Logic Test From My Interview
February 12th, 2009
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I had a job interview today, where they gave me a logic test. I didn’t get to keep it, but I remembered most of the questions. Have fun!
1. Split 110 into two parts, so that one part is 150% of the other. What are the two numbers?
2. There are 100 people, and everyone is either a football player or a basketball player. There is at least one football player. For any two people, at least one of them is a basketball player. How many football players are there?
3. The number 8,549,176,320 is the only one of its kind. Can you figure out what’s so special about it?
4. There are 20 questions on a test. You gain 10 points for each correct answer, and lose 5 points for each incorrect answer. Someone answers all the questions and gets 125 points. How many questions did they get wrong?
5. Two coins add up to $0.55, and one of them is not a nickel. What are the two coins?
6. What is the biggest number you can make using two numbers? Just two numbers, no other mathematical symbols.
[When they say "just two numbers," I took that to mean two digits.]
7. The number of lilly pads in a pond doubles every day. Starting with just one lilly pad on the first day, the pond is completely covered with lilly pads after 60 days. How long did it take for the pond to be half covered?
8. An adult and two children need to cross a river. They have a boat that either child is able to handle by themselves. The boat can carry either the adult or both children, but not the adult and a child at the same time. How can they cross the river?
9. Someone introduces you to your mother’s only sister’s husband’s sister in law. He has no brothers. How do you address this person?
[This isn't stated too well, but I assume "he" refers to your mother's sister's husband.]
10. There are two different colors of socks in a drawer. Without looking at them, how many do you need to take out to ensure you have a matching pair?
11. According to someone’s will, $666,666 is to be divided between 2 fathers and 2 sons. They discuss it, and each person gets $222,222. Explain.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Oh, lord, my eyeballs just glazed over.
Hayden Tompkins´s last blog post..Spending Valentine’s Alone
February 12th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
@ Hayden, yeah, that’s what made me think they should give people the test at the very beginning and say “You can give up and go home whenever you like!” I think I got all but one though.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
So… what kind of job were you applying? And which one did you miss? Are you going to share the answers sometime?
Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..Soulmate Sucks
February 13th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Wait, I just noticed — you mean you memorized all this by heart? Do you realize that’s kinda special skill??
Akemi – Yes to Me´s last blog post..My Spiritual Make Money Scheme
February 13th, 2009 at 12:14 am
@ Akemi, it’s a software job. These questions aren’t directly related (I wish), but I guess they think the test measures something important.
Yeah, I remembered most of them, but not exactly word for word, and I forget some of the questions. Though I impressed myself by remembering 8,549,176,320, especially since that was the one I didn’t get!
I’ll share the answers after people have time to work on this. You know, the people who would rather take a test than celebrate Valentine’s Day!
February 13th, 2009 at 3:26 am
Lemme go guess #6:
Biggest number would be 8 (made up by 2 “0′s”, one on top of the other).
I glanced through the rest. Lol! Back to studying for my final exam this coming monday!
All the best to your new software job Hunter!
Daniel Richard´s last blog post..8 Reasons To Why We Say Auspicious Phrases On Chinese New Year
February 13th, 2009 at 3:29 am
Oh shoot. There too can be 9^9 (in exact form, its a big 9 on the left, and a tiny 9 written on the top right side from the latter as the power to the number).
Daniel Richard´s last blog post..8 Reasons To Why We Say Auspicious Phrases On Chinese New Year
February 13th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Fun! I don’t mind these types of tests as long as they give me a reasonable amount of time to mull them over. I find that I either get the answers immediately, or almost never. Only a few come to me after using paper. In this case, # 3 and # 5 were killing me, so I Googled the answers and had to laugh! Curious – do you assume they know you blog, and if so, does that limit what you feel you can say?
February 14th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@ Daniel, it’s interesting that you thought about putting one number on top of another, but not two numbers next to each other. I think most people would say 99. But yeah, your second answer is right: 99.
@ Annie, I don’t necessarily assume they know I blog, but I assume they could know. I don’t think that limits me though, because there’s nothing I want to say that I’m not already saying.
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
#9: I’m assuming the answer is mother, but the husband could has a gay sister who lives in Massechusetts and is married so then I would have no clue how to address that person other than “aunt.”
August 3rd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
@ Bill, they didn’t specify, but I think they weren’t thinking about Massachusetts!
November 8th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Hi Hunter, thanks for the questions. this is really interesting!
I could answer most of the questions, but i’m still wondering about number 11. how come everyone gets $222222? that really confused me. and how many minutes are you allowed to do it?
November 8th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
@ Max, thanks for playing along! For #11, there’s a guy (a son), his dad (a father and a son), and his grandfather (a father). There are two fathers and two sons among the three people. Although they’re ignoring the fact that the grandfather is also a son (just not the son of anyone else in the puzzle).
There was no set time limit that I know of. After I finished, I left the room to find my interviewer, but the whole office was gone, so I just waited.
February 17th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
My attempt
1. 44 & 66
2. one football player
3. all digits are used but no clue whats so special
4. 5 wrongs!
5. no clue
6. 9^9
7. 59 days
8. easy.. 2 kids take the boat, one brings it back, and then father goes and other kid brings it back etc
9. Mother
10. 3
11. Already answered by someone above
February 17th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
@ Sneha,
3. This is the hardest one. You’ve figured out part of it. But the digits aren’t just all used – they’re used in a very specific order. See if you can figure it out.
5. A half dollar and a nickel.
Just glanced at your other answers – I think they’re right.
February 18th, 2010 at 12:45 am
Prepping for an interview tomorrow, so thanks for this SO much.
The only one I have input on that I don’t think has been answered correctly yet is 5.
I think you use an american coin and a coin from a foreign country that could convert to the necessary difference. IE a 5c piece from canada and a 50c piece from USA assuming conversion rate of 1:1 (depends on known conversion rates, obviously).
Any chance you’ll post the answers soon-ish?
February 18th, 2010 at 12:58 am
@ Sam, I think the answers have all been given in the comments. For number 5, you’re overthinking it. Pay careful attention to the wording of the question. (My previous comment gives the answer.)
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:01 am
The reason the number is so special is because the numbers are in alphabetical order when spell out.
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:05 am
Can someone please show me how to solve #1. I got the answer, but I would like to solve it as an equation.
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:29 pm
@ Salomon, the equations for #1 are:
x + y = 110
y = 1.5x
Therefore, 2.5x = 110, x = 44, y = 66.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:45 am
My gues on number 3 is that it is divisible by all digits – 1 through 9
September 29th, 2010 at 12:03 am
@ Jeff, good guess, but it’s not divisible by 7. BTW, 2,520 is the smallest number divisible by 1 through 9.
March 10th, 2011 at 7:41 am
8)First the two children went over the river,than one children will took that boat and return to back,their the child is left,and the adult will take the boat,than adult was their that the person who already their across the sea will took that boat and return back,than after the two children took that boat and cross the river………I think so….
9)I called that person as my mother.
4)15
March 13th, 2011 at 6:02 am
# 3 is the highest ten digit number (which use all digits, and not in order) that is divisible on 9 & whose sum of all digits (8+5+4+9+1+7+6+3+2+0 = 45 = 4+5) is also 9
there is only one high number 9,876,543,210 which meet that criteria but it has logic (highest to lowest) while 8,549,176,320 does not have
April 6th, 2011 at 12:04 am
1)um well 110 should be 100% as a whole so splitting them a part would give 55 each so my answer is that 150% of 55 is 137.5. yea i suck at math 55 and 137 is my answer
April 9th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
thats very good.. i am surprised that you remembered all these question after your interview is finished .. #3 i found it very difficult (maybe it is that i am computer science student and all i think is numbers :p ) i tried to find the relation betwen of each digit.. after i give up i searched in the google.. no way i would find this question
can anyone explains me the #2. :/ i am confused
April 30th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
#2- There must be at least 1 football player. If you assume there is more than 1 football player, you can find some group of 2 people (example, 2 of the 2+ football players), where we don’t have at least one basketball player, violating the original assumption.
#3- 8,549,176,320
I disagree with Tuffy. Any combination of this number is divisible by 9, and sum to a multiple of 9. This includes 9,867,123,540 and such numbers which would contradict.
Hint: Eight, FIve, FOur, Nine, One, SEven, SIx, THree, TWo, Zero.
May 18th, 2011 at 11:18 pm
#3 i think the specialty of the given numbers is they are covering whole numbers from 0 to 9…… and other ans of mine are matching with sneha
June 11th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
# 3 It’s the only number where the digits are arrange alphabetically,
eight…five…four…nine…one…seven…six…three…two…zero.
July 10th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Two coins add up to $0.55, and one of them is not a nickel…
It said ONE of them not both so the answer is: one nickel and one 50 cent piece. It’s a trick question built into the words…
July 10th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
For those who like logic questions, here’s another site with some questions and answers:
http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-596.html
July 22nd, 2011 at 9:17 am
can u show me how to get the answer for the #4 Q? I cant get the answer
July 22nd, 2011 at 9:27 am
ok, I’ll get it
(Q*10) + (20-Q)*(-5)=125
so,
10Q -5(20-Q)=125
15Q=225
Q=15 correct Question
So the wrong Q is 5!
August 26th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
I had the same test in HSBC bank, and here are the answers correct ones
my test was online so i managed to print screen all the questions:
1. Divide 110 into two parts so that one will be 150 percent of the other. What are the 2 numbers?
1. 44 and 66
2. At a sports banquet there are one hundred athletes. Each one is either a football or basketball player. At least one is a football player. Given any two of the athletes, at least one is a basketball player. How many of the athletes are football players?
2. 1. Only one of the athletes is a football player. The other ninety-nine are basketball players.
3. The following number is the only one of its kind. Can you figure out what is so special about it? 8,549,176,320
3. It’s the only number that contains all of the digits in alphabetical order.
4. Jennifer took a test that had 20 questions. The total grade was computed by awarding 10 points for each correct answer and deducting 5 points for each incorrect answer. Jennifer answered all 20 questions and received a score of 125. How many wrong answers did she have?
4. She had five wrong answers. If Jennifer had answered all 20 questions correctly, she would have scored 200. Since she only scored 125, she must have lost 75 points. Since each incorrect answer results in a total loss of 15 points (10 for not getting it correct and 5 for answering incorrectly) she must have missed 5 questions. 5 x 15 = 75, 200 – 75 = 125.
5. You have 55 coins totaling $10.00. There are more nickels than pennies, more dimes than nickels, and more quarters than dimes. How many of each coin do you have?
5. 35 quarters ($8.75), 9 dimes (90 cents), 6 nickels (30 cents), and 5 pennies (5 cents).
6. A box of candy bars can be divided equally (without cutting anything) among 2, 3, or 7 people. What is the least number of candy bars the box could contain?
6. 42. The lowest common denominator of 2, 3, and 7 is 2 x 3 x 7 or 42.
7. Using standard mathematical symbols, e.g. +, -, x, etc., rearrange (4) fives to equal the numbers one to ten. For example, 5/5 + 5 – 5 = 1, 5/5 + 5/5 = 2, etc.
7. 1 = (5 / 5) x (5 / 5), 2 = (5 / 5) + (5 / 5), 3 = (5 + 5 + 5) / 5, 4 = ((5 x 5) – 5) / 5
5 = ((5 – 5) / 5 ) + 5, 6 = ((5 x 5) + 5) / 5, 7 = 5 + ((5 + 5) / 5),
8 = (5 – (5 / 5)) x .5 9 = 5 + 5 – (5 / 5) 10 = 5 + 5 x (5 / 5)
8. Use each of the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 once only, in this multiplication problem to make it correct.
? ?
x ?
——
? ? ?
8. 54 x 3 = 162.
9. Bob is ten years older than his brother Stan. There was a time when Bob was three times as old as Stan. What was Stan’s age when Bob was three times as old?
9. Stan was 5 years old and Bob was 15 years old.
Here’s one way to solve this:
Let Bob be “x” years old. Stan is then x – 10 years old. At one time Bill was three times as old as Stan; so in order to set up an equation, you would have to multiply Stan’s age by 3.
x = 3 (x – 10)
x = 3x – 30
-2x = -30
2x = 30
x = 15
10. Can you replace the question marks with three math symbols to make the following equation correct:
(2 ? 3) ? (6 ? 2) ? (3 ? 1) = 5
10. Here are some possible answers:
(2 x 3) + (6 / 2) – (3 + 1) = 5.
(2 + 3) – (6 – 2) + (3 + 1) = 5.
(2 – 3) + (6 – 2) + (3 – 1) = 5.
(3 + 2) x (6 / 2) / (3 x 1) = 5.
11. Can you find four consecutive prime numbers that add up to 220?
11. 47 + 53 + 59 + 61 = 220
12. If I buy an apple and a banana, the cost will be $1.19. If I buy an apple and a pear, the cost will be $1.45. If I buy a banana and a pear, the cost will be $1.40. What are the individual prices?
12. pear = 83 cents, banana = 57 cents, apple = 62 cents.
13. A two-digit number when read from left to right, is 4.5 times less than the same number read from right to left. What is the number?
13. 18.
14. Barry went to a sporting goods store with $100 to buy some golf equipment. If he spent $40 on a new driver, 20% of what was left on a new putter, 1/8 of his original money on golf balls, and 31/71 of what was left of his money on a golf cart, how much money does he have left?
14. $20.00. After he spent $40.00 on a new driver, he had $60.00 left. Twelve dollars was spent on the new bag, leaving him with $48.00. One eighth of his original $100 ($12.50) was spent on golf balls. This leaves him $35.50 ($48.00-$12.50). He then spends 31/71 on the golf cart, or $15.50. He now $20.00 ($35.50 – $15.50).
15. If 3 salesman can sell three stoves in 7 minutes, how many stoves can six salesmen sell in seventy minutes?
15. 60.
16. You have a cake which you must cut into 8 equal pieces. You may make only 3 cuts. How will do this?
16. Make the first two cuts like an X from the top of the cake. Now slice the cake horizontally – thus getting 8 equal pieces.
17. Which number when added to 5/4 gives the same result as when it is multiplied 5/4?
17. 5
18. In the square below, a rule applies both from top to bottom and from left to right. Find the rule and figure out the missing number.
6 2 4
2 ? 0
4 0 4
18. 2
19. What is the missing number in this arrangement?
1 2 3 4 5
1 3 7 15 31
1 4 13 40 121
1 5 21 85 ???
19. 341
20. A fish is fifteen inches long. Its head is as long as its tail. If the head were twice as long as it really is, the head and tail would together be as long as what’s in between. How long is each part of the fish?
20. The head and tail are each three inches long; the rest is nine.