Microsoft Interview Questions - See how many you can get

[EyeMWing]

1) To make it impossible to drop into the manhole, no matter how it was handled. Also, a disc made of cast iron is much easier to manuever than a square made of cast iron, or something. Furthermore, the tunnels in the manhole tend to be round for structural engineering purposes, and engineers tend to like uniformity.

2) The number of cars in the USA is equal to the number of cars located on the landmass bordered by the Northern Mexican border and Southern Canadian borders, plus the landmass west of the western Canadian border, plus the island chain known as Hawaii.

3) The number of manhole covers is equal to the number of manholes, times approximately 1.1, to account for spares and surpluses.

4) Sell the gold bar for traditional currency, and pay them with that.

5) Who cares how far the bird traveled, why wasn't the signalling and switching system running on Windows 2003 Server?

6) One, on the surface of the disc. Take note of the direction in which the sensor leaves the disc.

7) Technically speaking, the minute hand and hour hand never overlap, because from at least one potential viewing angle with respect to the clockface at any given time, they will not be overlapping.

8) Place one red marble in one jar, place all the blue marbles in the bottom of the other jar, and place the remaining red marbles on top of those. 100%, assuming the size and shape of the jars and marbles allow the red marbles in the second jar to completely cover the blue marbles from all possible angles of retrieval. If not, it's something like 75%.

 

[Nebor]

If someone asked me a few questions like that at an interview, I'd ask them if they intended to ask me about anything relevant. If they didn't, I'd leave.

Stuff like this is invented by HR people who need to justify their own jobs, just like all the training crap that training deparments come up with.

This kind of stuff is just bogus.

 

[Slacker]

Originally posted by: msparish

Originally posted by: Slacker

Originally posted by: mugs
Fill 5, dump into 3, dump 3, dump remaining 2 gallons in 5 into 3, fill 5, dump 1 gallon into 3 to top it off leaving 4 gallons in 5.

Thats a lot of work, I would have said to fill them both half way. (if you want to be picky about being "exact" it would be simple enough to use a shoe lace or piece of paper to measure then fold in half and mark the containers half way point)

But they could be an irregular shape, where you couldn't visualize whether they were half full.

Ooh, an unspecified variable, I LOVE to ignore them! (by the way, the 5qt one has a hole in it )

 

[EyeMWing]

9. 17 and 19 are the only prime pair. 18 is divisible by 6. Thereby, the number in between the two primes is always divisible by 6. And there are no 'prime triples' because you did not define prime triple, so I just defined prime triple as something that cannot exist.

10. First, check to see that there is no way to see into the room. If there is, use that, and it's easy. If not, ask the receptionist. If she does not know, proceed to retrieve the electrical schematic from building engineering. Failing that, remove the door from the hinges. If this isn't possible, go find something more productive to do with your time, because you're wasting company resources.

11. One, because you may compare versus the heavier ball the first trial.

12. The best way to do this would be to draw a diagram.

13. I can do you one better, and figure it out with no measurements. Choose 4 interns and feed each one a pill from each respective jar. The intern that becomes violently ill or dies is the one who got the contaminated pill, and you have now identified the contaminated jar.

14.
a. 120 possible solutions.
b. I don't see any other way that this game would be reasonable. So it's still 120 possible solutions.
c. Perform a standard permutations algorithm, prompting a user to determine if the word is valid, or even better, consulting against a comprehensive dictionary for each permutation.

15. Find a contractor who is willing to build a better bridge across which all 4 women can travel simultaneously in less than 1 minute without a flashlight, in 10 minutes in trade for half a flashlight. The bridge will be completed, as with all projects, over time and over budget, so approximately 16 minutes will have elapsed and you will owe the contractor the whole flashlight. The women may now cross.

16. Go to the break room fridge, confiscate a gallon of milk, pour it out, and fill the gallon jug.

17. 3.

18. This is basic algebra.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Nebor
If someone asked me a few questions like that at an interview, I'd ask them if they intended to ask me about anything relevant. If they didn't, I'd leave.

Stuff like this is invented by HR people who need to justify their own jobs, just like all the training crap that training deparments come up with.

This kind of stuff is just bogus.

Many companies with unusual office cultures, or extraordinary situations where outside-the-box thinking is a neccessity (Google and Microsoft are two notable instances) will use questions like these to test to evaluate whether a given candidate is capable of surviving in their environment. They are very relevant. Hiring isn't just about "are you capable of doing the job" - it's "are you capable of doing the job WELL", and this is a lot more than hard skills these days.

Personally, I'd rather have to answer questions like these than talk about my "accomplishments" and "qualifications" - stuff I've done is stuff I've done. If that's relevant to the company and they want to know more, I'll be happy to elaborate, but I'd really like to participate in something new and different, which is better handled by such abstractions as these.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: silverpig
10. Turn switch 1 on. Leave for 10 minutes. Turn off, turn switch 2 on, go see room. Light on = switch 2, hot light off = switch 1, cool light off = switch 3.

The question doesn't specify that these are incadescent lights, nor could you possibly know before opening the door.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
9. 17 and 19 are the only prime pair. 18 is divisible by 6. Thereby, the number in between the two primes is always divisible by 6. And there are no 'prime triples' because you did not define prime triple, so I just defined prime triple as something that cannot exist.

You didn't try to hard on that one. What about 11 and 13? You could deduce the definition of 'prime triples' from the definition of a prime pair.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
9. 17 and 19 are the only prime pair. 18 is divisible by 6. Thereby, the number in between the two primes is always divisible by 6. And there are no 'prime triples' because you did not define prime triple, so I just defined prime triple as something that cannot exist.

You didn't try to hard on that one. What about 11 and 13? You could deduce the definition of 'prime triples' from the definition of a prime pair.

No, I didn't try too hard But I still stand my ground on the prime triple, because in a software company like Microsoft, specifications and definitions are GOD, and if you operate without them, you may as well not make a product at all.

 

[imported_LoKe]

3, 5. 5, 7. And more.

29, 31 would be a triple.

 

[hypn0tik]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: hypn0tik
16) 5/2 + 3/2 = 4. Hint: Think about how you would have to tip the pail to know if you have exactly half of it filled.

That's definitely an "outside the box" way of thinking about it, and since the point of the question is more to see how you think and analyze a problem they'd probably look favorably at that answer. But the question doesn't define the shape of the pails, so you can't know for sure if you have half or not.

(I assume the method you are referring to is to tip the pail until the water line is at the border between the side wall and the bottom of the pail. )

Yes, you are right. That is exactly what I was thinking when I referred to tipping the pail.

However, I didn't consider the shape of the pails. I guess if it is symmetric along one the vertical axis, it shouldn't be a problem. I don't think the tipping method would work if it was symmetrical along the horizontal axis only. Perhaps there is a way of proving the shape doesn't matter at all? Not sure though.

---
For the clock question, it becomes the sum of an infinite geometric series. Everytime the minute hand rotates 360 degrees, the hour hand moves 30 degrees. Therefore, if the minute hand moves a fraction of 360 degrees, the minute hand moves proportionately.

Essentially, at 12, both hands are lined up. At 1, the minute hand is pointing at 12 and the hour hand is offset by 30 degrees. When the minute hand moves 30 degrees to line up with the 1, the hour hand moves 30* 30/360 = 2.5 degrees (meaning they still haven't lined up). When the minute hand moves another 2.5 degrees, the hour hand moves another 30 * 2.5/ 360 degrees. This eventually leads to the sum of an infinite geometric series. Basically, the time that the hands coincide again is after 1:05. By the same token, they coincides after 2:10 and so on. Essentially, you're losing minutes everytime the hands coincide, so the answer of 24 is definitely incorrect. I saw the answer of 22 floating around somewhere, and that seems to make more sense.

 

[Fenixgoon]

16) take the 3 quasrt pail, fill it, then dump it in the 5 quart. fill the 3 again, fill 5 quart exactly, and you have 1 quart left in the 3. dump the 5 quart bucket, fill it with the 1 quart from the 3. fill 3 fully, dump in 5 and you have 4 quarts.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: hypn0tik

Yes, you are right. That is exactly what I was thinking when I referred to tipping the pail.

However, I didn't consider the shape of the pails. I guess if it is symmetric along one the vertical axis, it shouldn't be a problem. I don't think the tipping method would work if it was symmetrical along the horizontal axis only. Perhaps there is a way of proving the shape doesn't matter at all? Not sure though.

FWIW, the OP said "You should not be afraid to make assumptions," so your answer was correct.

 

[EyeMWing]

Another potential answer to the clock problem is to stand up, grab the clock that's on the wall of the interview room, and advance the hands manually using the mechanisms for setting it so you can actually see when the alignments occur. I believe this would be a favorable response, because it indicates that you're willing to use any tools at your disposal to help you solve a problem with absolute certainty.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Nebor
If someone asked me a few questions like that at an interview, I'd ask them if they intended to ask me about anything relevant. If they didn't, I'd leave.

Stuff like this is invented by HR people who need to justify their own jobs, just like all the training crap that training deparments come up with.

This kind of stuff is just bogus.

Many companies with unusual office cultures, or extraordinary situations where outside-the-box thinking is a neccessity (Google and Microsoft are two notable instances) will use questions like these to test to evaluate whether a given candidate is capable of surviving in their environment. They are very relevant. Hiring isn't just about "are you capable of doing the job" - it's "are you capable of doing the job WELL", and this is a lot more than hard skills these days.

Personally, I'd rather have to answer questions like these than talk about my "accomplishments" and "qualifications" - stuff I've done is stuff I've done. If that's relevant to the company and they want to know more, I'll be happy to elaborate, but I'd really like to participate in something new and different, which is better handled by such abstractions as these.

I can't even put into words how pissed I'd be if someone busted out these questions in an interview.

When I interview someone, I ask them about their qualifications, what they want to accomplish and how they plan on doing it.

Imagine how many good people you lose when you employ bullsh!t questions like those. I honestly couldn't even take them seriously, asking questions like that.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Another potential answer to the clock problem is to stand up, grab the clock that's on the wall of the interview room, and advance the hands manually using the mechanisms for setting it so you can actually see when the alignments occur. I believe this would be a favorable response, because it indicates that you're willing to use any tools at your disposal to help you solve a problem with absolute certainty.

That would work, I think, but then it also might show that you need something physical in order to solve it.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: lozina

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

16) If you had an infinite supply of water and a 5 quart and 3 quart pail, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts?

This one was in KOTOR 1

No, it was in Die Hard 3...

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Another potential answer to the clock problem is to stand up, grab the clock that's on the wall of the interview room, and advance the hands manually using the mechanisms for setting it so you can actually see when the alignments occur. I believe this would be a favorable response, because it indicates that you're willing to use any tools at your disposal to help you solve a problem with absolute certainty.

That would work, I think, but then it also might show that you need something physical in order to solve it.

Again, back to the whole 'software company' thing. Software, no matter how you look at it, models a real world process of some sort. Thereby, you have to observe the real-world process to truly understand it, and then once you've made the software, compare it back to the real-world process to make sure it's correct.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Nebor
If someone asked me a few questions like that at an interview, I'd ask them if they intended to ask me about anything relevant. If they didn't, I'd leave.

Stuff like this is invented by HR people who need to justify their own jobs, just like all the training crap that training deparments come up with.

This kind of stuff is just bogus.

Many companies with unusual office cultures, or extraordinary situations where outside-the-box thinking is a neccessity (Google and Microsoft are two notable instances) will use questions like these to test to evaluate whether a given candidate is capable of surviving in their environment. They are very relevant. Hiring isn't just about "are you capable of doing the job" - it's "are you capable of doing the job WELL", and this is a lot more than hard skills these days.

Personally, I'd rather have to answer questions like these than talk about my "accomplishments" and "qualifications" - stuff I've done is stuff I've done. If that's relevant to the company and they want to know more, I'll be happy to elaborate, but I'd really like to participate in something new and different, which is better handled by such abstractions as these.

So basically I should buy a big book of brain teasers and drop out of college.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Nebor
If someone asked me a few questions like that at an interview, I'd ask them if they intended to ask me about anything relevant. If they didn't, I'd leave.

Stuff like this is invented by HR people who need to justify their own jobs, just like all the training crap that training deparments come up with.

This kind of stuff is just bogus.

Many companies with unusual office cultures, or extraordinary situations where outside-the-box thinking is a neccessity (Google and Microsoft are two notable instances) will use questions like these to test to evaluate whether a given candidate is capable of surviving in their environment. They are very relevant. Hiring isn't just about "are you capable of doing the job" - it's "are you capable of doing the job WELL", and this is a lot more than hard skills these days.

Personally, I'd rather have to answer questions like these than talk about my "accomplishments" and "qualifications" - stuff I've done is stuff I've done. If that's relevant to the company and they want to know more, I'll be happy to elaborate, but I'd really like to participate in something new and different, which is better handled by such abstractions as these.

So basically I should buy a big book of brain teasers and drop out of college.

Fortunately companies like the ones he's named have enjoyed very limited success and probably won't be around much longer. Just the last hangers-on of the dot.com bubble.

 

[hypn0tik]

5) The answer of 2500 miles posted is incorrect.

You can't combine the speeds of the trains. When the bird starts from LA to NY, it is travelling at 25mph and the train from NY to LA is travelling at 20mph, so essentially, the bird is travelling at 45mph if the train is stationary. However, when the bird is flying from NY to LA, it is still going at 25mph, but the train is travelling at only 15, giving a net velocity of 40mph.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: silverpig
10. Turn switch 1 on. Leave for 10 minutes. Turn off, turn switch 2 on, go see room. Light on = switch 2, hot light off = switch 1, cool light off = switch 3.

The question doesn't specify that these are incadescent lights, nor could you possibly know before opening the door.

1. Some of these are Fermi problems - "You should not be afraid to make assumptions"
2. Doesn't say there's a receptionist either.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: PingSpike

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Nebor
If someone asked me a few questions like that at an interview, I'd ask them if they intended to ask me about anything relevant. If they didn't, I'd leave.

Stuff like this is invented by HR people who need to justify their own jobs, just like all the training crap that training deparments come up with.

This kind of stuff is just bogus.

Many companies with unusual office cultures, or extraordinary situations where outside-the-box thinking is a neccessity (Google and Microsoft are two notable instances) will use questions like these to test to evaluate whether a given candidate is capable of surviving in their environment. They are very relevant. Hiring isn't just about "are you capable of doing the job" - it's "are you capable of doing the job WELL", and this is a lot more than hard skills these days.

Personally, I'd rather have to answer questions like these than talk about my "accomplishments" and "qualifications" - stuff I've done is stuff I've done. If that's relevant to the company and they want to know more, I'll be happy to elaborate, but I'd really like to participate in something new and different, which is better handled by such abstractions as these.

So basically I should buy a big book of brain teasers and drop out of college.

Please do. Less competition for me is always a good thing.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: mugs

18) If you have two buckets, one with red paint and the other with blue paint, and you take one cup from the blue bucket and poor it into the red bucket. Then you take one cup from the red bucket and poor it into the blue bucket. Which bucket has the highest ratio between red and blue? Prove it mathematically.

They'll be equal.

Suppose each bucket has 2 cups of paint. You take one cup of blue and put it in red, leaving blue with 1 cup of blue and red with 1 cup of blue and 2 cups of red. Then you take 1 cup out of the red paint, and that'll contain 1/3 cup of blue and 2/3 cup of red.

You'd end up with a ratio of 4:2 in each bucket. 1 1/3 cup of the dominant color, 2/3 cup of the other color

That's only true if you assume the buckets of paint are properly mixed after pouring.

Yes, but assumptions are allowed, and that is the only way to get a definite answer. I got the same answer, btw.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: hypn0tik
5) The answer of 2500 miles posted is incorrect.

You can't combine the speeds of the train either. When the bird starts from LA to NY, it is travelling at 25mph and the train from NY to LA is travelling at 20mph, so essentially, the bird is travelling at 45mph if the train is stationary. However, when the bird is flying from NY to LA, it is still going at 25mph, but the train is travelling at only 15, giving a net velocity of 40mph.

The solution posted is quite correct.

The idea is to first determine how long it will take for the trains to meet. They must cover a distance of 3500 mi. One goes at 15 mph, one at 20. After 100 hrs, the first train has covered 1500 mi, the second has covered 2000 mi. That adds up to 3500 mi, and represents the collision point. All the while, the little bird has been flying at 25 mph. It doesn't matter which direction the bird was going in; it could have been doing circles around the north pole for all we care. The important thing to realize is that it was going 25 mph for 100 hrs.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Fortunately companies like the ones he's named have enjoyed very limited success and probably won't be around much longer. Just the last hangers-on of the dot.com bubble.

Microsoft?! wtf are you talking about?

For the type of work they'd be hiring for, those questions are the best questions they could ask. The bullshit questions are "what are your hobbies?" "what's your biggest flaw?" etc. They could ask you technical questions and have you write code by hand, but that stuff is easy to look up. You can't look up problem solving skills on the Internet. The purpose of those questions is to demonstrate your ability to analyze a problem and find a solution. You don't even have to get the right answer! They just want to see how you attack the problem.

And frankly, they can afford to be choosy with whom they hire.