I do a lot of interviews, both for Product Managers and for Tech profiles. I've had two questions which I've continuously asked, but need to change. I've enjoyed the responses of various candidates for these questions for almost 3 years now and it has been very interesting to see how different people think through them.
Question 1: There are 12 steel (or any other material, the material is immaterial :) ) balls (yes, I make it cubes when interviewing women) which were manufactured to be identical in every way and hence indistinguishable. However, one of them has a manufacturing defect and has either less or more weight that the other 11. Given a weighing scale (with no standard weights), you have to find out which of the balls is defective as well as whether it weighs lesser or more than the others. Obviously, there is no solution in 3 weighings and I look for those who are able to reason this out and state that there is no solution. Once they do this, I ask them to tell me what is the max number of balls for which the defective can be found with 3 weighings. Question 2: If an airline is thinking of extending an offer where those with miles can for a limited period book for twice the amount of miles they have in their account, what is the best time to do so (considering occupancy rates, costs, any other variable which might influence the decision). I would be interested to see what questions silklisters use to guage analytical, problem solving, and other skills when you are looking for both a creative and analytical profile. This is of course apart from questions based on their domain/work experience to guage the same skills, but I use standard questions so that I can compare one against the other if required, especially when the backgrounds and experience vary considerably. Kiran
