The 10 Weirdest Interview Questions of 2015

Written By Jaime Grimes

iStock_000019113612_SmallJust when job candidates are prepared for interviews, here come the interview zingers - curve ball questions that throw you off your normal interview trajectory and make you say, "Wait, what?"

Most of the time, oddball interview questions aren't meant to derail you; they're intended to make you think creatively or to capture some aspect of your personality, as opposed to the rehearsed answers for out-of-date questions like "What's your greatest strength?" or "What's your biggest weakness?"

"We're seeing tougher and more unexpected questions asked for a variety of positions and variety of industries," said Scott Dobroski, associate director of corporate communications at Glassdoor, which compiled a list of the top 10 oddball interview questions from the 250,000 interview questions members post to its site. "Employers are looking to test a candidate's critical thinking skills, as well as how they problem-solve on the spot and how they handle an unexpected challenge."

If a hiring manager asks you one of the 10 weirdest interview questions below - or one entirely new - answer it thoughtfully, respectfully and thoroughly, with more than a one-word answer.

  1. "What would you do if you were the one survivor in a plane crash?" – Asked at Airbnb
  2. "What's your favorite '90s jam?" – Asked at Squarespace
  3. "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?" – Asked at Dropbox
  4. "Who would win in a fight between Spiderman and Batman?" – Asked at Stanford University
  5. "If you had a machine that produced $100 dollars for life, what would you be willing to pay for it today?" – Asked at Aksia
  6. "What did you have for breakfast?" – Asked at Banana Republic
  7. "Describe the color yellow to somebody who's blind." – Asked at Spirit Airlines
  8. "If you were asked to unload a 747 full of jelly beans, what would you do?"– Asked at Bose
  9. "How many people flew out of Chicago last year?" – Asked at Redbox
  10. "What's your favorite Disney Princess?" – Asked at Cold Stone Creamery

Have you ever been asked an oddball interview question? Share it with us in the comments section below (but spare the company name, please).

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