Tesla Motors Inc Mock Interview
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Question 35 of 35
There is a person on the surface of the Earth. They walk one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north. They end up exactly where they started. Where are they?
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Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
This is Elon Musk's favorite interview question, and it is often a standard in the company. It's another brain teaser designed to observe your analytical skills in real time.
Try answering the question at home before looking up the answer. Vocalize your response as you attempt to problem-solve it to practice your communication skills. Then look up the answer and adjust accordingly. You want to go through the whole problem process, communicating clearly when this question is posed, even if you figured out the solution beforehand.
Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
"Well, for this to make sense, since there are only three moves involved here, the geometrical shape of the route taken cannot possibly be a square. So to have done so in three moves and end up where they started, it would have to be a triangle. So for that to be the case, where on Earth would they have to be if they were to end up where they started in three moves like that? It would have to be a fixed point on the planet. The planet is spherical, but if they are walking one mile south, and then one mile west, and then one mile north, those are fixed directions that cannot be altered, so that would mean it was a direction that is fixed, so I guess they started and ended their three-mile walk at The North Pole."
Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
"Given the information, it sounds like the person is moving in a triangle. The only place on Earth that I think that is possible is at the North pole."
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