The Interview Question Everyone Gets Wrong

You're shrunk down to the size of a nickel and put into a blender.

The blades will start spinning in 60 seconds, so what do you do?

I would like to think I could duck down and miss the blades

Break the thing at the bottom maybe?

Push the blades?

Ask nicely for the blender not to be turned on.

Tie my clothes together, and then like use it as a rope I guess?

If I was lighter I could maybe catch a draft up?

- Just accept defeat. - I mean, I'm the size of a nickel

what quality of life is that?

Okay, resonance.

I'm going to run to one wall, push on it, run to the other wall. Push on it.

Run to the other wall, so I'm going to tip the container over.

Honestly, the thing I would think about

is trying to get to the very center of the blades.

It's spinning around me, but

the actual RPM is probably not that high, if I'm standing in the middle.

I tie my clothes to one of the tips of the blades as it’s starting up.

Yeah, I get it to swing me around and then I woooo!

But these answers don't cut it.

Now, I first heard about this problem in this book.

It describes how each year Google received

about 3 million applications, but they would only hire 7000 people.

That's a 0.2% acceptance rate.

So one way to screen out millions of applicants was to use brainteasers,

and the interviewers would make these up for fun.

We didn't get a list, at that time of what questions to ask.

We would share questions among each other.

Some of them gained traction, questions like:

How many golf balls can fit in a 747?

Or, how much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

But the blender question really stuck with me, and I'm not alone.

- Just lay back and enjoy that breeze. The best model in the world is only going to run maybe 10 or 11 hours,

so we're getting out and when we do, we're better off for it because whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

- The question has been hotly debated in Reddit comment sections.

There are so many different answers, but which one is the best?

I try to hide underneath the blades, I guess.

Hide under the blade, probably

Great first reaction,