Simple Tips for Handling Weird Interview Questions
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Use the 3-Step Plan Don't rush to answer. First, explain what you know about the problem's limits. Second, point out the things you need to figure out. Third, suggest a way to start solving it. Showing your thinking process is much more important than getting the final answer right.
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Forget Being the Expert Being good at something can sometimes make you too fixed in your ways. Change your thinking from "I already know this" to "I can build a solution for this." Treat the question like a blank piece of paper, not a test of your past success or job title.
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Test Yourself with AI Use AI tools to create strange problems related to your job. Don't ask the AI for answers. Instead, ask the AI to act like an opponent and point out flaws in your logic to help you think more clearly when you are under pressure.
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Work Together on the Answer Turn the puzzle into a friendly discussion. Ask the interviewer questions like, "For this made-up situation, should we focus more on being fast or being perfectly accurate?" This changes the feeling from an interrogation to a high-level planning meeting between equals.
What Are Brainteaser Interview Questions?
Brainteaser interview questions are open-ended puzzles or hypothetical problems (like "How many tennis balls fit on a bus?") that test how a candidate thinks through unfamiliar challenges. Interviewers use them to observe your reasoning process, not to check whether you reach the correct answer.
These questions include estimation problems, logic puzzles, lateral thinking riddles, and creative hypotheticals. They show up most often in consulting, finance, and tech interviews. Google famously banned them in 2013 after their SVP of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, told The New York Times that brainteasers are "a complete waste of time" because Google's internal data found zero correlation between brainteaser scores and job performance. Still, many companies continue to use them, especially for roles that require quick thinking under pressure.
"While these questions are popular at innovative firms, they are useful for college hires and not executives. At the senior level, you want to understand judgment, not puzzle-solving speed."
Checking Your Approach for Senior Roles
Most advice tells you to act like a beginner when you face a brainteaser interview question, to "go back to the basics" as if you just graduated. For someone with experience, this is the wrong way to think.
You don't need to start over; you need to see why your experience is getting in the way. This is the Trap of Expert Certainty: your mind is so used to finding "the right answer" from past wins that you become stiff when asked a question with no single correct solution. Psychologists call this the Einstellung effect. Research published in Cognition found that when experts encounter a familiar-looking problem, the presence of a known solution actually blocks them from finding a better one, reducing their performance to the level of someone three standard deviations below their skill level. You might even feel that these made-up puzzles are insulting to what you have achieved.
This guide isn't just a list of riddles to memorize. This is a set of tools designed for top performance, helping you move from just solving riddles to showing off your Thinking Structure.
When an interviewer asks something strange, they don't want a lucky guess; they want to see the plan you use to create a solution when things are totally unclear.
Instead of hunting for a secret answer, you will learn how to map out your thinking process to prove how you think. Set aside your professional pride, and you can turn a simple exercise into a strong show of your problem-solving abilities.
Your Authority Check: What to Stop Doing Now
As an experienced worker, your biggest problem isn't the question itself: it's your own pride. If you want to keep showing your skill in the room, you must change how you respond right away.
Treating the puzzle like a math test where you either "pass" or "fail." You stay quiet, feeling nervous while searching for the one hidden "trick" you think they want.
Talk through your logic step-by-step. The interviewer cares more about how you handle not knowing than if you are right. State what you assume, build a basic plan, and explain your thinking process. If you want to sharpen this skill, our guide on think-aloud protocols for technical interviews breaks down the exact method. In high-level jobs, the process is what counts.
Feeling annoyed or angry because you think a silly question about "ping pong balls in a plane" is below your level. You give a short, cold answer or quickly change the topic back to your resume because you feel "silly" playing a game.
Show that you enjoy a bit of mental play. A leader with confidence is comfortable enough to try solving any problem without feeling looked down upon. Dropping your "professional guard" shows you are flexible and easy to work with, not stuck in your ways.
Trying to remember a situation from your past to help solve the made-up problem. You waste mental energy trying to recall if you’ve seen this puzzle or how you handled a "real" version of it years ago.
Build a logic plan from scratch right there. These questions are set up to remove your experience so they can see your raw thinking power. Instead of searching your past for a "case study," build a new plan on the spot. Show them how you solve problems when you have no past data to rely on.
The Case Interview Plan: Three Steps to Win
Senior people often feel "silly" questions are an insult to their work history, which makes them nervous or unwilling to play along.
Notice when your pride gets hurt by a question that seems pointless. Change your thinking so you see it as a test of how fast you can think, not a challenge to your importance. Try to stay relaxed and curious, keeping your body language open instead of frustrated.
Tell yourself the interviewer just wants to find someone they can easily brainstorm with when things get tough, not someone who knows everything.
Experts often jump straight to an answer, which makes them look like they are just guessing instead of leading the thought process.
Use the "Thinking Structure" method by talking out loud as you build a plan for the answer. Instead of blurting out a number or choice, explain how you would group the problem, what you are assuming is true, and how you would check your data. This brands you as a planner who values process over lucky guesses.
Say something like, "Let's build a quick way to look at this," to immediately show you are thinking like a manager.
Even a smart logical answer can seem like just a fun game that doesn't prove you can do the real job. This is where connecting back to real examples (like your STAR method stories) makes all the difference.
After you explain your logic, briefly link the made-up problem back to your actual work history. Mention a time you used this exact kind of step-by-step thinking to solve a messy business issue when you didn't have all the facts. This turns a "brainteaser" into proof of your professional value.
After you finish, point out one possible weak spot in your own thinking; this shows you know how to watch for and handle risks.
Handling Brainteasers: The Quiet Challenge
The main issue isn’t not knowing how many tennis balls fit on a bus; it’s the sudden, sharp feeling that the interviewer is playing games with you. When a professional asks you, “If you were a tree, what kind would you be?” your brain doesn't look for an answer. It looks for a way out.
These questions create an immediate imbalance of power that feels rude. You feel like you are being asked to perform a silly trick that has nothing to do with your real skills. This causes a "threat response": you get tense, defensive, or sarcastic, and you "freeze" because you think there's a hidden "trick" answer. You're not alone in that reaction. A 2023 study in the Journal of Personnel Psychology (Childers & McAbee) found that both job applicants and hiring managers rated brainteaser questions lower than behavioral or situational questions on fairness, job relevance, and organizational attractiveness. The "Elephant" is the silent annoyance you feel toward the interviewer for wasting your time, which makes you look stubborn and hard to work with.
"That's an interesting question. I haven't thought about it exactly that way before. Let me pause for a moment. I'm going to assume [X] and [Y] are the most important parts of this. To find an answer, I would start by looking at it like this... If we are talking about [The Tennis Ball Question], I’d begin by guessing the volume of the bus, then take away the space for seats, and then divide by the size of one ball. Even if my math isn't perfect, my goal is to show a solid, repeatable way of thinking."
To avoid panic, stop trying to find the right answer. There isn't one. The interviewer isn't testing if you know about trees or physics; they are testing if you can control your emotions and if your problem-solving process is clear. They want to see if you can stay calm when things get strange and if you can explain your logical steps without getting annoyed.
Why this works: You stop acting like someone who was tricked and start acting like a consultant solving a (silly) business issue. You prove you are unflappable, which is the only real thing they are measuring.
Handling Weird Questions: The Cruit Step-by-Step Plan
Step 1: Mindset Fixing
Career Help SectionGet rid of the feeling that your status is being insulted. Use our guide to help you deal with pride issues so you approach puzzles with interest, not defensiveness.
Step 2: Building Your Logic
Interview Practice SectionCreate your "Thinking Structure." Practice saying your thought process out loud using proven ways to show you think like a manager.
Step 3: Proving Your Real Value
Record Keeping SectionFix the gap between the game and the actual job. Keep a record of your past successes so you can quickly connect your made-up answers to real business achievements.
Answers to Common Questions About Weird Interview Puzzles
What if I can’t figure out the "right" answer to the puzzle?
The final answer usually doesn't matter. The interviewer wants to see your Thinking Structure: the step-by-step way you handle a problem you've never seen. If you get stuck, just say what you are assuming out loud. A senior person wins by showing they can build a logical path through chaos, even if they don't reach a perfect number.
Does asking these silly questions mean the company culture is bad?
It’s easy to feel insulted, but don’t quickly decide the company is bad. Often, these questions test whether an experienced person has become too rigid or "unwilling to learn." Think of the question as an empty space you can fill. By engaging with it smartly instead of getting defensive, you show that your experience has made you flexible in mind, not just someone who follows old rules.
How can I stop my experienced brain from making a simple riddle too complicated?
This is when the Trap of Expert Certainty catches you. You are probably trying to force a complex business meaning onto something simple. To fix this, talk about your internal struggle. Tell the interviewer, "My first thought is to look at this like a business problem, but let’s simplify it to the basic logic." This shows you can see your own biases and make things simple, which is a key skill for leaders.
Why do companies still use brainteaser questions?
Some companies use brainteasers to test how candidates handle ambiguity and pressure. Even though Google stopped using them in 2013 after finding no link to job performance, consulting firms, hedge funds, and some tech startups still rely on them. The questions test pattern recognition, estimation skills, and your ability to think out loud when you don't have all the information.
Should I practice brainteasers before an interview?
Yes, but focus on practicing the process rather than memorizing answers. Work through estimation problems (like "How many windows are in New York City?") and talk through your logic out loud. Our guide to handling estimation questions covers this approach in detail. The goal is to build a repeatable method for breaking down unfamiliar problems, not to collect a library of correct answers.
How long should I spend answering a brainteaser?
Aim for two to four minutes per question. Take five to ten seconds to collect your thoughts before you start talking, then walk through your approach step by step. If the interviewer wants you to go deeper, they will ask follow-up questions. Rushing signals panic; a measured pace signals confidence.
Stop looking for the one right answer.
To handle these questions well, you must get past the Trap of Expert Certainty. Your experience is a strength, not a barrier. When you get past the feeling of being disrespected and meet a strange question with a clear, step-by-step plan, you prove that your true value is in how you think.
Build The Process
