I've seen stuff like this in some of the STEM camps I've been a part of and what I understand is that a lot of these "weird" questions are ways they figure out who you are as a person and whether or not you'll be a good fit for the company. One of the questions I remember from the workshops we did was "which cartoon character do you think you resemble the most and why?" I don't remember what my answer was anymore, but the guy from Microsoft said he was asked this question and answered Wile E Coyote because of his ability to try to new things and innovate. That response landed him the job.

There are some good answers posted below. But all I could think of was this [YouTube].

Did you get to talk to the people you'd actually be working with?

Don't think this has much to do with the "Tough curveball interview questions" as the OP list several questions that are quite odd. I'm assuming they are looking for clarity to those.

did they at least give you a rundown of what you will be doing and who you will be teamed with? All of this looks like the sort of questions you'd do in group interviews to decide which job to give to which people

@gnat even setting aside the difference in character of the interview questions, this question has nothing to do with how to answer in the interview, so not really a duplicate.

According to to Laszlo Bock, formerly senior vice president for people operations at Google, such questions "serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart." I agree with Laszlo. see: workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/52820/…

Your reaction is very good. Laughing makes sense since question is joking already. And 2nd you are not trapped by them. If you did answer. Then you will be got into no-win situation.

Wow these are some old school questions! Brain teasers used to be all rage for software development in the 2000 aughts. How many baseballs would it take to fill a school bus sort of thing.

TAKE THE JOB, NOW!

Judging from the interview questions, you may be paid in Monopoly money.

@JoeStrazzere Google was my first thought as well. Weird interview questions are on the list of things Google famously tried, studied, and abandoned before the rest of the industry started doing it "because Google does it." (Open floor plan offices being the other big one.)

@TKK - others in the industry were asking weird/puzzle questions before Google existed. And doing something just because Google/Microsoft/[insert famous company name here] did it is a bad idea. Ask interview questions because they are proven to separate good candidates from bad candidates for your company and your open position.

@JoeStrazzere Agreed. But Google seems to have been particularly influential through the combination of their prestige and their publicizing what they were doing. They also publicized the results of their experiments, so I don't know what it is about the management psychology that makes so many people remember only that Google tried it and not that Google pronounced it a failure.

Was this your first inverview for this position, or had you already been through several rounds of interviews before this one? Were the interviewers future peers/managers, or non-technical people that may not understand the details of your job?

Was it a 3rd party recruiter or the recruiter at the company you interviewed with? If it's a 3rd party, talk to him about the interview process. She'll probably have some insight from others who have worked there and/or meeting with the HR folks and discussing the requirements.

You've already been offered the job -- is there a downside (prior to accepting) telling them you're a little hesitant because of the unorthodox questions, and what was that really all about? It's still their job to sell you the job.

"If you had to be racist, who would you be racist against?" "dipshit interviewers"