Top 10 Oddball Interview Questions

Who would win in a fight between Spider-Man and Batman?

No, really. That’s a real-life interview question.

Granted, it’s among the weirdest interview questions asked last year, according to the employer review website Glassdoor. But such questions reflect a growing trend in corporate America.

As Scott Dobroski, associate director of corporate communications at Glassdoor, told CBS News:

“We’re seeing tougher and more unexpected questions asked for a variety of positions and variety of industries. Employers are looking to test a candidate’s critical-thinking skills, as well as how they problem-solve on the spot and how they handle an unexpected challenge.”

Dobroski offered two pieces of advice.

First, be careful of your initial reaction.

“Employers take these questions very seriously, and if you mock them it won’t bode well for you,” he said.

Second, avoid one-word answers. Critical-thinking questions are about how you arrive at your answer.

In the case of Spiderman versus Batman, a circumstantial type of question, you could arrive at an answer by asking the interviewer for more information about the fight, CBS reports. Are the superheroes duking it out atop a building or inside a cave?

“This shows how you assess an unexpected challenge,” Dobroski said.

Glassdoor selected the weirdest interview questions for the year after analyzing 250,000 interview questions that its members have shared. The rest of the top 10 are:

• What would you do if you were the one survivor in a plane crash?
• What’s your favorite ’90s jam?
• If you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?
• If you had a machine that produced $100 for life, what would you be willing to pay for it today?
• What did you have for breakfast?
• Describe the color yellow to somebody who’s blind.
• If you were asked to unload a 747 full of jellybeans, what would you do?
• How many people flew out of Chicago last year?
• What’s your favorite Disney Princess?

What’s the weirdest question you’ve been asked in an interview? Share it in a comment below or on our Facebook page.