Imagine yourself in the middle of an intense interview with a fast-growing tech company, when all of a sudden, a manager throws a curveball at you.
“You have a 1 mile long x 1 mile wide private island that you wish to turn into a resort,” the manager asks. “A plane requires a 2-mile long runway to take off. What do you do?”
This is just one of the wacky interview questions that tech companies like Facebook and Airbnb ask to potential new employees. Glassdoor went through thousands of real interview questions shared by U.S. candidates on its platform and today published its annual “top oddball interview questions.”
Without further ado, we’ve posted the questions below. You’ll also find the top 10 questions for all industries in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and France. How would you answer these?
1. “What would you do if you were the one survivor in a plane crash?” – Airbnb Trust and Safety Investigator job candidate.
2. “What’s your favorite 90s jam?” – Squarespace Customer Care job candidate.
3. “If you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?” – Dropbox Rotation Program job candidate.
4. “How many people flew out of Chicago last year?” – Redbox Software Engineer II job candidate.
5. “How much do you charge to wash every window in Seattle?” – Facebook Online Sales Operations job candidate.
6. “Given 25 swimmers and a pool with five lanes, what is the minimum number of heats needed to determine the three fastest swimmers in the group?” – CKM Advisors Data Scientist job candidate.
7. “If you were a Muppet, which would you be?” – TicketNetwork Executive Support job candidate.
8. “How many gas stations are there in America?” – Zappos Family Senior Financial Analyst job candidate.
9. “You have a 1 mile long x 1 mile wide private island that you wish to turn into a resort. A plane requires a 2-mile long runway to take off. What do you do?” – Riot Games QA Analyst job candidate.
10. “Why is the earth round? – Twitter Software Engineer job candidate.
Top 10 oddball questions for all U.S. jobs
1. “What would you do if you were the one survivor in a plane crash?” – Airbnb Trust and Safety Investigator job candidate.
2. “What’s your favorite 90s jam?” – Squarespace Customer Care job candidate.
3. “If you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?” – Dropbox Rotation Program job candidate.
4. “Who would win in a fight between Spiderman and Batman?” – Stanford University Medical Simulationist job candidate.
5. “If you had a machine that produced $100 dollars for life, what would you be willing to pay for it today?” – Aksia Research Analyst job candidate.
6. “What did you have for breakfast?” – Banana Republic Sales Associate job candidate.
7. “Describe the color yellow to somebody who’s blind.” – Spirit Airlines Flight Attendant job candidate.
8. “If you were asked to unload a 747 full of jellybeans, what would you do?” – Bose IT Support Manager job candidate.
9. “How many people flew out of Chicago last year?” – Redbox Software Engineer II job candidate (Oakbrook Terrace, IL).
10. “What’s your favorite Disney Princess?” – Coldstone Creamery Crew Member job candidate (Miami, FL).
Top 10 oddball questions for jobs in Canada
1. “If you could high five one person, living or not, who would it be?” – Lululemon Retail Educator job candidate.
2. “If Labatt gave you a million dollars with the condition that you’d have to pay it back in three years, what would you do with it?” – Labatt Brewery Development Program job candidate.
3. “If you only have one choice, do you prefer to work on time or correctly?” – BlackBerry Employee job candidate.
4. “How can we move Mount Fuji?” – TELUS Design Specialist I job candidate.
5. “If you were an inanimate object, what would you be?” – Starbucks Barista job candidate.
6. “What would you name a book about your life at this point?” – Prism Resources Customer Service Representative job candidate.
7. “How do you get a plastic ball out of a cup without touching the cup?” – TD Bank Risk and Controls job candidate.
8. “If you own a grocery store and you have to sell apples, how would you determine how many different type of apples would you sell?” – Bombardier Aerospace Business Analyst job candidate.
9. “How will you keep HootSuite weird?” – Hootsuite Content Marketing job candidate.
10. “How many traffic lights are there in Canada?” – Bell Canada Leadership Development Program job candidate.
Top 10 oddball interview questions for jobs in France
1. “You have 10 minutes to pick two pictures (among around 50) to describe yourself.” — L’Oréal candidate.
2. “How would you build the Eiffel Tower?” — Capgemini Consulting candidate.
3. “How long would it take to wash all the windows in Paris?” — Simon-Kucher & Partners candidate.
4. “You have two measuring cups, with respective capacities of 3 liters and 5 liters. How would you measure 4 liters of a liquid?” — Solucom candidate.
5. “Are you ready to change your life? Do you have a goal in life?” — ACN candidate.
6. “How much do you like to dance? Are you afraid of dancing in front of other people?” —Ubisoft candidate.
7. “What is the craziest thing you ever done?” — Red Bull candidate.
8. “What is your main regret in life” — Grand Circle candidate.
9. “What is the greatest common divisior of 14 and 49?” — Amadeus candidate.
10. “What can you not stand about a colleague?” —Sagemcom candidate.
Top 10 oddball questions for jobs in Germany
1. “Please describe how you boil eggs perfectly.” — Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft candidate.
2. “If you would be an animal, which one would it be?” — Estée Lauder UK candidate.
3. “How would you work it out to measure the size of a building with a barometer?” — Unicredit Management Consulting candidate.
4. “What are the 30 German DAX companies?” — Roland Berger candidate.
5. “What is your favorite event in history?” — eFront Financial Solutions candidate.
6. “What’s your personal secret?” — Apple candidate.
7. “How do you name all prime numbers to n very fast?” — Zalando candidate
8. “Estimate the annual consumption of Clearasil in Germany.” — Clearasil candidate.
9. “Name 7 things you can do with this pencil.” — HitFox Group candidate.
10. “Imagine a machine that can produce all the milk Starbucks needed worldwide on an average day. To do this, go through this machine with just the right number of cows. How many Starbucks stores are there worldwide? How many cows would I need? How quickly they would have to go through?” — Bain Company candidate.
