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Hypothetical Questions#

How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?#

This riddle is known as a Fermi problem, named after the physicist Enrico Fermi. The puzzle is solved by multiplying a series of estimates, including how many households have a piano and how many times they need tuning, to get to the right answer.

How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?#

In order to solve this question one must calculate the volume of the average golf ball and the volume of the average school bus, while the answer is the volume of the bus, divided by the volume of the balls.

How many times a day do the hands of a clock overlap?#

The hands overlap 22 times in a day.

You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?#

There are a number of possible answers but some solutions including lying down until the blades stop, or even climbing onto the blades before they start.

You have to get from point A to point B. You don't know if you can get there. What would you do?#

Again there are numerous possible answers but candidates must determine what points A and B are.

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?#

There is no one answer to this, but the question was aimed at software engineers so a coding-based answer would be appropriate.

Explain the significance of 'dead beef'#

This term refers to a specific code used in debugging computer systems. "Dead beef" is a very popular sentence in programming, because it is built only from letters a-f. On Sun Microsystems' Solaris, it marks freed kernel memory.

How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?#

Another Fermi problem, the candidate would have to take a guess at the number of windows in the city before multiplying that number by various other factors.

If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands?#

7.5 degrees.

A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?#

The question actually relates to a game of Monopoly.

You're the captain of a pirate ship, and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?#

  • Understand the context
  • What captains plans are? Is this his last looting or he still planning to loot with the team.
  • How many pirates are fully loyal to captain?

  • Where is happens in a bay or in the sea?

  • Options

  • Split the crew in groups. Ask the team to propose a loot sharing conditions. Then choose favorite proposal.
  • Let's assume every pirates are same. If most of the crew 100% loyal to me, I would just discuss on terms with my loyal members
  • Split the crew. Let them fight. Hire mercenaries for 10% of a loot, resolve the rest.
  • If in a bay. Run away over night with all the loot.
  • Understand what the majority wants. Negotiate the terms with majority.

This will put both groups in competition with each other to create a proposal I will vote for. Since both groups are exactly half my crew which ever proposal I choose I will still live either way. By keeping the groups separated from each other, neither group will be able to know how much booty the other is offering me, so they will want to make certain that their offer is higher. It turns their greed into my favor.