Trick Interview Questions



  • I'm curious to know if anyone has had any trick interview questions thrown at them, and if it cost you the interview because you answered them wrong. Please share your experiences.



  • What do you define as a trick question?  


    -cw



  • @CodeWhisperer said:

    What do you define as a trick question?

    -cw

    That one. 



  • @CodeWhisperer said:

    What do you define as a trick question?

    -cw

    Perhaps questions like...

    "What is your favourite website?" (correct answer: "I prefer to work 24x7, no time to surf the web")

    "Which conferences would you like to attend?" (correct answer: "None. I prefer to work 24x7")

    "Which training courses should we offer you?" (correct answer: "None. I'm already perfect in what I'm doing")

    and of course or all-time favourites:

    "Do you have any tattos or piercings?" (correct answer: "I've no idea, since I wear my suit and tie 24x7")

    "Who is you favourite person in history?" (correct answer: "Of course you, Mr. Pound" )



  • I know someone who uses the following.  it's not really a trick question but everyone second guesses themselves...

     

    in C:

     what does the following function take given the following inputs:
    "example1", "", "example\0example"

    void function(char * string)
    {
        while (*string != '\0')
        {
            string++;
        }
        printf("%s", string);
    }



     



  • When I interview my candidates, I like to use questions that are not readily answerable, because there isn't enough information that I've given them yet. I like to watch them squirm as they fumble to find what I think is the "appropriate answer". Little do they know, that it's impossible to answer some of my questions. It makes me smile.

    One of my favorites is, "How do you divide your time between planning and coding?"

    They typically start by giving me all sorts of percentages. Like, "I spend 85% planning and 15% coding."

    What they don't know is the answer that *I* expect to hear is 100% coding. I don't want the people under me thinking. I want coders. Don't plan, just code. I don't pay you to think.  



  • @CPound said:

    When I interview my candidates, I like to use questions that are not readily answerable, because there isn't enough information that I've given them yet. I like to watch them squirm as they fumble to find what I think is the "appropriate answer". Little do they know, that it's impossible to answer some of my questions. It makes me smile.

    One of my favorites is, "How do you divide your time between planning and coding?"

    They typically start by giving me all sorts of percentages. Like, "I spend 85% planning and 15% coding."

    What they don't know is the answer that I expect to hear is 100% coding. I don't want the people under me thinking. I want coders. Don't plan, just code. I don't pay you to think.  

     

    Well they are probably thinking for a normal, good job where they aren't treated like monkeys. Working for you sounds like a career dead end. Ever thought of outsourcing?

     



  • @CPound said:

    One of my favorites is, "How do you divide your time between planning and coding?"

    They typically start by giving me all sorts of percentages. Like, "I spend 85% planning and 15% coding."

    What they don't know is the answer that I expect to hear is 100% coding. I don't want the people under me thinking. I want coders. Don't plan, just code. I don't pay you to think.  

    Dear God, I hope that's sarcasm.  Knowing your other posts, I highly doubt it. 

    Let the flame wars begin. 

     



  • Never got a trick interview question, but a few years ago when I was interviewing for a co-op position in the System Test department at the company I currently work at, I got this sorta odd question:

     
    <My company> has a satellite in space.  This satellite is made up of three nodes.  Each node is connected to two other nodes such that it forms a triangle (at this point I think he's being serious). Every ten minutes we send a signal to this satellite.  (still thinking he's serious).  This signal causes three radioactive spiders, which are each in they're own node to move to an adjacent node (my mind shifts without a clutch...).  Each node can only hold one spider at a time; if the spiders try to occupy the same node at the same time or run into eachother when trying to move nodes, they explode.  Is this satellite a good idea?  What are the chances of it blowing up?

     
    Once I recovered from the absurdity of the question, I answered the question quickly.  Apparently I answered the question faster than anyone before and anyone since then.  The guy interviewing me had to come up with some other random questions on the spot to fill the fifteen minutes it was supposed to take me to answer.  Supposedly the question is designed to just see how your thought process goes.  I just gave the answer in like 10 seconds.       

     



  • @bonzombiekitty said:

    <My company> has a satellite in space.  This satellite is made up of three nodes.  Each node is connected to two other nodes such that it forms a triangle (at this point I think he's being serious). Every ten minutes we send a signal to this satellite.  (still thinking he's serious).  This signal causes three radioactive spiders, which are each in they're own node to move to an adjacent node (my mind shifts without a clutch...).  Each node can only hold one spider at a time; if the spiders try to occupy the same node at the same time or run into eachother when trying to move nodes, they explode.  Is this satellite a good idea?  What are the chances of it blowing up?

    It's a trick question for sure.

    Is the satellite a good idea? The correct answer is no. The exploding satellite design is inherently flawed. Don't create an exploding satellite and it won't explode.

    What are the chances of it blowing up? Spiders, like humans cannot survive in the vacuum of space. So even if you had an explosive satellite, the spiders would not pose a threat since they would be dead.

    How did I do?
     



  • I don't know that I've ever really had a trick question. 

    I have had... 

    • questions that annoyed me (moving people across bridges with lanterns).
    • questions that were unrelated (how to design an airport)
    • questions where the interviewer didn't know the right answer
    • questions where I totally overthought the question and made a fool of myself

    I suppose there was a question where someone asked me how to calculate the angle between watch hands at different times, and I thought to ask "is it a 12- or 24-hour watch?" and the intervieer was pleased.  But generally I only consider questions 'trick' if there's only one answer and there isn't any real way to reason it through.

    Most interviews for programmer types are (or should be) looking to see if you can reason your way through a problem, so I expect to get some brain teasers and to have to think about things a little. 

    -cw

     



  • @bonzombiekitty said:

    Never got a trick interview question, but a few years ago when I was interviewing for a co-op position in the System Test department at the company I currently work at, I got this sorta odd question:


    <My company> has a satellite in space.  This satellite is made up of three nodes.  Each node is connected to two other nodes such that it forms a triangle (at this point I think he's being serious). Every ten minutes we send a signal to this satellite.  (still thinking he's serious).  This signal causes three radioactive spiders, which are each in they're own node to move to an adjacent node (my mind shifts without a clutch...).  Each node can only hold one spider at a time; if the spiders try to occupy the same node at the same time or run into eachother when trying to move nodes, they explode.  Is this satellite a good idea?  What are the chances of it blowing up?


    Once I recovered from the absurdity of the question, I answered the question quickly.  Apparently I answered the question faster than anyone before and anyone since then.  The guy interviewing me had to come up with some other random questions on the spot to fill the fifteen minutes it was supposed to take me to answer.  Supposedly the question is designed to just see how your thought process goes.  I just gave the answer in like 10 seconds.       

     

     Assuming the spiders choose the direction to move randomly with 50/50 chance, the answer is there's a 3/4th chance the satellite will blow up, right?

    Still took me a minute or so to get my mind in order... and my first guess was 7/8th :(



  • @RiX0R said:

     Assuming the spiders choose the direction to move randomly with 50/50 chance, the answer is there's a 3/4th chance the satellite will blow up, right?

    Still took me a minute or so to get my mind in order... and my first guess was 7/8th :(

    Yep. 1 - ((.5 * .5 *.5) * 2).  I didn't think the question was all that hard, but we tried asking the people in my group that question one day, and it took them, working together, over 15 minutes to figure it out.  I guess people forget their statistics courses.



  • When I was fresh out of college, I interviewed for a city IT dept.  One of the questions they threw my way was "Which comes first in the ASCII chart:  the number zero or the lowercase A?"  I did mostly know my ascii chart, but it had been a while since I perused it.  I remembered that the uppercase letters were separated from the lowercase letters, but couldn't remember whether the numbers were between them or punctuation characters.  After a bit of thought, my brain suddenly honed in on the fact that they specifically asked LOWERCASE A....  I figured it was a trick question and answered something like "the zero comes before the UPPERCASE A".

    Later, I got a look at the chart and slapped my forehead.  It apparently didn't ruin my chances, as I was invited back for a second interview.  To this day I still struggle with terminal literalitis.... 



  • @jetcitywoman said:

    When I was fresh out of college, I interviewed for a city IT dept.  One of the questions they threw my way was "Which comes first in the ASCII chart:  the number zero or the lowercase A?"  I did mostly know my ascii chart, but it had been a while since I perused it.  I remembered that the uppercase letters were separated from the lowercase letters, but couldn't remember whether the numbers were between them or punctuation characters.  After a bit of thought, my brain suddenly honed in on the fact that they specifically asked LOWERCASE A....  I figured it was a trick question and answered something like "the zero comes before the UPPERCASE A".

    Later, I got a look at the chart and slapped my forehead.  It apparently didn't ruin my chances, as I was invited back for a second interview.  To this day I still struggle with terminal literalitis.... 

     why did you slap your head, the number zero does come before the uppercase A. 



  • @jetcitywoman said:

    When I was fresh out of college, I interviewed for a city IT dept.  One of the questions they threw my way was "Which comes first in the ASCII chart:  the number zero or the lowercase A?"  I did mostly know my ascii chart, but it had been a while since I perused it.  I remembered that the uppercase letters were separated from the lowercase letters, but couldn't remember whether the numbers were between them or punctuation characters.  After a bit of thought, my brain suddenly honed in on the fact that they specifically asked LOWERCASE A....  I figured it was a trick question and answered something like "the zero comes before the UPPERCASE A".

    Later, I got a look at the chart and slapped my forehead.  It apparently didn't ruin my chances, as I was invited back for a second interview.  To this day I still struggle with terminal literalitis.... 

    Now this is an exampel of a question that I just don't understand. Why would you base your choice of candidate on some trivial matter that you can discover the answer to in under half a minute? Is there some correlation between people who have memorised the ASCII chart and people who are good coders? Just how often is it even an issue?

    A non-trivial number of questions like this and I'd probably walk out of the interview, since I have no desire to work for someone that's obviously picking their interview questions out of some random pages in "BASIC for dummies". "Ooooh a table, let's ask them some questions about this"



  • @RayS said:

    Now this is an exampel of a question that I just don't understand. Why would you base your choice of candidate on some trivial matter that you can discover the answer to in under half a minute? Is there some correlation between people who have memorised the ASCII chart and people who are good coders? Just how often is it even an issue?

    A non-trivial number of questions like this and I'd probably walk out of the interview, since I have no desire to work for someone that's obviously picking their interview questions out of some random pages in "BASIC for dummies". "Ooooh a table, let's ask them some questions about this"

    Well, this was in the mid-1980's before OOP languages were developed and before some of the more modern development methodologies.  Also, this was a city aka government...  you know, process process process.  I guess it was also for a junior programmer position and they knew I was fresh out of college.

    Besides, in my career to date, I've had a few non-technical supervisors faced with interviewing candidates ask me to write up some technical questions (and their answers).  I can appreciate how hard it is for non-technical people to try to identify truly experienced and knowledgable technical staff versus being snow-balled.  Of course the real WTF is why so many companies have non-technical management over technical staff to begin with... 



  • @bonzombiekitty said:

    <My company> has a satellite in space.  This satellite is made up of three nodes.  Each node is connected to two other nodes such that it forms a triangle (at this point I think he's being serious). Every ten minutes we send a signal to this satellite.  (still thinking he's serious).  This signal causes three radioactive spiders, which are each in they're own node to move to an adjacent node (my mind shifts without a clutch...).  Each node can only hold one spider at a time; if the spiders try to occupy the same node at the same time or run into eachother when trying to move nodes, they explode.  Is this satellite a good idea?  What are the chances of it blowing up?

    It's not 3/4, but 1. It was stated that the signal was sent every 10 minutes, and by the law of large numbers the satellite will eventually blow up. And of course it's a good idea: we all like fireworks, don't we?

    As for brain teasers, i bet you'll all like this one: the Monty Hall Problem
    Especially the reactions on it are hilarious.



  • @bouk said:

    As for brain teasers, i bet you'll all like this one: the Monty Hall Problem. Especially the reactions on it are hilarious.

    In defense of the wrong answers: the problem statement was incomplete.

    In Savant's version, the player wasn't informed that the host would be *required* to open a open a bad door after choosing. Without this information, the player has no reason to switch.



  • Here's another one from Ms. von Savant.

    Your friend tells you his dog has given birth to four puppies.  He doesn't tell you how many are male and how many are female.

    What is the MOST LIKELY combination of male and female puppies?

    I bet you said "2 males and 2 females."  WRONG!  According to Marilyn, the most likely outcome is "either three males and one female, or three females and one male."

    4 females:  1 / 16

    4 males:  1 / 16

    2 males, 2 females:  6 / 16

    3 of one sex, 1 of the other:  8 / 16

    Really!  If I remember correctly, this column was even featured on the cover of Parade magazine.

    (And I thought the most likely outcome was some number from 0 to 4 of males and a corresponding number from 4 to 0 of females with a probability of 16 / 16.  Guess I was wrong.)

     



  • @newfweiler said:

    Here's another one from Ms. von Savant.

    Your friend tells you his dog has given birth to four puppies.  He doesn't tell you how many are male and how many are female.

    What is the MOST LIKELY combination of male and female puppies?

    I bet you said "2 males and 2 females."  WRONG!  According to Marilyn, the most likely outcome is "either three males and one female, or three females and one male."

    [snip]

    I would call B.S. on that one.  The question says "the" combination.  "3 F, 1 M, and 1 F, 3 M" is not a single combination, in my books, it's 2 combinations.

    Perhaps I'm wrong to call it 2 combinations... at the very least, it's ambiguous.  It's things like this that give "trick questions" a legitimately bad name.  Good questions should make you realize that the "obvious" answer is wrong after you think about it for a while.  Bad questions make you misinterpret the question.



  • @AssimilatedByBorg said:

    @newfweiler said:

    Here's another one from Ms. von Savant.

    Your friend tells you his dog has given birth to four puppies.  He doesn't tell you how many are male and how many are female.

    What is the MOST LIKELY combination of male and female puppies?

    I bet you said "2 males and 2 females."  WRONG!  According to Marilyn, the most likely outcome is "either three males and one female, or three females and one male."

    [snip]

    I would call B.S. on that one.  The question says "the" combination.  "3 F, 1 M, and 1 F, 3 M" is not a single combination, in my books, it's 2 combinations.

    Perhaps I'm wrong to call it 2 combinations... at the very least, it's ambiguous.  It's things like this that give "trick questions" a legitimately bad name.  Good questions should make you realize that the "obvious" answer is wrong after you think about it for a while.  Bad questions make you misinterpret the question.

    You're probably thinking of the difference between permutations and combinations.  I don't think either word accurately describes the "correct answer", but maybe someone who did better in math could settle the issue



  • @Oscar L said:

    You're probably thinking of the difference between permutations and combinations.  I don't think either word accurately describes the "correct answer", but maybe someone who did better in math could settle the issue

    <light bulb goes off>

    If I remember right (and that's a huge if), order matters for permutations, but not for combinations.  e.g., the 2 birth orders MMFF and FFMM represents 2 permutations, but only one combination.


    But MMMF and FFFM represent different combinations entirely.



  • @newfweiler said:

    Here's another one from Ms. von Savant.

    I bet you said "2 males and 2 females."  WRONG!  According to Marilyn, the most likely outcome is "either three males and one female, or three females and one male."

    4 females:  1 / 16

    4 males:  1 / 16

    2 males, 2 females:  6 / 16

    3 of one sex, 1 of the other:  8 / 16

    Really!  If I remember correctly, this column was even featured on the cover of Parade magazine.

     Erm, in that answer is confused as to whether the sex of the puppies is significant, in the first 3 sex is significant, ie 4 males is not the same as 4 females, but in the last, sex is irrelevant, ie 3 males and 1 female is the same as 3 females and 1 male. Ergo this answer cannot be the right answer because it logically inconsistant.
     



  • @bouk said:

    It's not 3/4, but 1. It was stated that the signal was sent every 10 minutes, and by the law of large numbers the satellite will eventually blow up. And of course it's a good idea: we all like fireworks, don't we?

     Technically, no (besides that fact we're talking about exploding at any given signal not over time).  Over time while the probability of it exploding over time approaches 1, it is never exactly one.
     



  • @bonzombiekitty said:

    @bouk said:

    It's not 3/4, but 1. It was stated that the signal was sent every 10 minutes, and by the law of large numbers the satellite will eventually blow up. And of course it's a good idea: we all like fireworks, don't we?

     Technically, no (besides that fact we're talking about exploding at any given signal not over time).  Over time while the probability of it exploding over time approaches 1, it is never exactly one.
     

    Actually, it's unlikely that radioactive spiders live forever. But then, all we know is that the radioactive spiders explode when they meet each other; but since the explosive power of a radioactive spider is unknown, it's doubtable if the whole satellite blows up in the likely case two spiders meet. 



  • Technically, no (besides that fact we're talking about exploding at any given signal not over time).  Over time while the probability of it exploding over time approaches 1, it is never exactly one.

    You may or may not like what Wikipedia has to say about it, but you have to admit my answer is closer than any other answer that can be given.

    And about the monty hall problem:

    In defense of the wrong answers: the problem statement was incomplete.

    That is true, but it is no defense for flat out stating she is incorrect. The one PhD stating that its a 50/50 chance should perhaps seek a differend vocation. Furthermore, most people did interpret the question right (i.e. the way she intended), but got the answer wrong anyway.



  • @bonzombiekitty said:

    @bouk said:

    It's not 3/4, but 1. It was stated that the signal was sent every 10 minutes, and by the law of large numbers the satellite will eventually blow up. And of course it's a good idea: we all like fireworks, don't we?

     Technically, no (besides that fact we're talking about exploding at any given signal not over time).  Over time while the probability of it exploding over time approaches 1, it is never exactly one.
     

     

    when the limit is 1 as time goes to infinity, the chances of the satellite blowing up is 1, because there is no end time for this.  If it said, what are the chances in the next day, or year, then you would be correct.  However, it just said, what is the chance, implying the satellite will remain in existence forever (until it explodes).



  • @bonzombiekitty said:

    [snip]

    Is this satellite a good idea?

    [snip]

    I find it interesting that nobody has questioned the purpose of the satellite.  No details are given on what it's supposed to do, just that it has a high probability of exploding.  Does it do anything at all other than orbit and probably explode at that point?  (CPound comes closest by saying (paraphrasing) it's a bad idea to have a satellite with a non-trivial chance of exploding.) 

    Maybe it's supposed to explode, obliterating its enemies to tiny bits.  Of course, it probably doesn't do that very well either :-)
     



  • @AssimilatedByBorg said:

    I find it interesting that nobody has questioned the purpose of the satellite.

    I just assumed that it was a creative and entertaining way of getting rid of those damn radioactive spiders. They're otherwise fairly indestructible.



  • Remind me never to ask any of you questions on anything.  EVER.  You'll all over analyze it :p



  • @AssimilatedByBorg said:

    @newfweiler said:

    Here's another one from Ms. von Savant.

    Your friend tells you his dog has given birth to four puppies.  He doesn't tell you how many are male and how many are female.

    What is the MOST LIKELY combination of male and female puppies?

    I bet you said "2 males and 2 females."  WRONG!  According to Marilyn, the most likely outcome is "either three males and one female, or three females and one male."

    [snip]

    I would call B.S. on that one.  The question says "the" combination.  "3 F, 1 M, and 1 F, 3 M" is not a single combination, in my books, it's 2 combinations.

    Perhaps I'm wrong to call it 2 combinations... at the very least, it's ambiguous.  It's things like this that give "trick questions" a legitimately bad name.  Good questions should make you realize that the "obvious" answer is wrong after you think about it for a while.  Bad questions make you misinterpret the question.

    Ermmm ... that's my point.  Marilyn, "the smartest person in the world(TM)", thinks that "either three males and one female, or three females and one male" is a single outcome.

    After I read that in her column, I sent her a puzzle by email:

    "Adam, Bill and Charlie are having an argument about the probabilities of throwing two standard dice, as in playing craps.

    Adam says the most likely result is 7.

    Bill says no, you're more likely to get an even number than a 7.

    Charlie says that the MOST likely result is a number from 2 to 12.

    Who is right?"

    The Smartest Person In The World never replied.  I guess she's still trying to figure out the answer.

    I don't know the answer.

    I also don't know the answer to this question:  If you can ask The Smartest Person In The World any question at all, like "Does God exist?" or "What can I do to help conserve energy?" or "Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?", why do so many people ask questions like "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son.  Who is that man?"?

     



  • As long as we're talking stupid riddles:

    Your Favorite Politician checked into the Motel 7, and the desk clerk said, "Hey, YFP, I've got a riddle!  Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son.  Who is that man's father?"

    YFP thought about it and said, "I don't know."

    The clerk said, "That man's father is me!"

    YFP chuckled and said, "That's a good one."

    Later, YFP saw His Trusted Advisor.  "Hey HTA," said YFP.  "I've got a riddle!  I don't have any brothers or sisters, but that man is my son's father.  Who am I?"

    HTA said, "I don't know."

    YFP said, "I'm the desk clerk at the Motel 7!"

     



  • @newfweiler said:

    I also don't know the answer to this question:  If you can ask The Smartest Person In The World any question at all, like "Does God exist?" or "What can I do to help conserve energy?" or "Why do the nations so furiously rage together, and why do the people imagine a vain thing?", why do so many people ask questions like "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son.  Who is that man?"?

    I do. In statistics, it's called "sampling bias". In "How to lie with statistics", it's more precisely described as "a sample with a built-in bias".

    The sort of people who read these columns are, by self-selection, more interested in trite curiosities than in things that matter.
     



  • @newfweiler said:

    After I read that in her column, I sent her a puzzle by email:

    "Adam, Bill and Charlie are having an argument about the probabilities of throwing two standard dice, as in playing craps.

    Adam says the most likely result is 7.

    Bill says no, you're more likely to get an even number than a 7.

    Charlie says that the MOST likely result is a number from 2 to 12.

    Who is right?"

    Well, the starting question is pretty ambiguous, but I'd say none of them are right. Given the rules of craps (http://www.ildado.com/craps_rules.html) it looks like the most likely result is a "point", i.e. <font>4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10. Charlie is just being a smart ass and should be told to shut up. Bill is correct in that rolling any even number is more likely than rolling a 7, but since "Any even number" doesn't seem to be one of the considered classes of roles in craps, his answer is irrelevent. Adam is correct (I think, I can't be bothered to work this out for myself) in that 7 is the most likely sum result of both dice, but that doesn't seem to be the original question (i.e. What is the most likely result of a roll of 2 dice in craps)</font>

    So, do I get the job? 



  • @newfweiler said:


    So, do I get the job? 

    No. Calling someone a "smartass" and telling him to "shut up" is disrespectful and violates paragraph 13 of our company employee guidelines. I recommend anger control counseling.



  • @Devi said:

    So, do I get the job? 

    Your answer wasn't the one I was thinking of, so I spend the next two hours explaining my answer, and by "explaining" I mean telling you how smart I am and how stupid anyone who disagrees with me is.  After wasting your whole afternoon with that, I finally tell you that no, you didn't get the job.

    (On the way out, the receptionist tells you Newfweiler is always like that and nobody gets along with him, and he even had a run-in with the CEO and may not be here next month, if you know what I mean, so try again in five weeks.)

     



  • @newfweiler said:

    His Trusted Advisor.  "Hey HTA," said YFP.  "I've got a riddle!  I don't have any brothers or sisters, but that man is my son's father.  Who am I?"

    HTA said, "I don't know."

    YFP said, "I'm the desk clerk at the Motel 7!"

    The real WTF is any politician checking into a cheap motel without his mistress.



  • @Devi said:

    @newfweiler said:

    After I read that in her column, I sent her a puzzle by email:

    "Adam, Bill and Charlie are having an argument about the probabilities of throwing two standard dice, as in playing craps.

    Adam says the most likely result is 7.

    Bill says no, you're more likely to get an even number than a 7.

    Charlie says that the MOST likely result is a number from 2 to 12.

    Who is right?"

    Well, the starting question is pretty ambiguous, but I'd say none of them are right. Given the rules of craps (http://www.ildado.com/craps_rules.html) it looks like the most likely result is a "point", i.e. <FONT size=+0>4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10. Charlie is just being a smart ass and should be told to shut up. Bill is correct in that rolling any even number is more likely than rolling a 7, but since "Any even number" doesn't seem to be one of the considered classes of roles in craps, his answer is irrelevent. Adam is correct (I think, I can't be bothered to work this out for myself) in that 7 is the most likely sum result of both dice, but that doesn't seem to be the original question (i.e. What is the most likely result of a roll of 2 dice in craps)</FONT>

    So, do I get the job? 

    Well your asumption of charlie being a smartass would be wrong in my opinion, I would consider his answer as incorrect given the fact that he specifies that the MOST likely result is a number from 2 to 12, - the words 'MOST likely' implies that there is a chance that a result can occur outside of this scope, however since this is impossible, his statement would be deemed incorrect.

     

    however both Adam and Bill are correct, the most likely singular result is 7, and u are more likely to roll an even number that 7.

    But if you do consider my assumption as flawed and that 'most likely' does not neccessarily imply that a result can occur outside of this scope, then the correct answer however is that all statements are correct.



  • @Hitsuji said:

    Well your asumption of charlie being a smartass would be wrong in my opinion, I would consider his answer as incorrect given the fact that he specifies that the MOST likely result is a number from 2 to 12, - the words 'MOST likely' implies that there is a chance that a result can occur outside of this scope, however since this is impossible, his statement would be deemed incorrect.

    Gimme a break, Charlie's statement has 0 worth, not only is it semantically misleading as you state, but it just repeats obvious information that all parties already know. It's the equivalent of me answering the question "Will the sunrise tomorrow?" with "Maybe it will, or maybe.... it WON'T!" and looking all pleased with myself afterwards. Just because I'm right doesn't mean I'm not being an idiot.


    however both Adam and Bill are correct, the most likely singular result is 7, and u are more likely to roll an even number that 7.



    I said that too, but the only explanation we're given as to what is meant by "the probabilities of throwing two standard dice" is what that means in terms of Craps. If you ignore that, then you're ignoring part of the original question. Admittedly, I don't blame them for not understanding the rules of craps, I just read them 3 times and I don't understand them either...



  • All right, pop quiz hot shots. Airport. Gunman with one hostage. He's using her
    for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away.



  • @fatdog said:

    All right, pop quiz hot shots. Airport. Gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away.

    Run away and call the police. 



  • No... Close the Door to the Plane... You dont want a gunman on your flight



  • Take the automag from your metal thigh and shoot the girl right through her skirt into the gunman's ballsack.



  • @fatdog said:

    All right, pop quiz hot shots. Airport. Gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away.

    I have a sneaking suspicion that the correct answer is: 

    Shoot them both, it's better to have one dead hostage on the ground than God knows how many living hostages up in the air.

    *Sits back and starts stroking his white cat*


     



  • @fatdog said:

    All right, pop quiz hot shots. Airport. Gunman with one hostage. He's using her
    for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away.

    Call keanu reeves, and ask him?



  • @fatdog said:

    All right, pop quiz hot shots. Airport. Gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away.

    you don't care, you're too busy keeping the bus about 50 mph. You'd hand that one off to the SWAT guys



  • @newguy said:

    I'm curious to know if anyone has had any trick interview questions thrown at them, and if it cost you the interview because you answered them wrong. Please share your experiences.

     "So, do you want the job?"

    I answered no.

    Turns out the answer they were looking for was 'yes'



  • @webzter said:

    @newguy said:

    I'm curious to know if anyone has had any trick interview questions thrown at them, and if it cost you the interview because you answered them wrong. Please share your experiences.

     "So, do you want the job?"

    I answered no.

    Turns out the answer they were looking for was 'yes'

     

    hahahaha =D 



  • Tell him he's an idiot for taking out the gun before he got on the plane and the plane taking off. the door of the planes is gonna be closed before he gets there, and hes gonna be surrounded by some form of armed forces within a minute


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