Top Brain Teasers when Preparing for a Job Interview
Following on from the breaking story of the craziness of questions posed to job applicants, especially at such media giants as Google. Respected brain portal SharpMinds has put together their top 7 Guesstimations / Logic Puzzles for Brain Challenge
So if you’re looking to land that dream job in Mountainview, this could be the time to brush up on your brain fitness by engaging in a program of regular brain teasers exercises.
Please try to GUESS the answers to the questions below based on your own logical approach. The goal is not to find out (or Google) the right answer, but to 1) identify the logic approach that will help “guesstimate” an appropriate range, say + or – 30% of the actual answer, and then 2) complete the calculations (ideally mentally, but you can also take notes) to provide an estimate.
Questions
1) How many times heavier than a mouse is an elephant?.
2) How many firefighters are there in San Francisco?.
3) How many trees are there in NYC’s Central Park?.
4) How many shoes have you had in your life?.
5) How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?.
6) In 1999, how were these baby boy names ranked by popularity: Kevin, Jose, Hugh.
7) What is the weight of a large commercial airplane?.
The Answer appear below. Again, the key here is to try, plan the steps towards the solution, and do the mental calculations to find a reasonable range. That’s the brain challenge. The goal is not to find the precise correct answer.
Answers:
1) Around 150,000. An average elephant weighs 4,000 kg on average; an average mouse 25 grams.
2) Around 350 firefighters on duty on any given day, out of a pool of 1700 firefighting overall staff.
3) There are over 26,000 trees (of approximately 175 species) in the Park.
4) We don’t know (or need to know) how many pairs you have had.
5) About 500,000, assuming the bus is 50 balls high, 50 balls wide, and 200 balls long.
6) Rankings of baby boy names in 1999, according to Social Security Administration: 1. Jose (#30), 2. Kevin (#32), 3. Hugh (#830).7) For a Boeing 747:
- Empty: around 400,000 pounds (lbs), or 181 metric tons
- Maximum Takeoff Weight: around 825,000 pounds, or 374 metric tons
- For context, the weight of an empty Hummer is 8,600 pounds.
