Logical Tasks as a Part of an Interview With QA Specialist

Solving Logical Problems

Any interview for a position of software testing engineer usually consists of several logically related stages.

First of all, an HR specialist asks a prospective employee to explain why he/she is interested in this profession and why the company has to hire exactly him/her.

Then a technical specialist of the company asks to answer some questions about the basics of software testing theory. Thus, it will be clear how well the candidate knows technical and practical material and how soon he/she can begin studying work specifications during real task execution.

After that, there is a stage that not all candidates proceed with. We are talking about the testing of the person’s logical thinking. You may wonder why this is necessary. The answer is simple. With the help of logical puzzles, HR specialists can follow the way you’re thinking and see whether you have an analytic mind or not.

It’s important not to panic; to stay focused, and try to think aloud even if you’re not sure how to solve some task.

Further in the article, we will talk about logical tasks that are mostly used during an interview in IT companies. Also, we will analyze practical insights on how to prepare effectively for such interviews.

Top Logical Tasks

Puzzles and tasks don’t always require a mathematical solution. Sometimes a task can have several simple answers.

During an interview, HR can often use puzzles for QA.

Further, we will take a look at such tasks, puzzles, and logical problems which will be extremely useful for one’s preparation.

A Logical Riddle From Microsoft

There are two coils of rope. If you set fire to their ends, the coils will burn in an hour. How to measure 45 min using both coils if you cannot partition the rope?

Answer: you should set fire to one coil at both ends at the same time, and light another rope on one end. The first rope burns out in 30 min. The second one will still have to burn for 30 min. To measure the desired 15 min left, you have to light another end of the second rope. It’s very simple.

Interesting Puzzle From Google

Let’s imagine that you have 8 identical balls. One of them is heavier than the rest. How to identify this one ball using a weight scale only twice?

Solution: take 6 balls, divide them into two groups, and weigh them up. If one of these groups is heavier, take 2 any balls from this group and scale them. Thus, you either find a heavier ball right away, or it will be the third ball from that group. If the heavier ball isn’t in any of these two groups, then it is one of the rest two balls.

Riddle From Adobe

There are 50 fully fuelled motorbikes. The fuel will be enough to go 100 km. How far can you go if all bikes start from the same place?

The task has several solutions:

1. Start all the bikes at the time and ride 100 km.
2. Drive 50 km and flow the petrol from one-half of the bikes to rest. So, you will have 25 bikes with a full tank of gas. Keep going and repeat the same thing after every 50 km. In this way, you can ride 350 km.

Question About a Manhole Cover

Why is it round?

Here we have several correct answers. Firstly, the diameter of the manhole cover prevents it from falling into the sewer hole. Secondly, the manhole cover of such a form is much easier to be moved than one of a square shape.

By the way, such a question allows you to show your imagination and ingenuity during an interview.

An Interesting Statement

What is special about the following sentence: “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”?

Answer: This statement has a minimum of one letter of the English alphabet. This question is aimed at your attentiveness in the first place.

How To Prepare for Such Tasks?

If you want to be a tester and you’re going to an interview soon, you’ve got to prepare well. Logical riddles worth your special attention here.

How to do this correctly?

• Constant practice. The more similar tasks you solve, the easier you will do these in an interview. Don’t take any chances. Remember that you can simply get very excited just when you least need it.
• Analyze every task. On the Internet, there are a lot of tasks with detailed analysis of their solution. There’s no need to learn them by heart. Just try to analyze every task item by item and remember the progress of execution.

In Conclusion

When you’re on an interview for the position of a software tester, HR specialists will often ask you to solve various logical tasks.

Don’t forget that they want not just to hear the correct answer but also to see the way you’re thinking, your analytical skills, and your desire to look for solutions to uncommon tasks in the most unusual ways.