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Op doesn't have time for interviews (lemmy.ml)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/programmerhumor@lemmy.ml
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Post:

You have three switches in one room and a single light bulb in another room. You are allowed to visit the room with the light bulb only once. How do you figure out which switch controls the bulb? Write your answer in the comments before looking at other answers.

Comment:

If this were an interview question, the correct response would be "Do you have any relevant questions for me? Because have a long list of things that more deserving of my precious time than to think about this!

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[–] 12 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Dead serious question: I have only ever worked in the public sector (state level and local municipality) but often see or hear about these seemingly idiotic "interview questions" on television (and obviously memes).

Is this:

  1. just a meme
  2. just a joke
  3. an actual phenomenon in the private sector

If 3, what on earth is its purpose and what could the interviewer possibly find out about the applicant by asking this?

I'm calm.

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  • [–] 19 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    In the private sector, I once was asked to come up with 12 uses for a kettle. I said make 12 cups of coffee. I didn't get the job.

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  • [–] 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    In the end it all boils down to heating water

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  • [–] 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    I don't have experience with interacting with these questions in an interview, but I think these questions are supposed to be a test of problem solving ability, which could be relevant in some jobs like programming, I suppose. I still think it's stupid though.

    This question in particular I'm pretty sure has a BS "outside the box" answer, where "outside the box" really means "the question is very misleading and to solve it you have to realize that when we explained this scenario, we heavily implied a set of abstracted rules you could try to solve, but we actually want you to "think outside the box" and come up with a different set of rules that, if you thought we were asking this question in good faith, you would have assumed is obviously cheating", which isn't relevant to programming skills and is also just ridiculous.

    (I think the answer is :

    Tap for spoilerTurn one switch "A" on, and keep it on for some time. Turn it off, and turn another one "B" on. Go into the room. If the bulb is on, B controls it. If it's off but warm, A controls it. If it's off and cold, C controls it.
    )

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago

    I think they're stupid too. Going into an interview is already stressful enough and these types of questions don't put me into "problem solving" mode. They put me into "brain teaser" mode which is a different type of thinking for me. You know how we nailed these questions when I was in uni? We traded them after our interviews between each other and you just had to pretend you've never heard it before. So the main thing people were testing was whether or not the question had made it to them.

    For programming, there are so many better ways to test out of the box thinking to me ... I think the "what happens when you press a letter into a web browser address bar" or something is better and at least relevant. One that I like is, "there's an outage in production, how would you go about diagnosing it?" Then as an interviewer I'd reshape the scenario and see where they put their focus and where they give up.

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  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    It started when Google started hiring hoardes of people and their interview questions "that only a genius could solve" started leaking. At some point, everyone wanted to work at Google, because they had a slide and free sandwiches and whatnot.

    Then, every startup, turtlenecked steve jobs-wannabe started copying those nonsensical questions that only "gifted" people could answer.

    It's definitely a thing, praised by every linkedin lunatic, for finding people who "want to be a part of the family", are "willing to give it 1100%", and will do overtime for free to prove they're "worth it".

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    There's definitely a lot of cargo cult* thinking in software. People don't understand the why of things but they want the results. That's why most "agile" I've seen is a waste of time.

    *Is there a less problematic phrase for this?

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  • [–] 8 points 7 months ago

    This is part of a series frequently known as "Microsoft interview" questions. The most famous one is, "Why is a manhole cover round?" They are partially meant to gauge your problem-solving abilities, but more importantly see how you react to a question you did not (and could not) prepare for. They've since fallen out of fashion, because it was always a terrible way to gauge roles like software developers.

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