Sample Interview Question

Notes and Advice from John:

Popularized by Microsoft, the "Smart" or "Problem Solving" question is designed give the interviewer a sample of your mental horsepower, ability to think on your feet, and flexibility and creativity.

You are not supposed to actually know the answer. The interview question is to see if you can come up with a credible answer and back that answer up with some kind of logic, calculation, or reasoned analysis.

Don’t throw your hands up in frustration and whine, "I don’t know!" You will be judged as inflexible and easily frustrated by out-of-the-box ideas. You don’t want to give that impression in a job interview situation.

Do act intrigued by the question (even if you’re not). Show that you are willing to engage in an off-beat exercise. Have some fun with it. Relax.

Do puzzle your way to an answer, even if you know it’s probably wrong. Think out loud. Let the interviewer know how you are going to try to get to your best answer.

Do ask clarifying questions of the interviewer if you need more information to get to the answer. Interviewers like to see some give and take during these questions.

Don’t get carried away and ask too many detailed questions that delay the interview. It’s not important to be right. You just have to come up with a credible answer that you can back up with a credible analysis of some kind. It is possible to be too detail oriented and lose sight of the goal of the question. Don't fall into this trap.

Do feel comfortable making assumptions, but be careful to state them to the interviewer.

If these kinds of questions are difficult for you, buy yourself a mental exercise puzzle book and practice-practice-practice until you become more comfortable. You can try making up your own questions, or have a friend make up a few, and go to town on them.

Case interviews are more in-depth, but are very similar. Practice case interviews would seriously help you answer these questions also. Consider Vault's Guide to the Case Interview as a resource I can confidently recommend.

Sample Answer:

"How deep is the lake?"

Me: "You should assume the lake is 200 feet deep where you are."

You: "Do you have any idea on how fast an anchor falls in water? I’ll need that info to solve the problem."

Me: "Assume that information is not available."

You: "Well, without that information, there’s no real way to get an accurate answer. Is it OK if I guess?"

Me: "Yep. I’d like to see how you reason this out, even without the info you might need. Go ahead and do your best with the info you have."

You: "OK, thanks. Here goes. I’m going to assume that the anchor will drop about 10 feet per second. If I’m in water that’s 200 feet deep, the anchor will take about 200 feet divided by 10 feet per second, or about 20 seconds to reach the bottom if my assumptions are close."

Me: "What are some factors you can think of that would speed up or slow down the time to the bottom?"

You: "Well, I suppose if the boat side was very tall, it would take a couple of seconds to hit the water. Also, if there was some kind of applied friction to the anchor chain, that would slow things down. If the water was icy or thickened in some way, that might also slow things down. I don’t think anything could speed it up, unless there was some kind of motor pulling the anchor down faster."

Additional Resources:

Vault's Guide to the Case Interview. An absolute must for anyone interviewing with a consulting firm or needing practice with problem-solving interviews.

Vault's Professional Interview Prep Program. A highly reputable option for those who want to pull out all the stops while preparing for interviews. At $149 to $249, this program is EXPENSIVE, but very worthwhile. If money is tight, go with the Interview Questions and Answers Database instead.

Personal Interview Coaching from John Gates, Founder of Free-Resume-Help.com: $129 per hour. E-mail me for a requested time slot. My colleagues and I do this on evenings and weekends, typically, since we are full-time Corporate Recruiters.