Google asked its applicants a specific question for years. But nobody could answer them correctly. In the meantime, Google has abolished these “brainteasers”.
An option to challenge applicants and put it to the test are so -called “brainteasers”: these are puzzling tasks that are used to find out whether applicants can think about the corner and how quickly they react.
One of these tasks has become famous because it was used by Google for years in conversations. Because nobody could answer the question correctly.
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No applicant could answer the following question correctly
What kind of question is that? The question became known, among other things, through the cinema -long commercial “The Internship”, which Google made in 2013 to advertise itself. The film receives rather moderate reviews, but almost everyone can remember the question:
[EN] If you were Shrunk Down to the size of a nickel and were put in a blender, what would you do?
[DE] They are shrunk to the size of a five-cent piece (= nickel) and thrown into a mixer. What do you do?
You can watch the question and the answer in the film on YouTube in English in around a minute and a half.
What is the right answer? For many, the following answer is now considered correct: “I jump out of the blender to escape. Fortunately, the mixer is still open. “
But science sees it a little differently. Professor Gregory Sutton told the English -language magazine MSN.com that although the body of the body would shrink, but also the legs. And with smaller legs you would have much less time to develop enough strength to get up. According to Sutton’s calculations, a person in the size of a coin could only jump up about 10-15 cm.
It would be an alternative to rely on external things: for example on a spring spring that could jump out or a rubber band that could get you out. But you have to be lucky enough to find a jump spring or a rubber band inside a mixer.
Google has now abolished the question
Is the question still used today? No. In a conversation, the former Google employee Gayle McDowell revealed that HR managers have refrained from such puzzling tasks in recent years. Because there is a problem: With such pencil tasks, you cannot make a prediction of the actual performance of the applicants.
For years, Google has used such “brainteasers” to test the problem -solving skills of applicants under pressure. In the case of thousands of applicants, this question was intended to distinguish the fastest thinkers from the others.
One applicant came to his interview, but that was over after 5 minutes. Because when he entered the building, he behaved disrespectfully towards an employee. And he was not aware that his assessment had already started at the time when he had entered the company’s building: an applicant ruined his interview in the first 5 minutes after entering the building because he forgot something important