Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?: Trick Questions, Zen-Like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You ... Know to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy
by William Poundstone · 4 Jan 2012 · 260pp · 77,007 words
single poor review isn’t so bad. The Obama Question Google’s interviewers are discouraged from asking the traditional brainteasers popular at other companies, like “Why are manhole covers round?” They’re also not supposed to test candidates’ knowledge with trivia questions like the following. ? Explain the significance of “dead beef.” Nor are they supposed
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we can hire you, there’s a slight formality. We need to ask you a question to test your creative reasoning ability. The question is, why are manhole covers round?” “That’s a ridiculous question,” Feynman said. “For one thing, not all covers are round. Some are square!” “But considering just the round ones, now
The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or Any Top Tech Company
by Gayle Laakmann Mcdowell · 25 Jan 2011 · 242pp · 71,938 words
Interview Your Questions Answered Additional Resources Chapter 8: Interview Questions General Advice Acing the Standard Questions Behavioral and Résumé Questions Estimation Questions Design Questions Brainteasers: Why Are Manhole Covers Round? Answering the Tough Questions Your Questions Answered Additional Resources Chapter 9: The Programming Interview How They Differ: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Apple How to Prepare
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-conditioning controls for a car. Assume that you’re designing from scratch: no one has ever seen a car’s air-conditioning/heating controls. Brainteasers: Why Are Manhole Covers Round? Once standard at Microsoft and many other companies, brainteasers have dropped in popularity substantially. Interviewers are instead encouraged to ask behavioral or skill-specific interview
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
by Brad Stone · 14 Oct 2013 · 380pp · 118,675 words
die. There will be only a few enduring brands, and we will be one of them.” After a few moments of silence, Bezos asked, “So, why are manhole covers round?” “Jeff, if you want to get to the airport on time, you cannot ask me a question like that.” Bezos let loose a gunfire burst
Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell · 29 May 2017 · 230pp · 71,320 words
IQ scale have the greatest potential. (At Microsoft, famously, job applicants are asked a battery of questions designed to test their smarts, including the classic “Why are manhole covers round?” If you don't know the answer to that question, you're not smart enough to work at Microsoft.*) If I had magical powers and
Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets From Inside Amazon
by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr · 9 Feb 2021 · 302pp · 100,493 words
. As company lore has it, Jeff also liked to ask random quiz questions, such as “How many passengers fly through LAX in a year?” or “Why are manhole covers round?” As a result, many of the early hires at Amazon had advanced degrees from highly regarded universities and were good at devising answers to left
You've Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All
by Adrian Hon · 14 Sep 2022 · 371pp · 107,141 words
is expensive if humans have to do it. The answer? Gamified interview processes. Perhaps you’ve read about the brainteasers posed by Google interviewers like “Why are manhole covers round?” or “How would you estimate the number of cows in the United States?” Those quirky questions lie at the end of the recruitment funnel. Getting
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries
by Kory Stamper · 14 Mar 2017 · 341pp · 95,752 words
,” Karen said. “Someone wrote to us and asked us where to buy beans.” Some of the more notable queries I’ve received include the following: Why are manhole covers round? Do woodchucks actually chuck wood? Why is the rainbow divided into seven colors, and why we do start with red? What should you look for
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip
by Stephen Witt · 8 Apr 2025 · 260pp · 82,629 words
. But the technical staff, reluctant to make people squirm, stuck to standard interview bullshit: “Recall a time you overcame adversity,” “What’s your greatest weakness?,” “Why are manhole covers round?” Kirk, frustrated, felt that his staff were wasting time. He knew how Jensen would respond: by gathering the technical staff in a conference room and