Half-Price Books is a dangerous place for me. While I am there, I find lots of books that I didn't even know I needed. This was one of them.I was intrigued years ago when I heard people talk about the strange interview questions companies like Microsoft used. I once heard that someone was asked, "How many square feet of astro turf are there in the United States?" I don't know if anyone actually knows the answer to that questions, but that wasn't the point. The point was, how would you figure it out? Who uses astro turf? Mainly sports teams. It is rather expensive so it would probably be mostly in arenas of big professional or college teams right? How many of those are there? How many of those use astro turf over real grass? How many dome stadiums are there? How many square feet are on each field? These are the sort of questions that help you start to make an estimate and the sort of thinking that interviewers are checking you out on.
The basis of William Poundstone's How Would You Move Mount Fuji, Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle is those sort of interview puzzles, where they came from and what purpose they serve. The more fun part is that he gives a ton of examples and the solutions. I am told that Microsoft has moved away from the puzzle based interview. (Perhaps largely due to people preparing for it with books like this.) Still, this book is fun, especially if you like really challenging puzzles, some with definite answers, some without. Here are some of them:
How would you weigh a jet plane without scales?
Why do mirrors reverse right and left instead of upside down?
How many piano tuners are there in the world?
How many times a day do a clock's hands overlap?
I like this one:
You have eight billiard balls. One of them is "defective," meaning it weighs more than the others. How do you tell, using a balance, which ball is defective in two weighings?
I do realize that finding these sorts of things fun, puts me in a certain category of geek. However, I have lots of company.
peace,
will
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