Earlier this month, we posted “15 Google Interview Questions That Will Make You Feel Stupid“, their answers and then 15 more questions. Three million pageviews later, here are…

Answers To 15 More Google Interview Questions That Will Make You Feel Stupid

Question: Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?

Answer from reader Olivier Coudert: The cheating husband problem is a classic recursion pb. Once all the wives know there is at least one cheating husband, we can understand the process recursively. Let’s assume that there is only one cheating husband. Then his wife doesn’t see anybody cheating, so she knows he cheats, and she will kill him that very day. If there are two cheating husband, their wives know of one cheating husband, and must wait one day before concluding that their own husbands cheat (since no husband got killed the day of the announcement). So with 100 cheating husbands, all life is good until 99 days later, when the 100 wives kill their unfaithful husbands all on the same day. Job: Product Manager. Photo: symmetry_mind

Question:If the probability of observing a car in 30 minutes on a highway is 0.95, what is the probability of observing a car in 10 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?

Reader ru offers this answer: The trick here is that .95 is the probability for 1 or more cars, not the probability of seeing just one car. The probability of NO cars in 30 minutes is 0.05, so the probability of no cars in 10 minutes is the cube root of that, so the probability of seeing a car in 10 minutes is one minus that or ~63 per cent Job: Product Manager

Question: Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one torch and it only has enough light left for 17 minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a torch, and it’s only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in one minute, another in two minutes, the third in five minutes, and the slow poke takes 10 minutes to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?

Answer from an anonymous reader: One and two across (two minutes); one goes back (three minutes); five and 10 go across (13 minutes); two goes back (15 minutes); one and two cross (17 minutes) — and everyone’s safe and sound. Job: Product Manager. Photo: Jule_Berlin

Question: You are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. Your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $1; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager?

Answer: Ignoring seasonal upticks in births, there’s about 1/365 probability that any other person has the same birthday as you and 364/365 chance that any other random person does not. Do not take this bet. Job: Product Manager

Question: If you look at a clock and the time is 3.15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer to this is not zero!)

Answer from reader Matt Beauchamp: 7.5 degrees. Every minute on the clock represents 6 degrees (360 degrees/60 minutes). Every hour, the hour hand moves from one number to the next (in this case, it is moving from 3 to 4) which represents 30 degrees. Since it is exactly 1/4 past the hour, the hour hand is 1/4 of the way into its 30-degree trip or 1/4 or 30 degrees… which is 7.5 degrees. Job: Product Manager

Question: What is the probability of breaking a stick into three pieces and forming a triangle?

Since this question doesn’t say the sticks must intersect at their tips to form the triangle, the answer has to be 100 per cent. Any three sticks of any size can make a triangle. Job: Product Manager. Photo: markhillary

Question: There’s a latency problem in South Africa. Diagnose it.

This is obviously an extremely vague question, and there isn’t really one correct answer. A good answer is one in which the interviewee demonstrates familiarity with the term “latency” and enough imagination to come up with an interesting problem with an interesting solution. Job: Product Manager Photo: warrenski

Question: How many lines can be drawn in a 2D plane such that they are equidistant from three non-collinear points?

Answer from reader Denis: Three. Take any two of the points. Draw a line that is parallel to the line segment made by those two points and halfway between that line segment and the third point. Repeat for every combination of two points. Job: Software Engineer. Photo: Caveman 92223

Question: What’s 2 to the power of 64?

1.84467441 × 1019 This is a pretty easy answer to figure out when you’re not sitting in an interview with no calculator around. Job: Software Engineer.

Question: Imagine you have a closet full of shirts. It’s very hard to find a shirt. So what can you do to organise your shirts for easy retrieval?

There’s no one answer to this. The interviewer wants to test the interviewee’s imagination and creativity with problem solving. We feel like reader “Dude” might impress a Google interview with this answer: Organise them according to types of clothes like a HASH and then organise each type into a 2-3-4-Tree or RedBlack Tree. Job: Software Engineer. Photo: Brymo

Question: You are given a game of Noughts and Crosses. You have to write a function in which you pass the whole game and name of a player. The function will return whether the player has won the game or not. First you to decide which data structure you will use for the game. You need to tell the algorithm first and then need to write the code. Note: Some position may be blank in the game, so your data structure should consider this condition also.

Answer from reader Dude: The data structure that is required is a two-character dimensional array. Call the function to check the six conditions if there are any winners, the sixth condition is to see if there are any more spaces left. If there is a winner the characters X or O are associated with the players, in this case you need a flag. If there is a winner return the value to the calling function to end the game. If not the run the game. Job: Software Engineer Photo: frozenchipmunk

Question: How long it would take to sort one trillion numbers? Come up with a good estimate.

Here’s another question without one answer. The idea is to test the interviewee’s creativity. We like the simple answer two readers came up with: Merge Sort for sorting. O(1,000,000,000,000 Log 1,000,000,000,000) — Average Case Scenario; O(1,000,000,000,000 Log 1,000,000,000,000) — Worst Case Scenario. I’d guess you can do one billion operations per second, thus 3000 seconds. Job: Software Engineer

Question: Design an algorithm to play a game of Frogger and then code the solution.

The object of the game is to direct a frog to avoid cars while crossing a busy road. You may represent a road lane via an array. Generalise the solution for an N-lane road. Here’s the only answer we found for this one, from site Glassdoor.com: “One approach is to write a recursive algorithm that determines when to ‘wait’ or to ‘jump’ to the next lane, depending if there is an approaching obstacle in the next lane.” Job: Software Engineer

Question: How many resumes does Google receive each year for software engineering?

This is another question that’s about testing the job candidate’s ability to frame the problem in a simple way and then creatively solve it. Our answer: A candiate for Quantitative Compensation Analyst should know that Google hired about 3400 people in 2008. Figure 75 per cent (or 2550) of those hired were engineers and that, like Harvard, Google only accepted 3 per cent of those who applied. 2550 is 3 per cent of 85,000. Job: Quantitative Compensation Analyst

Question: You are given a list of numbers. When you reach the end of the list you will come back to the beginning of the list (a circular list). Write the most efficient algorithm to find the minimum number in this list. Find any given number in the list. The numbers in the list are always increasing but you don’t know where the circular list begins, ie: 38, 40, 55, 89, 6, 13, 20, 23, 36.

Here’s our favourite answer from reader “dude”: Create temporary pointers and start from the root. (Most of the time circular lists have front and back pointers.) Check if front is larger or if back is larger. If front is larger then you know you are at the end of the list and at the front of the list. If front is larger then traverse the opposite direction and compare numbers. If there is no root or a pointer pointing to any part of the list then your data is lost in memory. Job: Quantitative Compensation Analyst

The first person account over at Business Insider is an interesting one, because it shows that everyone at Google is subject to some high standards. One sample question is, “How much money you think Google makes daily from Gmail ads?” To which she blurted out the answer, “$70,000″ before quickly asking if they could ignore it while she figures out a better one.

Of course there are caveats to her story: She should have prepared more, she’s kinda naive about the type of questions they’re asking and maybe she’s just not really right for the Google culture. Still, it’s something worth checking out just for curiosity’s sake. [Business Insider]

The new Store is located in the Chermside Westfield. If anyone happens to go along to the launch on Saturday, let us know what it’s like…

In similar news, a quick look at the jobs site on Apple’s website shows that there are retail positions available for Perth, which means our west-coast brethren will probably be getting their Apple Store fix in the next few months.

[Apple]

Microsoft posted ads looking for Windows Gurus in California, New York and Maryland (in addition to the ads they’ve already posted), and the skills required are pretty much what you’d expect: Deep knowledge of Windows, enthusiasm, able to think on your feet, blah blah. We’d add that if the Guru Bar (or whatever) is similar to the Genius Bar, Windows Gurus will have to be really effing good: There’s way more variation in Windows hardware, and hardware mods are a lot more common than in Macs, so if you want to have a general-purpose service station, you’re going to have to know your Windows backwards and forwards. You can find the listings here. [Thanks, Jobbi!]

It’s also funny that his post is headlined “An Unboxing You Won’t See On Gizmodo or Engadget”. In your face sir. In your face. [Twisted Matrix via Fake Steve]

And here’s why I’m perfectly OK with that: Redmond is offering them “significant raises”, and encouraging them to bring their former colleagues, especially top sales people, on board.

Working in retail often sucks: the pay, the mall wandering zombies, the stupid parents who think their devil-spawn destroying displays is “cute”. So I’m all for better pay, and working with people you like. It’ll be interesting to see how these Microsoft stores turn out in the end. [The Loop via Ars Technica]

Looks like a total of 16 positions are open right now and positions range from store managers to retail assistants. We assume job applicants will have to demonstrate that they have the “answers” in order to be positioned at the “Answer Bar.”

For now you can only apply for the announced Arizona and California locations. Microsoft says information on the future store locations is forthcoming. Send all thank you notes for US job creation to Steven Ballmer [Microsoft via Ars Technica]

According to emails reviewed by Bloomberg, Jobs proposed a deal to then-CEO Ed Colligan after Palm hired away iPod honcho Jon Rubinstein. What’d Colligan say?

“Your proposal that we agree that neither company will hire the other’s employees, regardless of the individual’s desires, is not only wrong, it is likely illegal,” Colligan said to Jobs, 54, according to the communications. Colligan said he thought about Jobs’s proposal and considered offering hiring concessions, before deciding against it, according to the exchanges.

Ya burnt! Of course, Steve was fine with stealing employees from Palm, as Apple had already hired away 2% of its workforce to develop the iPhone. But when it’s the other way around? Bring on the shady backroom deals! [Bloomberg via Silicon Alley Insider; image from this Photoshop Contest]

Web Designer/Developer (HTML/CSS, PHP, Design)

About the Role

Allure Media is one of Australia’s fastest growing digital publishers. In the past two years, our three technology mastheads have grown from fringe websites to account for 1-in-2 minutes spent reading technology content online. We’re now expanding to other categories, such as entertainment and lifestyle.

We’re on the hunt for a motivated web designer/developer to join our team.

The successful applicant will have:
· Extensive knowledge of standards compliant XHTML and CSS
· A strong understanding of PHP with proven experience
· An understanding of Web 2.0 design trends, styles and technologies
· A high level of skill and experience with layouts and front-end design using Adobe Photoshop
· Experience with cross-browser compatibility including Internet Explorer rendering issues and solutions

Other desirable skills include:
· Knowledge of JavaScript, AJAX and JavaScript frameworks
· Experience with Wordpress or other PHP based frameworks and/or CMS
· An understanding of Linux

The position suits a self-starter who loves media and the web. This is a full-time role based in our Sydney office.

About Allure Media

More than 1.5 million readers visit Allure Media’s websites each month.

Our technology network accounts for more than one-in-two minutes spent reading IT sites in Australia, and we have aggressive plans to replicate that success in entertainment and lifestyle categories.

Our partners include some of the world’s most innovative publishers, including top blog company Gawker Media. Backed by the same team that launched ninemsn and EBay Australia/NZ, our management team has backgrounds in senior journalism and commercial roles at News Limited, Yahoo! and ACP Magazines.

Apply now

We offer a fast-moving, innovative yet casual working environment. We are a small team, meaning every staff member has the opportunity to make a real contribution to our sites and our business.

To apply, please email your resume and a covering letter to jobs@alluremedia.com.au.

Only people with rights to work in Australia may apply. No calls or recruiters please.

The job details are below:

Digital media sales – technology

About the Role

Can you demonstrate success selling digital media to technology clients? Australia’s fastest-growing digital publisher is on the hunt for a sales gun.

You will:
* Be equipped to manage both direct and agency relationships and have strong contacts in the technology industry;

* Live and breathe the latest in gadgets, technology and gaming; and

* Thrive on the challenge and thrill of creating new ad solutions and winning business.

The position suits someone hungry for success who can thrive under pressure and juggle several tasks at one time.

This is a full-time role based in our Sydney office.

About Allure Media

Allure Media is one of Australia’s fastest-growing digital publishers, with more than 1.5 million readers each month.

Our technology network accounts for more than one-in-two minutes spent reading IT sites in Australia, and we have aggressive plans to replicate that success in entertainment and lifestyle categories.

Our partners include some of the world’s most innovative publishers, including top blog company Gawker Media. Backed by the same team that launched ninemsn and EBay Australia/NZ, our management team has backgrounds in senior journalism and commercial roles at News Limited, Yahoo! and ACP Magazines.

Apply now

We offer a fast-moving, innovative yet casual working environment. We are a small team, meaning every staff member has the opportunity to make a real contribution to our sites and our business.

To apply, please email your resume and a covering letter to jobs@alluremedia.com.au.