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CEO shows brain teaser to candidates in interviews and gives them 3 seconds to provide correct answer

Home> Community> Life

Updated 15:13 27 Apr 2025 GMT+1Published 11:15 27 Apr 2025 GMT+1

CEO shows brain teaser to candidates in interviews and gives them 3 seconds to provide correct answer

The CEO took to LinkedIn to explain the trick he uses in job interviews

Callum Jones

Callum Jones

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Featured Image Credit: LinkedIn/Dino Dionne

Topics: Jobs, Viral

Callum Jones
Callum Jones

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A CEO divided opinion after revealing a brain teaser he gave to candidates during the interview process for an investment management firm.

Job interviews are stressful enough, there's no doubt about that.

Whether it be ensuring you stay composed amid all the nerves, or asking that all-important question to the employer upon the conclusion of the interview, there's certainly a lot to stay conscious of.

And now you've got managers/CEOs bringing in tests in an attempt to catch candidates out, and a brain teaser that interviewees have only three seconds to answer correctly is surely the most outlandish one.

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Last year, Dino Dionne, CEO and president of investment management firm Genesis Capital Group puzzled many people online.

Job interviews are already stressful enough (Getty Stock Image)
Job interviews are already stressful enough (Getty Stock Image)

While he may have angered many online, there's no refuting his success.

Discussing it on LinkedIn, Dionne wrote: "I give this test to everyone I interview. If you want the job, you have three seconds to provide the correct answer.

"You'd be surprised to hear all the ridiculous excuses I've heard from people who either gave me the wrong answer, or couldn't provide one!

"My six-year old solved in 30 seconds."

Accompanying the post is a picture of an equation titled 'Only for Genius', while the equation read: "3x3-3÷3+3."

As is usually the case with many of these math problems, when it was shared to the Sub-Reddit 'LinkedInLunatics', users got lots of different answers, which is concerning considering a six-year-old is said to have solved it in half a minute.

But the majority of people weren't actually answering the question, instead they fumed at the CEO questioning their intelligence.

(LinkedIn/Dino Dionne)
(LinkedIn/Dino Dionne)

One wrote: "The correct answer is to end the interview and find a boss that isn’t a tool."

Another added: "This moron is the exact reason why Brackets/Parentheses were introduced in Maths."

While a third raged: "Adds the 'my 6 year old can solve it in 30 seconds' as a kicker... but gives said child 10-times longer to solve the equation."

The answer is actually 11, with one guy showing his working out.

Taking to Reddit he posted: "He and other people keep saying the answer is 1, but I get 11 when following PEMDAS [Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, and Addition and Subtraction] (multiplication and division first as a single step, so it's 3x3=9 and 3÷3=1, then addition and subtraction next as a single step, so it's 9-1+3 = 11), and 5 when I go straight across (3x3=9, 9-3=6, 6÷3=2, and 2+3=5)."

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