Questions you have to answer to get hired at Google

I know, who wouldn't like to be hired by Google ? They have set a new standard in best employee retention practices by making it a fun place to work. When I think of Google, the first thing which come to my mind - apart from its obvious leadership in online search - are the free gourmet meals they provide to each of their employees. I have come across rumors of Yahoo employees sneaking into the Google cafeteria next door just so that they could sample the rich variety of food on the menu.

Now that you are visibly drooling, you must be wondering what does it takes to get hired by Google right ? Well the secret of getting hired at Google is to have a knack of thinking out of the box. Not many people can; I certainly can't - a reason I am still blogging ;-).

And Google weeds out the chaff from the wheat (so to speak) by putting the candidates through their special set of interview questions.

I came across Tihomir Nakov's list of 17 questions put to his friend when he was called for an interview at Google. Some of the gems from that set I like are as follows :

• How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
• 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?
• Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organize your shirts for easy retrieval?
• How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
  

The thing is, many questions do not have just one correct answer; heck some may not even have a correct answer at all, rather I guess the response of the candidate to the questions gives Google an idea about the usefulness of the candidate for the job.

Read the full list of Google interview questions collected by Tihomir Nakov.

[Via. India Uncut]