Most people are aware that there are certain questions that you cannot ask someone in an interview. There are also a much larger list of questions you should not ask, but that still leaves you with a huge number of potential questions that are available for candidates. Whether these questions actually help you find a better candidate is up for debate and a topic for another day.
There are some famous questions asked in interviews at Microsoft, with a book titled after one of them : How Would You Move Mt Fuji? The classic one I've often heard is "why is a manhole cover round?" with quite a bit of creativity given in the answers. Those aren't the strangest questions, however. I found a survey that asked for oddball questions, and had quite a few responses. The top 25 are given in a list and there are certainly some that I would question in there.
With many of us in the technical field being asked different types of questions, I thought this might make a good poll for the data professionals:
What is the weirdest question you have been asked in an interview?
In a few dozen interviews in my life, I don't think I've been asked anything that I would consider oddball, and I'm not sure what I'd do if I did get one. I suppose it would depend on how the person asking the question behaved. It might certainly affect how I felt about working for the organization, and if I would continue in my quest for the job.
Steve Jones
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