How Many Registered Cars In New York City

"How much does a school bus weigh?"

"How many people are currently online in Germany?"

"How many windows are there in New York City?"

And, most importantly:"How the heck exercise yous answer these crazy questions?"

Considering if you're interviewing for a tech job, chances are you lot'll go thrown one of these curveballs at some point during the selection process. And when you do, yous don't desire to totally whiff.

So to make certain that you're ready to handle just nigh anything, let me share 9 steps that helped me earn offers at Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and VC-backed startups.

ane) Sympathise What the Interviewer Wants

Information technology's easy to become flustered if you assume that this is the aforementioned kind of question you might notice on a multiple-choice test — i.e., there's one correct respond and lots of wrong ones.

Instead, think about itfrom the interviewer'due south perspective. She needs to find someone who can succeed in this job — not someone who's great at counting windows. So what she really wants to know is whether you tin can handle the rigors of a crazy tech task:

Dealing with dubiousness
Thinking analytically
Communicating clearly

Thus, take a deep breath and focus on demonstrating your curiosity, logical analysis, and clear communication — not on the answer itself!

2) Clarify the Question

To demonstrate your curiosity, start byasking some clarifying questions. For case, if you've been asked how many windows are in New York (PS: here's a list I've collected of other tech brainteasers), you might respond by asking:

"When you say windows, do you only mean edifice windows or are you also thinking of subways, computers, and exhibits at the Bronx Zoo?"

This not only shows off your curiosity; it can also relieve y'all tons of desperation. Because if information technology turns out that your interviewer only cares about edifice windows, this question just became a whole lot simpler.

3) Ask for Time

Now, as tempting as it might be to dive right into calculations, resist that temptation. There are few people in the earth who can write an essay AND read it aloud simultaneously. But that's exactly what you stop upwardly doing when you attempt to respond the question immediately.

And so instead,inquire for a few minutes to get together your thoughts and and so jot down a quick outline like this one:

1) Assumptions

Just building windows
3 categories of building
NYC: 10M people
Apartments: iii windows/person

2) Categories

Residential
Retail
Role

3) Calculations

Residential: 10M ten 3 windows/person
Retail
Role
Full

That way, you become both the time to think analytically and the arrangement to communicate conspicuously. And no, interviewers aren't going to marking you down for taking a timeout. Because, once more, they need someone who can do the job — and very few tech jobs involve solving brainteasers live, on-phase!

4) Give a Roadmap

With your outline in-manus, it's time to give your interviewera roadmap to your answer. That's because and so many answers go off the rails when yous call back y'all're beingness clear but the interviewer is totally lost.

Thus, you say:

"OK, and so I'm going to solve this problem in three steps. Showtime I'm going to proper name my assumptions. Adjacent, I'm going to interruption the trouble into relevant categories. And finally, I'yard going to brand calculations for each category."

Now, the interviewer tin keep track of your progress at every step ("OK, she just laid out her assumptions. Bank check!"). And, as a bonus, y'all come across as style more organized and analytical.

5) State Your Assumptions

As mentioned up-forepart, these questions rarely accept one correct answer. I mean, even the mayor of New York doesn't know exactly how many windows are in his city!

So instead of getting caught up in the search for an illusory truth, just make some logical assumptions. And so, nearly importantly,name and justify your assumptions.

For instance, you might say:

"When information technology comes to flat windows, I'yard going to assume that at that place are three windows per resident. That'south because I've lived in a lot of two-person apartments that had half dozen windows, on average. And so three per person feels about correct."

While this might seem like relatively flimsy evidence, the critical word here is "because." That'sbecause(wink!) psychology research has shown that people are significantly more than likely to accept something with a justification attached. And, of course, remember what'due south beingness tested here: Your ability to think and communicate clearly, not your deep knowledge of residential illumination ratios!

6) Break the Problem Down

At present, these questions are often so massive that trying to solve them in one cruel dive can be downright ridiculous. So, instead,interruption them downwardly into piece of cake-to-digest parts.

In this case, you can offer an reply like this:

"OK, since buildings in New York are so different, I'g going to wait at the three main categories of buildings separately: Residential, Retail, and Office."

And at present, the question that once looked freakishly scary has get quasi-reasonable — and yous get to flex your analytical biceps!

7) Round!

While knowing that in that location were 8.406 1000000 people in New York in 2013 might assistance you win Trivia Night at the demographers' bar, trying to multiply 8.406 times annihilation is a recipe for disaster. So practice yourself a large favor andcircular to the juiciest whole number yous can call back of:

"Alright, I'm going to say there are about 10 million people living in New York, requite or take a million…"

Again, no ane's testing your Rain Homo skills. And this volition pay off big time when you're ready to…

8) Calculate on Paper

It might experience safer to practice your calculations in your caput and then the interviewer can't see your crummy arithmetic skills. But that's but basics — once again, who can pull off 27 dissimilar mental calculations while simultaneously obeying the 95 rules of interview etiquette?

So skip the Math Olympiad stuff andprove your work on paper or a whiteboard, step-by-footstep:

"OK, in that location are ten meg people in NYC. Then I'm going to multiply that times 3 windows per person to get 30 million residential windows. At present let'south motion on to retail…"

At present, fifty-fifty if you do mess upwards, y'all have the visibility to end yourself before your errors snowball into an avalanche.

nine) Offering Caveats

So yous've finally reached an respond (run into my complete solution and all my tech interview techniques). Congrats — you lot're done, right?

Not so fast!

Remember that these questions aren't about the answer — instead, they're almost the process. So before you drop the microphone, take one concluding hazard to show off your marvel and analytical chops bycaveating your answer:

"So that's my answer. Merely I'm not totally happy with it because I completely neglected development trends in the metropolis. I basically assumed that every building was your typical erstwhile-schoolhouse New York office or apartment, with relatively few windows. But all the new buildings are 100% drinking glass, which suggests that this number is probably on the low side."

And at present, at terminal, you're done. Which leaves you lot just enough time to figure out how much that school autobus weighs afterward all…

Jeremy Schifeling is the Founder and Chief Nerd of Break into Tech , a site for anyone who wants to launch a tech career - regardless of background. As a former kindergarten instructor, he'due south a big believer in sharing - and then delight share if so inspired!

PS: Desire more interview frameworks? Grab my free guide to every type of interview question - from "Tell me well-nigh yourself" to "Tell me about a time y'all..." :)