Losing One's Touch

[oliverson]

Thanks for all your replies. Much appreciated.

Just for context the kind of interview questions I'm talking about are more to do idiocy or mathematical stuff (it is banking in London after all). As such they are virtually impossible to prepare for. I can't quite remember them all or any in full detail but things like:

"there's a rabbit than can jump up one or two steps at a time but has to come back one (or something) whenever it does. What's the algorithm for climbing up 'n' stairs? ". (I identified it was the Fibonacci series but it took some time)

"a train leaves station A to get to station Z at n MPH. meanwhile another train leaves station Z a o MPH heading towards station A. These are the distances for intermediate stations. If a bird perched on the bonnet of A starts flying at another rate and at what point will the bird meet the second train?" (ridiculous or what? That was for a UI role btw)

"we have three baskets of fruit and all of them are incorrectly labeled. One has Apples, one has Oranges and the other has Mixed. You can put your hand in only one basket and then must label all the rest correctly". (this isn't that difficult actually but only when you've really thought it through and when you know the answer it's common sense).

"(whips out a chess board). What's the algorithm to calculate the total number of squares on this board?"

"what's the heighest floor you can drop an egg from without it breaking?"

etc, etc

btw, I've only ever had these kind of interview questions in London and in investment banking. Of the 4 different contracts I've landed there over the last 4 years none of them fortunately involved these types of questions though one of them had a one hour pair programming test which in many ways was just as stressful. Maybe I haven't lost my touch but actually was never any good at these type of questions?

Thanks again

[nomadd]

Thanks for all your replies. Much appreciated.

Just for context the kind of interview questions I'm talking about are more to do idiocy or mathematical stuff (it is banking in London after all). As such they are virtually impossible to prepare for. I can't quite remember them all or any in full detail but things like:

"there's a rabbit than can jump up one or two steps at a time but has to come back one (or something) whenever it does. What's the algorithm for climbing up 'n' stairs? ". (I identified it was the Fibonacci series but it took some time)

"a train leaves station A to get to station Z at n MPH. meanwhile another train leaves station Z a o MPH heading towards station A. These are the distances for intermediate stations. If a bird perched on the bonnet of A starts flying at another rate and at what point will the bird meet the second train?" (ridiculous or what? That was for a UI role btw)

"we have three baskets of fruit and all of them are incorrectly labeled. One has Apples, one has Oranges and the other has Mixed. You can put your hand in only one basket and then must label all the rest correctly". (this isn't that difficult actually but only when you've really thought it through and when you know the answer it's common sense).

"(whips out a chess board). What's the algorithm to calculate the total number of squares on this board?"

"what's the heighest floor you can drop an egg from without it breaking?"

etc, etc

btw, I've only ever had these kind of interview questions in London and in investment banking. Of the 4 different contracts I've landed there over the last 4 years none of them fortunately involved these types of questions though one of them had a one hour pair programming test which in many ways was just as stressful. Maybe I haven't lost my touch but actually was never any good at these type of questions?

Thanks again

You should always approach these deliberately deceptive and ambiguous questions with a question.
For example, "What's the chess board made of?" (as something with a cubic crystalline structure could contain trillions of "squares", and not the 1 to 204 they had as an answer. )

Anyway, you've just been unlucky. I've been working on and off for IBs since 1995 and never had anything asked like those you quote. I'd probably just tell them to take the rabbit to a vet.

Chin up. Move on. Next interview will be better.

[TheFaQQer]

"a train leaves station A to get to station Z at n MPH. meanwhile another train leaves station Z a o MPH heading towards station A. These are the distances for intermediate stations. If a bird perched on the bonnet of A starts flying at another rate and at what point will the bird meet the second train?" (ridiculous or what? That was for a UI role btw)

"Assuming it's a Virgin train, the bird will die of old age before either train passes."

"what's the heighest floor you can drop an egg from without it breaking?"

"Dunno, but if I welly a hard boiled egg at your head from any distance, it's going to make you cry, so do you want to stop these ******* stupid questions or do you want me to go get that egg?"

I think that if I was asked such questions, I'd be inclined just to get up and walk out. I'm interviewing to do a job, not to have a waste of time interview where the interviewer seems to have an inferiority complex which means that they have to ask bollox questions like this.

[SteelyDan]

"Dunno, but if I welly a hard boiled egg at your head from any distance, it's going to make you cry, so do you want to stop these ******* stupid questions or do you want me to go get that egg?"

hilarious

I think that if I was asked such questions, I'd be inclined just to get up and walk out. Roger that & call him/her (regardless of gender) a tosser on the way out

I'm interviewing to do a job, not to have a waste of time interview where the interviewer seems to have an inferiority complex which means that they have to ask bollox questions like this.

or is it a superiority complex?

[Friday Blue]

this book may be of use:

How Would You Move Mount Fuji? Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle - How the World's Smartest Company Selects the Most Creative Thinkers
by
William Poundstone

i got it for 99p on amazon second hand shop. it's worth having a read to see through their tricks.