Asked in a Facebook interview;
“Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint “higher” or “lower” for each guess you make.”
I thought just one if you're very lucky, the word "minimum" being slightly deceiving, but I believe they want a mathematical explaination.
Asked at USAA;
“A train leaves San Antonio for Huston at 60mph. Another train leaves Huston for San Antonio at 80mph. Huston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Huston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide.”
I might ask where "Huston" is.
The other 24 questions can be found at Glassdoor.com.
http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/top-25-oddball-interview-questions-2010/
Actually the minimum would be 1 if you got lucky on the first shot.
However, to answer the maximum, actually there is a mathematical formula for it which I forget. It almost comes to mind.
It was a common test question in computer science dealing with searching for an item in a sorted/ordered list. The fastest was the "binary search" which is where the formula comes from. The worst search is the "sequential search" but is pretty much necessary to un-ordered lists.
The bird would not make even one trip. At 100mph, all his little feathers would blow off and he would flop, nekkid, onto the tracks only to be run over by the train fron Huston.
Actually, BigE, I believe the minimum would be "two." If your first answer was correct, you'd never be told "lower or higher" as a hint. You'd have to be wrong on the first guess, then right on the second.
;o)
JBS
Maybe it was a White-throated Needletail
😉
Or could be a Peregrine falcon, they are universally accepted as the fastest animal in the world. It reaches its top speed when in a hunting dive, the stoop, in which it soars to a great height, then dives steeply at high speeds (200.00+ mph, 322 km/hr)
But I doubt it could sustain that speed for very long:-D
> Asked in a Facebook interview;
>
> “Given the numbers 1 to 1000, what is the minimum numbers guesses needed to find a specific number if you are given the hint “higher” or “lower” for each guess you make.”
>
> I thought just one if you're very lucky, the word "minimum" being slightly deceiving, but I believe they want a mathematical explaination.
>
> Asked at USAA;
>
> “A train leaves San Antonio for Huston at 60mph. Another train leaves Huston for San Antonio at 80mph. Huston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Huston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far will it have flown when they collide.”
>
> I might ask where "Huston" is.
>
>
> The other 24 questions can be found at Glassdoor.com.
>
>> http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/top-25-oddball-interview-questions-2010/br >
I don't know about the first question. The second is obviously fictional. If they meant Houston, Houston and San Antonio are only 200+/- miles apart.
