Logical tasks at an interview: types, examples and solutions

Modern employers make rather high demands on job seekers: professional, educational, external, etc. That is why the process of selecting employees becomes more complicated - employers want to see only the best representatives in their team.

Due to the increased requirements, quite often at the interview, in addition to answering standard questions, as well as providing a well-written resume, the applicant must solve one or several logical tasks.

Why do you need to solve logic problems when applying for a job? What kinds of similar tasks are there? How do I prepare for an interview? You will find answers to these and some other questions in our material.

Logic tasks at the interview - it is a means of assessing the intellectual level of the applicant. At present, even regardless of the education received by a specialist, as well as work experience, many personnel officers continue to doubt the competence of specialists, therefore they arrange various additional checks for them. Most often they take place in the form of those very logical problems.

In fact, the logical problems that are proposed to be solved at the entrance interview rarely require outstanding knowledge, skills and abilities. Their task is to assess a person's quick wits and creativity, as well as observe him under stressful conditions and try to understand the most characteristic behavioral strategies for the candidate.

Due to the fact that logical problems among employers are becoming more and more popular and are increasingly used in interviews, experts have developed their classification. Today, the principles of separation are quite diverse.

So, there are fairly easy tasks for general knowledge, which are designed to assess your level of intelligence, as well as to figure out how a particular person will act in an unfamiliar environment.

The professional classification of logical problems is widespread. For example, typical math examples are used for a system administrator, analytical problems are used for an analyst, and programming examples are used for programmers. So, before heading off to your interview, it's important to set yourself up professionally, remember the specialized concepts you've learned, and prepare for possible tricky questions.

Besides, many employers prefer to test the personal qualities, characteristics and behaviors of job seekers. In this regard, recently, so-called ethical dilemmas have become widespread, which can arise not only in the process of working at a particular enterprise in a particular position, but also in real life, which is not associated with a specific work activity.

The logical problems that you will encounter in a working interview will not always have a definite final answer (although there are such examples as well). In many cases the employer's task is to trace the consistency of your thoughts.

During the interview, you may be offered multiple-choice tests, percentage problems, examples for algorithms, hypothetical work or life situations, etc. Consider a few popular examples.

Very often during interviews they ask the problem about the rope and the equator. Its essence lies in the fact that our planet is pulled along the equator by a rope. At the same time, the one who holds the rope gradually increases its length up to 10 meters. The immediate question is whether a living creature will be able to crawl into the gap that has formed between the Earth and the rope.

If we talk about tasks that require mathematical knowledge, then the example with buckets is worth mentioning. The conditions are as follows: there are 2 buckets, one of which is five-liter and the other is three-liter. Your task is to measure 4 liters of water using these buckets (in the example, another liquid may be offered as well).

Another popular puzzle is the 8 coins problem. The applicant is asked to imagine that he has 8 coins, but 1 of them is fake, it also weighs less than the other 7. In this case, the task is to determine in just 2 weighings which one.

The examples given are classic. They are quite common and well-known, which is why their use in interviews has declined. However, at the same time, newer and improved tasks are quite similar in their structure.

In order to successfully cope with the logical tasks that will be presented to you during the interview, it is important to approach the interview preparation process with special attention and thoroughness.

So, first of all, it is recommended to solve typical logical problems that relate to the professional field where you plan to work.Although each task is unique in itself, there are general principles for constructing logical examples. If you carefully analyze such structural principles, then solving many examples in logic will be easier.

If possible, talk to company employees or people who work in the same industry. Surely they will be able to tell you more about the process of solving logic problems in an interview. The point is that job interviews are stressful in themselves, and solving difficult problems only adds to the difficulty. In this sense, it is important to take care not only of your intellectual readiness, but also of a confident psychological mood.

In the process of directly solving problems, it is important to clarify the details, and also not to be afraid to express your assumptions aloud. Thus, the employer will be able to assess you in the most comprehensive way.