I got a brain teaser prob from a micro$oft interview EDIT: possible answer!!!

[klah]

Originally posted by: BDawg

Originally posted by: Talon
With 2 cuts, divide the bar into 3 pieces of 1/7, 2/7 and 4/7.

Day 1: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 2: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7 piece.
Day 3: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 4: Take back 1/7 and 2/7 and give 4/7.
Day 5: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 6: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7.
Day 7: Give 1/7.

Hey, we have a winner! Congrats!

So the worker can never spend after day1 since he has to return it the next day and can not spend after day2 or day3 since he has to return those on day4.

That is not very reasonable.

 

[SuperTool]

Basically the solution is that you cut a piece of lenght 1 off, and another piece of lenght 2, so you have 3 pieces 1, 2,4
first day you give the worker the 1 length piece 2+4|1
second day you give him the 2 piece and take 1 back. 1+4|2
Third day you give him 1 again. Now he has 3. 4|2+1
fourth day, you give him the 4 pieces, and take 1 and 2 back. 1+2|4
fifth day you give him the 1 piece. 2|1+4
sixth day you give him the 2 piece and take 1 back. 1|2+4
and seventh day, you give him the 1 piece. 0/1+2+4
So every day, the worker ends up with 1 more piece than the previous day, like it's supposed to be.
/edit
Talon beat me to it Oh well.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Talon
With 2 cuts, divide the bar into 3 pieces of 1/7, 2/7 and 4/7.

Day 1: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 2: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7 piece.
Day 3: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 4: Take back 1/7 and 2/7 and give 4/7.
Day 5: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 6: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7.
Day 7: Give 1/7.

Yep, sounds like a Microsoft solution -- you must pay workers every day, but the workers are not allowed to spend any of the money until the end of the week. Instead, they must bring back the money every day to swap for other money.

 

[PeeluckyDuckee]

Talon's suggest sounds good to me.

 

Originally posted by: klah

Originally posted by: BDawg

Originally posted by: Talon
With 2 cuts, divide the bar into 3 pieces of 1/7, 2/7 and 4/7.

Day 1: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 2: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7 piece.
Day 3: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 4: Take back 1/7 and 2/7 and give 4/7.
Day 5: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 6: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7.
Day 7: Give 1/7.

Hey, we have a winner! Congrats!

So the worker can never spend after day1 since he has to return it the next day and can not spend after day2 or day3 since he has to return those on day4.

That is not very reasonable.

why not? most get paid weekly or bi-weekly. How is this arrangement unreasonable?

 

[narzy]

Take the bars, screw the employee's and run!










or












stab him!

 

Originally posted by: narzy
Take the bars, screw the employee's and run!

Yea, pull an enron!

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: Talon
With 2 cuts, divide the bar into 3 pieces of 1/7, 2/7 and 4/7.

Day 1: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 2: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7 piece.
Day 3: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 4: Take back 1/7 and 2/7 and give 4/7.
Day 5: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 6: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7.
Day 7: Give 1/7.

Yep, sounds like a Microsoft solution -- you must pay workers every day, but the workers are not allowed to spend any of the money until the end of the week. Instead, they must bring back the money every day to swap for other money.

Yes, it's the MS way. You never quite get complete satisfaction of an complete solution. To get something done, you have to keep upgrading what you got.

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: z0mb13
Just had an interview with them and this is the brain teaser prob that they gave me (still can't solve it):

A manager and a worker works in a gold mining company. The manager pays each worker one gold bar a week. Each worker works 7 days a week. The gold bar has markings on them so that you can cut it evenly into seven equal pieces. Each worker must get a 1/7 cut of the gold bar each day. But the catch is that the manager can only cut the gold bar TWO times a week. How should the manager solve this problem??

I thought about this problem a lot, and I simply can't find a way to cut a gold bar shape into 7 equal pieces by only using 2 cuts

any ideas??

Lobby the cutting union for more cuts per day. Just beacuse a rule says 2, does not mean it can be changed.

You are all reading too far into it. Where does it say you can only cut it once on a given day? Cut 3 of the marks on monday, and the other 3 on thursday. In other owrds, there is nothing that says you only get 2 cuts. Just 2 days out of a week is when you can cut the bars.

i still like his answer. though the answer about cutting into 1/7, 2/7, and 4/7 would work too.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: narzy
Take the bars, screw the employee's and run!


or


stab him!

STAB who?

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: Talon
With 2 cuts, divide the bar into 3 pieces of 1/7, 2/7 and 4/7.

Day 1: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 2: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7 piece.
Day 3: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 4: Take back 1/7 and 2/7 and give 4/7.
Day 5: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 6: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7.
Day 7: Give 1/7.

wow this is a very good answer

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: MrBond
Is the position riding on the answer to this? Cause that seems like a pretty shady way to select people for a job...

microsoft is very popular with brain teaser questions in interviews....

its their way of testing people to "think outside the box" ... whatever that means....

 

[heartsurgeon]

did you get the job?

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: narzy
Take the bars, screw the employee's and run!


or


stab him!

STAB who?

Ameesh

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: heartsurgeon
did you get the job?

dont know yet

if they like me they will give me a second round interview in seattle.... FREE TRIP to seattle!! WOOOOTTTTT....

 

[ProUser]

In this economy? The answer is simple.

Lay off all the employees except for 1 or 2. Problem solved.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: z0mb13

Originally posted by: Talon
With 2 cuts, divide the bar into 3 pieces of 1/7, 2/7 and 4/7.

Day 1: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 2: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7 piece.
Day 3: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 4: Take back 1/7 and 2/7 and give 4/7.
Day 5: Give 1/7 piece.
Day 6: Take back 1/7 and give 2/7.
Day 7: Give 1/7.

wow this is a very good answer

thats a terrible answer, no one would ever work for you.

 

[Ameesh]

you guys are all dumb dumbs, this is an easy one.


no one ever said the cut has to be a straight line! dont assume anything!

 

[rubix]

how about just have the workers cut off their 1/7th share while being supervised. also karate chopping was never mentioned, so the manager should karate them. microsoft values a good karate chop.

 

[Aceshigh]

Hope you get the job. Microsoft is one of the few tech companies I would ever consider working for.

 

[Ameesh]

microsoft values a good karate chop

you are right about that.

 

[dfi]

I've heard this one before, so if you want the answer let me know.

dfi

edit: oops, realized someone else already posted anwer. There ya go.

 

[ReiAyanami]

forget about cutting the gold bar and just stick him!


no, forget about sticking him and take the gold bar, why settle for 1/7th? unionize and take the other 6/7ths that belong to you and your lazy selves!!

 

[LordMaul]

Cut two 1/7th pieces, pay two workers, lay off the rest and have the remaining two do the all the work.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Ameesh
you guys are all dumb dumbs, this is an easy one.


no one ever said the cut has to be a straight line! dont assume anything!