This article is written by Heather Finn and is originally published by Levo.
Job interviews are exciting and anxiety-inducing at the very same time: Landing one means you’ve made it past the initial application stage and into the more exclusive “yes” pile, but it also means preparing for those all-too-familiar questions about your strengths, your weaknesses—yeah, you know the drill.
But what if, halfway through your interview, the hiring manager surprised you with an unexpectedly interesting question—a fun interview question that energized you and got your creative juices flowing? The good news is that hiring managers really are asking questions like this in interviews today, and while they might catch you off-guard, they’ll also give you a chance to loosen up, and the interviewer a chance to learn more about the real you.
So, take some time to think about the interview questions that you’ll actually enjoy answering, like the 36 real-life Qs we’ve gathered here from Glassdoor, Quora, Vault, and FlexJobs. We promise you’ll enjoy practicing your answers to these ones:
- Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer? (Glassdoor)
- You’re a new addition to the crayon box. What color would you be and why? (Glassdoor)
- We finish the interview and you step outside the office and find a lottery ticket that ends up winning $10 million. What would you do? (Quora)
- What do you think about when you’re alone in your car? (Glassdoor)
- What’s your favorite ’90s jam? (Glassdoor)
- If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be and why? (Quora)
- What was the last gift you gave someone? (Glassdoor)
- What were you like in high school? (Quora)
- What’s the last thing you watched on TV and why did you choose to watch it? (FlexJobs)
- Any advice for your previous boss? (Quora)
- Tell me something about your last job, other than money, that would have inspired you to keep working there. (Quora)
- What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently? (Glassdoor)
- What do you want to be when you grow up? (FlexJobs)
- Which two organizations outside your own do you know the most people at and why? (Quora)
- Pretend you’re our CEO. What three concerns about the firm’s future keep you up at night? (Vault)
- If I were to hire you for this job and I granted you three promises with regard to working here, what would they be? (Quora)
- If you don’t get this job, what’s your backup plan? (Quora)
- What inspires you? (Vault)
- Teach me something I don’t know in the next five minutes. (Quora)
- What are you known for? (Quora)
- What do you work toward in your free time? (Quora)
- What’s the most interesting thing about you that we wouldn’t learn from your resume alone? (Vault)
- How would you rate your memory? (Glassdoor)
- Code something from scratch in three hours. Then explain your design and solution. (Quora)
- If you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer? (Glassdoor)
- How many pennies would fit into this room? (Vault)
- Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday? (Quora)
- Estimate how many windows are in New York. (Glassdoor)
- How would you value the store on the corner? (Vault)
- How many square feet of pizza is eaten in the U.S. each year? (Glassdoor)
- Describe the color yellow to somebody who is blind. (Glassdoor)
- If you were to get rid of one state in the U.S., which would it be and why? (Glassdoor)
- You’ve been given an elephant. You can’t give it away or sell it. What would you do with the elephant? (FlexJobs)
- Who would win a fight between Spiderman and Batman? (Glassdoor)
- How would you convince someone to do something they didn’t want to do? (FlexJobs)
- A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say and why is he here? (Glassdoor)
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