Google asked its applicants a specific question for years. But no one could answer it correctly. By now, Google has abolished this “brainteaser”.
One option to challenge and test applicants are so-called “brainteasers”: These are puzzles used to find out if applicants can think outside the box and how quickly they react.
One of these tasks has become famous because it has been used by Google in interviews for years. Because no one could answer the question correctly.
The following question could not be answered correctly by any applicant
What is the question? The question became known among other things through the movie-length commercial “The Internship”, which Google produced in 2013 to advertise itself. The film received rather mixed reviews, but almost everyone remembers 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] You are shrunk down to the size of a nickel and thrown into a blender. What do you do?
The question and the answer in the film can be seen on YouTube in English in about one and a half minutes.
What is the correct answer? For many, the following answer is now considered correct: “I jump out of the blender to escape. Because the blender is luckily still open.”
But science sees it a bit differently. Professor Gregory Sutton explained to the English-language magazine MSN.com that while the mass of the body would shrink, so would the legs. And with smaller legs, one would have much less time to develop enough force to lift oneself up. According to Sutton’s calculations, a person the size of a coin could only jump about 10-15 cm high.
Another alternative would be to rely on external things: For example, a spring that one could jump out with or a rubber band that could get you out. But for that, one would first need to be lucky enough to find a spring or a rubber band inside a blender.
Google has since abolished the question
Is the question still used today? No. Former Google employee Gayle McDowell revealed in an interview that HR managers have stepped back from such riddles in recent years. Because there is a problem: one cannot make predictions about the actual performance of applicants with such puzzles.
For years, Google used such “brainteasers” to test applicants’ problem-solving abilities under pressure. With thousands of applicants, this question was meant to distinguish the fastest thinkers from the rest.
An applicant came to his interview, but it was over after 5 minutes. Because when he entered the building, he acted disrespectfully towards an employee. And he was not aware that his evaluation had already begun at the moment he entered the company’s building: An applicant ruined his interview in the first 5 minutes after entering the building because he forgot something important
