Weird Interview Questions You Won’t See Coming (And How To Ace Them)
By popular demand, this post gives an overview of how to handle unexpected (and weird) interview questions!
On the professional side of my blog, I’m working to provide tools that allow young adults to confidently face common professional milestones such as career fairs, internships, interviews, their first jobs, etc!
Thanks to everyone who filled out my Content Planning form! It’s still open and accessible HERE for anyone else interested in filling it out! By popular demand, here’s an overview of how to handle unexpected (and weird) interview questions!
INTRO:
One of the most well-known examples of these “weird” interview questions is “How many tennis balls can fit in a limo?”
Yes: interviewers ask questions like this!
No: you don’t have to be in physics, math, or any other seemingly relevant industry to get a question like this! In fact, this interview question can be used in any industry!
IMPORTANT NOTES:
There’s nothing to be afraid of when it comes to these questions — they’re supposed to catch you off guard! But luckily, you’re preparing for your interview by reading articles like this, so you’ll know what to expect!
Across the dozens of interviews I’ve done in my life so far, I’ve only been asked a question like this twice, and I know others who have never been asked a question like this. However, it can’t hurt to be extra prepared!
The key thing to understand is that you’re not supposed to know the answer. In fact, the general idea behind the “randomness” of these questions is that the interviewee will be caught off guard and unlikely to know the answer off the top of their head!
WHY WOULD AN INTERVIEWER INTENTIONALLY ASK YOU A QUESTION YOU HAVE NO WAY TO PREPARE FOR?
While there are many different types of interview questions, they all aim to contribute to an interviewer’s understanding of a candidate’s potential in a role. The same idea still applies here!
Knowing how many tennis balls can fit in a limo off the top of your head is unlikely to directly reflect on your ability to succeed in a role. However, the way you respond to these types of questions is still very informative to your interviewer! This is because they aren’t asking you this question for the purpose of getting the answer. They’re asking you for the purpose of seeing your authentic reaction to something unexpected AND your ability to think (and problem-solve) on your feet.
Now that we have a general understanding of these questions, I’ll go over some Dos and Don’ts, starting with what you should NOT do (and why):
WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT DO:
Simply say “I don’t know”
Make a random guess
Get stressed and start questioning why the interviewer is asking you this
Expect this question and simply go into the interview with the exact number prepared
As I mentioned, the purpose of a question like this is to see if you’re the type of person who likes to problem solve instead of finding easy “check-the-box solutions” as well as if you’re easily stressed by unexpected changes. You might be wondering why they don’t just ask if you have those qualities directly. They could, but it might create a few problems. Here are some examples.
Interviewer: “Do you like to problem solve and can you give me an example?”
Obviously, nobody would say they don’t like to problem solve — that would make them look bad. And even if someone had a strong problem-solving example, they likely practiced and perfected that answer ahead of the interview.
Interviewer: “How would you problem-solve finding the number of tennis balls that can fit in a limo?”
The interviewer is making it obvious to the interviewee that they aren’t supposed to guess. So if the interviewee is the type of person who would have simply guessed (or said “I don’t know”), the interviewer won’t know that about them.
To address why you shouldn’t just say the answer even if you happen to know it is because it defeats the purpose of the question. If you just blurt out the answer, they won’t learn anything about you. So if you happen to know the answer, keep it to yourself for now and jump into how you would go about finding the answer!
Simply asking “How many tennis balls could fit in a limo?” is a sneaky way for interviewers to fix the issues I mentioned above. It makes their intentions less obvious and therefore prevents a candidate from simply saying what they think the interviewer wants to hear. Instead, it gives an authentic demonstration of whether a candidate would naturally choose to problem-solve (without being asked to), how they go about problem-solving, and how they communicate their thoughts on an unexpected topic in real-time.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO:
Here’s a general outline for how I like to handle questions like this:
Take a moment to confirm (just to yourself) that you’re being asked one of those weird questions and remind yourself that you won’t need to provide an exact answer — the answer isn’t the point. This step helps prevent me from getting flustered in the moment!
Next, if you still get flustered and feel the need to address the randomness of the question to take the edge off, you can say something like “Interesting question! I’m not familiar with this off the top of my head but, without directly looking it up online, to solve a problem like this, I would start by…”
Then you can go into how you would attempt to find an answer to this question. Some example steps would be: Asking any clarifying questions you have, mentioning any assumptions you’re making, tell them what data points you think you would need to answer this question as well as what you would do to get those data points (measuring by yourself, doing research on average values for those data points, etc.).
Then wrap up with something like “And with all of those pieces, I believe I’d have everything I need to grab a calculator and do the final calculation!”
And then probably say something about how you would get feedback since you find it helpful to have multiple perspectives.
OTHER WEIRD QUESTION EXAMPLES I’VE HEARD OF / FOUND ONLINE:
How many diapers do you think will be sold in the US next year?
How long does it take to fill up a pool?
“You’re shrunken down to the size of nickels and dropped to the bottom of a blender. What do you do?” (from The Internship)
If you were stuck on an island, how would you escape?
Where’s your dream vacation destination?
What would you do if you won the lottery?
What’s your favorite color?
The last few I mentioned above aren’t really problem-solving questions. However, they aren’t small talk questions either — so don’t simply give a one-word answer! Talk it out, be honest, and most importantly, give them something positive to learn about you! Another general tip, if you’re unsure where to begin, is to think about the role you’re applying for and see if you can work an applicable skill into the conversation! This is especially helpful for those questions that don’t really seem like problem-solving questions.
Another similar situation I’ve heard of is a candidate being asked to shoot a basketball at the end of an interview for a marketing role. The same logic applies here — athletic skills seem irrelevant in this case, and they are! They just want to see how you react to unexpected changes! The person who told me about this from their interview missed the shot, but still got the job because they positively embraced the unexpected change!
RECAP & REMINDERS:
Interviewers are not trying to set you up to fail by asking these questions — you aren’t supposed to know the answer! They just want to see how you provide an unrehearsed answer as well as how you naturally choose to address an unfamiliar problem on the spot.
Not every interviewer will do this, and it’s probably less common than I think. But there’s no such thing as being too prepared for an interview and personally, I feel most confident when I’ve prepared for probable AND a few improbable situations!
The key thing is to demonstrate that you’re choosing to problem-solve in the first place (instead of guessing or saying “I don’t know”). One of my interviewers told me that a decent percentage of people don’t even think to take a problem-solving approach!
Learning how to problem-solve better can be taught. A natural desire to think critically about things is much harder to learn and is the trait that’s more important to them! So don’t let unfamiliarity of the topic or fear of bad problem-solving abilities prevent you from giving it a shot! Even if you have no idea how to go about solving something, talk through any little piece you can think of and ask any questions you want — showing that you’re willing to give it a shot is what’s important! You could also see if you can think of a similar problem that you’re more familiar with and apply the same problem-solving ideas!
There’s nothing to be stressed about when it comes to these! Take a second to gather a starting place in your thoughts, speak calmly, and see where your mind takes you!
If you have any questions about this post or have your own applicable tips I didn’t mention, please let me know in the comments, or feel free to email me directly at problog@apartfromblonde.com!
Check out this and more posts on my Medium account HERE!