Wierd questions
Some interviews include weird, off-the-wall questions. This lesson will help you deal with these effectively.
It is quite common in interviews, especially for jobs in creative industries, for interviewers to ask extreme questions. Sometimes they can ask weird or surreal questions. This lesson will help you to deal better with questions like this.
Extreme interview questions are used to identify, test and measure candidate’s approach to difficult and unusual situations. There is no correct answer. The way the interviewee reacts to and deals with the question is the important thing.
NOTE: These kinds of questions used to be very popular with 'down-with-it' companies such as Google and Apple, but are becoming less common nowadays. They are most likely to be found in interviews for 'creative' positions.
Who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman?
As previously mentioned, there is no right answer. These kinds of questions fluster a lot of people. Reassure your student if they find it very difficult to produce an answer.
A possible answer is (opinions may vary): “In a fight, there is no comparison between the two and Superman always wins. Superman has many powers and completely outmatches Batman. Superman can use flight, super strength, super speed, invulnerability, vision, hearing etc. Each of these alone could beat Batman, who really has no superpowers. Batman is just a man with financial access to amazing technology in the end.”
When it comes to questions like this, the interviewer is not looking for a correct answer. In many cases, there won’t actually be a ‘right’ answer.
The interviewer wants to determine the following:
- whether you can think on your feet (whether you can react to events decisively, effectively, and without prior thought).
- how you approach a difficult situation.
- if you can remain positive and proactive when faced with a challenge.
You should:
- try to remain calm and buy some time if necessary.
- try to answer confidently and ask the interviewer questions for clarification.
- think out loud – let the interviewer see your thought process and the way you think and analyze information.
Here are some useful phrases you can use when answering weird questions. They appeared in lesson 5.1.
To buy some time:
- That’s a tough one.
- That’s an interesting question.
- That’s a challenging question.
- Let me think about that for a moment.
To show confidence:
- I’d say the obvious answer is…
- That’s easy.
- The easy answer to that is…
Asking for clarification:
- So, are we talking about…?
- So, if I understand correctly, you are saying…
- Do you mean…?
- I’d just like to confirm that I got that right.
- So, in other words…
- Let me just confirm that.
Thinking out loud:
- So, I’m going to imagine that…
- Next, I’ll…
- The most important factor here is…
Go through the phrases with your student and make sure (s)he is familiar with each one before going to the Practice section.
Choose one of the following questions and try to answer it using some of the language given above.
- Explain the Internet to an 8-year-old in 3 Sentences.
- Describe the color yellow to someone who is blind.
- If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?
- If you were a dinosaur, what dinosaur would you be?
- You’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant?