PRESENCE OF MIND

It was during my placements, I had to attend an interview for a top MNC.

This is just an excerpt from my interview.

HR panel:

After about an half an hour interview

HR: So, I will ask you a question and if you answer it, I think about you. Are you ready?

Me: Yes, sir.

HR: If suppose I put you into a room and leave you with nothing and just give you two ropes made up of same material and same length, along with a match box. Now this rope takes 1 hr to burn completely and you should report me exactly after 45 min. U can burn both the ropes or either one, that’s up to you and remeber you have nothing including a watch.

He said I give you 30 sec of time to think and this eventually resulted in 15 sec, after which I was asked to answer.

Me: I would place both the ropes parallel to eachother starting and ending at the same point and lit each rope from the opposite side at the same time.

(something like this)

Me: When ropes burn the fire moves forward leaving the ashes behind so, at some point of time they come in a straight line which indicates that half of the ropes have burnt.

(something like this)

Now, since each each rope takes 1 hr to burn, the half rope takes 1/2 hr to burn. This implies half an hour is completed.

Now, I would move one of the rope so that they are parallel again, as i did in the 1st step. Once again they will have to meet indicating that the 1/2 portion of the left over half has burnt.

(something like this)

If it takes 1/2 hr to burn 1/2 of the rope then, it takes 15 min to burn the 3/4th of the rope.

Thus, 30 min + 15 min = 45 min.

And finally, I could crack the interview.

 

 

 

What are the puzzles asked in an interview?

 

Interviewer: You don’t have any kind of cash & nothing that can buy you food for a Week that you have to spend in an unknown place.

You found a 7 inches Gold stick (with a 12 inches scale & cutter), with the instructions: ‘Can only be cut twice, if more than two or tried exchanging it for cash, the stick will vanish away’. You went to the Hotel & asked for food. The condition was you will get 1 Day Full Meal for each inch of Gold stick. Now the problem is you can’t trust the Hotel & give away the whole stick, you should pay for each day, only as per the deal. Not lesser, or not even more. What will you do?

Me: (It was a tricky question. I was confused for a while. Then tried giving it a shot. But nothing was coming out, It almost took 5–10 mins for me to think out of the box. Thanks for the interviewer for his patience)

Cut the gold stick, twice in three pieces, 1 inch, 2 inches & 4 inches respectively.

1. Day 1: Give 1 inch & have the meal
2. Day 2: Give two inches & have the meal & take 1 inch back
3. Day 3: Give 1 inch & have the meal
4. Day 4: Give 4 inches & have the meal, then take 2 inches & 1 inch back
5. Day 5: Give 1 inch & have the meal
6. Day 6: Give 2 inches & take 1 inch back & have the meal
7. Day 7: Give 1 inch & have the meal

Interviewer: (Smiling) Well Done!

 

What are the best interview questions that are tricky and require presence of mind to answer them?

 

I was asked this question during one of my MBA admission interviews. It's a simple yet smart one.

There were 2 interviewers in the panel. Let's call them A and B.

A - So Rohit where do you belong?
Me - I'm from Delhi.
A - Let's say you are in Bangalore and board a flight for Delhi. On which side would you sit to avoid sunlight?
Me - (Thinking for a couple of seconds...) Sir, I would sit in the middle.
B - (A smirk on his face...)
A - No, tell me left or right.

By that time, I had done my calculation.

Me - Sir, the plane will fly from south to north and the sun rises in the east. So, if I board the flight before 12 PM, I would sit on the left side.
A and B - (Nodding in agreement)

I was selected by this panel. :)

 

What are the common puzzles asked in an interview?

 

Question 1: One man has a habit of smoking cigarettes regularly. He has a strange habit of smoking even filters of the cigarette, which people usually throws it out. After smoking every 5 cigarettes, he attaches five filters of each cigarette and then he smokes it. Now the question is, if he has a packet of 25 cigarettes daily, how many number of cigarettes per day he actually consumes?

Answer: 31 not 30

Question 2: This is one of the most difficult question.

Here is the question

One guy named john, he was 7 years old day before yesterday. The very next year he will be 10 years old. How?

Answer: Only one possible scenario.

Assume

• John birthday is on December 31 2014
• The question is asked on January 1st 2015.
• Day before yesterday he was 7 years old
• Yesterday he became 8 years old
• As we are in jan 1st 2015, he becomes 9 years old on December 31th 2015
• Next year December 31th 2016, he becomes 10 years old
• Puzzle solved

Edit 1: As many of them asking explanation for 1st questions, the answer is 31 not 30.

Total number of cigarettes consumed excluding he’s habit=25

Now total filters remaining=25

Total cigarettes he consumed with filters=5

After consuming 5 cigarettes with filters attached, total filters remaining are 5, because no one can consume fully.

Now he make one cigarette with 5 filters.

So total cigarettes consumed=25+5+1=31

What are some tech hacks that can be learned in 10 minutes?

Having slow wifi speed due to multiple number of users?

Just 3 steps and you can be the king of the wifi at your home, office, pg and in my case hostel.

Step 1: Open the command prompt on your pc in admin mode.

 

 

Step 2: Now type "ipconfig/all" in the window and press enter.

Now it will open the details of your wifi, out of which you just need to notice the IPv4 address which in my case is 172.16.105.48 (preferred).

Step 3: Now you just need to type " ping 172.16.105.48 -t " in the command prompt window and press enter.( Instead of 172.16.105.48 type your own ipv4 address, its different for every router.)

3 steps completed and you are done. Don't close the command prompt, just minimize the window and now you are sucking the wifi. You'll have the speed and will be the king.

Something like this will constantly come up, don't worry just minimize the window.

Thank you.

  

Another Interview Question :-

I: Interviewer, C: Candidate)

I: You feel exhausted after so much waiting, have some water. (Pointing towards the bottle kept in front)

C: (Extends his hand towards the water bottle)

I: Wait ! That cap's mine, you can't touch that.

C: ?? (Blank face)

I: Yes, you have to drink it without touching the cap of the bottle.

C: (Holds the bottle in his hand, and after looking for a while, put it back on the table) There is no water in the bottle, Sir !

I: What are you saying, can't you see, it is full up to the brim.

C: (Calmly) No sir, I have checked and I couldn't find any water there.

(Interviewer keep on saying that there is water while showing him bottle repeatedly, but candidate was reluctant to accept). You can't wake up a man pretending to sleep.

Finally after few minutes of 'water is', 'no water'.

I: (completely frustrated, opens the bottle and started pouring it in front of C) What is this then ?

C:

(Snatched the b

ottle from his hand and drank it all and after taking a long breath) Thank you very much Sir !

 

 

 

 

What are the best interview questions that are tricky and require presence of mind to answer them?

 

The interviewer had just one ear, the other one had to be removed because of some medical urgency. He wanted to test the observation skills of candidates. He asked the first candidate, " Look at me, and tell me what do you learn about me".

The first candidate replied, "I am sorry to say you only have one ear".

He was dismissed and the next one was called. The interviewer asked the same question and got the same answer.

The last candidate answered differently. He said, "I am sure you are using contact lenses".

"How did you know", the baffled interviewer asked.

"Sir, you are close to 55 and people generally wear glasses at this age. You cannot wear glasses, so you must have gone for contact lenses."

"Why can't I wear glasses", the interviewer asked.

"I am sorry to say you only have one ear", the last candidate answered.

Needless to mention that he was selected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Interview Question :-

This question was put across me in an interview for an IT firm.

I don't know if it was the best question, but the question actually took me for a surprise.

So the interview started with a warm handshake.

Interviewer: So Eshaan, how much would rate yourself on a scale of 10 in terms of your reasoning power?

Me: Sir, I would fairly rate myself 7.5.

Interviewer: That surely is a good score. Actually there is a question that is bothering me from quite sometime now. I was hoping if you could help.

Me: Sure sir ( *smiling as I say that, but inside, his way of framing up the question was making me nervous )

Interviewer: Okay, so there is one room which is totally dark.

It has a bulb holder and a working 100 watt bulb already installed.

The room is closed from all the sides without a window or any ventilator. Except that it has a door without any breathing space below. That means no light from the room can be seen from the outside of the door.

There are three one way switches outside that door. But the bulb inside  corresponds to only one of the three switches.

Now suppose that you are on the outside of that room.

The task is to find out that particular switch which controls that bulb.

But you are allowed to enter the room only once.

So tell me Eshaan, how would you solve this problem with your logical reasoning.

(Everything went quiet for several minutes after his constant dictation of that question. I remember I went blank for a moment. I was doing nothing but analysing all the points. And then he spoke again.)

Interviewer: It's okay Eshaan. Take your time. But then just keep in mind that you are taking my time as well. ( He was so damn sharp).

*I smiled at this. And repeated all the points of his question briefly. Just to buy myself some time.

And it worked. I had the solution by the time I finished.

I started as follows:

Me: Sir, in my knowledge there could be only one solution to this problem.

I'll turn the first switch ON and wait for a few minutes before switching it OFF. Turn the switch OFF. 

Now I'll turn the second switch ON.

I'll let the switch ON and will enter the room.

My observations will be as follows:

There would be two events, either the bulb would glow or it would not.

If I found the bulb glowing, we simply have our answer, it's the same switch which we just turned ON.

But if the bulb is not glowing I would touch it.

If it is warm, the switch I turned ON for the first time is our answer and if it is at a normal temperature, the switch we did not use at all is our answer.

This way, we have three different results for the three switches.

He was visibly impressed by the answer. It was the first time he smiled and agreed.

"Impressive", he said.

After a few more questions the interview got over. And that same evening I had the offer letter on my mail.

It was one question I won't ever forget.

 

 

Another Tricky interview question!!

It may not be the best interview question but worth a mention....

So a friend of mine had mentioned "Patience" as one of his strength in his resume.

The resume of all the candidates have been submitted beforehand at the start of the HR interviews.

His turn came at 9pm that day ; maybe they have taken a glance at all the resume and read that he is patient.

He entered very calm and composed and as fresh as ever for the panel.

After some general HR questions, they asked :

Interviewer : You have mentioned Patience as one of your strength in your resume. Define it.

He : Sir, I've waited 4 years 15 days and 12 hours for this interview to happen.

Result : Selected :)

 

What are some tricky questions asked in placement interviews?

After two rounds of technical cum aptitude interview, I was through to the final round.

It was a HR round. So I thought it would just be a casual talk.

It happened as follows:

Interviewer: Hi xxx, tell about yourself.

Me: Usual blah blah blah...

I: So why switching to a new company?

M: Usual blah blah...

As I expected it went on smoothly with some more usual and expected questions. Then the following happened.

I: Ok xxx. One final question. If you answer it correctly, you are selected. Else, not. Then she gave brief pause.

M: Though I was confident,  that pause made me little nervous.

I: Just a simple question. I will ask you only once. I will not repeat and you should answer only once. You can take upto 5 mins to answer. 

M: more nervous... Ok.

I: The total price of bat and ball is 1.10₹. The price of the bat is 1₹ more than the price of the ball. What is the price of the ball?.

M: For a moment I was on cloud nine.     My inner thoughts: Wow so easy its 0.10₹. You are selected man. Many smiles on my face. But my goodness I did not say it immediately. You should answer only once came to my mind in a flash. Then I worked it out and got a different and correct answer! Said it.

I: Smiled and said nice xxx. Welcome onboard!

 Still wondering what would have happened, If I had said 0.10₹ immediately!

 Answer- Most of us would have thought 0.10 as the answer first. But if ball price is 0.10, bat price must be 1.00.  Then bat price is only 0.90 more than ball price.

So small math here,

Bat + Ball = 1.10₹ (eq 1)

Bat - Ball = 1.00₹ (eq 2)

(eq 1) + (eq 2) = 2Bat = 2.10₹

So, Bat = 1.05₹ (eq 3)

Sub (eq 3) in (eq 1) = 1.05₹ + Ball = 1.10₹

So, Ball = 0.05₹.

Its actually simple. But interviewer twisted the question in a way that most of us will think 0.10 as the answer first. Just a small presence of mind we can get it

What are some of the most difficult questions asked in an interview?

This question was asked during IIM-B interview in 2015. I read it on a magazine. It really impressed me.

Interviewer : If you have three, you have three. If you have two, you have two but if you have one, you have none. What is it?

His answer was "Choices".

He got selected !!