16 unusual interview questions you may face at Facebook interviews

[Liberal_in_LA]

You are trying to rob houses on a street. Each house has some +ve amount of cash. Your goal is to rob houses such that you maximize the total robbed amount. The constraint is once you rob a house you cannot rob a house adjacent to that house." -- Software engineer interview


"You have two lightbulbs and a 100-storey building. You want to find the floor at which the bulbs will break when dropped. Find the floor using the least number of drops." -- Software engineer interview

"Which is better? Having 10 false positives or 80 false positives?" -- Analyst interview

"How many Big Macs does McDonald's sell each year in the U.S.?" -- Data scientist interview

"How many mailboxes are there in San Francisco?" -- Risk analyst interview

"How would you find out the number of cars passing through a busy bridge?" -- Software engineer interview

"How many vacuums are there in the U.S.?" -- Risk analyst interview

"You're about to get on a plane to Seattle. You want to know if you should bring an umbrella. You call three random friends of yours who live there and ask each independently if it's raining. Each of your friends has a two-thirds chance of telling you the truth and a one-third chance of messing with you by lying. All three friends tell you that 'Yes' it is raining. What is the probability that it's actually raining in Seattle?" -- Data scientist interview

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/16-unusual-interview-questions-you-may-face-at-6569103.php

[irisblue]

1. .

[underpants]

2. "As soon as you hire me I'll let you know"

[JackRiddler]

3. Eighty! Eighty false positives!

That was easy, it's the Facebook philosophy. (The real answer I supposed depends on the size of n in each case. 80 is better out of 800 than 10 is out of 11.)

The one about robbing houses is also Facebook philosophy at work.

And is it vacuums or vacuum cleaners? Major difference.

Lightbulbs, not sure, but: Start at the second floor. If it doesn't break, it will take you up to 99 drops to determine (as opposed to 100 if you had started at the first). If the first one breaks from the second floor, drop the other one from the first (two drops total). If that one is still intact, break it on Zuckerberg's head.

[tabasco]

4. Sounds like a bunch of stupid crap,

just like Facebook.