Oddball Interview Questions You Should Prepare

All interviews do not necessarily go as planned. While you can quickly prepare answers to some common job interview questions that mainly test your knowledge and experience, it is also vital to get prepared for the most unexpected oddball interview questions that you might face at any stage of the interview round.

Many companies ask out-of-the-box questions to identify top talent and dive deeper into their thought process. You may certainly feel how absurd these questions are but recruiters are smarter than you are. Such questions help them to gauge your creativity, critical thinking and understand how you handle a stressful situation. These out-of-the-box or weird questions can be anything related to hypothetical situations, opinion-based or quirky questions. So, be ready for any stressful, craziest, yet funny questions to answer.

Let us introduce you to some of these ‘oddball’ job interview questions and understand why recruiters ask them and how you should safely respond to them.

Samples of uncommon job interview questions:

“Tell us a board game you love to play?”

If you are wondering what this question has to do with your job, understand why recruiters ask such questions! While this uncommon interview question seems illogical, the intention of asking it is to understand the candidate’s strengths, interest areas or likes. Chess game would reveal your interest and capability in making strategic moves and face challenges, monopoly game shows your interest in playing independently as an ambitious person, etc. Therefore, this is another chance for you to share one more strength to employers.

“How many balls could you fit in this cabin?”

Such questions definitely do not need an accurate answer nor the employer is looking for the one. Such questions are asked to see your problem-solving and logical thinking skills.

So whatever you tell, give plenty of explanation for whatever you say. You are more likely to be asked such types of questions when applying for a technical role that requires strong analytical and problem-solving skills. With a well-thought answer, your purpose should be to demonstrate that you can think analytically.

Also Read: Tips to upgrade your resume for a perfect job search in 2020

“How would you describe a Green color to a blind person?”

Recruiters probably want to test your imagination and creativity. Such out-of-the-box questions have no correct or incorrect answers. All you need is to be confident and creative in responding to these questions.

“If you were to become a kitchen appliance, which would you prefer to be?”

This is a question to test your imagination, sense of humor and of course, creativity. Think of an appliance that can be related to your personality to support your answer. In a way, this interesting question can allow you to share your traits with the employer. For example, “I would be a blender that helps to blend and complete its task in seconds. You can also add to convey how easily you blend with people or are focused to achieve your targets within or before a deadline.

Practice more such oddball questions to get an understanding of how to handle them. Here are some more questions asked by global companies:

• “Why are manhole covers round?” – Google
• “How would you solve problems if you were from Mars?”- Amazon
• “On a scale from 1 to 10, rate me as an interviewer.”- Kraft Foods
• “What kind of tree would you be?”- Cisco
• “If you could be any cartoon character, who would you be and why?”- Virgin
• “How many tennis balls could you fit in Wimbledon?”- Exxon Mobil Corp

Also Read: How to write a formal email for your job application

Asking out-of-the-box or uncommon questions in job interviews is a way to know more about your personality and find the best fit. While you can easily give quick answers to common interview questions like “tell us about yourself”, or “why should we hire you?” it is crucial to be prepared for such wired questions for which you cannot have a ready-made answer. So, use your wits and apply logic before randomly answering any of such questions.

All the best!