Recommend some good IQ questions

[MortalNuts]

This one is easy, and sort of classic:

You're a monk in an isolated monastery, with 99 other monks. You have all taken vows of silence -- you can't say a word, or communicate by any other means (written notes, etc.) with any of the other monks. You spend all your days in a room by yourself, in total isolation, with one exception: you eat dinner with all the other monks. Every night at 6 pm, all of you sit down at a big round table (where you can see all 99 other monks) and quietly have dinner, which takes a couple hours. Afterwards, you all file back to your individual private chambers to spend the night in prayer and repose.

One night, you get a message from God in a dream. You're sure it's God, not just some renegade monk playing a joke on you or bad gruel or whatever. Anyway, God tells you that at least one of you (the 100 monks in this monastery) must kill himself. He (big G) has handily indicated which of you needs to do the deed -- he's placed a large red dot on the forehead of everyone who needs to commit suicide. He tells you that if you figure out you have a red dot on your head, you must commit suicide alone in your chambers that very night, at say 11 pm. Furthermore, he tells you that all of the other monks have been informed of this very same fact. He also reiterates that at least one of you is marked in this fashion.

How do you figure out whether or not you have a red dot on your head? Assume that all the other monks are logical, and that anyone who figures out they're marked will indeed commit suicide.

There are no reflective surfaces, no chance of communicating with outsiders, no collecting some rainwater and looking into that, etc, etc. Basically, no tricks. This is a logic problem.

This is really easy for anyone with any kind of math or computer science background, so I could see it (or some variation) being useful if that's the sort of position you're talking about. I.e., it would be a mild red flag to me if someone with that kind of background couldn't figure out the basic idea here pretty quickly.

later,

mn

[SpearsBritney]

I'm assuming this message is received after dinner? But then why the dinner info? Wouldn't you just look for the dot at the table? Im confused, and by confused, I mean stupid. Also, why's god such an A-hole?

Edit: Ok, the solution to this problem (atleast the way you worded it) couldn't be anything other than to kill yourself if there is no dot on anyone else at dinner(assuming all 99 are there). How is this an IQ question, or am I missing something?

[MortalNuts]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm assuming this message is received after dinner? But then why the dinner info? Wouldn't you just look for the dot at the table? Im confused, and by confused, I mean stupid. Also, why's god such an A-hole?

[/ QUOTE ]

the lord moves in mysterious ways, apparently.

but yeah, you get the message after dinner. so the next time you'll see anyone is the next day (at 6 pm). the only reason I attached times to everything was to re-emphasize the point that you figure things out at dinner, then afterwards go kill yourself. i.e., you can't just linger over dessert hoping someone will suddenly leap up and off themselves or something.

note a couple other things (maybe these are obvious to you, but just in case): the minimum number of dots is one, but there can be many more than that. also, you might not be able to figure out that you're marked in just one monk-dinner.

later,

mn

[SpearsBritney]

[ QUOTE ]
the minimum number of dots is one, but there can be many more than that

[/ QUOTE ]

My bad. I thought there was only one dot.

[ QUOTE ]
he's placed a large red dot on the forehead of everyone who needs to commit suicide.

[/ QUOTE ]

Missed that. I guess I failed. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

Edit: ...and that...

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, God tells you that at least one of you (the 100 monks in this monastery) must kill himself.

[/ QUOTE ]

...and that...

[ QUOTE ]
He also reiterates that at least one of you is marked in this fashion

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a good lesson; if you don't know the answer to a question, STFU!

[PairTheBoard]

You try a door and it doesn't open. What do you do?

answer: Try the door again.

PairTheBoard

[RacersEdge]

I would go with the actual interview questions consulting companies (mainly) use. Like "Why is a manhole cover round?" or "How many jelly beans does it take to fill a 757 airplane"?

These get at more logical reasoning and there is no actual right answer, but it's all about figuring out how people think. There are actual books out there with these questions in them.

[brassnuts]

FWIW, I think probability questions aren't good choices for this type of test. A lot of the time, they are so counter-intuitive while seemingly intuitive that a very intelligent person might just not think it through well enough. Case in point, Wacki.

I like the idea about spatial reasoning, and they can get very difficult, as seen here. I suggest you check out the ultimate IQ test on that page and copy the forms of some of the spatial reasoning and other questions as well.

[Spaded]

[ QUOTE ]

How do you figure out whether or not you have a red dot on your head?

[/ QUOTE ]

People will look at your forehead instead of your eyes, and people will have sad expressions on their faces that will indicate to you that you have a dot. Or you could just pinch a piece of your forehead skin off and look at it [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

But I know it's not THAT easy, usually in IQ tests there is only ONE answer that they will accept, and it is always the one that they think is the hardest to get.

[Jman28]

This is a good question two. I've heard it before.

The problem with questions like these are that if the interviewee has heard of them, it doesn't mean he's smart. I could tell the answer to my dumb friend and then he would pass the interview test.

The only thing you can tell from this question is if someone is not a super-genius. If they don't know the answer, they aren't one of the top .1% smartest people on earth. I believe even very smart people (but not top .1%)who have never been exposed to questions like this may still get them wrong.

Because of this, these questions can't tell you much about the person.

Anyone agree? disagree?

[popniklas]

I can't solve this problem and that really bothers me....