Challenging Question from Job Interview

Gustavo Fring on 11/09/2023 - 00:07
Last edited 11/09/2023 - 00:35

Hi All,

I recently attended an Assessment centre for a grad program. The first two or so hours were just individual and group interviews. However, for the last part we had to solve the following riddle:

In [the companys] office sit 5 desks in a row. Each desk is a different colour.
At each desk sits an employee of [the company] with a different job title.
These five employees all drink a different kind of tea, travelled to a different country for a holiday last year and live in a different Perth suburb.
The Policy Adviser sits at the pink desk
The Risk Officer went to Japan
The Executive Assistant drinks green tea
The cream desk is on the left of the purple desk
The cream desk occupant drinks earl grey
The person who lives in Joondalup went to France
The occupant of the maroon desk lives in Rockingham
The person who sits at the centre desk drinks chamomile tea
The Forensic Analyst sits at the desk on the far left
The person who lives in Armadale sits next to the one went to Fiji
The person who went to Canada sits next to the person who lives in Rockingham
The person who lives in Fremantle drinks English breakfast
The Accountant lives in Mandurah
The Forensic Analyst sits next to the aqua desk
The person who lives in Armadale sits next to the person who drinks peppermint tea

Please use the above clues to answer these questions:
1. Where does the Forensic Analyst live?
2. Which employee drinks chamomile tea?
3. What colour is the Accountant’s desk?
4. Where did the person from Fremantle travel last year?
5. Which employee went to Thailand?

We had an hour to do it and In the end I just gave up and used GPT.

This is my first time encountering such a riddle in a job interview/assessment centre. Is this something normal that employers do or is my brain just not big enough ?

Education & Work

Comments

  • mbck on 11/09/2023 - 00:49

    Far left:
    Forensic accountant
    Maroon
    Peppermint
    Fiji
    Rockingham

    2nd:
    Executive Assistant
    Aqua
    Green tea
    Canada
    Armadale

    Centre:
    Policy advisor
    Pink
    Chamomile
    France
    Joondalup

    4th:
    Accountant
    Cream
    Earl Grey

    Mandurah

    Far right:
    Risk Officer
    Purple
    English breakfast
    Japan
    Fremantle

    —
    Q1
    Forensic analyst lives in Rockingham

    Q2
    The policy advisor

    Q3
    Green desk

    Q4
    Japan

    AT
    The accountant went to Thailand.

    Am I right?

    • mbck on 11/09/2023 - 01:08

      Checked chat gpt. They gave a different answer, but they put policy advisor at aqua lol wth.

      I'd be interested to know the real answer…

  • Hybroid on 11/09/2023 - 01:15
    +7

    Actually stopped playing Diablo 4 to do this in Excel, was pretty fun. Think I've got it, got hung up on the last 2 desks for a while as couldn't decide if cream desk had to be immediately to the left of the purple one or just in the overall arrangement.

    Desk 1 Desk 2 Desk 3 Desk 4 Desk 5
    Desk Colour Maroon Aqua Pink Cream Purple
    Job Title Forensic Analyst Executive Asst Policy Advisor Accountant Risk Officer
    Tea Type Peppermint Tea Green Tea Chamomile Earl Grey English breakfast
    Holiday Country Fiji Canada France Thailand Japan
    Perth Suburb Rockingham Armadale Joondalup Mandurah Fremantle
    1. Where does the Forensic Analyst live? Rockingham.
    2. Which employee drinks chamomile tea? Policy Advisor.
    3. What colour is the Accountant’s desk? Cream.
    4. Where did the person from Fremantle travel last year? Japan.
    5. Which employee went to Thailand? Accountant.

    To answer OP's actual question though, I have never seen such an assessment query for a job interview. Seems to be evaluating critical thinking and data analytics.

    • mbck on 11/09/2023 - 01:27

      Oops I was confused with my colour scheme (highlighted cream with green). But good to know.

      There are a few points that guarantees certain colours and teas. The rest is a bit of a play around to see what works.

    • arkie0 on 11/09/2023 - 05:37

      You're still playing Diablo 4?

      • Mike444 on 11/09/2023 - 07:46
        +6

        They seem to be excelling at it too :P

    • NocteRegem on 11/09/2023 - 10:52

      Yep same answers I got

    • Guybrush57 on 11/09/2023 - 19:58

      Well done! I got the same answers also using Excel :P

  • morse on 11/09/2023 - 02:41

    Love it! I assigned a similar task (but easier) for a recent interview. I was surprised how much it threw some people. I strongly believe in giving candidates a practical task that they can’t research prior, to see how they can perform on the spot, use logic and follow instructions.

  • loulou1 on 11/09/2023 - 05:57
    +4

    These types of questions used to be in puzzle magazines all the time and you would solve them in a grid, was easy once you have a few starting answers

  • MS Paint on 11/09/2023 - 06:25
    +11

    I would just tell them to shove the job up their Joondalup.

    • Motek Benzona on 11/09/2023 - 08:00
      +6

      Same here.. the absolute bollocks people have to do to earn a crust even before they get to earn it is a joke.

    • BeamMeUp on 11/09/2023 - 09:12
      +1

      Spent a long time in a professional career, had numerous roles in different lines of business including working up to senior management after starting at the bottom. I could never work out this stuff and I am no good at puzzles. Obviously I not recruitable in todays workplace even for a grad role.

    • nubzy on 11/09/2023 - 09:45
      +2

      Yep this kind of BS and drawn out ridiculous interview processes are part of the reason they have trouble attracting people. Who wants to go through that. I'd take the difficulty and worries of being self employed over being a 9 to 5 wage slave anyday..

  • onetwothreefour on 11/09/2023 - 06:31
    +8

    I stopped reading that after the first couple of lines. I wouldn't want to work somewhere that expected you to answer this in an interview.

    • morse on 11/09/2023 - 07:03
      -3

      Which is exactly why I include problem solving and effortful tasks in an interview process - so I get someone who actually wants the job and can perform the tasks required. My last successful candidate told me that they spoke others about the process and they said they would have dropped out to which I said “well if they don’t want to make 20mins effort for a job, they probably aren’t the right candidate”

      • onetwothreefour on 11/09/2023 - 07:11

        I guess it depends a bit on the type of role the interview is for too. I only recruit for entry level roles in my team and whilst there is a bit of problem solving to be done in the role, it's mostly suited to people who will just get the job done.

        • morse on 11/09/2023 - 08:06
          -1

          I’m not going to lie, I get frustrated when people don’t use appropriate initiative and problem solve. Even for entry level I don’t do well with people who aren’t bright enough for the basics. This is probably unfair, but also I know what I need.

  • elgrande on 11/09/2023 - 07:47

    In the end I just gave up and used GPT.

    Chat GTP likely wrote it..!

  • pantsparty on 11/09/2023 - 08:09
    +2

    This is einsteins five house riddle

    • Crow K on 11/09/2023 - 09:34
      +1

      I always knew it as "the zebra problem", which I think was published in an American magazine in the sixties.

      I remember SFB games made an adorable mini version of this problem as an app game called "Marching Orders" that's worth a look (if that's your thing).

  • shaybisc on 11/09/2023 - 08:40
    +2

    Truth table huh. What was the job?

    https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/einsteins-riddle/

    • EightImmortals on 11/09/2023 - 08:53

      Yeah I want to know what the job is as well.

      • shaybisc on 11/09/2023 - 09:00

        Sounds like a Google interview question. They're well known for that sort of thing I've heard.

  • Vulgar on 11/09/2023 - 08:57

    Usually you wouldn't encounter questions like this, there's only one time where I have encountered questions harder than this. I guess they really want to filter for the clever people. This is doable in 1 hour, however I have encounter similar questions like this in high school.

  • jv on 11/09/2023 - 09:37
    1. Where does the Forensic Analyst live?

    Melbourne

  • star-ggg on 11/09/2023 - 09:42
    +1

    That's a good question with ample time. When I first read it I thought it was 1 question out of 20+.

  • bobbified on 11/09/2023 - 10:55
    +5

    Did they let you take the assessment paper out of the centre or did you memorise this whole question to retype it out here?

  • dontboopthesnoot on 11/09/2023 - 11:24
    +1

    red flag

  • MrHyde on 11/09/2023 - 11:25

    Although I've never used questions like this in an interview; I do use problem solving puzzles. What I'm looking for is not the right answer; but see how the person approaches the task - how do they handle time based pressure - how do they go about trying to work something that they dont know out.

  • jprockbelly on 11/09/2023 - 11:29

    Reminds me of an interviewer who used to ask "What's 53 x 76?" during interviews.

    It wasn't that he wanted people to be able to do large multiplications in their head, he wanted to see how they reacted to unexpected questions in pressure situations. Perfectly acceptable answer was to say "I don't know, but I can work it out if you give me a minute." Bad answer was to guess, and worst answer was to get angry.

    • donga100 on 11/09/2023 - 12:06
      +3

      Why not just tell him 4028?

      • bobbified on 11/09/2023 - 12:14

        I would be disappointed if an asian applicant couldn't give me that answer because asians are meant to be good at maths! 😆

      • jprockbelly on 12/09/2023 - 13:04

        Not good! You'll reveal yourself as smarter than the manager and threat to his job :P

    • ihbh on 11/09/2023 - 14:49

      Why not say 100 x 76 is 7600 and the answer is roughly half of this - 3800, plus ~200 (3 x 70) = ~4000.

      My previous line of work was to do back of the envelop reasonableness checks.

  • ihbh on 11/09/2023 - 14:45

    Here's the approach I took to solve the problem: https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/22732/106457/data.png

    Start by laying out the data clearly (see attached pic) - and use it to deduce each space in the grid as follows:

    1. Desk Colour - Cream and Purple "block" can only be 4 & 5; can't be 3 & 4 because tea doesn't match 3
    2. Desk Colour - Pink can only be 3 because Job Title doesn't match 1
    3. Desk Colour - 1 is Maroon
    4. Canada is in 2 - sits next to Rockingham
    5. Armadale can be 2 or 3 given Peppermint requirement (which Fiji requirement doesn't help simplify)
    6. Putting Armadale in 2 results in Peppermint and Fiji in 1
    7. English Breakfast & Freemantle can only be in 5; other desks specify one of Tea or Lives
    8. EA & Green Tea is in 2 (the remaining Tea space)
    9. The Accountant is in Mandurah 4 (the remaining Job Title / Lives space
    10. Risk Officer / Japan is in 5 (the remaining Job Title / Travelled To space)
    11. Joondalup / France is in 3 (the remaining Lives / Travelled To space)
    12. Thailand must be the last Travelled To in 4

    Check there aren't two solutions by putting Armadale in 3 results in English Breakfast / Freemantle in 5 and hence Green Tea in 1, but the EA drinks Green Tea so this option doesn't work.

  • bluesky on 11/09/2023 - 16:29

    In Logic Programming course, they use this type of problem (called zebra problem, since in that instance, the question is who owns the zebra) to show how easy it is for a language like Prolog to solve it. Basically, you just input the assertions, and it produces the answer.

    I did not expect this to be a question for real humans to answer in an interview, unless it is done deliberately to stress the interviewee up.

  • Guybrush57 on 11/09/2023 - 19:33
    1. Where does the Forensic Analyst live? Rockingham
    2. Which employee drinks chamomile tea? Policy Adviser
    3. What colour is the Accountant’s desk? Cream
    4. Where did the person from Fremantle travel last year? Japan
    5. Which employee went to Thailand? Accountant
    Desk 1 Desk 2 Desk 3 Desk 4 Desk 5
    Colour Maroon Aqua Pink Cream Purple
    Title Forensic Analyst Executive Assistant Policy Adviser Accountant Risk Officer
    Tea Peppermint Green Chamomile Earl Grey English Breakfast
    Holiday Fiji Canada France Thailand Japan
    Suburb Rockingham Armadale Joondalup Mandurah Fremantle

    Thank you Microsoft Excel. Didn't take the whole hour but took way longer than I thought I would. Give me a job.

  • lainey13 on 11/09/2023 - 23:44

    Did it (very) manually in Excel and had heaps of fun! Thanks for that. Got it all in under half an hr.

    • Aneurism on 16/09/2023 - 04:17

      I wonder whether they were allowed to use any software, or were limited to pen and paper only.

      With tools it seems relatively easy to experiment ..

      From a solve perspective it seems to be a matter of
      1. Determining which are the fixed anchor points.. eg. This must be at this location logically
      2. Determining which things are moved in chunks or blocks.. This must move together with
      3. Determining what can freely be moved independently

      Then juggle in that order of priority until all the rules are satisfied.

      • ihbh on 16/09/2023 - 10:14

        Look at my comment. If you lay the data out clearly using pen and paper you get the same result.

        When people mention Excel, it's just for ease of drawing up the grid and filling it in, I suspect.

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