By Kevin Enriquez, Campus Representative, Drexel University
Are puzzle questions necessary at an interview? Many companies believe problem solving and probability questions can help identify the creative thinkers from a pool of their best candidates. It tests candidates how they perform under pressure and if they can think outside the box and avoid the obvious methods. However many companies believe this method only finds the best people who are good at solving puzzles, not whether they'll be a good fit for a job.
An article relating to this topic on BNet reads...
Companies use puzzle questions to help discover the smartest and most creative job applicants; employees who can think under stress as well as outside the box. The interviewer is able to get a feel for how applicants think by watching them reason their way to a final answer. Other puzzlers are really stress tests, such as seeing if an applicant reacts in a desired way when asked to open a window that's been glued shut.
In my opinion puzzles are great in sorting out the best candidates from the good ones. Apart from job experience, GPA, and scores on reasoning exams you cannot see the candidates thinking patterns. Telling a candidate to explain his/her answer on a problem solving question will show his performance first hand. Besides the interviewer will not base his decision on accepting an applicant solely on his/her problem solving performance, it's just a small chunk of the overall interview. This new "fad" of reasoning problems is just another creative way to test applicants, and I can see many other companies using this in the future.
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