Re:27 Jobs with Unbelievably Tough Interview Questions
by michaelt on Friday February 24, 2017 @08:03AM
(#13723224)
Am I missing something?
If I asked that question in a job interview, I'd expect the following mistakes:
0. Missing high-school-level math skills.
1. Double-counting numbers with double sixes (e.g. counting 666 three times)
2. Either failing to count the number 60,000 or mistakenly counting numbers 60,000-69,999
3. Failing to invert the result (i.e. counting the probability it /does/ have a six, instead of the probability it /doesn't/ )
4. Getting a result that was off by several orders of magnitude, and not noticing it.
5. Messing up the mental arithmetic (this is the reason I wouldn't use this question in an interview)
In other words it's a test of diligence and being able to get the right answer to simple problems. Which is a valuable quality in an industry with so many off-by-one errors!
0. Missing high-school-level math skills.
1. Double-counting numbers with double sixes (e.g. counting 666 three times)
2. Either failing to count the number 60,000 or mistakenly counting numbers 60,000-69,999
3. Failing to invert the result (i.e. counting the probability it /does/ have a six, instead of the probability it /doesn't/ )
4. Getting a result that was off by several orders of magnitude, and not noticing it.
5. Messing up the mental arithmetic (this is the reason I wouldn't use this question in an interview)
In other words it's a test of diligence and being able to get the right answer to simple problems. Which is a valuable quality in an industry with so many off-by-one errors!