Post:
You have three switches in one room and a single light bulb in another room. You are allowed to visit the room with the light bulb only once. How do you figure out which switch controls the bulb? Write your answer in the comments before looking at other answers.
Comment:
If this were an interview question, the correct response would be "Do you have any relevant questions for me? Because have a long list of things that more deserving of my precious time than to think about this!
if hot they’re using out of date lighting, who the fuck uses incandescent bulbs this far into the 21st century? they have failed their interview with me.
LED do not have a 100% efficiency, and do produce waste heat. A lot less than an incandescence one, sure, but enough for that answer to be valid.
Well, maybe you’d better wait 10min instead of one, to make sure the led lightbulb heats enough, but still…
note the premise specifies HOT.
none of my LED bulbs get hot even after hours. they do warm up from ‘cold’ but HOT?
ymmv.
The “premise” is detecting that a now dark light was recently turned on by feeling for residual heat. “Hot” is a relative term.
actually not really - hot specifies HOT; if it were room temp, warm, warmer than another that sat unused - sure. but you’re only flipping it on for a short time. HOT?
it’s pedantic, but parsing is important here because some HR shitwad decided these silly stupid games were a valid hiring method on filtering pedants apparently
The question is outdated as fuck too. It’s not a new riddle.
You know, we’re talking about how pointless a riddle it is. “Why can’t I walk into the room more than once?” I’ve heard similar hiring riddles about things like “You’ve got ten ethernet cables that run the length of a long hallway. They’re not marked at either end, what’s the most efficient way of finding out which is which?”
And you know what? If I’m hiring a networking guy, I don’t want him to deliver me an “ooh I know this one” answer to that, I want him to tell me he’s got a cable tester with several remote probes so he can figure that out in a small number of trips. Maybe show me how he can hook a couple together with a coupler and use the cable length function to shave a couple of trips off. Not recite a memorized brain teaser answer.
Thr difference in phrasing is that your question presents a reasonable objective rather than an unreasonable constraint. You’re also asking something subject-specific from someone who ought to be versed in that subject. That’s not a riddle, it’s a task you’re expecting your hire to be capable of.