{"id":9732,"date":"2015-08-27T14:14:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T13:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/?p=9732"},"modified":"2022-01-06T16:29:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T16:29:48","slug":"10-challenging-interview-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"10 challenging interview questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The list of interview questions below may not be crazy as it depends entirely on your definition of crazy but they are out there in terms of how unsettling they would be for many interviewees. We recently published this list, compliments of Bernard Marr <\/a>and have republished it but in this instance made some subtle changes to make it more local.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Bring an item with you to the interview that best represents your personality.<\/strong>
    \nThis could be a very interesting and revealing question for an interviewer, and a frustrating one for the interviewee! \u00a0What to bring that represents your personality and paints you in a favorable light?<\/li>\n
  2. You just got back from a 2 week vacation and have 300 emails to process in the next hour. Go.<\/strong>
    \nThis is called an in-tray, or sometimes an e-tray exercise, in which you are given sample work tasks to perform and asked to do them in a set time period. They\u2019re usually a high volume of tasks to complete in a short period of time, and in some simulations, you may be given a new project to work on half-way through or receive a phone call that you have to deal with.<\/li>\n
  3. Move these three chairs from one end of the room to the other.<\/strong>
    \nSeems like a simple enough task. \u00a0But it may be designed to see if you try to tackle a task quickly or methodically, or how you think through a problem.<\/li>\n
  4. Name as many uses as you can for a lemon.<\/strong>
    \n<\/strong>Questions like this were asked as part of an admissions test for flight school for commercial airline pilots, because pilots need to be able to think quickly and creatively in an emergency situation.<\/li>\n
  5. How many people flew out of Cork last year?<\/strong>
    \n<\/strong>According to     Glassdoor.com<\/a>, this was a question (substitute Chicago for Cork) asked at Redbox, the video rental kiosks. The point of these questions is not to get the correct answer, but to show how you can use estimations and creative thinking to arrive at an answer. \u00a0The simplest answer of all? \u00a0Zero. \u00a0People don\u2019t fly; airplanes do.<\/li>\n
  6. How would you unload a 747 full of potatoes?<\/strong>
    \nThis was reportedly a question (substitute jelly beans for potatoes) asked at     Bose<\/a><\/strong>, the audio company (which has little to do with jellybeans or aircraft). In this case, the correct answer almost certainly starts with, \u201cIt depends\u2026\u201d Many people might assume that the jellybeans are loose, but what if they are in containers? Do they need to be able to be eaten later or can you let them spill out on the tarmac? How did they get in there in the first place? These kinds of probing questions (whether the interviewer has an answer for them or not) helps show how you analyze a problem.<\/li>\n
  7. Describe the color yellow to a blind person.<\/strong>
    \nThis question is almost certainly directed at showing your communications skills.<\/li>\n
  8. What is your favorite song? Perform it for us now.<\/strong>
    \nThis question reportedly comes from     Living Social<\/a>, a Groupon-like site that sells local deals, and clearly has a very particular company culture. This might be about seeing how your personality will fit in with the culture, how you feel about wacky requests, how you handle embarrassment, and so on.<\/li>\n
  9. If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?
    \n<\/strong>Another infamous question supposedly asked by Apple. Similar to the \u201chow many uses\u201d type question, this question is designed to show your skills at creative problem solving and thinking on your feet.<\/li>\n
  10. Design an evacuation plan for Sligo.<\/strong>
    \nI\u2019ll close with another epic question (substitute San Francisco for Sligo) from Google. \u00a0It has to be said that Google\u2019s questions are almost certainly designed to be so mind-bogglingly difficult to tackle (at least, in the span of a job interview) that one thing the interviewer is probably looking for is how quickly you give up \u2014 or not. \u00a0One site suggested simply answering, \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d because companies might be looking for someone who can admit he doesn\u2019t have all the answers. If that\u2019s the route you take, I\u2019d suggest following up with, \u201cBut here\u2019s how I\u2019d start figuring it out.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Would you ever use any of the questions above in an interview? Tweet us @BigRedCloud if you would and also if you have any interesting interview questions of your own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The list of interview questions below may not be crazy as it depends entirely on your definition of crazy but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,65],"tags":[101],"class_list":{"0":"post-9732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-advice","8":"category-small-business","9":"tag-interview-questions"},"yoast_head":"\ninterview questions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Are you looking for interview questions to ask your interviwee? Check out our list of 10 challanging interview questions & find your perfect candidate!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 challenging interview questions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Are you looking for interview questions to ask your interviwee? Check out our list of 10 challanging interview questions & find your perfect candidate!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Big Red Cloud\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SimpleOnlineAccounts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-27T13:14:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-06T16:29:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Crazy-Interview-Questions.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"999\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Big Red Cloud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BigRedCloud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BigRedCloud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Big Red Cloud\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"interview questions","description":"Are you looking for interview questions to ask your interviwee? Check out our list of 10 challanging interview questions & find your perfect candidate!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"10 challenging interview questions","og_description":"Are you looking for interview questions to ask your interviwee? Check out our list of 10 challanging interview questions & find your perfect candidate!","og_url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/","og_site_name":"Big Red Cloud","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SimpleOnlineAccounts","article_published_time":"2015-08-27T13:14:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-06T16:29:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1500,"height":999,"url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Crazy-Interview-Questions.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Big Red Cloud","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@BigRedCloud","twitter_site":"@BigRedCloud","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Big Red Cloud","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/"},"author":{"name":"Big Red Cloud","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3536c09abccbf92223dc2d6a280fcd0"},"headline":"10 challenging interview questions","datePublished":"2015-08-27T13:14:09+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-06T16:29:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/"},"wordCount":736,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Crazy-Interview-Questions.jpg","keywords":["interview questions"],"articleSection":["Advice","Small Business"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/","url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/","name":"interview questions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Crazy-Interview-Questions.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-27T13:14:09+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-06T16:29:48+00:00","description":"Are you looking for interview questions to ask your interviwee? Check out our list of 10 challanging interview questions & find your perfect candidate!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Crazy-Interview-Questions.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Crazy-Interview-Questions.jpg","width":1500,"height":999,"caption":"Crazy Interview Questions"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/10-challenging-interview-questions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10 challenging interview questions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/","name":"Big Red Cloud","description":"Online Accounting Software","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#organization","name":"Big Red Cloud","url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/unnamed-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/unnamed-1.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Big Red Cloud"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SimpleOnlineAccounts","https:\/\/x.com\/BigRedCloud","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/big-red-cloud\/?originalSubdomain=ie"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/#\/schema\/person\/e3536c09abccbf92223dc2d6a280fcd0","name":"Big Red Cloud","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c52157b2bff7bef0092b93f71df0a4a49dc69f6105d0c7dbbd3b4efc266bae49?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c52157b2bff7bef0092b93f71df0a4a49dc69f6105d0c7dbbd3b4efc266bae49?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c52157b2bff7bef0092b93f71df0a4a49dc69f6105d0c7dbbd3b4efc266bae49?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Big Red Cloud"},"description":"Big Red Cloud provides simple, reliable accounting and payroll solutions designed to support small businesses and accountants across Ireland.","url":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/author\/marc_o_dwyer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}