I've had quite a few that I thought were very dumb, especially given the context. I'm at a point where I'm starting to interview prospective employees so I'd like to avoid bad questions. The worst I can remember off the top of my head was "Do you have a sense of humor?" That was asked after a series of unfortunate events that made the interview an awful experience.
Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
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Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#2No single worst one: just all the sordid "Fermi questions" designed, it seems, to make the interviewer feel smart -- so godawful smart, in fact, that he can read your soul like a blueprint based on how you answer a captive whiteboard session about sorting a quadrillion bowling balls using only tinker toys and yard of string; sieving primes using roman numerals; or whatever might strike his fancy at the moment.
Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#3I feel you should ask the question the other way around. What is a good interview question given the scarcity of them.
In general, most questions that do not involve what you are going to work on or what you have already worked on is bad. What you want to judge is how smart a person is around the topics that he knows and has worked on. Not on things that you expect him to know. A smart person will learn whatever is needed for the job.
Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#4I was asked some riddle that was so ridiculous I can't even remember it now. It was like I was suddenly in a game show and had 5 minutes to complete a riddle. This was at the end of 4.5 hours of interviewing. The questions had been really good all day until then.
Major search company.
Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#5One interviewer trotted out the old Microsoft "Why are manhole covers round?" question.
Another one asked me "how do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?"
Both major gaming companies.
Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#6Do you like eating salad for lunch? which was a leading question because after I said yes the person interviewing me said, oh good because we are more salad type people here.
Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
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Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#8[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#9"Do you brush before you floss, or do you floss before you brush?"
I was so stunned and self-conscious that I might have had something stuck in my teeth to the point where after the interview I spent about a good 2 minutes looking at my teeth in the bathroom mirror.
I still don't know why they asked such a question. What would they have asked the next person? "Do you fold or scrunch toilet paper" ?
Re: Ask HN: What is the worst interview question you've ever been asked?
#10I hate the "What is your greatest weakness?" question. It's a great question for a politician, not so much for a software developer. My answer is usually "heroin"...just to see their response.