Analytical Interview Questions (& Puzzles) - Tips from a Hiring Manager

ANALYTICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (& PUZZLES) - TIPS FROM A HIRING MANAGER // Analytical interview questions can be about your analytical skills in the past or about how you’d solve a puzzle or problem.

Learn how to answer questions about using your analytical skills in past situations. I’ll walk through specific interview questions and answers in this area including:
Tell me about a time you used good judgement and logic to solve a problem.
Your resume mentions you did … in your past job. Tell me more about this.

I’ll also teach you how to use analytical reasoning to respond to puzzle or problem questions. We’ll look at this challenging puzzle similar to ones used at Google and other tech companies:
There are 25 mechanical horses and a single racetrack. Each horse completes the track in a pre-programmed time, and the horses all have different finishing times, unknown to you. You can race 5 horses at a time. After a race is over, you get a printout with the order the horses finished, but not the finishing times of the horses. What is the minimum number of races you need to identify the fastest 3 horses?

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[TheCareerForce]

Thanks for watching!
Have you been asked analytical puzzles in an interview? Let me know what challenge you were given.

[aizakduran]

save your time and go straight to the minute 3:30... u r welcome

[musiccall]

Winner of the sixth race doesn't need to race in the seventh race, because we know she's the winner. Instead the the horse that came third in her group needs to race in the seventh race because he can possibly be faster than the horse that came second in the sixth race. And all this, assuming the horses are very consistent in their speed, and don't, for example, get disproportionately slower as they get tired after the first race. Jen, your videos are extremely helpful. Thank you!

[apuurva]

Wow. Your tips and approach to such analytical question is quite helpful. Thanks for sharing.

[RachelFu-ism]

For the horse running question - what if the real top 3 all happen to be raced in the first race your run? Using your 7-race method, you are not getting the true 3rd place.

[ambermcgraw]

This helped give me a boost of confidence for my interview this week. Thank you!

[sabakhalid]

Its great the way you explained problem

[kogamikun]

There would be 8th races to take place, the 1st place, 2nd, 3rd placer from the 6th race along with the top 2 from the 7th race will determine the real top 3 because at 6th race all 1st placers from the 1st 5 race will compete then the 7th race all the 2nd placer from the 1st 5 race will compete too.

[dontlie]

We would need 8 races.
5 races for the preliminary
1 race to determine the first place through racing the 5 winners of the 5 races prior
1 race to determine the second place through racing the 2nd place horse in the 1st place horse's bracket to the 4 losers of the previous race (The second place horse of the winner's bracket could be faster than any of the other bracket's 1st place horses)
1 race to determine the third place with the horses racing dependent on the result of the previous race
- if the winner of the 2nd place race is in the winner's bracket of the 1st place race, then we take the 3rd place horse from that bracket and run the race
- if the winner of the 2nd place race is anyone other than the winner's bracket, we take the 2nd place horse from the 2nd place bracket and run the race.

We need to do the 8th race, because just like the 7th race, the runner-up horse of the 2nd place horse's bracket could be faster than the other horses.

[PaligSarkissian]

5:54, the third fastest horse from the 6th race

[avinashkanaparthiIITR]

In the horses' problem, what if the top three horses are from the same set of 5 horses?

[kokamsahdeva]

I think we need 9 races, first 5 to run them all once. 6th one between the winners of the 5 rounds, 7th for the second place, 8th for the third and final 9th having the top two from race 6 and 7 and one from race 8 which will show us the true 1st-2nd-3rd

[BarelySaneGenius]

I think I would have done 8 races but seven is more efficient

[nabeelegam]

Why do we need 7th race? we know that the 6th race has the winners horses of all 5 groups, even the 2nd and 3rd horses in 6th race will still be faster from any other remaining horse in the first 5 groups?!!

[kasandrop]

First of all if you answered at my interview like you did here in front of the camera You would not be on my list. I don't care if you are right or not but what I care is the way you explain your solution. You made it so complicated. that you nearly used all your hand fingers !!! You are not employed and you are getting thumbs DOWN!