The Top 10 Weirdest Job Interview Questions (and How to Answer Them)

You‘ve prepared for the standard "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" and "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" But what happens when your interviewer asks you something like "What would the name of your debut album be?" or "How many basketballs would fit in this room?"

Job seekers today are increasingly likely to face bizarre and unexpected questions in the interview process. A 2021 Indeed survey found that 41% of respondents reported being asked an odd or confusing question in a job interview. Glassdoor data shows that questions like "When a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why?" (asked at SpaceX) are more common than ever.

And it‘s not just tech giants like Google getting creative with their interviews – retailers like Urban Outfitters, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe‘s also made Glassdoor‘s Top 10 Oddball Interview Questions list. So even if you‘re interviewing for a summer sales associate job, you may still need to ponder "Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?"

The Rise of Weird Interview Questions

The trend of oddball interview questions first took off in Silicon Valley in the early 2010s. Google was an early adopter, posing brainteasers to candidates like "How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?" Their goal was to see how applicants approached difficult, ambiguous problems and gauge their analytical skills.

Other tech companies quickly jumped on the weird question bandwagon. Amazon asked candidates "If you had 5,623 participants in a tournament, how many games would need to be played to determine the winner?" while Apple wanted to know "If you were a pizza delivery man, how would you benefit from scissors?"

Over time, unusual interview questions spread beyond the tech world. Today, about 5% of Glassdoor interview questions could be considered "oddball." Chances are, no matter what industry you‘re in, you‘ll probably encounter at least one nontraditional question during your job search.

Top 10 Weirdest Interview Questions

So what are some of the most head-scratching questions candidates have been asked recently? Here are the top 10 oddball interview questions of 2021 according to Glassdoor:

1. SpaceX: When a hot dog expands, in which direction does it split and why?
2. Whole Foods: Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?
3. Dropbox: If you‘re the CEO, what are the first three things you check about the business when you wake up?
4. Urban Outfitters: What would the name of your debut album be?
5. J.W. Business Acquisitions: How would you sell hot cocoa in Florida?
6. HubSpot: If I gave you $40,000 to start a business, what would you start?
7. Trader Joe‘s: What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?
8. Boston Consulting Group: If you were a brand, what would your motto be?
9. Delta Air Lines: How many basketballs would fit in this room?
10. Uniqlo: If you had $2,000, how would you double it in 24 hours?

Questions Asked by Urban Outfitters

Let‘s take a closer look at a company known for their quirky culture and interview process: Urban Outfitters. The trendy retailer sells clothing, accessories, and apartment décor aimed at teens and young adults. And their interview questions definitely reflect their outside-the-box brand.

In addition to "What would the name of your debut album be?", Urban Outfitters has also asked candidates:

• "You‘re a new addition to the crayon box. What color would you be and why?"
• "What‘s the last thing you watched on TV and why did you choose to watch it?"
• "Describe your life using film titles."
• "What would the title of your autobiography be?"

While these seem random, there is a method to the madness. Unusual questions allow Urban Outfitters to:

1. See candidates‘ creativity and storytelling skills. Coming up with an interesting autobiography title requires imagination and the ability to think on your feet.

2. Evaluate cultural fit. Questions about books, music, TV, and film give insight into whether a candidate understands and relates to Urban Outfitters‘ young, pop culture-savvy demographic.

3. Understand candidates‘ self-perception. Questions like "What color crayon would you be?" get at how applicants view and describe themselves.

4. Put candidates in an uncomfortable situation and see how they react. Curveball questions allow interviewers to see candidates‘ raw, unrehearsed responses and how they perform under pressure.

Psychological Reasons for Oddball Questions

So why do companies ask weird questions? It‘s not just for fun or to make candidates squirm. There are several psychological and practical reasons behind this trend.

First, brainteasers and oddball questions are thought to test mental agility, critical thinking skills, and the ability to perform under stress. True, most jobs don‘t require estimating the number of piano tuners in Chicago. But being able to break down a complex problem into more manageable pieces is a valuable workplace skill.

Second, creative questions force candidates to go off-script. It‘s easy for applicants to prepare canned responses to traditional interview questions. But no amount of practice can prepare you for "Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?" Bizarre questions allow employers to see more authentic responses.

Third, unusual questions provide a window into candidates‘ personalities and thought processes. The content of the answer often matters less than how they arrived at it. Does the candidate get flustered easily? How long do they take to think before speaking? Do they ask clarifying questions? The interviewer gains valuable insight from seeing how applicants tackle something unexpected.

Finally, weird questions can provide a welcome moment of levity in an otherwise tense process. Interviews are inherently anxiety-producing. An oddball question can lighten the mood and help candidates relax and open up. Just like with the "Tell me a joke" prompt, shared laughter is a powerful bonding tool.

How to Answer Weird Interview Questions

While you can‘t prepare for every oddball question an interviewer might throw at you, you can hone an adaptable approach for tackling them. Here are some tips:

1. Understand the why behind the what. With weird interview questions, it‘s less about getting the "right" answer and more about demonstrating how you think. The interviewer cares less about how many piano tuners are in Chicago and more about seeing your analytical reasoning skills in action. Focus less on being perfectly correct and more on walking through your logic out loud.

2. Use the STAR method. The STAR method is a useful framework for answering behavioral interview questions by discussing a Situation, Task, Action, and Result. You can adapt this to weird questions by laying out the Situation (the question), the Task (what you need to determine), your Action (your approach and reasoning for answering), and the Result (your final response).

3. Highlight transferable skills. Try to work in mention of relevant skills and experiences as you walk through your response. For instance, if asked what color crayon you would be, you might say "I would be turquoise because I‘m adaptable and able to bridge divides. In my last role, I often acted as a mediator between the sales and product teams." Tying your answer back to the workplace shows you can think on your feet.

4. Don‘t stress about perfection. Often, there is no perfect answer to an unusual question. Interviewers aren‘t looking for you to be exactly right but rather to demonstrate quick, creative thinking. If you make a mistake in your logic or calculations, simply acknowledge it and move on. The ability to recognize and correct errors is itself an important skill.

5. Bring the energy. Weird questions can provide a fun opportunity to let your personality shine. Feel free to crack a joke, tell a story, or make an off-the-wall analogy in your response. Just keep it professional and avoid going too off-topic. Your goal is to connect with the interviewer while still keeping the focus on why you‘re a strong candidate.

Putting the STAR Method Into Practice

Say an interviewer poses the question "How many basketballs would fit in this room?" Here‘s how you might structure a response using the STAR method:

Situation: The question itself. Acknowledge any assumptions you‘ll need to make, such as the size of the room. You might say "Okay, to determine that, I‘ll first need to estimate the dimensions of the room. Based on a quick visual, I‘m going to guess it‘s about 20 feet long by 15 feet wide, with 10 foot ceilings. We‘ll also need to consider that basketballs aren‘t perfectly stackable since they‘re spheres – there will be some air gaps."

Task: Determine the key pieces of information needed to answer the question. In this case, you‘ll need to 1) Calculate the volume of the room, 2) Determine the volume of a basketball, and 3) Divide the room volume by the basketball volume to get the number of balls that would fit.

Action: Walk through your calculations out loud. For the room volume, you‘d multiply the length, width, and height (20 x 15 x 10) to get 3,000 cubic feet. For a basketball, you might estimate a diameter of 9.5 inches, or .79 feet. The volume of a sphere is 4/3πr^3, which comes out to about .41 cubic feet per ball. Then, 3,000 cubic feet divided by .41 cubic feet per ball equals approximately 7,317 balls.

However, you‘d then mention the need to account for the imperfect stacking of spheres, which will create some air gaps. Based on the concept of packing density, spheres generally fill about 75% of a space. So you‘ll revise your final number down to 75% of 7,317, or around 5,487 basketballs.

Result: Summarize your final answer. "Based on the estimated dimensions of the room and volume of a basketball, accounting for the packing density of spheres, I‘d estimate that approximately 5,500 basketballs could fit in this room. However, that‘s making some assumptions about the exact room size and not accounting for any furniture or other objects that would take up space. But 5,500 would be my rough estimate."

Sample "Wrong" Answer

Not every response needs to be so thoroughly calculated to be effective. Even a "wrong" answer, when delivered engagingly and backed up with logical reasoning, can score points with an interviewer.

For instance, say you‘re asked "What would you do if you found a penguin in the freezer?" Rather than launching into a mathematical breakdown of the freezer‘s size and the optimal temperature for penguin survival, you might say:

"First, I‘d check to make sure I wasn‘t on some weird hidden camera show. Assuming the penguin was real, I‘d immediately unplug the freezer to let it warm up since Antarctic penguins are used to temperatures between -20°F and 40°F – a bit chilly for frozen food storage!

Next, I‘d call up my local zoo or aquarium and ask to speak to a penguin specialist. I‘d explain the bizarre situation and request their assistance in safely transporting the bird to a more suitable habitat. In the meantime, I‘d do a quick Google search to see what penguins eat (fish, krill, squid) and if I had anything viable on hand.

Once the penguin professionals arrived, I‘d help them carefully transfer the penguin into a carrier and wish it bon voyage on its journey to a proper enclosure. Then, I‘d probably brag to everyone I know that I rescued a penguin from certain freezer doom because that‘s definitely not an average day occurrence!"

An answer like this shows quick thinking, problem-solving skills, a dash of humor, and even some biological knowledge – no advanced mathematics required. The candidate came across as likeable and interesting while providing a thoughtful, thorough response to a silly question. That‘s the kind of memorable interaction that can tip the scales in a job seeker‘s favor.

Tips for Employers Using Oddball Interview Questions

As an interviewer, integrating a few unusual questions into your repertoire can yield valuable insights into candidates‘ critical thinking skills and even inject some fun into the hiring process. However, there are some best practices to keep in mind:

1. Make sure your oddball questions are fair and culturally sensitive. Avoid anything that might touch on protected characteristics like race, religion, gender, etc. Also steer clear of questions that require specialized knowledge not related to the role. The goal is to see candidates‘ creativity and logic, not their expertise in quantum physics or Russian literature.

2. Don‘t overdo it with the weird questions. One or two thoughtful brainteasers per interview is plenty. You still want to leave ample time for the more traditional questions that get at a candidate‘s background and qualifications.

3. Let candidates know upfront that there may be an oddball question and that it‘s meant to assess their thought process, not their ability to arrive at a single correct answer. This will help put candidates at ease.

4. Have a grading rubric. Know what you‘re hoping to evaluate with each question (analytical thinking, creativity, communication skills, etc.) and look for those markers in the response. Avoid judging answers based on arbitrary or undefined criteria.

5. Consider posing the same oddball questions to all candidates for a given role. This allows for a more standardized comparison than a completely different set of questions for each applicant. However, avoid overusing one question to the point that candidates can find the "right" answer with a quick Glassdoor search.

Ultimately, place more weight on the traditional elements of the application like the resume, portfolio, and answers to standard interview questions. Creative interview questions should complement, not replace, a holistic evaluation process.

Key Takeaways

In a sea of "What‘s your greatest weakness?" and "Tell me about a time you failed," an odd interview question like "If you were a brand, what would your motto be?" is bound to make a candidate sweat. But job seekers who understand the method behind the madness can tackle even the strangest questions with poise.

Focus first on identifying the skills and traits the interviewer is likely trying to assess with their curveball questions. Then, take a deep breath and walk them through your approach, even if you don‘t land on a perfect answer. Cite relevant experience and abilities where you can but avoid getting too bogged down in tiny details. When in doubt, it‘s better to respond thoroughly and thoughtfully to one aspect of a multipart question than to race through five half-baked answers.

At their core, oddball interview questions are about seeing how a candidate‘s mind works and how they perform under pressure. Companies like Urban Outfitters use them to gauge creativity, communication skills, and cultural fit, not to mention to make the interview process a little more interesting for all involved.

So loosen up, get those creative juices flowing, and don‘t be afraid to let your personality shine through. If you found a penguin in the freezer, how would YOU react?