Table of Contents How to Ace the Brainteaser Interviewer Praise for How to Ace the Brainteaser Job Interview Why Brainteasers?—What Interviewers are Looking For Brainteasers Appropriate for Job Interviews Brainteasers Inappropriate for Job Interviews The Obvious Answer is Always Wrong: Strategies for Success Help! What Do I do When I’m Totally Stumped Prisoner and Cigarette Brainteaser Contest Winners New Challenging Brainteasers

The Obvious Answer is Always Wrong: Strategies for Success

Even brilliant people can crumple under the pressure of a job interview. But don’t despair. Here are a few practical tips to make the task easier. Heed what dozens of interviewers, recruiters, and job coaches have to say about confronting puzzles and brainteasers.

• The obvious answer is always wrong. Depend on it—your first thought is undependable. The more obvious the answer seems, the more incorrect it is likely to be. Almost all of puzzles are deeper than they appear to be—that’s what makes them puzzles. By all means, note the obvious answer. Even share it with the interviewer, but always with a measure of suspicion. Now, take the obvious answer and consider why it’s wrong.
  
  
• Work the answer, not the question. All the information you need is already there. Nothing is missing.
  
  
• Work backward. Often the solution is easier when you start from the end of the puzzle and work backward.
  
  
• A dialogue is better than a monolog. Be transparent. Think out loud. Let the interviewer see you struggle with the problem. Show the logic path your mind is taking. An interview is often structured like an exam, but a lot of answers can be worth partial credit. If you're talking out loud, an interviewer knows where you are and can give you hints.
  
  
• Honor Occam’s razor. Favor the economical solution. Occam’s razor is the proposition that when two explanations account for a situation, the simpler explanation is better. In the case of job interview puzzles, you can be pretty sure that the puzzles are less complicated than the solutions you are considering. Keep it simple.
  
  
• Calculus is never required. If you find yourself working a calculus problem, stop immediately. These puzzles never require more than simple arithmetic. In general, the more complicated the question, the simpler the answer.
  
  
• All things being equal, give the interviewer a unique answer. A good way to stand out is to give the interviewer a solution he or she has never heard before.
  
  
• Go for closure. Often you will drift back and forth between two or more equally attractive solutions. You must pick and commit yourself. You don’t have to have a good reason, except for the need to move on. That’s just good business, and interviewers will respect you for it.
  
  
• Being human has nothing to do with it. When puzzles are animated by human-like creatures, it’s important to forget practically everything you know about complex, ambivalent human behavior. Puzzle creatures are simple, one-dimensional characters who exist only to serve the puzzle. They usually have but one motivation. Depending on the puzzle, these characters are concerned only with maximizing money, escaping the fire, moving items across a bridge, or behaving in predictable ways. Puzzle creatures understand probability and when they are expected to act logically, they never fail. These creatures act instantaneously and are thoroughly aware of the logical consequences of their actions. Puzzle creatures never make mistakes, nor are they ever uncertain. Puzzle creatures don’t have an altruistic bone in their bodies; they never do anything because they are nice or it’s the fair thing to do. When they act, it’s for their self-interest alone.
  
  
• Ask for the answer. If you don’t get the answer or the interviewer indicates he or she has another answer in mind, ask for it. Never fail to turn the conversation into a learning opportunity.