Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@hrbitch
Topics: Google, Technology
Ben Thompson
If there's one experience that is universal to all of us, it's the pre-job interview anxiety.
Nobody likes waiting around with a churning stomach and sweaty palms, contemplating what a prospective employer might ask them.
Especially if they're asked to pick out their biggest weakness or what they'd do in a high stress situation.
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Job interviews just flat out suck.
And I can imagine that interviewing for a big corporation like Google must be pretty nerve-wracking.
A former employee of the tech giant has come forward to reveal which interview question stumps candidates the most.
A woman, who claims to have previously worked for Google, Wix, and Rocket Money as a Chief People Officer (AKA the Head of HR), shared a TikTok explaining one of the toughest questions interviewers would apparently ask while interrogating candidates.
According to this social media user, called @hrbitch online, this question would separate the good from the great.
She explained: "There’s a coffee shop in San Francisco. It has unlimited supply and demand - meaning it has all the coffee beans, coffee cups, teas in the world, and the customer line wraps around the block.
"The coffee shop is roughly 500-square feet. So, how many cups of coffee can this coffee shop produce in one day?"
I don't know about you, but my head would probably explode if I was faced with that in a job interview.
I can just manage saying my name in those things.
Several TikTok users had their own theories about the correct answer and flooded the comments section to give their input.
One said: "Zero - no workers were mentioned."
Another wrote: "It takes 30 seconds to pour a cup of coffee. So that's 120 cups every hour. If your open for eight hours, that's 960 cups of coffee."
A third added: "It doesn't matter because the demand will always equal the supply."
Someone else chimed in: "The question is ‘produce’ not serve. The fact that customers wrap around the block is irrelevant. Don’t need cups either."
And a fifth joked: "I don't know, Google it!"
To be fair, that last answer would at least be on-brand.
But I don't think it'd get you the job.
Fortunately for all of us simpletons, the ex-Google employee revealed the answer in a follow-up video.
She said: "There are no right or wrong answers, the interviewer's just trying to figure out your thought process. That's why they made it vague, to understand your decision making skills."
According to its careers website, Google no longer employs the brain teaser during interviews.
The company explained: "Our data showed that brainteaser questions didn’t predict how well someone would do on the job so we no longer ask them. Instead, we do work sample tests and ask structured interview questions.
"In the end, we want above all to assess your skills and see if you and this role are a match (there aren’t any brain teasers, and who knows, you might even have some fun)."