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Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

news.com.au

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Re: Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

#11
post #6
post #2

Looks like that number is in base-36 instead of base-10 (decimal). Using http://www.unitconversion.org/numbers/base-10-to-base-36-con... yields number 80113871 as the last 8 digits of the phone number.

You can also type the following in your JS console :) parseInt('1bp49b', 36) "The only problem is it's so tough, no one has managed to crack it yet." is very silly

in ruby '1bp49b'.to_i(36)

Re: Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

#12
post #4

Do it by hand and I'm impressed :)

The number is 1bp49b. The base-10 values of b and p are 11 and 25, respectively. The decimal value of the number is then:

    1*36^5 + b*36^4 + p*36^3 + 4*36^2 + 9*36^1 + b*36^0
    = 36^5 + 11*36^4 + 25*36^3 + 4*36^2 + 9*36 + 11
    = 80113871
I'll start on Monday.

Re: Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

#14

Kinda silly given they tell you the base...it'd be cooler if they didn't give you the base and you had to play with it until you had something that fit the phone numbers in the area that the company is in Also, where's the startups in Brisbane anyway :-/

There's some of us here in Brisbane. There's just not as much as in Sydney to get that kind of press coverage I think.

Re: Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

#15
post #2

Looks like that number is in base-36 instead of base-10 (decimal). Using http://www.unitconversion.org/numbers/base-10-to-base-36-con... yields number 80113871 as the last 8 digits of the phone number.

That was my first thought as well. Please don't tell me no one in Sydney managed to think of this.

Re: Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

#16
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also type the following in your JS console :) parseInt('1bp49b', 36) "The only problem is it's so tough, no one has managed to crack it yet." is very silly

in ruby '1bp49b'.to_i(36)

I'd be remiss without mentioning it in python: int('1bp49b', 36)

Re: Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

#18
Trivial puzzle, but I have no desire to ever work for BigCommerce.

  require 'sinatra'
  require 'twilio-ruby'

  ACCOUNT_SID = "Your SID"
  AUTH_TOKEN = "Your Token"
  BIG_COMMERCE_NUMBER = "+612#{1bp49b".to_i(36)}"
  APP_URL = "http://path.to.this.app.com"
  YOUR_NUMBER = "+61211111111"

  get '/' do
    twilio = Twilio::REST::Client.new(ACCOUNT_SID, AUTH_TOKEN)
    twilio.account.calls.create(
      from: YOUR_NUMBER, 
      to: BIG_COMMERCE_NUMBER
      url: APP_URL + "/give-me-a-job"
    )
  end

  get '/give-me-a-job" do
    r.Dial callerId: YOUR_NUMBER do |d|
      d.Number(CGI.escape(YOUR_NUMBER))
    end
  end

Re: Are you smart enough to work at a start-up?

#19
Did anyone actually call up and checked if that is the solution? The base 36 thing was also the first thing that came to my mind, and after evaluating the number, I saw that the start is 8..., quickly checked the australian number codes and saw that sydney is indeed +61 02 8..., so for me there's a chance that's the solution. However, since it seemed kind of trivial to me, I thought maybe it's a prank of some sort...
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