<p>My interviewer wanted to talk about the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligences and asked about my opinion on it. I said it’s pretty much impossible given the optimum conditions needed to create beings such as us… but he seems pretty adamant that there are other lives out there and argued with me for about like 20 minutes.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to seem like a pushover and kept my position… but that’s basically half of my interview. Anyone else encountered such bizarre interview?</p>
<p>Well, it wasn’t a Harvard interview, but my Columbia interviewer asked me how many pingpong balls i thought it would take to fill a 737…</p>
<p>My Columbia interviewer asked me how I would fix China…I would’ve loved the ET question since I’m more of a science person</p>
<p>I would have definitely enjoyed a conversation about the potential for extraterrestrial life. My two interviews (Brown and Princeton) were quite ordinary, though.</p>
<p>Sounds cool (you are wrong though :)). Sure the fact that you could intelligently talk about it counted more than your viewpoint.</p>
<p>These interviews all sound so much more awesome than mine</p>
<p>I wish my interviewer asked me that.</p>
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<p>That’s hilarious</p>
<p>^ Lol. This isn’t a consulting or Microsoft interview…</p>
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I would say 10. Any more would raise suspicion from the airport security people and they’d strip me down naked and then give a pad down.</p>
<p>jgperez: On the ping-pong balls and 737, the answers for such trick questions, just as FYI, is to say 327,190,112 balls. And then to add that if the other person does not believe the answer, he could go and verify it himself.</p>
<p>[Why</a> Are Manhole Covers Round? (And How to Deal With Other Trick Interview Questions.) Companies of all stripes are zinging job applicants with sadistic puzzlers. There are no right answers. But there is a right way to answer. - July 1, 2003](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2003/07/01/345252/index.htm]Why”>http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2003/07/01/345252/index.htm)</p>
<p>“The most feared types of questions ask for information you couldn’t possibly know: How many piano tuners are there in the world? How many Ping-Pong balls can you stuff into a 747? Rest assured: The interviewer doesn’t know the answer either. Nor does he much care. The hidden agenda is to see how well you can outline a logical procedure for estimating the answer. Accuracy doesn’t count–much.”</p>
<p>A classic Oxford interview anecdote: The prospective student walked into the room in which sat the faculty of his intended major field. Once he sat down, a professor tossed him a tennis ball and said “You’ll have to eat this now.” The applicant responded “Certainly,” tossed the ball back to the prof, and added “if you’ll peel it for me first.” Only five seconds into the interview and he was as good as in. :)</p>