
so if they see 99 cheaters, recursively, they conclude that day 99 should be a bloodbath, if it doesnt happen, it will be a 100 death the next day.
Actually if could be faster, I think after 3 days, it s a bloodbath. The reason is that from day 1, everybody knows that everybody else knows there are at least 98 unfaithful husbands. If that information is made public, the ones who see 97 unfaithful husbands should kill their own, so the next day, if everybody is alive, it means more than 98, day 3 is doomsday.
Joe Weisman
· 1 month ago
Excuse me, but... if I'm any one of the 100 village wives, I know that all of the other 99 wives have cheating husbands, but (for some extremely strange reason, or just plain denial on my behalf) my own husband is faithful. A one in 100 kind of guy! So the queen shows up and announces that there's at least one cheating husband. At least ONE? That's an understatement... How about 99, queeny? Get real! I then get on with my life of house cleaning, laundry and shopping. Since this experience is equally true for all 100 wives, I don't understand why anything should happen at all?
sa12k
· 1 month ago
For the balls question, couldn't you just weigh all 8 of them, then weigh one of them. Odds on that the single ball is a lighter ball, so minus 7 times it from the total value. If this value is heavier than the single ball then that is the mass. If it is less, minus it from the total value and then divide by 7 for the other mass. This explanation is bit confusing so I'll use algebra:
Weight 1: W1 = X+7Y Weight 2a: W2a = Y or Weight 2b: W2b = X
If 2a: W1-(7*W2a) = X (W2a = Y) If 2b: (W1-W2b)/7 = Y (W2b = X)
dashrb
· 1 month ago
It says you have a balance, not a scale. You can't tell how heavy (in units) anything is; you can only compare a collection of balls against another collection of balls for a relative indication of which collection is heavier.
Devon
· 1 month ago
Well actually the Queen is just visiting therefore she is not included in their rituals and she doesnt have to do anything.
Loki
· 1 month ago
(1)All golf balls smaller than a school bus may fit in it, dumb arses. Lateral thinking anyone?
G-man
· 1 month ago
6. 3:15 on a clock...both hands point in the exact same direction (at the 3). Hence, the angle between them is 0 degrees. How do you get 7.5 degrees? Seems wrong to me.
bob
· 1 month ago
It depends on the movement of the clock. Most clocks use a movement that causes the hour hand to move continuously. With such a clock, at 3:15 the hour hand would be 1/4 of the way between the 3 and 4 (7.5). Some (not many) clocks use a movement that will only move the hour hand on the hour. With that kind of clock the difference would be 0. My clock is digital. What hands?
slaith
· 3 weeks ago
About the village problem. say there are hundred couples, every wife knows 99 men have cheated and she hasn't told any of the 99 wives for so long, apparently to avoid death, or maybe to avert her own guilt, cuz if 99 husbands cheated, hopefully not with the same wife, maybe all teh wives are guilty. So when the queen declares one man has been cheating, each wife can list 99 men have been cheating(they already know) hence they do what they've done so far...nothing.
All Comments
5. Duck ... You are as thin as a nickel, the blades will spin over your head.
.... Assuming a Sunbeam 4141, the Mother of all Blenders.
How'd I do? =)
---Just my two cents.
10 is wrong too. 0xdeadbeef is the seed for the C rand() function (it's in hex, get it?)
For 7) it's certainly not N! it's more like ~(N!)! but I think a detailed calculation is needed.
1. How many golf balls can you fit in a school bus?
Depends on how many kids are in it.
2. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
Whatever the lowest window washing firm bid I can find is +10 to 20% markup. Then have them do it.
3. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
I'm sure one of the piano tuners associations has an estimate. So it is simply a matter of calling them up (assuming a Google search doesn't reveal the number.)
4. Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?
Nothing. Everyone already knows that everyone is cheating and has deliberately kept quiet so that no proof is possible.
5. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
Meh, you could jump out of there with the dramatically increased strength to weight ratio, but you might want to just cry and let yourself get chopped up since no woman would date a 3/4 inch tall man.
6. If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands?
Not enough info to answer because you also need the distance between the clock face and each hand. We do live in a 3D world. The 2D answer is 7.5 degrees.
7. Suppose we have N companies, and we want to eventually merge them into one big company. How many ways are there to merge?
Virtually infinity if you consult different attorneys.
8. Why are manhole covers round?
Everyone knows round covers prevent the cover from falling in. The question is why do they need to do that? The answer is because people can be stupid and get the city into nasty lawsuits if they weren't protected by idiot proof round covers.
9. A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?
The car got impounded when he couldn't pay the parking. The wife got mad when she found out (suspected adultery at the hotel too) and filed for divorce. Between the wife attorneys and fines all the money was lost.
I got bored after this. Seriously, design an evacuation plan for SF during an interview? Delegate to experts who know how to do it.
For the real answers, Potatoboy seems to have got most of them right.
more google interview questions found at : http://bluepixel.ca/blog/?p=69
DEADBEEF ("dead beef") is used by IBM RS/6000 systems, Mac OS on 32-bit PowerPC processors and the Commodore Amiga as a magic debug value. On Sun Microsystems' Solaris, it marks freed kernel memory. On OpenVMS running on Alpha processors, DEAD_BEEF can be seen by pressing CTRL-T.[3]
Gosh, now why didn't I know that off the top of my head?
I'm sure I'd be hired to sweep...
The better response is a reversal back at the interviewer: "So they won't fall in. There's another shape with that same feature, do you know it?" Actually there are many. I had heard this retort, and figured it out on my own.
Oh, I see that wikipedia already had the scoop at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhole_cover
Quote:
"A round manhole cover cannot fall through its circular opening, whereas a square manhole cover may fall in if it were inserted diagonally in the hole (A _Reuleaux_ triangle or other _curve of constant width_ would also serve this purpose, but round covers are much easier to manufacture.) In reality, however, the existence of a "lip" holding up the lid means that the underlying hole is smaller than the cover, so that other shapes might suffice."
If they are 100 and just one husband is unfaithful,
First day : Then the wife sees 0 unfaithful other husbands and kill her own.
if it's 2 out of 100 : Then nobody dies on the first day since the 2 wifes see at least one unfaithful husband. The second day, they figure it out.
3 out of 100 : after the 2 first days, if nobody dies it's more than 2 unfaithful husband then, so if they see only 2, then their own must die.
4... same, if they see only 3 that are still alive, their own is guilty.
so if they see 99 cheaters, recursively, they conclude that day 99 should be a bloodbath, if it doesnt happen, it will be a 100 death the next day.
Actually if could be faster, I think after 3 days, it s a bloodbath. The reason is that from day 1, everybody knows that everybody else knows there are at least 98 unfaithful husbands. If that information is made public, the ones who see 97 unfaithful husbands should kill their own, so the next day, if everybody is alive, it means more than 98, day 3 is doomsday.
Weight 1: W1 = X+7Y
Weight 2a: W2a = Y or Weight 2b: W2b = X
If 2a: W1-(7*W2a) = X (W2a = Y)
If 2b: (W1-W2b)/7 = Y (W2b = X)